Black Pastor Critical of Michigan State's Latest Pro-Homosexual Scholarship

by Jim Brown and Jody Brown
July 6, 2004

(AgapePress) - A black pastor and conservative activist says a new scholarship at Michigan State University (MSU) for homosexual, bisexual, and trans-gender students of color is "an affront to the black community."

The special scholarship will be administered by the school's Office of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans-gender) Concerns and Office of Financial Aid, and awarded only to black students involved in homosexual activism. According to a report in the Between the Lines newspaper, it is one of the few scholarships nationwide that addresses the "intersections of race/ethnicity and sexual orientation/gender identity."

The scholarship is being warmly welcomed by such campus groups as the MSU Same Gender Loving Students of Color, Internationals, and Allies -- whose president calls it a "step in setting an example for other universities" -- and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Trans-gender Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Student Association -- whose leader says it will help people "learn more about the special challenges faced by LGBT students of color."

However, the idea is not sitting well with at least one pro-family activist in the state. Pastor Levon Yuille, who is chair of the Black Republican Council of Southeastern Michigan, says he is appalled by the school's and the homosexual community's "total disrespect and disregard" for the black community's long-held objections to the homosexual lifestyle.

"Poll after poll has shown that the African-American community does not embrace the gay agenda," Pastor Yuille explains. "It's also quite a slap in the face of hundreds of African-American pastors who are unifying around the country to speak to their concern regarding the African American experience being compared with the gay experience."

The activist also feels blacks are being exploited by the scholarship. "I believe ... our educational system -- and regrettably at the university and college level -- has been taken over, for lack of a better description, by individuals who have an agenda," Yuille says. "And this agenda includes promoting another anti-biblical concept, that of the gay lifestyle, as well as abortion and other things."

Yuille says the availability of this scholarship shows that Michigan State University is more interested in satisfying the demands of a very vocal, small minority, rather than being sensitive to the history of the nation and the black community.