Gambling

It’s 2017 and Wheaton College is still ranked among the worst schools for LGBTQ+ students. A gay pride flag was put up and was taken down by the school in less than 12 hours out of shame and in order to avoid a scandal. LGBTQ+ students do exist on this campus and deserve just as much representation as the other student groups on this campus. The school’s inability to take a stance on “the issue of homosexuality” should not detain equal representation for all students. We will not be pushed back into the closet.

Here are some articles noting the negative views towards our presence on this campus:

Lists rank Wheaton College among worst schools for LGBTQ students

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-wheaton-college-anti-gay-lists-met-20160831-story.html

A Wheaton student’s mother had this to say regarding the incident:

“When the gay pride flag flies at your Christian college, it is a direct attack on the Word of God, It’s shameful… Wheaton has compromised with truth long ago, and fears the wrath of media and gay students more than they fear the Lord God”

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.toddstarnes.com/column/who-raised-the-gay-pride-flag-at-wheaton-college

The Resident Director of Fischer Dorm and The Dean of Residence Life were walking through the dorm and came upon the room of a queer student who had a flag displayed in their window–in the privacy of their own room. They collectively asked the student to take the flag down because it does not reflect Wheaton’s stance on homosexuality. 

The school has also denied us our right to free speech. The Bench is a well known thing at this school. Students are free to paint the bench in order to express whatever they’d like; social justice issues, historic events, campus happenings etc. Last night a few students decided to paint the bunch in response to the flag issue. The bench sported a gay pride rainbow with words saying WE CAN’T BE ERASED. WE’RE QUEER, WE’RE HERE (on the backside). Yet again in less than 12 hours, the school decided to eradicate the issue by covering it up with white paint. They literally erased us. 

As one student puts it, 

“The message is quite clear: we will erase you, and don’t be here or be here and shut the hell up and pretend you’re not. (Just to be clear, I understand the fragility of the administrations position on this, and that members thereof may individually want us here–or believe they do–but the culture of evangelicalism has defined itself as fundamentally against the existence of queer people, so no matter what balancing game they try to play, queer students will be the ones takin the hit and being silenced.” 

This cannot keep getting swept under the rug. 

I’m a double minority–I’m gay, I’m hispanic–I’m marginalized, and I WILL NOT BE PUSHED BACK INTO THE FUCKING CLOSET. 

Giovanna Garzoni

A Bitch