As a Christian, nothing gets under my skin more than seeing other supposed Christians using our faith as a way to justify homophobia. I have always felt that one of the main takeaways from the Bible is that you should love and respect all people, no matter who they are. It makes no sense to me how any Christian could say they love all people and then in the same breath preach homophobia.

How can two people loving each other not be upholding the ideals of Christianity when the whole point of Christianity is to spread love?

I was reminded of the hypocrisy of these types of Christians when I saw that Brigham Young University has banned same-sex relationships on their campus. They claim that these relationships, "cannot lead to eternal marriage and is therefore not compatible with the principles included in the Honor Code." As I read the comments of BYU students responding to this statement from their university, they explained that the BYU's Honor Code director had previously told them that same-sex relationships and the romantic expressions of these relationships were allowed on campus and not punishable.

If this is the case, then I am even more disgusted than I already was.

It is already despicable to tell your LGBTQ students that they are not allowed to show affection to their partners on campus, but to first make these students believe that they are safe to be themselves on campus and then change your mind and say they are not? It is truly one of the most horrific things that could have been done to these students.

Homophobia runs rampant in Christianity, so the LGBTQ students of BYU must have been thrilled to see that they had the support of their university. It was only after many students came forward as being in the LGBTQ community that BYU released their statement saying that same-sex relationships were not allowed under the Honor Code. These students could now be facing punishment from the university simply for being gay, which they were led to believe would not be an issue.

BYU should be ashamed to even call themselves a Christian university because this is not what Christianity stands for. Stop trying to pretend you are righteous when you have hate in your heart.

The OUT Foundation has created a GoFundMe to come up with transfer funds for LGBTQ BYU students that no longer feel safe on campus and want to transfer to a different university. If you would like to donate, you can do so here. I hope that this GoFundMe is able to help these students get out of this toxic environment.