If you have not already heard, yesterday several LGBTQ student organizations (all of which are unofficial–there is no University-sponsored or approved LGBTQ student group on campus) announced that a BYU administrator (not yet identified) removed and destroyed 5,000 booklets that the organizations had prepared to include in new student orientation bags for incoming freshmen. This was despite the student groups’ having a contract for the distribution and having spent $2,000 printing and 350 hours assembling the booklets. While they received a refund, their greater concern is that the pamphlets won’t be available to incoming freshmen. (And, of course, “time” cannot be refunded.)
While the Tribune article linked above provides a good overview, you can read the groups’ statement about the issue here:
And see the pamphlet itself here:
Carrie Jenkins, who other than whoever is writing the Church’s PR about sex abuse has the worst job ever, said the decision was made because the materials came from “an outside group” and the University wants instead to “provide support through the Office of Belonging and our counseling services and not to allow outside entities to imply affiliation with or endorsement from the university.” Well, that’s convenient because, as noted, there are no official BYU groups focused on LGBTQ allyship or support–BYU won’t allow them.
I must admit I can understand why the University didn’t want to put third-party resources in student materials–particularly when those resources included resources for funding to transfer away from BYU. (A cause I wholeheartedly support and have donated to.) Still, I decided to look into what resources or support are being provided to queer students by the Office of Belonging.
The answer is “none.”
This didn’t take long to figure out, because there just isn’t much on the Office’s website at all. In sum total, there is:
- A statement on belonging that basically says everyone should be loving to each other.
- The option to make an appointment with “a belonging advisor.” The office does not have a physical space yet.
- A biography of the Office’s director, who has worked on racial issues (excellent!) but not LGBTQ issues.
- A link to President’s Nelson’s May 2022 devotional, where he spoke about the importance of not letting labels or identities become more important than our identities as a “child of God” and a “child of the covenant”. This was a controversial talk among the queer community.
- A link to a 1975 talk by President Kimball about the University’s mission.
- Most perplexingly, a link to a speech and Q&A by Dallin Oaks and Clark Gilbert that underscores the need to stand up for our religious beliefs regarding “same-sex attraction,” while also stating that we should treat others with love. I literally cannot think of a worse person to put on the Office’s homepage if they’re trying to help queer students feel welcome–except, I suppose, a link to Elder Holland’s musket talk.
Under News & Events, the page lists a welcome activity as well as the University’s findings on race and equity.
That’s it. That’s all there is. So if you are an incoming queer freshman and you’re only resource is that office–good luck?
You might have better luck on individual department pages, many of which list the same (unofficial) resources as the destroyed pamphlets listed (as well as the unofficial organizations who made them). Examples are here, here, and here.
Don’t tell the administration that, though, or those departments might have to remove the pages.
8/27/22 UPDATE: A black Duke volleyball player was repeatedly called racial slurs and threatened during a game on BYU campus. While BYU says it has banned the attendee from future events, he was not removed during the event. Where you at Office of Inclusion and Belonging?!?!?
Questions:
- Do you think Jenkin’s explanation for why the University removed the pamphlets is truthful? What’s your explanation for that move?
- What do you think of the Office of Belonging’s website? Do you think it will be effective at helping LGBTQ students at BYU? If you were in charge of the Office, what would you do?
- What advice would you give to a queer student considering attending BYU?
Wheat & Tares 
There’s an “Office of Belonging”? How creepy is that.
I want to remind everyone that BYU got away with a major offense against the LGBTQ community in March of 2020 for one simple reason: COVID also kicked in March of 2020 and pushed the BYU story to the back page.
Try to remember what happened: (a) the revised BYU Honor Code no longer prohibited expressions of LGBTQ love and affection (b) the head of the BYU Honor Code Office confirms (c) LGBTQ students at BYU openly celebrate (d) the head of CES makes a clarification that the Honor Code had not changed with respect to LGBTQ expression.
This was absolutely outrageous and I’ve always wondered what kind of relationship exists between BYU and CES. But the point is, they got away with this because the timing of the “misunderstanding” could not have been
Better.
