UVSS says appearance of graffiti at the beginning of Pride Month constitutes “premeditated hate crime”
Photo by Ethan Barkley.
TW: This article contains discussion of transphobia
In an emergency statement released on June 3, the UVSS Board of Directors — in concert with the Gender Empowerment Centre and the Pride Collective — stated that transphobic graffiti had been found in the SUB on Monday, June 2.
The graffiti consisted of one message targeting the transgender community as a whole, and another targeting transgender women specifically.
“This was a premeditated hate crime carried out on the first day of Pride Month that the SUB was open,” reads the statement.
This is not the first time transphobic and hateful messages have appeared at UVic. Beau Houle, communications and outreach coordinator for the Gender Empowerment Centre, told the Martlet that graffiti is a common way transphobic sentiments are expressed on campus.
“The graffiti seems to be a popular technique, unfortunately,” they said.
In 2022, the Martlet reported that transphobic messages were found in the Clearihue Building. Similarly, in 2024, the Multifaith Centre was targeted with racist and Islamophobic posters.
Liya Tensae, office coordinator for the Pride Collective, told the Martlet that while anti-trans sentiments are nothing new, they have been trending upwards in recent years.
“Right now, transphobia — blatant transphobia — is on the rise…. Homophobia and transphobia have never really gone away. Sometimes they just take different forms,” they said. “But I think we can see within the last year how very clear transphobia has become. It’s no longer trying to be subtle.”
In an interview with the Martlet, Lindsey Andrew, director of events at the UVSS, said the board will be exploring the possibility of a committee dedicated to responding to transphobia on campus.
“From my perspective.… It seems that around this time every year there’s some kind of incident like this…. I’m shocked that there isn’t already some kind of committee,” Andrew said.
Andrew told the Martlet that discussion of this new committee will take place at the next Board of Directors meeting on June 9.
In a statement to the Martlet, a UVic spokesperson said the university “believes that everyone should have the freedom to live their lives authentically,” and that they “believe that Trans+ lives matter.”
The spokesperson said UVic is concerned about the incident and is “supporting those impacted and working with the Trans+ community at UVic and with external partners to explore how we can better support Trans+ safety.”
UVic’s statement also encouraged students who see graffiti or experience other concerns for their safety to report it to Campus Security (CSEC) right away, and mentioned the many Pride Events at UVic in June.
Both Tensae and Houle emphasized that the SUB is still a safe and welcoming space for 2SLGBTQIA+ students.
“The Pride Collective, as well as all the advocacy groups within the UVSS, are staunchly for trans rights…. We love you, and we want you here, and you are so welcome and needed and appreciated on this campus,” Tensae said. “Even as [attacks like these] become more common, I like to think to myself that there is so much more love than there is hate here, and within this community.”
“I think [it is] very easy to curate a culture of fear and hypervigilance. And I think that needs to be balanced with the reality … all the amazing things that are happening [in the community], because that is the stuff that actually builds the future,” Houle said.
In keeping with our mandate to not publish oppressive copy, the Martlet has not reprinted photos of the messages or the messages.
