A flier posted on a door of the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) office for today's National Coming Out Day rally was defaced yesterday. The incident caused pain, but student leaders have resolved to stand strong.

The original words on the flier, "Hi. I'm straight. But I'm not homophobic," were changed with a marker to make harassing comments with an expletive scrawled in the margin.

Penn State Police Services is investigating the incident.

"I was shocked at first," said Sarah Hayes, Black Caucus secretary.

Hayes was the first to find the flier pinned to the door.

"I had to read carefully to see if it was a joke."

Hayes then showed the flier to Mike Cooper, Council of Commonwealth Student Governments president.

Cooper called the incident "an act of ignorance."

Sara Ryan, USG director of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community and its allies (LGBTA) affairs, said the campus hate crime hotline was notified.

"I feel like there was malicious intent behind this," Ryan said.

USG Academic Assembly President D. Josh Troxell said the defaced flier was wrong no matter what the intent was.

"Whether it was a joke or done as a serious attack ... it doesn't really matter," Troxell said.

Hayes said, "It shows that there are still people who are still homophobic, and to be so blatantly exposed like that is just sad."

While student leaders were visibly upset yesterday by the defaced flier, they say they will turn a very negative event into a positive one.

"When I initially saw this, [I thought], 'What are we as a group going to do about this?' " said Kacy Gambles, a member of USG diversity affairs. "These kinds of acts keep on happening ... we can't just sit back and wait for some entity to deal with this."

Amy Stipe, USG director of multicultural affairs, said this type of act occurs frequently. She said hurtful comments are sometimes made to LGBTA community members.

"It shows why we need to educate about this," Stipe said.

Kamilah Cole, political co-director of the Lambda Student Alliance, agreed.

"I think it just proves the necessity of the rally," she said. "We wouldn't need Coming Out Day if we didn't have people like this."

Troxell said students are entitled to disagree and have conflicting opinions, but their behavior must fit into "social norms."

The student leaders said they hope to get word out about the incident and create a dialogue about the issue.

"Ignorance like this can be prevented by telling people about it," Cooper said.

Gambles said the issue needs to be discussed now, and students cannot wait until it becomes something more serious, such as a death threat.

Allison Subasic, director of the LGBTA Student Resource Center, said the incident might change the focus of tomorrow's Coming Out Day rally. One of the original reasons for the rally is to discuss intolerance, she said.

Student leaders said the incident will not set them back during today's events.

"It just makes me more determined to stand up for LGBT rights," Hayes said.

The student leaders agreed that the issue should not be ignored and that other students on campus should show their support as allies at tomorrow's rally.

"Students have not gotten the message that this is inappropriate," Troxell said. "It is hurtful."

Student leaders said the rally is not necessarily a "coming out" rally but a way of saying people will stand up for people's freedom to live their lives the way they choose.

Gambles said students should come to the week's events to be educated.

USG Town Sen. Maya McGeathey said students should tell someone if they see something going on that they think is wrong.

"It's the little things you do that can prevent big things from happening," she said.

She said that the whole campus needs to be involved.

"People need to know that we are not tolerating intolerance at all," she said.