Messiah College alumni have launched an online petition urging the Granthan, Pennsylvania evangelical school to change its policies towards gay and lesbian students. The petition collected nearly 260 alumni signatures in its first 36 hours this week

Some who signed indicated they would withhold donations to an alumni fundraising campaign as long as the college continued to foster “an unsafe and noninclusive campus climate.”

InclusiveAlumni.com [Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.] is petitioning Messiah to become “a place of reconciliation, compassion, and true community.” Messiah’s Community Covenant, a code of conduct for all students, prohibits “homosexual behavior.”

The petition states restrictions on students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender dehumanize and marginalized students, and create divisions within the campus community.

The petition comes in the wake of a story about a current openly gay Messiah student who plans to transfer at the end of the semester after being harassed and threatened on campus. The account got extensive circulation on the Internet and provided impetus for the petition.

“I’m proud of the fact that I went to Messiah,” said Emily Yoder, a 2009 Messiah graduate who spearheaded the petition. “In my experience most professors and students are very accepting and tolerant of LGBT people. However, it does make me kind of embarrassed to be associated with it. Plenty of people don’t know the first thing about the college, and I would hate for them to think I feel that way because of the college. This is one thing that keeps me from being fully proud of it.”

Messiah spokeswoman Beth Lorow said administrators recognized the right of alumni to voice their personal opinions on a variety of issues. She said the college was accustomed to having discourse on complex issues.

“The issue isn’t new for Messiah,” Lorow said. “It’s not uncommon for us to hear from alumni. The format is different, but these conversations aren’t unique.”

She said the initiative could “lead to conversation and dialogue,” but that it was unlikely it would directly lead to a change in the college’s codes and policies, which are rooted in its founding Christian doctrine.

“If Messiah College were going to make that significant of a change, it would ultimately require governance action and a decision from the board of trustees,” Lorow said.

Yoder, who described herself as a straight person who arrived at Messiah with conservative, preconceived notions about LGBT students, said she had grown into a more accepting person while at Messiah. She said the school’s policies had motivated her to not donate to the college’s fundraising campaign, adding that other alumni had expressed similar opinions.

“This is a way to tell the college there are alumni who feel this way and they can’t in good conscience support the college when it feels this way,” she said.

The idea of withholding donations to the college pending a change in its policies is an understanding among petition signers, not part of the petition’s language, Yoder said.

The idea of the petition has been underfoot for some time, said fellow organizer Louie Marven, the director of education and youth services for The LGBT Community Center Coalition of Central PA.

Read Mote: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/05/messiah_college_alumni_urge_ad.html