Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Rocks Don't Get Sympathy From Glass Houses

After picking up the latest publication of "The Xavier Newswire" this week, there was one article that caught my eye in particular. In the Op-Ed section of the paper, a student wrote in to comment on Xavier's efforts in catering to the GLBT community at Xavier. While the student acknowledged that Xavier has taken steps to accommodate this group of bacon sandwich loving students, he felt that it was possible for more to be done. The complete article entitled "Doing our best?" can be found at "The Xavier Newswire" website and here’s how I feel about it.
First off, let’s have a quick lesson about knowing the audience you are petitioning. I never once heard of Hitler asking for prayers or money from a Jew. Both requests would be ludicrous and, obviously, not granted. That being said, it clearly sounds like a good idea to write into Xavier’s school paper asking for more support for the Catholic church’s favorite thing: homosexuality. (Please overlook recent scandals and take the previous comment as extreme sarcasm.)
Xavier already supports "The Alliance," a group that is "the primary forum for discussion and education of gay issues on campus, as well as being a useful resource for students, faculty, and staff." Hopes that a Catholic institution would more than simply allow efforts for the acceptance of homosexuals in our society either means that you aren’t that intelligent or else you think the Catholic church isn’t that intelligent (It’s really a toss up at this point.)
Furthermore, I recall living in the dorms freshman year and taking a survey where I was asked to state my gender. The options were as follows:
1. Male
2. Female
3. Transgender
4. OTHER!
Xavier University is willing to let the hermaphroditic she-males among us have a voice and that’s not sympathetic enough? My computer, as I type this, doesn’t even understand the word transgender! I have squiggly red lines all over the place because apparently Bill Gates is an unsympathetic, homophobic billionaire.
At this point I need to clarify that I do not hate homosexuals and I definitely enjoy a good BLT from time to time. That being said, let’s not be so touchy about everything. The Alliance doesn’t have it’s own office space because there’s no room right now at Xavier. The group was formed in 2001 and isn’t quite top priority yet. If Xavier really was against homosexuals, they would give The Alliance a really nice office far off campus. Then, they wouldn’t have to see any of you nearly as often as they do now. Society’s acceptance of homosexuals is still in the process. Keep doing what you’re doing and it will all work out one day. Until then, it’s "All for one, and one for all."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

strong post, keep up the good work

Anonymous said...

I agree! It' about time someone mentioned the "we have no fraternities or sororities"..."unless you're black". If there was an all white fraternity or sorority, it'd be racism!