Video by Eric Stone
Jennifer Timmerman, senior sociology major at Eastern University, has suffered through tension and turmoil within the Catholic church and the Christian religion in general for years. Those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or queer have not been accepted by all Christian denominations, despite the recent and progressive legalization of gay marriage in all 50 states in 2015.
Students and faculty members from Eastern University, those who identify as LGBT advocates, stood by each other in the commons for two hours on Friday, March 17, sharing prayer and solemn words. Many of these students and faculty members have been harshly treated in words and actions in the past because of their sexuality, making the stand a safe space for these people to share their stories.
Timmerman was one of the students who attended this event. Timmerman is also the co-leader of Refuge, Eastern’s Gay-Straight Alliance.
“I came to Eastern because of Refuge and because I knew it was one of the only Christian colleges that had any kind of gay-straight alliance,” Timmerman said.
Timmerman is openly gay and spoke about the hardships she experienced as someone who was raised in a Christian family. Timmerman made it clear that she never knew how she felt about the Bible and sexuality, which caused a lot of deep-rooted confusion within herself.
“I came to Eastern thinking that who I am is a sin, and now I am super excited to be an out and proud lesbian on campus,” Timmerman said. “We can’t leave this event and keep our mouths shut; we need to keep fighting if we’re going to help people to better understand the LGBT community because it’s what God would want us to do.”
Timmerman was one of many who spoke her mind at the stand and also one of several who presented a poem regarding the turmoil experienced by the LGBTQ community because of society’s treatment. Timmerman used events from her real life in the poem, involving issues with friends who had abandoned her and those who bullied her for who she was.
Samuel Vaughan, a heterosexual ally to the LGBT community, helped run this event. He made it clear that it was not a protest, but instead an outlet for people to vent their hurt feelings and what is on their mind.
“The stand was an attempt to encourage the school toward moving in a more progressive direction,” Vaughan said. “As it stands right now, this University can fire or refuse to hire people right now based on who their partner is and our official literature also defines marriage as an institution that is exclusive to men and women, even though a majority of staff and faculty members do not believe that this is just.”
Among those who spoke out against the unjust treatment of workers who are not allowed to identify as anything other than straight was Jim Goodyear, a pastor at Gloria Dei who identifies as homosexual.
“Whether you are gay, straight, bisexual or whatever letter you want to put, excuse my language, but I don’t think God gives a damn,” Goodyear said. “What God cares about is that we give hope to other people.”
Goodyear went into detail about how some of the people from his community have been uncomfortable with his sexual orientation and have labeled him as a pedophile or someone who is untrustworthy. Goodyear even mentioned that those who did have trust in him and enjoyed his role as their pastor were still not interested in his personal life otherwise.
“If you can’t share your own personal life, you can’t share God,” Goodyear said. “I’ve learned that God loves me for who I am and God loves me for who I teach the gospel to.”
Vaughan himself noted the issue of people using the Bible as an argument to claim that homosexuality in the Church is not what God himself wanted.
“The Bible has been used to tell slaves to submit to abuse, it has been used to shut up and shut down women, it has been used to justify violence against people who believe in a different God and it is now being used to shame our LGBT students and fire our LGBT faculty,” Vaughan said. “How many times do we need to remember to read our Bible in proper historical context and with the realization that we have a loving God?”
Those who attended the event look hopefully towards the future and continue to work hard to achieve what they want.
“I hope that in the future the LGBT community will not have to sacrifice hundreds of dollars, countless hours and unbelievable amounts of energy to even get people to understand that gay slurs, hurtful subliminal messaging and ignorant discrimination takes place every day, even on a campus as great as Eastern University,” Vaughan said. “My hope is that one day Eastern University will truly be an accepting and inclusive place.”
“We had 60 or more people today who felt very affirmed by having strong Christian leaders tell them that they are loved no matter what orientation they identify as,” Timmerman said. “One of the most important things you can hear is that God does love you and that you are not alone.”
