Over the past month, I have been honored to speak at two events in the spirit of inclusivity which have been labeled “sit-ins” to denote an important aspect of these demonstrations: minorities on Baylor’s campus are not going anywhere, and we will speak up even at the cost of making others uncomfortable.

This past semester I have been blessed to take part in a Biblical Heritage course taught by one of my favorite professors I have ever had at this university: Dr. Mike Whitenton. From the first day of my freshman year in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core course World of Rhetoric I, where I met two of my dearest lifelong friends, to my senior year, Dr. Whitenton has been not only a mentor and a role model, but a confidant and inspiration. I could speak in lengths about him, and the course I have been taking this semester has given me all the more reason. “Biblical Heritage and Contemporary Ethical Issues: Interfaith Cooperation.” I had no idea how greatly this class would alter how I practice political discourse and my thought processes; I simply wanted to close out my time in the BIC with my favorite professor. To summarize the course, we will be looking at all different faith traditions and ways groups with differences on ultimate concerns can cooperate in society. Baylor is a society, a small private Southern Baptist society, but one nonetheless.

Looking back on my senior year of high school and that Brittany’s brainwashed love for this university, I did not realize the extent of Baylor’s conservative Baptist position. I knew that I would be attending Chapel my freshman year, there would be classes I would have to take where I’d have to read the Bible, which for someone who did not grow up in organized religion but was raised Christian/Lutheran would be new, and that the general atmosphere on campus would be Conservative Christian. I did not however research the university’s Statement on Human Sexuality which states:

“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.“

Statement on Human Sexuality, Baylor University

I did not know that the university’s conservatism would apply so far as to block students of non-Christian faiths to be barred from being Community Leaders (Residential Advisors in the dorms), Line Camp Leaders, Student Regents, and from even creating a “Muslim Student Association” or “Jewish Student Association.” We do not have those student organizations here. However, Baylor loves to prop up their religious diversity during that first Chapel with PowerPoints and graphs dictating statistics of the religions students practice.

Obviously, as this Statement connects with me is that I am part of the LGBTQIA+ community. I have memories of my bisexuality being part of my identity from an extremely young age. In Middle School I found pride in allyship to the queer community, and around 14 or 15 started identifying as bisexual (I did use the term pansexual when I first came out but later found “bisexual” more comfortable to me). Here at Baylor I was ushered into the then Sexual Identity Forum, or SIF, which was the only unofficial/official LGBTQIA+ club or student group on campus, period. Now called Gamma Alpha Upsilon (ΓAY), multiple transformations of this group have been fighting for chartership and regonition by the university for almost a decade. We have made strides recently, with the passing of the “No Crying on Sunday’s” resolution by the Student Senate that proposes amending the Statement to allow student groups to be chartered, even if they do “promote” “homosexual behavior.” The Faculty Senate as well voted overwhelmingly in our favor to charter Gamma Alpha Upsilon. It is the Baylor administration, headed by the Baylor Board of Regents, to make the final decision.

The first event at Moody Library was created after a security guard called the police on Black students studying in the Moody Garden level, a space designated for group work and does not have a noise limit. I have personally been at Moody with people screaming, having full on meals, doing cartwheels, and general all-nighter energy, not once have I seen the police called. This was also after a former Baylor professor who is currently still involved with the university but not on the pay-roll made a tweet about Biden’s Executive Order on trans and LGBTQIA+ equality that is dismissive of the trans experience and anti-trans. For more information, please refer to this post I created for the Gamma instagram breaking down how and why this tweet is anti-trans.

The second event comes at the end of Black History Month. Students on campus have been calling for the removal or moving of the Judge Baylor statue that sits in a prominent location on campus. Volunteers from the student body sat in front of the statue during the month in an effort to engage in conversations, highlighting that Judge Baylor was not only a slave-owner with at least 20 enslaved persons, but as a judge sentenced Black enslaved persons to death, and turned the Baylor campus in Waco into a “training and staging grounds for the Confederate Army.” Baylor’s page on The Naming of Baylor just gives him accolades and the only mention of the Confederacy is calling Judge Baylor a “Confederate congressman.” It also calls him a “noted Indian fighter” which I really believe should not be praised, especially in this terminology.

With all of this in play, I present my two speeches: first was at the Moody Library Sit In and the second at the Diversity and Inclusivity event. Granted this is not going to be verbatim, and some of my unwritten tangents from physically giving the speech have not been included, but there’s a lot of good in it.

1) Disappointed but not surprised: Moody Library

Hi my name is Brit LaVergne and I am here to represent Gamma Alpha Upsilon, the unofficial official LGBTQIA+ group here at Baylor. I say unofficial official because for the last 10 years, different evolutions of Gamma have asked the university to charter our organization. Time and time again we are given the response that they love us and support us, but will not charter us because we promote ideas that delineate from the universities Statement on Human Sexuality. That chartering us would therefore mean promoting homosexuality and other ideas about sexuality that are against the teachings of the Bible.

Basically: Sorry, we think you all are sinners and you do not deserve an equal place here.

