Blasphemy was committed on a Catholic university campus: An employee at the “Catholic” school stated her belief, rooted in Catholicism, that there are only two genders.
An unnamed employee at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles has been suspended and is currently being investigated for a “hate crime” by the university’s Bias Incident Response Team and the LAPD for “denying transgenderism” when she stated that there are only two genders, reports The College Fix.
On April 14, the employee engaged in a “dialogue” with three students who were hanging up posters for “Rainbow Week” on campus.
Cosette Carleo, who identifies as “gender-neutral,” said that she(?) was shaken to her “core” during the discussion. She told The Fix that the employee reiterated Roman Catholic teaching, stating “only two genders exist, male and female,” and that such a statement was a “hate crime.”
Carleo said, “‘[Y]ou can have your opinion’ as long as it doesn’t ‘deny my existence,’” notes The Fix.
Carleo claims that the posters for “Rainbow Week” were taken down and placed behind a garbage can. She has not accused the unnamed employee of taking down the posters, as there is no evidence of this.
The Los Angeles Loyolan reports that the three students, reposting the signs that were allegedly taken down, were approached by the employee from the Alumni Relations office. She “approached the students about LGBTQ+ issues and voiced opinions on differing sexualities, expressing that anti-LGBTQ+ signs should be put up in place of the students’ signs.” The accused also “referred to one of the students as a man, even though that student had informed the employee that they identify as gender neutral.” (Unforgivable!)
The employee “told me that I was wrong and unnatural,” Carleo told The Loyolan. “An opinion editor at The Loyolan also referred to the employee’s traditional Catholic view as a ‘hate crime’ because it ‘disrespect[ed] someone else’s existence,’” notes The Fix.
The employee and two others, her husband and a witness on the phone with her at the time, have called the actions by the so-called Catholic school “a distortion of the facts” and “disturbing.”
“In an April 16 email forwarded to California Catholic Daily, the employee’s husband blasted The Loyolan for a ‘distortion of facts’ around the incident, saying his wife told him about the entire incident the same day it happened,” states The Fix. “The students were hanging up signs promoting ‘PanSexual’ orientation, the husband wrote. After the employee discussed her traditional Catholic views on love and sexuality, it was the students who ‘suggested that Campus ministry place a sign promoting the Catholic idea of relationships next to their signs next year.’”
After the “dialogue,” “everyone shook hands and my wife invited them into the Alumni office anytime they wanted to talk more,” states the email. “The girls express out loud how much they enjoyed the opportunity to ‘dialogue’ on these subjects with my wife.”
The witness who overheard the conversation via telephone was Anthony “AJ” Gonzales. He posted his account of the incident online, blasting the university for taking the “Guilty until proven Innocent” stance: “The most disturbing part of this whole incident and the inappropriate response of the University to assume ‘Guilty until proven Innocent’ is that the individual was actually being very kind and friendly and asking if these sexually explicit marketing flyers had actually been approved by the proper department for posting all over the campus,” begins Gonzales’ post. “When this was affirmed by the three individuals a friendly discussion ‘dialogue’ (the word I heard them use) ensued. The falsely accused individual explained why she felt these flyers were inappropriate for a Catholic University and she cheerfully explained perennial Catholic teaching regarding human sexuality and the place of gender in design of God’s Creation. Let me state this clearly, the unnamed individual simply presented ROMAN CATHOLIC TEACHING about sexuality to individuals who attend a ‘supposedly’ Roman Catholic University. Until alternately explained, apparently Roman Catholic Moral Teaching is now considered ‘Hate Speech’ ON THE CAMPUS OF A ROMAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY!”
After inquiring about the investigation, Anthony Garrison-Engbrecht, director of LMU’s LGBT Student Services, referred The Fix to spokeswoman Celeste Durante; Durante said that the investigation was “ongoing.”