Texas A&M hosted Eliel Cruz for his seminar “Eliel Cruz: Bisexuality and Religion” on Tuesday evening, when he discussed bisexuality and how it applies to religion.
Cruz used his own personal experiences, and gave examples of “do’s and don’ts” about how to treat bisexuals. Cruz relayed his vision for a safer environment for bisexuals, gays and lesbians to share their own experiences.
Cruz hit on how bisexuals are often left out in the media and how they are treated in many religious institutes, even though they compose roughly 2/3 of all women and 1/3 of all men in the LGBTQ community. Using examples from his past, Cruz spoke about his personal struggles. Cruz said in his youth he faced depression and his desire to be re-accepted into his church community after being asked to leave his high school because of his sexual orientation.
“I am a Christian, I am a bisexual person, I was raised in the church, I am still going to church,” Cruz said.
When asked about what to expect from Cruz, chemistry freshman Micah Jackson said he wanted to see what Cruz’s experiences were.
“A lot of people go through hardships in life, and I want to see how his affected him as a person,” Jackson said.
Cruz’s lecture, which he titled ‘Bi the way,’ worked to clear up confusing terms and derogatory names given to the bisexual community so as to educate people against harmful language towards bisexuals.
“[It] isn’t talked about very much in the LGBT community, let alone in the secular media,” Cruz said.
Cruz discussed how depression is a large factor in the bisexual community. Cruz said he enjoys helping people by being a source they can go to talk to.
“The closet kills,” Cruz said.
After the speech, Keyuana Hilliard, Entomology freshmen, said she realized that bisexuals are just like any other person in the community and need to be recognized as such so they can be brought into the local community.
Cruz now attends a Christian university, and is a cofounder and former president of the Intercollegiate Adventist Gay Straight Alliance Coalition. The IAGC is organization that works on Seventh-day Adventist campuses — who base their beliefs solely on Christian scripture — as well as at other colleges to help connect LGBTQ and the faith communities.
“I’m not meaning for churches to be changing their theology, I’m saying let’s create safer spaces for the… LGBT community,” Cruz said.