UNM security guard caught vandalizing gay pride flags

By T.J. Wilham

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    ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — After graduating college and spending his whole life in New York, Ben Gerstner was looking for someplace to go to earn his Ph.D.

“Visiting Albuquerque for the first time, traveling west for the first time, as you know, a 21-year-old was incredible,” said Gerstner, who is openly gay. “I moved by myself to Albuquerque and tried to make a life for myself and embedded myself in the queer community, on [the University of New Mexico] campus and largely outside of campus as well.”

He worked in the university’s biology building and had office hours.

“For five years, UNM was an incredible place for me personally, professionally,” Gerstner said. “I loved it, and the last year turned into a personal torment.”

That torment started nearly two years ago when Gerstner and his colleagues started displaying gay pride flags outside their offices. Someone started tearing down the flags and writing words on them, such as “aids spreader” and “pedo.”

This went on for nearly a year.

“It was at one point almost twice a week,” he said. “We replace the flag and come in the next morning, and it’d be vandalized. And it’s mostly the same things. At one point, it was actually even replaced with an American flag.”

And the sign on Gerstner’s door was targeted, too.

“That was vandalized with a statement saying, ‘he/they/f—t’ and ‘aids spreader,’” Gerstner said.

Gerstner hired Albuquerque attorney Jacob Candelaria, who filed a complaint with the university.

“Our constitution is clear and the promises it makes are very simple, that we are all guaranteed to the equal protection of the law by the state and to due process of law,” Candelaria said. “We received a letter, an email to be exact, from UNM saying, ‘oh, lo and behold, we now have a suspect,’ and in the end, that turns out to be a UNM campus safety officer employed by UNM.”

According to the documents obtained by Target 7, the university started an investigation into Gerstner’s claims and had set up a Ring camera. Three months later, the camera captured someone wearing a red UNM security jacket and a mask covering the camera.

That same day a pride flag was vandalized. The university reached out to the security officers working that night and one of them confessed.

“The people that were meant to be protecting me were possibly the bad people actually targeting me,” Gerstner said.

By the time the university figured out who had vandalized the flags it was time for Gerstner to move on. He graduated from UNM with his Ph.D. He decided not to walk in the ceremony.

The security guard has since resigned. And last month, Gerstner filed notice to the university that he intended to sue.

“UNM has a choice now, can take responsibility, and recognize that it failed our client,” Candelaria said.

Court records show the security guard was never charged with a crime. Gerstner has moved back to the East Coast and has no plans on returning to the Land of Enchantment.

“I don’t regret my choice to go to UNM,” Gerstner said. “But I do question whether that institution is doing the service that they believe they are to the community in New Mexico.”

Target 7 reached out to the university, a spokeswoman wrote in an email they can’t comment on pending litigation, however, “We can affirm that creating a campus community where everyone feels safe and respected is an ongoing priority at the university of New Mexico.”

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