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Bob Jones University, for example, has banned all GLBT alumni from even setting foot on campus. That’s a drastic contrast to how GLBT alumni are treated at other private Christian institutions. Campus security watched us from a distance, but the alumni director had sent out a memo to campus security directing them to not interfere with us in any way.” “We went on campus during wearing our t-shirts. “The very fact that we have the dialogue going that we do… I mean, Oral told us years ago to expect a miracle… we got it!”Īnother mark of the school’s cordial relationship with its GLBT alumni came last June when members of ORU-OUT marched in Tulsa’s gay pride parade. McKissack says it’s up to current students to make those kind of changes, but the school has opened dialogue with them. Unfortunately, the alumni group’s pull in this area is limited.
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“I’m hoping we would bring them to a place that they could see this is not something worthy of expulsion in the same way they don’t expel pregnant students or straight people found to be messing around with each other.” “If you’re found to be gay you’re expelled,” McKissack explains. Oral Roberts University still not GLBT-friendly
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Oral Roberts himself is famous for many things including his 1980 vision of a 900-foot tall Jesus who promised that his 600-foot-tall City of Faith would be completed. We weren’t expected to fool around with the opposite sex,” he concludes. That’s 30 percent,” he figures.īut why are there so many GLBT people going to Christian universities like Oral Roberts? McKissack has a theory: “A lot of gay people, especially if you grew up in religious environment, went to Christian college or university for a couple of reasons: We thought we’d be healed or become straight somehow and because it was a safe haven. “My first year in, there were 30 guys in my wing. McKissack believes they’ve only scratched the surface as far as potential membership goes. Oral Roberts University’s gay undercurrent As the group turns a year old, they now have about 130 members. Each person there knew of four or five other GLBT alums and the networking began. McKissack says about 14 people showed up from Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Houston and Dallas. The fledgling group held its first official meeting in November of 1999. When we’d see each other we’d say, ‘Oh are you out?’ “ “Gradually we began to run into other ORU alumni. “The very first night I went out I ran into three alumni,” he remembers.
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Jeff McKissack, the president of ORU-OUT, says the group began to take shape about 4 years ago when he moved to Dallas, Texas. Formed as a support group for alumni of Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Oral Roberts University, ORU-OUT shows that GLBT people reside even in the bastions of Christian educational institutions. If ever one needed proof that GLBT people are everywhere, in every institution, office, school, business or otherwise, the GLBT alumni group ORU-OUT proves the theory conclusively.