Immediately after her graduation gown reveal, Orr said her fellow students were immensely supportive. “I had these courses that were causing me to betray myself through my own homework,” she said.īYU did not immediately respond to multiple CNN requests for comment on the quiz and Orr’s actions on the graduation stage.īYU students and alumni have supported Orr But, in a viral TikTok and in conversation with CNN, she recalled taking a quiz her senior year in which students were given a prompt about the actions of “one who truly loves LGBTQ people.” Orr said the answer she chose, which included unconditional love and acceptance, was marked incorrect. Orr said she was ready to “get to the finish line” and graduate so she wouldn’t have to shield her identity on campus, a process made easier when she was attending classes virtually.
Orr, who was on campus during the whirlwind of celebration and subsequent letdown, called the announcement a “kick in the knees.” Then came the apparent reversal: Two weeks after students celebrated what they believed was a major change to the honor code, the church clarified that “homosexual behavior” was still “not compatible” with the school’s values.
COOL GAY PRIDE BACKGROUND CODE
In 2020, weeks before the pandemic would halt in-person classes, BYU administrators removed a passage from the university’s honor code that explicitly banned “homosexual behavior.” At the time, LGBTQ students were cautiously optimistic that this meant they could be more open about their relationships on campus. In the last two years, LGBTQ students at BYU have seen their school seem to bend to inclusion, only to then double down on exclusion. LGBTQ students were affected by honor code changes “The church didn’t give me my relationship with God the church didn’t give me my spirituality,” she said. She felt confident, after speaking with her best friend and mentor, that her faith and her queerness weren’t at odds with each other.
People I knew could turn me in if they knew. “The only people who knew were my immediate family. “I did keep it hidden,” she said of a past queer relationship. (The church holds that sex is “reserved for a man and woman who are married.”) Orr spent time reconciling her bisexuality with the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which holds that gay, lesbian and bisexual people can “fully and worthily participate in the Church” so long as they don’t act on their same-sex attraction. “It created this inner turmoil and despair, because they’re both so important to me.” “I felt like I was forced to choose between my spirituality and sexuality,” Orr said. Orr said she had been comfortable at BYU until she felt attracted to another woman. To Orr, her faith and identity aren’t at odds “I wanted to do this to be honored, to be seen,” Orr told CNN. Orr said she didn’t intend her rainbow reveal, her younger sister’s suggestion, to stand as a rebuke to her alma mater. The Honor Code Office may investigate reported students and choose to take action against students for perceived offenses, including expulsion from the university, according to BYU. It was a quiet moment of recognition for the years she spent hiding her LGBTQ identity at a school where, Orr said, she feared school administrators and classmates might have turned her in to the school’s Honor Code Office if they discovered she’d been in a same-sex relationship. She took a breath, smiled and opened up her graduation gown to reveal a rainbow Pride flag, which one of her sisters had sewn into the gown’s lining.