Becoming an Activist

This chapter analyses the post-graduation political, career, and family plans of students who participate in LGBT activist groups at Christian colleges and universities. Graduates of direct action groups are, perhaps not surprisingly, the most likely to pursue future involvement in social movements and political campaigns, as they have gained skills in organizing and mobilizing other people. Graduates of educational groups tend to pursue humanistic careers, especially religious institutions, because they have gained leadership skills useful for creating change within existing institutions. Graduates of solidarity groups most commonly report changes in their future family plans, such as desires to enter into more equitable marital partnerships and raise tolerant and accepting children, because their organizations have provided them opportunities to reflect on their personal lives. Finally, graduates of all types of LGBT activist groups report immediate changes in their existing relationships with family members and friends, stating that they have found the courage to come out as members of the LGBT community and to discuss LGBT rights issues in their everyday conversations. The chapter contributes new insights on the biographical consequences of activist groups.

Committing to the Cause

This chapter provides an overview of the three kinds of LGBT organizations at Christian college and universities – direct action groups, educational groups, and solidarity groups – and argues that a correspondence between the ethos of these groups and the identities of participants produces activist commitment. LGBT direct action groups protest their schools’ discriminatory policies toward LGBT people. Perhaps not surprisingly, these groups tend to be led by politicized participants. LGBT educational groups tend to fulfil dual functions – first, providing forums for their participants to collectively discuss their beliefs about LGBT issues, and second, organizing lectures, movie showings, and other events to educate the wider student body about LGBT issues. Because they do not presuppose a commitment to the cause of LGBT rights, these groups tend to be led by religious participants. Finally, LGBT solidarity groups fulfil two kinds of purposes – first, providing a confidential support group to assist LGBT students in their coming out processes, and second, organizing social events that allow LGBT students to meet each other. Because solidarity groups are focused on personal issues facing LGBT people, individuals who identify as LGBT most often lead them. The chapter contributes to sociological theory on activist commitment.

Conclusion

The conclusion chapter provides vignettes of students who, as a result of participating in LGBT groups at Christian colleges and universities, have come to view themselves as activists. Through these vignettes, the chapter reiterates the central theoretical implications of the book – that varieties of activism exist, and that these varieties of activism have implications for how people can understand participation in activist groups and impacts of activist groups. The chapter also outlines several practical implications of the study for those who want to better understand how to create change on their Christian campuses and for those who wish to support students in their efforts.

Creating Change

This chapter addresses the question of how LGBT activist groups impact Christian colleges and universities. Specifically, the chapter analyses the ways LGBT activist groups change campus policies, by pressuring their schools to adopt nondiscrimination policies inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity, and campus climates, by working to create campuses where LGBT people can be open about their sexuality or gender identity without fear of bullying or harassment. The chapter shows that LGBT activist groups are most effective at changing campus policies and climates when they simultaneously engage in conversations about Christianity and LGBT rights and thus transform people’s understandings about what it means to be a Christian university, a Christian community, and an LGBT Christian. LGBT activist groups that avoid these conversations are less successful at creating change at their colleges and universities. The chapter draws on insights on social movements and culture to advance sociological theory on social movement outcomes.

Joining an Activist Group

This chapter addresses the question of why students join LGBT activist groups at Christian colleges and universities. Specifically, the chapter describes the pathways to participation for three groups of activists: politicized participants, religious participants, and LGBT participants. Politicized participants – those for whom politics and activism are central parts of their identity – all grew up in families that were highly supportive of LGBT rights and had all been involved in some type of activist organization as early as high school. Thus, they arrived at their Christian colleges and universities with a commitment to social justice and a proclivity toward activism. Conversely, religious participants – those whose religious convictions were most salient in their decisions to join LGBT groups – had all been raised in families that condemned homosexuality, and none had been involved in previous social movements. Only a few of these individuals even supported LGBT rights by the time they joined. Finally, LGBT participants – those who personally identify as LGBT but lack strong political or religious convictions – are the most diverse lot, but they all hold in common their basic support for LGBT rights and an interest in meeting other people like them. The chapter advances sociological theory on micromobilization.

The Context of Change

This chapter addresses the question of how something that seemed unthinkable even in the early 2000s – LGBT inclusion at Christian colleges and universities – has suddenly become possible. Specifically, the chapter provides an historical overview of three currents of the LGBT movement – the emergence of the LGBT rights movement as a force in U.S. politics, the spread of Gay-Straight Alliances across U.S. schools, and the inroads by LGBT advocates into religious denominations – and argues that the increasing openness of some Christian denominations to LGBT equality in particular has emboldened LGBT and allied students working to advance LGBT equality on Christian college and university campuses. The chapter then provides descriptive statistical data on the presence of LGBT groups and inclusive nondiscrimination statements across all Christian colleges and universities in the United States. The chapter shows that it is when Christian colleges and universities are affiliated with Christian denominations that maintain a historical body of social justice teachings that they are most inclusive of LGBT students.

Introduction

This introductory chapter reviews the central problem facing past theories of activist group participation: the assumption that all activists share the same motivations for joining and committing to activist groups and that all activists follow the same biographical pathways after participating in activist groups. The chapter illustrates this problem through a vignette of three activists mobilizing for LGBT equality at their Christian colleges and universities, one who fits the traditional portrait of a highly politicized activist, but two others who come from relatively conservative or apolitical backgrounds and contradict most assumptions about activists. After outlining the book’s intervention into the literature on activist group participation, the chapter then addresses the question of why readers should care about issues facing LGBT students at Christian colleges and universities, even though the federal government currently allows Christian colleges and universities to discriminate against LGBT people and even though LGBT people could theoretically choose to attend other schools. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the qualitative, in-depth interview data on 65 students at the book’s four primary sites, specifically, Belmont University, the Catholic University of America, Goshen College, and Loyola University Chicago.