When Taylor Huckaby came out as gay in 2010, the University alumnus knew he would be asked to step down from his position as band member and worship team co-leader at The Refuge, the college ministry of the Chapel on the Campus. But he didn’t know that Refuge’s alleged actions might have violated a complicated University nondiscrimination policy.

Refuge has been a registered student organization on campus since 1994.  

Though the University prohibits discrimination in all registered student organizations through Policy Statement One, it allows leeway for student organizations to discriminate in selecting their leadership, said Campus Life associate director for marketing and communications Margo Jolet.

This exception to the University’s nondiscrimination policy is not available to students; it cannot be found on University websites or in student organization policy manuals.

“We realize that there isn’t really a place that it’s published on our website, and it’s not in our handbook,” Jolet said. 

In this exception to the nondiscrimination policy, the University defines leadership as the positions outlined in a student organization’s constitution, Jolet said.

In Refuge’s 2009-2010 constitution, effective when Huckaby said he was a leader, there is no mention of band members or a worship team. 

Policy Statement One

All student organizations at the University must abide by PS-01, Jolet said.

Issued in August 2000, PS-01 prohibits discrimination in University programs and activities.

Jolet confirmed that Refuge has been a registered student organization at the University for 20 years, activated as the Chapel on the Campus in 1994.  

According to its text, the purpose of PS-01 “is to assert Louisiana State University’s (LSU) commitment to provide equal opportunity for all qualified persons in admission to, participation in, or employment in the programs and activities which the University operates without regard to race, creed, color, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, religion, sex, national origin, age, mental or physical disability, or veteran’s status.”

Jolet said religious student organizations are not exempt from PS-01.

“The Equal Opportunity statement, it does apply to our student organizations because they’re all bound by Policy Statement One,” Jolet said. “Any entity on campus is bound by Policy Statement One.”

An Exception to the Rule

However, Jolet noted in a second meeting with The Daily Reveille that student organizations are allowed to bypass PS-01 in selecting leadership.

“As a member of an organization, you cannot be discriminated against in terms of whatever it might be that that organization is,” Jolet said. “However, if you wanted to hold a position of leadership, they are able to do                   that.”

Jolet confirmed that University student organizations could ask leaders to step down on the basis of sexual orientation.

To determine what constitutes a leadership position, Jolet said Campus Life looks to student organizations’ annual constitutions. If the position specifically is mentioned in the constitution, it is exempt from the restrictions of PS-01.

“In that case, if that position isn’t outlined in the constitution as a student leader or an officer, then it would be considered a member [position],” Jolet said. “I think that’s going to end up being the lynchpin of this whole thing.”

Huckaby’s Refuge position as worship team co-leader and band member is not mentioned in the Refuge 2009-10 constitution, which The Daily Reveille obtained from Campus Life. The only positions of leadership outlined in Article V, Section 2 of the constitution are three officers: a president, vice president and a secretary/treasurer.

“That really … is going to go straight back to the constitution,” Jolet said. “How have you defined your leadership positions and how has it been outlined? I think they would have had to outline those positions in the constitution.”

Jolet confirmed that band members and worship team members were not identified as leaders in the constitution, and she re-emphasized the importance of a constitution’s text in establishing a definition for leadership positions.

However, Jolet stopped short of declaring Refuge’s alleged actions noncompliant with University policy.

“The part that we cannot make a definitive judgment on is how much the band was a student organization and how much the band was the church, because we really have no jurisdiction over the church and their practices,” Jolet said.

A Sense of Community

The Refuge gathers Sunday night at 7:37 p.m. The specific start time is a reference to a verse from the Book of John: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”

Hundreds of students flock to  the church on Dalrymple Drive to attend services led by a worship team of students and a teaching pastor. At 37 minutes past the hour, the lights in the chapel go dark, and music fills the sanctuary.

Huckaby was raised in Dallas, Texas, where he attended an Evangelical Christian church. He wanted to find a community in Baton Rouge similar to the experiences he grew up with in northern Texas. It was expected of him, Huckaby said. 

After Huckaby joined Refuge’s worship team, he spent 20 to 30 hours a week at church, singing and playing the keyboards on stage every Sunday evening.

Josh LaRavia was the head college pastor throughout Huckaby’s time at Refuge.

“We believe that Christ didn’t save us for isolation or he didn’t save us to be alone, but he created us for one another,” LaRavia said. “If you go into the Bible, you see that thread all the way through that we’re stronger together than we are apart.”

LaRavia said Refuge is different from other religious student organizations on campus because it is a nondenominational ministry.

“They come in all shapes, colors and flavors, but the good thing about nondenominational is that you don’t focus on what divides you — you focus on what unites,” LaRavia said. 

Coming Out

 Despite the friends and community Huckaby developed at Refuge, he worried about a part of his identity he had struggled with since his sophomore year of high school.

