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THE DIAMONDBACK | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2012
Opinion
EDITORIAL BOARD
YASMEEN ABUTALEB Editor in Chief
Mike King
Managing Editor
Tyler Weyant
Managing Editor
maria romas Opinion Editor
nadav karasov
Assistant Opinion Editor
CONTACT US 3150 South Campus Dining Hall | College Park, MD 20742 | news@umdbk.com OR opinion@umdbk.com PHONE (301) 314-8200 FAX (301) 314-8358
HEAD TO HEAD
Equality and perspective on National Coming Out Day JOSHUA DOWLING When I came out, I thought my life was effectively over. It all started in the aftermath of Prop 8. An hour into debating the question, my mom pointedly demanded, “Why do you care so much about this? Are you gay?” I broke at that point. Tears streaming down my face, all I could do was utter an almost silent affirmation. Things weren’t good then. My friends were iffy about it, at best. My relationship with my parents teetered on the brink. For more than a month, I went to bed crying every night. It’s an impossibly hopeless feeling to go to sleep thinking your friends have gone and your parents no longer love you. For myself, and thousands upon thousands of other members of the LGBT community, that struggle is a reality we’ve all faced — and sometimes still face today. But that was nearly four years ago. After a tense couple of months, I began to speak to my mother again. We worked it out, and we’ve never been closer. My mom’s primary concern has shifted from whether I’m committing a moral wrong to whether I’m going to get gay-bashed if I hold hands with my boyfriend on the Metro. My father and I spent two long years talking to each other in simplistic snippets. We barely acknowledged each other, and when we did, it invariably left me in tears. Over the past year, my father has undergone a drastic change in his understanding of what it means to be LGBT. Instead of worrying about my sex life, he’s started to worry about the discrimination facing the LGBT community. Just a week or so ago, he wrote an email noting how he hoped marriage equality would pass this November. He signed the email with, “Love you, Dad,” and for the first time in an incredibly long time, I knew it was true. Today, on National Coming Out Day, I’m privileged not to have to come out — to not have to go
VIEW Coming out means refusing to stay silent and embracing the struggle of equal rights for everyone. through the emotional turmoil that rattled my world a few short years ago. But I’m especially privileged to have parents who worked hard to meet me in a place of understanding. I’m privileged to live in a state that just passed marriage equality and to attend a university where my peers and professors think no less of me because of my sexuality. We still have a lot more to do, though. Marriage equality still has to pass in November. Our trans brothers and sisters still need help in breaking down myriad barriers that threaten their jobs, safety and lives. And there are a thousand other ways that we might better the lives of LGBT people in the United States and throughout the world. For me, coming out was not simply the end of my struggle as an LGBT individual; it was the first day I could wage my struggle to better the lives of my queer compatriots. I urge all of you to join me in coming out as people who want to see a brighter, more inclusive tomorrow, where we all move forward together. I urge all of you not to be afraid to have tough conversations and to change people’s minds on LGBT issues. If my Catholic parents could eventually come around on marriage equality, then there is no conversation not worth having — and there is no mind not worth trying to change. My coming out didn’t end in November 2009; it won’t end until I’ve done all that I can to help every person I know understand LGBT people are full and equal members of our world. I refuse to tolerate an opinion that says I am not a full, legitimate human being. And I won’t stop working to help people understand that. Joshua Dowling is a senior government and politics and history major. He can be reached at dowlingj@terpmail.umd.edu.
VIEW The LGBT community deserves greater inclusion in society, but marriage remains a separate issue entirely.
MATT RICE What is marriage? Maryland residents will be answering exactly that question during this November’s election, as same-sex marriage goes up for referendum. But as we get caught up in the argument between “marriage equality” and “traditional marriage,” we often forget to consider what marriage actually is. One thing that becomes immediately clear is there are two very different concepts for what marriage fundamentally represents, which support the two opposing stances. One concept sees marriage simply as a way for the government to recognize a couple’s love for each other — a view that gives couples access to benefits like hospital visitation rights. In this mindset, marriage is an institution invented by people. It naturally follows that, as we strive to rid ourselves of discrimination against LGBT people, marriage laws should be updated to be more inclusive. The other concept of marriage calls it something fundamental — an unchangeable fact of nature. In this mindset, attempting to change the definition of marriage is as futile as advocating to pass a law making one plus one equal three. The law may be passed, but that doesn’t change the truth; one plus one will always equal two, regardless of the law. Furthermore, if such a law were to be passed, it would inevitably create problems, since students would not be able to do math correctly. Likewise, this position sees the redefinition of marriage as enshrining a lie into law, which inevitably leads to problems. All too often, people who hold these two opposing views of marriage judge each other’s conclusions based on their own premises. For example, someone who believes in traditional marriage may be tempted to see all attempts to legalize same-sex marriage as pieces of a nefarious “gay agenda.” Likewise, marriage equality supporters — liken-
ing their struggle against discrimination to the civil rights movement of the 1960s — often label their opponents as homophobic bigots. They fail to see that, for the most part, supporters of traditional marriage don’t aim to discriminate against LGBT people unjustly; they simply don’t believe that samesex “marriage” is marriage. But some say the very idea that marriage can only be between a man and a woman is discriminatory. Too often they belittle Christians’ biblical explanations for believing in traditional marriage with misinformed criticism. Most of the often-alleged instances in the Bible brought up in such debates can be explained fairly easily. But one of the less controversial verses, “God is Love,” poses a more difficult, enlightening question: How can God be love if He existed before there was anything to love? In Catholic theology, the answer is supplied by the mystery of the Trinity. God the Father loves God the Son, and the Son returns this love to the Father; this love between the Father and the Son is so strong, that it gives rise to God the Holy Spirit. This is mirrored in marriage, where a husband loves his wife and a wife loves her husband, and this love is so strong that it can create a child. The only relationships that can possibly create new life are those between a man and a woman. So from my perspective, only man-woman relationships can possibly constitute marriage. Obviously this isn’t a valid argument against legalizing same-sex marriage in this state, but it is my belief — simply what I think to be true — and it is not based on bigotry or homophobia. I hope as the debate continues leading up to the election, we’ll all try to keep each other’s perspectives in mind instead of recklessly criticizing each other’s conclusions. Matt Rice is a sophomore engineering and materials science major. He can be reached at rice@umdbk.com.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
