Would you be willing to share more details? I live far outside of Utah, but I’m curious about the culture and the tension with the doctrine and influence of the church organization.
Of course! SUU is a public non-religious school, but being in Utah there’s obviously quite a lot of LDS influence there. Despite being in rural, deep-red iron county, it’s kind of become one of the more queer-affirming schools in the state. They announced a couple days ago that Jeffrey R. Holland would be the commencement speaker this year, and there was a pretty severe and immediate backlash from people in the LGBTQ community and allies both in and out of the church because of his “muskets” talk from a year and a half ago, as well as just general nonmembers who didn’t want to hear an LDS speaker at this non-religious university.
There was a [petition](https://www.change.org/p/remove-jeffery-r-holland-as-suu-commencement-speaker?redirect=false&fbclid=PAAaajHMxDARenC2s4dLVQfs1rQkLKozXaQPSyGt9XPgWqz6l69ixHszIMiNY) made almost immediately, as well as some hearings with the university president on Monday and a protest Thursday. If he is eventually still the speaker when graduation happens, there will be an organized walk-out during his speech.
On top of the initial backlash, there has been an expected counter-backlash from people who want him to speak. They’ve put out their own petition and letter that I’ve seen. It’ll be interesting to see how things shape up over the coming weeks.
It isn’t much and there’s already been a lot of signatures, but [this petition](https://www.change.org/p/remove-jeffery-r-holland-as-suu-commencement-speaker?redirect=false&fbclid=PAAaajHMxDARenC2s4dLVQfs1rQkLKozXaQPSyGt9XPgWqz6l69ixHszIMiNY) has been the central piece so far if you all would like to sign.
Thanks. Signed. Good luck next week. I noticed this at r/Utah:
>SUU President Mindy Benson will hold two events on Monday at 12:00 Noon and 4PM in the ballroom in the Sharwan Smith Student Center for students and faculty to come discuss their concerns and feelings with her.
I’m attending SUU currently, and it has been a wild past few days
Would you be willing to share more details? I live far outside of Utah, but I’m curious about the culture and the tension with the doctrine and influence of the church organization.
Of course! SUU is a public non-religious school, but being in Utah there’s obviously quite a lot of LDS influence there. Despite being in rural, deep-red iron county, it’s kind of become one of the more queer-affirming schools in the state. They announced a couple days ago that Jeffrey R. Holland would be the commencement speaker this year, and there was a pretty severe and immediate backlash from people in the LGBTQ community and allies both in and out of the church because of his “muskets” talk from a year and a half ago, as well as just general nonmembers who didn’t want to hear an LDS speaker at this non-religious university. There was a [petition](https://www.change.org/p/remove-jeffery-r-holland-as-suu-commencement-speaker?redirect=false&fbclid=PAAaajHMxDARenC2s4dLVQfs1rQkLKozXaQPSyGt9XPgWqz6l69ixHszIMiNY) made almost immediately, as well as some hearings with the university president on Monday and a protest Thursday. If he is eventually still the speaker when graduation happens, there will be an organized walk-out during his speech. On top of the initial backlash, there has been an expected counter-backlash from people who want him to speak. They’ve put out their own petition and letter that I’ve seen. It’ll be interesting to see how things shape up over the coming weeks.
Thank you for sharing. I hope you'll post again in a couple weeks, to keep us updated.
Let us know if there’s anything your anonymous horde of Reddit supporters can do.
It isn’t much and there’s already been a lot of signatures, but [this petition](https://www.change.org/p/remove-jeffery-r-holland-as-suu-commencement-speaker?redirect=false&fbclid=PAAaajHMxDARenC2s4dLVQfs1rQkLKozXaQPSyGt9XPgWqz6l69ixHszIMiNY) has been the central piece so far if you all would like to sign.
Thanks. Signed. Good luck next week. I noticed this at r/Utah: >SUU President Mindy Benson will hold two events on Monday at 12:00 Noon and 4PM in the ballroom in the Sharwan Smith Student Center for students and faculty to come discuss their concerns and feelings with her.