Georgetown University students committed to “exploring” their gender and sexuality have a new living space on campus – a special, school-supported community called “Crossroads.” University of Massachusetts, Boston, student William Nardi wrote a Washington Examiner piece about this new living community, titled “Georgetown’s new LGBTQ living space is good for the Catholic Church.” As a Georgetown student, I’d like to set the record straight about what this new living community is really about.
“Crossroads” is not just for students who identify as transgender. Its goal is not the comfort of transitioning or questioning students, who may face awkward situations when navigating the university housing system; men and women cannot be roommates, so it is not entirely clear where a person who doesn’t think he is a man or a woman would live. This new living space is not just for them, it’s for any student who wants to “think, learn, and reflect intentionally about concepts of gender and sexuality.”
In case you’re not sure what it means to “reflect” on “concepts of gender and sexuality,” Georgetown’s Office of Residential Living gives you a hint. It says: “Every resident will be strongly encouraged to register for Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies as a means to provide students with foundational and common language to use in their dialogues and discussions.”
I took Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies last semester and can testify that this living community is not about students’ safety or comfort – it’s about their indoctrination into the principles of cultural Marxism.
The syllabus from my Women’s and Gender Studies class called the goal of Women’s and Gender studies “to transform knowledge and bring about social change,” and asks class members to consider how class readings and discussions can lead them to “social activism.” If students in the “Crossroads” living community use their Women’s and Gender studies readings as a guide, they will encounter ideological, anti-scientific ideas about sex and gender.
For example, one class reading by sociologist Judith Lorber alleged that not only is gender “socially constructed,” but sex is “socially constructed” as well. Lorber rejects the scientific reality that human beings, barring atypical fetal development, are born either male or female. She instead argues that religious leaders or natural law advocates created the two genders (man and woman) and out of them constructed biological sex differences.
This sort of incoherence could not form the basis of any serious discussion about sex and gender at a leftist public university, and its presence at Georgetown, a Catholic university, is especially troubling.
The other two readings about sex and gender offered in my introductory Women’s and Gender Studies course were equally cringe-worthy. The first reading was a children’s story about parents who raise their child without telling the child or anyone around them the child’s gender. The second reading was a deep dive into intersexuality from an author who argues that “sex and gender are best conceptualized as points in a multidimensional space.” The driving force behind these three class readings and our class discussion was to enforce the idea that sex and gender are arbitrary, harmful, and socially constructed. Class readings denied the importance of any biological variation between men and women, and looked toward a sex-less, gender-less world as an ideal.
Women’s and Gender Studies classes teach even more radical beliefs about sexuality. Class readings expounded the “problematic” nature of heterosexuality, one author comparing it to another favorite punching bag of leftists: colonialism. We discussed the idea, popular among second-wave feminists, that “feminism is the theory, lesbianism is the practice.” We read a manifesto by an organization that called themselves “Radicalesbians.”
“Crossroads” will almost certainly serve as a breeding ground for future Women’s and Gender Studies majors. Not only are students encouraged to take a course with the program, but the adviser for “Crossroads” is a Women’s and Gender Studies professor who focuses on the “intersection of performance, queer, and Africana studies.” One of the goals of “Crossroads” is to engage students in “discussions about the complexities of intersectionality and the importance of allyship.”
Intersectional indoctrination should not be the goal of any university program, much less one at a Catholic and Jesuit school. Nardi defends the program, writing: “By allowing self-identifying transgender students to live in close proximity with cisgender Catholics, their institutional tolerance is sending a powerful message of confidence in our God-given identities, and rescuing students whose base identity is still being forged in the fire.”
There are dozens of opportunities for LGBTQ students to interact with strong Christians at Georgetown University, but a living space that segregates them into a leftist bubble is not one.
Amelia Irvine (@ameliairvine3) is a contributor to Red Alert Politics. She is a senior at Georgetown University and president of Love Saxa, a student group that promotes sexual integrity and healthy relationships.