STAFF EDITORIAL
Getting the facts straight
Never too early for summer
Human life is sacred
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his letter is in response to the Sept. 19 Diamondback article, “Alumna now coming to terms with her abortion after being raped as a student.” Because of an unprofessional editing error, The Diamondback misquoted my stance on abortion. I would like to highlight some aspects of the Catholic Church’s teachings, to clarify my stance — not to challenge yours. The Catholic Church teaches God creates and infuses a human soul in the fertilized egg at the moment of conception. Genesis 1:27-28 state humans are sexually complementary to perpetuate the species. Our country is built upon guaranteed, unalienable rights; “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” In the Declaration of Independence, the right to life is the first right mentioned. These rights find a resounding confirmation in the teachings of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church holds that every human life is sacred from conception to natural death. Therefore, the life and dignity of every person must be respected and protected at every stage and in every condition. Science supports this claim. Watson A. Bowes, a doctor at the University of Colorado Medical School, states, “The beginning of a single human life is from a biological point of view a simple and straightforward matter — the beginning is conception. This straightforward biological fact should not be distorted to serve sociological, political or economic goals.” In addition to serving ideologies that “use” instead of “respect” the life of each person, abortion is the destruction of the God-created human, body and soul.
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he cramming and stressing over midterms is slowly subsiding (hopefully), and as midOctober turns into Halloween season, students are likely eager to relax and recharge. You may have your sights set on making up for lost partying, sleep or free time as course loads briefly lighten before Thanksgiving. But now is not the time to get complacent. The stretch of relative calm between midterms and finals offers a perfect — and critical — opportunity to look ahead toward next summer. Yes, some students may still be in denial over the summer being gone so quickly, but as they say, winter is coming, and that means yet another summer is soon to follow. Why already think about next summer? Well, it’s not exactly the summer students need to worry about — it’s the grim and stagnant job market waiting for us after graduation. The national unemployment rate dipped below 8 percent in the latest jobs report for the first time in 43 months. The outlook for recent college graduates, however, has shown few signs of improvement, if any at all. Only 45 percent of last May’s graduates from the computer, mathematical and natural sciences college — the students who would arguably be some of the most well-off — had accepted full-time employment by the summer. And the disparaging news extends beyond College Park; 53.6 percent of Americans younger than 25 with bachelor’s degrees remain unemployed or underemployed.
Even if you do find a job once you graduate, it’s increasingly likely you’ll spend the first few years out of college either with your parents, working at a job well below your qualifications (think a barista at Starbucks) or maybe even both. Struggling to find work is no longer the exception for young adults in this country — it’s the norm.
OUR VIEW
Securing a job after college often depends on internship experience — start the summer search now. Which brings us back to the summer. When it comes to preparing for life after college, securing an internship will dramatically improve your chances of gaining quality employment. This past spring, 60 percent of undergraduates who had paid internship experiences received job offers after graduation, according to a recent study from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. However, NACE found only 36 percent of students with no internship experience received offers from employers. So while it may not be the permanent employment most graduates are looking for, it’s the stepping stone students now need to get to that point. Sure, it’s only October, barely halfway into the semester, but now is the time to actively plan where you’ll be spending your summer — and how you’ll
get closer to landing your ideal job. The application deadlines for the most competitive internships are just weeks away: Applications for internships at the FBI and The Washington Post, just to name a few, are due by or before Nov. 1. Maybe these particular internships aren’t in your field of interest, but the point is to actively seek out anything you may be interested in and ensure the application gets in on time — the deadlines will have passed before you know it. At this point, the best thing you can do is research as many positions as possible while the opportunities are still available. Don’t wait until the spring to start planning. In addition to researching different opportunities, talk with your professors and advisers about your personal interests. Share your goals for the summer with them now and see how they can help; leave it to your classmates to flood inboxes in the spring in the scramble to find impersonalized recommendation letters. Maybe an internship isn’t the thing for you this summer, especially if you’re freshman and sophomore. (Preparing for your future career probably isn’t at the forefront of your minds just yet.) Still, it never hurts to get organized and plan ahead and at least have every opportunity available to you right now. There is no single path toward success. The most imperative thing is to find something you truly enjoy and work toward turning it into a career. And if an internship is the easiest way to help you get there, start the application process now.
EDITORIAL CARTOON
Beatrice Torralba is a sophomore government and politics major and a member of Catholic Terps. She can be reached at beatricetorralba@gmail.com.
AIR YOUR VIEWS Address your letters or guest columns to Maria Romas and Nadav Karasov at opinionumdbk@gmail.com. All submissions must be signed. Include your full name, year, major and phone number. Please limit letters to 300 words and guest columns to between 500 and 600 words. Submission of a letter or guest column constitutes an exclusive, worldwide, transferable license to The Diamondback of the copyright of the material in any media. The Diamondback retains the right to edit submissions for content and length. JOEY LOCKWOOD/the diamondback
POLICY: Signed letters, columns and cartoons represent the opinions of the authors. The staff editorial represents the opinion of The Diamondback’s editorial board and is the responsibility of the editor in chief.