Baylor LGBT group to students: Come join us

A group for Baylor University lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students hit a milestone this week.

For the first time, Sexual Identity Forum members covered some sidewalks at the private Baptist university with rainbow chalk, encouraging students to come to club meetings. The group allows people in the LGBT community and allies to meet and discuss pertinent issues.

"Give your gaydar a break, come to SIF," one message wrote, advertising a Thursday night club meeting.

The group, founded in 2011, has not received official recognition through a charter from Baylor, which dropped a longstanding ban on "homosexual acts" in 2015. That means the group may not reserve campus spaces or apply for funding through the student government allocation fund.

To advertise, the forum has members wear T-shirts and puts on events outside of Baylor, like a Waco LGBT pride day.

Still, forum president Alexander Patterson, a senior from Dallas, said members felt they could reach more people by "chalking" on campus late Tuesday night. They wrote on the sidewalks where and when the group's next meeting would be.

He expected a positive reaction from many on campus. The group's first meeting of the semester is Thursday.

"Baylor likes the image of being a good conservative university, even though most of the students, faculty and staff are incredibly diverse in their opinions and views," he said.

A recent climate survey indicated that 8 percent of students identified as a sexual orientation other than heterosexual.

It would be difficult, he added, for university leadership to push back against the effort.

"One thing that's good about not being a chartered organization," he said, "is that they can't revoke our charter."