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(82,333 posts) Mon Sep 26, 2016, 07:41 AM Sep 2016

Queer religious groups extend outreach to LGBTQ students in wake of homophobic protest on Green

In response to the preachers protesting against homosexuality, campus religious groups are speaking out in support for LGBTQ students.
Photo by Julio Sosa

By REBECCA TAN ・ 6 hours ago

When two preachers came to campus to rail against “homo sex” on Sept. 15, they drew a swift counter-protest of more than a hundred students wielding signs and pride flags. On that very same day, Penn’s Queer Christian Fellowship, which is sponsored by the Christian Association, happened to have a gathering planned. Students spent the gathering processing what had occurred on campus.

“For too many of the students in QCF, this rhetoric is nothing now,” Christian Association campus minister Rev. Megan LeCluyse said. “That does not change the fact that [such messages] are incredibly hurtful.”

College senior Rashad Nimr , a member of Queer Muslims and Allies at Penn, agreed that what the preachers espoused represent “a very common mentality in the U.S.” At Penn, which offers places for minority students to meet allies and other similarly-identifying students, it can be shocking to be “thrown back into reality,” Nimr said.

There are three queer-religious groups on campus: Queer Christian Fellowship, Queer Muslims and Allies at Penn and J-Bagel, a student group for Jewish students identifying as LGBTQAI.

http://www.thedp.com:8080/article/2016/09/queer-religious-groups-respond-to-preachers