The LGBTQ Resource Center has had the honor and privilege of being the first Center of its kind at a Jesuit institution, and since its formation in 2008, it has continued to grow and to flourish. The Center has sought to build on the rich interfaith and intellectual engagement of Georgetown to create a space that will speak to all of us in all of our diversities. LGBTQ life has had a long and complex history at the Hilltop, and it has taken students, faculty, and staff to keep the conversation moving over decades. We honor our present by discerning our past, and by reaching out to many in the LGBTQ and ally communities who have been part of this journey. We have actively engaged our alumni by hosting events during Homecoming, John Carroll Weekend, Reunion, and throughout the year as mentors to our current students. In the Fall of 2011, we were honored to receive a one million dollar endowment from Paul J Tagliabue (C’62) and his wife, Chandler, that established the Tagliabue Initiative for LGBTQ Life: Fostering Formation & Transformation, under the auspices of the LGBTQ Center. We provide here a glimpse of the range of programs –intellectual, academic, spiritual, and social –that we offer. We host an overnight retreat in the tradition of Ignatian retreats, Journeys: Understanding Self & Building Community; a year-long dialogue and project based initiative “Of Masc & Masks: Exploring Queer Masculinities;” Passages, a program for juniors and seniors to help them reflect upon and transition to life beyond the Hilltop; Gatherings, a year long skill building institute; a month long LGBTQ history month celebration, OUTober; and a culminating signature close, Lavender Graduation. In the Summer of 2016, we were also pleased to work with the Georgetown Scholarship Program to fund two students as Summer Fellows. The students who are from under-represented backgrounds, with demonstrated financial need could avail of full time unpaid internships in the DC area, and were given housing and a modest stipend. We work with undergraduate and graduate students here on the Main Campus, as well as our Law Center, Medical School, and the School of Continuing Studies. We are inspired by our Jesuit ideals and values of wholeness and flourishing, and we continue to work with all to create an environment that fosters reflection, dialogue, and participatory communities.
Shiva Subbaraman Director, LGBTQ Resource Center
Julian Haas Assistant Director, LGBTQ Resource Center
LGBTQ History at Georgetown The Center was established in the Fall of 2008 as a result of the student-led campaign, Out for Change: Expressions of a Better Georgetown. Over decades, students had pushed for change on the campus, including the lawsuit in the 80s, and the establishing of a part-time, and then a full-time professional staff in Student Affairs to advise LGBTQ students. The sustained campaign was a constructive response to a hate crime on campus, and resulted in the historic talk given by President DeGioia in Oct 2007 that led to the Working Groups for LGBTQ Initiative. The Center was established on the recommendation of the Working Group as a full fledged, stand-alone Center within the Division of Student Affairs to be led by a Director and a second full time professional staff, a historic first in a Jesuit institution. Out for Change campaign
Students and administrators in 2010
The “Expressions of a Better Georgetown� mural, created in 2008, in the LGBTQ Resource Center
Tagliabue Initiative for LGBTQ Life The Tagliabue Endowment for LGBTQ Life was established in the Fall of 2012. The endowment set up by Chan & Paul Tagliabue (C’62; former NFL Commissioner, and former Chairman, GU Board of Directors) is to ensure sustained support and growth for the initiatives of the LGBTQ Center. The Initiative has helped envision, grow, and fund our keynote speakers for OUTober; the annual overnight retreat, Journeys; the IgnatianQ conference; and Lavender Graduation. It has also funded alumni outreach and engagement by providing funds for Homecoming, Reunion, and John Carroll events.
The Center is inspired by Catholic and Jesuit principles of respect for the dignity of all and education of the whole person, and we are very pleased to support its services that provide a safe, inclusive and respectful environment for LGBTQ students and promote their acceptance in the entire campus community. - Paul & Chan Tagliabue
In the Spring of 2013, the Center brought back Lorri L. Jean, lead student plaintiff in Georgetown Gay Rights Coalition of Georgetown University Law Center v. Georgetown University, to participate in the 25th Anniversary symposium to commemorate the history and legal legacy of the case. Jean, who serves as CEO of the L.A. LGBT Center, discussed her activism throughout the nine years of litigation that led to the recognition of the rights of students to organize around sexual orientation.
