There’s a controversy brewing at my alma mater, Walla Walla University, and I hope it doesn’t stop until things change.

A group of students who have effectively formed an unofficial Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) on campus asked the administration for official recognition. The request was denied because it would be too controversial. To be honest, I half believe the excuse.

A handful of wealthy alumni hold so much power over the school that the were able to prevent the school from changing its name from Walla Walla College for many years. This was in spite of the fact that it already had six masters programs and was ranked as a top tier regional masters level university. Then once the administration reached the point that they could get the buy in of enough alumni to make the name change feasible, it was still pushed back for several more years because the North Pacific Union Conference president, who also served as the ex-officio chairman of the board of trustees would reject any name change that didn’t add the word “Adventist” to the name. About the time he got cancer they were finally able to make a compromise. Those two groups, alumni and church officials, would probably have the head of the university’s president and half of the vice presidents if they were to approve something so heretical as a GSA.

However, even though the administration has had enough turnover since I graduated that I only know three of the eight vice presidents and the president took over the fall after my graduation, I’m confident that these good Bible believing Seventh-day Adventists wouldn’t support a pro-gay organization or even an organization that supports tolerance and safety for LGBTQ people because of what a few verses say in Leviticus.

Fortunately there’s an outcry from a number of students. Here’s an excerpt from an article in the school’s newspaper, The Collegian, written by opinion editor Shanoah Maine, if you can see past the religious language that is just part of the standard campus jargon, she has some good stuff to say:

It is time for us to stand together and officially sanction the Gay-Straight Alliance that already exists. Yes, there will be great opposition, even from those that give us the precious money our school exists for (wait …). But we must stand for what is right; we must stand for the unconditional love that Jesus guy died for: “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” If our policies are those of oppression, where is the love? Loving is accepting who people are: “It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking. … It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

From a quick perusal of the letters to the editor section you can quickly tell that the administration’s move to avoid a controversial issue has failed. They have a controversy and not just with students, but also alumni and members of the community. The letters are mostly full of a nauseatingly high level of religious language, special pleading, and appeals to authority (and those are the good ones), but it does show that not every religious person and not every Adventist is a bigot.

It’s kind of ironic that schools where establishing a GSA would be easy need them the least, but conservative religious campuses where you can’t form a GSA and where the normal, acceptable language would include righteous gay bashing are the ones who need one the most.

To the students of Walla Walla trying to make this happen: keep up the good fight and keep the pro-tolerance (metaphorical) fires burning! You may not get what you want, but you will at least help get people thinking.