The young participants of Equality Ride weren’t exactly shown the ‘love of Jesus’ this week when they visited a south Florida Christian university.  The group’s tour bus was badly damaged by vandals and six members of the gay rights group were arrested after trying to attend a worship service on campus. 

Adopting the name Soulforce, the group has been traveling the country for several months, stopping at Christian colleges & universities along the way to promote safety, equality and inclusion for LGBT students   Palm Beach Atlantic University (PBA), a Christian liberal arts college in West Palm Beach, was the group’s only Florida stop. 

While members of Soulforce were attending a picnic with PBA students on Sunday, the group’s bus windows were shattered and the doors were bashed in.

Despite being upset by the damage to the bus, Soulforce members were encouraged by conversations they had with PBA students during the picnic. On Monday the group of sixteen young people arrived at the DeSantis Family Chapel with hopes of attending a worship service with the PBA students with whom they had been talking.

When the group members arrived at at PBA’s open campus in downtown West Palm, they were immediately restricted to the far side of the sidewalk and were greeted by a group of less than enthused parents.  Conversations ensued as PBA students joined the gathering.  One PSA freshman announced that she was a lesbian and voiced concern about the lack of safety for LGBT students on campus.

At 11:00 AM, sixteen Equality Riders walked to the chapel doors and were confronted by West Palm Beach police officers and PBA officials.  School officials read a statement that essentially barred Soulforce members from attending the service and police followed up by reading a similar statement.

As they moved toward the chapel door, Equality Riders were warned that they would be arrested for trespassing if they did not move back to the sidewalk. Ten riders turned away but six riders remained and, offering no resistance, were immediately arrested. 

Those arrested were Jarrett Lucas, 22, from Philadelphia, PA, Danielle Cooper, 19, from Maplewood, NJ, Lauren Parke, 25, from Seattle, WA Enzi Tanner, 24, from Minneapolis, MN, Nicholas Rocco DeFinis, 22, from Lansdale, PA, and Zak Rittenhouse, 21, from Frankfort, OH. PBA students looked on as the young adults were placed in handcuffs and moved into a police van.

The arrested young adults are scheduled to go before a magistrate Tuesday morning.

David L. Wylie is the Senior Editor of GaySOFLA Magazine.  Wylie is passionate about creating an online media outlet that will encourage, entertain and educate the south Florida LGBT Community.  Wylie hopes that GaySOFLA serves that purpose.  He can be reached at David@gaysofla.com