Our days at Gordon College began with a Sunday night chapel service. Many of our riders were in attendance while some stayed back to tweak presentations. The chapel was dark, with two single candles at the front. Students led the worship service. Worship songs were sung, Scriptures read, and prayers offered up as Equality Riders and Gordon students joined together.

The second day, which was the first official day on campus, began with a wonderful dinner in the evening with selected students and administrators. The tables were equally mixed with Riders and members of the Gordon College community. Conversation rang across the room as we had the perfect opportunity to discuss the oppressive policy toward LGBT students that Gordon hails.

Later that evening, a group of Equality Riders shared a presentation entitled, “Loving Like Jesus.” A rebuttal was given by Dr. Stan Gaede. There was also a question and answer session where students passed up index cards with their questions to the moderator.

After leaving the pack-out presentation in the chapel, Riders field questions from students during a more informal discussion time in the student center. Conversations continued for over two hours before we retired to our hotel for the night.

The second official day began with a presentation from the “spiritual violence” team. Members of this group told the stories of many GLBT people who are survivors of spiritual and physical violence. Gordon offered a professor of Sociology for the morning rebuttal. He didn’t present a rebuttal, though. His presentation detailed examples of society’s “othering” of groups of people that helped them detach from the emotional response to the oppression of these groups. It was refreshing to hear that someone actual got.

Equality Riders were invited to visit and speak in a few of Gordon’s classes. I, along with two other Riders, met with the Student Government executive board. During this time, we discussed the steps that Student Government could take to foster a safe environment for the students they represent. Mobilization of LGBTQ students and allies, the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance and possible future plans were discussed as foundational measures in forming a safe environment.

The day ended with lunch in the student cafeteria and another two hours of dialogue with students. I feel that most students welcomed the chance to discuss these human rights issues.

On Friday April 20, our second day in the Cedarville area, we met with community members for lunch at the Coretta Scott King Center on the campus of nearby Antioch College. Several openly LGBT alumni of Cedarville came to the lunch and we had the opportunity to share a meal and talk to them about their experience at the school. These brave alumni were also present for some of the activities on the Cedarville campus the day before.

Later on Friday, a church in Dayton, Ohio hosted the Equality Riders for a dinner with a variety of delicious home-cooked food. The dinner was followed by a worship service that included lots of music and a talk from local pastors who are affirming of LGBT people.

Overall, the visit to Cedarville was encouraging because we were able to have so many conversations with students. Although the administration welcomed the Equality Riders onto their campus and the students we met were friendly, it is clear that the environment for
LGBT students at the school still needs a lot of work. Several of the riders have stayed in touch with students from Cedarville who continue to ask questions and converse about faith and what it means to be gay, lesbian or transgender. Our visit helped to start a dialogue that we
hope will continue.

Our first day in Massachusetts was in the middle of a Noreaster! After traveling from New York City, we went to the Unitarian Universalist Church in Danvers for dinner and a service. There were several people who stood up to share beautiful songs and words of encouragement, and we left feeling refreshed and ready for our first evening at Gordon College the next day
in spite of the continued downpour.
Following a dinner with selected faculty and students, we gave a presentation on “Loving Like Jesus” in the chapel to the Gordon College student body. After our presentation, there was a time for us and the professor Gordon had selected to respond to us to answer questions written down by audience members.
I always enjoy hearing directly from the student body, and there were several thoughtful questions that led to some great discussion when we went back to the student union after our time in the chapel was over.
I walked down the short path from the chapel to the student union with some students who had stopped me after the presentation. I honestly feel that out of all of the schools we have been to so far, I was able to have the most genuine conversations about the complexity of the Christian faith with students at Gordon. The students that I interacted with during that first night seemed to have an appreciation for the idea that our human understanding is finite, and that God’s truth has been revealed to us gradually over time in history. I came away from the table feeling like I had been sitting with my family in an actual dialogue instead of simply an exchanging of ideas.
I can’t pretend to know whether this should be attributed to any preparations that the Gordon community made before our arrival, or even whether the sample of students I spoke with are indicative of the rest of the population on campus, but I can say that I felt glad to be in the company of other people who continue to test their own faiths.
There are obviously still changes that I would like to see made on Gordon’s campus in order to make it a safe space for their LGBT students, but I felt a great sense of integrity in the community’s approach to their conversations with us. I felt like the people I spoke to were able to agree that the past treatment of LGBT people within the church is unacceptable, and that they are searching for the next steps they can take.
I look forward to seeing what the next day will bring.

