“As he said, SIF was ‘notorious on campus,’ and it had a reputation,” said Anna Conner, the group’s president, who disputes that notion. “No one knows we exist,” she said.

The letter, which only includes signatures from signers with ties to Baylor, was delivered to Baylor President Linda Livingstone April 11. Baylor has yet to make a statement about the letter specifically. Baylor spokewoman Lori Fogleman referred back to the university’s “Statement on Human Sexuality,” found in the student policies and procedures, which states students are expected to not participate in “advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching.”

Conner said over the years, the group has been rejected for a variety of reasons, most often because the university categorizes them as an advocacy group. However, she said the group’s primary purpose is to provide community and support for LGBTQ students, not advocacy.

“We have a lot of members who came in super uncomfortable with themselves, had very self-harmful tendencies, and our goal is to reach out to as many of them, to keep them from hurting themselves or doing anything destructive to themselves,” Conner said. “We just want to reach as many people as we can who are struggling with this.”