A longtime BYU profsor out as gay and retir early om the Provo school owned by The Church of J Christ of Latter-day Sats.
Contents:
- 'TRMATIC WHIPLASH': BYU'S U-TURN ON HOMOSEXUALY A BLOW TO GAY STUNTS
- A WALK HIS SHO: A BYU PROFSOR’S LIFE AS A GAY LATTER-DAY SAT
- WHEN IT NO LONGER FEELS SAFE TO BE GAY ON BYU CAMP
- IT WAS 'HARD BEG GAY' AT BYU. BUT AT GRADUATN A STUNT SHOWED HER 'TE LORS' BY FLASHG A LGBTQ FLAG.
'TRMATIC WHIPLASH': BYU'S U-TURN ON HOMOSEXUALY A BLOW TO GAY STUNTS
19 to remove a clse prohibg "all forms of physil timacy that give exprsn to homosexual feelgs.
While stunts have been allowed to openly intify as gay sce 2007, they have long been banned om beg same-sex relatnships.
Current and former BYU stunts told NBC News that they had spoken to universy admistrators after the was updated and nfirmed that as long as gay upl also followed the le of chasty and didn't have sex outsi a heterosexual marriage, they uld openly date and show a Q&A wh the director of the Honor Co Office, Kev Utt, which was published Wednday on the school's webse, Utt emphasized that "any same-sex romantic behavr is a vlatn of the prcipl of the Honor Co" and was still prohibed. If I had stayed at BYU, I would have been one of those statistics, " she still attends church to serve as a role mol for other young gay Mormons.
A WALK HIS SHO: A BYU PROFSOR’S LIFE AS A GAY LATTER-DAY SAT
"The handbook allows gay men to serve senr church rol, but ultimately asks LGBTQ members to rema chaste, emphasizg that sex mt be rerved for heterosexual BYU still asks stunts to "enurage" others to ply wh the school's Honor Co, "enurage is not synonymo wh 'turn someone , '" Utt said his Q&A on the school's webse. Some openly rried handguns and others were rryg “God hat gays” signs and yellg, “There are no gays heaven. It was this way to physilly embody and refute the claims that God hat gay people, ” said Maddison Tenney, a 23-year-old BYU stunt and one of the anizers of the event.
In a survey sent to BYU stunts Sprg 2021, about 8% of the 13, 451 stunts who pleted the survey intified themselv as beg gay or lbian, bisexual or of another sexual orientatn. Tenney said faculty and staff members advote for queer stunts and stand up for them if someone says somethg homophobic class. Siar angel wgs have been ed a number of tim sce 1999 when Romae Patterson created them as a peaceful sign to ph back agast hate and to honor Matthew Shepard, a gay llege stunt who was beaten to ath Wyomg an attack that sent wav throughout the natn.
WHEN IT NO LONGER FEELS SAFE TO BE GAY ON BYU CAMP
Stunts n be punished for holdg hands or kissg someone of the same sex, harsher disciple than that faced by heterosexual upl at the school operated by The Church of J Christ of Latter-day removed s wrten ban on “homosexual behavr, ” early 2020, promptg stunts to publicly e out as members of the LGBTQ muny. If Ben is gog to do somethg, he is gog to do 100% to the end, ” Buzz a BYU Honor Co Admistrator, Ben tak this same 100% attu livg his life as a gay, active member of The Church of J Christ of Latter-day Sats.
”Wrg a Book: ‘A Walk My Sho’Ben shar his story of beg both gay and an active Latter-day Sat his new book, “A Walk In My Sho: Qutns I’m Often Asked as a Gay Latter-day Sat. Ma Margraf, a bisexual gymnast, said she heard an anti-gay slur at BYU for the first time the summer of 2021, when she was a newly enrolled hman at the Mormon school Provo, Utah, and a r wh two BYU baseball drove past a church where people were wavg the pri flag and holdg posters support of gay rights, acrdg to Margraf, who said the scene prompted one of the baseball players to act. I love gay people, but ’s so funny to make fun of them.
IT WAS 'HARD BEG GAY' AT BYU. BUT AT GRADUATN A STUNT SHOWED HER 'TE LORS' BY FLASHG A LGBTQ FLAG.
’ ”Margraf, now a 19-year-old sophomore who had e out as bisexual earlier that year, said at least one of the baseball players also ed the N-word. ”Sce the cint, Margraf said, she has heard another BYU athlete e an anti-gay slur public. BYU said s vtigatn unvered no evince rroboratg the allegatns, but about five weeks later, members of the Universy of Southern California women's soccer team ma siar than two weeks after the volleyball match, BYU stunts were among protters who yelled homophobic slurs at LGBTQ stunts durg an off-mp gatherg, acrdg to an Associated Prs report and other media outlets.
“BYU is a place where any sort of margalizatn jt gets exacerbated, ’’ said Charlie Siraga, a gay volleyball player who played at BYU om 2017 to 2019. Siraga, who after his sophomore year transferred to the Universy of California, San Diego, and has graduated, also told USA TODAY Sports, "So much of what occurs (at BYU) is jt like vert homophobia or racism. In addn to Margraf, three gay former BYU athlet spoke to USA TODAY her hman year, Margraf said, she had "full fah'' the athletic partment was tryg to foster change when held trag that addrsed cln and diversy.
But on the day the vio was rerd, Margraf said, a school official told her she uldn’t say the word “gay. "It’s te that this vio did not end up gettg posted, but was not bee of the e of the word 'gay, ' " BYU Athletics said a rpond to the dichotomy of a mp where LGBTQ romantic behavr is forbidn but Margraf was asked to rerd a vio about the clive environment at the school, sayg a statement, "All stunts at BYU have a shared primary inty as sons and dghters of God.