BYU students organized a large Pride march despite their Mormon school’s anti-LGBTQ policies / LGBTQ Nation

Numerous students from Brigham Young University (BYU) – the anti-LGBTQ Mormon university in Provo, Utah – organized an unofficial BYU Pride march late last month despite the school’s ban on same-sex romantic behavior.

While the actual student organizers of the march remained anonymous, over 1,000 people attended the march, including current and former BYU students, they reported. Their signs supposedly said: “All are equal to God” and “You are loved”. An Instagram account for the march also appeared, and supporters of the march have announced that they will repeat the event next year.

See Also: Report: Brigham Young University Punishes Gay Rape Victims, Not Rapists

“At BYU we are still living with residual institutionalized homophobia, which successfully turns us against each other,” said a post on June 25 on the BYU Pride Instagram post. “Now it is our turn to unite as a family to make BYU an inviting place for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or religious position.”

Among the protesters’ demands, they want BYU to issue a statement reaffirming its support for LGBTQ students and amending the school’s code of ethics to end discrimination against LGBTQ couples. The protesters also want the school to devote more resources to LGBTQ students, including allowing LGBTQ clubs and events to take place on campus.

“Although the future we are asking for may seem unrealistic, BYU has come a long way to support our community,” the Instagram post continued.

The statement said BYU recently “removed hateful language from its policies” [and] … was tolerant of some demonstrations, ”but the school’s anti-LGBTQ antagonism has a long and persistent history.

On February 19, 2020, the school revised its student code of honor to remove a clause prohibiting “all forms of physical intimacy that express homosexual feelings”. Two weeks later, however, the Director of the Code of Ethics Bureau, Kevin Utt, clarified that the Code still forbade “any same-sex romantic behavior is a violation of the principles of the Code of Ethics.”

In March, students lit the BYU sign in rainbow colors to show their support for LGBTQ equality. The school quickly condemned the complaint, saying it was against their guidelines.

A Brief History of BYU’s Anti-LGBTQ Policies

From 1959 to the mid-1990s, the school ran “aversion therapy” programs designed to “cure” homosexuality. The programs administered vomiting drugs or electric shocks to the arms or genitals and showed them same-sex pornographic images.

In 1962 the school officially banned gay students because they feared they might “contaminate” other students. In the mid and late 1970s, the school’s security chief installed listening devices, fake gay ads in local newspapers, and monitored local gay bars to detect gay students.

From 1976 to 1985 the school had a “value institute” specifically designed to promote anti-gay scholarships. Then, in the late 1990s, the school banned “homosexual behavior” in its code of ethics and went so far as to prohibit “regular contact with gay men”. In 2000, the school kicked out 13 students who were caught watching the groundbreaking gay television series Queer As Folk.

In 2011, the Code of Ethics also banned homosexual advocacy, defined as “seeking to influence others about homosexual behavior or promoting homosexual relationships as morally acceptable”. The ban sounds very much like Russia’s law, which forbids any “homosexual propaganda”.

Although the school’s policy does not specifically mention transgender students, through 2017 faculty members were advised that women with shaved heads or men with makeup should be reported for violating the code of honor.

BYU gay students have committed suicide throughout the history of the school.