WACO, Texas — The video above was posted in November 2021.
In a historic move, Baylor University approved its first-ever chartered LGBTQ+ club on campus this week.
On Wednesday, the new club PRISM at Baylor, announced the official news on its Facebook page.
This news comes about a year after the university's Board of Regents approved guiding principles of caring for all students, which included its LGBTQ+ students. One of the principles included establishing a LGBTQ+ group that adheres to the school's core commitments, as well as its policies and statements.
Thus, PRISM was created.
Overall, this measure stemmed from the continuous effort of the unofficial LGBTQ+ student group, Gamma Alpha Upsilon (Gamma) and their decade-long fight to be recognized as an official university charter.
"As a Board of Regents, we recognize that Baylor’s LGBTQ+ students continue to seek care, connections, and community on our campus and a sense of belonging within the Baylor Family," the resolution announced last year. "As an important and faithful expression of our Christian mission, we desire to establish trust with our LGBTQ+ students so that, among other things, they might seek out the resources provided by Baylor.”
Gamma explained that PRISM is an entirely new club created by LGBTQ+ students and its allies to work with the university regarding its policies, thus "it is limited in their actions due to its official status."
"PRISM will have to operate in the framework of the Statement of Human Sexuality to remain a chartered organization," Gamma wrote in a post. "This will obviously limit the scope of advocacy, but not their capability to support queer students."
Gamma said that's where its unofficial club comes in: "To adventure into topics of conversation and advocacy to fully provide to all LGBTQ+ Baylor students."
In the same post, Gamma explained that, even though they are separate clbs, they both share a goal of collaborating with each other for the diverse needs of its LGBTQ+ members and students.
Gamma also described PRISM's chartership is a "significant step in making lasting change on [Baylor] campus."
"[PRISM members] are actively putting in the work to create avenues at Baylor for queer people to enjoy the full university experience," Gamma wrote.