Walla Walla University students walk out over treatment of queer community

On Tuesday, over 100 people gathered in front of the administration building at Walla Walla University, a Seventh-day Adventist institution, to protest the university’s treatment of the queer community. 

The student organizers staged their walkout at 10:45 a.m. Their primary complaint was that university administrators had prevented a junior, Ross Gurule, from running for student body president because he’s in a same-sex relationship. 

Gurule, who’s currently a senator in the student government, was running unopposed for president. He said he was called into a meeting with the university’s vice presidents of student life and academic administration in February.  

“The first thing that was said to me was, like, ‘We need to cut right to the chase — we brought you in here today because we understand that you’re in a same-sex relationship,’” Gurule said. 

Students handed out rainbow flags and homemade signs at the event. (Credit: Caidyn Boyd)

The administrators then discussed the fact that Seventh-day Adventist teachings view marriage as being between a man and a woman, according to Gurule. They also said they were concerned about his safety. 

Gurule, who is Seventh-day Adventist himself, said he didn’t plan to get married and was prepared for any backlash about his sexual orientation. 

Still, after a nearly two-hour discussion, Gurule said that the administrators asked him to step down. When he refused, Gurule said they pulled him from the race. He’s met with administrators several more times since then. 

“They’ve explained to me in meetings that they didn’t want me to run for the office of president because it’s such a public-facing role,” Gurule said. “And to have a queer person in a public-facing role is essentially blasphemous to what the church believes and teaches.” 

NWPB reached out to Walla Walla University to ask about these allegations. In an emailed statement, a representative replied: “While we seek to create a welcoming and supportive environment for all students, we expect of our campus leaders a heightened advocacy for and modeling of Seventh-day Adventist beliefs and behaviors.” 

Students knew Gurule’s name wouldn’t be on the ballot. But some had been planning a write-in campaign as a way to send a message to campus administrators. When ballots went out last week, without an option to write-in a candidate for president, students planned the walk-out. 

“This protest is mostly about the discriminatory action that happened, but it’s also about the silencing of student voice,” Gurule said. 

Heidi Kissinger speaks to students at the recent protest. (Credit: Caidyn Boyd)

Heidi Kissinger is one of the students who helped organize the protest. Though she’s frustrated by the course of events, she believes that administrators’ hands were tied by church doctrine.

“ If somehow Seventh-day Adventists were able to wake up one day and put Christ’s love over SDA doctrine, that would be wonderful,” she said. 

Because it’s both a religious institution and a university that’s subject to Title IX regulation, the administration’s actions fall into a legal gray zone, said Peter Nicolas, a professor of law at the University of Washington. 

“Universities, even if they’re religious, are not supposed to be discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation,” he said. “They do have the ability to require that those in their leadership, for example, don’t do something that’s inconsistent with the teachings that the school is trying to have.” 

Gurule, for his part, doesn’t even want to be president anymore. He just doesn’t want this to happen to anyone else. Though Gurule was out to his family and close friends, he was not previously public about being in a same-sex relationship. 

“It’s been very difficult,” Gurule said. “I’ve lost a lot of the privacy I had before.” 

Gurule said he came to Walla Walla University because it’s seen as one of the more liberal Seventh-day Adventist institutions — and because it sells itself as being inclusive of all backgrounds. But recent events have made him question that. 

“It’s just been eye-opening for a lot of students to realize how much the administration values the voice of our shareholders over the voice of our actual students,” he said.