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.