Giving Tuesday REAP 5K

The Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP) empowers queer, trans and non-binary students at hundreds of taxpayer-funded religious schools and colleges that actively discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. Through civil rights litigation, storytelling, oral history, research and public policy, we work towards a world where LGBTQIA+ students on all campuses are treated equally, with safety and respect.

We launched (REAP) just a year and a half ago as the only national effort focused on supporting and empowering LGBTQIA+ students who face discrimination at religious colleges.

Within that time frame, we’ve elevated the national conversation around anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination at religious colleges – and put schools on notice: If you discriminate, we will hold you accountable:

• In March 2021, we launched a first-of-its-kind report detailing the rampant abuse and discrimination faced by queer and transgender students at more than 200 religious institutions nationwide.
• Two weeks later, we launched a class-action lawsuit, with 33 (now 46) LGBTQIA+ students demanding that the Department of Education stop granting religious exemptions to schools that discriminate.
• We've ramped up our Campus and Alumni Organizing to assist and help students beyond the scope of litigation by starting petitions, partaking in demonstrations, filing Title IX complaints, and accreditation complaints.
• On October 11, 2022, REAP partnered with the Black Menaces to curate a nationwide protest to Strikeout Queerphobia where thousands of students across the nation walked out of their classrooms and protested against anti-LGBTQIA+ policies at their schools.  
• We currently have 7 open Title IX investigations at religious schools around the country.
• REAP's work, and most importantly, the stories of our plaintiffs and LGBTQIA+ students, have been featured in more than 100 media outlets nationwide, including Politico, Washington Post, NBC and Religion News Service. 

When you support REAP, you are supporting a cause that fills a much-needed gap in the LGBTQIA+ movement – with a clear strategy to end anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination at taxpayer-funded religious colleges.

If we’ve accomplished all of this in just 1.5 years, imagine – with your support – how powerful this movement will be in the months and years to come.