BC To Integrate LGBTQ+ Into BAIC

For many years students, student organizations, and alumni of Boston College have sought to establish an LGBTQ+ resource center at BC. The efforts have included proposed plans, petitions, and vows to withhold donation money. In April of last year, Shawna Cooper Whitehead, the VP of Student Affairs for Boston College announced that she would be changing the Thea Bowman AHANA Intercultural Center (BAIC) to the Thea Bowman Intercultural Center, removing the AHANA acronym, which stands for African American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American. Whitehead gives the following reason for the name change, stating, “We want to recognize the term’s historical significance while ensuring that the nomenclature is fully inclusive.”

At the same time, it was announced that the center would add LGBTQ+ resources, and shift its focus from racial minorities at BC to include homosexual and transsexual students. While this initial plan was put on hold, a recent email from Vice President Whitehead revealed that the administration is now moving forward with the proposal.

Whitehead aims to integrate LGBTQ+ programming and support into the BAIC this summer. This integration is seen by some to be the ‘first step’ to establishing an LGBTQ+ resource center on the BC campus. Despite the petitioning of students, student organizations, and alumni of BC, BC has consistently rejected these proposals. Boston College has always rejected these proposals for issues, citing a lack of real-estate on campus, or the proposed plans not meeting budgetary requirements. These claims are often considered, however, to be diplomatic proxies, while the true reason for such a ban is the fact that an LGBTQ+ resource center would likely be entirely contrary to BC’s Jesuit Catholic mission.

Drawing from scripture and natural law, the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are gravely immoral and detrimental to the human person. Furthermore, the Catholic Church teaches that male and female are immutable, essential, and ontological characteristics of the body and soul that cannot be changed. With these Catholic teachings in mind, if an LGBTQ+ resource center funded by Boston College would affirm the homosexual acts of students, this would represent a grave moral discord between BC and the university’s commitment to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

To add, therefore, LGBTQ+ resources to the same center as can be found resources for members of the African American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American communities on campus, the school would then, according to Catholic teaching, be claiming that acts with gravely immoral implications are essentially the same as engaging with these celebrated cultures.

If BC did decide to fund and build an LGBTQ+ resource center that was in accordance with Catholic teaching, it would in effect just offer the same services that BC already offers through Campus Ministry and University Counseling Services. If Boston College feels that sexually confused students are being underserved, then perhaps it could more aggressively promote opportunities for spiritual guidance.