When she came out as a bisexual last summer, York University student Deborah Fenney was sacked from the job in the York University Christian Union.

She was asked to leave her position as Social Action Representative. "I met with the presidents of the CU and as they explained it to me: Part of being a post holder is upholding the aims and values of the CU, whatever your private beliefs." Fenney, who was raised and schooled as a devout Evangelical, still considers herself as such, but she represents a number of young Christians whose sexuality clashes with the official doctrine of their campus' Christian Union. "Over the summer holidays I had the chance to pray and reflect on it, but at the end of it all I still couldn't believe that God necessarily condemns all homosexual behaviour.”

The media have focused on Christian groups who protested against the Sexual Orientations Regulation Bill, which forbids discrimination over sexual orientation in hiring practices, this instils the assumption that the religion is anti-gay as a whole. For young gay students this trend can be especially hurtful: the religious scene at most universities is dominated by Christian Unions connected to the Evangelical Alliance. This group has publicly stated that it accepts sexually active gay people but expects them “in due course to see the need to change their lifestyle”.

The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement is tackling this issue with a website for LGBT uni-aged youth ”to meet, socialise, hear from each other and support each other".

"The problem for me when I came out was that I definitely didn't fit into my Christian Union, “says Michael, a senior member of the website , who requested the use of a pseudonym to avoid a backlash from the religious community. “However, I also didn't feel comfortable in the LGBT society, as I didn't feel it 'was me'. This website is a place in between; here is somewhere that can mend the two sides.”

Michael sums up the problem of bias facing many religious homosexuals: "When people hear you're a Christian they seem to automatically want to define you. They say, oh you must think this, you must feel that." He said this attitude was strongly typified when he was an undergraduate at York University and active in their branch of the Christian Union. “However it seemed like they were saying, this is the way we think, which is right, and this is the way that everyone else thinks, which is wrong. You could either side with them as a Christian, or not be regarded as a Christian at all, and I felt alienated by this attitude and as a result, stopped going.”

Rose Rickford and Ben Nichols, the LGBT Officers for the University of York Students' Union, believe that the Christian Union's policies are causing intimidation and antagonism on campus. "It's very frustrating when organisations such as these undo any good work that may be done by continuing to underscore the notion that LGBT people are somehow 'wrong' or 'deviant'," says Rickford. "We've had students come to us saying that the reason they have been confused about their sexuality is because of the messages from the CU.”

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