baylor’s leadership has requested a religious exemption to various requirements of title ix, including the law’s sexual harassment prohibition as it applies to lgbtqia+ people.

to join the Baylor Family
in signing a letter to the Baylor leadership
expressing our deep concerns.

Our Faith does not discriminate.

We are Baylor family members who affirm that all Baylor students should be treated
with equal dignity and respect, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Our Faith Does Not Discriminate.

@bubearsforall

Statement of BU Bears for All

The University’s decision to seek a license to treat LGBTQ people separately and unequally from others in its community is disappointing and out of step with the broad support we have seen among those in the Baylor community who have time and again affirmed the need for all students, including LGBTQ students, faculty, and alumni, to be treated equally and with respect.

The University’s representation in its letter that its Board of Regents is a religious organization that adheres to mandatory creeds is also inconsistent with what it means to be Baptist. Baptists do not adhere to mandatory creeds.

We are disappointed that the University continues to pursue a course that disregards the fundamental equality and dignity of lgbtq+ people and remains committed to supporting all people, including lgbtq+ people,  in the Baylor family. We hope and pray for a day when the University will recognize that faith should not discriminate.

Skye Perryman, Jackie Baugh Moore, and Tracy Teaff— authors of the original 2019 petition

BREAKING NEWS

Dallas Morning News

Baylor Religious Exemption To Title IX Sexual Harassment Rules Draws Criticism

Dallas Morning News | Joy Ashford | Sept. 8, 2023

The school is now exempt from investigating sexual harassment allegations when doing so conflicts with its religious tenets.

Baylor University, one of the largest Christian universities in the nation, has been at the center of controversy after the Department of Education expanded the school’s religious exemption to Title IX in a letter made public last month. The school is now exempt from investigating sexual harassment allegations when doing so conflicts with its religious tenets.

Baylor requested the expanded exemption in May, a month after the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into the school’s alleged failure to respond to claims of sexual harassment against a former LGBTQ student.

Baylor affiliates and Baptist leaders have voiced disapproval of Baylor, saying the exemption leaves LGBTQ students little recourse when faced with sexual harassment. Over a thousand Baylor affiliates and Baptist ministers signed a letter urging the school to “affirm an individual’s right to participate in a campus climate that is free from harassment in all forms.”

Signees include the former chair of the school’s religion department, more than 10 current faculty members in that department, senior members of the administration and former Title IX coordinator Patty Crawford, who resigned following a sex abuse scandal at Baylor in 2016. Read more…

________

Inside Higher Ed

House Dems Question Baylor’s Title IX Exemption

Inside Higher Ed | Kathering Knott | Sept. 7, 2023
A group of House Democrats is calling on the Biden administration to clarify the scope of Baylor University’s religious exemptions under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

Religious colleges and universities can seek an exemption from Title IX rules, which bar gender-based discrimination in federally funded education, if the requirements aren’t consistent with the religious tenets of the organization that controls the institution. Baylor asserted its exemption in May after the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights began investigating complaints that the university tolerated sexual harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity. 

The Education Department affirmed that Baylor is exempt from Title IX provisions relating to the harassment of LGBTQ+ students in a letter that became public last month—a move that one advocacy group said was a first for the department and could endanger queer students at the university. Read more…

________

Baptist Global News

Five U.S. Congressmen Ask DOE To Clarify Baylor’s ‘Religious’ Exemption

Baptist Global News | Mark Wingfield | Sept. 7, 2023
U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and four other members of Congress wrote to the U.S. Department of Education Sept. 5 seeking clarification on the recent waiver granted Baylor University allowing discrimination against LGBTQ students on campus.

The renewed exemption granted Baylor “is not only unprecedented but is a blatant attempt to interfere and pressure the department to stop an ongoing sex-based harassment investigation,” the legislators charged. “That is unacceptable.”

Joining Schiff in the letter were Reps. Mark Takano, D-Calif.; Joaquin Castro, D-Texas; Veronica Escobar, D-Texas; and Greg Casar, D-Texas.

The letter was sent four days after Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz — who has no connection to Baylor — held a news conference in Waco with Baylor President Linda Livingstone and three days after Cruz posted a selfie in a skybox at Baylor’s Saturday football game against Texas State University. Read more…

________

Houston Chronicle

LGBTQ+ Students Still Face Obstacles at Baylor, Grad Says

Houston Chronicle | Samantha Ketterer | Aug. 23, 2023

Veronica Penales moved from Waco to Washington, D.C., but can’t seem to put Baylor University in the rearview mirror.

Her Title IX complaint remains the sticking point after the U.S. Department of Education last month affirmed the Baptist-affiliated institution's exemption from sexual harassment claims on religious grounds. She fears what it will mean for her as well as current and future LGBTQ students at the private university.

“I know signing up for the lawsuit meant I was going to see it through to the end,” the 22-year-old alumna said. “But I graduated, left Baylor, and it feels like I’m sucked back in.”

The agency’s exemption came after Baylor President Linda Livingstone in May wrote the federal government asking for several complaints to be dismissed, including Penales’. While Livingstone said Baylor welcomes all LGBTQ students, she argued that the university’s “control” by a predominately Baptist board of regents invokes the exemption for a handful of cases involving gender and sexual identity.

Any Title IX requirement that Baylor “must allow sexual behavior outside of marital union between a man and a woman” and that contradicts the distinction between men and women, is inconsistent with the school’s tenets, Livingstone wrote in a letter to the Department of Education.

