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And the school added in a later tweet Thursday that “any form of public expression on university property requires prior approval.” The trail and the letter are owned by BYU (though it must, as a condition of its purchase of the land, provide public access). But no individuals were stopped or questioned.
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When they returned to the trailhead, there were some police cars from the university in the parking lot.
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The students held their lights on the “Y” for an hour, as planned, wrapping up at 9 p.m. “We’ll stand up and say that, no matter what.” She said she hoped the display would show the school that they’re not going anywhere and help other LGBTQ students know there are more like them. “BYU is a hard place for queer kids to feel love and accepted,” said Allison, an LGBTQ student there. Many who spoke to The Salt Lake Tribune asked to be identified by only their first names for fear of being expelled from the private school, which can legally prohibit same-sex couples from dating. Some students who participated said they worried about backlash from the school and potential discipline for joining in the event. When they turned on the flashlights - 76 in total - and turned them toward the concrete, the result could be seen across Provo, with people commenting and posting pictures on social media from miles away.īYU did not authorize the lighting of the Y tonight.- BYU March 5, 2021 The participants were assigned a color and a spot on the “Y” to hold their light so that the letter would appear in rainbow stripes from red at the top to purple at the bottom. “If BYU won’t show their love to us, we’re going to make sure our love is visible to them,” Danny Niemann, a senior and gay student at the school, said before starting the climb.
![rainbow colrs vs gay pride rainbow rainbow colrs vs gay pride rainbow](https://media.wired.com/photos/5b2aa0611d676a57e46672d7/master/pass/Pride-806290406.jpg)
Most of the students were bundled tight in coats and hats and gloves. Only a few houses and street lamps were lit up below. They met at the trailhead after dark Thursday for the one-mile hike, a faint outline of the snowcapped mountain and the white letter on its side barely visible. So this was a day for us to reclaim that and try to turn it into something positive.”Ībout 40 students and allies took part in lighting the “Y.” The group spent days mapping out the 380-foot tall letter and determining where they would need to stand along its borders to light it up. “That day felt like a betrayal for a lot of LGBTQ students,” Talbot said. Talbot, a senior, said the event Thursday was both a commemoration of that day and a condemnation of it.
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And many said they came out as gay only because they believed - and were told by some Honor Code staff - that the school now allowed it.īut they say that was ripped away with a painful reversal when leaders said three weeks later that just because the section was taken out of the code, it didn’t change anything and their relationships were still “not compatible” with the rules at BYU. LGBTQ students had celebrated what they hoped that meant, kissing in front of statues at BYU and holding hands. The lighting of the iconic “Y” in rainbow colors came on the anniversary of when the school, along with the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that owns it, sent out a letter in March 2020 clarifying its stance on same-sex romantic behavior.Ī month earlier, the university had quietly removed the section banning “all forms of physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings” from its strict Honor Code, which outlines what behavior is allowed by those who attend the conservative school. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) A group of people, including many BYU students, shine Pride colors on the Y on the mountain above BYU in Provo on Thursday, March 4, 2021.