EP 519 – The Rainbow Connection

Back from his sojourn of self-discovery following the November election is Devin Thorpe! We're happy to have Devin join Geoff this week to work through the news of the day. And what Latter-day Saint news there is! So much Latter-day Saint news!

Have you watched the Netflix docuseries Murder Among the Mormons? Devin has personal connections to the Mark Hofmann bombings in 1985, bringing additional context to those terrible days. Friend of the show, Ben Park, has a great scholarly analysis of the Hofmann affair as a primer.

"Rainbow Day," an effort by BYU students to express solidarity with LGBTQ students at the university, has caused quite a stir in Provo on many fronts. Participants were encouraged to wear rainbows as a sign of support for this non-protest event. Of course, some misinterpreted the event, creating a flyer alleging Rainbow Day involved "protesting church teachings on BYU campus." The flyer was in poor taste, encouraging others to walk around with an umbrella to seek shelter from the storm - the storm of loving your fellow students.

BYU moved swiftly the bring down the flyers, but it also botched its response to perhaps the most notable event of the day, when Rainbow Day participants colored the famed "Y" in the foothills above the university as a rainbow. BYU Police were clear the act was not a form of vandalism, as the coloring simply came from flashlights and nothing was actually, you know, vandalized. But the university responded by saying, "The Y is BYU property and any form of public expression on university property requires public approval." The university could have easily responded with something in addition to that, such as, "While we did not approve this event and want to remind everyone to obtain approval for such actions, BYU stands in solidarity with all its students, including maligned populations such as LGBTQ students and faculty."

But they didn't. Not the end of the world. Just botched PR.

And this on the heels of BYU releasing its excellent report from the Committee on Race, Equity & Belonging, which is an impressive effort by the university to acknowledge racial issues that affect campus life and develop a road map to deal with it. The university truly deserves credit for how seriously it's taking this effort.

But that's not it for BYU news! Related to Rainbow Day, a former BYU student penned a Facebook post about his experiences there as a gay man. His primary plea is that we love and listen to each other.

“You agreed to live by the Honor Code at BYU. If you don’t like it, you should just leave. There are plenty of other...

Posted by Spencer Minnick on Friday, March 5, 2021

Thoughtful words. Easily shareable.

And lastly at the Lord's university, administrators are shifting for hiring practices for religious educators. This has been a longstanding balancing act at B...