Queer 101: Queering the Discussion at Fordham University

Fordham's PRIDE Alliance and Women's Studies department co-sponsoring a discussion of Queer identity on campus at Fordham. While the Jesuit Univeristy of New York has several resources in place for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender students (indeed, more than most Catholic schools), the term "Queer" is currently banned on campus, based on the assumption that it used to be considered a derogatory term.

Queer identity, students said, reinforces a wholistic commitment to inclusivity and avoiding the kinds of binaries that put people into boxes such as straight versus gay, black versus white, male versus female, etc.

Fordham's policy towards LGBT students has been to support and cultivate their identities in deference to the Catholic notion of human dignity and respect, as well as to the Jesuit tenet of Cura Personalis, or care for the whole person. However, the word "queer" throws a monkey wrench into things, as a reclaimed term.

As Queer Theology asserts, those inclined to social justice will find parallels between queerness and marginalization. Preferential option for the poor and marginalized being at the forefront of the social justice "doctrine" if you will.

Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta reflects that, "Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own."As a religious sister, a contemplative in the world, and a saint, Mother Teresa found the presence of Christ in each individual. 


Queer individuals can radiate Christ in their identity, and some within the theological community claim that Christ was queer. If sexual identity -  straightness, gayness, bi-ness, of queerness are all equally essential (even if Queer theory argues that they are all socially constructed), then you really have to reach past these categories in order to know the individual. Peruvian priest, Gustavo Gutierrez, asks"You say you love the poor? Name them."


In order to truly love the individual, you must strive for deep understanding of the person - including sexual identity. The inherent flaw with the "love the sinner, hate the sin" fallacy is that we are still making an existential connection between the "sinner" and the "sin." What if the sinner is not a sinner at all, but Christ in disguise?