The Supreme Court’s recent decision on sodomy is a “Moral 9/11,” according to flyers distributed by students not affiliated with Georgetown in Red Square on Nov. 20. The students were removed from campus by the Department of Public Safety.
After the incident, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson reaffirmed the University’s commitment to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community in a broadcast e-mail.
Last June, in Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that effectively prohibited homosexual intercourse. The decision “obscures our glorious past and stains our honor,” said the brochures, published by the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, a Catholic organization based in Pennsylvania.
The authors of the brochure acknowledge that those who are simply attracted to members of the same sex, but resist intercourse, are not sinful, “just as no one who resists the inclination to steal or lie can be called a thief or a liar.”
However, a call to “work untiringly to create a moral climate whereby homosexuality is rejected” runs across the top of the flyer in bold letters.
The student passing out the brochures was a member of TFP Student Action. After learning of the student’s presence, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson instructed the Department of Public Safety to escort him off campus. He complied without incident, according to Interim Associate Director of the Department of Public Service Doris Bey.
Red Square is a designated “free speech zone,” according to the Student Handbook. The handbook, however, does deny protection to certain types of speech.”Expression that is indecent or is grossly obscene or grossly offensive on matters such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation is inappropriate in a university community,” it states.
Olson cited this exception in his decision to have the student removed. “The individuals removed from campus were spreading a message that was grossly offensive, and I view the removal as entirely appropriate,” he said.
In a broadcast e-mail sent on Nov. 25, Olson alerted students of the action. He specifically reaffirmed the University’s commitment to the LGBT community. “I would like to take this opportunity to emphasize that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender members of our community enjoy the right to study, work, and live in a campus environment of respect and protection,” he said. “Intolerance and invective have no place at Georgetown.”
After leaving Red Square, the offending student joined several others from TFP in demonstrating across the street from Healy Gates. Draped in red sashes held together by lion-shaped brooches, the protestors passed out flyers to passing Georgetown students and chanted “Tradition, Family, Property,” according to GU Pride co-president Patrick Metz (SFS ‘04).
“It’s vaguely reminiscent of KKK stuff, where they have to wear a special costume,” Metz said. “It was almost like a carnival atmosphere. It was very strange.”
Metz said that the protestors seemed very immature, approaching bypassers very aggressively. Caitlin Coan (CAS ‘04) agreed that their style of arguing was offensive. “If they were trying to get people to agree with them, they probably shouldn’t have been so confrontational.”
Most students reacted negatively to the protestors, according to Metz. “People were literally walking in the street to avoid coming into contact with them,” he said.
Students on both ends of the political spectrum supported the action. “I don’t think it’s grossly offensive, I just think its inappropriate,” said Nicole Anchondo (CAS ‘06), a member of the College Republicans . “I think the University had every right to remove him,” she said.
Coan said she was “pleasantly surprised” by Olson’s response. “It signals a change from Catholic tradition,” she said. The Catholic Church has stated that while homosexual acts are unnatural, homosexuality is not in itself sinful. “Mindful of the inherent and abiding dignity of every human person, we reaffirm what we wrote in 1976, namely, that homosexual [persons], like everyone else … have a right to respect, friendship, and justice,” wrote the United States Catholic Conference in 1991.