“Baylor ‘affirms the biblical understanding of sexuality as a gift from God’ and requires ‘purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman as the biblical norm,’ ” she said. Read more…
________

Waco Tribune

Feds Recognize Baylor’s Title IX Religious Exemptions to LGBTQ Protections

Waco Tribune | Matt Kyle | Aug. 11, 2023

The U.S. Department of Education has recognized Baylor University’s right to religious exemptions from certain Title IX policies pertaining to LGBTQ students and staff.

In a July 25 letter to Baylor, the department’s Office for Civil Rights declared the Baptist university is exempt from those provisions “to the extent that they are inconsistent with the University’s religious tenets.”

The provisions in question broadly include issues such as admission, sexual harassment, housing, financial and employment assistance, and rules on private organizations.

The letter from Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights, states that Baylor is not exempt from Title IX as a whole, and the federal agency would determine whether future complaints fall within the recognized exemptions.

The Education Department in June 2021 issued guidance that the landmark 1972 act barring sex-based discrimination extended to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. That same year, the Office for Civil Rights received several complaints against Baylor for violating that guidance, and the agency followed up this April 7 with a letter to the university.

Baylor President Linda Livingstone on May 1 responded with a letter stating that the four LGBT-related complaints must be dismissed because “the allegations directly implicate Baylor’s religious exemption from Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, as well as the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution and other laws.” Read more…
________

The Texas Tribune

U.S. Department of Education reaffirms Baylor’s religious exemption in response to sexual harassment complaints

The Texas Tribune | William Melhado | Aug. 12, 2023

The U.S. Department of Education exempted Baylor University from sexual harassment claims regulated under Title IX last month after the Christian university asked the agency to dismiss discrimination complaints made by students, arguing that the claims were inconsistent with the university’s religious tenets.

After LGBTQ+ students filed several Title IX discrimination complaints against the Waco-based university — in one case for failing to address homophobic harassment by a former student’s peers — Baylor wrote to the agency’s Office for Civil Rights, arguing that the federal government previously recognized that the university is exempt from certain aspects of civil rights laws.

Lori Fogleman, the university’s assistant vice president of media and public relations, lamented that Baylor’s religious exemption was being mischaracterized as a “broad-based exception to sexual harassment.”

Instead, she said in a statement that “Baylor is responding to current considerations by the U.S. Department of Education to move to an expanded definition of sexual harassment, which could infringe on Baylor’s rights under the U.S. Constitution, as well as Title IX, to conduct its affairs in a manner consistent with its religious beliefs.”

Title IX, the federal civil rights law that protects against sex-based discrimination in educational programs and activities, has expanded in recent years. In 2021, President Joe Biden said those protections should also include LGBTQ+ students.

The expansion has exposed rifts between faith-based or conservative-led public schools and universities and LGBTQ+ people seeking protection. Read more…
________

Baptist News Global

Baylor asks for — and gets — new exemption to discriminate against LGBTQ students

Baptist News Global | Emily Cousins | Aug. 14, 2023

Baylor University recently asked for and was granted a federal religious exemption from charges of sexual harassment against LGBTQ students under Title IX — something it has not sought since 1976.

News of the exemption was first reported by the Religious Exemption Accountability Project, which previously named Baylor in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education protesting federal funding of schools that openly discriminate against LGBTQ students.

In recent years, the Baptist-affiliated university has faced pressure from its religiously conservative base — particularly Texas Baptist pastors — while also facing calls for greater inclusion from students, alumni and faculty.

More than 3,000 members of the Baylor community signed a petition in 2019, urging Baylor to charter Gamma Alpha Upsilon, an LGBTQ-inclusive student group, and to support its LGBTQ students. While Gamma was not chartered, Baylor recently chartered its own organization, Prism. Read more…
________

Mother Jones

Baylor University Is No Longer Required to Protect Queer Students From Sexual Harassment

Mother Jones | Sophie Hayssen | Aug. 14, 2023

Biden’s Department of Education has granted Baylor University a religious exemption to Title IX provisions that hold schools accountable for sexual harassment against LGBTQ students, despite the university’s troubling history of alleged Title IX violations. The letters requesting and granting the exemption were dated May 1 and July 25, respectively, but didn’t receive widespread attention until after a tweet thread from the Religious Exemption Accountability Project about the letters went viral last week. The exemption protects Baylor from complaints that would cause other schools to lose their federal funding. 

Baylor’s letter, signed by President Linda Livingstone, noted that the university was requesting an exemption in response to three complaints made to the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights: one about the decision to deny a charter for a queer student group, another about the school’s unsatisfactory response to students’ claims they were harassed based on their gender identity and sexual orientation, and a third based on allegations that the university pressured media outlets not to cover campus LGBTQ activism during the fall of 2021. In its exemption request, the school claimed that acting in accordance with Title IX in these instances would violate its religious tenets. Baylor, a Baptist institution, argued that  its faith “affirms the biblical understanding of sexuality as a gift from God” and demands “purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman as the biblical norm.” Read more…
________

Waco Tribune

Baylor Regents Approve Measure To Support LGBTQ Students, Construction On New Welcome Center

Waco Tribune | Rhiannon Saegert | May 14,2021

The Baylor University Board of Regents approved guiding principles for the university’s treatment of LGBTQ students Friday and tasked President Linda Livingstone and the administration with providing the students with more support, which might include a new student group.

The regents met this week, approving the measure along with plans to renovate dorms and start construction on a large welcome center near University Parks Drive and Interstate 35. The resolution about LGBTQ students is in part the result of discussions that started in 2019, when an unofficial LGBTQ student group’s efforts to be recognized with a university charter gained support from alumni, faculty and other students in the form of a petition that garnered more than 3,000 signatures.

