Gigi Levin said she wasn’t particularly shocked when she heard a group of her classmates had been accused of luring a gay man to an apartment and attacking him.

“This is a problem rooted in our campus culture,” said Levin, a 24-year-old Salisbury University student from Montgomery County. “The administration can help, but ultimately we are responsible for our safety as LGBTQ+ students.”

Levin was one of the first to arrive at a vigil on Monday afternoon, planned by an LGBTQ+ faculty group after University President Carolyn Ringer Lepre announced in an email to the campus last week that several students been arrested. The Salisbury Police Department charged 12 men, all students between 18 and 21, with first-degree assault, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment and associated hate crimes.

For Levin and her peers, the news shook an already-tenuous sense of safety on the roughly 7,000-student Eastern Shore campus, which looked like something out of a college brochure on that unseasonably warm fall day. Levin was standing in the square by the Guerrieri Academic Commons, anxiously fiddling with her hands.

“I’ve been harassed by classmates for my sexual orientation,” Levin said, recalling a time a classmate followed her and told her to commit herself to Jesus after she refused a Bible. “It’s tough to be here sometimes.”

A couple hundred people showed up to Monday’s vigil for the victim of the alleged hate crime, who suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Faculty, staff, students and community members gathered in the square, decked out with pride flags, buttons and homemade signs.

Police said the incident, which was caught on video and shared on TikTok, began when Salisbury students used Grindr, a dating app primarily used by gay men, and Snapchat, to lure the victim to an apartment. Police said they posed as a 16-year-old interested in sexual relations with the 40-year-old man.

The now-deleted TikTok video has circulated elsewhere online, showing a group of young men hitting an older man with various items and their fists, surrounding him while he is seated in a chair.

“You’re not going anywhere,” one of the aggressors says as several men surround and grab the victim, pulling him to the ground. As he attempts to get up, his attackers repeatedly punch, slap and kick him.

The young men repeatedly call the older man a slur used against gay men, as well as a “threat to society.”

Attorney James L. Britt, who represents one of the students charged in the incident, told The Banner last week that “once all of the facts see the light of day, this case will be shown to be an ill-advised attempt to expose someone willing to travel to have sexual relations with a 16-year-old child.”

In Maryland, the age of consent is generally 16 years old.

One of the speakers at the vigil on Monday, Mark DeLancey, told the crowd that he personally knew the victim, who he says is not a predator.

“There’s some rumors going around that the victim was a pedophile and nothing, I repeat, nothing, could be further from the truth,” DeLancey said. “Victim-blaming the victim of this crime and victim-shaming him is one of the most disgusting things I can think of.”

DeLancey said he had known the victim, who he called a friend, for years.

“He needs your support right now,” DeLancey told the crowd. “He is a wonderful human being. I think he’ll be very proud and very happy to see all of you here today.”

Sage Simone, one of the organizers and speakers at the event, said they were proud of the turnout. “I was distraught when I found out about the attacks. Salisbury is my community.”

Unlike Levin, Simone said they generally felt safe on campus. Though, they noted, they usually use a buddy system when walking to their car.

Angela Freeman — an assistant professor of biology, and one of the leaders of the Lambda Society, the LGBTQ+ faculty and staff group that helped plan the vigil — said she’s trying to create more “safe spaces” on campus. Surrounded by students hustling to class in backpacks, Freeman looked more tired than the average college professor. Last week, between the news of the man attacked and the presidential election, was tough.

“I was not in a great place because of the election, and then I get the email from President Lepre and I’m like, ‘How is this happening?’” Freeman said. “I don’t understand how this is still happening. I’m just so sad.”

Former President Donald Trump won the majority of votes in Wicomico County, where Salisbury’s campus is located. In his first term, Trump attempted to repeal protections for LGBTQ+ Americans.

The Princeton Review ranks Salisbury the 20th most unfriendly college to the LGBTQ+ community in the country.

The university president announced the formation of a task force on LGBTQ+ rights in an email to campus on Thursday, which she said was “only the beginning.”

“Acts of violence against the LGBT community are unacceptable,” Lepre told The Baltimore Banner after she spoke at the vigil. “It is not in line with the university’s values at all.”

Zharia Blackston, a student studying theater, said they hope the university’s administration work to create more spaces for the LGBTQ+ community on campus, including more dedicated events and partnerships with LGBTQ+ groups around the region.

“I really hope, above all else, the administration starts actually doing stuff,” they said.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.