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By Hugo Salinas January 2006 Katherine Riley, a 21-year old lesbian from Pennsylvania who six years ago converted to the LDS Church, is one of 35 young adults who will take an 8-week bus ride to confront religious and military colleges that discriminate against GLBT students. Sponsored by Soulforce, on April 10-11 the Equality Ride will stop at Brigham Young University, rated by the Princeton Review as the tenth most homophobic college in the US. "I know what it is like to be oppressed as a lesbian in the Mormon Church," says Riley. "I know what it is like to be told that what I'm doing is wrong and a sin against God. I know how I feel to be told that you're going to burn in hell for who you are. That's why it's important for me to go to Brigham Young University and protest their anti-GLBT policies." "Even if LDS leaders think that homosexuality is wrong," Riley adds, "as Christians, they need to learn to be more caring, more loving, less judgmental, and to follow the teachings of Christ." In a 1966 speech, BYU President Ernest L. Wilkinson asked all gay students to leave BYU "immediately." "We do not want others on this campus to be contaminated by your presence," he explained. Over decades, BYU security has entrapped people suspected of being gay both on and off campus. BYU administrators have forced students to undergo electroshock therapy to "cure" their "same-sex attraction." Gay students and professors have been expelled, fired, and forced to drop from the university. Even though current LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley has repeatedly claimed that the LDS Church holds gays and lesbians to the same standards as straight people, gay students have been expelled from BYU as recently as 2001 for merely holding hands or receiving gifts from their same-sex dates. "Soulforce draws from the teaching of Christ, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, with the goal of seeing all people treated equally," says Duane Jennings, an Affirmation member from Salt Lake City who is well acquainted with Soulforce. "If you teach and defend a religious tradition but don't engage in a conscientious review of its teachings, this can often lead to perpetuating ignorance and promoting injustice." To help sponsor Riley/s participation in the Equality Ride, visit https:// www.soulforce.org/ equalityride/ sponsor_form.php?rider_id=24. For more information about anti-gay activities at BYU, visit www.affirmation.org/byu. |
www.affirmation.org