A large yellow and purple bruise and several cuts adorned Jenn Vallier's cheeks as she handed out colored leaflets about the dangers of hate speech.

Vallier, a special education junior in deaf education, and others took part in Act Out Wednesday, to inform students of the connection between hate speech and hate crimes. Participating students painted bruises and bloody cuts on their faces and wrote derogatory words in masking tape on their clothing.

Vallier had "dyke" spelled out on her chest. She said the word reminded her of when she was living in the dorms during the summer and a group of 10 to 13-year-old girls staying there during a one-week cheerleading program harassed her.

"The first night they'd been there, I came home from work and they had scrawled 'dyke' all over my door," Vallier said. "They had written amazingly offensive notes and pushed them under my door. Just to come home to that was almost as devastating as if they came to my room en mass and attacked."

Other participants who had been physically attacked also participated in Act Out. They said it is important to make people realize hate crimes are a problem that shouldn't be ignored and were frustrated by the apathy of some passers-by.

"We've had everything from 'Oh no, not another one of those,' to 'Thank you,' to 'It's important that we know about this' to 'Oh, we don't participate in hate speech so that doesn't involve us,'" psychology sophomore Cameron Venier said. "Some people think you get what's coming to you. If you're being verbally abused or physically abused, they think you did something to deserve it when, in fact, you're just being yourself and being open about it."

This is the first year the Act Out Reflections forum was held to discuss hate speech and free speech.

This is the second year the Act Out Reflections forum was held and Department of Student Life Director Marti Ruel and the Student Life Associate Director of Judicial Affairs Rick Shafer, who are experts on hate speech and free speech, joined the students' discussion.

The group of about 30 students met at the Union on Wednesday night and discussed the Act Out events, accessing the effectiveness and student reactions.

Two-thirds of the forum participated in Act Out and were divided on the amount of student interest, but most agreed once the derogatory words and make up were adorned they became invisible victims.

Andrew Cooper, a math and linguistics sophomore, said he supports the First Amendment, but not the hateful attitudes that are instigated by hate speech because everyone is different.

"Everyone in the U.S. comes from mixed ancestry," he said. "Everyone in the U.S. is a minority. There's no place to really draw the line."

Premedical freshman Soud Sediqe said although he doesn't morally agree with being gay due to religious beliefs, people shouldn't be hated for who they are.

"(They) are just expressing themselves about something that's going on in the gay community," he said. "They're entitled to the opportunity to speak out and let people know."

Sediqe said hate speech shouldn't be dismissed as harmless.

"Hate speech gives the person an adrenaline rush and makes them want to go do the action," he said. "It fires one up to go and commit the crime."

Staff writer Maddie Trier contributed to this report.