Equality Riders cuffed for criminal trespassing

Soulforce passes through Rexburg

• Anthony Sheehan / News Editor
• posted: 24 Apr 2007
• scrollnews@byui.edu

Eight members of Soulforce, a lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) activist group, were arrested after trespassing on the BYU‑Idaho campus last Monday at 2:00.

Soulforce’s “Equality Ride” is a bus tour that visits 32 religious campuses throughout the nation, which included the BYU‑I campus on Saturday, April 14 through Tuesday, April 17.

The 26 members congregated for a series of silent demonstrations at two locations adjacent to the BYU‑I campus.

Police were nearby when Soulforce carried out their peaceful demonstrations. Captain Randy Lewis of the Rexburg Police Department said that additional officers were deployed to make sure that traffic did not slow down and that the rights of Soulforce and of BYU‑I were protected.

If Soulforce encroached onto the private campus, “they knew exactly what would happen,” said Lewis. The eight people who were arrested were charged with a misdemeanor citation of criminal trespassing, which carries up to a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.

Despite these arrests, Lewis feels that Soulforce was not a threat to the BYU‑I campus. “They are really a very peaceful group.”

“We respect the institution and its rights, but we still have a spiritual and moral obligation to bring the dialogue to the students,” Alexey Bulokhov, co-director of the Equality Ride, said.

Although Rexburg residents and BYU‑I students were encouraged to act with Christ-like kindness, Bulokhov said that Soulforce received e-mails with more “derogatory rhetoric from BYU‑I than from any other campus [they] have visited.”

No one showed outward hostility during Soulforce’s demonstrations, but their bus was egged and shot with a blue paintball on Tuesday night by unidentified vandals.

“The act was more indicative of immaturity than of any malicious action,” said Bulokhov.

The Rexburg City Police escorted Soulforce to a local car wash and helped them wash the side of their bus.

At a picnic open to the public at Porter Park on Tuesday, about 20 members of the community attended along with the Soulforce riders.

Matt Kulisch, one of the Soulforce participants on the Equality Ride, is a Member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and served a mission in the England London Mission. He was suspended from BYU in Provo for his participation in the Soulforce demonstration at BYU last year.

“Being here reminds me of my mission,” said Kulisch. “You can’t always see the effects of your labors immediately. Understanding this is one of the great things about our religion.”

“Our ultimate goal is to end religion-based oppression and to engage the general public,” Bulokhov said.

Bulokhov said that it is difficult to measure the success of their demonstrations. “Our success here is not quantifiable. We feel that by simply being here, we are successful by default.”

Soulforce was only able to start a conversation with a few dozen students at BYU‑I, said Bulokhov. However, they were more influential at BYU in Provo, where administration recently revised the Honor Code to clarify the school’s stance on homosexuality.

BYU’s Honor Code now reads, “One’s stated sexual orientation is not an Honor Code issue. However, the Honor Code requires all members of the University community to manifest a strict commitment to the law of chastity. Homosexual behavior or advocacy of homosexual behavior are inappropriate and violate the Honor Code.”

Bulokhov said that Soulforce commends BYU on its “willingness to engage Soulforce members in conversation and to take them seriously.”

However, he said that BYU “still has a long way to go.”