The most frustrating part of this response is the lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, transgender, non-binary, and otherwise queer persons whom I talk to everyday do not feel love nor supported. They sometimes do not even feel safe here. From being called slurs in broad day light to threatening messages, and a culture of prejudice that can be felt when they walk onto this campus. 

Recently a lecturer made comments on Twitter concerning trans people that caused a lot of controversy. When trans and nonbinary students expressed how they would feel unsafe and unwelcome in this lecturers classroom, some of the responses were extremely dismissive of the real fears queer people live with. There were comments and a Lariat op-ed written about the importance of civil discourse and free speech issues, and a belief that students were calling for action after this incident simply because “we did not agree”.

The lecturer posted on her Instagram story various emails of support and gifts people sent her. She recorded a whole video of herself saying how hard it has been in the aftermath of posting the tweet along with promotions of the podcasts she was invited to speak on. Someone sent her Tiff’s Treats cookies to get through this. I’m sorry, but trans people don’t get cookies when they’re insulted and oppressed. I’ve been called a dyke on this campus, where’s my cookie?

How does repeatedly denying a group charter contribute to Baylor placing “a high priority on creating and fostering a community that people from all backgrounds will find welcoming and supportive.” I can promise you that with all the direct messages Gamma has been receiving on Twitter and Instagram that there is a large population at Baylor that does not feel welcomed nor supported. 

We have been told how we must be open to dialogue, be exposed to differing views, and attempt to learn from one another. How does that work when the only representation a minority group has is not allowed to be recognized or given an equal place at the table?

There have been comments that show there are other professors and faculty who have yet to have a conversation with a transgender or non-binary person. Safety is not a game to the queer community, especially for our trans siblings, whose likelihood to die from murder skyrockets. According to Forbes, three hundred fifty transgender people were killed in 2020, and a fifth of those people were murdered inside their own homes.

The lecturer’s remarks have been deemed anti-trans because her phrasing and continued rhetoric of emphasizing the “biological” sex denies trans people’s identity. Gamma has an informative post about the specifics on our Instagram and Twitter, and as always are open to more discussion.

Most of the concerns have been about avoiding taking classes with professors with similar sentiments regarding transgender and non-binary rights. We do not want professors to feel like they have to censor themselves online or in any discussions; it makes it a lot easier to make a list for our queer students of professors they should not take. These are daily occurrences for trans people, enforced by rhetoric that focuses on differentiating transgender people based on anatomical sex characteristics. 

I see her concern; I honestly do. The fear of being assaulted, abused or attacked that women live with every day is not foreign. I worry about myself, my friends, and my family of all ages, hoping they do not have a traumatizing experience. Every LGBTQIA+ person lives with this fear in the same way.

The inability, or the lack of trying, to see that trans people and cis-women have the same fears and the same concerns, is where the issue lies. This is not to say all groups involved have all the same concerns, but there is so much more we can do together. 

So I ask Baylor: how is the LGBTQIA+ community at Baylor not open to civil discourse? Not the outliers who responded with rage or immediate calls for dismissal, but Gamma. For over a decade, Gamma has asked for that exact right: to be formally recognized by this university. 

We want an equal position on this campus to be able to provide for Baylor’s LGBTQIA+ students in a way that is unthinkable to them at the moment: with acceptance. We aren’t here to change everyone’s minds on the Bible, however I do suggest looking into how translations of the Bible in Leviticus was originally supposed to be “man should not lie with boy” in reference to pre-pubescent boys, not grown adults in consensual relationships.

We want to be able to have these conversations about the queer community and the intersections with race, class, religion, ability, citizenship status, and other identities. We can only do that if we are officially recognized.

2) As Jesus invited anyone and everyone to his table, Baylor should as well.

Hi my name is Brit LaVergne and I am a Senior History Pre-Law major in the BIC. I am also on the board for Baylor’s only official unofficial LGBTQIA+ group at Baylor, Gamma Alpha Upsilon, which has been denied chartership in its various forms for around a decade. 

Baylor’s reasoning for why we cannot be recognized as an official organization on this campus is because of a little something called their “Statement on Human Sexuality” that states that student groups are expected not to promote ideas that are contrary to the Bibles teachings on sexuality, and it explicitly states homosexual behavior as one of them.

I’m a bisexual woman. I am a member of the queer community. And I am so proud of it. I am proud of everything Gamma Alpha Upsilon has done and will continue to do for queer students on this campus regardless of whether or not Baylor officially recognizes us. 

The sit in today is titled “Diversity and Inclusivity” a calling to all students of all religious, racial, ethnic, national, cultural backgrounds and, like myself, students who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community to come together.

A healthy religiously diverse democracy is “a place where people who disagree on matters of ultimate concerns can make those personal convictions public” where “people have to be able to disagree on some fundamental things but be able work together on other fundamental things.”

