Social Justice Group Opens Dialogue on GLBT Issues With Equality Ride
by Lois Elfman
Sep 17, 2008, 00:18
http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_11690.shtmlThere are more than 200 U.S. colleges and universities that have explicit policies discriminatory toward GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) students, according to Soulforce Q. Since 2006, this young adult division of Soulforce, a social justice organization seeking to end political and religious oppression of GLBT people through nonviolent resistance, has staged Equality Ride. A group of young adults between the ages of 18 to 28 — gay, transgender and straight — take a bus trip to visit some of these institutions in the hopes of changing both policies and perceptions.
"I would hope that we are able to stand on a campus and maybe for the first time be an affirming voice," said codirector Katie Higgins. On the previous Equality Rides, she has repeatedly heard from students that she is the first openly lesbian person they've ever met. "Conversations are happening on these campuses that have never happened before.
