Carri Jenkins, an assistant to the president of Brigham Young University, says that the LGBT students who made a depressing “It Gets Better” video won’t be punished unless they act on their gay feelings, which is against the Mormon college’s Honor Code.
Jenkins went on to say that for the video alone, the students would not be punished. The honor code, Jenkins said, is “based on conduct, not on feeling, and if same-gender attraction is only stated, that is not an honor code issue.”
All BYU students sign on to the honor code upon enrollment. The code outlaws premarital sex and breaking the code “may result in actions up to and including separation from the university.”
“Homosexual behavior is inappropriate and violates the honor code. Homosexual behavior includes not only sexual relations between members of the same sex, but all forms of physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings,” reads the honor code.
“Homosexual behavior is inappropriate and violates the honor code. Homosexual behavior includes not only sexual relations between members of the same sex, but all forms of physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings.”
So that’s probably why none of the kids in the video looked very happy. Because, in addition to being told they’re aberrations from the norm sexually, they can’t even act on their feelings to see how healthy and fulfilling a gay relationship can be—sex included.
Are straight Mormons at BYU being kicked out for having sex? I at least hope these students are allowed to masturbate. Because if the “It Gets Better” campaign needs a helping hand anytime, I have an idea for a “Just Jack Off” project.
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Here’s their IGB video again:
Jawsch
Yes, Heterosexual Mormons can (and have) been kicked out for having premarital sex. If they are married, it’s fine. (Have a friend who attends BYU and is married)
tinkerbell
That is an insane religion. The difference is that heterosexual students have the OPTION of getting married…gay students do not. So, are these kids supposed to remain celibate the rest of their lives??? Sounds a lot like the Catholic priests…. Just sayin’
Bob
The Catholic Church totally rejects gays, so I left the church at 12 years old (I knew then already). These kids need to get away from that Mormon toxic environment for their own sake. There are other religions that will embrace you.
Tim Channell
Thank God I am not Mormon….The God I know loves me for who I am, What the heck is wrong with this college??? God don’t HATE people regardless, it is not wrong to be who u r…I wish these students and other students like this would come talk to me, because than they would see being gay is no different than being straight, these poor students are so brainwashed , I would be ashamed to call myself a Mormon, an to say God hates this and that, obviously they don’t know my God, the true God of Heaven.
DonsterNYC
This is so very wrong! The code seems to imply that two people of the same sex holding hands will get them tossed out. Do opposite sex couples holding hands get tossed as well?
Bob
Oh, Adam, Adam, Adam, I’ll become a Mormon if you’ll become a gerontophile!
RedAssault
So while it might get “better” it also gets “frustrating” and the gay mormons get “none.”
Idiots. All of them.
kouros
yup, its not just the gay students its also the straight students. while the gay students may not hold hands they at least have the capacity to do so hiding since they are “same sex”, this religion has it very hard to females and males to be together EVER before marriage, so for them i guess they feel like gay is cheating the celibacy they are trying to enforce on sexual beings. I have friends that go there, its not just sex, the honor code is so much more than that..try smoking a ciggarate, drinking, or drugs..ur out
biqueerdenver
Yet another reason to JUST SAY NO to Mormonism! They are the most Homophobic, hateful, Conservative, living in the 19th Century, backwards, stupid, asshole religion in Amerikka! I hate most all religions in general. Atheism rocks! I applaud the BYU kids for making the video, but FUCK BYU and the church for being so backward and hateful.
robbieoros
i sure love the TOLERANCE all u gay guys have or perhaps don’t have. The deal in Christianity is as the commandments go…Tho shall not have adultery or anything like unto it! thus saith the Lord.
What the LDS church is suggesting to non married members…abstain from sex be u gay or str8….so with this i would gather that the Mormon church is condoning gay marriage? for they are preaching to str8 members and gay members abstain from sex until marriage.
So…u do the math…its clear to me that gay members can have sex once they are married…
so what is all the crap about here?
I submit all of you need to accept what u all seem to preach..TOLERANCE…for clearly by the remarks on his site…the word, the definition of TOLERANCE is not only forsaken…but gives me pause if any of you know how to spell the word TOLERANCE and once that is learned, how about learning the definition or do just the opposite of what is being done here and all will be well…
now…move on…get a life, allow people their right to choose, as the Lord has given that right at birth…but seems Mr Obama aka Barry Dunham wants to intervene and take that away from all of us…and be a dictator in his second term, claim Marshall law and he stays in POWER until he is dead…wise up guys…if u need more proof…read Atlas Shrugged…and any questions at that point, will certainly be entertained at that time.
Make it a great day…
Chad
So heterosexuals can kiss and hold hands while gays can’t express their same gendered affectio?. How inhumane is that?!!!!!! And Im not even talking about sex!!
Ban all relationships and see how loud the straights scream!
cam
Funny, BYU didn’t kick out that basketball player who admitted having sex with his girlfriend, and I personally know a few people that got caught having sex there (Hetro) who were not kicked out.
