NEW YORK — Hundreds of Yeshiva University students with rainbow flags and stars of David protested on campus Sunday, demanding better representation of LGBTQ students at the school. “No more silence, no more fear! You are loved if you are queer!” they chanted in unison outside the university’s Mendel Gottesman Library on 185th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. They held colorful signs and wore custom T-shirts with the slogan “We too, are YU.”

The Yeshiva University College Democrats who organized the rally said that “for far too long, LGBTQ+ students have been forced into the closet by the administration,” and are blocked from hosting events and activities touching on LGBTQ issues.

Some added they have endured homophobic remarks by teachers and rabbis during lectures.

LGBTQ students “are hidden away, with YU leadership pretending they don't exist,” the organizers wrote on the event's Facebook page. “We are marching to prove that LGBTQ+ students belong at Yeshiva University. Not only do they attend YU, but they ARE YU.”’

As Yeshiva student Courtney Marks spoke, her legs and hands shook, and the paper her speech was written on fluttered. Marks is one of the university's only openly gay students. “I never want another student to feel the way that I feel or to be told their life is worthless in class or hear other students say demeaning and derogatory things,” she said. “People ask me, ‘Why don't you just leave?’ And I don't leave because I can’t just leave the problems our community has behind; I need to stay here and need to fix them,” Marks said. Read more via Haaretz