Beliefs Not Justification for First-Year Room Change
To the editors:
What Hugh P. Liebert has in essence said (Column, Nov. 9) is that Christianity can be used as a legitimate justification for "deep-seated moral qualms about homosexuality" and thus Christian students should not be forced to have gay roommates, for reasons of "potential sexual attraction and its attendant discomfort."
I am gay and my roommate, who is an Orthodox Jew, is not. This does not mean that I am attracted to him, nor do his religious beliefs stand as a barrier to our communication about issues of sexual orientation.
In fact, we are constantly debating these issues, and this is exactly the kind of dialogue that the Freshman Dean's Office envisions when it puts students together with incompatible and not simply neutrally "different" beliefs. In my rooming situation, religion and sexual orientation may not make a perfect fit, but this tension does not make a case for switching rooms.
The Freshman Dean's Office should change its policy of granting rooming changes. Homophobic students, devout Christians or otherwise, should not receive special considerations here at Harvard, because gay and lesbian students certainly do not.
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