ARTICLES
January 2004 ARTICLES
Contents © 2004
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
Behind, Way Behind
Loyola-Marymount's Lack of Sensitivity
BY CHRISTOPHER ZEHNDER
It seems that Loyola-Marymount University is just not queer enough for some people. "LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] students, faculty and staff often feel marginalized here in and in other Catholic settings," Dr. Deena Gonzalez told the October 29 Loyolan, the Los Angeles-based university's student newspaper. Gonzalez is department chair and professor for "Chicana/o" studies at Loyola-Marymount.
Gonzalez spoke as an attendee of an October 16 forum, held at Loyola-Marymount, that explored yet another gender subset. "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" was dedicated to, said the Loyolan, "an inside look at LMU's LGBT community of color. The two-hour panel, held at the university 's Ahmanson Dining Hall, was sponsored by William Vela, director of Chicano Latino students services, "along with members of LMU's lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender (LGBT) community, the gay straight alliance (GSA) and professors from the Chicana/o studies department."
Gonzalez seemed to think that marginalizing of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered (presumably covering all racial and other subsets of the same) a violation of the Catholic faith. As she understands matters "from the vantage point of a faculty member," the ministry of the Catholic Church, said Gonzalez, "says that all human beings 'belong' to or within Catholicism." Catholicism and civil rights, she opined, are eminently compatible.
The members of the forum's panel had a daunting task to explain complex relationships; according to the Loyolan, they "expressed their concerns about their ethnicity in regards to their sexual orientation and included their thoughts about being gay and members of the LMU community." Among the panelists was Loyola-Marymount political science professor, Dr. Evan Gerstmann, who spoke about civil rights and legal issues affecting homosexuals. Another panelist, Xochitl Marquez, administrative aide to Loyola-Marymount's Center for the Study of Los Angeles, spoke of the need of an "LGBT support center" on campus. Since she had attended UCLA, Marquez said she could not "really imagine the obstacles [LMU] students experience on campus. We are here, but not really. We are tolerated just like you tolerate a blister. LMU is behind, way behind. Queers of color are not given support."
Perhaps to further emphasize her presence as a queer of color on campus, Marquez offered her reflections on the forum in the November 12 Loyolan. Further qualifying herself as an "educated lesbian of color," Marquez asked, "how do I become the 'queer eye for the heterosexual genders?'" Her "feminist, raced, classed and queer answer" was "I don't." She doesn't, she continued, because "everything is focused on heterosexuality." Marquez did not attend the forum "to cater to heterosexual people, feed into the latest fads -- because like J'Lo's butt, queer people are officially in season, specifically non-Hispanic whites, as the census would call them." Marquez also didn't want to help the others "pat themselves on the back for being 'radical' or 'conscious' enough to be part of this event."
No. With further adjectives and modifying clauses, Marquez said she attended the forum to be "a living example of a queer person of color, a Chicana-Riquena lesbian, 'jota,' 'maricona' that advocates and fights for my communities to be centered, not on the periphery, not appropriated, not fetishized and definitely not subsumed."
Marquez related that she felt "heavy, consumed in a pressurized void of silence, tolerance and injustice," and explained that it was Loyola-Marymount that "has created and espoused this void." Though her alma mater, UCLA, offered support groups, student organizations, and even educational minors to lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and the transgendered of all races, Marquez said she nevertheless "experienced homophobia" there. What must life, then, be for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered students (colored or not) at Loyola-Marymount, which has a "drastic lack of resources" for them? "It saddens me to think that I may not be the empowered person I am today if I had attended LMU," wrote Marquez.
Marquez complained that "queers of color" are not given any "concrete institutional support" at Loyola-Marymount; rather, they are merely tolerated "because you can't get rid of them. Is that social justice?"
But despite this bleak picture, Marquez said she has hope. "I believe in change, it is part of my daily philosophy of personal well-being," she explained. It turns out that Loyola-Marymount is chock full of people supportive of Marquez's "research, community service and professional goals that focus on communities of queer, feminist and people of color." Among those supportive of her, she singled out Dr. Deena Gonzalez, Dr. Fernando Guerra (director for the Center for the Study of Los Angeles), Dr. Mara Marks (also of the Center), Haven Perez, Dr. Karen Davalos (Chicana/o studies), Dr. Evan Gerstmann, and Dr. Jod Finkel (political science).
Marquez said that Loyola-Marymount needs to recruit people knowledgeable of queers of color "and provide them with the necessary avenues to create policy, student services and curriculum that supports all of LMU's constituents."
Whether Loyola-Marymount follows the path laid out by the likes of Xochitl Marquez, of course, remains to be seen. But it may be of comfort to some to know that at least some revolutions have not gone as far as they could go at a professed Catholic university.