“We look forward to moving forward on the charge in that resolution and doing it in a way that respects the principles outlined there and respects our values and mission and then our deep care for our students,” Livingstone said. Read more…
________

Baylor Lariat

Faculty Senate passes resolution supporting Gamma Alpha Upsilon charter

Baylor Lariat | Emily Cousins | Feb. 9, 2021

The Faculty Senate passed a resolution Wednesday afternoon to support Gamma Alpha Upsilon’s goal to become an officially chartered student organization with 26 voting in favor, nine opposed and four abstained.

During the fall 2020 semester, the Student Senate passed the “No Crying on Sundays” resolution supporting the creation of Gamma Alpha Upsilon’s charter and asking the Board of Regents to reinterpret their statement on human sexuality.

The resolution passed through the Faculty Senate adds more support for Gamma Alpha Upsilon from the Baylor community. This resolution does not create policy change but instead asks for the Baylor administration to allow the LGBTQ support group to be an official organization, Matthew Cordon said. Cordon is the chair of the Faculty Senate, director of the legal writing program and a professor of law.

“This is not a policy vote or governance vote. It is our voice, but we hope that we have influence and that decision-makers do listen to us with regard to the vote that we just took,” Cordon said.

Shreveport, La., sophomore student senator Veronica Penales, Boerne sophomore student senator Addison Knight and Portland, Ore., senior Emma Fraley, president of Gamma Alpha Upsilon, each gave short speeches to the Faculty Senate and answered questions from senators before the vote took place.

“As a support group, our priorities are to give Baylor students a place to embrace their identities, be educated on LGBTQ+ topics and make friends who they know will welcome them fully,” Fraley said. “We don’t have an agenda. We aren’t trying to change anyone’s minds. All we want to do is give students a space to feel welcomed and accepted – often for the very first time in their lives.” Read more…
________

Waco Tribune

BAYLOR STUDENT GROUPS BACK UNOFFICIAL LGBT GROUP’S LATEST BID FOR CHARTER

Waco Tribune | Rhiannon Saegert | Oct. 24, 2020

Baylor University’s unofficial LGBTQ student group has reapplied for official student group status, this time with the backing of the Student Senate and student NAACP chapter.

Gamma Alpha Upsilon is the newest name for the unofficial LGBTQ student group at Baylor University. Last semester, a faculty member started anonymously lending the group a lecture hall to serve as a designated meeting space, one of the things the group cannot get from the university unless it recognizes them as an official student group. GAY Vice President Jake Picker said the group has applied for a charter every semester for the past 10 years, and the university has always declined.

“They decline and don’t really say anything to us about why they declined,” Picker said. “But we’re really hoping this semester, things will be different.”

In the past, university officials have said the Gamma Alpha Upsilon organization runs afoul of Baylor’s statement on human sexuality, found in the student policies and procedures, which states students are expected to not participate in “advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching.”

Picker, who was a member of GAY last semester, said he is more hopeful this year in light of support from Baylor’s Student Senate and Baylor NAACP, along with the United States Supreme Court’s recent ruling that LGBTQ people are protected under the 1964 Civil Right Act. Read more…
_______

Baylor Lariat

CALL FOR REINTERPRETATION OF BAYLOR’S STATEMENT
ON HUMAN SEXUALITY PASSES IN STUDENT SENATE

Baylor Lariat | Emily Cousins | Oct. 23, 2020

The Student Senate passed the “No Crying on Sundays” resolution on Thursday evening 30-15 after an arduous debate. The bill potentially opens the door for LGBTQ groups like Gamma Alpha Upsilon to become officially chartered, but only if Baylor’s administration feels inclined to act.

The “No Crying on Sundays” resolution calls for a reinterpretation of the Statement on Human Sexuality and asks for a nondiscrimination clause to be added to Student Organizations Policies and Procedures.

“Student Government recommends that Baylor University formally and publicly announce the ability for LGBTQ+ groups to be recognized as fully chartered student organizations,” the bill said.

The Statement on Human Sexuality has not been updated since 2009. It specifies that Baylor supports the biblical “norm:” marital heterosexual relationships. Read more…

Baylor Lariat

STUDENT SENATE TO VOTE ON MOTION LEADING TO LGBTQ+ ACCEPTANCE

Baylor Lariat | Emily Cousins | Oct. 22, 2020

The statement on human sexuality in the Baylor University Student Organization Policies and Procedures has long barred Gamma Alpha Upsilon, an unofficial LGBTQ+ group, from becoming an official organization on campus. However, the Student Senate is about to vote on a bill that could change everything.

On Oct. 22, Shreveport, La., sophomore Veronica Penales and Boerne sophomore Addison Knight, both senators, will propose the “No Crying on Sundays Resolution” to the Student Senate. The co-authors of the bill said they are committed to fighting for equality and diversity on campus.

This bill is being proposed the day after Pope Francis expressed support for same-sex marriage in a documentary released Oct. 21. This is another game changer for the LGBTQ+ community in relation to Christianity.

“We’re asking [The Board of Regents] to reinterpret Baylor’s human sexuality statement that has been changed and updated,” Penales said. “So the most recent copy we have is the one that … was established in 2009, and now it’s 2020, so we’re asking them to once again reinterpret the human sexuality statement in hopes of getting a nondiscriminatory clause placed into the Student Organization Policy and Procedures Guidebook.”

