Although not up on the website yet, check out QUEER PEERS & join the facebook group: http://bc.facebook.com/group.php?gid=3052912553&ref=mf
Even if you aren't GLBTQ, it might just help someone you know!
Queer Peers are students who are available to talk to other BC students about GLBTQ issues, like questioning sexuality, coming out, supporting questioning friends, relationship issues and more. Email any of the students below with any questions, concerns—they will maintain your confidentiality!
_______________________________
Bill Sugrue
Email: sugruew@bc.edu
Hey, my name is Bill Sugrue and I'm a third year psychology major in the pre-med program. I’m from Hastings, NY, I am going to be the co-director of communications for GLC next year. I like hanging out with friends, watching movies, and going to concerts.
My-Yen Tran
Email: Yen.Tran.1@c.edu
I'm a rising senior in the Carroll School of Management ('08, woot!) with a concentration in Accounting and a minor in Human Develpment. I was born and raised in Boston, but my heart's in London at the moment.The Patriots are my life, and I support two baseball teams, the Red Sox, and the team that's playing the Yankees. If you have any questions or just want to borrow the L- Word, please, please don't hesitate to contact me!
Dan Sugrue
Email: sugrued@bc.edu
I am a psychology major, Hispanic studies minor, class 2009--I like Tarantino movies, making up scenarios and running with them, laughing, making others laugh, reciting inappropriate memories, and Spanish.
Elizabeth Ryan
Email: elizabeth.ryan.3@bc.edu
Hey, I’m Ellie—I’m a junior nursing major from South Shore Mass. I love being outside (hiking, biking, camping), dance parties, Indian food, being silly, reading, laughing, going to shows…I’m also the Director of Women’s Issues for GLC and a Pathophysiology tutor.
Celso Perez
Email: celso.perez.1@bc.edu
Hi, I'm Celso Perez and I'm a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. I'm a theology and biochemistry double major, with an interest in bioethics, sexual ethics, and public health and ethics. A native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, I'm the oldest of five siblings. In my free time I enjoy reading, knitting, volleyball, and centering prayer.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
OP ED article written by BC Professor
OP ED article written by a BC professor taken from BAYWINDOWS. It's from a few weeks ago, but very relevant and hits close to home for us at BC. In response to the Catholic leaders in Mass, who responded to the gay marriage bill veto.
Issue Date: 7/5/2007, Posted On: 7/3/2007
Mass Catholic leaders still don 't get it
Kevin J. Mahoney
I just finished the "The Statement of the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts" released after the June 14 defeat of the marriage amendment by the state legislature. Given that this letter was distributed in every Roman Catholic parish in the state on Sunday, June 17, I feel it requires a response from a Catholic who disagrees and who feels these bishops are denigrating the decency and intelligence of more than three-quarters of all the legislators in our state who voted to prevent this limitation of civil rights from being introduced into our Constitution.
I would like to make three points. The first is that the Catholic bishops do not seem to understand our state constitution. The founders of our state and nation knew that it should not be easy to amend the constitution, which guarantees basic human rights. In a democracy, minorities can trust that their rights cannot serendipitously be removed. That's why they buy into the system. Our founding fathers carefully established checks and balances. They established a procedure where people could collect signatures requesting a referendum creating a change in the constitution, but, in order to prevent ill-conceived changes in our underlying freedoms, they stipulated that at least a quarter of the states' elected legislators, assembled in a formal constitutional convention, had to agree, in two consecutive sessions, that the issue merited a change in our basic constitution. Personally, I rejoice that this constitutional test was not met. "Let the people vote" was an ill-conceived slogan asking legislators to abrogate their constitutional duty. The Catholic bishops' claim that "citizens have a right to vote on a constitutional amendment" is either uninformed or disingenuous.
The second is that Republicans as well as Democrats voted in favor of civil marriage rights. All of the seven judges on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that determined that individuals of the same sex had an equal right to the privileges and responsibilities of marriage were appointed by Republican governors. Whereas only 24 of the 196 legislators who voted at the constitutional convention were Republicans, the Republican leaders in both the House and the Senate opposed the constitutional amendment as did three of the five Republican senators. To defeat this effort to change our constitution, nine legislators changed their votes between January and June. Believe it or not, two of those amazingly courageous legislators were Republicans. Those aligned with the Catholic bishops would lead you to believe that this attempt to change our constitution was defeated mainly because "pressure tactics were engineered to ensure that the will of the people would not prevail."
They would like to imply that they lost only because they were outspent. Nonsense. The bishops command an incredible "free" pulpit to lobby for their view of "the common good." I think it is amazing that in three-and-a-half years Massachusetts has gone from 50 to 151 elected legislators who believe couples of the same sex should be treated equally. When I attended Boston College High School I can remember one of my theology teachers, back in the years when the Catholic Church was emphasizing Jesus's teachings on social justice and care for the poor, saying, "It is impossible to be a good Catholic and a good Republican at the same time." This was nonsense. So is the statement of today's Catholic bishops promoting the replacement of the Democratic Party leadership because they have a different view of the "common good."
