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OneWheaton is a group of Wheaton College alumni that formed in 2011 to provide support for LGBT, queer and questioning students at the evangelical Christian college. [1]
OneWheaton first organized in response to Wheaton College's chapel series titled "Sexuality and Wholeness" [2] —which included a message stating that following Jesus and living in a same-sex relationship are incompatible goals [3] —and the seminar "Same-Sex Marriage Affects Everyone"—which hypothesized that allowing same-sex marriage would lead to families abandoning their children, men having test tube babies for the purpose of molesting them, and ultimately, the end of "what was once a great civilization." [4] On April 29, 2011, members of the group distributed a letter to students on campus sharing their opinion that "sexual identity is not a tragic sign of the sinful nature of the world" and affirming "the full humanity and dignity of every human being regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity." [5]
The group and its members became the subject of documentary, "Queers In The Kingdom" by filmmaker and Wheaton College alumnus, Markie Hancock. [6] The documentary was released in 2015 and screened nationally at film festivals and college campuses.
OneWheaton claims that its purpose is to provide support to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning students and alumni at Wheaton and other colleges. Its goal is not to change Wheaton College's policies prohibiting homosexual acts or to stand against those people who choose lifelong celibacy as their personal path of reconciling their faith and sexuality. The group does not propose any theological grounds or defense of its position as it is a diverse group consisting of people who hold many different perspectives. However, the group is unified by their shared belief that the classification of homosexuality as "sinful" is not only incorrect, but damaging. [7] OneWheaton notes on its website that the group is not "affiliated or condoned by Wheaton College." [5]
On April 29, 2011, the day that the letter was distributed, Wheaton College President Philip Ryken responded to the letter by sending an internal email to the students, faculty, and staff of the college. The email indicated that the administrations sees "each member of the human family as created in the image of God himself" but that "scripture condemns...homosexual behavior and all other sexual relations outside the bounds of marriage between a man and woman". [8] Ryken's response references the Community Covenant, which stipulates that homosexual behavior is not allowed at the school. [9]
OneWheaton has over 700 members, including alumni who are allies in support of their mission as well as alumni who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. Supporters range from those who graduated in 1954 to the present. [5]
The founding board members of OneWheaton were: Hank Chen, [10] Jessica Friesen, [10] Adam Hibma, [10] Sue Nordlof, Catherine Latimer, Frances Motiwalla, Susan Schmalzbauer, Costa Tsiatsos, José Vilanova, [10] Ruth Wardschenk, Hillary Waters, Lora Wiens, and Kristin Winn.
According to OneWheaton spokesperson Kristin Winn, the group was "floored by the [positive] response", with their website crashing on the second day of its launch . [11] Mike Clawson, Christian contributor for the website "The Friendly Atheist" and an alumnus of Wheaton College, voiced his support for the group's efforts, noting that the group "has already succeeded in letting current LGBTQ students there know that they are not alone." [12] The blog Queerty expressed its support for the students, equating President Ryken's emailed letter to students as supporting the tormenting or bullying of human beings. [13]
Throughout the majority of Christian history, most Christian theologians and denominations have considered homosexual behavior as immoral or sinful. Today, within Christianity, there are a variety of views on sexual orientation and homosexuality. Even within a denomination, individuals and groups may hold different views, and not all members of a denomination necessarily support their church's views on homosexuality. The Catholic church and Orthodox churches officially condemn homosexual activity as sin. Various Mainline Protestant denominations have taken a supportive stance towards blessing homosexual clergy and same sex marriage while others have not.
The Kinsey scale, also called the Heterosexual–Homosexual Rating Scale, is used in research to describe a person's sexual orientation based on one’s experience or response at a given time. The scale typically ranges from 0, meaning exclusively heterosexual, to a 6, meaning exclusively homosexual. In both the male and female volumes of the Kinsey Reports, an additional grade, listed as "X", indicated "no socio-sexual contacts or reactions" (asexuality). The reports were first published in Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) by Alfred Kinsey, Wardell Pomeroy, and others, and were also prominent in the complementary work Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953).
Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBT studies is the study of topics relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender dysphoria, asexual, queer, questioning, intersex people and cultures.
The field of psychology has extensively studied homosexuality as a human sexual orientation. The American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1952, but that classification came under scrutiny in research funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. That research and subsequent studies consistently failed to produce any empirical or scientific basis for regarding homosexuality as anything other than a natural and normal sexual orientation that is a healthy and positive expression of human sexuality. As a result of this scientific research, the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973. Upon a thorough review of the scientific data, the American Psychological Association followed in 1975 and also called on all mental health professionals to take the lead in "removing the stigma of mental illness that has long been associated" with homosexuality. In 1993, the National Association of Social Workers adopted the same position as the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association, in recognition of scientific evidence. The World Health Organization, which listed homosexuality in the ICD-9 in 1977, removed homosexuality from the ICD-10 which was endorsed by the 43rd World Health Assembly on 17 May 1990.