Knight said the bill refers to bill SR 66-14. The senate resolution, which passed in spring 2019, asked Baylor to change how student groups are defined, which would have allowed Gamma Alpha Upsilon to operate on campus without being officially chartered. Read more…

Baylor Lariat

LGBTQ COMMUNITY FIGHTS FOR RIGHTS AT BAYLOR, IN WACO

Baylor Lariat | Meredith Howard | Oct. 6, 2020

Homosexual behavior is described as a temptation and issue by Student Policies and Procedures. However, students who are part of the LGBTQ community cannot be subject to disciplinary action or a loss of university financial aid on the basis of their sexual orientation.

The same could not be said 13 years ago.

Baylor’s sexual misconduct policy in 2007 included “homosexual acts” along with “sexual abuse, sexual harassment, sexual assault, incest, adultery [and] fornication.” This means that students could be subject to disciplinary action for their sexual orientation.

“The sanctions that the University may impose against a faculty member or a staff member for an act of sexual misconduct range from censure to separation,” the policy said.

Faculty members could be fired for not being straight.

The policy also said that when considering sanctioning, “constructive forgiveness will guide all efforts.”
Read more…

The Nation

THESE LGBTQ STUDENTS SAY THEIR SCHOOL TREATS THEM LIKE SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS

For years, students say they’ve faced harassment for their sexuality. At the very least, they want their club for LGBTQ students to have official status on campus.

The Nation | Mary Retta | December 2, 2019

One night in 2018, senior Kyle Deserosiers was walking across campus with his boyfriend. They were holding hands. Another student, seeing them, turned and yelled, “Faggot!”

It was hardly the first time Deserosiers was ridiculed for his sexuality at Baylor University, a private Christian university in Waco, Texas. Administrators, students, and even professors, he said, have made lewd comments and jokes about queer and trans people in front of him, both in and outside of class, during his four years at the school.

Students have gone further to say that this kind of discrimination against the LGBT community is built into the very foundation of the university. Until 2015, same-sex displays of affection were a violation of the student handbook and considered a punishable offense. All residence halls are separated by binary gender. Many students, including Deserosiers, have heard rumors that the school has accepted sponsorships from homophobic companies that support conversion therapy. Students like Desrosiers feel that the school operates in a way that only recognizes the humanity of the cisgender and heterosexual student body. “I have had experiences that make me feel like I don’t belong here, like I’m an outsider, and that this is not the community for me,” Deserosiers said. “This discrimination needs to be investigated.” Read more…

Please help us thank Trae Havens and the OUtlaw’s (OU College of Law’s queer advocacy group) for standing strong in solidarity with Baylor’s LGBTQ students.

For Immediate Release:

“To all the rights of one person to be violated puts at risk the rights and liberties of all.”

These poignant words are etched into the foundation of the OU College of Law, reminding us that every day we must make a commitment to protecting those who need our advocate-voice. As the University of Oklahoma prepares to play Baylor University, all eyes turn to Waco, where the national spotlight will be centered on these two historic schools. As these two teams prepare to battle it out on the field, we are reminded of the battle going on behind closed doors.

Baylor remains the only school in the Big 12 Conference to deny equal rights and recognition to queer students. Further, Baylor is the only school in the all “Power 5” conferences to permit this treatment against the queer community. The pain experience by queer students on the Baylor campus cannot easily be summarized.

The time has come for us to unite in solidarity and denounce this dangerous policy.

Earlier this year, OUtlaw (OU Law’s queer advocacy group) began a grass-roots movement to join voices together across all campuses in the Big 12. It has become a common goal for students on every campus in the Big 12 Conference to let thousands of fans, students, and athletes know who we are. We ask that the Big 12 Conference devote resources to this conversation, and that it make a clear statement denouncing bigotry, racism, and intolerance.

Great rivalry must be paired with decency and community. We ask that the entire Sooner Nation join us in solidarity, supporting our friends at Baylor University. Show your pride in Waco this Saturday, as these two incredible institutions meet in primetime lights.

Respectfully, 

Trae Havens
Outlaw President
The University of Oklahoma College of Law

Inside Higher Ed

Baylor Student Activists Appeal to NCAA

LGBTQ advocates want the association to intervene and help break what they call a long-standing pattern of discrimination at one of the nation's most prominent religious institutions.

Inside Higher Ed | Jeremy Bauer-Wolf | August 7, 2019

Students and recent graduates of Baylor University, one of the country’s most prominent Baptist colleges, want the National Collegiate Athletic Association to examine the institution’s treatment of gay, transgender and queer students who say they have long faced discrimination on campus and in university policies.

These advocates wrote last month to Mark Emmert, the NCAA president, imploring the NCAA to investigate the university’s policies on LGBTQ issues. Most of those who signed the letter are officers of Gamma Alpha Upsilon (which spells out "GAY" in Greek letters), an LGBTQ student group that has sought official recognition from the university for eight years. Formally known as the Sexuality Identity Forum, the organization has been continually denied formal recognition, though the university has never publicly explained why.

The students assert in their letter that Baylor is the only member institution of the Big 12 Conference, one of the NCAA’s “Power 5” conferences, the most affluent and prestigious of the association's leagues, that “prohibits LGBTQ+ students from being officially recognized as part of the campus community.” Other major religious institutions in the Power 5 include University of Notre Dame and Boston College, both in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Read more…

NBC News

Baylor professor apologizes after guest speaker promotes conversion therapy.

The incident is just the latest at the Christian university to highlight an unwelcoming environment for LGBTQ people, some students say.