“Office of Belonging” – could they not find a less obvious example of Orwellian doublespeak? I mean they’re not even trying to hide disdain for LGBT+.
@josh h, that’s what the cover photo for this post is from.
I agree re Covid, but also, unfortunately it seems the Church and BYU have the status where – to quote a private citizen living in Florida – they could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any tithing dollars.
Hopefully this will create a Barbara Streisand effect for the information in the pamphlet.
Carrie Jenkins may have the worst job on the planet, but given how long she’s had it, I am incapable of sympathy for her. She’s the same person who claimed that there were no caffeinated drinks on campus due to lack of demand. Last time I checked, that was a bald-faced lie. Anyone who’s ever been to BYU knows it. The job is to lie on behalf of the Church and be the patsy when the lies are obvious. Protip: they are ALWAYS OBVIOUS.
The school does not want to help LGBTQ students. They don’t want people to call them homophobic, but their policies and most influential key leaders absolutely are. If I knew someone was LGBTQ and considering BYU, I would dissuade them by any means possible, but you know what? THAT’S WHAT BYU WANTS. They want to make it a place where there are no gay Mormons. Beyond that, knowing what they are, I would also dissuade anyone who isn’t a bad person/homophobic from going there.
I really did have five minutes of hope when Worthlin confirmed that LGBTQ BYU students could date so long as they remained celibate, just like straight students, but then, like Lucy with the football they quashed that hope, and it’s been a really fast downhill decline since then.
To modify a statement normally applied to white supremacists, when you openly invite homophobes, allies, and gay people into the same group, you end up with a (smaller) group of homophobes. The church is doing its level best to distill itself into just the worst people among us.
“ What advice would you give to a queer student considering attending BYU?”
To consider Southern Virginia Univ instead. LDS lite but LDS nonetheless and with enough academic heft to move you on to top grad schools. They’re just not crazy like the BYUs.
@p, interesting! I don’t know much about SVU. I guess I always assumed it was actually *more* conservative than the BYU’s but I suppose Clark Gilbert and Dallin Oaks aren’t running the show there.
It would be nice to have LDS-affiliated schools that are more like how Catholics do it. The schools can have Christian values and mission, but without actually forcing it via the honor code and faculty policing.
‘Office of Belonging ‘ sounds like it comes right out of ‘Handmaids’ tale’. Beyond creepy for european sentiments. But so does ‘covenant path’.
Am I following this correctly…
That either a) it is normal for student groups to provide literature for incoming students to be included in these packs or b) they had been invited to provide this information for the student packs…
And then having turned it over to the university for inclusion in the packs, the university then destroyed the booklets instead of returning them to the student group responsible for them?
I could take a somewhat Machiavellian view, that they knew the student group would produce something, initially appeared to be happy with including it, only to have their hands on it to destroy it.. which is probably a bit far fetched.
More likely there’s the faction that wants to be supportive, and then the faction that definitely doesn’t, the latter ultimately winning out. Either that, or someone at the top panicked that including the booklet could be seen as “promoting” by their bigoted big donors, who appear to be pulling strings…
It’s just all so depressing and exhausting, the constant games they play with people’s lives and well-being.
This is one more in a long line of disrespectful actions by the university admin against their LGBTQ+ students and faculty. It’s discouraging to see the deterioration of BYU’s probity among its peers and within its community. As much as the booklet destroyer and his like-minded pals may desire, BYU does not and cannot exist in a vacuum. This ongoing obtuseness has me thinking maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that I dropped out before graduating. It also has me feeling ashamed.
You should see the Office of Belonging for what it is—the All-Lives-Matter Office. BYU is not committed to the LGBTQ+ community. It’s not even interested in DEIA. Everyone is welcome who views their identity as a child of God. The other labels are not okay, unless of course they include conservative, Republican, Trump supporter, and member of the COJCOLDS (I’d say those who identify as Mormon are still just barely welcome).
The Church is in a period of retrenchment. I would expect to see more of this. The goal is to protect its image, cater to the most faithful, close-minded members, insist it can do no wrong, etc.
