Wayne Besen - Author, Activist, Columnist, Public Speaker

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Twenty-four people were arrested at a gay "die-in" Tuesday afternoon at Brigham Young University in Provo - the second day gay demonstrators from the Soulforce Equality Ride were arrested at the Mormon school. The Equality Ride is a 51 day cross-country trip organized by the nondenominational Soulforce to draw attention to schools that bar gay enrolment.

It is kind of pathetic that BYU had to call in the cops to stifle free speech. These fundamentalists are so afraid of truth, that they had the messengers hauled away and locked up in cages. A bunch of college kids chanting slogans - what a threat to BYU! They ought to be ashamed of the way they handled this.

For those of you in New York, you have the privilege of thanking the Equality Riders when they return from their trip. Greet them like conquering heroes at:

Tuesday, April 25
6:30 - 8:30PM
Hasted-Hunt Gallery
529 West 20th St

There will be a champagne reception. A minimum $35 donation at the door is suggested not only to thank and support these brave young men and women, but also to offset the cost of fines due to their arrests. There will be open bar and gift bags.

If you can't attend, but would like to make a tax-deductible donation anyway, please make it out to/send it in care of: SOULFORCE, P.O. Box 3274, NYC, NY 10185-3274.

I hope to see you there!

4 Comments:

I wouldn’t categorize Mormons as fundamentalists. They are unique in their own unique clique. Some might consider them a cult but it is much more deeper than most cult-like cultures. It spans generations. Mormon roots are well organized and established; from Branches to Wards to Stake Centers and their Temples.

BYU is a private institution that holds no allegiances to Constitutional rights. Their campus (albeit is huge) is as private as your own home. They close the campus to the public one day a year to assert the legal rights to private property. When you are on their campus it is like an open-house. You are welcomed in their home as long as you are a respectful guest. I doubt you would feel comfortable with a band of people coming into your home and making disrespectful taunting or rude behavior.

You might also need to realize a simple fact: Freedom of free expression has never been the bailiwick of BYU. There is chronic debate and demonstrations about freedom of expression on the campus in Provo. Recently, there was a demonstration by students who felt the administration took too much liberty away from the student council and their election processes. But, freedom of expression is not a hallmark of this University.

It is not your typical University. It is not your typical private University either.

What good was it for Soulforce to make a stand at BYU? Soulforce certainly doesn’t have the remotest chance in changing the attitude of most BYU students. Perhaps the silver lining I saw were the few brave BYU students who took a stand with Soulforce. What happened though, I feel, this episode by Soulforce just galvanized the anti-gay atmosphere at BYU.

And, I can’t understand why anyone gay would want to attend BYU. There is not an institution of higher learning that is more anti-gay than BYU. Not one. Gays are not welcomed there. Gays are demonized. Gays are demoralized in every aspect: no clubs or support organizations, no social life, and no acceptance even if you are celibate. Preaching against the ills of homosexuality is not just on Sundays either. It is a constant drone. When a gay person signs the papers to attend BYU he/she has contractually given away his/her very essence of being a human being.

BYU has something called: University Standards/Honor Code. If you are witnessed being seen in a gay bar in Salt Lake City the University Standards Board can call you in for interrogation. There was a time when University authorities would take down license-plate tag numbers of vehicles parked in known gay bars and report this to University Honor Code for possible disciplinary action.

Soulforce should have taken their energies to other campuses in Utah. There are enough anti-gay undercurrents at State-owned U of U in Salt Lake City or USU in Logan, Utah to make their demonstrations possibly more fruitful there.
posted by Anonymous, at 4/12/2006 12:17 PM

Mormons are not Christian...the fundamentalists have regular radio programs analyzing the cultic aspects of the former religion, and have missionaries in Utah.
posted by Anonymous, at 4/12/2006 12:26 PM

...tag numbers of vehicles parked in known gay bars...

should have been:

...tag number of vehicles parked NEAR known gay bars...

Parking inside a bar (gay or straight) will definitely invoke the wrath of local authorities.

:-) oops.
posted by Anonymous, at 4/12/2006 1:10 PM

For little over 20 years I have taught at Christian colleges. And I am currently teaching at one which Equality Ride will visit. (Please continue to read—I voted for Kerry!) For a couple of years now I have been wondering if I can remain because, oddly enough, I fear I may lose my faith if I do. Believe it or not, there has been in the past a more diverse range of perspectives than one might think at such places, but I see more pressure for that range to diminish, and it saddens me. My faith tradition is important to me—it compels me to be progressive politically. A rigidity is setting in that I have not experienced in the past. Combine this with the fact that I teach poli sci and each day have to drum up some ray of hope about the dismal American political landscape, then leaving academe, or least where I am becomes more inviting. (I would be intersted to know if other poli sci profs have been as depressed as I have about teaching these past years.)

Perhaps I have been thinking about this more lately as our institution ‘prepares’ for a visit by Equality Ride, a group of GLBT young adults who are visiting religious colleges and universities and two military academies to protest the anti-gay policies of these institutions (www.equalityride.com).

Those of us who attend welcoming and affirming churches (churches who welcome and affirm GLBT folks), do we ‘cover’ this part of us, to borrow the term Yale law professor Kenji Yoshino uses in his book, Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights? Yoshino, who is gay, suggests that, in the workplace in particular, but in other settings as well, some are asked to downplay or mute certain identities. So the religious student at a secular institution mutes his beliefs lest she be thought stupid or irrational. In other words, she can be a person of faith, but she can’t be expected to be taken seriously. The gay person can be gay in the workplace, but can’t be ‘too’ gay. At my university, I can attend a welcoming and affirming church, but I shouldn’t make a big deal about it; in other words, don’t rock the boat. Does my silence or at least muted voice contribute to violence against them? And what is the cost to my own soul?
posted by Anonymous, at 4/12/2006 9:14 PM