This is in response to Christian Eichenlaub's Nov. 23 Viewpoint "'Fatigue' felt on gay rights issues."

For those in the Marquette community feeling the same fatigue as Christian Eichenlaub, I encourage you to pause amidst these exhausted moments in your campaign and consider for what and why you are fighting. While Eichenlaub notes his journey is exhausting and often lonely, I wonder what journey to change the minds of many was ever energizing and welcomed by the masses. You can fight for what you think and/or know to be deserved civil rights without giving up your life. Do not fight so hard to get a better life that you have to lose this one.

When I came out of the closet two years ago, I knew that my life was not worth throwing away. This includes a life in the Church. I do not feel as though I am any less gay because I follow what I think is God's plan for a me and fellow homosexuals — a long, happy and chaste life.

I have religious beliefs that many on campus will never understand. I will not make this column a soapbox of what my beliefs are and why anyone and everyone should believe them. When it comes to Church teaching regarding homosexuality, the Church is not trying to hide anything. I will not try to hide my opinions either.

The Catholic Church is the only religious organization in the world that currently has an entire group, COURAGE, ministering to men and women who identify as homosexuals and struggle to live chaste, celibate lifestyles. I do not feel I am throwing away my life by choosing to live in accordance with a Church doctrine, which I believe to be a source of truth about sexuality. However, at Marquette there are administrators and students who tell me that because I am choosing to live in accord with the Church I am going to die unhappy, alcoholic and mentally disturbed. The worst part, by far, is that there are those in the Church and those in the gay community who will insist that I must not really be gay.

Do not tell me that those who voted against the November legislation regarding civil unions for gays are not personally affected by homosexuality. My family and I are personally affected by homosexuality and we voted against the November legislation. Additionally, military friends of mine who support the legislation approving civil unions do not appreciate being pulled aside and called homophobes simply for being in the military.

Eichenlaub complains that the Catholic Church in Michigan used $500,000 to ensure that he was made a second-class citizen. Does Eichenlaub not realize that if he really thinks he should have certain legal rights and he did not have these rights before the election, he already was a second-class citizen? For better or worse, the election did not change any policy.

I encourage the Marquette community to take these moments and days before finals to listen to what one another has to say, to think about how what we say affects others and to look — and pray if you are so inclined — for a cure to the fatigue many of us are feeling.

Napolitano is a junior theology major.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Nov. 30, 2004.

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