Connect with us

Gay Former Christian College RA To NOM: Recant Your Attack On Gay RAs

Published

on

Last week for Thanksgiving, Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, head of the National Organization For Marriage‘s Ruth Institute, recorded a video attacking gay college RA’s. Most colleges and universities have RA’s, resident assistants or resident advisors, who help students and act as ombudsmen. 

Dr. Morse saw fit to warn parents about gay RA’s — who apparently are everywhere, even at “a Christian college” — and supposedly are pressuring students in a “punitive” manner. Dr. Morse warned parents to have conversations with their children, and seemed to warn parents to be careful their children were not friendly with or even exposed to gay people, who might somehow, without their knowledge, be pressuring young college students, even at “a Christian college.”

Pressuring them about what, and how? Dr. Morse didn’t elaborate.

We invited one former RA from a Christian college, Brandon Habron, who is gay and a New Civil Rights Movement reader, to write Dr. Roback Morse in response, after he expressed his upset about Dr. Roback Morse’s comments via our Facebook page.

We’d like to offer Dr. Roback Morse the opportunity to respond on these pages. We doubt she’ll have the same courage as Brandon Habron, but we hope she will.  

 

An Open Letter To NOM’s Jennifer Roback Morse:

Dear Dr. Roback Morse,

Greetings to you and those at the Ruth Institute.  I have been watching your video posted on November 20, 2012 entitled “A Thanksgiving Message from Dr J” over and over again.  I’ve shared the video with my friends and Facebook followers.  I felt quite hurt by your words, but instead of attacking you like others may, I wanted to explain why I felt attacked.

I am a 23 year old, first generation college graduate residing in Harrisonburg, VA where I attended a small liberal arts Mennonite university.  At this school, I served as a resident advisor (RA) during my sophomore, junior, and senior years.  I began the arduous process of coming out as a gay man in my sophomore year.  It is my understanding that most of the students in the school knew I was gay before the end of my sophomore year, this includes the residents whom I served and would serve as RA.  I received a mixed reaction from the student body and faculty, but was met with primarily open arms.  I graduated in April of this year receiving the highest honor awarded to any graduate of the school, the Cords of Distinction, in recognition of my bravery, tenacity, and drive to succeed in creating what my school believed in most—community.

In your video, you recount a story of an interaction you had with a young lady at a state school who was pressured into participating in a building activity that you termed as a drag party.  While I agree with you that pressuring anyone into anything they do not feel comfortable with is unacceptable; I felt that your afterthoughts were quite discouraging.  Actions such as these do not create community.  However, neither does villainizing an entire group of people based on their sexual orientation.

As an RA, I was responsible for creating safe and enriched community.  I planned activities that were fun that also fit within my university’s Community Lifestyle Commitment which restricted the use of alcohol, drugs, and tobacco on campus.  I made the choice to attend a school that had such beliefs because they aligned with my own, including the spiritual foundation of said beliefs.   My sexual orientation never created an issue when it came to doing my job to the best of my abilities.  I never pushed a liberal or gay agenda to students who felt similar to the way that you do.

In your video, I watched as you villainized me by saying that gay RAs are pressuring students, “hanging out with students.”  You make gay RAs out to be some sort of dark force of energy attacking “your young people.”  Dr. Roback Morse, they are our young people.  They were and are my best friends, classmates, and residents.  I was responsible for them, and I did my best to create a home for them where we all felt welcomed regardless of beliefs or sexual orientation.  I am one of those young people.

My mission in creating this home sprouts from a knowledge of how diverse our upbringings are, and our personal struggles to find acceptance, love, and one day — home.  I used my own marginalization as a tool to reach out to students struggling with their own sexual orientation or another problem such as self-harm, eating disorders, sexual abuse, misuse of drugs or alcohol or any other difficulty faced by modern college students.  I encouraged them to seek professional help from trained counselors, and embrace who they are as a way to find greater healing.  For it is only when we embrace our true selves, scars and all, that we can create community.

We are not a threat, Dr. Roback Morse.  We help create a diverse community, not threaten people’s convictions.  I want equality in this country, which is nothing more than what you have, no threat to your current situation.  I am asking you to recant your statements because they are harmful.  I am not a villain.  You do not know me, yet you make such assumptions about me and the other thousands of gay RAs in the world.  If you knew me I would like to believe that you would never have made such statements.  I want to live in community together with you and others like you striving to work together for a common good.  Community is about finding a commonality, growing, learning, excelling together.  We cannot have community until we have ubuntu, an African ethic, defined by Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist, as “I am what I am because of who we all are”.  We all must be tolerant and caring of everyone, if we ever hope to have that feeling ourselves.

I am not asking you to doctor your opinions or for a vote or even for acceptance.  I just ask that you not attack me and others for living our lives fully as who we are.  Please recant your statements, or I worry RAs may lose their jobs, and their ability to serve openly.  Do not create a war against us because I would never create a war against you.

In peace,

Brandon Habron

 

  

Brandon Habron is from Harrisonburg, Virrginia. He graduated from Eastern Mennonite University with a major in Liberal Arts, with a concentration in Theatre and Sociology. His aspirations are to pursue a Masters in Sociology, with a focus on sexuality to eventually teach young people. Currently he is a library supervisor, and does speaking engagements throughout the Shenandoah Valley, telling his coming out story, empowering both gay people and allies to stand up for what’s right.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

Trump Sues Murdoch Over WSJ’s Epstein Birthday Letter Story

Published

23 hours ago

on

July 18, 2025

By

President Donald Trump is reportedly suing Rupert Murdoch and Dow Jones, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, over the publication of a story alleging he sent a “bawdy” birthday letter in 2003 to Jeffrey Epstein, the now-notorious convicted sex offender who died in 2019.

