I would like to respond to a letter called "Don't ask, don't tell," written by Sean Mullen, which I read, to my dismay, in the Oct. 7 Observer. This man believes that Notre Dame would no longer "have the right to consider ourselves a Catholic university" should its non-discrimination clause be modified to include sexual orientation amongst its proscriptions.
As a proud, openly gay member of this University, at which hundreds of gay and lesbian students enroll, enriching this community with their abilities, their perspectives, their hopes and dreams, my initial reaction was one of anger.
Confusion was the emotion of the hour shortly after, however, when I realized that this letter offered little in the way of sensible content. The preposterous suggestion that somehow the admissions process should be affected in any way by a person's sexuality merits not a single word to refute it; it's just like a troll commenting on a Youtube video to get a rise out of people. What is most offensive is the idea that gays and lesbians should attempt to suppress or hide their sexual orientation or view their capacity to love as a pathology - which is clearly the intent here, and if I may venture, in the current catechetical teaching, when all is said and done.
My fellow gay and lesbian members of the Notre Dame community, do you believe what this man has to say? Should we cease to live with integrity, to hide who we are as people, to deny that our love is as good as any other love? For surely no one will argue that love which is shamed, denied, suppressed, spit-on, denigrated - cannot fail in its potential to affect good in. Are you going to allow someone to tell you, justified by their interpretation of the will of God, that you aren't as good as they? To remain closeted creates a deep disconnect in the soul of the person living with such a burden, and to internalize the belief that somehow the way your Creator devised you is abomination, because the world at large is heterosexual and does not often understand, is poison for the spirit. The wishful thinking on the part of policymakers in our country, our University and even in the Church - for the church is both a divine and a human institution - that a homosexual person can thrive and grow morally and spiritually while loathing a part of themselves, while masquerading behind the lie that their love is not the simple purity they feel in their hearts -the judge which rules correctly in all else - but rather the blackest of sins, is simply unsupportable, insufferable. Insufferable, I deem it, in our world, and clearly, in our University, if our integrity is to be upheld. Finally, to all students of Notre Dame, the community which I have chosen, to which I contribute my studies, my views and my heart, I ask: How long will you let this go on in your midst? If you have not experienced the injustices faced by gays and lesbians firsthand, why not? Look deeper, listen; I have faith that you will come to the just conclusion: we are as good as you.
Nicholas Schroeder
junior
Morrissey Hall
Oct. 7
