By Heather Murphey
The latest news from the Soulforce Equality Ride, in which a busful of young glbt people and young allies travel to colleges with anti-gay policies, inviting students to engage in dialogue, is in, and the Equality Riders had a pretty rough weekend.
At Palm Beach Atlantic University, officials initially declined the Equality Riders permission to enter the campus. Then they offered them a private meeting with a small group.
Sunday night, the Equality Riders' bus was vandalized. Windows were broken. This Christian news site wrote a negative story about the visit, but doesn't seem to have updated it with any opinion about the vandalism.
Monday, in an act of civil disobedience, six of the Riders were arrested when they came to the chapel service they'd been refused permission to attend. This humble blogger wants to give a big gay shout-out to six brave fighters for equal rights:
*Jarrett Lucas, 22, from Philadelphia
*Danielle Cooper, 19, from Maplewood, NJ
*Lauren Parke, 25, from Seattle
*Enzi Tanner, 24, from Minneapolis
*Nicholas Rocco DeFinis, 22, from Lansdale, PA
*Zak Rittenhouse, 21, from Frankfort, OH.
Congratulations on acquiring a great story to tell your grandchildren, who, because of your work, won't ever quite believe that there was a time when grandpa and grandma could get arrested just for wanting to talk about gay people's equal rights.
Reconciling Ministries Network mobilizes United Methodists of all sexual orientations and gender identities to transform our Church and world into the full expression of Christ’s inclusive love.
