Alexey Bulokhov: Confessions of an Equality Rider

Dear Alexey,
Write a beautiful article and neglect to mention it to me.
Thanks.

"Time and again Equality Riders have been told we are affirmed as human beings created in God's image but would not make suitable roommates, teammates, and coworkers. What kind of love can have such distinctions inscribed upon it?"

http://advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid44451.asp

Progress at Pepperdine

I had the opportunity to catchup with outgoing Malibu GLEE president Jamaal Crowley yesterday. He informed me that progress towards making Malibu GLEE into Pepperdine GLEE, complete with school recognition, is going slowly at best. Pepperdine administrators have vowed to keep the conversation going but are uncertain whether GLEE can be recognized. I believe that as this conversation continues, the school will begin to understand that they cannot truly love and support their GLBT students without giving them voice and venue. With official sanction for their group withheld, GLBT Pepeprdine students continue to be second-class students... and even worse, GLBT Christians continue to be second-rate believers.

I was however excited to learn that Jamaal received dozens of emails from queer students--many of them closeted--after our visit. They had seen Jamaal speaking at one of our on-campus events and were so encouraged by his presence and his outreach. This is another way in which Equality Ride has fulfilled its goal of giving GLBT students at schools a voice. The closeted GLBT students who contacted Jamaal now have a person to turn to, a ear who will listen, and a heart who will love and support. It also reinforced the gravity of our present situation. I count myself blessed to have interacted with so many beautiful, faithful, gifted, and passionate individuals at the schools we visited.

At every school I met GLBT students, straight allies, and students willing to honestly consider the issues we presented. But what I often lost sight of were the closeted students, observing from a distance. In a very vague way, I knew they were there. I remember being in the closet myself. I knew that a big part of my personal reason for joining the ride was to witness to them. But they were always that--vague. When Jamaal told me of the outpouring of response he had received it made it all very real. There are closeted GLBT students at these schools and their lives are being changed by our mere presence. I hope that they continue to follow Soulforce and Equality Ride even after we've left. I hope they continue to seek out positive and affirming Christian voices. I hope they continue to draw strength from the LORD who created them--fearfully and wonderfully.

And if they ever decide to step out of the closet, I hope they know they can always talk to us.

Equality Ride @ Pepperdine

I don't even know where to begin. We had 27 hours of events over the course of two days for our stop at Pepperdine. Jillian and I have been working together since January to plan this stop with Dean of Student Affairs Mark Davis and Associate Dean Tabatha Jones and it was beautiful to finally see it come to fruition.

Over the course of two days I saw Pepperdine students and administrators engaged in active dialogue about their school, their community, and how to respond to LGBT issues. To simply describe the events of the days would not do them justice.

Equality Riders listened to presentations by Pepperdine ministers and professors. Pepperdine students and administrators listened to presentations by Equality Riders. There was dialogue constantly. I was able to visit a religion class to talk about inclusive theology and afterwards spent over an hour wrestling with scripture at a table with two Pepperdine students. I got more hugs than I can remember; "Thank you for coming" "God Bless you for what you are doing" "I will never forget this"

I believe that though each person came to the events from a different place, they all came with the same intention: to learn, to love, and to grow. I know that there are capable students at Pepperdine to continue these conversations as we leave and I trust that the community will still have open hearts and minds to hear them and engage them.

Malibu GLEE will be meeting with administrators to talk about the possibility of becoming officially recognized. I hope this happens. A school cannot say that it values all students and continue to deny some of them a voice. I hope that there will be safe spaces for GLBT students and Christians to go and talk. I hope that pastors and professors will be mindful of their language. I hope that slurs and hate-speech will be meet with loving confrontation.

Pepperdine is a beautiful campus populated with beautiful people with beautiful spirits. It is alive and well and I can see that. What we accomplished at Pepperdine would not be possible if they had not already accomplished so much themselves. I trust that they will continue to grow in God's love and wisdom.

First Encounters At Pepperdine

Fellow Pepperdine organizer Jillian Nye and I had our first visit with Dean of Student Affairs Mark Davis and Associate Dean Tabatha Jones today. It was great to sit down face-to-face and get to know each other. Luckily they are very open to our plans for the visit and this has been very much a cooperative effort. We are still pulling everything together but we've already got a bunch of great things to look forward to.

• Morning worship at the Chapel to kick-off our two days together
• Working with the AIDS Awareness postcard writing campaign (it's AIDS Awareness week)
• Talking to Social Justice classes
• Presenting to the students
• Mingling in the cafeteria
• Supper with professors, administrators, student leaders, and GLBT students

Jillian, Mark, Tabatha, and I closed our time together at Heroes Garden on the top of the big mountain on campus with a prayer. It was majestic and beautiful. I praise God for the work that the four of us will do on this campus.