VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) – Three days after getting booted off the Liberty University campus, a gay rights organization held a peaceful protest March 13 outside Regent University in Virginia Beach.

Virginia Beach police spokesperson Rene Ball told WVEC.com that roughly 40 people lined up on the sidewalk facing CBN. A couple of people played guitars and several sang songs, she said.

Regent says its policies don’t bar enrollment of gay and lesbian students, but the Lynchburg-based group Soulforce disputes that.

Soulforce spokesperson Haven Herrin says Regent founder and chancellor Pat Robertson has spoken out against homosexuality. She said some students there “have suffered under discrimination.”

Soulforce has targeted 19 faith-based universities and military academies for its “Equality Ride.” Members are visiting to protest schools they accuse of banning enrollment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. The tour is modeled on the historic “freedom riders” who sought racial civil rights.

More than 20 equality riders were arrested in Lynchburg for trespassing March 10 after they walked onto the grounds of Liberty University.

Regent University released a statement explaining why officials had rescinded the invitation of the Soulforce Equality Ride to visit the campus March 13-14: “Regent was approached by Equality Ride and agreed to host the group in an effort to create dialogue about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. Regent offered to host three special events in a spirit of cooperation and an honest exchange of ideas in an academic setting.

Regent officials had contacted Equality Ride executives in order to correct false statements and misrepresentations about Regent University policies on equalityride.com. This was not done. Additionally, as of March 7, 2006, equalityride.com even claimed that Regent University has made no accommodations to host any forums at all. This is simply not true. This blatant disregard of the facts and their failure to publicly acknowledge Regent’s position has forced Regent officials to rescind the invitation.