Mock graveyard remembers victims of hate

Casey Armstrong
State Hornet
Published October 26, 1999

Paper tombstones filled the CSUS Outdoor Theater lawn for the second annual Mock Graveyard. The event is organized by the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance to recognize victims of hate crimes during National Tolerance Week and the Week Without Violence.

The mock graveyard occupied the lawn on Oct. 12, 14, 18 and. 20, along with signs displaying statistical information to increase students' awareness of hate crimes.

"We thought up the idea of the Mock Graveyard last year ... we want to raise an awareness that hate crimes happen, and that they can happen to anyone," said Chris Comas, president of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance at CSUS.

"We decided that there should be a representation for those murdered for no reason other than hate. These people shared little in common — they were different races, different religions, different sexual orientations, and different political affiliations, in different time periods and in different countries. But they all had one thing in common: they died needlessly and violently," read a sign posted by the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, Women's Studies Student Association and People Advocating Safe Surroundings.

Each tombstone represented one murder victim, listing their name, how they were killed, reason for death, and date of death. One tombstone read "Tommy Wenger, dismembered for being gay on March 28, 1994." Although the lawn was loaded with imitation tombstones, it was only a small representation of the millions of murders attributed to hate crimes.

"The Mock Graveyard is a diversity of the CSUS campus fostering a united voice calling for an end to violence and hate," Comas said.