GFU Students Participate in Nationwide Walkout

Reported By: Benny Schorie

Photo Credit: thereap.org

On Oct 11, the Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP) and the Black Menaces led a nationwide walkout under the name “StrikeOutQueerphobia” at over 50 universities and colleges to protest Title IX exemptions given to religious schools over LGBTQIA+ discrimination.

According to REAP’s website, it “empowers queer, trans and non-binary students at more than 200 taxpayer-funded religious schools that actively discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.” Part of REAP’s activism is an ongoing lawsuit against the Department of Education, representing over forty students and alumni from dozens of religious universities. Two of the plaintiffs went to George Fox University (GFU) and the director of REAP, Paul Southwick, is a GFU alumnus. 

To bring awareness to the lawsuit, REAP partnered with the Black Menaces, a popular Tik Tok account run by Black students from Brigham Young University, to organize walkouts at colleges across the nation. According to the StrikeOutQueerphobia Instagram, the goals of the walkout were to “demand LGBTQIA+ equality at all federally funded schools …demand access, support, and education … [and] full inclusion.” Students from GFU participated on campus to protest the Title IX exemptions GFU receives. 

Along with the goals of REAP as a whole, LGBTQIA+ students at GFU also expressed their needs for on-campus queer communities, equitable housing for trans and gender nonconforming people, gender and sexuality training for staff and faculty, to rehire a Director of Human Sexuality, end hiring discrimination, and stop rejecting applicants with affirming theology; these were read aloud at the student rally.

REAP started a petition to earn federal recognition for their demand of “ending the legal discrimination of LGBTQIA+ students and employees at taxpayer funded, faith-based colleges and universities across the United States of America.”