Baylor Will Consider LGBTQ Student Group

Baylor University officials are struggling to walk a thin line between supporting LGBTQ students and upholding the Texas Baptist university’s position against gay marriage.

Recently, the Baylor University Board of Regents passed a noncommittal resolution that would allow university officials to explore creating an LGBTQ student group, the Texas Tribune reported. The resolution offers a glimmer of hope for students who have for years asked the university to recognize a group for LGBTQ students.

But the resolution has drawn concerns from both supporters and opponents of such a group. Members of Gamma Alpha Upsilon, the university’s unofficial LGBTQ student organization, say the resolution is a step forward but remain doubtful that Baylor officials can create a group that will satisfy LGBTQ students.

“Are we advocating for something by existing?” Brit LaVergne, a Baylor senior and president of Gamma Alpha Upsilon, said to the Tribune. He is referring to Baylor’s policy on human sexuality, which states that “it is thus expected that Baylor students will not participate in advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching.”

Meanwhile, opponents of a university-sanctioned LGBTQ student group say the university is caving to a “moral revolution” by considering the group.

“Baylor University is trying to have its cake and eat it, too,” Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said on an episode of his daily podcast. “The reality is that it still wants to present itself as, in some sense, a Christian institution, a Baptist institution. But what we're looking at here is just another way of getting to surrender to the moral revolution without admitting that that's what you’re doing.”

University officials declined requests to speak to the Tribune about the potential new student group.