Interesting that it’s only the ones having gay sex that get expelled.
Mk_Ultra_again
I don’t care about the “small but incremental steps” that Mormon brainwashing cult is taking.
While they are inching towards something that kinda, sorta from the right point of view, in the right light, at the right time of day, might resemble acceptance, young, gay Mormon kids are killing themselves.
When children kill themselves because of religious doctrine, there is no credit or forgiveness because that religion “is slowing getting there.”
Making little gestures while still being largely homophobic does not make up for for being the cause of who knows how many suicides.
tookietookie
People shouldn’t even go to BYU anyway. People who say otherwise are just being politically correct, but it is not considered a credible education in academic circles.
Red Assault
These Mormon gay people are not making it better..l they’re making it worse.
Much worse
By trying to put forth the image that Mormons are Anyang but swine, they’re enabling the homophobic, sexist and racist organization that has caused nothing but pain and suffering for the gay community. Those fuckers should be ashamed of themselves. Hope they all get expelled, ex-communicated and end up homeless on the street like the thousands of cast-away gay kids their cult had created.
jason
“Sexually activé” is such an elastic term. Having one sexual partner for 5 years is sexually active. Having 500 parnters in a year is sexually active. What do they mean, exactly, by “sexually active”?
Adam Sass
This is progress, small, but progress nevertheless. It’s progress like a coma patient starting to blink.
James M. Martin
It’s OK to be gay but don’t have sex? This is like saying love the sinner, hate the sin. Why is it sinful? Mormon dogma. Why did the Mormons ban black people? Religious dogma. (Not limited to Mormons: both books of the bible approve of slave ownership, which I had thought made the subject of secular law almost two centuries ago.) Until the federal government tells them that unlike polygamy, gay is OK, they are going to go on discriminating against queer people. As a related issue, I note that Mormons and evangelicals have somewhat radically opposed dogmatic positions, e.g. on the Trinity and the Nicean Creed, the latter a veritable oath of membership in many a protestant and all Catholic faiths. At least we cannot blame Joseph Smith for Emperor Constantine’s murder, in the name of Saul/Paul of Tarsus, dozens of heretical bishops who similarly sided with Arius in debate on the corporeal reality of Jesus. Doesn’t matter to people like Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention that the Mormon “Godhead” embraces all three deities, even the holey goats.
GreatGatsby2011
@robbieoros: The LDS church is in no way tolerant of homosexuality and, in case you didn’t get the memo, the ONE thing a tolerant person isn’t required to tolerate is intolerance. So, that established, the Mormon faith is whackadoo and any gay member of that church should run as far as they can, as fast as they can.
And “Marshall law”? Really??? I submit that you should pray to your “God” for a dictionary.
Paul
I just don’t get why these gay kids (or even the straight ones) would want to adhere to such ridig, archaic “rules” or this religion. But that goes for any organized religion, which honestly, is the stupidest thing on this planet.
houston
“I at least hope these students are allowed to masturbate.”
They’re not.
pedro
God knows I’m not here to defend Mormonsim, seeing as much of what they teach is completely against my Catholic faith…But having LDS acquaintances who attended BYU, and who are hetero, believe it or not, they are just as fascist with their straight students…These people are not playing around, and I suppose if you choose to attend a school like this, you know exactly what you’re getting into and therefore deserve zero sympathy when you break the rules and get caught. I attended a Catholic school, and I knew what the rules were and kept them…Don’t like living under conservative rules, don’t attend a conservative college or University…pretty simple really.
Will
NOT masturbating is also part of the “Honor Code”.
Your bishop interviews you once a year to see if you are still worthy of attending the university. You are asked if you are keeping yourself clean by not having premarital sex and by NOT masturbating.
fyi
B
No. 22 · Will wrote, “NOT masturbating is also part of the ‘Honor Code’. Your bishop interviews you once a year to see if you are still worthy of attending the university. You are asked if you are keeping yourself clean by not having premarital sex and by NOT masturbating.”
I guess learning to lie about it while keeping a straight face, or getting married while still an undergraduate, is part of a BYU education. Otherwise they’d have a 90% expulsion rate.
Jonathonz
This was such a sweet video. These kids really seem like they are finding their way in the world. I wish them all the best and hope that they can reconcile their sexual identity to their spiritual lives. It can be done!
RedAssault
@Jonathonz: Are you on drugs? They’re not finding a way in the world, they’re the modern day “Happy Slaves” to a fucked up evil cult. They’re the Uncle Remus of the 21st century.
Those brats should be ashamed of a what a bunch of useless cowards they are. They should be ashamed of defending and giving money to their oppressors.
I wish them all the best too but the “best” would be to leave the cult now. Sadly it’s more likely they’re going to end up another news item of “kids who made it gets better videos and then killed themselves.”
pastol
Religion ruins everything.