Georgetown University has just approved the idea of a dorm for LGBTQ students.
The oldest Catholic university in America is willing to provide living space just for transgender, genderfluid, gay, bisexual, and lesbian students.
The “Crossroads: Gender and Sexuality” is set to open for the 2018-2019 academic year and was only approved last year. Meanwhile, the year before that the pitch of a “Living Learning Community” for LGBTQ people was rejected.
Despite that one setback, senior Grace Smith was determined to create a safe space for LGBTQ students at the Catholic university. As she shared on Facebook, getting the approval was a miracle on its own.
“Students will now begin to have a unique residential space dedicated to exploring and understanding themselves and others in relation to gender and sexuality,” she added. “Congratulations to everyone who made this dream a reality.”
The school itself says that they want to respect the students wishes as much as they can, religion willing.
“Our Catholic and Jesuit values call on us to engage with ‘respect, compassion, and sensitivity’ with our LGBTQ community,” Todd Olson, vice president of student affairs, told The Hoya. “It is in keeping with our Catholic and Jesuit values to provide a language, perspective, and sense of inclusion for deepening our sense of cura personalis,” he added, referring to the Latin phrase meaning “care for the entire person.”
That said, not everyone’s as accepting. There are already religiously intolerant people on the attack.
Catholic blog Church Militant says that Georgetown is disrespecting the Christian faith.
“The Jesuits… are well known for their dissent from Church teaching on just about everything while claiming to be Catholic,” the site added. “Father James Martin, one of the most prominent Jesuits in the United States, has been an ardent advocate of sodomy and so-called same-sex marriage, telling homosexuals that God ’made them that way.'”
Despite that, the location and specific date of opening is still undetermined, but is expected for the 2018-2019 academic year.
h/t: NewNowNext