Eboo Patel, Interfaith Youth Core, “Sacred Ground: Interfaith Leadership in the 21st Century”

Eboo Patel, author, educator, and founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, an international nonprofit that aims to promote interfaith cooperation, gave a speech on his ideas on how to promote something called a healthy religiously diverse democracy and how it can be created. As a part of President Obama’s Inaugural interfaith council he helped promote this on a national scale, but I want to take something from his teachings that I feel can apply here at Baylor.

A healthy religiously diverse democracy is “a place where people who disagree on matters of ultimate concerns can make those personal convictions public” and where “people have to be able to disagree on some fundamental things but be able work together on other fundamental things.” (More info)

After applying this idea to the current situations at Baylor, the question can be asked: How can students and faculty of different faith traditions work together to cultivate an inclusive learning environment for all while still allowing those fundamental differences to coexist? 

The part that has not been included for how Baylor attempts to foster unity is allowing personal convictions to be expressed and validated on an equal level. Hindu students cannot create a Hindu Student Association because they are not Christian. Muslim students are not allowed to become Community Leaders because they are not Christian. Jewish, agnostic, Buddhist or any other non-Christian students cannot be Line Camp Leaders because of the same reason. 

As Jesus invited anyone and everyone to his table, Baylor should as well. 

And LGBTQIA+ students are barred from officially organizing, meaning we cannot bring guest speakers to campus, it was only last year that Baylor allowed us to reserve a room on campus which is a “privilege” reserved for student orgs, and we do not have a place at Late Night to let new students who are queer know they are not alone.

We can build barriers and bubbles and isolate our campus and students from ideas that do not consistently line up with the Bible. Or we can build bridges, which for Patel requires an appreciative knowledge of other religions  and groups. That requires all of us to get to know different religious faiths and cultural backgrounds and to have conversations with people from all backgrounds on an equal playing field.

I believe Baylor is in an extremely unique position as a Baptist university to prepare their students for difficult conversations and to be able to see those conversations as not an obstacle or an attack on their personal faiths, but an opportunity to actively practice their faith tradition. Recently, secular universities have been becoming more and more hostile to Christian groups because they see them as fearful and backwards. Baylor repeatedly reinforces these stereotypes by not allowing students of other religions the same privileges on this campus as Christian students and fully barring LGBTQIA+ students from creating a safe environment for ourselves. 

Baylor has an opportunity to demonstrate that Christianity is not fearful, that it can be open to rigorous academic discussion around complex social issues with people of countless backgrounds and invite people to have discourse. The best way to demonstrate Christianity is to be open to academic dialogue.  As Jesus invited anyone and everyone to his table, Baylor should as well. These conversations do not always have to surround our differences; they can be about anything and everything to find commonalities and build connections with people. 

Every Baylor graduate is going to go into diverse and pluralistic societies and will have to engage with people with deep religious and cultural differences, and practicing these skills in an Christian environment is the best way to prepare students. By denying non-Christian students certain privileges and student groups from officially organizing, Baylor is sheltering their cis-white, straight Christian students from reality. And when they leave here they will not be prepared. 

After hearing all these speeches and stories today, and looking at an audience of diverse backgrounds, I see that there are many more people who agree with or at least generally support creating an inclusive and pluralistic community at Baylor. 

While this university perplexes me and tempts me to go on twitter rants on the daily because of their decisions and inaction, I have never regretted coming here because of the individuals I have met during my four years here. It is because of the education that I have received at Baylor and in the BIC that I fight for my siblings in the queer community and other minority groups. It would be disingenuous to not credit the professors and programs who have helped me get here. 

Part of that love is believing this university can be so much better at providing a fulfilling and well-rounded education to all their students of all faith traditions, races, cultural backgrounds, and sexual and gender identities. So, Baylor do better.

Thank you. 

Final Thoughts

I truly think Baylor is not only lagging behind the times concerning equality on this campus, but also in their ability to provide the best for all their students. Barring certain groups of students from positions on this campus not only disenfranchises members of minority groups, but cheats the “normal” Baylor student out of the ability to interact with people they fundamentally disagree with on an equal field. Their policies enable the most intolerant members of the student body to believe in their superiority because they are cis-straight white and Christian, and nothing the University does challenges that. It allows white boys in trucks to rev their engines and whoop and yell at Black students walking by campus. It allows security guards to make racially insensitive comments about a library not being a “basketball arena,” as if these college students are unaware. It allows me to hear passing comments about “f*ggots” and how “that’s not where she’s from from you know?” It allows professors to write, edit, and publish op-eds diminishing student concerns about their safety in the same breath that they underestimate queer Baylor students’ intellectual capacity. It allows provosts to proclaim “civil discourse” while actively banning certain students an equal place at the table.

I wrote another piece specifically concerning the tweet incident, the responding op-ed’s, and statements around the issue that I incorporated into my first speech. Hopefully I can add it somewhere soon, but a lot of my initial anger I felt when writing it has subsided, and in its place I feel a push to engage in conversations.

If you have made it this far, I thank you. I ask that you engage in conversations, even if you agree with everything I have written. Listen to what people are saying more than how they are saying it. Put down barriers of ego and defensiveness and instead build bridges of empathy and understanding. Even with people who do not show empathy towards yourself.