Our Response To The FAQ: "Why Do You Attend TWU...?"

Often members of the One TWU community will receive questions from fellow students or friends who wonder why we would choose to attend a school like TWU that has such a negative reputation with LGBTQIA2S+ folks.

The answer is that... it’s complicated.

Some of us were pressured to go to TWU.

Some of us continue to study here because we love the community.

Some of us came out mid-way through our studies here and stayed because of our friends.

Some of us keep our sexuality and/or gender a secret in our years at TWU and only come out later on after our time here.

Some of us are openly queer on-campus and face the repercussions that come with it.

A more fruitful question that could be asked instead is why TWU—a Christian university with core principles of radical love and hospitality—continues to be known by queer students and alumni for its homophobia and unsafe living conditions.

Perhaps we need to take a step back and reevaluate how we as Christians have remained complicit as queer youth suffer in silence at TWU.

Perhaps we should ask less about why there are queer students who continue to study at TWU and ask more about what makes TWU such a harsh place to study for gender and sexual minorities.