NBC News | Liam Knox

An American Sign Language professor at Baylor University apologized to his students this week after a guest speaker he invited promoted conversion therapy during his presentation.

The Rev. Jari Saavalainen, a pastor at a deaf church in Chicago, was asked to talk Tuesday about missionary work with deaf people, and professor Lewis Lummer said he did not anticipate the presentation would include any mention of conversion therapy.

Having the subject broached in a sign language class made it all the more shocking, students said.

Celia Scrivener, who heard the talk, said she wasn’t even paying attention, but as the only gay student in class, her peers looked to see her reaction.

“[Saavalainen] pulled up this website and I was looking away at the time ... but a friend of mine who sits right next to me grabbed the edge of my desk,” she said. “I looked up and my jaw just dropped.”

Lummer has since apologized.

“There has been a groundswell of alumni support for LGBTQ students at Baylor, and in particular calling on Baylor to change its policies that marginalize and fail to recognize LGBTQ students as fully part of the campus community,”

Skye Perryman, who graduated in 2003, is one of a group of alums who formed BU Bears for All.

Waco Tribune

Baylor regents meet with LGBTQ student group

Rhiannon Saegert | November 10, 2019

While the unofficial LGBTQ student group at Baylor University remains unofficial, a few things have changed.

Members of Gamma Alpha Upsilon got a chance to address the Baylor Board of Regents during the regents’ meeting last week, a first in the school’s history. The students requested a meeting with the regents in a letter sent in July. Vice President Anna Conner addressed the board, along with fellow GAY members Kyle Desrosiers and Charis Merchant. They discussed their own experiences, as well as the experiences of other LGBTQ students on campus.

“We got pretty personal with those stories, and it caused emotions to run high in the room,” Conner said.

The board took no action and the group will continue to seek a charter making it an official student organization, but Conner said the regents seemed receptive. In previous semesters, requests to speak to the regents had been turned down because of the group’s unofficial status.

“I think we really made an impact with them,” Conner said. “It was a panel, so it was just the three of us. We talked for an hour.” Read more…

Pride: Rice's Marching Owl Band Spells It Out For Baylor Administration

Waco Tribune:

Rice band takes aim at Baylor LGBTQ stance in halftime show

Waco Tribune | Staff Reporters | September 21, 2019

The Rice Marching Owl Band (MOB), which describes itself as the university’s “infamously irreverent non-marching marching band,” took a shot at Baylor’s LGBTQ stance Saturday with its esoteric halftime show.

The band formed the outline of a Bear, performed a Star Wars-like lightsaber battle, then ended its routine by spelling out the word “Pride” while students holding rainbow flags joined in and the band played "YMCA" by the Village People. Baylor has been in the news this year for its denial of a charter for LGBTQ student groups, as it “affirms the biblical understanding of sexuality,” according to an official university statement. Read more…

Houston Chronicle:

Rice band’s halftime show plays in solidarity with Baylor LGBTQ students

Houston Chronicle | Brittany Britto and Glynn A. Hill | September 20, 2019

Rice University’s Marching Owl Band delivered a controversial skit and played pro-LGBTQ song “YMCA” by the Village People as dozens of students and alumni rushed the field with rainbow flags at its football game against Baylor University on Saturday night.

The skit comes as LGBTQ students and alumni fight to be recognized by the private Baptist college in Waco.

Chad Fisher, a spokesman for the Marching Owl Band, also known as “The MOB,” said he and his bandmates decided on a “Star Wars”-themed show months ago, but after learning about Baylor LGBTQ students’ ongoing fight to get recognition for their student group, they decided to incorporate that into their performance. Read more…

Baylor hosts Christian LGBTQ Author Justin Lee

Last week, LGBTQ+ Christian activist, Justin Lee, spoke on Baylor's campus at the invitation of the Garland School of Social Work. Below is a press roundup from the Justin Lee event and a link to the recording online.

Baylor Lariat

LGBTQ+ ADVOCATE AND AUTHOR JUSTIN LEE SPEAKS TO BAYLOR STUDENTS

Baylor Lariat | Emily Lohec | September 17, 2019

Justin Lee, a Christian advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, spoke to Baylor students about acceptance and standing united while on campus Tuesday night.

The Diana R. Garland School of Social Work hosted Lee as a speaker for Baylor’s Conversation Series, which focuses on “civil discourse for the campus community.”

Lee is an author and public speaker known for serving as a voice for the Christian LGBTQ+ community, and the founder of Q Christian Fellowship, the world’s largest LGBTQ+ Christian advocacy organization.

Lee believes that in order to discuss issues with people, we must share our stories to better understand what others may be going through. He wanted the audience to grasp the fact that he was not going use the night to share his personal story but rather to shed hope on the idea of understanding and accepting the LGBTQ+ community.

“I’m a Christian, first and foremost — my faith is at the core of who I am, from the very beginning of my life,” Lee said. “I think we spend a lot of time talking about LGBTQ issues— I don’t want to talk about issues tonight but I want to talk about issues through the lens of talking about actual people, because God loves people more than God loves issues.” Read more…

KWTX -

Hundreds Pack in Room to Hear Christian Author Speak at Baylor

Nearly 500 filled into the conference room atop the Cashion Academy Center on the Baylor campus Tuesday evening to listen to an influential Christian LGBTQ author speak about faith and sexuality.

The room was so filled, several people could be seen standing in the back to listen.

Justin Lee was at the university for a two-day visit where he also spoke to student in classes.

Dr. Jon E. Singletary was named dean of the Garland School of Social Work gave opening remarks and welcomed LGBTQ students to university and says they’re welcomed.

