Dear Dub: Condemning Homophobia on Campus
As a dedicated safe space on this campus for members of all marginalized groups, including LGBTQIA+ folks, we are saddened and enraged by recent homophobic incidents on our campus, several of which have targeted our house or our members.
On Sunday, March 21, several members of our house were enjoying the sunshine on our front lawn when members of the Men’s Hockey Team, celebrating their recent title with their shiny new trophy, shouted a homophobic comment at our house and other theme houses. The same week, a member of our house was called a homophobic slur in the Pub. A week before that, a passerby driving past our house yelled a homophobic slur at one of our members on the porch. A week before that, a member of our house’s car was egged, and her Equality sticker scratched out. In talking about these incidents with other members of our campus community, specifically within the LGBTQIA+ community on campus, we were informed of other homophobic incidents that have occurred in recent days, weeks, and months at SLU.
As a house that is working to become welcoming to all students on campus, regardless of identity, these recent incidents jeopardize our ability to be able to provide that space. How can we call ourselves a safe space when other members of this campus target us for the services we provide and what we are deemed to represent? Even more so, these events affect us personally, as a community and as individuals. Sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression are topics that many students explore during their formative college years, and many of us have been grateful to have that opportunity in our time at SLU. What does it mean, then, when we are outwardly threatened because of these identities? How are we supposed to move forward? And in a year and a semester where we are already so tired and burnt out, why should the burden fall on us to do something about it?
These incidents on our campus mirror a series of legislative measures that have been proposed across the country in the past few months to restrict the rights of trans people, the latest of which is a ban on gender-affirming medical treatment for trans minors passed in Arkansas this past week. Even after the state governor vetoed the bill, state legislators voted to override the veto and pass the bill. This legislation, at its most basic sense, sends the message to trans kinds that they are not worthy of the care that is so crucial in helping them feel validated and capable of expressing themselves. It denies trans children their right to identify as their true selves, to participate in sports teams and use bathrooms and do all of the things children should be able to do, no matter how they identify.
Our campus does not operate in a separate world from the one we are a part of. St. Lawrence is a microcosm of the larger social and political climate of our country and globe, and we cannot separate it from these external forces. At the same time, St. Lawrence is a small and tight-knit community that offers a unique opportunity to create a different atmosphere than the one we see in the world. Our actions have a greater impact right here in our own community than they ever will when we are part of our larger national and global community.
With this being said, I would implore all of you, as your semester or college career comes to a close, to step up your allyship for all marginalized groups on campus and particularly the LGBTQIA+ community. In a year where mental health has been challenged time and time again, our institution’s suggestions for “self -care” go nowhere when hateful comments such as these threaten students’ ability to express themselves or feel safe on campus. How is someone supposed to focus on their finals when they don’t know if the very place they live or eat will be home to hateful comments? This responsibility falls upon the students, to some degree, to hold each other accountable for the damage done from our words and actions. But on a more fundamental level, these threatening actions and language are the university’s responsibility to handle. Why is it so easy for our school to kick people off campus for violating the Laurentian Pact and yet still pretend as if they have no control over the racism, sexism and homophobia that permeates our campus? Isn’t that also a disease, one which threatens the life of our individual members and the comfort of our community?