A rally set for Saturday in Waco is expected to draw activists from around the nation to demand that Baylor University adopt a non-discrimination policy for gay and lesbian students.

“I’ve been organizing this rally since October,” said Darrin Adams, founder of baylorfreedom.com, an organization for gay and lesbian students and their allies. “Originally it was slated as a Day of Silence rally, but now it’s in response to Matt’s situation.”

Matt is Matt Bass, a seminary student at Baylor who lost his scholarship after coming out to close personal friends who in turn told a pastor who contacted the university.

In November 2003, two associate deans confronted Bass, demanding the student tell them whether the pastor’s claims were true.
“ It’s none of your business,” Bass told them.

Then they quizzed him on his support for gay rights. When Bass admitted he supported same-sex marriage, that admission was all university officials needed to strip Bass of his scholarships, making it impossible for him to attend school there.

In February the issue of same-sex marriage surfaced again at Baylor when the student newspaper, The Lariat, published an editorial supporting the rights of gays and lesbians to marry in San Francisco. Days later, Baylor President Robert Sloan denounced the editorial, promising it would never happen again.

Against this backdrop, Bass and Adams are urging students and others to rally for change.

“I must speak out because what happened to me was unjust and will happen to others,” Bass explained, saying he sees a relationship between what happened to him and what happened to the staff at Laritat.

“Both issues are issues of academic freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of discourse.” Bass said. “The only thing Baylor can pin on me is that I’m gay and I’m for gay marriages. The Lariat did the same thing. They censored the paper for putting their beliefs on an opinion paper.”

Two of the speakers include Jim Stark and his wife, Cherry Spencer Stark. While they both live in the Atlanta area, Jim Stark’s ties to Baylor go back to the 60’s when he earned both his B.A. and his M.A. in psychology from the University.

Cherry Spence Stark is on the national board of Freedom to Marry, and former board chair of Georgia Equality. She told the Houston Voice the two became interested in Bass’ story when she read that he had been accepted to nearby Emory after having to leave Baylor.

She became involved in gay politics when Cobb County, Georiga passed an anti-gay resolution and pulled funding for a local production of a Terrance McNally play that was organized by a gay couple she knew.

“I went from being a quiet suburbanite to being on ‘Crossfire’ with Pat Buchanaan in a matter of weeks,” she recalled.

Stark said she and her husband cannot stand by and watch freedoms being denied to gays and lesbians at any institution of higher learning.

“We’re irritated with what the university has done with Matt Bass as well as censoring the Lariat,” she added, “and we’re coming to support Matt and all the gay and lesbian kids at Baylor.”

A web site that offers details regarding the rally also notes: “While this event targets Baylor University, a school actively harassing LGBT students and those who support them, we believe this to be part of a grassroots movement around the nation of LGBT and supportive citizens calling for basic civil rights. There are an estimated 600-700 homosexual students at Baylor—none of them should have to endure an environment of fear and ignorance.

The rally starts at 11:00 AM Saturday at Waco’s Heritage Square. Maps and other information regarding the rally can be found at www.bufreedom.com/ u4x.html.

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