Garden State Equality Calls for Rutgers Investigation

LGBTQ advocates are calling for an investigation into the administration of Rutgers University following the firing of head basketball coach Mike Rice.

The university announced on Wednesday morning that Rice had been terminated following the surfacing of a video that showed him kicking, shoving and hurling basketballs at players during practice, as well as using obscene language, including anti-gay slurs.

Garden State Equality Executive Director Troy Stevenson told a gaggle of news reporters on Wednesday afternoon that university administration needs to answer more questions as to what kind of message the university wants to put out about its stance on bullying, and that the bigger issue at play is harassment and intimidation of student athletes. 

"Homophobia, harassment, intimidation and bullying should not be tolerated in our society. We address these issues in our classrooms and it's high time we address them in our locker rooms," Stevenson said.

The responsibility for Rice's behavior goes to Rutgers administration, and the university has an opportunity to disperse a culture of bullying and intimidation in sports, he said.

"I don't think this is about coach Rice. I think it is about a culture in our society that goes much deeper," Stevenson said.

Rice's termination is "not good enough," Stevenson said.

The bullying discussion at Rutgers remains in the shadow of the death of Tyler Clementi, a young gay man who took his own life in 2010 after being bullied by his roommate at Rutgers.

Rutgers unveiled the Tyler Clementi Center in February, a think tank of anti-bullying and cyberbullying initiatives, LGBTQ issues and college transition aids.

After the onslaught of press that Rutgers received following Clementi's death, Stevenson said that he was "shocked" to learn of the video.

"Rutgers is better than this, Rutgers should be better than this," he said.

On Wednesday, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) issued a joint statement, calling for Congress to revisit their proposed anti-bullying bill, named for Clementi.

"Rutgers made the right decision by finally firing Mike Rice for his deplorable actions and homophobic slurs, but more needs to be done to make sure this type of abuse is stopped and a strong code of conduct protecting students from such harassment is enforced," the prepared statement said.

In late March, Garden State Equality applauded Parsippany teen Jacob Rudolph for his Change.org  petition effort to urge Gov. Christie to support a law to ban controversial anti-gay reparative therapy for New Jersey minors.