My last point is that Americans of all faiths appreciate rational, even-handed arguments and look askance at rhetoric that insults and debases one's opponents. When the Catholic bishops proclaim that, "Today, the common good has been sacrificed by the extreme individualism that subordinates what is best for children, families, and society," I say please treat us like adults. Looking at the crowd advocating outside the constitutional convention I think most impartial observers would agree there were more religious groups opposing this change in our constitution than there were promoting it. Do the Catholic bishops think we should dismiss the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry as irrelevant and immoral? I hope the bishops are clear with everyone this is not a matter where they are infallible.
I am a Catholic and I always will be. I just wish that our appointed bishops would sit down, look at the evidence on what good has happened when gay people have had the right to marry and raise children, and talk with us, not at us.
Kevin J. Mahoney is a Professor at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work, and Director of the Center on the Study of Home and Community Life.
From: www.baywindows.com
Issue Date: 7/5/2007, Posted On: 7/3/2007
Mass Catholic leaders still don 't get it
Kevin J. Mahoney
I just finished the "The Statement of the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts" released after the June 14 defeat of the marriage amendment by the state legislature. Given that this letter was distributed in every Roman Catholic parish in the state on Sunday, June 17, I feel it requires a response from a Catholic who disagrees and who feels these bishops are denigrating the decency and intelligence of more than three-quarters of all the legislators in our state who voted to prevent this limitation of civil rights from being introduced into our Constitution.
I would like to make three points. The first is that the Catholic bishops do not seem to understand our state constitution. The founders of our state and nation knew that it should not be easy to amend the constitution, which guarantees basic human rights. In a democracy, minorities can trust that their rights cannot serendipitously be removed. That's why they buy into the system. Our founding fathers carefully established checks and balances. They established a procedure where people could collect signatures requesting a referendum creating a change in the constitution, but, in order to prevent ill-conceived changes in our underlying freedoms, they stipulated that at least a quarter of the states' elected legislators, assembled in a formal constitutional convention, had to agree, in two consecutive sessions, that the issue merited a change in our basic constitution. Personally, I rejoice that this constitutional test was not met. "Let the people vote" was an ill-conceived slogan asking legislators to abrogate their constitutional duty. The Catholic bishops' claim that "citizens have a right to vote on a constitutional amendment" is either uninformed or disingenuous.
The second is that Republicans as well as Democrats voted in favor of civil marriage rights. All of the seven judges on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that determined that individuals of the same sex had an equal right to the privileges and responsibilities of marriage were appointed by Republican governors. Whereas only 24 of the 196 legislators who voted at the constitutional convention were Republicans, the Republican leaders in both the House and the Senate opposed the constitutional amendment as did three of the five Republican senators. To defeat this effort to change our constitution, nine legislators changed their votes between January and June. Believe it or not, two of those amazingly courageous legislators were Republicans. Those aligned with the Catholic bishops would lead you to believe that this attempt to change our constitution was defeated mainly because "pressure tactics were engineered to ensure that the will of the people would not prevail."
They would like to imply that they lost only because they were outspent. Nonsense. The bishops command an incredible "free" pulpit to lobby for their view of "the common good." I think it is amazing that in three-and-a-half years Massachusetts has gone from 50 to 151 elected legislators who believe couples of the same sex should be treated equally. When I attended Boston College High School I can remember one of my theology teachers, back in the years when the Catholic Church was emphasizing Jesus's teachings on social justice and care for the poor, saying, "It is impossible to be a good Catholic and a good Republican at the same time." This was nonsense. So is the statement of today's Catholic bishops promoting the replacement of the Democratic Party leadership because they have a different view of the "common good."
My last point is that Americans of all faiths appreciate rational, even-handed arguments and look askance at rhetoric that insults and debases one's opponents. When the Catholic bishops proclaim that, "Today, the common good has been sacrificed by the extreme individualism that subordinates what is best for children, families, and society," I say please treat us like adults. Looking at the crowd advocating outside the constitutional convention I think most impartial observers would agree there were more religious groups opposing this change in our constitution than there were promoting it. Do the Catholic bishops think we should dismiss the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry as irrelevant and immoral? I hope the bishops are clear with everyone this is not a matter where they are infallible.
I am a Catholic and I always will be. I just wish that our appointed bishops would sit down, look at the evidence on what good has happened when gay people have had the right to marry and raise children, and talk with us, not at us.
Kevin J. Mahoney is a Professor at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work, and Director of the Center on the Study of Home and Community Life.
From: www.baywindows.com
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