BYU Brass Suspend Two Gays

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Richard "Ricky" Escoto, a gay Mormon and Brigham Young University student, always considered the LDS Church's stance on homosexuality to be benevolent, even accepting.

"I figured as long as I remained chaste the church would welcome me," he said.

But Escoto has found it is not that simple.

BYU, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recently suspended Escoto under the university's honor code for violations related to disputed allegations of homosexual conduct.

According to Escoto, as well as another gay BYU student suspended two weeks ago, being gay without engaging in homosexual activity may be permitted at the Provo school, but students risk being sanctioned for even talking about same-sex attraction or associating -- however chastely -- with other gays or lesbians.

On March 13, the school suspended Escoto, a sophomore from Los Angeles, on four counts: that he received gifts from other men, visited gay-oriented Internet chat rooms on his home computer, was seen on "dates" with at least three different men and was found "making out" with another male in his apartment. The two-semester suspension begins April 25.

Escoto, 21, disputes the allegations. He says the school has "no proof of anything," but instead relied on the false testimony of "bigoted" roommates.

His only crime, he says, was confiding his "issues with same-sex attraction" to a roommate with whom he was particularly close. Word quickly got out among the other roommates who turned him in to BYU's Honor Code Office, he said.

BYU's strict honor code, which must be signed by all students, lists "homosexual conduct" among other prohibitions under the heading "sexual misconduct." The reference to homosexuality, added in the late 1990s, doesn't elaborate.

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