In seeking to do justice by challenging college policies that bans GLBT enrollment, the Equality Ride has six primary goals.
First, the Equality Ride will support the closeted GLBT students who suffer silently under these bans. The Equality Ride will make clear that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people are made in the image of God and loved by God, exactly as they are, without reservation.
Second, the Equality Ride will create a forum where GLBT issues can be discussed and debated by all without fear of reprisal. The Equality Ride will bring academic freedom to schools that prevent students form hearing all perspectives on GLBT issues.
Third, the Equality Ride will open a dialogue with the administrators of the targeted schools, to show them the suffering their policies create and hopefully create change in the wording and execution of those policies. But, even if the administrators refuse to make such changes, the Equality Ride will at the very least point the administrators in a more positive direction by proposing a variety of possible improvements–both small and large–that the administrators can begin making.
Fourth, the Equality Ride will raise public awareness of the societal suffering these bans have created. Unfortunately, the public is all too ignorant of the suffering that is happening within their communities. The Equality Ride will expose the stories of students who live in closets of fear, as well as the stories of students who have been kicked out of their colleges because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. In bringing these stories to life, the Equality Ride will bring a new energy for GLBT equality into even the most conservative parts of the country.
Fifth, the Equality Ride will make preeminent the moral equality of the GLBT community. The basic principal of the Equality Ride is the dictum that the humanity of GLBT people will not go undefended; that no longer will the untruths which pervade the targeted colleges simply be ignored. In coming to the defense of the GLBT community, the Equality Ride will reclaim the moral high ground, denouncing the false and dangerous beliefs that homosexuality is a sickness and a sin, a threat to the nation and the military.
Sixth, the Equality Ride will renew the spirits of the Equality riders. By doing justice work, the riders will aid in the end of suffering while defending the cause of truth. By taking part in this morally just cause, the spirits of the riders will be renewed because in the process of helping others, we help ourselves.