Brian, no.

I know that SoulForce is not the right organization to host the Equality Ride.

The Equality Ride and SoulForce do NOTHING to follow up in communities they visit. They leave countless students and community members without resources and facing hostility. Last year, the participants were nothing but martyrs. I know this because my niece is is out lesbian student at one of the schools visited last year.

I know that the Equality Ride has deep impacts (both positively and negatively) on the people who participate on it, but until the focus is REALLY on the communities and students, you will get none of my money.

Hi Jenny,

I have many of the same concerns you do about follow-up with communities we visit. In fact, frustrated at the lack of institutional follow-up, I co-founded Sanctuary Collective, an organization which inspires, empowers, and supports young adults living & organizing in Christian communities, with a fellow Equality Rider. Many of the young adults we work with are students in Christian colleges and universities, including schools that the Equality Ride visited (and some of our support team were Equality Riders).

I’m not sure how to respond to your comment because I don’t want to turn it into a “Nuh uhhhh!!!” comment thread. We can always do better. We Soulforce, we Equality Riders, we concerned humans living in America. We can always do better and if nothing else, I’m thankful that you reminded me never to be complacent.

I’m sure someone can share with you the ways Soulforce facilitates follow-up and support for communities and/or how individual Equality Riders are engaged in follow-up, if you are interested (don’t want to bore you if you’re not). And the Equality Ride directors incorporate input and feedback from students, faculty, alumni, and community members when crafting each ride so I know they would love to hear from you directly if you want to share specific requests.

Cheers!
Brian

Jenny,

I can understand what you are saying about follow-up and I can do so from personal experience as both a student from a bible college that the Ride visited in 2006 and as a 2010 Rider that visited schools and is still following up with students.

When the Ride came in 2006 (its first year) they had not really given as much thought into how intense and life changing and etc that the Ride would be. It felt kind of as if they rolled into town, stirred stuff up, and left.

I didn’t really get a lot of resources (granted I didn’t really ask for any or interact with them as much as I could have) and I felt like the Riders made a lot of promises they couldn’t keep.

It really hurt me a lot when those promises were not kept. I understand that the Riders are people (even moreso now) and that they only get a day or two in the community and no breaks and then they are done with the Ride and have to learn to adjust to their own lives and process and heal themselves. So I understand why it was easy to forget about everything that must or should be done.

During the 2010 Ride (most recent) I made it very clear to my fellow Riders in training that I would not be making, and nor should we as a whole or individually, promises that could not be kept. I think we did a good job of that. I also think there are many Riders who have almost daily interaction with students we met on the Ride. And there were a lot more resources to tap in to and more focus on community stops and engagement too, because the community is who is going to have to receive and support these students after we leave.

I think each year gets better.

Of course there is a lot that is not possible for the Ride to do for all people at all times. But I think we are being more realistic after learning from previous Rides and current activism trends what does and doesn’t work and what we would like to see happen.

I think one of the goals is to create initial dialogue and plug people up with resources for them to get the education and support they need. We do this the best we can, but the result is not just on us, but the student and community have to follow through as well. This is why I am glad we have the soulforce website and forum (I found much help in the forum after they 2006 came to my school as I was coming out and eventually being kicked out of my school). I am also glad for the resource Brian mentioned with Sanctuary Collective. I hope that there continue to be resources and groups that pop up and are created by these students.

While I can understand and sympathize with some of your comments I would say that I am somewhat hurt by them. But I understand they also probably come from a place of hurt and feelings of being let down (or your neice maybe feeling that way). I personally saw even 2006 Riders do a lot to help me and my community and I know that the 2010 Rides (myself included) did/are as well. So please don’t let one instance or person or experience or second hand story leave a bad taste in your mouth. Because I am a first hand story and know many others who have opposite opinions. The 2006 Riders saved my life even though there were some hurts (coming out of that environment there is no way to be left not affected negatively in some way especially while coming out… reconciling your faith and sexuality in a society like ours is very hard and is a lifelong process) the benefits far outweighed the negatives. I hope in turn I was able to help some students this year (I’ve been told I have) the way Soulforce helped me. So yeah, don’t blanket statement everyone in your comments. If you want to say “some” go ahead as I am sure it is true, but we have to educate ourselves and bring light to things in a constructive manner and work to change things for the better and support one another or else we don’t have as much power to help these students and end religious oppression and violence…

I have hope that each year the Ride will get better and we will learn from the past. And I have hope that we can continue to change hearts and minds. I have hope that students like me will take guns out of their mouths when they learn that God loves them without reservation. It isn’t always perfect, in fact it is quite messy, but there is a need for this Ride and right now Soulforce is the only one stepping up to do it. And will continue to do so until others do the same.

Hope that makes sense, I had a long day of classes at my new state school and it kind of blows my bible college mind sometimes… I am ready for bed. Feel free to respond or email me amanda_genaro@equalityride.com

Peace & Strength,
AL