An Interview with Kelsey Morrison, Evangelical Academia’s Latest Homophobia Victim
Friends,
Once in a while, instead of offering an opinion piece for Baptist News Global, I’m able to offer an interview of some of the special people I’m honored to meet who you might find interesting. Kelsey Morrison’s story was recently brought to my attention, and it was a delight to be able to interview this courageous human being and educator.
On June 2, soccer coach Kelsey Morrison was fired and immediately escorted from the campus of Geneva College, an evangelical school near Pittsburgh. Her offense was two posts on Instagram.
In this exclusive interview with me for Baptist News Global, Coach Morrison tells her story. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: So, Kelsey, how long were you at Geneva College? And in what role?
A: I was there for two years as their head women’s soccer coach.
Q: Where had you been before?
A: I was an assistant coach at Nicholls State University in South Louisiana. I moved up to the Pittsburgh area for the job at Geneva.
Q: How did your team do in your two years as a coach?
A: We were taking over a team that had not been competitively successful before. We were able to see a lot of growth in our first season as we made the conference playoffs for the first time in program history, which was wonderful. A big drive was recruiting. We were seeing a full roster and seeing that grow. So the momentum was shifting.
Q: When you were hired, what were the stipulations related to LGBTQ issues, like a code of conduct or anything that would have been relevant to what ultimately happened with you?
A: Geneva, as a Christian institution, requires their staff and faculty to submit a personal statement of faith. And then, along with that, there’s a code of conduct for the staff and faculty which goes through primary things that you would expect working at a Christian institution. It talks about a non-affirming stance on homosexuality and that you won’t promote participating in that “lifestyle.” And so that was something I had to have a really firm grasp on before accepting the job. But I was in a place in my own convictions where I could commit to singleness. I could commit to hold to the code of conduct the college has, and so I went forward with accepting the position.
Q: So the code of conduct says you’re not supposed to promote or participate in homosexuality? Is that what the language is?
A: It was: We believe marriage is between a man and a woman and anything outside that is against biblical standards. So we do not agree with same-sex marriage, sexual relations outside of heterosexual marriage.
Q: And a lifestyle requirement not to practice in opposition to that statement. Right?
A: Yeah.
Q: When you went to Geneva, if I can ask you, where were you in your sense of gender and sexual identity?