As I’ve said before, the church is not led by people who follow Christ. They claim He leads them. They claim a special connection to Him. Their actions are a complete 180 from anything He taught or did.
The “All Lives Matter” Office! Yes! That is exactly what it is.
“What advice would you give to a queer student considering attending BYU?“
Uh, that’s a Nope.
No way
No, no, no
No to the one billionth power
Hell no!
“What advice would you give to a queer student considering attending BYU?“
If you’re thinking BYU because it’s economical, get a (relatively) cheap Associates Degree at a decent community college. This knocks off most gen eds inexpensively. Then finish your major at 4 year institution
Or if you’re in UT, consider Dixie State
Or take a gap year, move to a state with a quality, cheap state school, establish residency, get in-state tuition.
Or consider a trade school
Or if you must go to BYU, immediately find a community and take advantage of the resources in the pamphlet above
But seriously, don’t do that last one
Do you think Jenkin’s explanation for why the University removed the pamphlets is truthful? What’s your explanation for that move?
Prevarication, equivocation, distortion and misdirection is present in many BYU press releases, particularly on controversial issues and especially over the past few years as it relates to LGBTQ+ issues. You don’t have to look hard to find specific examples of this (e.g., banning protests on Y mountain because it’s a “safety” issue). But what I think is really going on here is a reflection of the divide and disconnect that exists between faculty and department administrations and the university’s central administration. A family member worked for several years on an administrative team of an on campus group responsible for student success. She witnessed countless faculty and department administration staff be supportive of LGBTQ+ students in ways that put them at odds with central administration. According to her, it is fair to say BYU’s stated positions on these matters do not accurately reflect the differing views of many faculty. Enter Herr Gilbert and the crackdown through employment contracts to better control faculty behavior and speech on these issues. The church continues to take draconian actions thinking it will solve its problems. See the recent “obligation” rhetoric that is going around about males serving missions. We clearly have a broken missionary program but instead of solving the problem, the church just continues to be more and more controlling. It’s shocking to me, the retrenchment we are seeing right now.
What do you think of the Office of Belonging’s website? Do you think it will be effective at helping LGBTQ students at BYU? If you were in charge of the Office, what would you do?
The fact Elder Holland’s attack on LGBTQ+ student and their faculty supporters in his infamous “Musket Fire” talk followed the announcement of the office of belonging says it all. We have this highly anticipated announcement following serious displays of racism and homophobia at BYU, and Holland’s next move it to attack gay students and their supporters moments after Elder Worthen makes this highly anticipated announcement. This. Says. It. All. It’s safe to assume the office is a mostly unsupported office on campus, and a move made by BYU to cloak its apathy towards marginalized students.
What advice would you give to a queer student considering attending BYU?
Don’t. I highly respect Calvin Burke for the strength and courage he displayed as a high profile gay student at BYU, but I cheered when I found out he was transferring to UC Berkeley. It’s clear with recent changes to religion faculty hiring, displayed hostility towards gay students, the suspension of offering speech therapy services to transgender individuals and Holland’s open disregard for university accreditation that BYU is working to become like Liberty University, or worse, Bob Jones. My wife and I are both BYU graduates. We enjoyed our time there. None of my children have attended BYU and I’m so glad they didn’t. Why? There is so much more out there. So much more. Not just different, but much better. In fact, you don’t even need to make a grievance argument to say to a gay student–to any student–consider other options.
As Mormons we tend believe our PR. BYU is a good university, but pales in comparison to other educational experiences. My children have attended large state universities as well as top 10 ivy league universities. The qualify of their experiences exceeds my experiences at BYU. I encourage my Mormon friends to look beyond BYU, especially those with really sharp kids nearing their high school graduation. There is a beautiful world of higher education out there. One were fellow students–non-Mormon students–are full of virtues, are honest and diligent. One where faculty are at the top of their fields and who wholly dedicate themselves to their students’ success. One where morality is taught and love and care for your fellow citizen is paramount. Not only would I not recommend BYU to a gay student, I give them all the reasons to consider other, better institutions of higher learning–and the church and BYU administrators make this argument more compelling with each passing year.
