John Soucy (CAS ‘99), a former Knight of Columbus and Georgetown Academy Man of the Year, visited campus this week as an openly gay alumnus. Soucy announced his sexual orientation in an editorial in the Hoya last spring, surprising some of his former friends at Georgetown.
Soucy spoke in front of Rev. Ed Ingebretsen’s “Unspeakable Lives” class and attended a meeting of GU Pride, Georgetown’s group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning students.
When he was a student at Georgetown, Soucy led a largely successful movement to put crucifixes in every classroom. “I was also very anti-gay when I was here,” he said.
Soucy said that he definitely detected an anti-gay bias in the Georgetown community. “I want to tell gay students that God loves them as they are,” he said.
Soucy has decidedly maintained his faith in Catholicism and God. “Since my time at Georgetown I have come to know the love of God for me as a gay man,” he said.
Nevertheless, he believes that many of the teachings of the Catholic Church can be detrimental to its members.
“Most people don’t realize what it’s like for gay Catholic people with the hierarchy of the Church teaching that they are to lead lives of solitude because a a relationship with a person of the same sex is wrong,” he said.
Soucy currently lives in St. Louis, MO.