The ex-gay movement consists of people and organizations that encourage people to refrain from entering or pursuing same-sex relationships, to eliminate homosexual desires and to develop heterosexual desires, or to enter into a heterosexual relationship. Beginning with the founding of Love In Action and Exodus International in the mid-1970s, the movement saw rapid growth in the 1980s and 1990s before declining in the 2000s.
Wheaton College is a private Evangelical Christian liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois. It was founded by evangelical abolitionists in 1860. Wheaton College was a stop on the Underground Railroad and graduated one of Illinois' first black college graduates.
The views of Quakers around the world towards homosexuality encompass a range from complete celebration and the practice of same-sex marriage, to the view that homosexuality is sinfully deviant and contrary to God's intentions for sexual expression. The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) is a historically Christian religious movement founded in 17th-century England; it has around 350,000 members. In Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, many Quakers are supportive of homosexual relationships, while views are divided among U.S. meetings. The majority (52%) of Quakers live in Africa, and though views may differ, the Kenyan Church of Friends does not support homosexual relationships.
The origin of the LGBT student movement can be linked to other activist movements from the mid-20th century in the United States. The Civil Rights Movement and Second-wave feminist movement were working towards equal rights for other minority groups in the United States. Though the student movement began a few years before the Stonewall riots, the riots helped to spur the student movement to take more action in the US. Despite this, the overall view of these gay liberation student organizations received minimal attention from contemporary LGBT historians. This oversight stems from the idea that the organizations were founded with haste as a result of the riots. Others historians argue that this group gives too much credit to groups that disagree with some of the basic principles of activist LGBT organizations.
Gay is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
Bisexual erasure or bisexual invisibility is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or re-explain evidence of bisexuality in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources.
James Willis Toy was a long-time American activist and a pioneer for LGBT rights in Michigan.
LGBT movements in the United States comprise an interwoven history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied movements in the United States of America, beginning in the early 20th century and influential in achieving social progress for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and transsexual people.
The ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT) clergy who are open about their sexuality or gender identity; are sexually active if lesbian, gay, or bisexual; or are in committed same-sex relationships is a debated practice within some contemporary Christian denominations.
Christian denominations have a variety of beliefs about sexual orientation, including beliefs about same-sex sexual practices and asexuality. Denominations differ in the way they treat lesbian, bisexual, and gay people; variously, such people may be barred from membership, accepted as laity, or ordained as clergy, depending on the denomination. As asexuality is relatively new to public discourse, few Christian denominations discuss it. Asexuality may be considered the lack of a sexual orientation, or one of the four variations thereof, alongside heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, and pansexuality.
The Spectrum Center is an office at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor that is dedicated to providing education, outreach, and advocacy for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and allied (LGBTQA) community. Since the organizations' creation in 1971, the Spectrum Center's mission statement has been to "enrich the campus experience and develop students as individuals and as members of the LGBTQA community." The organization achieves this through student-centered education, outreach, advocacy and support.
Straight pride is a slogan that arose in the 1980s and early 1990s that has primarily been used by social conservatives as a political stance and strategy. The term is described as a response to gay pride adopted by various groups in the early 1970s, or to the accommodations provided to gay pride initiative.
Students identifying as LGBTQIA+ have a long, documented history at Brigham Young University (BYU), and have experienced a range of treatment by other students and school administrators over the decades. Large surveys of over 7,000 BYU students in 2020 and 2017 found that over 13% had marked their sexual orientation as something other than "strictly heterosexual", while the other survey showed that .2% had reported their gender identity as transgender or something other than cisgender male or female. BYU is the largest religious university in North America and is the flagship institution of the educational system of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Historically, experiences for BYU students identifying as LGBTQIA+ have included being banned from enrolling due to their romantic attractions in the 60s, being required by school administration to undergo electroshock and vomit aversion therapies in the 1970s, having nearly 80% of BYU students refusing to live with an openly homosexual person in a poll in the 1990s, and a ban on coming out until 2007. Until 2021 there were not any LGBTQIA+ - specific resources on campus, though there is now the Office of Student Success and Inclusion. BYU students are at risk of discipline and expulsion by the Honor Code Office for expressions of same-sex romantic feelings that go against the school's code of conduct such as same-sex dating, hugging, and kissing, for gender non-conforming dress, and students and faculty are still banned from meeting together in a queer-straight alliance group on campus.
Indradhanu is the official LGBTQIA+ collective of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. The student-driven collective aims to create a safe space for LGBT+ persons in the institute's campus. Members from Indradhanu have also been petitioners in the decriminalisation of homosexuality in India. In December 2021, it was accorded official recognition by the college administration. It now holds a nominated position in the Student Affairs Council of IIT Delhi and works with the office of Diversity and Inclusion, IIT Delhi.
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