I heard a few years ago that about 50% of tithing collected in Canada goes to BYU. Something about Canada Revenue Agency regulations about how charitable donations that go outside the country can qualify as deductions. Another reason why I pay tithes elsewhere.
I definitely wouldn’t recommend gay students attend BYU 😕
@hedgehog, my understanding is the groups had a contract allowing them to include the pamphlets (and in fact paid $200 to be able to include them) and then an administrator pulled out the rug. These groups tend to be quite careful with what they do with BYU and carefully follow any rules so as not to jeopardize the “unofficial” relationship or give the university excuses.
What I don’t know and would be interested in knowing is (a) whether there was ANY unofficial material included (coupons from local businesses? Materials from other local groups or student groups that aren’t BYU-sponsored) which would make this even more ridiculous and prove the excuse a lie (not that I think more evidence is needed to prove is disengenousness, as Angels has pointed out) and (b) whether there was material from official student groups and clubs (which, given that BYU will not permit there to be a queer-affirming club on campus, is also incredibly unfair to penalize them for being unofficial).
@S, an astute point!
@mtodd & big sky, all good points to share with prospective students.
I agree with Hedgehog. At least one administrator on campus wants to do better. But most likely their boss, someone over the age of 50 who is white and male, clutched their pearls and that was the end of that pamphlet.
My wife and I met at BYU. Our entire life today is a result of BYU. But we have effectively poisoned that well for our kids. They want nothing to do with the place. Which has been great for our oldest in seminary because it doesn’t matter if they graduate or not.
I often hear that BYU is such a bargain! PROTIP: It’s not. BYU is about the same price as the other Utah schools. Also, where I live in Southern California, my kids can attend community college for free then transfer to a CalState or UC school, which are required to hold spots for community college transfer students. The local CalState school is cheaper than BYU, though the local UC school is more (but less overall if our children take the community college transfer to UC school route). Despite what Mormon parents teach their kids, there are tons of viable options outside of the BYU’s to getting a quality degree in a setting that isn’t threatening to your very existence. As such, I could not in good faith endorse any LGBTQ+ individual to attend BYU.
In the meantime, I’m making a donation to raynbow collective STAT.
@chadwick and others – I absolutely agree that there are many, MANY faculty and staff on campus who want to be supportive and inclusive of queer students. I might even guess a majority. That’s the whole reason for the crackdown, which wouldn’t be necessary if faculty was already on the same page as Gilbert, Oaks, and Holland.
I think we’ll soon be at the point where you’re resume is likely going to bottom of the pile if your positionality is a combination of privileged identifiers, and you have a BYU degree.
Yes, I realize the “not all x people” argument and I acknowledge that decent BYU advocates exist, but even a nominally positive view of critical theorists, thinkers, and marginalized groups can’t make up for a lacklustre education on any field of study’s fullness.
There’s also a likely risk that the new hire won’t just be clueless on critical theory, inclusion, & diversity, but outright hostile to these aims & subjects; and who what employer would want to hire someone who could cost them their reputation, and/or an expensive lawsuit.
Also just heard that a Dukes volleyball player was repeatedly threatened and harassed at an away game at BYU by a white male calling her the N* word. Monstrous.
What is the Office of Belonging even doing? They’re pretty much just window-dressing at this point.
@Di it wouldn’t surprise me, and I’d like to see more regulation of nonprofits here in Canada.
There needs to be more transparency.
I’m also curious if Canadian church authorities/ influential actors are again re-emphasizing BYU/Utah schools over Canadian universities to prospective students. Young adults who instead go to Canadian universities are likelier to develop a more nuanced approach to church activity and doctrine and that can be threatening to those in power.
I imagine something similar is happing in many other liberal/social democratic countries, and more progressive US states.
This is excellent news. There is no need to include 3rd party documents at BYU events. The documents only exist to undermine and indoctrinate incoming freshmen against BYU and the church.
Let BYU be BYU. There are thousands of other universities which will gladly take this stuff.
“In the meantime, I’m making a donation to raynbow collective STAT”
Note that should be raYnbow collective. Love reinventing the Y in this particular fashion!
