U of Toronto President Hails Sexual ‘Diversity’

TORONTO, November 5, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – University of Toronto president Robert Birgeneau has written in the Toronto Star that the University must be at the forefront of “diversity.”  The article refers, of course, to “sexual diversity studies” (SDS) and the burning question of whether “a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, or queer (LGBTQ) student entering U of T this fall feel as comfortable ‘out’ as heterosexuals are about themselves?”  His surprise answer: “I believe that in several respects the university has made great progress. … If anything is needed now, it is to move beyond the institutional level of acceptance to broaden awareness and to celebrate sexual diversity on our campuses in much the same way that we celebrate our remarkable ethnic and cultural diversity.”  For U of T, Birgeneau wrote, the same-sex marriage debate is largely over: “The university’s institutional position on the matter has largely been defined” with employee benefits, health coverage, tuition waiver, and survivor benefits for same-sex couples. As for whether society “should both cherish and solemnize long-term, committed loving relationships between two people, whether of the same or the opposite sex” Birgeneau allows that “not everyone in the university community shares this position – it is in the very nature of any university worthy of the name that it would be home to dissenting views.” Pro-family students are probably thinking: time will tell.  For the full editorial in The Star:  https://www.thestar.ca/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1067033407884