Tagliabue Faculty Research Award Beginning in 2016, the Tagliabue Initiative for LGBTQ life was expanded to include the Tagliabue Faculty Research Award, which is awarded to a member of faculty who is working on LGBTQ and gender and sexuality related questions in any discipline. Faculty receiving the award are asked to work with the LGBTQ Center to present on the project at the end of the year and also attend a spring ceremony along with others as part of the Tagliabue Initiative celebration. The inaugural award has been given to Professor Julia Watts Belser for her proposal, “Queer Disability Justice: The Ethics and Artistry of Intersectional Body Politics.” (Read more at lgbtq.georgetown.edu)
Professor Julia Watts Belser with Paul and Chan Tagliabue
LGBTQ Lens in Athletics As part of our work, and to honor the intent of our donors, the Center regularly hosts guest speakers to discuss LGBTQ issues in athletics, which in the past have included Paul Tagliabue, speaking about homophobia in sports, Ben Cohen, speaking about bullying, and Dr. Sue Rankin, discussing the “Athletic Closet.” The TimeOUT discussion group also exists for LGBTQ-identifed studentathletes, as part of the Center’s IGNITE initiative, allowing LGBTQ student athletes to come together and take time out of their busy schedules to reflect on identity.
an lgbtq center retreat
Journeys: Understanding Self and Building Community builds on Georgetown’s rich tradition of Ignatian inspired retreats, and offers an overnight experience that provides a space for members of the LGBTQ community and allies at Georgetown to gather in order to share personal stories, to reflect on individual and community formation, and enter into thoughtful dialogue regarding the nature of the many communities that comprise the broader LGBTQ community at Georgetown. This unique opportunity to come together in a setting outside of campus provides students the freedom and context to be in a space where they can be fully themselves, without fear or judgment. Through this engaged experience, students will gain a deeper understanding of their formation of self and how they can actively foster community, both at Georgetown and beyond. Small group and large group discussions help lay foundations to build solidarity both within and between varied communities.
Journeys 2016
Journeys 2014
Journeys 2015
Gatherings: Towards Flourishing, Formation, & Transformation is a yearlong institute comprised of intensive workshops that offers LGBTQ students a sustained and in-depth opportunity to create spaces of encounter, engagement, and reflection that can lead to action and transformation. For many LGBTQ students, it can be a challenge both to come into themselves, and then find or foster community. Unlike other social and cultural identities, LGBTQ members must constitute community even as they find themselves; in other words, unlike around racial, religious, ethnic, or national identities, LGBTQ people must “make” community even as find or make our-selves. Our identities as LGBTQ people are neither simple nor singular, and all other diversities (i.e race, religion, ability, education, socio-economic class, status, ability to name a few) both shape and change how we come into our own sexual and gendered selves. There are few places where LGBTQ students can come to learn, to engage, and to challenge one another that allows for our own growth. At the heart of this enterprise is Fr. Peter Kolvenbach’s impassioned call for educators to provide our students opportunities to be and to grow into “whole persons of solidarity.” (“The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education”).
A Gatherings workshop in session
The first group of students to participate in Gatherings
Campus Life The Center works in partnership with campus partners, academic departments, GU Pride, GU QPOC, and other student groups to create educational and social programming throughout the year, such as Latinx Heritage Month, Black History Month, and Women’s History Month. We work with campus partners around gender violence and sexual assault, healthy masculinity, and body image education. We work closely with Campus Ministry to enhance interfaith dialogue around LGBTQ issues and partner with the Center for Social Justice and the alternative Spring Break programs; in the Spring of 2015, the trip was focused on LGBTQ Youth Homelessness. We also celebrate LGBTQ History Month as OUTober on the Hilltop, which has grown to be a signature celebration. The month hosts national and international speakers, sponsors student-led discussions, and provides a broad framework to understand and to deepen our knowledge on campus. We provide ongoing weekly programs, including weekly Coffee Hours to build community and provide a vibrant space for student connections. As part of our recruitment and retention efforts, the Center is involved with New Student Orientation, Hoya Saxa Weekend and Georgetown Admissions Ambassador Program. By being an integral part of GAAP, students’ first experiences on campus, we work to encourage an open environment for all students. We work in partnership with the Office of Admissions and other campus partners to welcome all new Hoyas to the Hilltop. The Center also works with several offices to provide a safety net for LGBTQ students to enhance their emotional and spiritual well being and safety. We also work extensively with graduate students on the Main Campus, as well as Law and Medical Schools around career networking, programming, and mentorship.
