Censorship Update

The offending works have been re-installed:

Portraits of gay Brigham Young University students taken by a photography major for a class project are back in an exhibit at the school's fine arts building four days after school officials removed the display.

Michael Wiltbank, a senior from Eagar, Ariz., photographed students who identified themselves as gay, then paired each one with a portrait of a friend or family member who provides that student with support.

The photographs were not labeled. The artist's statement said labels create societal divisions. "It is my hope this body of work can be a vehicle for tolerance, support, love and change," Wiltbank wrote.

The display debuted in the atrium of the Harris Fine Arts Center on Dec. 1 in an exhibit of projects done for a fine arts photography class taught by Paul Adams. On Friday, Wiltbank's display was removed and the exhibit rearranged.

BYU spokesman Michael Smart said a miscommunication between administrators in the College of Fine Arts and Communication led to the removal.

"When the action became apparent after the weekend, college administrators reviewed the decision," Smart said. "Because the project does not violate BYU's honor code, the project was rehung Tuesday afternoon."

Wiltbank, as might be expected, regrets some of the commentary on the Internet:

"I don't have any bitterness," he said. "The whole premise of the show was to show tolerance and support on both sides of the issue. What I wrote on my blog about the removal has been construed as bitter, but I didn't think it was. I think what some said on the Internet went against what I was trying to do with the exhibit.

"If we yell out hatred and bigoted things, nothing gets better."

I'd like to suggest that BYU had a moment of revelation when the reaction began to be heard: the LDS Church is already reeling under the impact of the response to its support of Prop 8. I suspect that more negative publicity is not what it's looking for right now, especially since its feet are being held to the fire on its statement that it is not "anti-gay."