The recent visit of Soulforce Equality to Notre Dame was to increase visibility of GLBT issues on Christian campuses. As an Notre Dame alumnus, the restictive administration policies towards this minority community lead me to refrain from donating money during the annual funding drives. The recent obstacles faced by Soulforce do nothing but firm my resolve. GLBT students, faculty and staff are part of the Notre Dame family, or at least, they feel they are.
But I'm ashamed of Notre Dame's stance, given that they claim to be a frontrunner amongst Catholic colleges. All the while, they are being left behind as other schools practice to move towards equality and fairness. The administration stance negatively effects the bottom line, because in the fallout, GLBT students are turned away from attendance, faculty and staff are turned away from employment and all are barred from full participation in the Notre Dame community. But from my corner of the world, I see that Notre Dame has not only lost out on my donations from this discrimination, but on those of my brother, father, two uncles and a cousin - all Notre Dame grads. Fallout, indeed.
Mitch Seymour
alumnus
Mar. 14