Past Events Art & Performance
Faith & Spirituality
History
Performing the Transmasculine
Pride Shabbat
Reading Our Many Pasts (Urvashi Vaid)
Dear Harvey
Gender & Sexuality in Islam
The Mask You Live In Film Screening
Faith & Sexuality in the 21st Century
Call Me Kutchu Film Screening
Faith, Diversity, & Sexual Orientation
Invisible Others Beyond Gay Marriage Outing as Political Activism Discerning Our Pasts
Students pack the Center for Coffee Hour
Dear Harvey
The Tipping Point in Trans Pop Culture with Ali Liebegott
Racial Justice
Disability Justice
Gender Justice
Gentrification & the Politics of Space
To Walk Between Words: Queering ASL
Trans Health in the US Military
Queer Identity & Social Justice
Disability Justice is Queer Liberation
The Transgender Battlefield
Queer Caribanna
Reframing Trans as Disability in Japan
The Fight for LGBTQ Rights (Vanita Gupta)
Dark Matter: It Gets Bitter
The Tipping Point in Trans Pop Culture
OUTober is an annual programming series presented by the LGBTQ Resource Center and a variety of campus partners and organizations during LGBTQ History Month. Throughout the month, we host a variety of major speakers such as Mia Mingus, Donna Rose, Ben Cohen, Ali Liebegott, Karen Nakamura, Bettina Love, and Urvashi Vaid. We collaborate with offices across campus to engage students, faculty, and staff to deepen our knowledge of, and understanding about LGBTQ histories, communities, and movements. There is a rich and growing body of research, and we seek to inform and to educate. Past events have included panels, workshops, and keynote presentations on LGBTQ families; the intersections of faith, sexuality, disability, race, and military; stories of coming out and coming together; and the journey of transitioning through the constructions of gender. With over a dozen events spanning two months, in collaboration with a wide range of academic and student life departments and organizations, we are able to host over 1000 attendees across all of OUTober each year. Each subsequent iteration of OUTober shows remarkable growth in both the breadth and depth of our reach on campus. Dr. Bettina Love speaks as part of OUTober 2015
Paul Tagliabue at Coming Out Day, an OUTober tradition
Distinguished Guests The Center hosts a number of speakers throughout the year; past guests include: James Alison Catholic Theologian, Priest, & Author
Karen Nakamura speaks on the Japanese view of trans as disability
Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation Donna Freitas, C’94 Asst. Professor, Boston University Raquel Gutiérrez Actor, Publisher, & Writer
Georgetown faculty & staff discuss queer parenthood during OUTober
Vanita Gupta Head of DoJ’s Civil Rights Division Lorri L. Jean LA LGBT Center Dr. Simon LeVay Author Ali Liebegott Writer, Transparent Dr. Bettina Love Assoc. Professor, University of Georgia Mia Mingus Writer, Community Educator Karen Nakamura Assoc. Professor, Yale University Robyn Ochs Bisexual Resource Guide Lazlo Pearlman Performer, Director, & Author Dr. Sue Rankin Assoc. Prof, Penn State Richard T. Rodríguez Assoc. Professor, University of Illinois Donna Rose Transgender Advocate Joe Solmonese Human Rights Campaign
Walk to End HIV, OUTober 2014
Urvashi Vaid Author, Attorney, & Organizer
Of ‘Masc’ & Masks Exploring Queer Masculinities inaugurates our Out for Change Fellows, as a way to honor the Center’s origins. Through a framework rooted in racial justice, 14 students come together to explore, challenge, and grow their own cognition and emotional intelligence around experiences of masculinity, seeking transformation and empowerment. The cohort meets biweekly in Fall, and students will work in pairs through the Spring on projects related to their intellectual interests.
On the threshold of passage from a community on the Hilltop to the world outside, there lies a large space. Passages is a program for graduating LGBTQ juniors and seniors, working together with recent Georgetown alumni to come together and have conversations about life, living, and all that it entails; to reflect on needs, wants, hopes, and dreams.
Students converse with Cristina Cauterucci (COL‘11) as part of Passages
Peer-led discussion groups, run via the IGNITE initiative, offer a brave space for students to share experiences and explore their own understandings of gender and sexuality. The Center provides training and support to five pairs of facilitators that lead weekly discussion groups for a range of identities and experiences. These groups include: EmbrACE, a space for students who identify as asexual or ace-spectrum; Queer Women’s Collective (QWC), for LGBTQ+ female-identified or non-binary students; Umbrella, for trans and questioning Hoyas, as well as those directly affected by trans issues, such as close friends, family, and significant others; Getting Bi, for pansexual, bisexual, and all other polysexual identities; TimeOUT, a group for LGBTQ identifying student athletes. Discussion topics include the intersection of race and gender, current events, what it means to identify as female, and other relevant topics.
