Gay activists charged with trespassing at Covenant College in Ga.
TRENTON, Ga. --Deputies charged four gay activists including a Connecticut woman with trespassing at Covenant College, a northwest Georgia private school affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America.
The group arrested Monday in Dade County, Ga., informed campus administrators months ago they would be visiting as representives of Soulforce, a Lynchburg, Va.-based organization sponsoring a bus tour of colleges to challenge policies they contend discriminate against homosexuals.
Brad Voyles, dean of students at Covenant, said the Soulforce group had earlier refused a campus offer of meetings with student leaders, administrators and faculty in a designated room. Administrators refused to allow the group members to "roam campus and meet with anyone of their choosing," according to a Feb. 8 statement on the college website.
Voyles said Covenant students spoke to the group Monday at the edge of the campus and "they were warned if they trespassed they would be arrested."
The Covenant College website says its policy is "clear as it relates to a student's sexual conduct. When students enroll at Covenant, they voluntarily sign the biblically-based Standards of Conduct, agreeing to abstain from 'sexual sins (such as premarital sex, adultery, homosexual behavior and the use or possession of obscene or pornographic material.)' We remain firmly committed to our biblically-based standards of sexuality."
Dade County Sheriff's Department Officer Shane Russell identified those arrested and in custody Monday night as Jarrett Lucas, 21, of Minneapolis, Minn.; Rachel Loskill, 21, of Southfield Mich.; Adam Todd Britt, 20, of Little Rock, Ark., and Bronwen Tomb, 23, of New London, Conn.
Tomb, a University of Connecticut student, was discharged last year from the Coast Guard under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, according to The Day of New London.
Russell said the charges were misdemeanors and a judge would likely set bonds Tuesday.
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