Georgetown University recently announced they will be adding a new transgender-friendly housing option for students this fall, drawing the ire of many traditionalist Catholics who think the historically religious university has lost its way.
Kelly Marcum, writing for the American Conservative, said that, “The notion of an LGBTQ-affirming house, for which, to merit entrance, all residents must be committed to ‘exploring’ their genders and sexualities—whatever that ‘exploration’ entails is patently antithetical to the teachings of the Church.”
“The Catholic Church, whose traditions Georgetown alleges to uphold, makes the bold proclamation that we, as human beings, are defined by infinitely more than our sexual urges,” she continues.
To set the record straight, Georgetown is not feeding into the sex positivity movement and saying kids should physically explore their sexuality with each other. Furthermore, they’re not affirming transgenderism, but rather facilitating a safe environment under the supervision of the Catholic school administration to be housed while they’re still figuring out their identity.
In 2007, Georgetown first began working towards creating an environment that was safe for LGBTQ students after two homophobic hate crimes were reported on campus. At the time, Georgetown President John J. DeGioia said at a community forum that they would move towards creating a full-time staff position and opening an LGBTQ resource center.
“At a Catholic and Jesuit university, a University administrator or Center cannot advocate for policies or practices that are counter to Catholic teaching,” DeGioia said. “All work must be consistent with, and authentic to, our identity as a Catholic and Jesuit university.”
Ten years later, offering a new transgender housing option is still consistent with that mission. Students this deeply convinced that God disordered their identity will feel little choice but to transfer to a school that does affirm their current identity, and they’ll have plenty to pick from, falling further and further away from opportunities to learn about God.
But Georgetown is not going through their own identity crisis. By allowing self-identifying transgender students to live in close proximity with cisgender Catholics, their institutional tolerance is sending a powerful message of confidence in our God-given identities, and rescuing students whose base identity is still being forged in the fire.
While the entire conservative world is exploding with moral indignation at transgenderism, Georgetown is not playing the role of the angry reactionary, but the role of confidently quiet witness to our faith. While right-wing outrage has galvanized LGBTQ pride movements, Georgetown is showing they will go about business as usual, accepting all people despite our ideological differences because we know what the truth is.
Moreover, they are a testament that only a classical liberal government run by a Christian populace is conducive to freely exploring our intellectual curiosities, when trans students could easily go to a secular state college offering communism as the only way to liberate the oppression of their community.
At my college, the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where my professors attack Christianity every day, they offer over 10 classes affirming queer theory, and every class they offer on religion is dedicated to a feminist critique of traditional gender roles. Even the economics department is infected with Marxist theory, graduating class after class of socialist Democrats.
Georgetown is not there yet, and they never will be. Amid right-wing vitriol, they are holding true to our value that we can live peacefully alongside you provided you are not directly hurting anyone. In libertarian terms, people who identify as transgender are not breaking the Non-Aggression Principle because they not are hurting others in order to express themselves. Of course, some wild LGBTQ activists express themselves through civil disobedience, but that’s often as a response to right-wing condemnation of their sin.
Meanwhile, Georgetown is raising the next generation of Catholics who are confident enough in their identity in Christ to live alongside them and share His person in day to day interactions with those living in sin, in the same way Christ always will for us.
God is madly in love with them, upset they are sinning, yet patiently waiting for them to realize they were great just the way God made them to be. This was the topic of a homily I received attending mass at Georgetown’s chapel this past summer. While the priest didn’t talk about any sin specifically, the idea was that the reason Adam and Eve took the apple was because Satan convinced us we were not good enough the way God made us to be, luring us into exploring if sin would lead us to something greater.
For kids who grew up in Catholic-lite, other Christian, or secular families, however, they don’t even know who God made them to be, and that’s why Georgetown requires all students to take two theology classes. Aside from that, it’s all up to you whether or not you continue studying the faith and start practicing.
Admittedly, most of the people I know at Georgetown aren’t very devout, but the seeds planted in these classes and in their day to day interactions with clergy will lead to a bountiful harvest the day they realize they cannot live without being fully committed to God.
If you’re still not convinced, what would you have Georgetown do otherwise? Pretend transgender students aren’t there? Make counseling services mandatory and quietly condone hate crimes? You can’t force someone to truth or good behavior, and neither would that be consistent with our belief in free will. Still, some think the administration should take a tighter paternalistic grip on students. But we already know prohibition doesn’t stop anything. Making alcohol illegal spurred one of the most decadent eras in American history—the Roaring 20s—fueled by the taboo of doing something the moral authorities said not to do. Georgetown has brilliantly removed the allure of sin, stripping the power of reverse psychology and offering the grace to join the rest of the Catholic school’s identity.
Our belief in innatism means these identities are already structured in our hearts, but that we need the doctrine of the Catholic Church to help articulate truth and shape our person. While many among us love to discuss the “former glory of the Jesuits,” they are pioneering the only way we will be able to reach these people and Georgetown should be applauded for their efforts.
William Nardi (@williamznardi) is a contributor to Red Alert Politics. He is a student at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a former intern for the Washington Examiner.
