Hundreds at BYU take part in national walkout in support of LGBTQ students
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- Hundreds of Brigham Young University students participate in the Strike Out Queerphobia protest held just off BYU’s campus in Provo on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022.
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- Carolyn Gassert, president of the Understanding Sexuality, Gender, and Allyship group at Brigham Young University, leads a chant during the Strike Out Queerphobia protest held just off BYU’s campus in Provo on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022.
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- Brigham Young University student Felicity McClellan writes “Fruity?” in chalk on 800 North in Provo after the Strike Out Queerphobia protest held just off BYU’s campus on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022.
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- Hundreds of Brigham Young University students participate in the Strike Out Queerphobia protest held just off BYU’s campus in Provo on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022.
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- Nate Byrd, a member of the Black Menaces, a student group supporting marginalized people, participates in a moment of silence during the Strike Out Queerphobia protest held just off BYU’s campus in Provo on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022.
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- Hundreds of Brigham Young University students participate in a moment of silence during the Strike Out Queerphobia protest held just off BYU’s campus in Provo on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022.
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- Hundreds of Brigham Young University students participate in the Strike Out Queerphobia protest held just off BYU’s campus in Provo on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022.
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- A Brigham Young University student holds a sign reading “God is slay” as JJ Seo speaks during the Strike Out Queerphobia protest held just off BYU’s campus in Provo on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022.
While still a student at Brigham Young University, Stacey Harkey sat down and told his bishop that he is gay. On Tuesday, Harkey stood on the bed of a white pickup truck and relayed that conversation to hundreds of gathered students.
“He was like, … ‘You can’t do this.’ And I was like, ‘Bishop, I’m not like policy, I can’t change,'” Harkey said.
Sandwiched between the sidewalks along 800 North in Provo, BYU students and alumni joined together at noon for Strike Out Queerphobia, a nationwide protest at 50 religious colleges and universities focused on LGBTQ discrimination.
The rally at BYU was a joint effort between Understanding Sexuality, Gender, and Allyship — BYU’s unofficial LGBT information and advocacy group — and the Black Menaces, a group of students seeking to “empower marginalized communities.”
Nate Byrd, a public relations and marketing specialist with the Black Menaces, stressed the group’s goals for all marginalized communities.
“The purpose of this specifically was to protest the discrimination of religious universities against queer people. We believe in religious freedom but we also believe that religion shouldn’t be used as a weapon to discriminate against any one group of people,” Byrd said.
It also comes at a time that more and more members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints express openness to LGBTQ issues and rights. In 2021, approximately 1 in 5 surveyed Gen Z and millennial members identified as LGBTQ. In March, survey data showed 46% of church members in the United States support same-sex marriage, double the 23% support in 2011.
“I think it’s a tough thing to put any human in a position to have to balance themselves and their faith, whether they’re LGBTQ or Black or Indigenous or whatever it is, but I guess I just want people to know that God’s got them,” said Roni Jo Draper, a now-retired professor in the Department of Education at BYU and USGA advisor. “There’s not a tension between who you are and God’s love for you.”
With a laugh, Draper praised the university for educating its students well, evidenced by the protest’s organization and the speeches given.
Kicking off the protest, before organizers and leaders delved into personal stories, a four-minute moment of silence was held to recognize four years of silence for students who were LGBTQ at BYU.
In his speech to the crowd, student JJ Seo spoke about the changes in the church and the controversies seen on and surrounding campus in recent years.
“I was here when BYU hosted the first LGBT+ panel on campus. I was here when the push for the honor code changes happened. I was here when the homosexual clause was removed and seeing the results of that. I was here for Color the Campus and Light the Y. I was here when a talk of musket fire was spoken of. I was here when therapy was taken from trans students,” he said.
The aforementioned honor code changes, maintaining the university’s prohibition on same-sex relationships, were the focus of a later-dropped federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Education. “Light the Y” was an event in which students shined rainbow lights on the mountain above Provo in 2021 and “musket fire” was a reference to an August 2021 speech by Jeffrey Holland, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and a former president of BYU, in which he used the metaphor to describe defending the faith from detractors.
Seo discussed the pains of hearing that “change is coming” without seeing tangible differences over years of talking and working. While expressing love for his fellow rallygoers, Seo urged people to continue working, no matter what, saying “I believe that progress will be made if we choose to do it.”
Several other speakers, some reading their own words and some the speeches of others worried to put their faces to their experiences, focused almost entirely on love.
Their love for BYU and for their church was why, as one speaker said, “it must be held accountable.”
In addition to the protest, attendees were encouraged to sign a petition urging President Joe Biden’s administration to end Title IX exemptions for religious universities.
BYU, being a private university sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is exempt from aspects of Title IX and federal regulations it says conflict with the religious doctrine.
The protest itself was held off-campus, if only by inches, to “protect students,” Byrd said, and in an effort to circumvent BYU’s rules around on-campus protesting and go through the city.
Police officers and cars blocked off the portion of the street for nearly four hours and, according to one officer working security, there was just one counter-demonstrator — a driver who yelled “go home” as they passed by.
Attendees of all stripes, both members of the LGBTQ community and allies, found solace in the walkout and standing together.
“As a straight person at BYU, the least I can do to show my love for people is to come to things like this,” said Emily Angell, a BYU student. “We’re seeing change now. I don’t think this would have happened my freshman year here. Within a span of five years, we’re seeing change.”
A BYU spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the protest. In the end, organizers and protestors alike just hope to be heard and see adjustments made — whether they’re to the Honor Code, federal policy or in people’s individual beliefs.
“We want BYU to know that we’re here and that we care and that we feel differently. There are a lot of people on campus who feel the same way but there are people at the top, the administrators, who want things to remain a certain way. We’re not standing for that,” Byrd said. “Within the church, things change quite often. Things are very gradual but they do change.”
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