Brigham Young University got rid of an LGBTQIA+ pamphlet that was originally included in welcome bags for freshmen students arriving for the school year.
NBC New reports that the RaYnbow Collective created the booklets so that incoming queer freshmen would have resources—like events, therapy, safe housing, and mentorship—available to them. The nonprofit was started by gay BYU student Maddison Tenney and isn’t connected to the school.
Tenney made the pamphlets based on her own experience when she first came to the university. BYU doesn’t allow students to date or be affectionate toward people of the same sex; doing so could lead to being kicked out of school.
“I remember sitting in my white dorm room with these cement walls and breaking down,” Tenney said. “I didn’t know anyone who was like me, who wanted to be faithful and embrace the fullness of themselves.”
She followed the protocol when submitting 5,000 booklets as part of the welcome bags, describing them as “very vanilla, very in line with church teachings.” She continued, “We tried really hard to make sure it was kosher and in line with policy.” She said the only feedback she got about them was that they looked “great.”
However, a friend later DM’d Tenney on Instagram to let her know that, as a resident assistant at the dorms, she was instructed to remove the LGBTQIA+ pamphlets from the welcome bags. When Tenney tried to find out why the Office of Student Life said that the brochures were discarded because they didn’t follow the church’s teachings.
BYU later told Today.com that they instead “would like our students and employees to utilize our new Office of Belonging as their primary resource in these efforts.” The statement continued, “The decision to remove the materials by Student Life was based on the university’s commitment to providing support through the Office of Belonging and our counseling services and not to allow outside entities to imply affiliation with or endorsement from the university,” the statement continued.
The Office of Belonging was launched in August 2021 and just recently got a physical location. Unfortunately, Tenney has been receiving multiple threats and had to remove her information from the BYU directory.
