At George Fox University, a small private Christian college, the slogan promises "each student will be known — personally, academically and spiritually.” Reid Arthur, a senior theater major, held the school to that promise.

Each year on campus there is a lip sync battle for George Fox’s student body. Arthur had participated before, lip-synching to Taylor Swift. But after he heard Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down,” he knew he could use it for something special.

“I listened to it and I danced around and cried and was overjoyed and thrilled,” Arthur says. “I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is incredible. I could come out during this.’”

So he did. In a five-minute performance at the college that has denounced same-sex marriage, Arthur first lip-synchs to Swift’s “…Ready for It?,” then transitions to “You Need to Calm Down.” When the lyrics, “'Cause shade never made anybody less gay” play, Arthur’s backup dancers rip off his coat to reveal a white T-shirt with rainbow strings hanging from its sleeves, meant to tell his classmates that he’s gay. The crowd gave Arthur a standing ovation and he won first place, which was $500 he says he plans to donate to an LGBTQ organization.

The love the audience showed Arthur wasn’t a surprise to his close friend Allie Schluchter, a junior theater major.

“If there is ever a most popular person on campus, it’s Reid Arthur,” she says. “He is so universally loved.”

Arthur says he was already out as gay to his close friends and family, but he wanted to tell others at his university so they could truly know him.

“Being closeted and having your friends and your peers not even know who you are is a very isolating and lonely place to be,” he says.

He chose to attend George Fox while he was still in the closet, but he was mostly drawn to the university’s “wonderful” theater program. Now in his senior year, he says he’s done a lot of growing during his time at the school.

“It’s been at Fox that I’ve done the work of accepting myself and the process of coming out and that didn’t start until I really got to Fox,” Arthur says.

Even though the university takes the stand that marriage should be between a man and a woman, Arthur wasn’t nervous about getting kicked off campus once he came out. When he signed the school’s lifestyle agreement contract, there was only the mention of marriage, not about being gay specifically. Still, being open about your sexuality at an institution that doesn't fully support it can be concerning.