Harvard: Urine-Soaked Gay Books Not a Hate Crime

Just an accident resulting from ... pee on a shelf?
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 14, 2010 6:39 AM CST
Harvard: Oops, Urine-Soaked Gay Books Not a Hate Crime
In this Nov. 13, 2009 file photo, a woman enters a library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.   (AP Photo/Lisa Poole, file)

Those 36 books on LGBT topics that were damaged with urine at one of Harvard’s libraries? Not a hate crime … just an accident, university police have determined. A member of Harvard’s library personnel accidentally spilled a bottle of urine that was found on a shelf, the Harvard Crimson reports. Statements from campus staff and administration reiterate the “welcoming environment” of Harvard, but questions still remain.

"On the one hand, I feel relieved by the news—but on the other hand, I’m still holding breath on questions that are still unresolved," says the co-chair of a campus LGBT group. "Why was there a bottle of urine on the shelf? Why did it take two weeks … to figure out that this was just an accident?”
(Read more Harvard stories.)

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