Huckaby was 17 years old when he told his parents he was gay. They sent him to reparative therapy — an experience Huckaby called “absolutely miserable.” He described the therapy as treatment from a “glorified Christian counselor” who attempted to change his sexuality. 

Huckaby’s fear of his sexuality carried over into college, where he dreaded the repercussions of coming out. He was concerned he would lose his friends at The Refuge, his job at the Republican Party of Louisiana and his family’s support.

“Sure enough, all three of those things kind of came tumbling down whenever I came out,” Huckaby said. “It was a torturous experience.”

Huckaby came out to his friend and co-leader of the worship team, Evan Godbold, in 2010, his junior year of college and third year at Refuge.

“I’d been stressing out about it for weeks and weeks and weeks,” Huckaby said. “I kind of got to the point where I was like, ‘I’ve got to tell people about this, or somebody’s going to find out and it’s going to be even                     worse.’”

Huckaby said Godbold was accepting of his sexuality, but Godbold said church leadership needed to know. 

Days later, Huckaby said, he met with Godbold and Kevin McKee, the Chapel’s senior pastor.

Huckaby said McKee told him he would need to enter reparative therapy, renounce his homosexuality and step down as a band member and co-leader of the worship team.

Godbold and McKee declined to comment for this story.

Huckaby said he knew the consequences of coming out because the topic of homosexuality was brought up in Refuge’s college leadership meetings.

“They sort of outlined how they would go about fixing a gay person, and so whenever I came out, I knew what was coming,” Huckaby said. “I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to stay on leadership.”

Huckaby chose not to return to Refuge after the alleged meeting.

“Of course, the practical effect of that was being excommunicated, basically,” Huckaby said. “I mean, you can’t have somebody who is on the leadership in front of everybody every single weekend suddenly just disappear out of nowhere and expect nobody to ask questions.”

LaRavia

Huckaby said he asked Godbold that LaRavia not be involved in the alleged meeting, citing a personality clash with LaRavia.

Around 2009, a year before he came out, Huckaby said LaRavia called him a gay slur on stage during a practice session for the worship team. Huckaby said Godbold then asked LaRavia to apologize in front of the band.

“That was sort of his thing,” Huckaby said of LaRavia. “He was just on a totally different plane of existence than me.”  

LaRavia said he didn’t remember using the word.

“I’ve never called a homosexual, someone that I know is a homosexual or anything like that, would I ever call them a derogatory name or anything like that, period, end of story,” LaRavia said. “I was joking. I do remember joking with them. I don’t remember a word that was offensive or a slur. And that’s the end of it. And I certainly didn’t know his sexual orientation.”

LaRavia said he remembered the circumstances of Huckaby’s departure differently.

“The way I remember it is that he chose to get off leadership,” LaRavia said. “That was his choice, and that happened before he told people his sexual orientation.”

LaRavia stressed his support for Huckaby.

“I am for Taylor Huckaby, and my support for Taylor never changed before I knew anything about his sexual orientation, period,” LaRavia said. “Because I believe Taylor is a person created in the image of God, and who am I to be a discriminator of persons?” 

Former Members

Mark*, a former Refuge member, said one Sunday, Huckaby helped lead worship. The next Sunday, he was gone.

“There was gossip about it,” Mark said. “So after about a week or two it was pretty common knowledge that he was asked to leave because of his sexuality.”

Mark came to Refuge in his first semester at the University and traveled on a mission trip with Huckaby to Bolivia during his time there.

He said Refuge provided friendship and community but suffered from a lack of acceptance. Mark also is gay.

“It’s like a lot of churches in the sense that they are going to teach you your take on the right answer before you even learn to ask those questions yourself,” Mark said. “Whenever you do begin to ask those questions yourself, they’re not going to have as open of a mind about things.”

Brandon Lamartiniere graduated from the University in 2010 with a double major in history and religious studies. He earned his master’s degree in theological studies from Duke University, but he left Refuge in 2008 after two years with the organization.

“I felt like they promoted some ideas that I didn’t find particularly palatable,” Lamartiniere said. “I felt like there was some underlying prejudices there.”

Lamartiniere said having an openly gay student in a position of leadership would have made the pastors look like they were endorsing homosexuality.

“If you’re in a position of leadership in the church, then you kind of have to live above reproach to a certain degree,” Lamartiniere said.

Huckaby now lives in Los Angeles and works for the British government as the political liaison for the Southwestern U.S.

Though he describes his life as extraordinarily happy, he said he is committed to the future of LGBT students at the University.

“If the University is really going to say that we are committed to diversity and that means that we value and appreciate LGBT people, I don’t think that they can say that at the same time as supporting these religious groups that openly discriminate against gay people,” Huckaby said. “I don’t think that LSU can square that.”

*Editor’s Note: Mark asked that his name be changed to preserve his anonymity.