The talk was open to students and the public, sitting in the front row was President Linda Livingstone’s husband, filling-in while the university’s leader was away on travel, and some members of the Board of Regents. Read more…

Baptist Global News

GAY CHRISTIAN ACTIVIST: BAYLOR NEED NOT ABANDON THEOLOGY TO EMBRACE LGBTQ STUDENTS

Baptist Global News | Jeff Brumley | September 19, 2019

Gay Christian activist Justin Lee harbored no illusions that his invitation to Baylor University would result in a sudden, official affirmation of LGBTQ students on the Waco, Texas campus.

“I know that’s not where Baylor is. I know that’s not where a lot of my Christians friends are, a lot of Christian institutions,” he said in a video recording of his Tuesday night talk posted online. He was hosted by the university’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work.

Baylor’s gay, lesbian and transgender student community knows this all too well. Earlier this month, their latest request for a charter for Gamma Alpha Upsilon, the LGBTQ club at Baylor, was denied. Read more…

KXXV

BAYLOR UNIVERSITY HOSTS LGBTQ+ SPEAKER FOR OPEN CONVERSATION

KXXV | Erin Heft | Septemer 17, 2019

WACO, TX — Nearly a month after Baylor University clarified their stance on human sexuality, the university hosted a prominent LGBTQ+ speaker to hold "a conversation."

The renowned private Baptist university’s President Linda Livingstone clarified what the university distinguishes as human sexuality under their Student Policies and Procedures.

Nearly three weeks later, author, speaker, social activist and self-identified homosexual Christian Justin Lee was invited by the university, and hosted by the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, to hold a conversation entitled ‘Christianity and LGBTQ+ Persons.’

Hundreds of all ages were in attendance, filling every available seat in the room, consisting of, both students and the public. Read more…

Join us on social media and stand up for all Baylor students,
including those in the LGBTQ+ community.

Your donation helps our fight to end discrimination
against LGBTQ+ students at Baylor University.

Help us support, unambiguously, Christian
values of love, dignity and respect.

DON’T MISS IT!

Baylor to host discussion LGBTQ Christian author Justin Lee

Waco Tribune | Rhiannon Saegert | September 16, 2019

A leading proponent of building bridges between churches and LGBTQ Christians will speak Tuesday at Baylor University, where debates over sexuality and faith have come to the forefront.

The Baylor School of Social Work is hosting a discussion with Justin Lee, a nationally known author and founder of the Gay Christian Network.

Lee will speak at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday on the fifth floor of the Cashion Academic Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Lee, author of “Torn” and “Talking Across the Divide,” has been writing about his experiences as a gay Christian since the late ‘90s. He founded the Gay Christian Network, now called the Q Christian Fellowship, in 2001, later parting with the organization in 2017. In his Baylor appearance he aims to discuss the way the Christian churches have handled LGBTQ issues in the past and how to better address them in the present.

“I’m not coming to give a theological talk on same-sex marriage or anything like that,” Lee said in an interview Monday. “My goal is to be able to speak to Christians on all sides of the theological disagreements and just focus on how we take care of people who are, right now, not always being cared for.” read more…

Dakota Farquhar-Caddell: A word to our LGBTQ+ students at Baylor

Waco Tribune | Dakota Farquhar-Caddell | September 14, 2019

Some weeks have passed since Baylor University’s Aug. 27 letter on human sexuality, including its vow to “do more to demonstrate love and support for our students who identify as LGBTQ,” even as it also affirms “purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman as the biblical norm.” In the spirit of trusting that open, honest, diverse and sometimes difficult dialogue in community may be one of our best hopes toward healing, I offer words I am teaching my children, the same words that God is spending most of my life teaching me.

To our students at Baylor who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and any other identity that doesn’t fall within the heterosexual, cisgender expectation: There is more than one single understanding of what is true. The belief that your identity is “non-biblical” is not shared by everyone at Baylor, and certainly not by the country or by the world. Many of us understand our collective, diverse human sexuality is not just “OK” but that this is one of the many sacred ways God works in the world. There are theologians, social workers, professors, pastors, entire churches (yes, even Baptist!), entrepreneurs, students, parents, farmers, scientists, community leaders, those on the left and those on the right who understand a different truth about you and a different truth about God than what is currently proclaimed through Baylor University’s policy stance. read more…

After Charter Denial, Baylor LGBTQ Group Pushes Forward

Dallas Observer | Silas Allen | September 16, 2019

For the last eight years, a group of Baylor University students has been trying to persuade the school to allow them to form an LGBTQ student group.

Earlier this month, the group got an official answer from the university. It wasn't the one they'd hoped for.

Baylor officials notified members of the student group Gamma Alpha Upsilon — or GAY — on Sept. 6 that the university was denying the group's request for a charter. A charter represents official recognition from the university, which would give the group access to student activity funds, allow them to reserve space on campus for meetings and allow them to advertise events on campus.

That notification came just days after Baylor President Linda Livingstone released a statement on human sexuality on the university's website. In it, Livingstone wrote that the university "affirms the biblical understanding of sexuality as a gift from God."

"Christian churches across the ages and around the world have affirmed purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman as the biblical norm," Livingstone wrote. "Temptations to deviate from this norm include both heterosexual sex outside of marriage and homosexual behavior. It is thus expected that Baylor students will not participate in advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching." read more…

New Semester, same frustrations for LGBTQ students at Baylor

Houston Chronicle | Brittany Britto | September 5, 2019

It may be the start of a new semester, but frustrations largely remain the same for many LGBTQ students at Baylor University.

