‘Equality Ride’ returns to Miss. College to promote gay rights
Soulforce, a national organization promoting gay rights that last year protested at Mississippi College, is making a return visit Sunday and Monday.
The organization issued a news release today saying that the Soulforce Q Equality Ride bus tour will come to the private Baptist college at 8 p.m. Sunday for a candlelight vigil on College Street, a public street across from the Aven Arts Building.
Another vigil, at 9 a.m. Monday, will follow the Sunday vigil.
At 1 p.m. Monday, Soulforce officials said in their news release, Equality Ride members will attempt “to go on campus.”
MC officials were contacted today for comment, but had not by noon.
College administrators forbade Equality Ride protesters from setting foot on college property when the tour came to MC on March 22, 2007. When four of the protesters deliberately crossed onto the grassy area across from Aven, they were arrested by Clinton police and charged with misdemeanor trespassing.
The group “will bring a message of safety and inclusion to Mississippi College,” Soulforce said in its news release.
“The Equality Ride promotes safe educational settings for all students, including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender,” the release said.
Soulforce officials said in the news release that when the tour visited MC last year, “Clinton police issued a written warning that riders would be arrested for congregating in groups of four or more near the campus.
After the ACLU of Mississippi intervened, Soulforce officials said, Clinton police backed down.
The group said that when its riders left the city, “they were stopped three times by police vehicles within less than 10 minutes. Their driver was subjected to threatening demands to ‘get out of town.’ ”
Clinton police denied the allegations.
The group says MC is one of more than 200 U.S. colleges and universities have explicit policies that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students.
Mississippi College’s student handbook says that extramarital and premarital sex and homosexual behavior is not tolerated on campus. It says nothing about banning homosexuals from enrollment.
In the news release, Soulforce staff say they have contacted a number of MC students, including one “who feels that coming out is not a possibility for her. She has stated that she fears the repercussions of coming out and the reactions of her peers and administration.”
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KUDOS!! :)) 
I wish i could be there too
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