Choosing a New Path
Story by: Delaney Newhouse
Briar Matthey is tired.
Matthey, a senior studying social work, is an active member of Baylor’s campus community and president of local organization Gamma Alpha Epsilon. While it’s now associated with Waco Pride Network, the club has roots that run deep at Baylor.
“It’s been here decades at this point,” Matthey said.
Gamma began as a small collective of students attempting to escape harassment for their perceived sexual or gender identity at Baylor. Matthey listed friends and acquaintances he says left the university due to this harassment.
“If you’re not able to exist in a place how you are, there’s so much hate there, and shame — like, self-hatred and shame that goes into that, and they don’t have the capability, or they don’t have the current mental health space to advocate for themselves in a way,” he said. “And it’s easier to just go find a different path.”
It’s hard not to see echoes of this narrative of exertion and exhaustion
in Gamma’s own history. The club sought a charter to become an official club at Baylor for years, but it was constantly rejected.
“The Student Life people are good at presenting obstacles like, ‘Oh, this is policy,’ when really it’s just preventative measures, and it prevents certain people from being organizations,” Matthey said.
The social and political climate surrounding the LGBTQ+ community has changed drastically over the years. Sex between adults of the same gender was decriminalized in Texas after the 2003 landmark case Lawrence v. Texas, and gay marriage was legalized nationwide in 2015.
Matthey emphasizes the radical nature of Gamma’s mere existence in its early days when it was still called Sexual Identity Forum.
“Literally just existing together meant something,” he said.
In 2021, Baylor began a series of listening sessions after Gamma sought yet again to be chartered. Dr. Sharra Hynes, associate vice president and dean of students in student life, and Dr. Matt Burchett, then assistant dean of philanthropic engagement and senior director of student activities, scheduled sessions seeking means to support LGBTQ+ students.
They hoped to take action after the board of Regents released a statement calling for the administration “to determine the appropriate pathways to provide additional care, connections and community for Baylor’s LGBTQ+ students, including the possibility of establishing a new, chartered student group that is consistent with Baylor’s core commitments.”
“We don’t have a stated mission and purpose yet for a group or a constitution,” Hynes said in an October 2021 article for The Baylor Lariat. She expressed hope that the listening sessions would allow for the formation
of a group that serves LGBTQ+ students under the guidance and in compliance with the university’s mission.
President of Gamma Alpha Upsilon Briar Matthey feeding a pet goose.
In May 2022, Prism was chartered as Baylor’s first official LGBTQ+ affirming group. Four student volunteers were commissioned by Student activities to create its constitution.
“The mission of Prism serves Baylor University and its students through creating a respectful space that embraces diverse sexual identities (community) focused on continuous learning for the Baylor community, giving voice for LGBTQ+ students to the administration (care) and creating opportunities for all students to access resources through connection, belonging and education,” the constitution reads.
Burchett spoke to The Baylor Lariat about the process and decision.
“From our perspective, chartering Prism is very much in alignment with creating a caring Christian community for all of our students,” he said.
Gamma, though, had withdrawn its petition to be chartered.
“No queer student is going to have time for a weekly meeting for two different organizations,” Matthey said, explaining the decision. “We didn’t want them choosing organizations over each other, because there’s really no reason that Prism and Gamma should be clashing heads.”
Members of Gamma Alpha Upsilon chair a table at a community event.
Instead, Gamma moved to join a greater city-wide community. Waco Pride Network is a local nonprofit that seeks to provide events and community for the LGBTQ+ community. It houses a parent resource group, a “Golden Gays” group, a family group and now Gamma Alpha Epsilon under its umbrella.
“Pride Network actually wants us, and Baylor has made it pretty clear they don’t want us,” Matthey said.
The president views the move as a refuge from some of the chaos the organization and its members endured at the university. He said it also provided space for both Gamma and Prism to grow as groups without being forced into oppositional positions.
“A lot of our professors that love us do want it to be Baylor specific,” Matthey said. “It’s not a Baylor exclusionary thing, it’s literally like, ‘Yes, and.’”
While Gamma discussions often focus on LGBTQ+ topics, including
heavier ones like responses to political policies, Matthey emphasizes the fun, carefree nature of its events. To him, Gamma is an investment that has paid him energy back in spades. He wants everyone to be able to experience the connections he has forged through the organization.
“We all have the definition in our head of a weird kid, and that matches way too many people,” Matthey said. “And I actually see in Texas, like, queer people here as so different from queer people from other states. When we are trapping kids in this cycle of, ‘Work, hide, home, sleep, home, work, eat,’ when it’s your whole goal to make sure your parents don’t know that you have a different name, and your whole life is online … and you’re not talking to people in real life, we literally just aren’t getting the social interaction we need.”
Matthey said he understands life at Baylor and in Waco, despite progress, is still immensely difficult for members of the LGBTQ+ community. While Gamma performs small acts of resistance and advocacy, like protests, he views their role today as more of a community-building exercise, a haven for the exhausted.
“Gamma is literally just a community that understands that pain. I think that’s indispensable,” Matthey said. “It’s also a space for allies to come learn a little bit. We want allies to come to hang out.”
