AP: BYU Students Risk Expulsion/Excommunication for It Gets Better
The video recently posted to YouTube by 22 Brigham Young University students is the first of its kind with ties to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which forbids gay sex and marriage. By posting the video, the students could face excommunication from the church and expulsion at BYU, where gay students are prohibited from touching or kissing.
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Joshua Behn, a gay activist and former BYU student who recently left the church, said he had doubts about the student video when he first heard of it.
“I was afraid it was going to be, ‘oh, you can deny your sexuality,’” he said. “But watching, they don’t make judgments about that. They are saying, ‘there are other people out there. You are not alone.’”
Randall Thacker, 39, said he “was completely closeted, completely ashamed” about his attraction to men when he graduated from BYU in 1997. A church leader sent him to therapy to change his sexual orientation.
“To see the video gives me so much incredible hope for the future,” said Thacker, a gay activist in Washington, D.C. “It seems like a miracle.”
“Gay Mormon Students at BYU Come Out in Web Video”
Cristina Silva for the Associated Press, 7 April 2012
[Note: This article is incorrect in stating that the students could face excommunication/expulsion for the video. It has also been republished by hundreds of other sources.]
(Source: google.com)
It Gets Better at Brigham Young University
“Gay Mormons at Brigham Young University Say It Gets Better: Video”
via Towleroad, 6 April 2012
(Source: towleroad.com)
