Gay students at a South Carolina university are being advised to conceal their sexual orientation when off campus. The warning follows an attack April 9 on an openly gay 19-year-old, WBTV in Charlotte, N.C., reported.

Kelly James, a professor of sociology and criminology at Winthrop University in Rock Hill and adviser to a gay group, says she is educating her students know about the attack.

"My first thought was that, I've got to let my students know so that when they are out and about in Rock Hill that they, you know, act straight, And that's a sad lesson in 2011 to be teaching young people. I mean, it's been off the books as a mental illness since 1973," James said.

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