Students at Seattle Pacific University are posting a smash-cut montage of graduates handing Pride flags to the school’s president as part of a protest against the Board of Trustees’ decision on May 20, 2022, to maintain a policy that prohibits the employment of individuals in same‐sex marriages.
The now-viral TikTok has garnered over 2.9 million views after being posted on June 13 by @engaygetheculture, an account dedicated to protesting the recent SPU decision. The caption for the video reads: “We’ve also been sleeping outside his office for 19 days in a gay sit-in but he usually doesn’t say hi to us.”
@engaygetheculture We’ve also been sleeping outside his office for 19 days in a gay sit-in but he usually doesn’t say hi to us. #pride #pridemonth #lgbtq #gay #graduation #fyp #seattle #changethepolicy #hiregayprofs ♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey
The account has posted other videos criticizing the school’s discriminatory policy. Commenters are asking why SPU refuses to employ individuals who are in same-sex marriages.
The university is affiliated with the Free Methodist Church. The aforementioned board letter states that it’s against FMC USA’s policies to implement any rule changes “that alters their hiring policy to permit the hiring of individuals living a lifestyle inconsistent with the FMC Book of Discipline’s teachings on sexual purity.”
SPU’s website describes the institution as a “nationally ranked, private Christian liberal arts university in Seattle, Washington.”
The video showing students handing several Pride flags to the university’s president sparked debate online and quickly went viral on Reddit, where commenters questioned the legality of such a decision.
One user said, “That’s insanely illegal lol.”
Another agreed, saying, “Just because they [haven’t] been sued yet doesn’t make what they are doing legal”.
While the US government has clear policies against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, race, religious affiliation, and a slew of other personal identifiers, according to the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI): “Many Christian colleges and universities discriminate against LGBTQ students—and government policies allow them to do so.”
This is because of a specific Title IX exemption the US government makes for faith-based schools. According to PRRI, because of this exemption, universities like SPU can practice “policies that would otherwise require them to practice nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”
The US Department of Education states on its website: “Title IX does not apply to an educational institution that is controlled by a religious organization to the extent that application of Title IX would be inconsistent with the religious tenets of the organization.”
This means that while students disagree with the board of trustees’ decision to not hire employees in a same-sex marriage, the school is legally entitled to do so under the current legal framework.
PRRI further explained in its article that discrimination issues involving same-sex couples were tolerated more when it came to faith-based institutions: “Although PRRI has not conducted polling specifically on Christian colleges and universities’ hiring and admissions policies, PRRI data shows that 82% of Americans favor laws protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing. At the same time, over one-third of Americans support religiously based refusals to serve LGBTQ people, suggesting that there is a higher tolerance for such policies when religion is involved.”
@engaygetheculture It’s more than just flags at graduation. Our whole campus has been protesting SPU’s homophobic employment policies for a month straight. Welcome to the resistance. We’re happy to have you. #pride #lgbtq #gay #pridemonth #resistance #protest #seattle #fyp #hiregayprofs #college ♬ About Damn Time – Lizzo
The @engaygetheculture account has documented other forms of activism the collective has been engaging in on-campus, such as sleeping outside the President’s office, coordinating mass marches and protests across the university in an attempt to protest “homophobic employment policies.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @engaygetheculture via TikTok comment for comment on this story.
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