Tabitha Silva
Staff Writer
Both floors of the Gentile Gallery were filled with students Monday 9 p.m. for the panel discussion titled “Same-sex desire/same-sex attraction: Living an integrated life,” one of the last events of the Gift of Human Sexuality Symposium.
Moderated by the Rev. Jonathan St. Andre, TOR, the panel consisted of the Rev. Luke Robertson, TOR, junior social work major Emmanuel Gonzalez, catechetics graduate student Brittany Bain, and junior education major Katherine Standish.
The three students on the panel spoke of their experiences with same-sex attractions and desires.
The talk was broken up into three parts: introductions, prepared questions and an open forum. During the introductions Bain stated that she was there for the “students who felt alone.”
The prepared questions took a secondary position to the open forum. The questions began with a broad look at the Church’s stance on same-sex attractions and moved onto the “precision of language,” which Standish explained by saying that she does not call herself “gay” despite experiencing same-sex attraction.
Standish said, “I am more than my sexuality. … I’m a student, I’m a writer, I’m a woman, I’m a daughter of God, I’m a sister, I’m Catholic.”
Many of the open forum questions surrounded situational events. Of the nine questions that were asked, the one question that took the most time was, “Can you describe deep seated same-sex attraction?”
Gonzalez took the reins to answer.
Gonzalez said that tendencies are different from attraction in that one is “a more shallow sexual curiosity.” The attraction appears to be deep-seated but is a “skew(ing) of perception,” which Gonzalez said he experiences.
His final statement was, “I do not know why I am here! But I’m going to carry my cross and live out my sacrifice and hopefully one day I’ll see you in heaven.”
Vincente DiClementi, sophomore, said, “(It) was a wise decision to make it a Q&A to get to what people wanted and needed to hear about.”
The youngest member of the audience was Ethan, 14. Ethan said, “The talk was really good. It has helped me to understand all sorts of situations that can come about in life.”