Faced with a mounting backlash against a Turning Point USA rally to be held on campus, Baylor University administrators have granted a coalition of student groups permission to hold a counter-event on campus with two well-known gay Christians as speakers.
This is believed to be the first time Baylor has allowed an openly gay Christian advocacy speaker on campus for such an event.
Whether related or not, the university also announced April 7 that Willie Nelson will appear in concert on campus in May. The country singer reportedly has not been on campus since he left there as a student in 1954.
The “All Are Neighbors” event will be held on campus April 22, the same day as the TPUSA “This Is the Turning Point” tour on campus in Waco Hall, the largest auditorium on campus. No information is yet available on where the “All Are Neighbors” event will be held.
Kelley Robinson
What is notable, however, is that students petitioned the administration and on April 8 received permission to feature as keynote speakers Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a leading national LBGTQ advocacy group, and Paul Raushenbush, an American Baptist minister who serves as president of Interfaith Alliance, a leading organization promoting religious freedom and democracy.
Baylor faculty member and BNG columnist Greg Garrett also will speak at the event. Garrett appears on the TPUSA “Professor Watch List” for his work on racial justice.
This sudden turn of events answers the pleas of LGBTQ students, faculty, staff and alumni who have sought equal representation on campus for years. The university has denied a platform for LGBTQ Christians because of its Statement on Human Sexuality that labels same-sex relations sinful.
It is the invitation for TPUSA to appear on campus that tilted the debate to the point Baylor administrators reportedly could not continue to deny opposing voices a platform. BNG joined others in calling out the double standard of the university’s position.
Baylor alumna Skye Perryman, who leads Democracy Forward in Washington, D.C., presaged the possibility of more open dialogue on campus in the recent Whitten Lecture given through the Religion Department.
Paul Raushenbush
Facing criticism over TPUSA on campus, the university could determine to say Baylor “welcomes all and is a marketplace of ideas. It may not agree with what is being said but it wants to make sure people have the freedom to express their views,” she proposed. “That’ s something perhaps we could all get behind.”
The coalition of student groups petitioning to hold the event include the student NAACP chapter, Students Demand Action, Hearts for the Homeless, Baylor Democrats, and Texas Rising.
Kelley Robinson is the first Black, queer woman to lead the Human Rights Campaign, the largest civil rights organization in the United States dedicated to achieving equality and liberation for LGBTQ individuals.
Robinson, a Catholic, previously served as executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund. She earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a double major in sociology and women’s and gender studies. In 2008, she worked as a political organizer for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
Robinson is married to Becky George, and they have one child together.
Raushenbush, an ordained Baptist minister, leads Interfaith Alliance, a Washington, D.C.-based group founded to counter the Religious Right and advance democracy through an interfaith coalition.
He is host of “The State of Belief” podcast and speaks around the country on the topic of religion and democracy. He is frequently quoted in BNG articles. Before joining Interfaith Alliance, Raushenbush served as senior advisor for public affairs and innovation at Interfaith America, senior vice president at Auburn Seminary, founding and executive editor of HuffPost Religion, and associate dean of religious life and the Chapel at Princeton University.
He is a graduate of Macalester College and Union Theological Seminary in New York. He is married to the author Brad Gooch, and they have two children.
Related articles:
Coalition of Baylor student groups seek alternative event to TPUSA
Here’s what’s wrong with Baylor hosting a TPUSA event | Opinion by Mark Wingfield
Fear drove Baylor to allow TPUSA on campus, Perryman asserts
Why the Turning Point Baylor rally Is un-Christian | Opinion by Greg Garrett