Gay Dean Says She Has Gotten Death Threats

A Cypress College dean who stated in a letter to the campus newspaper that she is a lesbian has received two death threats and says the college is not doing enough to support her.

Kay Andrews, who taught sociology in rural Virginia before coming to Cypress in July as dean of the social science division, said she was startled to encounter such hostility in California.

“I expected tolerance,” Andrews said. “I didn’t expect full acceptance. I expected people would say, ‘She’s gay and so what.’ It wasn’t that way.”

After the incidents, campus security spent a day in training with the Orange County Human Relations Commission on hate crimes and diversity, and top administrators had a half-day session.

The chancellor of the North Orange County Community College District, which consists of Cypress and Fullerton colleges, has met with the gay employees group and expressed his support at a district board meeting.

These actions haven’t mollified Andrews, who filed a complaint with the district alleging discrimination. She says the college tried to cover up the incidents by not referring them to its affirmative action officer, a violation of district policy.

Cypress President Marjorie Lewis, however, defended her staff. She said administrators acted appropriately by turning the matter over to police and by allowing Andrews to take time off. She denied Andrews’ charge that administrators were more concerned with the campus’ image, and cited an instance in which she publicized an abduction and rape to warn those on campus.

“If I were concerned about image, I would have tried to keep that quiet,” she said.

Cypress police have closed the investigation into the threats on Andrews for lack of a suspect.

Before moving to Cypress, Andrews taught at Virginia State University in Petersburg. Only a few close friends knew her sexual orientation, she said, because she feared for her life if she came out. That’s one reason she moved to California.

Behind her desk in her college office is a photo of her December 2000 commitment ceremony on a yacht in Newport Beach. She is wearing the traditional white wedding gown and veil. Her partner, Jeanette Stewart, is wearing a tuxedo.

Andrews, 45, who has two grown daughters from her marriage, wears wedding and engagement rings on her left hand.

The first death threat arrived May 18, two days after a letter Andrews wrote appeared in the Cypress Chronicle complaining about what she said was anti-gay language in a story. Since coming to Cypress, Andrews has been open about her homosexuality. But the letter made it public.

“As a lesbian administrator on this campus, I find the Sports Talk prediction personally painful to read,” she wrote.

Two days later, Michael Kasler, Cypress’ executive vice president, received a typewritten letter with a Long Beach postmark. “Either you get rid of Kay Andrews, or I will,” the letter read.

Andrews was told of the threat, and police were called.

“The first thing I felt was shock and surprise because I didn’t anticipate that would happen here,” Andrews said. “I was blown away. Then it made me angry.”

Andrews was told that if she was going to be on campus on the weekend, she should call campus security to request escorts to and from her car. That weekend, Andrews said, a campus officer refused to take her to her office.

“I don’t know why it occurred,” Lewis said. “It shouldn’t have happened that way.”

Andrews said that more recently, a new security director has kept close touch with her.

Andrews, who has suffered from depression in the past, said the first threat added to the stress she was feeling. Her depression returned, and she twice cut her left wrist in half-hearted suicide attempts. “It was more of a gesture than a legitimate attempt,” Andrews said.

After missing three weeks of work and beginning therapy, she returned to school.

Summer passed without any problem, but Oct. 4, as she was driving her Ford Explorer to lunch, Andrews heard a noise coming from her right front wheel. She thought a rock was in her hubcap. Stewart took the car to the Ford dealer, where a mechanic discovered the lug nuts were loose.

A few weeks earlier, the car had been in for a brake job. Eric Romanoff, service manager for the dealership, said last week that none of the thousands of cars that have come in for service in the two years he has worked there have been brought back with loose lug nuts.

“Someone was playing with them,” he said.

The next threat was discovered a couple of days later by a Cypress administrator: On the back of a stall door in a women’s restroom not far from Andrews’ office, was written in felt pen: “The gay dean must die.”

Andrews said Kasler blamed the threats on her for being so openly gay and said that if she didn’t “flaunt my lifestyle” she wouldn’t have these problems.

Kasler wouldn’t comment because of the district investigation into Andrews’ complaint. Campus spokesman Mark Posner said Kasler’s version of the conversation “differed quite widely” from Andrews’.

Since Andrews received the threats, the Gay and Lesbian Assn. of District Employees has met with Chancellor Jerome Hunter to discuss its concerns. Dan Willoughby, a Fullerton College assistant professor and president of the group, said the meeting was unrelated to the threats on Andrews.

After the meetings, Hunter wrote a statement of support in the latest edition of a district quarterly.

“I was saddened to hear that we have employees and students who feel they do not have the support of their teachers or fellow workers, and there is a sense of discomfort, or even hostile environment, here in the district because of an individual’s sexual orientation,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, Andrews said that despite the death threats, she is not leaving: “I plan to stay here. I’m not the kind who will take off and hide.”