Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

LGBT Center Challenges Catholicism, Gonzalez Says

LGBT CENTER LGBT Center Challenges Catholicism, Gonzalez Says By Charlotte Nichols Hoya Staff Writer

Vice President for Student Affairs Juan C. Gonzalez formally released his decision on Friday to deny the creation of a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender resource center at Georgetown. Gonzalez cited Catholicism’s emphasis on traditional marriage as his reason in a two-page letter presented to the committee of students supporting the creation of the resource center.

“We cannot create or support a center whose mission would unavoidably lead to advocacy of sexual behavior outside the context of traditional marriage,” Gonzalez said in the document. “I believe that the proposed LGBT center cannot avoid this risk.”

Gonzalez said that the resource center staff would inevitably find themselves promoting untraditional sexual practices, which would challenge the Church’s teaching and therefore university policy.

Gonzalez, however, was careful to distinguish between promotion of nontraditional practices – which is unacceptable according to the Bible – and acceptance of untraditional practices, which is integral to Catholic beliefs.

“Because of our religious belief, because this is a Jesuit institution, we very much will be attentive to supporting students,” he said. “[The Bible] makes it very clear that that the church is respectful, accepting, embracing and loving of individuals, not wanting in any way to discourage them or discriminate against them.”

Gonzalez included a list of current on-campus services for LGBT students with the formal statement rejecting the resource center.

“I believe [current] services are strong and comprehensive, but also know that we must not be complacent. Thus, I am committed to reviewing our current services,” Gonzalez said in the letter.

“The role of the university is to ensure that a student is provided with the opportunities to answer these questions,” Gonzalez said. The current programs Georgetown offers for LGBT students need improvement, but not in the form of a resource center that would counter church teachings, according to Gonzalez.

“We indeed do a great deal for LGBT students. This is an educational setting that emphasizes education of the whole person. Our students are in the age bracket where they are very much in the quest of developing themselves, questioning and identifying their own set of beliefs, values and lifestyles,” he said.

Resource center supporters were disappointed with Gonzalez’s two-page response to their 40-page proposal.

“We were disappointed with the content of the response because it didn’t really address what we had given him as a proposal for the resource center,” resource center supporter and GUPride member Danielle DeCerbo (COL ’03) said. “It was our understanding from previous conversations that the issue was not surrounding Catholic teaching, that we had agreed that issue could go either way.”

The resource center proposal included multiple arguments explaining how promotion and advocacy could be avoided; however the arguments were not addressed in Gonzalez’s response, according to DeCerbo. For example, Gonzalez declined to respond to a letter the center supporters had presented from a Jesuit priest at a different school that supported the idea of a resource center.

Center supporters and Gonzalez are continuing to work together to form a 20-person LGBTQ Working Committee, which will primarily try to improve on services already available on campus. For example, they will hold meetings about improving housing services and provide advice on “coming out” to your roommate.

There will be seven students and 13 faculty members on the committee from all areas on campus that need improvement in dealing with LGBT issues.

Gonzalez said the committee is still “in the formation stage right now,” as they are trying to figure out what offices will be represented.

For resource center supporters, however, the formation of a working committee does not simply fill the need of an actual center.

“The resource center is still something on campus that students are working toward. I want to stress that there are still students campaigning for a resource center. We’re not sure where we’re going to go from here, but it’s a continuing process,” DeCerbo said.

Gonzalez, on the other hand, believes the issue was closed last Friday with the release of his statement.

“I’m not sitting here talking as the vice president for Student Affairs. I’m an officer of the institution and I’m speaking on behalf of the institution as a whole. This is the decision,” Gonzalez said.

According to GUPride President Joe McFadden (COL ’02), the movement for the resource center began last summer with the development of a committee of students and administrators to look into reports of discrimination against LGBT students on campus. cFadden said that the committee drafted a report in favor of the creation of a permanent LGBT resource center. Since that time, supporters have been actively trying to further the movement. Proponents collected 1,000 signatures on a petition favoring the center, and a resolution presented by Anthony House (COL ’02) on behalf of the LGBT community and co-sponsored by GUSA representatives Mary D’Ariano (NHS ’03) and Trey Street (SFS ’03) passed unanimously in November.

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) (SFS ’66, LAW ’69) also sent a letter to university president John J. DeGioia in favor of the resource center. On Jan. 20 a group of students stood silently for the duration of a Mass delivered by Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in Copley Hall in an attempt to raise awareness for their cause. The decision by Gonzalez and the university came after multiple meetings between administration and LGBT center supporters.

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