Soulforce Equality Riders Tour Campuses With Anti-LGBT Policies

Details: Category: LGBT Issues; Published on Wednesday, 21 March 2012 14:36; Written by Lara Landis; Hits: 465

Soulforce's Equality Riders set out from Philadelphia on March 4 on a tour of colleges with anti-LGBt policies. The goal of the group is to target the oppression where it starts, according to director J. Mason. The tour will go through 15 colleges with anti-LGBT policies.

Although the term Equality Riders may suggest motorcycle riders, the term has also been applied to riders on bus tours. The universities targeted by the tour have policies that allow students in same-sex relationships to be expelled and engage in reparative therapy. Reparative therapy has been condemned by the American Psychiatric Association.

Students who face expulsion from these colleges. When a student is expelled from a college, they often have to start completely over at another school. The schools do not send out transcripts from expelled students. If the student gets referred to reparative therapy, they may be sent to programs dubbed “pray the gay away” camps by critics.

Students at the colleges and universities do not always know when the equality riders will arrive. College and university staff do not announce the arrivals of the group, even if they allow the group on campus. The Soulforce Equality Riders will conduct forums and hold demonstrations to protest each school's policy.

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Soulforce Equality Riders