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In 2020, weeks before the pandemic would halt in-person classes, BYU administrators removed a passage from the university’s honor code that explicitly banned “homosexual behavior.” At the time, LGBTQ students were cautiously optimistic that this meant they could be more open about their relationships on campus. In the last two years, LGBTQ students at BYU have seen their school seem to bend to inclusion, only to then double down on exclusion. LGBTQ students were affected by honor code changes “The church didn’t give me my relationship with God the church didn’t give me my spirituality,” she said. She felt confident, after speaking with her best friend and mentor, that her faith and her queerness weren’t at odds with each other. People I knew could turn me in if they knew. “The only people who knew were my immediate family. “I did keep it hidden,” she said of a past queer relationship. (The church holds that sex is “reserved for a man and woman who are married.”) Orr spent time reconciling her bisexuality with the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which holds that gay, lesbian and bisexual people can “fully and worthily participate in the Church” so long as they don’t act on their same-sex attraction. “It created this inner turmoil and despair, because they’re both so important to me.” “I felt like I was forced to choose between my spirituality and sexuality,” Orr said. Orr said she had been comfortable at BYU until she felt attracted to another woman. To Orr, her faith and identity aren’t at odds “I wanted to do this to be honored, to be seen,” Orr told CNN. Orr said she didn’t intend her rainbow reveal, her younger sister’s suggestion, to stand as a rebuke to her alma mater. The Honor Code Office may investigate reported students and choose to take action against students for perceived offenses, including expulsion from the university, according to BYU. It was a quiet moment of recognition for the years she spent hiding her LGBTQ identity at a school where, Orr said, she feared school administrators and classmates might have turned her in to the school’s Honor Code Office if they discovered she’d been in a same-sex relationship. Red represents life orange, healing yellow, sunlight green, nature blue, peace and harmony purple, spirit light blue, light pink and white, trans individuals black and brown, marginalized QPOC communities black, those living with HIV, those no longer living and those surrounded by stigma.She took a breath, smiled and opened up her graduation gown to reveal a rainbow Pride flag, which one of her sisters had sewn into the gown’s lining.
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Quasar also explains the colors of the flag. The arrow points to the right to show forward movement, while being along the left edge shows that progress still needs to be made.” Quasar continues, “The trans flag and marginalized community stripes were shifted to the Hoist of the flag and given a new arrow shape. “The six-stripe LGBT flag should be separated from the newer stripes because of their difference in meaning, as well as to shift focus and emphasis to what is important in our current community climate.” On a Kickstarter looking to raise $14,000 to mass-produce the flag, Quasar explains the design. Quasar writes, “I felt there needed to be more thought put into the design and emphasis of the flag to give it more meaning.”