Caden Proulx
When former Colorado State University student Tara Mortell joined Young Life in high school, she thought she was entering a welcoming community. She hadn’t grown up with religion, and she was looking for a place to make friends.
“It’s why I went to CSU in the first place, actually: … I wanted that community,” Mortell said. “And then (I) became a leader and a backpacking guide.”
Young Life is an evangelical Christian organization based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The group focuses on youth from middle school through college, bringing them on weeklong summer camps and organizing group activities in which faith is practiced.
Mortell was even considering pursuing Young Life leadership as a full-time job until she realized Young Life didn’t align with her values.
“We had some younger freshmen who identified as bisexual that had tried to become leaders, and they weren’t allowed to,” Mortell said. “It made a lot of us sit down and really consider what Young Life values and what they say versus what they do.”
In 2020, two younger members of CSU Young Life were denied leadership positions because of their identities as bisexual women. While it wasn’t confirmed their sexualities were the sole reason for their rejection, the decision led several members of Young Life to reconsider their role in the organization.
“I left for a variety of reasons, but a big part of it was the bisexual girls being denied leadership and the way that staff handled the conversations after that happened,” Mortell said.
Alyssa Proulx was a senior at CSU when the two women were denied leadership. Feeling that their treatment was unjust, Proulx sought to discuss the issue with Greg Hook and Jodi Green, Northern Colorado Young Life area directors.
“Young Life loves to say they welcomed queer kids, and I’ve seen them really want queer kids because they can be seen as currency of, ‘Oh, look how welcoming Young Life is. But those queer kids are eventually going to come across a Young Life leader or Young Life staff who has really anti-LGBTQ views. … There’s no way of insulating queer youth from that harm, regardless of what Young Life says about their policies.” – Kent Thomas, founder of #DoBetterYoungLife
“LGBTQIA+ stuff is something that we didn’t talk a lot about in Young Life up until that point,” Proulx said. “Once I sat through that meeting and heard those perspectives, I quit immediately.”
Young Life isn’t open about their position on the LGBTQIA+ community, Proulx said. Meeting with Hook and Green only affirmed for Proulx how strong Young Life’s stance is against the LGBTQIA+ community.
“Young Life has not changed policies around guidelines for staff and leaders within the larger mission,” Hook wrote in email correspondence in October. “These guidelines and policies are public.”
The “Unhealthy Sexuality” section of Young Life’s Sexual Health Policy, provided to The Collegian by Mortell, reads, “For the purposes of this policy, unhealthy sexuality will be defined as any behavior including but not limited to 1) sexual intimacy outside of a heterosexual marriage relationship, 2) interaction with sexually explicit content or interactions including but not limited to pornography of any kind, 3) assaultive behavior physically or electronically, 4) sexual infidelity or immoral behavior, 5) inappropriate use of social media and/or electronic communications and/or 6) transmission of sexually suggestive material (especially to or of minors).”
“As a freshman, we got this giant packet of training materials (that you get) when you become a leader or decide you want to be a leader,” Mortell said. “I remember reading at the very beginning that we were not supposed to condone or engage in homosexual behavior. And that was at the time that I was still very closeted to myself.”
Mortell and Proulx said they and some of their peers signed that policy not fully understanding the implications of the policy.
“(When) I became a leader and got more involved, they started telling us that if kids came out as queer, we had to report them,” Mortell said. “(We had to) basically out them to their parents because it was a fundamental issue. And if a kid came out as queer, then we had to basically quarantine them for the rest of the week and not let them be in the same cabin as the people that they were sexually attracted to technically.”
Northern Colorado isn’t the only place where these issues came to light. In 2020, the #DoBetterYoungLife movement took off on social media, highlighting issues within the organization nationally.
Kent Thomas, founder of #DoBetterYoungLife, has read and posted hundreds of stories from Young Life members about their experiences and advocates for accountability from the organization.
“Young Life loves to say they welcomed queer kids, and I’ve seen them really want queer kids because they can be seen as currency of, ‘Oh, look how welcoming Young Life is,’” Thomas said. “But those queer kids are eventually going to come across a Young Life leader or Young Life staff who has really anti-LGBTQ views. … There’s no way of insulating queer youth from that harm, regardless of what Young Life says about their policies.”
