An effort to accommodate LGBTQ students on the evangelical Christian Azusa Pacific University campus was derailed Friday when its board reversed an administration decision to lift the ban on LGBTQ relationships.
In time for the Aug. 27 start of the fall semester and following months of discussions between students and university leaders, Azusa Pacific had removed a section from its student conduct policy that outlawed LGBTQ relationships on campus. The altered language referenced a standing ban on pre-marital sex but without mentioning orientation.
When the APU student newspaper published an article on Sept. 18 about the move, the 119-year-old university received some kudos but significantly more criticism, especially from Christian media outlets and pundits.
Headlines claimed the university had “caved,” “surrendered” and was “Losing ‘God First.’”
In response, the university announced Friday afternoon that because the policy change was never approved by its Board of Trustees, it was reinstating the ban.
“Last week, reports circulated about a change in the undergraduate student standards of conduct,” reads the statement issued on behalf of the APU Board of Trustees. “That action concerning romanticized relationships was never approved by the board and the original wording has been reinstated.”
For Erin Green, who graduated from APU in May and is now co-executive director for Brave Commons, a national organization that looks to support LGBTQ students specifically at Christian universities, the reversal is a disappointment. Green, who participated in the discussions last year with university administrators that led to the policy’s removal, went so far as to describe it as a betrayal because the administrators were the ones who reached out to her and other students.
“We poured our hearts out, were vulnerable and relived our trauma telling our stories, telling stories of previous students who were damaged or hurt in some way by the institution, which had action taken against them for being gay or being in a same-sex relationship,” Green said.
“They looked us in the eye and said this policy is harmful, it’s discriminatory, it’s stigmatizing and we’re going to get rid of it,” she said. “And we trusted them.”
Before the first change to the code of conduct, LGBTQ students on campus had formed an underground support group they called Haven. Once the policy was removed, the group was allowed to become official on campus and went from drawing seven or eight students a week to 50, said sophomore Hannah McElfresh, 20. Read more via SGVT