Lilia Draime, Staff Writer

In a February 26 talk sponsored by Notre Dame Law School’s ACLU Legal Forum, Student Body President-elect Alex Coccia described both his past work and future plans to warm the campus climate to LGBTQ issues, which have been a source of increased discussion and debate since the university announced in December its intention  to implement a new pastoral plan for the students’ holistic development.

As former president of the Progressive Student Alliance (PSA) and a founder of the 4 to 5 Movement, Coccia has become a vocal force in the push for LGBTQ inclusion.  His efforts to reframe the campus dialogue came to fruition on December 5, 2012, when the administration approved an LGBTQ student organization and the pastoral plan, called “Beloved Friends and Allies.”

Coccia portrayed the LGBTQ movement’s progress at Notre Dame as a movement plagued by the limitations of student life, general social trends, and administrative disapproval.  He said, “since the 1980s, it has been a path of constant defeat and incremental victories.  We wanted constant conversation about something students care about.  Awareness causes outrage, which leads to pressure, then action, and finally, change.”

To pursue this change, Coccia sought to reframe campus dialogue by founding the 4 to 5 Movement in 2011, the name of which refers to a commonly-cited claim that four out of every five college students support a general package of gay civil rights.

“We are trying to stop silence around the issue.  Silence creates an oppressive environment, and it only hurts students who would come out and be welcomed,” Coccia offered.

That school year ended, however, with a rejection of the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance. In the following months, 192 individuals responded to a Facebook post asking why a Gay-Straight Alliance was important to them.  Roughly three fourths were Catholics, and most responders were not students, but parents, alumni, and friends.

Coccia took this feedback to the administration again in fall of 2012, and his efforts paid off when the administration approved the Gay-Straight Alliance, which will be advised by a student development professional, and released the pastoral plan, which is rooted in Catholic social teaching.

“The pastoral plan is a beautiful document grounded in Catholic social teaching, but it also has action steps,” he noted.  “This is all so important for the people who will be involved—there is trust and commitment from the administration that will be reciprocated.”

Coccia further hopes to oversee the implementation of his plans in his upcoming year as president.  “Our administration places a strong commitment towards inclusion (as one of the four planks on our platform) which includes working with Student Affairs to ensure that the implementation of the LGBTQ-Ally organization goes smoothly, raising the conversation of adding ‘sexual orientation’ to the nondiscrimination clause so as to be consonant with the Student Union nondiscrimination policy, working on allowing students to have equal ease of access to dorms, and working with Student Affairs and other offices to continue to increase sexual assault prevention efforts on campus,” Coccia stated.

Coccia offered two thoughts on the purposes a Catholic university should serve in connection with LGBTQ inclusion. “The first is that both student government and University administrators are called to serve the student body…The second is a clarification on what we as a Catholic university are called to provide for our students.  God’s love is pure and indiscriminate.  As we discuss things like the LGBTQ organization, we have to remember that Jesus’ greatest commandment is love,” he stated.

While Coccia invokes precepts of Catholic teaching, many members of the Notre Dame community who disagree with his views emphasize the Church’s teachings on sexuality.  For example, Law Professor Gerard V. Bradley believes Coccia is using misleading terminology, which prioritizes the sexual identity of a student over any other element of his or her being, while also violating the Church’s teachings. As Bradley wrote earlier this year in a piece for the Rover, “‘Sexual orientation’ refers mainly to adopting an identity —as ‘gay’ or ‘trans’ or whatever —and to affirming the moral licitness of obtaining sexual satisfaction accordingly. ‘Sexual orientation’ denotes, in other words, a sexual lifestyle which the university rightly refuses to say is irrelevant, tout court.”

Bradley continued: “[T]he [Catholic] faith holds that how one seeks and obtains sexual pleasure makes plenty of difference to human well-being. Any Catholic institution would thus contradict the faith if it said that the various ‘sexual orientations’ are acceptable, all equally irrelevant to the university’s mission to teach and to form young people.”

Second year law student Andy Hatfield also expressed concern from a different perspective: Coccia’s focus on LGBTQ inclusion detracts from other pressing campus issues.

“I think the pastoral plan is outstanding and we certainly need to make Notre Dame a place where people are free from abuse and treated with dignity, but I don’t think that gay students feeling uncomfortable is as bad as the rape and sexual assault on campus,” Hatfield expressed.  “The generational gap is a huge problem, and if we can wait until our generation is in charge, we can better define what we all agree on.”

It seems that individuals on both sides of the debate desire the same result: an environment that respects the inherent dignity of each individual.  At a Catholic university, both parties’ goals can most effectively be met through practical application of the teachings of the Church.

Lilia Draime is a sophomore history major who spent her spring break watching Top Gear and snuggling with Kitty, her golden retriever.  If you love Richard Hammond or have a species-confused animal, tell her about it at ldraime@nd.edu.