Conferences The Center supports opportunities for research and leadership development at regional and national conferences. Center staff work closely with students to help them develop their research and present at conferences like Creating Change (the pre-eminent national conference hosted by the Task Force); IgnatianQ (a studentled conference); and Intricate Identities (the DC LGBTQ Symposium). We also support students attending other regional and national conferences. Attending conferences provides students the opportunity to expand their horizons by engaging in reflective discourse about intersectional issues. Upon returning to campus, students use the knowledge acquired and new breadth of understanding they have developed to enhance existing programs and projects. In the 2015-16 academic year, with the generous support of the Tagliabue Initiative, Campus Ministry, and individual donors, the Center sponsored 40 students to attend three different academic conferences. Georgetown students at IgnatianQ 2016 in Seattle
Lavender Graduation is a special ceremony for LGBTQ and Ally undergraduate and graduate students to acknowledge their achievements, contributions, and unique experiences at Georgetown University. Each year, we bring back a distinguished Hoya alum to serve as our keynote speaker, and the ceremony has grown to be a signature event that celebrates all of the Hoya community. As President Jack DeGioia says, the ceremony now “marks the beginning of the Commencement season” on the Hilltop. The ceremony now includes the Main Campus, the Georgetown Law Center, the Medical School, and the School of Continuing Studies. Past keynote speakers include: David Catania (SFS ‘90, LAW ‘94), DC Councilmember Kara Swisher (SFS ‘84), Executive Editor, D: All Things Digital David Cicilline (LAW ‘86), Rhode Island Congressman Melissa L. Bradley (MSB ‘89), CEO, Tides Daniel R. Porterfield (COL ‘83) President, Franklin & Marshall College Susan Davis (SFS ‘78), President & CEO, BRAC USA Mark Dybul (COL ‘85, MED ‘92, HON ‘08), Executive Director, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria Dinaw Mengestu (COL ‘00), Author & MacArthur Fellow
Susan Davis, Lavender Graduation 2014
Hon. Mark Dybul, Lavender Graduation 2015
Shiva Subbaraman at Lavender Graduation
Daniel R. Porterfield, Lavender Graduation 2013
Lavender Graduation 2016 Award Winners
Melissa L. Bradley, Lavender Graduation 2012
Dinaw Mengestu, Lavender Graduation 2016
Summer Fellows Program The LGBTQ Resource Center is committed to serving the diversity of communities within our community. We are not a single, monolithic group; all other diversities are present within our community: we are diverse by race, religion, economic, immigration, and educational statuses; religion and nationality. For the summer of 2016, we partnered with the Georgetown Scholarship Program, through a generous alum donor, to offer support to two students dedicated to serving the LGBTQ Community and advancing issues pertinent to the community. One of these students, Caitlin Opperman, a Mathematics major and a part of the Accelerated Master’s Program in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, worked with the National LGBTQ Task Force as a Creating Change Intern. On campus, Caitlin has worked as a peer volunteer for the Project Lighthouse program, a student worker at the LGBTQ Resource Center, a facilitator for the I Am Ready program, and a Teacher’s Assistant for the Sociology Department. Caitlin Opperman
The second student, Willem Miller, a Mathematics and Statistics student, interned at the National Center for Transgender Equality, concentrating on the U.S. Trans Survey and using his math education to work for social justice. On campus, Willem has worked as a Vice President of GUPride, focusing on community building, advocating for healthcare accessibility, and making Georgetown a better place for survivors of sexual assault. Willem is also a trained EMT.
Willem Miller
Alumni Outreach In addition to participating in university-wide alumni events such as Homecoming, John Carroll Weekend, and Reunion Weekend, the Center hosts events throughout the year open to our Alumni. Networking and campus celebrations provide the opportunity to reconnect as well as to share knowledge and experiences with current students. We work to connect, and to close our shared circles of understanding. We honor our present by acknowledging our difficult past, and by continuing to reach out to many in the LGBTQ and ally communities who have been part of this journey and change. Reunion 2011
Reunion 2015
John Carroll Weekend 2011
Paul Tagliabue at Reunion 2012
Reunion 2013
Homecoming Weekend
Campus Partners The Center works with many campus partners, including: Office of the President Office of the Provost Office of Mission & Ministry Alumni Association Division of Student Affairs African American Studies Program American Studies Program Department of Anthropology Department of Athletics The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, & World Affairs The Center for Social Justice The Engelhard Project Department of English Department of History Department of Sociology Culture, Communication, & Technology McCourt School of Public Policy GU Law Center GU Medical School Georgetown Scholarship Program Department of History The Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor & the Working Poor Department of Performing Arts Department of Sociology Women’s & Gender Studies Program The Black House Black Student Alliance Caribbean Culture Circle College Democrats College Republicans The CORP Georgetown Program Board Georgetown Solidarity Committee GUSA GU Pride GU Women of Color GU Queer People of Color Hoyas for Immigrant Rights Korean Student Association The Lecture Fund MEChA