SU offers safe space for LGBTQ members

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"When Roman Christiaens came out to one of his friends in high school, she told him-in his words-to "forget about it and put it aside."

In the hometown he describes as a "small-town, conservative, conventional" environment, Christiaens repressed his homosexuality because it wasn't well understood.

Even through his freshman year at Seattle University, Christiaens only shared his sexuality with those he considered closest. Finally sophomore year, Christiaens gave a talk at the New Student Retreat to about 60 students, many of them complete strangers, sharing his experience of facing and sharing his homosexuality.

"I would say SU is actually the reason that I was able to come out," Christiaens, sophomore creative writing major, says. "After I gave my talk, they were gushing with support for me."

By some expectations, a gay man sharing his coming-out experience on a Campus Ministry retreat at a Catholic university might be surprising. However, many LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Questioning) students and faculty at Seattle University speak positively of the school's attitude toward queer lifestyles.

"In the community I grew up in, [homosexuality] wasn't completely normal, but it was very accepting," says Ryan Disch, freshman social work major. "Here it goes even further than that. It is normal. It's nothing anyone here hasn't seen before."

Carlos Reyes, freshman pre-major, also says integration is one thing he values about the LGBTQ community at Seattle University.

"We're in a community here, and here it's not fenced off; it's integrated," Reyes says. "My experience is everyone's experience."

Reyes credits his experience with a new student immersion through the Office of Multicultural Affairs as a resource that helped him to come out in college.

"The immersion didn't have anything to do with LGBTQ rights, but because it was with the Office of Multicultural Affairs they integrated it into the program," Reyes says. "They were so supportive and friendly, and when I first got here, I thought, 'Whoa, people actually talk about it here.'"

Rebecca Recinos, freshman liberal studies major, says she has valued the programs and community provided by the Triangle Club.

"It's made my transition a lot easier into feeling accepted and being more open about myself," Recinos says. "We all know each other and we come together for certain events, but we don't all hang out with each other. We have a connecting thing and we all come together over it, but it's not like I only feel safe around them."

Jodi O'Brien, professor and chair of the Sociology Department, sees accepting community reflected even in the upper seats of the school.

"If you look at the highest institutional levels-the president, the Jesuits," she says, "I think you have people who are not only tolerant but they're well-informed and actively engaged in promoting social justice for everybody at the university, including LGBT students and faculty and staff."

O'Brien also noted the different positions of other schools at a LGBTQ conference for Jesuit colleges and universities.

"Sometimes faculty and students [from other universities] who have been invited to attend the conference are afraid they'll get in trouble for it," O'Brien says, "where in our case, the campus pays for us to go, like any other academic conference I'd go to."

Indeed, Seattle University's attitude toward LGBTQ identity could be considered progressive among other Catholic colleges. Whereas the Triangle Club began over a decade ago, Boston College and the University of Portland did not have any sexuality-related student groups until 2003 and 2008, respectively. Two months ago, the University of Notre Dame president rejected student-led appeals to add sexual orientation to the school's non-discrimination statement.

In some cases, Seattle University has received criticism from those who see its attitude toward queer lifestyles as a contradiction to the school's Catholic identity. This past year, in particular, the university was especially criticized for its Transgender Awareness Week by other Catholic organizations such as the Cardinal Newman Society.

"I know there's history with the Catholic Church of being against it. They've become a little more open, but it's something that's new. It's something that still needs to grow," says Christiaens, adding that in his experience the Jesuits have been very open. "In fact, one Jesuit himself kind of is my hero in my coming out experience."

Still, students and faculty say that there are gaps where Seattle University could improve.

"I don't know how you'd do it in ways that would be perceived as fair ... but housing is one of the first areas of concern," says O'Brien, listing random and same-gendered roommate assignments and overnight visitor rules as policies that have been problematic in the past.

O'Brien also says that change needs to happen in the academic realm of the university.

"I think in some ways we need to make our curriculum a little more contemporary with regard to some of these issues," she says.

Reyes says his reservations mainly stem from the larger international attitude toward homosexuality.

"Even if you're on Capitol Hill, no matter where you go, the general idea right now is still that it's not acceptable ... so you're bound to run into negativity," Reyes says.

One of the reasons confronting LGBTQ issues at a Catholic school can be challenging, however, is because it is intertwined with other sensitive topics.

"Not just LGBTQ issues but condom use, prevention of HIV/AIDS and things like that that also affect the SU community as a whole; I think that's going to take awhile for those things to change," Disch says, "but those are big things."

However, this is a significant change from what the university environment used to be.

"When [I was] first here, the university was basically one big closet," says O'Brien. "Things have changed a lot."