Students accused of 'hatred' for defending traditional marriage
Leaders of the Georgetown University "Pride" student group are demanding that student government cut all funding and benefits for Love Saxa, a pro-traditional marriage group.
Love Saxa's opponents claim that the group's is ineligible because its mission fosters "hatred and intolerance" by insisting that marriage should be "a monogamous and permanent union between a man and a woman."
LGBT students are attempting to defund Love Saxa, a Georgetown University student group that supports traditional marriage.
Love Saxa’s mission statement says the group “exists to promote healthy relationships on campus through cultivating a proper understanding of sex, gender, marriage, and family among Georgetown students.”
The group also aims to “increase awareness of the benefits of sexual integrity, healthy dating relationships, and the primacy of marriage (understood as a monogamous and permanent union between a man and a woman) as a central pillar of society.”
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Jasmin Ouseph submitted a formal notice to the university on September 25, on the grounds that Love Saxa’s definition of marriage fosters hatred and intolerance which would violate Georgetown’s Student Organization Standards.
“Marriage is a conjugal union on every level—emotional, spiritual, physical and mental—directed toward caring for biological children,” Irvine told The Hoya. “To us, marriage is much more than commitment of love between two consenting adults.”
The official rule states that “groups will not be eligible for access to benefits if their purpose or activities…foster hatred or intolerance of others because of their race, nationality, gender, religion, or sexual preferences.”
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Another rule in the Student Organization Standards, however, says that “interfering with another group’s freedom of expression” is prohibited.
In 2013, then-GU Pride President Thomas Lloyd led protests against Love Saxa. Now the current GU Pride President, Chad Gasman, joins Ouseph in her complaint, arguing that “when they deny certain individuals who are queer access to this ideal standard of a relationship, they immediately say that all queer relationships are not as valid as heterosexual relationships.”
Love Saxa’s mission statement, conversely, asserts that “many Georgetown students lack a space to discuss their experiences of the harmful effects of a distorted view of human sexuality and the human person.”
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“We have never advocated for violence toward any individual or group, not have we ever targeted any individual or group,” Love Saxa President Amelia Irvine wrote in an email to The Hoya.
Nonetheless, Georgetown’s Student Activities Commission will conduct a hearing next Monday to decide whether or not the organization has violated Student Organization Standards.
“I have no idea what the commission is going to decide but there is a full range of options available from nothing to suspension of access to benefits,” SAC Chair Ricardo Mondolfi told The Hoya.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @KylePerisic
