Seattle Pacific University Graduates Hand Pride Flags To Their President In Protest Of Anti-LGBTQ+ Hiring Policy

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Seattle Pacific University Graduates Hand Pride Flags To Their President In Protest Of Anti-LGBTQ+ Hiring Policy

There have been over 500 hours of organised protest against the discriminatory policy, which has been contested for several years, according to the student groups.

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This year's Pride Month, which is celebrated as a way for everyone to express themselves freely, has seen many obstacles for the community regarding discriminatory policies globally.

Around 50 graduating students of the Seattle Pacific University (SPU) gave Pete Menjares, their interim President, pride flags during a commencement ceremony on June 12 to protest against the University's anti-LGBTQ+ employment policies.

There have been over 500 hours of organised protest against the discriminatory policy, which has been contested for several years, according to the student groups.

'Employee Lifestyle Expectations' Policy

Menjares, in an email statement, said that it was a fantastic day with the graduates and that he respected the "view" of the students who gave him a pride flag to show "how they felt."

The website for the openly religious University, which is also affiliated with the Free Methodist Church of USA, states that it reserves the right to prefer employees or potential employees "on the basis of religion."

ASSP is one of the student groups that organised the protest against the "Employee Lifestyle Expectations" policy of the school, which prohibits any "sexual behaviour that is inconsistent with the University's understanding of Biblical standards".

According to the policy, employees of the University should refrain from "cohabitation, extramarital sexual activity and same-sex sexual activity" and can face termination or disciplinary action if found violating the policy, as reported by NBC News. The protest comes less than a month after SPU's Board of Trustees rejected the recommendation of the SPU Faculty Senate to remove the regressive policy.

ASSP has asked the Board to reveal the votes on upholding the policy and for those who voted against it, to come out and openly condemn it. They are also demanding the resignation of those on the Board who voted to uphold the policy.

Students' Pushback

One of the ASSP representatives and a student of SPU, Chloe Guillot, said that it was a simple conversation about not wanting to shake hands with the President that led them to the idea of handing a pride flag instead, as reported by CNN. She would be returning to SPU as a student and told President Pete Menjares while handing him a pride flag that they would not stop until the policy changes.

The student added that they had been working on the protest for anti-LGBTQ+ policies and inclusion on campus all year, and as graduating students, this was their final chance, even though the protest will continue later as well.

The protest has gone viral on the social media platform TikTok, with a video snippet from the ceremony gathering more than 3 million views in two days or so.

According to Guillot, the audience responded with "lingering applause", which gradually increased when more people started handing Pride flags to Menjares. She added that the professor she sat next to kept laughing every time a student handed over the pride flag.

ASSP also organised a sit-in around three weeks ago outside Menjares' office, which will continue till July 1. Students, along with faculty and alumni, will continue to protest the policy, which demands that SPU employees should make lifestyle and behavioural choices that are "consistent with moral integrity, social consciousness and effective Christian witness."

Discriminatory Policies And Obstacles

A recent graduate of SPU, Lau Lugos, who was also the SPU student government President, added that it was "the appropriate way to go," as reported by Seattle Times. Lugos said that she had handed a handwritten letter to Menjares during the ceremony, which told him to resign and expressed her dislike of "Christian niceness".

She called it superficial when Christians are actively "participating in discrimination." She also promised that she will do what she can to "disrupt and dismantle" the ideologies that keep people away from Christ. She added that hundreds of people had agreed to the protest till their demands were met.

An adjunct professor of SPU had sued the University in 2021, alleging that he was not given a promotion solely because he was gay. This incident led to starting groups that would make the SPU campus more inclusive, ultimately leading to more active protests against the employee policy.

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Writer : Shiva Chaudhary
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Editor : Snehadri Sarkar
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Creatives : Shiva Chaudhary

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