After initiating negotiations last spring, GU Pride has succeeded in obtaining a new office for gay and lesbian students.
The Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Community Resources opened its doors next to the Women’s Center in the Leavey Center at the start of this semester. The office will provide advice, information and support for gay and lesbian students.
According to GU Pride Co-President Monica Escobor (COL ‘07), the office’s size and location are better suited to maintain student privacy than its smaller predecessor in the Leavey Center. GU Pride is Georgetown’s LGBTQ student organization.
In the interest of adhering to the University’s Catholic identity, however, the office will be limited in providing direct resources to its students, Escobar said. It was this Catholic identity that had slowed the office’s creation for so long.
Georgetown is one of only two Catholic universities to have such an office.
“We aren’t actually allowed to call it a resource center,” Escobar (COL ‘07) said. “The school, due to its Catholic nature, was expressly forbidden to have a ‘center’ as it would be almost condoning homosexuality.”
Consequently, while the on-campus office may provide students with information about gay and lesbian support groups, its administrators may not host those support groups. The office is also prohibited from distributing prophylactics, a service that resource centers at other universities typically provide.
Still, the office offers a place where students may receive personal help and attention. Bill McCoy, assistant director of both Student Programs and LGBTQ Community Resources, said he meets with various students throughout the day.
“It is often helpful for students to have someone to talk with,” he said. “It also helps when that person has some common experiences to draw from in their past.”
Students in the LGBTQ community remain optimistic about the office’s potential influence on campus.
“I think it’s a great step in the direction of better awareness,” Shaun Pick (COL ‘09) said.
“Pretty much anything on campus that non-queer students take for granted we’ve had issues with,” Escobar said. “A lot of times students really [didn’t] know where to turn.”