Thomas first experienced leadership policies in action when he was 24 and coming to terms with his own identity as a gay man. After growing up in Young Life, Thomas was shocked when he was told he couldn’t be a leader if he was gay. After he shared his experience online in June 2020 with the #DoBetterYoungLife hashtag, the movement took off, bringing in hundreds of stories.
“I thought maybe there were 20 people around the country in Young Life who had that experience,” Thomas said. “So to see just so many stories come in around anti-queer stuff and then also around racism and sexism and ableism, … from my personal experience, it was pretty validating to see that I wasn’t making this up.”
#DoBetterYoungLife has been asking for accountability and transparency from the organization since the movement’s beginning, but Thomas, Mortell and Proulx said they don’t believe Young Life will ever change.
“Unfortunately, Young Life made it very clear after all of this that they stand by their policies and that they would never change,” Mortell said. “There was a large amount of people during COVID that were pressuring Young Life to reevaluate their policies and actions, and Young Life released another document stating their beliefs and the biblical backing to their standpoint.”
“I don’t think that Young Life should be allowed at CSU. I think that they violate every (diversity, equity, inclusion and justice) standard that CSU has claimed to value. And I think that they do a really good job of masking those values in order to attract young people who are really desperate for community and pretty vulnerable in their first year of college.” Alyssa Proulx, former YoungLife leader and CSU student
Young Life sent this confidential document to its area directors, detailing their theology around sexuality to guide local leaders in response to LGBTQIA+ controversy. They additionally released a public statement in response to #DoBetterYoungLife.
When asked several questions about Young Life’s policies and stances on LGBTQIA+ identifying members in leadership, Hook responded with the following statement on Young Life’s behalf.
“We believe that every human is made in the image of God and created for a purpose,” the statement reads. “We love every kid and only have restrictions in involvement when it comes to holding leadership roles within our organization, the first being a requirement that our leaders have a faith in Jesus Christ as the only mediator between God and all human beings. We require that they believe Jesus is God’s eternal son, who, as man, fully shared and fulfilled our humanity in a life of perfect obedience.
“We do not exclude anyone from being recipients of the ministry of God’s grace and mercy as expressed in Jesus Christ. We provide our leaders with resources and training to ensure they are equipped to create an environment in which every young person, regardless of their background, is welcomed with the love and understanding of faithful adults who personally demonstrate the compassion and truth of Jesus.
“Young Life staff and volunteer leader positions are not one-size-fits-all nor are they single-issue decisions. There are layers of conversation to be had around faith in Jesus and lifestyle that come from the teachings of Jesus found in the New Testament. These are case-by-case conversations that are deeply personal as we discern together if volunteer leading or staff is a good fit.”
Gonzaga University banned Young Life because of their sexual health policies and the stories that have come out around them. Thomas said these policies cause damage to the LGBTQIA+ community even if Young Life says they don’t mean to cause harm.
CSU’s Student Code of Conduct prohibits students from conducting discriminatory harassment and states that the university is committed to creating an inclusive environment for students. All student organizations are subject to the student code of conduct. Proulx said leaving meant she didn’t have access to the biggest community she had in college.
“I don’t think that Young Life should be allowed at CSU,” Proulx said. “I think that they violate every (diversity, equity, inclusion and justice) standard that CSU has claimed to value. And I think that they do a really good job of masking those values in order to attract young people who are really desperate for community and pretty vulnerable in their first year of college.”
While several students have left Young Life after coming across their anti-LGBTQIA+ policies, leaving isn’t without its struggles. #DoBetterYoungLife has slowed down, putting out less content so that the account managers can take care of their mental health while reading all of these stories, but these stories are still ongoing.
“They make you feel like you can only really be friends with people in Young Life — that people on the outside won’t really get you,” Proulx said. “It took me a couple years to start to build a social network outside of Young Life because it really took over every single part of my life with just how much they expect you to give up yourself.”
The harm that interactions with anti-LGBTQIA+ policies and mindsets can do to those in the community is extensive. Going into an assumed safe and welcoming space and then not feeling cared for can be damaging.
“If Young Life is going to have these policies, they just need to be honest about it,” Thomas said. “I think that honesty would help prevent a lot of harm because then queer people aren’t left kind of trying to put the pieces together.”
Reach Ivy Secrest at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @IvySecrest.