LGBT group overcomes odds to thrive on small southern campus

Megan Reed | Berry College

Ben Riggs was right.

The recent graduate of Berry College in Georgia said he had been anticipating the United States Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage for years. The Court released its opinion on June 26, with Justice Anthony Kennedy authoring the majority opinion.

“Justice Kennedy made the correct decision within the opinion, and this is something that I’ve kind of predicted,” Riggs said. “For two years I’ve been telling people it’s going to be a 5-4 decision with Kennedy being the deciding vote, and that’s what happened.”

Riggs’ alma mater, a private college with about 2,100 students, is the home of LISTEN, a group for LGBT students and allies that has over 40 members. LISTEN was not officially recognized by Berry until 2012, though LGBT students had been meeting for almost 20 years.



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Christina Bucher, LISTEN’s faculty adviser, says students began meeting in 1995, when then-Chaplain Larry Green helped form the Gay and Lesbian Awareness Society, which was denied official status. Students then created Rainbow Berry, which did not seek recognition, before starting LISTEN.

LISTEN applied for recognition in 2003. The group was approved by the Student Life Council and then-President Scott Colley but was denied by the Board of Trustees.

Bucher said students were told LISTEN was denied because it was an “advocacy group”—a reason Bucher said “did not hold water...every student group is an advocacy group for something, whether it’s hunger and homelessness or the Baptist Student Union,” she said.

Through it all, LISTEN continued to meet.

A reported hate crime in March 2012, however, spurred discussion about LISTEN.

According to an article published in Berry’s student newspaper, The Campus Carrier, a student found his room vandalized. Bleach had been poured on his belongings, and he found a note with homophobic and racist slurs.

Chelsea Hoag, who graduated in May and served as LISTEN’s co-president, said the environment on campus afterwards was “honestly, really scary.”

Hoag says that, “Any progress people had made over the past 20 to 30 years—that all went down to zero."

College President Stephen Briggs then decided to form a committee to discuss LISTEN’s status.

Bucher and Riggs served on that committee. Bucher said the committee’s discussions were a “collegial, respectful process.”



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She says that she “can’t say that there weren’t times when there weren’t opinions expressed that I maybe didn’t have a problem with, but it was never a contentious meeting.”

As might be expected, Berry’s Christian traditions were a point of debate.

While Berry is not officially a Christian college, it is Christian in nature. The school's official website states that it “is a comprehensive liberal-arts college with Christian values.”

The campus has three chapels and houses the Winshape College Program, a Christian scholarship program established by Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy.

Riggs said it is “absolutely” possible to be involved in both the Christian and LGBT communities on campus.

“Despite [Berry’s] rich conservative Christian history, I, being a member of the LGBT community, have found it to be a very welcoming place to students who are gay,” he said.

Senior Joshua Willis, LISTEN co-president, noted the strength of the LGBT community on campus.

“It’s definitely not ideal to be queer or trans in the South,” he said. “But that difficulty makes our community a little bit stronger.”

At meetings, students can seek advice about milestones like coming out — which Hoag noted can be especially tough.

“It’s kind of a don’t ask, don’t tell kind of environment if you want it to be,” she said. “But within the past year or so, there are a lot of people who are out and don’t hide it.”

Senior Kara Moss, co-president, said LISTEN is more than a collection of “school club friends.”

“One meeting a week wasn't enough,” she said. “We've been to movies, go bowling, go to museums, and volunteer together.”

Moss said she has gained a “sense of security” from LISTEN.

“Our sexuality can set us apart from the majority which, even though sometimes unintentional, makes us feel unwanted,” she said.

Willis said that while the marriage ruling will have a positive impact, there are more issues to address.

Moss said the ruling may just “fuel people to stick to their original beliefs.”

Hoag also acknowledged that the ruling wouldn’t solve every problem LGBT people face. However, she felt positive.

“There’s a lot more work to be done, but this is a really, really huge step,” she said.



Megan Reed is a senior at Berry College.

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