“Court records show that Trump filed a lawsuit alleging libel against Murdoch, the Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones, and the reporters who wrote the article in federal court for the Southern District of Florida,” CNBC reported late Friday afternoon.

Trump vehemently denied the Journal’s report and publicly threatened to sue after it was published. The Journal had reported in its story that Trump had warned he would take legal action if the story ran.

“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Thursday night. “These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his a– off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT”

READ MORE: FBI Told to Flag Mentions of Trump in Epstein Files, Dem Says in Scathing Letter to Bondi

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

News

FBI Told to Flag Mentions of Trump in Epstein Files, Dem Says in Scathing Letter to Bondi

Published

1 day ago

on

July 18, 2025

By

One thousand employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation sifting through thousands of pages of the Epstein files were instructed to flag any mentions of President Donald Trump, according to Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee.

“According to information my office received,” Senator Durbin wrote in a letter (below) to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday, “you…pressured the FBI to put approximately 1,000 personnel…on 24-hour shifts to review approximately 100,000 Epstein-related records in order to produce more documents that could then be released on an arbitrarily short deadline.”

“My office was told that these personnel were instructed to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump was mentioned,” Durbin charged.

The files are from the criminal investigation into the notorious Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of child sex offenses.

RELATED: ‘He’s So Frustrated’: Johnson Defends Trump Over Explosive Epstein Birthday Letter

In his letter, Senator Durbin also posed a series of more than a dozen questions to Bondi. Among them:

“Have you personally reviewed all files in DOJ’s possession related to Jeffrey Epstein?”

“The records DOJ released on February 27 did not include a client list. Why did you
publicly claim on February 21 that the client list was ‘sitting on my desk right now to review’?”

“Why were personnel told to flag records in which President Trump was mentioned?”

“Please list all political appointees and senior DOJ officials involved in the decision to flag records in which President Trump was mentioned.”

“What happened to the records mentioning President Trump once they were flagged?”

CNBC reported that “Durbin asked the Justice Department and FBI to explain what his office called ‘apparent discrepancies’ regarding handling of the Epstein files and findings from a Justice Department memo.”

In his four-page letter, Durbin also wrote, “in 2002, Mr. Trump said of Mr. Epstein, ‘I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy, He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.’ Just yesterday, it was reported that the Department previously reviewed a ‘leather-bound album’ comprised of dozens of letters from Mr. Epstein’s friends in celebration of his 50th birthday in 2003.”

READ MORE: ‘War Is Peace’: White House’s Navarro Mocked Over Claim Tariffs Are ‘Tax Cuts’

“The letters were collected by Mr. Epstein’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell and included one from President Trump that allegedly ‘contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker … and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist.'”

“Despite tens of thousands of personnel hours reviewing and re-reviewing these Epstein- related records over the course of two weeks in March, it took DOJ more than three additional months to officially find there is ‘no incriminating ‘client list,’ and the memorandum with this finding includes no mention of the whistleblower or additional documents, the existence of which you publicly claimed on February 27.”

Read a copy of Senator Durbin’s letter below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Trust in Trump’: White House Touts ‘Incredible’ Economy as Inflation Jumps

Image via Reuters

 

Continue Reading

News

‘Would the President Say This?’: Rubio Demands Diplomats Echo Trump

Published

1 day ago

on

July 18, 2025

By

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after cutting 1,300 employees last week, is now ordering diplomats to not comment on foreign elections and internal affairs—limiting official communications to congratulating the declared winner.

“Rubio has instructed U.S. diplomats not to comment on the legitimacy or fairness of foreign elections, breaking with decades of American diplomatic practice,” The Daily Beast reports. In a memo, the Secretary stated that U.S. missions will no longer issue election-related statements unless there is a “clear and compelling” foreign policy reason for doing so.

“Diplomatic personnel writing official messages are instead instructed to ask themselves: ‘Would the President say this?'”

The memo, seen by Reuters, says the messages “should be brief, focused on congratulating the winning candidate and, when appropriate, noting shared foreign policy interests.”

READ MORE: ‘He’s So Frustrated’: Johnson Defends Trump Over Explosive Epstein Birthday Letter

The memo makes clear, based on President Trump’s remarks, that the U.S. will “pursue partnerships with countries wherever our strategic interests align,” regardless of democratic values.

U.S. promotion of human rights, democracy, and press freedoms has traditionally been a “core foreign policy objective,” Reuters reported.

“Under Trump, the administration has increasingly moved away from the promotion of democracy and human rights, largely seeing it as interference in another country’s affairs.”

The Washington Post adds that for “decades, the United States has offered judgments on whether elections were conducted in a free or fair matter [sic], a judgment that can have significant impact in countries.”

“Scholars have accused the United States of democratic backsliding since Trump, who refused to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election, returned to office this year.

President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have defended right-wing and far-right political groups, including Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which reportedly has ties to right-wing extremists.

Secretary Rubio in May ignited a “spat” with Germany’s foreign ministry when it “hit back…after he criticized the decision to classify the Alternative for Germany party as a ‘right-wing extremist’ organization,” the Associated Press reported at the time.

READ MORE: ‘War Is Peace’: White House’s Navarro Mocked Over Claim Tariffs Are ‘Tax Cuts’

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.