After months of putting pressure on Baylor administration and its Board of Regents to meet with and formally recognize its LGBTQ student group, Gamma Alpha Upsilon, the students finally received a response from University President Linda Livingstone, but it wasn’t the one that they had hoped for, according to Hayden Evans, a second-year graduate student, outreach chair and treasurer for the group.

In a letter addressed to the university community on Aug. 27, Livingstone stated that “Baylor is committed to providing a loving and caring community for all students — including our LGBTQ students.”

But Livingstone pointed to the university’s newly launched webpage, which includes its human sexuality statement and sexual conduct policy in the hope of conveying the “university’s values and expectations.”

The statement notes that “the university affirms the biblical understanding of sexuality as a gift from God” and that “Christian churches across the ages and around the world have affirmed purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman as the biblical norm.” Its sexual conduct policy also states that it is “expected that Baylor students will not participate in advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching,” which include “heterosexual sex outside of marriage and homosexual behavior.”

Livingstone further emphasized that the university is in compliance with Title IX as well as state and federal regulations in terms of the services and support it provides for LGBTQ students. read more… 

Baylor president's statement on LGBTQ issues stops short of student demands

Waco Tribune | Rhiannon Saegert | August 28, 2019

“Dialogue is part of academic life and can be useful. At the end of the day, this is an effort about real people who are in the Baylor family living their lives as dialogue about their civil rights is happening around them. Until all members of the Baylor family, including LGBTQ+ people, are afforded equal opportunities to participate fully in campus life and included in the dialogue, our work is not done. We and thousands of others look forward to helping Baylor move forward and urge it to adopt policies that are in line with its academic and athletic peers.” - BU Bears for All Founders

Baylor University President Linda Livingstone announced this week that the university will take steps to better support LGBTQ students, but recognizing unofficial LGBTQ student groups is not part of the plan. 

In an email Tuesday to students, faculty and staff, Livingstone stated Baylor students will not face disciplinary action for their sexual identity, and said that Baylor counselors do not practice or condone so-called conversion or reparative therapy to change their orientation.

Baylor officials have faced pressure in recent months from students and alumni who have petitioned them to recognize LGBTQ student organizations, and Baylor regents discussed related issues at a retreat this summer.

“During the course of these conversations, it has become evident to us that there are many misperceptions regarding Baylor’s stance on human sexuality and that there is more we can do to support our LGBTQ students,” Livingstone said in the statement Tuesday.

Baylor’s website now contains a page stating the university's LGBTQ resources are  compliant with Title IX, the federal law that bars gender discrimination on campus. The page states that students are not expelled or disciplined for same-sex attraction. In a frequently asked questions section, the site reiterates Baylor's official statement on human sexuality, which reads:

“The University affirms the biblical understanding of sexuality as a gift from God. Christian churches across the ages and around the world have affirmed purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman as the biblical norm.” 

The page also states LGBTQ students seeking community support can find it through Baylor's counseling center, Baylor's Bias Response Team or the Department of Spiritual Life. 

“With this said, we understand that we must do more to demonstrate love and support for our students who identify as LGBTQ,” Livingstone's statement continues. “A common theme emerging from all of the aforementioned conversations is the need for us to provide more robust and more specific training for students, faculty and staff in loving, caring for and supporting our LGBTQ students.”

"We wish to point out that they have continued to ignore our requests and refuse to talk with us about the issues we face as LGBTQ+ students," they stated. "We have clearly outlined what issues we have found, in the petition written in April, that we wish to be addressed. In the email, the president has expressed interest in continuing the conversation and we would greatly appreciate the ability to establish this dialogue with her and other Baylor administration."

Kyle Desrosiers, a Baylor student who wrote about the issue in a Tribune-Herald guest column, called the statement a “callous lack of action.” read more…

Today’s Featured Article:

Baylor President releases"human sexuality statement" ahead of fall semester

KCEN | Paris Jones | Aug. 27, 2019

Livingstone began her statement emphasizing Baylor's commitment to all students.

"Let me be crystal clear: Baylor is committed to providing a loving and caring community for all students – including our LGBTQ students," Livingstone wrote.

She then announced the launch of Baylor's Human Sexuality Statement web page, which includes the university's unchanged statement on sexuality under the sexuality policy. 

The statement calls both "homosexual behavior" and sex outside of heterosexual marriage "temptations to deviate" from the biblical norms of "purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman."

The statement also says Baylor students will not be part of groups promoting ideas that go against those norms.

"It is expected that Baylor students will not participate in advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching," the statement reads.

Livingstone said the university remains in compliance with anti-discrimination laws. read more…

Baylor President: "We Need To Establish Trust With our LGBTQ Students

KWTX, Aug. 27, 2019

While Baylor’s policy affirming “singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman as the biblical norm” remains unchanged, the school “is committed to providing a loving and caring community for all students – including our LGBTQ students," university President Dr. Linda Livingstone said in a letter to students and faculty and staff Tuesday.

The letter comes as the unofficial LBGTQ group, Gamma Alpha Upsilon, tries again to win an official charter, which the student newspaper, The Baylor Lariat, reports, would allow the organization to rent Student Union Building rooms for meetings and to advertise on campus.

“Beginning in summer 2018, the University initiated conversations about how we could better support all under-represented students on our campus, including those who identify as LGBTQ,” Livingstone said in the letter.

