[Personal Details Redacted]
4/23/18

One way I feel I have contributed to the SJP Community is by being a part of Always Our Brothers and Sisters, the Gay-Straight Alliance at SJP. Being the first Catholic school to have a GSA, I was rather excited to join my freshman year. It was there that I met many of my first friends at the Prep, young people of all kinds, upperclassmen interacting with underclassmen as they would with anyone else.
It can be difficult to be LGBT in a Catholic environment, even one as open as St. John’s. While the diversity statement calls all students to come as they are, some Christian teachings proclaim a very different message. Lately, we as humans at large find ourselves in the midsts of an identity revolution, with the very ideas of gender, sexuality and family being challenged and questioned.
As a result, a lot has changed in the past couple decades. Change can be scary, for everyone involved, uncertainty rises as traditional systems seem to fall apart. Some people’s fear manifests itself as hate, and that hate can be incredibly destructive.

Even today, where incredibly significant strides in LGBT rights have become simple facts of life, 40% of all homeless youth in the United States are LGBT. 42% are convinced their immediate communities won’t accept them for who they are.

Do those statistics sound familiar? If you keep up with dress down days hosted by Campus Ministry, you should. Earlier this month, we collected donations for NAGLY, the North Shore Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Youth, who provide shelter, food and clothing for homeless LGBT youth. I should know, I was the one who read the prayer. ABS wrote that prayer last year, the result of Upstanders in the Prep community providing a preferential option for the poor.

Although the attendance numbers of our club are far from plentiful, I know that an LGBT community exists at the Prep, even if they feel isolated. Although an LGBT student may never attend an ABS meeting, the mere ministry of presence can act as a beacon of hope, especially in a time where those who question the gender binary often find themselves the butt of jokes, subjects of ridicule.

Because I am a part of Always our Brothers and Sisters, I have made a significant contribution to the Prep community.