"This is personal for me. I have raised 6 children and my oldest son is gay."

President Taylor,

My name is Howard Hyche and I’m a member of the class of 1983. I recently read about Samford excluding two religious groups that share different views regarding LGBTQ students. These groups want to support these students. Although I’m not surprised by the decision, it still saddens me. This is a path that could harm many people. Historically, Southern Baptists have been on the wrong side of major social issues. Now you and Samford University have chosen the wrong side of this issue. Your name will forever be attached to this choice.

While I was a student at Samford I was lucky to have friends from many backgrounds. I have several fraternity brothers that are gay and I watched several of them consistently live out their Christian faith as they transitioned from students to working adults. Those were the ones that had the support of family and found an accepting church to support them. I have watched a few others turn away from their faith completely. They were rejected by their families and never found support in their conservative Christian community.

Most of these men came out as gay after Samford. There was not a formal student support group to help them and I know they felt out of place in the Samford bubble. I know one gay/bi Samford Student who was out during my time at Samford. He was not accepted by his family or church. He was ridiculed by other students and he acted out and chose a self destructive lifestyle. If SAFE Samford had existed or if he had found a supportive church back then his choices might have been different.

Since my time at Samford our society has come a long way in supporting LGBTQ. As a child I listened to my Sunday School Teachers as they taught me the parables of Christ and I took them to heart. Why is Samford University leaving those parables behind?

This is personal for me. I have raised 6 children and my oldest son is gay. I was there from the moment he took his first breath, his first step, his first day of school. I moved him to Auburn University for college when he was 18. I still recall the moment he told me he was gay 4 years later. I already knew it but he felt he needed to tell me. He needed my support.

My response to him was that I loved him, his family loved him and no matter what others told him, God still loves him. We laughed about how naive, ignorant people thought you could pray the gay away. I didn’t question his sexuality because I know God made him. I also knew that God would bring the people he needed into his life.

We chose to support him but he needed a bigger support group. When he moved 500 miles away I encouraged him to explore the Episcopal Church because I knew the denomination he was raised in would throw him away or he would have to live a lie to worship with them. He joined the Episcopal Church. He grew in his faith, taught youth Sunday School, helped feed the homeless' and he even headed up the church giving campaign. He continues to live his life as Jesus taught us to live.

Now he is 33 years old and has been married to his husband for a year. They were married by an Episcopal Priest surrounded by a crowd of 200 friends and family. They have the support they need and lead a very normal married life.

I have one child left at home. She is in the tenth grade. A few months ago we were talking about her college choice and I mentioned Samford. She looked surprised and said “Why would I go somewhere that doesn’t support my gay brother?” I couldn’t argue with her statement.

As Samford becomes more conservative you are going to find it harder and harder to recruit bright, engaging, compassionate students. Many of the current generation of high school students have rejected Christianity completely because of the hypocrisy and hatred on display every day from the political right and evangelical churches. Other Christian high school students have reconciled their faith and LGBTQ issues. They are living out their faith by loving their neighbor as themselves. Samford University should be embracing these students, not giving future students reasons to reject Samford.

Sincerely,

Howard Hyche