“During the course of these conversations, it has become evident to us that there are many misperceptions regarding Baylor’s stance on human sexuality and that there is more we can do to support our LGBTQ students,” she wrote. read more…

New Web Page Affirms University Stance on Human Sexuality

Baylor Lariat | Matthew Muir | Aug. 28, 2019

Baylor University President Linda Livingstone voiced Baylor’s support for LGBTQ students but left university policy unchanged in a statement reaffirming the university’s views on human sexuality on Tuesday.

Baylor’s official stance affirms the school’s biblical view on human sexuality, including the view of both “heterosexual sex outside of marriage and homosexual behavior” as deviations from the norm. In the statement sent via email to students, faculty and staff yesterday, Livingstone responded to “an increased number of questions” regarding Baylor’s positions on sexuality and LGBTQ issues with a new web page on the Baylor website answering frequently-asked questions.

In her statement, Livingstone also said Baylor “must do more to demonstrate love and support for our students who identify as LGBTQ,” though no policy changes were announced. read more…

LGBTQ group sets sights on official charter

Baylor Lariat | Carson Lewis | August 23, 2019

The group is composed of Baylor students, has a president and officer positions and meets weekly for group activities. It functions in the same way as many Baylor clubs with activities like discussions and bowling nights. But this group of students can’t claim to have what other organizations have: an official charter from the university. That’s what they want to change.

Gamma Alpha Upsilon (ΓAY), an unofficial LGBTQ group on campus, is looking to the new semester with hopes of becoming an official chartered organization. Formerly known as SIF (Sexual Identity Forum), Gamma has functioned on campus since 2011 as an independent group with the purpose of giving a home to LGBTQ Baylor students and allies.

Members in the group expressed their appreciation and surprise last year from the support given to a letter sent by three Baylor alumni to administration which proposed acceptance for LGBTQ groups on campus. read more…

LGBTQ furor at Baylor at heart of Title IX law

Waco Tribune | Kyle Desrosiers - Guest Columnist | August 3, 2019

Over the past few months, thousands of people connected to Baylor University have called on Baylor’s leadership to reverse policies that deprive LGBTQ students of official recognition, protection and inclusion. Calls for change intensified this past spring after Baylor officials permitted flyers with inflammatory images aimed at LGBTQ people to be posted throughout campus while, at the same time, depriving LGBTQ students of any campus resources, official student organizations or support systems.

With the fall semester on the horizon, many Baylor students such as myself waited in eager anticipation as the Baylor Board of Regents met in Dallas last month at its annual retreat. In light of continued scrutiny regarding Baylor’s Title IX compliance and with a groundswell of alumni, students, faculty and faith leaders calling on the university to stop discriminating against LGBTQ students, would Baylor University’s leadership finally scuttle its discriminatory policies? Would it — as a group of Baylor students requested earlier this summer — at a minimum issue a statement denouncing conversion or reparative therapy on its campus?

Sadly, the answer turned out to be a resounding “no.” read more…

Students ask Big 12, NCAA to examine Baylor’s LGBT policies

Waco Tribune | Rhiannon Saegert | August 2, 2019

Baylor students have written letters to both the Big 12 Conference and the NCAA, asking the organizations to evaluate the university’s treatment of LGBTQ students.

“We write to you as current LGBTQ+ and allied Baylor University students and recent graduates who have been engaged in efforts to ensure that Baylor University’s campus is safe, secure, and hospitable to LGBTQ+ students,” both letters begin.

The authors of the letters include members of Gamma Alpha Upsilon, an unofficial student group that has been seeking recognition from the university since last year, as well as other current students and recent graduates.

“In recent months, LGBTQ+ students have faced particular targeting and harassment on Baylor’s campus, leading thousands of people with connections to Baylor University — alumni, students, parents, current and former faculty members, former trustees, ministers, and faith leaders — to ask that the university reverse its course of discrimination against LGBTQ+ students,” the letters state. read more…

Emerging Voices | Baylor Loves LGBTQ+ Students – To a Point

Ethics Daily | Madeline Sneed | July 11, 2019

The Baylor University community is divided over inclusion for LGBTQ+ students on campus.

Two petitions have come out of the conflict: one favors preserving Baylor’s nonaffirming stance of LGBTQ student groups with 110 signatures; the other asks Baylor to recognize LGBTQ student groups and to allow them to meet on campus with more than 3,200 signatures.

In response to the outpouring of support from the Baylor community for LGBTQ students, the Texas Tribune reported that Lori Fogleman, assistant vice president for media and public relations, said “the 3,200 signatures represent about 2% of the school’s students, faculty, staff and living alumni.” read more…

Alivia Stehlik, guest columnist: Baylor University should allow students to be public about identities

Waco Tribune | Alivia Stehlik | July 8, 2019

When I was first accepted into the US Army – Baylor University Doctoral Program in Physical Therapy, it didn’t really matter to me that my degree would be from Baylor. I was more concerned about staying in the Army and caring for soldiers. However, over the last three years, far more people have asked me about being a Baylor Bear than about being a cadet at West Point.

Now, I’m proud of being a Baylor alumna, even waking up in the wee hours of the morning or staying up late into the night in Afghanistan to watch Baylor play. I’m grateful for the conversations it has started and the friendships it has granted with a host of intelligent, driven, passionate, caring people whom I otherwise would not have met. read more…

Paige Hardy graduated from Baylor with a religion and journalism major last week. In Ethics Daily, she writes about her experience as a sexual assault survivor and now as an advocate and ally for LGBTQ+ inclusion at Baylor and how the two experiences are related. Read her article here:

When You Need Christ's Love, Leave It To The Samaritans

From the News Room: