Pro-LGBT Group That Attacked Christian Colleges Throws in the Towel

In a positive development for Christian universities, the Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP) announced on August 10, 2025, that it will cease operations. This marks the end of an organization that for years aggressively pursued litigation to dismantle long-standing religious protections for faith-based institutions. For Christian universities, seminaries, and organizations committed to upholding biblical teachings on sexuality, REAP's closure represents one less adversarial force seeking to impose secular ideologies through the courts.

Citing “the discovery of a serious internal issue that affected REAP’s financial and operational stability” the organization’s board decided to pause operations, evaluate its next steps, and uphold its fiduciary obligations, while claiming it “cannot share all details publicly.” Although it will remain incorporated, it has ceased its activities as an activist organization.

An Organization Dedicated to Attacking the Christian Worldview on Sex

Paul Southwick, the ACLU’s current Idaho legal director, founded REAP in 2021 as a nonprofit for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students and alumni from religious colleges. Its team members included a garden variety of leftists of varying sexual orientations and gender identities. This included its former campus and alumni organizer, Erin Green, an “affirming Biblical scholar and LGBTQ+ activist” who went by the grammatically incorrect pronouns “she/they” rather than “she/them.”

REAP challenged the religious exemption clause in Title IX, the clause in the 1972 federal law that allows institutions to opt out of complying with forced gender inclusion if doing so if it would conflict with their faith tenets. This has allowed private Christian colleges to maintain the practice of their faith with regards to policies on marriage, sexual orientation, and gender identity and still receive federal funding. 

REAP viewed this as a loophole enabling discrimination. For many Christian leaders in higher education, however, it represents a vital safeguard preserving their constitutional right to religious freedom.

The Hunter Case

REAP’s highest profile activity was a class-action lawsuit filed on March 29, 2021, in U.S. District Court in Oregon, Elizabeth Hunter et al. v. U.S. Department of Education. It involved 46 students and former who claimed personal harm from discriminatory policies at religious schools. 

Perkins Coie, the infamous Democrat law firm that commissioned the fake Steele dossier that began the Russia collusion hoax in 2016 against President Donald Trump, took the case as pro bono counsel and donated over $800,000 in legal services to REAP’s cause.

Key figures included Andrew Hartzler, who joined the suit because Oral Roberts University wouldn’t let him be publicly gay on campus. 

Other stories highlighted in the complaint included a student at Bob Jones University disciplined for pro-LGBT social media posts, a Union University student whose admission was rescinded after Union found out about his engagement to another man, and an individual expelled from Fuller Theological Seminary for being in a same-sex marriage.

The lawsuit named the U.S. Department of Education as the primary defendant. Corban University, William Jessup University, Phoenix Seminary Corban University, and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) also joined the lawsuit. 

REAP argued that the Title IX exemption violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and equal protection rights of the 14th Amendment, asserting that taxpayer-funded schools should not be allowed to discriminate against LGBT individuals.

The courts, however, disagreed. 

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken dismissed the case. 

Oregon’s leftist Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum (D) then led a 19-state coalition, appealing the case to the traditionally liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Surprisingly, the typically left-wing 9th Circuit unanimously upheld the lower court’s decision last August, which emphasized historical precedents for religious accommodations and affirmed faith-based schools have a right to enforce standards aligned with their beliefs. The CCCU hailed the outcome as consistent with centuries of legal tradition protecting religious liberty.

Other Activities

REAP also engaged in broader advocacy efforts attacking Christian universities’ traditional views on sexuality. It produced a podcast called "On God’s Campus: Voices from the Queer Underground" to share stories of LGBT students’ experiences on Christian campuses. It also conducted speaking engagements about what it described as abuses enabled by “white Christian supremacy” in education. 

The group’s reach was not limited to some of the more prominent Christian universities. It allegedly engaged students at over 200 taxpayer-funded religious colleges, documenting alleged Title IX violations. 

For Christian schools, REAP’s closure is another victory for religious freedom. The organization’s efforts represented a direct assault on the ability of institutions of all faiths to maintain environments rooted in universal truths about human sexuality and identity. By attempting to strip away Title IX exemptions, the organization sought to force these schools—many of which receive federal aid for student loans and grants—to affirm LGBT lifestyles or scramble to find additional sources of funding to help lower-income students afford tuition. This coercion would have compelled them to compromise core doctrines or face possible closure.

Although the CCCU and Christian universities won in court this time, a continual litigious onslaught would have drained resources better spent on educating young adults. Additionally, the possible changing of the judicial guard in the future could have imperiled religious universities’ freedom to teach as they see fit. For the countless students, faculty, and alumni who value Biblically based learning, REAP’s closure represents one less threat they have to worry about moving forward. But it should serve as a reminder that Christians must remain guarded against attacks on America’s core tenet of religious freedom.

(READ MORE: A Virginia Victory: Court Greenlights Talk Therapy for Kids Confused About Sex and Gender)