Editorial: Keep your Promise — Respect your LGBT peers

Pledges are not worth ignoring, especially the ones we make to ourselves.

When we come to Pitt,… Pledges are not worth ignoring, especially the ones we make to ourselves.

When we come to Pitt, we commit to uphold a certain set of common principles. These principles are encapsulated in the Pitt Promise, a list of six rules that are available on a plaque on the bottom floor of the Union or on Student Affairs’ website. And as Pitt students try to make sense of the sexual orientation intolerance issues that have become so unfortunately prevalent in the news, this list can serve as a valuable source of guidance and motivation.

In thinking about current LGBT issues, perhaps the most relevant principle the Promise offers us is as follows: “I will contribute to the development of a caring community where compassion for others and freedom of thought and expression are valued.”

That is, while story after story of harassment-provoked teen suicides in faraway places might leave students feeling powerless to prevent such horrific consequences of intolerance, we must remember what we can do here — that at least we can make the Pitt community caring and accepting. No law, ordinance or policy can completely stop anti-gay harassment on campus: It’s up to students to recognize the significance of the issue and to actively contribute for any real solution to take place.

If you watch the news, you’d know the cause of tolerance has a long way to go.

Take for example the tragic death of Tyler Clementi. Clementi, an 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman, jumped off the George Washington Bridge in New York on Sept. 22 after his roommate and an accomplice allegedly streamed live video over the Internet of an intimate encounter between Clementi and another man.

His death accompanies a string of sexual orientation-related suicides among young people making recent headlines, and with Howard University student Aiyisha Hassan killing herself on Oct. 4, the deadly trend doesn’t seem to have an end.

You might have also heard of New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino’s hateful statements toward gays. On Oct. 10, the Republican family-values candidate said that he doesn’t want children to be “brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option.”

With all of the senseless intolerance toward gay people pervading the news, we shouldn’t be discouraged from building our “caring community.” James Weaver, president of Rainbow Alliance, agrees. Although “there is room to improve” at Pitt, “overall [LGBT acceptance] is good,” he said.

Therefore in terms of acceptance, Pitt might indeed be already ahead. And if more students understand the need to carry compassion everywhere they go — i.e. by taking clear stands against unnecessary usage of the word “gay” or against injurious hazing — it’s possible that someday we won’t have to worry about someone’s identity being a life or death issue.

Because by now, accepting people for the beauty of who they are should be second nature.