LGBTQ Advocacy Group Closes Due to ‘Serious Internal Issue’

REAP tried—and failed—to end religious exemptions to anti-discrimination laws

Last week, the Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP) announced it will end operations. The LGBTQ rights advocacy group filed a lawsuit in 2021 to end religious exemptions to Title IX discrimination law.

Photo by Marek Studzinski / Unsplash / Creative Commons

The announcement from REAP said its decision came after “the discovery of a serious internal issue” that affected REAP’s financial and operational stability.

“The Board paused operations, evaluated next steps, and upheld our fiduciary responsibilities,” the announcement said. “While we cannot share all details publicly, we are deeply grateful to the founders, students, alumni, volunteers, donors, and community who believed in this work from day one.”

REAP was formed as a “legal and storytelling campaign” and eventually became a national nonprofit. The organization’s website says it “fights for the safety, bodily autonomy, justice, and human rights of LGBTQIA+” and other marginalized communities. REAP advocates for students who have claimed that religious colleges and universities have discriminated against them.

One of REAP’s largest efforts was supporting the lawsuit Hunter, et al. v. U.S. Department of Education. As reported by Ministry Watch, REAP filed the lawsuit in March 2021 on behalf of 33 then-current and former students who claimed they were discriminated against by tax-payer funded religious colleges and universities. It accuses the department of being complicit in “abuses and unsafe conditions” endured by “thousands of LGBTQ+ students.”

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“The Department’s inaction leaves students unprotected from the harms of conversion therapy, expulsion, denial of housing and healthcare, sexual and physical abuse and harassment, as well as the less visible, but no less damaging, consequences of institutionalized shame, fear, anxiety and loneliness,” the case argued.

It also argued that, while the Constitution may compel religious exemptions, when a private actor receives public funds “the Constitution restrains the government from allowing such private actors to use those funds to harm disadvantaged people.”

The case was dismissed in January 2023, and an appellate court upheld the ruling in August of 2024. The appellate court affirmed the district court’s opinion that the plaintiffs did not prove, among other things, the claims that the religious exemption violates the equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment and violates the First Amendment by establishing a religion.

Therefore, the Department of Education has continued to grant religious exemptions to Title IX for religious colleges and universities.

In May, REAP announced a partnership with a civil and victim rights attorney.

“In a time of rapid legal shifts under the Trump administration,” the announcement said, “REAP is taking decisive action to protect LGBTQ+ students and survivors of discrimination at non-affirming Christian colleges and universities.”

Three months later, REAP announced its closing. It will remain incorporated to end operations, fulfill legal obligations, and preserve its archive.

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