The University of Notre Dame's president will continue to allow the performance of the play "The Vagina Monologues" and the school's gay film festival, a decision that contrasts with his January speech questioning the appropriateness of both events according to The New York Times.
Jen Smyers, president of Women's Initiative, said AU has been performing the "Vagina Monologues" for four years.
Smyers said it is important to allow the play to be performed in universities across the country because "Vagina Monologues is a great advocacy piece."
"It brings up things that people don't think about, including sexual slavery, acid burning, female genital mutilation, domestic violence and other issues that drastically affect women around the world, I don't think it's vulgar."
In his speech in January, the Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame president, said he was against the "graphic descriptions" of sexual encounters and descriptions of sexuality outside of traditional male and female relationships in the "Vagina Monologues." Conservative Catholics said the events, which have been held on Notre Dame's campus for several years, are against the sexual teachings of the Church, according to The Times.
Smyers said the play is also a fundraiser. AU raises $4,000 to $6,000 each year for victims of female genital mutilation and domestic violence.
The play's goal is to draw people's attention to these serious issues, Smyers said. People are "supposed to be upset and offended so that they do something about it," she said.
After hearing from hundreds of students, faculty, alumni and administrators, Jenkins allowed for the play's performance and the continuance of the gay film festival.
In a statement released April 5, Jenkins said, "A Catholic university is where the Church does its thinking, and that thinking, to be beneficial, must come from an intellectually rigorous engagement with the world."
Nick Sakurai, AU's Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender program coordinator, said allowing gay films to be shown on campuses is important.
"Including GLBT people is part of showing and making higher education truly accessible to everyone," Sakurai said.
Sakurai said with the increase in the GLBT student population at AU over the years, the resource centers, additional programming and non-discrimination policies have also grown. With these resources, AU is able to recruit and retain better student, faculty and staff and provide a better quality of education.
"Even Catholic colleges and the people who work there, who are priests, really think it is important to include social justice," Sakurai said.
There is an increasing dialogue about GLBT in the Catholic community and there are many more people who are saying people do not deserve to be discriminated or stereotyped against, he said.
Sakurai said a number of Catholic colleges now have GLBT organizations. Students at Georgetown University, a Catholic university, fought a court battle to have their GLBT group on
campus.
Laiah Idelson, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences who performed in this year's performance of "The Vagina Monologues," said the play is a way to raise awareness about issues people do not know about.
"The 'Vagina Monologues' is a way to give a voice to women around the world who are voiceless," she said.
Kathy Rizzo, a sophomore in the School of International Service who also performed in AU's "The Vagina Monologues," said allowing performances of shows such as these matter even if people do not go to see them.
"Diversity in any sort is very important," she said.
