National gay rights awareness group Soulforce held a demonstration march on the BYU campus last Tuesday, April 18. Out of the 24 protestors arrested, five were current BYU students.

The protesters walked toward the campus holding lilies. Each protestor represented a gay or lesbian member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who had committed suicide.

A rally was held right outside the campus where, one by one, a biography about each gay member was read. After each biography, the protestor representing the member would walk onto the campus and fall to the ground as if dead.

The protesters were promptly escorted off campus by police officers plainly dressed in suits and ties.

The protestors were arrested because there are certain standards for expressing public opinion on LDS Church school grounds. Policies at BYU are the same as BYU-Idaho.

“They can’t walk on [campus] unless they go through an approval process,” said Michael Lehman, assistant dean of students at BYU-Idaho. “It’s private property. They can’t just walk on.”

According to the BYU-I Student Handbook, “application forms are required for permission to conduct any public expression such as appropriate rallies or gatherings on campus.”

If a BYU-I student wants to receive permission to protest, these forms can be found at the Public Relations Office in Kimball 226. The forms will ask for things like “the date, time and place; who is in charge of the event; who will attend the event; the purpose and planned content of the expression(s); and copies of all literature and other materials intended for display or distribution during the event.”

The Public Relations Office will inform the applicant if the request has been approved or not within five business days. “Requests which require approval by the Executive Committee and the Board of Trustees must be submitted at least two months prior to the event,” according to the handbook.

The content of the protest cannot mention anything against: The LDS Church or its general Church leaders, discourteous about individual persons, and/or the Honor Code.