A day after being arrested for protesting at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, members of the Soulforce Equality Ride are gearing up for nonviolent protest -- and, if the college bars them, civil disobedience -- at Pat Robertson's Regent University.
At military and religious colleges around the nation bans on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender enrollment force students into closets of fear and self-hate. These bans devalue the life of GLBT people and they slam the door on academic freedom. The Equality Ride empowers young adults to challenge these college bans.
In the extended post, veteran civil rights leader Rodney Powell talks about the connections between the Freedom Rides of the 1960s and the Equality Ride of today -- and ways you can support the Equality Ride, by joining their events at 20 colleges around the country and sponsoring one of the 30 equality riders.
Members of Equality Ride will bring hope and healing to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students who are forced to live and suffer in closets of fear on their college campus. The Equality Riders will reveal to the public the hardship these students face and make clear the need for change.
Civil rights leader Rodney Powell on the Equality Ride: The Equality Ride is an incredible example of what's possible if our youth ... oppose America's consent to our oppression.
LYNCHBURG, Va. -- More than 20 gay rights activists were arrested on trespassing charges Friday when they stepped onto the campus of Liberty University, the school founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell.
Many of the activists were part of Soulforce, a Lynchburg-based group on its first stop of a nationwide "Equality Ride" tour to promote gay rights at the nation's conservative Christian universities and military academies. Most of those arrested were members of the tour, but the group also included supporters from other colleges and the community.
Invoking the memory of the civil rights movement, Soulforce member Jacob Reitan said: "We want to come to the school today to say, 'learn from history.'"
"We have a right to be here, because this school teaches that being gay is being sick and sinful," said Reitan, co-director of Equality Ride. "We have a right to question and to show how we are children of God."
Reitan and other Soulforce members said they did not intend to be arrested at the campus, but just hoped to talk to Liberty students.
"If you put a face on a gay or lesbian person, it's harder to discriminate," said Haven Herrin, the tour's other leader.
Some 60 people, including 35 members of the Equality Ride bus tour, gathered for the late morning rally on a sidewalk outside the school's main entrance. A music group played guitars and sang 1960s peace songs.
The 20 activists who actually entered the campus were arrested immediately. [source]
Powell: "They're going to oppose it by going to the source of the oppression, starting with the least-protected among our community, the children of fundamentalist Christians who send them to schools where there's no redress and there's no sanctuary, where they are subjected to scorn, condemnation and rejection."
Equality Ride leader Jacob Reitan said one goal is to raise public awareness of the colleges' policies by using the media.
"We also hope to send out a clear message to gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender students that God loves them as they are," Reitan said. "Today, it's gay and lesbian people who are the outcasts of the church, and later the church will have to repent from it."
Reitan also wants to convince administrators to allow for biblically based dissent of school policies.
"When Paul was writing in the New Testament, he didn't have an understanding of homosexuality as we know it today," he said. "We believe that Christ is our best defense, because the message of Christ was always to embrace people and love them."
Reitan, 24, who graduated from Northwestern University (Ill.), was raised in a Lutheran home. He decided to form the Equality Ride after he met a closeted Wheaton College student in Chicago who spoke of his difficulty in reconciling sexuality with Christianity at a Christian institution. [source]
Powell: "And to the military academies, who seek our sons and daughters to serve, to put their lives on the line, but who persecute them if they stand up and say who they really are."
Upon our arrival at the Naval Academy, numerous news outlets were waiting. As a group we got off the bus that had transported us from HRC headquarters in DC and lined the side walk in front of the Academy. For a half an hour we stood in silent vigil, holding up signs that read "Lift the Ban" and "Hear Us Out." After the Vigil, we held a press conference to explain to the assembled media why we had come to the Academy. Speaking at the press conference was Rev. Tommie Watkins, a former midshipmen, who the Academy discharged in 1997, when it was discovered he was gay.
After the press conference, the group lined up at Gate 1 to enter the Academy like any other visitor. At this point, we all assumed it would be just a few short minutes before we were taken off to jail, but instead, after consulting with the Department of Defense, the marines guarding Gate 1 allowed us to enter onto Academy grounds.
It was a rainy day but at that point it felt like the sun was shinning down on us. As a group we assembled together, to talk about our plan for the remainder of our day at the Academy. It was clear that dialogue we hoped for would indeed take place. The reality that for one day there would be out GLBT people at the Academy and midshipmen would know about it was enough to make us consider the day a success. [source]
I am writing to you concerning your visit to the Naval Academy this Friday, October 21. I wanted to let you know the stir that you've caused at our institution. First off, as masculine as this school is, rumor spreads faster than in a girls bathroom at a middle school. So as you might have guessed, your visit is THE topic of conversation on the mouths of Mids.
I respect what you do and I'd like you to know that it takes more courage to lead a group such as equality ride every day than some of these Midshipmen will ever have to muster up in a combat zone. [source]
The Equality Ride is traveling throughout the United States, to 20 different colleges and universities. At each stop along the ride, local students, activists and allies are encouraged to demonstrate with the Equality Ride.
You can also financially support the Equality Ride by making a donation or sponsoring a rider (or encouraging others to do so).
Finally, if you're purchasing books at Amazon.com, use the link on the Equality Ride website, and a portion of the purchase will be sent to the Equality Ride -- at no additional cost.
Powell: "I think we're going to have to be jolted by taking it to the streets in a nonviolent manner, and I think only youth can achieve that."