In 2012, The Princeton Review listed Calvin among the most unfriendly campuses for LGBTQ+ students. Though Calvin did not make the list for 2025, this former reputation still shapes perceptions for some. “Most students who are LGBTQ+ in a Christian university are going to start with the assumption that it’s not necessarily going to be a friendly place,” said Jodi VanWingerden, Calvin’s coordinator for student support and sexuality programming. But, she adds: “What students find here at Calvin is community and people who support them and care for them well.” Attendance at events hosted by Calvin’s Sexuality and Gender Awareness group (SAGA) reflects students’ desire to be seen, known and loved. VanWingerden said, “I would say on any given week, we have 20 or upwards of 30 students coming. Even if I know 100 students [in that demographic] … that’s still a fraction of the supposedly 600 that are statistically likely here at Calvin.”
SAGA began in 2009 — with students who previously met in secret spaces across campus — as an extension of the Center for Counselling and Wellness, according to VanWingerden. However, with time, the group sought to become more public to create a space where LGBTQ+ students could find community. “When they first came up with the SAGA name, it was sexuality awareness [and] gender acceptance. Now it’s sexuality and gender awareness,” said VanWingerden. “Part of the original goal was to bring education on these topics to campus. I think now it’s shifted … to providing community and a safe space for students.”
VanWingerden attends every meeting as staff advisor and oversees sexuality programming across campus. “My role is to create a space where students belong and feel cared for,” she said. VanWingerden told Chimes that both her role and SAGA’s mission are about “how to care for people well. Caring well for one another doesn’t require affirmation of relationships or denial of relationships.”
Mathematics and philosophy student Ben Skillen described SAGA as open and welcoming. “SAGA’s essentially just a community of people who emphasize discussions and awareness of sexuality and gender identity,” said Skillen. “The SAGA lounge is a lovely space that Jodi [VanWingerden] curates to make it the nicest space possible for people to hang out in, work on homework and talk to each other.” Skillen added, “SAGA is a very welcoming community. It’s not like, hey, you have to be queer to be here. There are all sorts of people, straight people, not straight people, cisgender, non cisgender — all of those.”
One of the group’s core principles is openness. “Everyone is welcome, and all opinions are welcome, as long as they’re given in a constructive and reasonable manner,” Skillen explained. He also noted that SAGA works in conjunction with other groups, including Q Christian Fellowship.
Studio art and history student Molly Post said she chose Calvin because of the positive reputation it has built. “I chose Calvin because it at least has come to have a reputation as one of the most welcoming Christian universities to queer students,” she said. “It is a space where people like me can exist … people who don’t necessarily fit the exact mold of what a good Christian college student should look like.”
For Post, Calvin’s diversity of perspectives is part of its strength. “Calvin has created a space where that kind of dialogue is allowed to happen. And I think that’s really unique in Christian universities. But I worry that it may disappear and that will ultimately harm Calvin,” Post explained. She added, “I can’t think of another Christian university where my roommate, who is Muslim, and me, as a queer woman, are able to exist and find community.”
SAGA’s work unfolds in the shadow of the Christian Reformed Church’s Synod. In 1973, Synod declared that “homosexuality is not the result of a conscious choice.” The report also acknowledged that “the attitude of condemnation and discrimination that has multiplied the misery of these often unhappy people is changing now that we are learning more about their condition, but we have far to go in achieving a Christian awareness of the homosexual’s problems and his need for love and acceptance as a person.” The report’s insistence on love and acceptance remains the unresolved thread: even as Synod has hardened its rulings in recent years, Calvin’s campus climate is shaped by students and staff trying to embody that neglected call.
As of 2022, the Christian Reformed Church does not affirm same‑sex sexual relationships, and in 2025, Synod ruled that the denomination’s position against “homosexual sex” had confessional status, according to Chimes reporting from April 2025 In 2025, Synod also instructed Calvin University’s board of trustees to close what it saw as a loophole in the gravamen (confessional disagreement) process — by further defining “indefinite exceptions to confessional subscription,” clarifying what it means to fully agree with the confessions, tightening oversight of how faculty dissent is recorded and reviewed — and report back to Synod 2026.
Amidst the tension of recent decisions, SAGA continues to seek to be a place of community and support for students at Calvin. “The Christian Reformed official stance is that sexual orientation is not chosen, it’s something that is inherent, but that you also have a choice about your sexual behavior,” said VanWingerden, aligning with the 1973 Synod decision. She added, “Calvin can model what it might look like for the rest of the church, but I’m not sure the church would want to hear that.”