In other news, this happened. That Office is doing an EXCELLENT job so far. And Clark Gilbert removed anti-racism training from the curriculum last year.
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/duke-volleyball-game-utah-moved-after-racism-incident-2022-08-27/
But of course he did.
@Elisa I agree.
By their fruits we shall shall know them 😦
There’s a reason I have removed BYU from my resume.
This tragic Duke volleyball scandal is typical. What bothers me most? According the the athlete’s godmother, they call a police to protect her, but didn’t bother ejecting the racist from the stands.
Not a good look BYU.
The post is a statement on belonging that basically says everyone should be loving to each other. Students at Brigham Young University, a private religious school, can be punished for holding hands or kissing someone of the same sex. https://catalyticministries.com/
The Duke incident has truly left me scratching my head.
BYUs response says they have a zero tolerance policy for this type of thing. Yet they tolerated the incident! I guess math is hard for PR types.
Eliza, yes it would be very interesting to know about the other materials distributed, and the sources of those materials.
The clarification you gave, that the student group paid for the booklet to be included, and that there was a contractual obligation makes this much worse. So basically they’ve been paid to distribute the material, it doesn’t belong to them… they break the contract and proceed to destroy someone else’s property! That’s so bad…
I’m listening to a visiting area authority at stake conference and he’s relying heavily on Nelson’s devotional about how our most important identities are child of God and child of covenant. Other labels don’t matter.
I’m thinking this is going to become a real theme.
While I do think there’s something to be said for finding what we have in common, this really just sounds like All Lives Matter / “we are colorblind.” So basically, conservative talking points.
Yikes, and again yikes. Public pressure and common decency yet again fail to communicate to BYU leaders that their bigotry and homophobia are unacceptable … except to the White Christian Nationalists who have corrupted Christianity and found a firm foothold in the Church. We’re outraged, yes, but homophobes and bigots are nodding and feeling relief that they’ve still got a safe place for their hatred to flourish.
Angela summarized BYU’s conundrum well: “They don’t want people to call them homophobic, but their policies and most influential key leaders absolutely are. ” BYU wants to be nice, while still being bigoted. However, a polite bigot is still a bigot. Nice people aren’t necessarily kind or good. When you press them on their behavior (as is happening here), you find out where their loyalties really lie. In this situation, BYU’s loyalties are with the bigotry, racism and exclusion loudly taught by the White Christian Nationalists. I know there are people at BYU who are trying to fight this, and I wish them all the best. I also wish I was more optimistic about their chances to bring about real change. At this point, I join with the other commenters who would recommend that any LGBTQ person avoid BYU. BYU probably secretly wishes that would happen, actually.
Just one note of caution:
Small-minded LDS jerks can be found everywhere.
When my active church member son, top of his high school graduating class, chose to attend one of the top schools for his major-UC Berkeley—the local members of our ward—made negative comments to him (and me) about his choice. At the time I calmed myself thinking at least the church in Berkeley will be more welcoming. But no.
He got involved with the LDS institute at UC Berkeley. But when he invited a nonmember girl he was dating to a couple of activities leaders responded negatively to my son.
Then, one of the leaders asked to meet with him. He thought it just a regular meeting—about home teaching/ministering or something like that.
Nope. The leader told him he must break up with his non member girlfriend. (Uhhhh—are all non members treated like this? So much for converting people)
That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
That ended his relationship with the church, and we feel blessed to have such a wonderful daughter-in-law in our family.
If only we spent more time focusing on the Gospel rather than promoting a religious corporation.
We live outside of the Utah/Idaho corridor where it is very uncommon for a kid who can get into a BYU not to go (especially if they can get into BYU Provo). My son is choosing to go to a top tier state or private university. He talks about how he hopes he can find members of the church his age who are more similar to him than he does at home or than he would at a BYU. As he says it: “I know the members of the church who attend those (non-church) schools as undergrads could have been accepted to BYU but they chose not to go there, which says a lot about them.” He’s a smart kid and I hope he is right, but I know not everybody with the qualifying grades is given the opportunity to attend somewhere other than a church school for religious/family/financial/etc. reasons, so I guess we will see who he finds.