Dozens Of BYU Students Protest Honor Code Clarification
Mar 4, 2020, 7:32 PM | Updated: 9:13 pm
PROVO, Utah – More than a hundred BYU students protested on campus in reaction to a clarification on recent changes to the university’s Honor Code.
The clarification came two weeks after Brigham Young University announced a revision to the Honor Code that coincided with a new Handbook of Instructions from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The initial change removed a section specifically addressing “homosexual behavior.” When it did, some students immediately responded with same-sex romantic expressions on campus.
In a letter from Elder Paul Johnson, the commissioner of the Church Education System, he wrote that the February adjustments to the Honor Code “led to much discussion and some misinterpretation.”
BYU is clarifying recent changes to its Honor Code after it led to "much discussion and some misinterpretation." https://t.co/tHZkWFyXQS
— KSL 5 TV (@KSL5TV) March 4, 2020
He said the moral standards of the Church have not changed, and that same-sex romantic behavior cannot lead to eternal marriage.
In a Q & A from BYU’s director of the Honor Code, Kevin Utt, he further clarified that, “Therefore, any same-sex romantic behavior is a violation of the principles of the Honor Code.”
When asked about whether students are expected to report such behavior, Utt replied that they should encourage one another to comply with the Honor Code but that, “Encourage is not synonymous with ‘turn someone in.’”
The students KSL spoke to had differing opinions.
Maja Brimhall, a student who identifies as pan-sexual, said, “The Honor Code office here at BYU had no clue what was happening. So, they are just as whiplashed as we are. Today, it essentially took away all of the hopes that us queer students had about being able to live as we are.”
LIVE: Protest at BYU over Honor Code clarifications.
Posted by KSL 5 TV on Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Student Austin Casey acknowledged the clarification.
“It’s always been the Church’s stance for worthiness, and people voluntarily sign the Honor Code when they decide to come here, so it makes sense to me,” he said.
Students asked another question of the Honor Code office – how does the Honor Code office work with ecclesiastical leaders? The answer: the Honor Code office does not work with students’ ecclesiastical leaders about their behavior.
Brigham Young University responded by using a statement from President M. Russell Ballard, the Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He spoke to the students on campus Tuesday in BYU’s weekly devotional.
“We are all children of God. That makes us family, brothers and sisters bound by a common divine heritage. That one simple, unifying fact should override all else that we allow to cause separation and division among us,” he said.
