Brigham Young University has been named one of the “Absolute Worst, Most Unsafe Campuses for LGBTQ+ Youth” nationwide by an LGBT+ nonprofit organization.

Campus Pride, a North Carolina-based organization dedicated to creating a safer environment for LGBTQ+ college students, released its 2022 Worst List on Thursday which featured BYU alongside 192 other college campuses. Campus Pride has updated this list annually since 2015, and 13 campuses were added to the Worst List in 2022.

The organization did not mince words in a press release that accompanied the updated Worst List, calling BYU a “hotbed of bigotry” and stating that the university has spent 2022 “cracking down against pro-civil rights protests.”

“All students deserve a college experience where they are welcomed and fully embraced to live, learn and grow — including LGBTQ+ students.” Shane Windmeyer, Executive Director of Campus Pride founder and CEO, said in the press release. “The Worst List campuses are unsafe, unwelcoming — the absolute worst. All youth and families should be warned and fully aware that these 193 campuses on the Worst List openly discriminate and perpetuate harm.”

According to a press release from Campus Pride, the Worst List features colleges or universities that have applied for, or received a Title IX exemption, and have demonstrated a past history of anti-LGBTQ+ actions, programs, and practices.

“Brigham Young University has qualified for the Worst List because it has an established and well-documented history of anti-LGBTQ discrimination that endangers victims of sexual assault and has resulted in a call for it to not be included as a Big 12 school,” reads the list.

BYU’s campus history contained 15 bullet points of news stories and court case information regarding BYU’s complex history dealing with LGBTQ+ students as far back as 2011. The most recent point linked to a KSL article published last month entitled “BYU removes LGBTQ materials intended for new on-campus students, LGBTQ+ organizations respond to BYU’s actions.”

A Title IX complaint against BYU alleging discrimination against students involved in same-sex relationships was dismissed earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

In a Jan. 3 letter addressed to BYU President Kevin Worthen, Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for Civil Rights, wrote that BYU was exempt from various Title IX provisions on the grounds that they conflicted with certain principles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

“BYU is exempt from these provisions to the extent that application of these provisions conflict with the religious tenets of its controlling religious organization that pertain to sexual orientation and gender identity,” Lhamon wrote.

A spokesperson for BYU declined to comment on the university’s placement on the list.

According to the Church Educational System Honor Code, students and employees at all CES schools must “Live a chaste and virtuous life, including abstaining from any sexual relations outside a marriage between a man and a woman.” Violation of the honor code can result in suspension or even dismissal from a CES school.

Church Educational System schools BYU-Idaho, BYU-Hawaii and Ensign College were also featured on Campus Pride’s Worst List.

Newsletter