Back to the Utah State Aggies Newsfeed

‘I thought I was the only queer person at BYU’: LGBT students host panel focused on faith and gender identity at Mormon Church-owned university

Gabriel Cano’s professor doesn’t call on him. Maybe he’s just paranoid. Maybe he just isn’t raising his hand high enough.

His professor knew him when he had long hair and wore plain skirts. And he’s in his class again, two years after transitioning, now wearing suspenders and thick glasses. He doesn’t look the same, and he isn’t looked at the same.

At LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University, that treatment, sometimes intentionally biased, sometimes just oblivious, isn’t unusual. LGBT students say it’s the standard. They want to change it.

“It’s not talked about. And that makes you feel isolated.