Sexuality and Justice Panel

As I was walking to class a couple weeks ago, I overheard a conversation between two girls ahead of me. As they discussed with their friends, they said “He’s just so gay,” and then started to use bunch of other terms of insult towards people in the LGBT+ community. Going to college at a Jesuit institution has helped me realize the importance and equality of every human being, no matter their sexuality and upbringing. However, I was never stuck in a situation when I heard such hurtful and negative terms as a way to describe people and bring people down. I moved on with my day, but what I overheard walking to class stuck with me in the back of my brain. When I learned later that day that Loyola was offering a Sexuality and Justice panel, I was interested because I wanted to learn more about this community and the way that we as a community and move forward to help people in this community feel as equals and respected.

When I attended this panel, I heard from four people who all identify as part of the LGBT+ community. I went in with no expectations, and just promised myself that I would sit and listen and learn as much as I could. Each of these panelists had a unique but beautiful story that needs to be heard. Megan Suder identifies as pansexual, however she struggles because her family refuses to accept her sexuality. Even though they do not look down on her, they struggle to relate to her and confront their community about her identity, since they are very religious and do not know how to deal with her identity. Kathleen Ball added to the conversation of the panel by discussing the stereotypes that many people in the LGBT+ community face everyday. Being part of the LGBT+ community, she struggles because she feels as though people consider something to be wrong with her due to her sexuality. She feels that no matter what, she is always judged and looked down upon and explained how people in this community are often thought to have a mental disorder.

Reading Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night truly contributed to what I learned at the panel because one of the major themes in the play raises similar questions to what I learned at the panel. In Twelfth Night, one of the main characters, Viola, disguises herself as a male and tricks Olivia into falling in love with her. However, when Olivia learns that Cesario is really Viola in disguise, she struggles to love her for who she truly is because of her gender.  In scene 1 act 5 of the play, Olivia describes how surprised she is that she fell in love with a woman: “Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions and spirit/ Do give thee five-fold blazon. Not too fast! Soft, soft!/ Unless the master were the man. How now?/ Even so quickly may one catch the plague?” Olivia describes her love for a woman to be a “plague,” something so looked down upon especially in the time period when this play was written.

The theme of sexuality in this play took my understanding of the LGBT+ community to a new horizon. Similar to the women who spoke in the panel, society has always struggled to accept all kinds of love, regardless of gender. Even today we are so far away from fully embracing every human being in this community and thinking of them as equals. After attending the panel and reading this play, I have made more of an effort to pay attention to the comments made around me, and the way that I think of and react towards situations where these issues are the most prevalent. Especially attending a Jesuit institution, it is important that as a community, we learn to expand the teachings of God and the Catholic Church, that every human person is equal and beautiful.