Earlier this month, leaders of campus religious groups found a peculiar invitation waiting in their inboxes. In the email, University President John DeGioia encouraged chaplains from each Campus Ministry to discuss how their ministry might engage the University’s LGBTQ Center. Campus religious groups should treat DeGioia’s invitation as a call for action and engage the LGBTQ Center in open, active dialogue in order to promote a safer, more accepting Georgetown community for all students.
Anyone who has pondered the “*” in H*yas for Choice knows that Georgetown is socially conservative as far as most American universities go. But the University has historically been the most socially progressive of its Catholic peers; in August Georgetown became the first Catholic college or university in the nation to have an LGBTQ Resource Center. As such, Georgetown is in a unique position to lead the way in dialogue between religious and LGBTQ groups at Catholic universities.
It is true that Georgetown expects its chaplains to represent their respective religious traditions, and that those traditions often denounce homosexual and bisexual behavior as sinful. Chaplains also act as role models for their students, however, and should set a positive, respectful example by facilitating dialogue between campus religious groups and the LGBTQ Center.
The religious and LGBTQ communities at Georgetown already have a brief, but promising, history of engagement. GU Pride and the Jewish Student Association have in the past co-hosted Pride Shabbat, which is meant to help all Jews—regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity—feel welcomed into the Jewish community. Pride Shabbat offers a positive example of how other religious groups on campus can, and should, engage the LGBTQ Center by integrating LGBTQ-friendly events into their regularly scheduled religious services. Something as simple as urging a priest or an imam to discuss LGBTQ issues during their homily or sermon is a good start.
It took two heinous hate crimes and mounting pressure from LGBTQ student groups to get the University to open the LGBTQ Center. Campus Ministries should not need the repetition of such disturbing incidences to get serious about dialogue with the LGBTQ Center. We’re already moving in the right direction: last Tuesday campus religious groups held a meeting to discuss how they could support a student body that includes LGBTQ students. Campus Ministries must live up to the message of loving acceptance they preach and put these discussions into concrete action—not because it is the easiest or safest thing they could do, but because it is the right thing to do.