Equality Riders woke up earlier than we ever had previously to start our day on Messiah’s campus. We left at 5:45 am from Virginia to get to Messiah in time for breakfast with selected students from major campus organizations and faculty. We stepped off the bus and a group of all women greeted us. Not only that, but the President of Messiah, Kim Phipps, is only one of only three women who hold a presidential position at a christian college in the country.
A handful of students guided the Equality Riders around campus to give us a tour. Shawn and I left our tour to go to an English Literature class that invited us to come and speak. As Shawn and I were walking into the building, we saw the group RepentAmerica. The group was well aware that we were visiting Messiah College that day, and showed up to hand out flyers and to protest against the LGBT community with signs. When I walked into the classroom, I was taken aback about how many people had RepentAmerica literature on their desks. But it was a great way to address what RepentAmerica was saying. Curt, Abby, Shawn and I were invited to discuss The Color Purple and the relationship that exists between Celie and Shug. We spoke about the false notions of the LGBT community; specifically the idea that all people who are LGBT are survivors of abuse. We continued the panel discussion and spoke about the history of Equality Ride, and shared our stories.
I left the English Literature class and RepentAmerica was still outside in the same spot. They were distributing literature and they had huge groups of students gathered around them. They were preaching and being extremely loud about the message that they had come to share. I saw a student at Messiah becoming very vocal in disagreement about what RepentAmerica was saying and I saw other students engaging and agreeing with their message. I began going up to students and asking them if they wanted to come and talk with me. I started talking to a couple students and before I knew it, the huge group that had been in front of RepentAmerica was now gathered in front of me. The students and I began engaging in dialogue, asking each other questions and sharing stories. I watched as the student then began to share their stories with other students within the circle. RepentAmerica eventually came over, and tried to take control of the conversation and I politely responding by telling them that I came to talk to the students at Messiah and not to them. I repeated myself a couple times, and then the students themselves began to tell RepentAmerica that they wanted to talk to Equality Ride. Brandy came over and began talking with me and the couple dozen students who were still gathered.
The last plan for the day was a presentation on “Loving like Jesus.” It was a panel discussion that included Jarrett and Mandy, and two people Katie and ___ to represent Messiah. The love that Mandy and Jarrett talked about was Jesus’s all-encompassing love. His love is the kind of love that was extended out to all people, all of humanity. He loved humanity and saw people as they were. His love and graciousness is a love that does not have any conditions attached to it. I love you as a person, BUT I don’t love your sin is something that time after time we all hear. Mandy continued to talk about her experience as a student who had attended a school that Equality Ride went to last year. Equality Ride for her was a time in her life that marked an experience where she heard open affirming people of faith. If she had attended Messiah, she would have never heard the affirming voices of the Equality Ride last year when they came to her school.
After the panel, I spoke with Messiah students who did not agree with their schools position, and the bible’s position of homosexuality that affects the LGBT community. I spoke to students who couldn’t wait to graduate so that they could be open about their identity and freely walk with their partner openly. I spoke with other students who felt that love was the most important quality in relationship, not gender. A group of students wore shirts that had the gender symbols on them that expressed couplings of same-gender couples. The students who wore the shirts were not all queer, many of them are allies who continued to engage in dialogue with us because they were exploring faith, love and sexuality. They were honest about their knowledge or lack there of, but were committed to exploring and understanding.
The day ended with discussion with the President and other selected administration. They wanted to know how the day went and more than anything, they wanted to know how they could help their LGBT students. Never before has all of the Equality Riders been involved in a dialogue with the administrators about how the day went, and how the discussion and conversation can continue after Equality Ride leaves. It was great to see that the administration was so dedicate and sincerely interested in bring attention to the discussion of faith, sexuality and love at Messiah College.
We left Messiah and headed to a nearby house were the students from Messiah showed us genuine hospitality. A house full of students and Equality Riders continued the conversation over a home-cooked meal. Our dinner was wonderful. A gay alumni from Messiah spoke to the group about being gay and Christian. The students were in the midst of understanding and stating so honestly that they did not know where they were at, they didn’t know how they felt, but they knew that the recognition of the humanity of LGBT people was at the forefront of what they knew was right. They were interested about our lives and how they could continue to be allies.

As we drove through the Lincoln Tunnel, my heartbeat became faster; I was almost home—the landscape no longer sprawling grass fields spotted with cows but rather highways spotted with trash. To be honest, I have kind of missed the trash—because alongside the trash comes a community that actually applauds the work we, as equality riders, have been doing. Growing up in New York, my exposure to negative attitudes towards the GLBTQ community has been limited, almost non-existent. Having never encountered the hatred many of my fellow riders have endured throughout their entire lives, the past month and a half on the road has opened my eyes to an array of different forms of violence—violence of the mind, heart, and tongue.

I felt welcomed back to my city as the 26 of us riders entered the fundraiser held to raise money for our journey. Instead of being met with signs of hate, we were welcomed with open arms and embraced. A breath of fresh air in the middle of New York City—who would have thought?! Each one of us shared our experiences, observations, and thoughts about the ride thus far with Soulforce NY and fundraiser attendants. As we spoke, images of the past month and a half were projected onto both the wall and ceiling of the lounge. Looking at those images, I find it so hard to believe that our journey is almost over, at least the actual ride—I realize that our work is a journey far from being over.

I was overwhelmed with pride when the 2007 Equality Ride received a Proclamation of Recognition by the New York City Council and House of Representatives. A friend of mine, one I have had since pre-school, came to support us, and came up to me at the end of the presentation in tears, thanking us for everything we have been doing for the GLBTQ community. This was a common greeting from most we encountered that night–just a feeling of overwhelming support for and recognition of our commitment to social justice.

As I traveled into Brooklyn, my home, that evening, I looked at the people sitting beside me on the F train–all different colors, ages, creeds, orientations–and we were all so peaceful just sitting there. Traveling around the country on a big gay bus has really put my life in perspective, and finding myself in New York after visiting the Deep South and having been to jail for justice, really put me in a place of peace. We have two weeks left til each of us returns to our respective homes, and I think I can say with a clear conscience that not a single one of us will be returning home the same person as when we left.