One TWU Takes Stories Night Off-Campus After Rejection by Administration

Seth Schouten

One TWU’s annual student and alumni stories event is happening off of Trinity Western University’s campus this year, despite being able to hold the event on campus previously. After the group submitted their request for a space to hold their event, the university declined it. The group had been able to hold similar events on TWU’s Langley campus since One TWU was founded in 2014.

“We’re sharing our stories, which I think should be a non-controversial thing,” said Carter Sawatzky, the co-leader of One TWU, in an interview with Langley Advance Times

One TWU is an independent group that advocates for greater inclusion and support for LGBTQ+ students at TWU. The group was founded in 2014 and is comprised of LGBTQ+ students, alumni, and allies of TWU. Since 2019, One TWU has been barred from displaying permanent posters that advertise its services and resources on campus.

The stories event, titled “If Only You Knew,” is a time of sharing and the presentation of testimonies from various members of One TWU’s community. One TWU describes the event as “an evening of stories, [where] queer students and alumni reflect on the joys, the sorrows, and the laughter of being queer or allies at TWU and what they’ve learned since.”

Tickets are available for free and the event is open to anyone who wishes to attend—whether connected to TWU’s community or not.

The event is scheduled for March 3 and was originally going to be held at St. George’s Anglican Church in

Fort Langley. However, due to high ticket demand, the event has been moved to the Fort Langley Community Hall. On February 22, the event sold out in-person, although tickets to attend via a live stream are still available.

“A lot of people come to TWU and have never heard an LGBTQ story,” Sawatzky said, stressing the importance of One TWU’s story night. “They’ve never heard different perspectives around [the] LGBTQ community, around queer people. And so for some people, this event on campus is one of the first times that they can hear the lived experience from the words of the people themselves, not from a secondary source of someone saying that they’re going to hell, that God hates them, that they have dignity. They have their own lives.” media. Some are directed towards the administration while others address the community at large, offering words of encouragement.

One such supporter was Jared Barkman, an alumnus of TWU and the president of TWUSA for the 2017/2018 school year. “I am deeply disturbed to see the way that the voices of LGBTQIA2S+ students are being stifled at TWU,” Barkman wrote in a message to One TWU. “I have seen many faith-based organizations successfully embrace inclusion and display unconditional hospitality. At present, TWU is the antithesis of this.”

“Truth is not divisive,” wrote Chrisaleen Ciro, another alumnus of TWU and a former Editor-in-Chief of Mars’ Hill. “Empathy is not scary. Accountability is not disrespect. Tenderness is not a threat.”

“It’s not a contradiction,” said Sawatzky. “You can be queer and Christian.”

One TWU’s story has garnered media attention with Global BC and CBC having picked up the story.

When One TWU shared their difficult experiences of trying to find a space for the stories event on social media, they were met with a flurry of supportive messages from alumni, faculty, and other community members, which One TWU has shared on their social