gay and christian - HE DIDN'T SEEK NOTORIETY BUT WILL BE ADVOCATE

gay and christian
Kentucky.com, KY also: Student: Faith, homosexuality compatible Louisville Courier-Journal.

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One week after Jason Johnson was expelled from the University of the Cumberlands for being gay, he's busier than most students still in school.

His parents got him a cell phone to deal with constant calls from reporters, activists and friends. The 20-year-old Lafayette High School graduate is planning to fly to New York for interviews on national television and being called a "provocateur" by the Senate president. He's not getting much sleep.

But he's also more confident, finally at peace with being gay and Christian.

"I have gained a lot of reconciliation through this process, getting affirmation from old friends, the church," Johnson said yesterday in his first in-depth interview. "I never thought 'Am I gay?' It was 'How can I be both these things?' That battle between those things was one of the hardest things I've gone through."

Johnson has lived in Lexington with his parents and two brothers since the early 1990s. He was baptized in 1996 at Central Baptist Church, which split from the Southern Baptist Convention and the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

Although Johnson knew he was gay in high school, he never told anyone. When the time came to choose a college, attending the small, Southern Baptist school in Williamsburg seemed like a good fit.

"Cumberland was a way for me to hide from that," said Johnson, who was a sophomore theater arts major. "Maybe I can find a way to figure out who I am. Maybe this will help me. And it did. It didn't help me in the way I thought."

The summer after his freshman year, he came out to his parents and returned to campus as an openly gay man.

"I just knew that I couldn't go back to hiding again. I wanted to be out," said Johnson, adding that he never experienced harassment or conflict because of his sexual orientation. "Being gay is part of who I am, but not the totality of who I am."

Johnson posted messages about his boyfriend and being gay on his profile at MySpace. com, and school administrators eventually saw the Web site; Johnson doesn't know how they found it. They confronted him last week with a printout of the site, an order to leave the school and failing grades for a semester that probably would have ended with honors.

The university did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.

Although the 2005-06 student handbook says, "Any student who engages in or promotes sexual behavior not consistent with Christian principles (including sex outside marriage and homosexuality) may be suspended or asked to withdraw," Johnson said he was not expecting the expulsion. He was heading to class when he was told to go to the student services building. Caught unaware, he wondered if he was receiving an honor from the school, although it seemed odd to be told to skip class.

"In the back of my mind, I thought what I was doing was probably risky," Johnson said of his Web postings. "When I'd already told my parents, I had nothing to be afraid of. If something happened at school, now there was no question that my parents would support me."

They supported him that night, by helping him pack his dorm room and move back to Lexington, and since then by controlling the swell of media attention and supporting Johnson's activism. They also helped him find a lawyer, Don Waggener.

Johnson wouldn't discuss a potential legal case against the university, but said he's hoping to leave the university with the grades he earned instead of failing marks. Although he's heard from students urging him to apply at several schools, Eastern Kentucky University is his top choice.

Before he was expelled, he was already looking into a transfer, saying on his MySpace site, "... I am so ready to be out of here. When you get to the point where you almost wish that your school will kick you out, then you know you've got it bad." He's looking for a bigger school offering more challenges in theater, he said, but he values the years he spent in Williamsburg.

"Cumberland is a place for people who want a great education," Johnson said. "The faculty has been amazing. I'll continue on with some of my friendships for the rest of my life. We just did not see eye-to-eye on this issue."

Still, some see a political motivation in the publicity surrounding Johnson after the expulsion.

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said this week, "this young man might very well be a provocateur in this entire thing." Williams helped secure $11 million for the school in the new state budget, but Gov. Ernie Fletcher is being urged to veto the money.

Johnson said he welcomes the opportunity to become an activist, knowing that "people will recognize my name a little more, rather than just the baseball player that shares a name with me."

But he didn't aim to be thrown out of school.

"I never wanted to be a fire-starter," Johnson said. "I have never wanted this to come about for me to further my own ideas. Because it has happened to me, I'm willing to stand up for equality.

"I believe in Christ, I believe in Christ's love. I believe I can be who I am and people will see my religion through that."