In a statement last month, Cedric Davis, chair of the SPU board, described the decision to keep the rule as a “thorough and prayerful deliberation”. And it’s like, where is it?”ĭuff, who grew up in Maryland in a church that supported the LGBTQ+ community, said she hadn’t been aware of the policy when she enrolled at the university. “You talk about being ecumenical, being so diverse.
“You’re going to charge me thousands of dollars every quarter to come here and to get an education, but you’re not going to provide me the education that I deserve as a queer person by having queer staff and faculty?” asked Leah Duff, 22, who has been camped out at the sit-in nearly every day. The policy, students argue, is blatantly discriminatory and leaves the campus’s LGBTQ+ community without the support and mentorship they need. Scanlan was one of several alumni who had returned to the administration building to show solidarity with the dozens of students who had been camped out in the hallway. It was the 14th day of a sit-in over the university’s policy prohibiting employee same-sex sexual activity. “There are people in my community that recognize I exist.” But the lecture had helped Scanlan, who described themself at the time as a closeted trans non-binary person, finally start to realize an important fact: There had been no talk of being transgender or intersex, Scanlan recalled to the group of current LGBTQ+ students.
