On June 25th, 2022, David Mullen came out on Instagram as gay in a post where he outlined his journey with faith, queerness, and accepting his identity.

Once he returned to Grace College, the evangelical Christian college he attends, for the school year, David was promptly fired from his position as a Resident Assistant (RA). They officially state that David was fired because his values do not align with Grace College’s lifestyle agreement, but that is an arrogantly weak way to cover the fact the leadership at this college caved to complaints from a handful of students. In doing so, they are discriminating against a student for his beliefs and sexuality while also contradicting their commitment to diversity and inclusion. The full story and our demands from Grace College are outlined below:

Prior to coming out, David had worked as a Resident Assistant (RA) at Grace College and Theological Seminary that previous school year and was hired to be an RA for the following year. Before coming out, David reached out to his Resident Director (RD) to ask if this would affect his position since Grace College does not affirm LGBTQ+ identities or relationships. The RD overwhelmingly assured David that provided he followed the lifestyle agreement (to not engage in same-sex behavior such as dating, sex, etc), there would not be an issue with David continuing in the role. David, in turn, assured them that this would not be an issue. His summer then continued as normal while he prepared to enter his senior year of college

Roughly a week before RA training began, the Dean of Students, Aaron Crabtree, directly contacted David to discuss his coming out post. David met with Crabtree and the head of Grace College’s HR, Norman Bakhit, and was told that students, parents, and a professor had reached out to complain about David being open about his sexuality while being an RA. At this point, they intensely questioned David about his coming-out post and the beliefs it contained. During these meetings, David asked if he was being fired and was informed they were just trying to learn more but things could change (even with this word of caution, they indicated that David’s position was secure). As the meetings continued, however, David says he began to feel pressure to step down from his RA position by both Crabtree and Bakhit with Bakhit even refusing to understand why David wanted to keep his job. David refused to do step down, and when the conversations turned towards his ability to remain in the job, David said they must provide him with a letter of termination, or he would continue to RA training and duties. They finally did on August 11th which was one day before training began.

In this letter, Grace College states “because the RA position requires teaching and discipleship responsibilities and because your social media content was a public expression of your misalignment with Grace’s policies, beliefs, and lifestyle statement, we do not have confidence you can fulfill the role of RA.”

To many of those supporting David, this is a thinly veiled way to fire him for being gay due to complaints from other students and parents. However, if we take this statement at face value, nowhere does Grace College indicate student leaders must agree with all of Grace’s policies. In fact, many student leaders, staff, and professors actively disagree with the College’s stances. This decision is also contrary to Grace College’s statements about diversity and inclusion such as their desire to “magnify the voices of others.” Firing David for not holding to one of their beliefs does not reflect an institution that values diversity.

A final point to the injustice: the staff of Residence Life at Grace College were NOT consulted by the college about the situation until they were informed David had been fired. The RD (his immediate supervisor) and the Director of ResLife were not given the chance to comment on the situation which not only overlooked their authority but also robbed David of a support system during meetings between a 21-year-old college student and the men representing the institution. This decision was made at the behest of the board to Aaron Crabtree to soothe the complaints of homophobic individuals.

We are a group of queer Grace College alumni & former students who have repeatedly seen the college treat the LGBTQ+ community with shame and disrespect. This is what we want to be done for David:

First, we are NOT looking for David to be reinstated into his position. He has already missed out on meetings with his RA group as well as missed the entirety of training for this school year. To make him an RA now would be a disservice to him and the residents of his building. Instead, we would like to see the following actions taken:

1. Grace College issue a public apology to David for the situation and how the staff handled it.
   1. Even when unjust, being fired is an embarrassing experience to go through, and due to his termination occurring so close to the start of the school year, there was zero chance for this to happen without those on campus finding out.
   2. There were staff members at Grace College who knew of David’s coming out several weeks before the return to school, even if Crabtree was initially unaware. Yet the decision to fire David didn’t happen until the very last possible day.
   3. The decision to leave out his direct supervisors from ResLife put David at a disadvantage when engaging in conversations about his job. In doing so, Grace College allowed two grown men to try and intimidate a college student into quitting his job. Then they unjustly fired David when they couldn’t bully him into leaving.

We are not looking for Grace College to change its stances on LGBTQ+ relationships or identities. We recognize that their views, while bigoted, are a part of their faith and exist in our society. Instead, we also want them to make the following changes:

1. All student leader job descriptions & agreements should be updated.
   1. Unless Grace College wants to set a precedent that their anti-LGBTQ+ policies are on a different level than their other rules, all student leaders need to be held to the same standard they used for David.
   2. Thus, all their job agreements need to clearly state that if they publicly profess any views that do not align with Grace College’s lifestyle statement, they cannot continue in their role (RA or otherwise). This would include online statements, conversations had with other students, or remarks made in any Grace College-related capacity.
2. Make information about Grace College’s stance against LGBTQ+ relationships and identities more readily available.
   1. A common theme with former Grace students who are LGBTQ+ is that they found themselves caught in an environment that was not accepting of them. This can occur when they don’t realize they are queer until starting at Grace, but it also occurs when an LGBTQ+ student attends because they do not realize the college is non-affirming. This final point is what we want to help change.
   2. Some key places we would like these statements:
      1. Diversity & Inclusion page (note that LGBTQ+ students do not have support or a group designed for them)
      2. Fast Facts
      3. What it means to be a Christian College

Please sign our petition calling for Grace College's leadership to do better. You can reach Aaron Crabtree (Dean of Students) here, Norman Bakhit (HR head) here, and Drew Flamm (President of the college) here (email the President's Office). Please join us in asking them to change their actions and prevent more LGBTQ+ students from being hurt.

In the past, Grace College has swept controversy and students under the rug when it was convenient for them in order to maintain their image. Only by publicly expressing our disappointment with them can we expect change to occur.