Following several months of discussion between students and administrators, Vice President for Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez rejected the proposal to create a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender resource center. Gonzalez, who had remained silent for weeks on the issue, issued a formal written response to GLBT committee members last Tuesday. After thanking everyone who worked on the proposal, Gonzalez said in his letter that the creation of such a center would “run counter to the Church and, thus, University practice.”
Gonzalez, however, seems to have ignored the evidence. When center supporters met with Gonzalez last November, they presented him with a report citing evidence that, historically, Catholic Church teachings were not incompatible with homosexuality. Furthermore, Gonzalez himself quotes a 1997 message from the Roman Catholic Bishops of the United States near the beginning of his letter, saying that “the teaching of the Church makes it clear that fundamental human rights of homosexual persons must be defended.” It’s surprising that Gonzalez says the Church doesn’t condone homosexuality after citing Catholic bishops who specifically say the opposite. This needed further explanation, but Gonzalez didn’t say anything about this apparent contradiction.
“Please know that I have thought about this thoroughly,” Gonzalez said in his letter, but this doesn’t come across in the text. In fact, the entire text is less than two pages and, what’s worse, his actual reasoning for rejecting the GLBT center consists of only two paragraphs. This is insufficient. Gonzalez met four separate times with center supporters over the past four months. They gave him an approximately 20-page report explaining their reasoning for supporting the center. This included past Church statements and evidence demonstrating how sexual minorities suffer disproportionately from depression, eating and behavioral disorders, as well as HIV-AIDS. Supporters also organized a telephone campaign to promote the issue. Twice Gonzalez told them he would formally respond to the center proposal, and twice he failed to do so. For some time, he refused to comment publicly on the issue.
For all their efforts, supporters got two paragraphs. The creation of a GLBT resource center, Gonzalez said in his letter, “would unavoidably lead to the advocacy of sexual behavior outside the context of traditional marriage.” This is flatly wrong. Homosexual students don’t advocate homosexuality, just as heterosexual students don’t go out and promote heterosexuality. The real purpose of the center would be to care for sexual minorities who face certain challenges trying to adjust to the University environment.
Georgetown doesn’t need a GLBT resource center, Gonzalez said in his letter, because the University already supports sexual minority groups in ways that are “all consistent with our Catholic, Jesuit identity.” Apparently, for Gonzalez, it’s possible for Georgetown to support homosexual students through certain University-sanctioned organizations consistent with Catholic and Jesuit identity, but not through others, such as the center. Why, then, according to Gonzalez, should Georgetown do anything to endorse the actions of any group that runs counter to Church teachings. This issue needed to be addressed, and it wasn’t.
Gonzalez commended center supporters for their efforts over the past four months, but it’s difficult to commend Gonzalez for his response. Supporters gave Gonzalez a well-reasoned argument for creating the center, and he should have given them a well-reasoned argument for rejecting it?not a two-page form letter that’s far too short on substance.
