Invisible at Oral Roberts

This is the fourth in a series of Advocate dispatches from the Equality Ride. Sponsored by Soulforce, the ride is taking 33 young LGBT activists on a nationwide tour of college campuses with policies that call for ejecting openly gay and lesbian students. Its first three stops—Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.; Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va.; and Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn.—led to a lot of constructive dialogue as well as some arrests for “trespassing.” This dispatch was written by Equality Rider Rachel Powell.

Weeks before our planned March 20 visit to Tulsa, Okla., I could tell that the Soulforce Equality Ride visit to Oral Roberts University would not be pleasant. Fellow rider Nathan and I exchanged phone calls back and forth each time a new letter came from ORU vice president Ralph Fagin, and we kept considering how to respond to Fagin’s repeated statement that “our campus will not be available to your group.” Still, we on the Equality Ride pledge to continuously attempt to dialogue until the very day we arrive on campus, so I held out hope.

We drove into Tulsa on the Sunday night before our visit to the school and realized that we were now facing two demands to turn away: the first from VP Fagin, the second from the weather. The forecast for our Monday visit: high of 44 degrees, 90% chance of rain. Knowing that discrimination against LGBT students is worse than any weather condition, we drove our bus out to Helmerich Park Monday morning to greet the 36-degree air and light mist.

Police presence greeting Equality Riders at Oral Roberts University.

We arrived at the park and met with a few Oklahoma residents who had also braved the weather to come out and stand with us at ORU. Nathan did a run-down of the nonviolent training while I met with Captain Tim Jones of the Tulsa Police Department. He offered me a short tour of the ORU campus, at least the area we would be allowed to be on.

We made light conversation as he drove the mile from the park to the campus, and when he parked across the street from campus, I studied what was becoming the usual for the ride: police tape about three feet into campus from the road, cones and barricades, and about 20 officers in uniform.

After returning to the park and getting everyone on the bus, we drove to ORU and parked temporarily while an ORU representative and a Tulsa police representative spoke a few words to us. The Tulsa cop gave us the usual warning that they must uphold trespassing laws, but the ORU representative surprised us with his curt warning, which was hardly longer than his statement: “We love you, but don’t come on our campus.”

The riders filed out of the bus and onto the sidewalk across the street from ORU and we began holding our silent vigil. This time we were equipped with tall posters, each bearing the face of an individual who had been beaten, killed, or driven to suicide for being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.

Media crush as Equality Riders cross the street to the campus of ORU and waiting police.

After our vigil in the harsh cold, Jake, Nathan, and I each spoke a few words for the media about what the Equality Ride was and why we were visiting Oral Roberts University. When the cameras stopped rolling, we knew it was time to make our stand and to cross the street to bring our message to campus. One by one, seven riders and two community members approached the police line, read a positive, love-inspiring Bible verse, and crossed the line onto campus.

Each of them was arrested.