In my four years here, I have seen Saint Louis University’s upper echelons conveniently choose which values to uphold while waving the banner of “men and women for others.”

Yet, as a student, my actions, words and ideas have been repressed without answers. I am silenced without a chance for face-to-face dialogue. The roadblock the administration has placed on the All of Us Campaign is a continuation of this repression.

For too long, LGBT students have settled for tolerance. Settling isn’t enough. I, as a gay woman, am tired of feeling angry and silenced. I am tired of “Jesuit morals” delegitimizing my anger and taking my voice away. I am not wrong for being angry, but it is wrong that I am urged to feel voiceless.
The All of Us Campaign, a heterosexual student-led initiative, is willing to put itself in the center of persecution. This group of allies, not directly affected by the oppression the LGBT community faces, moves in solidarity for the hidden and ignored. These students are a part of the struggle because they understand they are not free until everyone is free.

The All of Us Campaign teaches us exactly how to be women and men for others, how to be selfless and stand in solidarity for the marginalized. I will no longer accept the excuse that efforts like the All of Us Campaign cannot be done because we attend a Jesuit University. This is exactly why the All of Us Campaign exists.

One day, when our grandkids or great-grandkids are asking about the gay rights movement, trying to fathom how it was once unacceptable for a man to marry a man and a woman to marry a woman, which of us will look back and know that we stood up?

Lauren Trout
Senior, College of Arts and Sciences