Students Outraged After Gay Flag Was Burned On Campus—Then Stunned When They Learned Who Did It…
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In February, students at the University of British Columbia raised the multi-colored pride flag on campus to participate in the school’s week long celebration of gender and sexual diversity.
A few days later, the flag was burned, and many were calling it a hate crime, taking to social media to register their disgust and upset.
In a since deleted tweet, a high school teacher even wrote:
“A flag is a symbolic demarcation of a community. Burning a flag = burning a collective identity = burning humans.”
Authorities soon found a suspect: 31-year-old UBC student Brooklyn Marie Fink.
The catch? Fink identifies as a transsexual woman.
After a court hearing, Fink spoke to the CBC, explaining her actions:
“As a media artist, I intended in burning the flag only to illustrate my displeasure at the university’s failure to come to an agreement on the fact of the flag’s offensiveness. [The burning] was met with hate and prejudice rather than critical self-reflection, so this has been a learning experience for me.”
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