Rice student boards bus for Equality Ride
Cross-country journey to address LGBTQ issues

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

Like many Rice University students, Darren Arquero is heading out of town for his spring break, but unlike the others, he will remain gone through the semester. On Feb. 25 he boarded a bus bound for a two-month, cross-country journey to colleges and universities that have policies that discriminate against students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ).

DARREN ARQUERO

Arquero was the only student from the Houston area to be selected for the fourth annual Soulforce Equality Ride, which will stop at a variety of religious colleges and universities to meet with campus administrators and students and engage local communities on a range of issues, from the relationship between faith and sexuality to the intersections of race and gender.

“This will be the first time that I will be speaking about LGBTQ issues in front of people who don’t see me as human but rather a sexual act,” Arquero said. “I’m so used to being at Rice and not having my sexual identity being an issue, considering how inclusive our student/faculty policies are. I am nervous yet very excited to have been selected to join as a rider in this movement. I know that I couldn’t have gotten to this point without the enduring support of friends and family.”

Inspired by the Freedom Rides of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, the Equality Ride began in 2006 to address the more than 200 U.S. colleges and universities with explicit policies that discriminate against LGBTQ students. Developed by Soulforce Q –the youth-driven arm of the national LGBTQ social-justice organization Soulforce — the Equality Ride has stopped at nearly 70 academic communities since its inception. Riders have led vigils, classroom presentations, worship services and an assortment of direct actions to draw attention to the dangers of religion-based discrimination.

“Like past Equality Rides, we hope to open dialogue on campus about issues affecting LGBTQ youth,” said Brown College senior Caitlin MacIntyre, director of the Equality Ride. “But we’re also looking to build relationships between campus and the surrounding community to keep that conversation alive.”

Within Texas, the Equality Ride will visit Baylor University, Hardin Simmons University and Abilene Christian University. Their complete route is charted at http://www.soulforce.org/article/1601.

Arquero said he is saddened that these and more than 200 colleges and university have rules that discriminate against LGBTQ students.

“They are creating environments that are hostile toward LGBTQ individuals and create fear for those in the closet,” he said. “Further, some of these Christian universities still outpatient LGBTQ students to reparative therapy organizations when numerous psychological associations have found such ‘treatments’ to be unhealthy and dangerous. Of course, these schools are entitled to their religious beliefs, but when such jeopardizes the safety of students — something needs to be altered.”

Arquero hopes to be a voice in the alteration. Before his trip, he talked with Rice News about why he is participating, what he hopes to accomplish and how Rice has supported his endeavors. The trip will be the basis for his honors thesis for his major in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Q. What compelled you to become an Equality Rider?

A. What most attracted me to the Equality Ride was the fact that it resembles the type of radical activism present during the 1960s, most specifically the March on Washington and the Freedom Rides. It seems like history goes through periods where society deems one group to be stigmatized for very ignorant reasons — blacks in the 1800s, Jews during World War II — and the present-day “black sheep” are LGBTQ individuals. As the Equality Ride is peaceful but confrontational in nature and is the closest thing to grassroots activism for LGBTQ folk, this seemed like the right fit for me.

Q. What do you hope to accomplish?

	Arquero and his fellow riders reflect during their last training session. The first stop on their Equality Ride is Valley Forge Christian College in Phoenixeville, Pa.

A. Ideally I would like to inspire students to make their schools change policies that discriminate against LGBTQ students by including the words “gay,” “lesbian,” “bisexual,” “transgender” and “queer” as characteristics protected in student/faculty handbooks. I also hope we can meet with student leaders to help them establish “safe places” where LGBTQ students can meet. Just like Rice has Queers & Allies, it would be neat to lay the groundwork for queer-straight alliances at these colleges and universities.

Q. Is there anything you want gain from this experience?

A. I honestly hope to take away more of a backbone!

Q. Are you looking forward to seeing the country?

A. I am most looking forward to learning from the rest of the Equality Riders and all of the people I will meet on the road, as far as being exposed to new ideas and lines of thought. I am also very excited to travel half of the country; I consider myself a pretty extensive world traveler, but I’ve never really travelled around the United States.

Q. What makes you anxious or nervous about this journey?

A. Having people judge everything about me based on one aspect of my life is a scary thought. Many of these communities we will be visiting have never been exposed to affirming LGBTQ people of faith, so I am also frightened for my emotional and physical safety.

Q. As far as LGBTQ diversity, acceptance and support, how do you find the Rice campus?

A. The fact that my sexual orientation is never an issue just goes to show how accepting our campus is of LGBTQ individuals. The “Rice bubble” is honestly a safe space, but that’s about it. Rarely do LGBTQ community issues such as gay marriage or “don’t ask, don’t tell” ever get publicity as far as campus events go for social causes. For the most part, though, Rice is an amazing place that has always felt like home to me.

Q. What does it personally mean to you to have the opportunity to go on this journey for justice?

A. It is difficult to put into words how much on a personal level this means to me. Most of the time when we hear about discrimination being experienced in the LGBTQ community, it is usually in the form of physical or verbal violence; rarely are cases of spiritual violence ever covered. I did not come to this realization until I had to write a personal statement about what the ride meant to me for Soulforce:

Sunday Catholic Mass always found me sitting precariously in church pews, listening to the words of a God who I believed closed his doors to me as a gay believer. For 14 years I had ingrained in me — by leaders who I thought held the infallible word of God — that being gay constituted a violation of divine and natural law. It was not until I had the courage to pick up the Bible myself that I was able to examine his word that, for too long, I had been told was condemning of me. Through constant tears in struggling with my faith, I finally came to the realization that he is a loving God, one that looks into the heart of each person for righteousness and compassion — two traits I struggle to live by daily. To me, the ride will not be measured by its success or its failure at changing school policies. While such tangible changes like this would be an amazing outcome and a testament to the passion of those who are riding with me, I must say I hope for the same thing that Mother Teresa has said: “I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness.” My story is just one out of many — a story that I hope will turn fear into love and ignorance into acceptance.