The following is an excerpt from an article chronicling the history of
Crossroads. It was written for publication in the May 31st, 2006
edition of the Mast.
The story begins before some of us
were born. Very few people remain at this school who can accurately tell the
tale of Crossroads, the first of the two groups, and nobody who can accurately
tell of its whole history.
I
met with Professor Beth Kraig, who began by saying, “In 1984 a member of the
PLU administration was heard saying 'If I knew we had a homosexual on campus, I
would can his ass.' This was at a point when there were no openly queer faculty
on campus.”
In
the mid 80s there were three pastors on campus, Martin Wells, Dan Urlander, and
Susan Briehl. Students came to these three for pastoral counseling with all
sorts of questions, questions about faith, family, career, and sexuality.
As
the years went on, more and more students started coming to counseling with
problems related to sexual orientation. It became obvious that while this one
on one method was effective for helping people cope with their identity,
something else was needed. For whatever reason, it was Susan had a close
relationship with the most gay and lesbian students.
David
Hanson, or Beak, as he was called, was a gay student at PLU who was seeing
Pastor Briehl. It was he and Briehl who decided there needed to be a group
where gay, lesbian, and bisexual students could meet. There was no safe place
on campus, they observed, nowhere that allows the gay student to just be
themselves without fear.
Hanson
picked the name Crossroads for the group. The name has two meanings, firstly, a
Christian one. It is important to remember that this group was sponsored by
campus ministry for the first years of its history, and dealt heavily with
issues of faith and sexuality. Crossroads referred to the road of the cross,
and was meant to evoke images of the Christian background of the group. The
other meaning is that of an intersection in one's life, where one must choose
one path or another.
Crossroads
was called a “confidential conversation group,” the key word being
confidential. Meeting time and location was never published anywhere, and was
only given out to people who called a special number and requested it. This
feature of the group was a measure to ensure as much safety for the members as
possible.
The
group consisted of gay, lesbian, bisexual students, and their advocates. Often
brothers and sisters of the queer student would come along to support and
better understand their siblings. Susan attended every meeting, and oversaw the
conversations that went on. She did this from the 1988/89 school year, when
Crossroads was formed, until 1994, when she left the school.
This
is where my information dried up. Gary Mennetti, former head of Counseling and
Testing had filled me in on all he knew, and pointed me towards Pastor Briehl,
who is presently teaching at a seminary in Iowa. To find the rest of the story, I had
to turn to Professor Kraig, the current faculty adviser of the Harmony Club.
There
had always been a desire by many of the Crossroads members, in the early years,
to become more public. Many students didn't like the fact that the group was so
secretive, and wanted to act publicly on the PLU campus. Students wanted
activism, but there was, once again, no group to do this. When Susan left the
school, a new group was formed: Harmony.
In
the last years of Briehl's Crossroads, Kraig and Professor Tom Campbell started
forming a plan for the group. They brought Crossroads under the control of the
new Harmony club, and away from its campus ministry beginnings. In this way
they retained many of its original qualities of anonymity and confidentiality,
while secularizing the group and creating for it a new, public face.
Harmony
is a group focused on activism and action. It is open to all PLU students,
faculty and staff, gay straight or otherwise; anyone concerned with gay issues
on campus and in the world at large. It has an official member list, officers,
and a budget. In essence, it serves every purpose that Crossroads cannot.
With
the creation of Harmony, Crossroads attendance boomed. Through Crossroads, more
students and faculty were becoming comfortable being out of the closet. For the
next five years, Professors Campbell and Kraig were the leaders of Crossroads,
and accomplished great strides in the meetings.
As
time passed, Campbell and Kraig both had to stop attending the meetings for
health reasons. Clique divides arose in the group, and public knowledge of its
existence started to dwindle. By the time I joined the group, it was entirely
run by the president of Harmony, a student. It was also almost completely
unknown to the campus at large, which is how it remains to this day.
Crossroads
exists with two ideas in mind. First, to help gay, lesbian, bisexual,
transgender, queer and questioning students become comfortable with who they
are, and to love themselves. Secondly, to help them come out of the closet when
they are ready to. Its present incarnation is an amalgam of the elements of its
past.
The
group is still completely confidential. No member's name or information will
ever be given out. There is no longer any faculty adviser directly associated
with Crossroads, but in their place is a new position, the Crossroads
representative. This student attends all the meetings, and works as the public
face of the group. It is this person who is in charge of maintaining the
confidentiality of the group, and who has access to the Crossroads e-mail list.
The representative is the faculty and student’s contact person in Crossroads.
So
why does this all matter? It matters because gay issues are everyone's issues.
How we, as a campus, choose to view sexual minorities shows who we are. The
fact that PLU has such a long history of sensitivity to queer issues is a
testament to this campus' commitment to social justice and compassion.
Contact the Crossroads representative at xroads@plu.edu. This account is completely secure, and only accessible by the Crossroads representative.
