Fear of Homophobia with 2020 Election

A Saint Joseph’s University Freshman discusses shares her experience with homophobia at her Catholic high school and how that experience affected her decision to come to a Catholic college. She also speaks to being gay at Saint Joe’s and the climate of fear surrounding the 2020 election.

Start Talking SJU is a social media impact campaign that encourages members of the Saint Joseph’s University community to engage each other by discussing difficult, yet important topics, that are vital for a healthy, open, inclusive campus. Our current topic is Living in Fear, Striving for Hope.

More videos like this one on the topic of Living in Fear, Striking for Hope in 2020 can be found at http://livinginfear.starttalkingsju.com. You can also see our prior campaigns: Attacked (http://attacked.starttalkingsju.com), Belonging (http://belonging.starttalking.com), and Mental Health (http://mentalhealth.starttalking.com).

This video was co-created with the person depicted and/or represented in a story read by another. All persons reviewed and signed consent forms granting permission to share this story online.

If you are experiencing any personal or social effects due to fear on or off-campus, the university has resources that can help, including:

The Office of Student Outreach and Support (https://sites.sju.edu/sos/); the SJU COVID website (https://www.sju.edu/hawk-hill-ready); if you are experiencing food insecurity, HawkHub (https://clubs.sju.edu/hawkhubclub); The Bias Activity Review Group, which connects to Public Safety (https://sites.sju.edu/oid/bias/); CAPS (610-660-1090); TitleIX titleIX@sju.edu; REPP (*confidential support) 610-733-9650 (24 hr. Peer Helpline); or SJU Public Safety 610-660-1111.

A complete transcript of the video reads as follows:

My counselor was talking with me, and yeah this is a little stick out moment for me. She told me that I should expect every Catholic person to hate me because it’s like in the Bible. My whole family’s very religious, and like, I said to her, I said like my dad is literally training to become a deacon, like my whole family’s Catholic and they don’t think anything different of me and she goes, “well I guess you’re just lucky, then.” Part of it is like my appearance. Like I met all my friends here and I’d be like, “Oh yeah, me and my girlfriend blah blah blah”. Like just randomly bringing it up. I don’t feel like I have to officially have to come out to anybody, you know. But after I would say, like something about my girlfriend they would be like, “Oh my God, you’re gay? You so don’t look gay, like you don’t look it at all,” and I’m like, I don’t feel like I need to, you know? I have to like, watch what I’m talking about around like who I’m with, especially with this whole election. It was just disappointing to find out like some of my closest friends were voting for someone who wanted to take away like a whole community’s rights and like doesn’t support minorities and their rights and all that kind of stuff. I just don’t think she can ever understand like the fear that I and so many people that I’m close to felt. I can’t- I can’t even imagine what this campus would be like if Donald Trump became president. I would have to leave. I don’t know. I wouldn’t really feel as safe as I did before. If Trump had won, even like physically.