Why we ask this question: Queerphobia

Q: “I’m comfortable with my child being gay.”

Let's start by stating that the team behind the Marriage Pact is in full support of the queer community and we don't support discrimination (in this case, queerphobia) in any form. And while surveys show that almost everyone in college shares this view, we also recognize that queerphobia exists in our world.

As such, an important responsibility of the Marriage Pact questionnaire is to identify incompatible views privately so that students will not experience discrimination when connecting with their matches.

The unfortunate truth is that, even today, queerphobia exists in the world—whether those views are informed by religion, or by the culture in which people were raised. Discrimination is real, even here, where people come from all corners of the country and many different parts of the globe.

The Marriage Pact looks to find the best match possible for each person here on campus. How devastating would it be if someone got a match who was openly homophobic towards them?

Confronting the existence of systemic discrimination is difficult, but we thought that experiencing homophobia firsthand (like a homophobic slur in reply to the match email) would be worse than seeing this topic in the questionnaire.

This question’s presence doesn't represents an endorsement of different respondents’ views. It’s included currently because we think that it would be irresponsible of us to either (1) pretend queerphobia doesn’t exist, or (2) do nothing to avoid preventable situations of overt or covert discrimination when matches come out.

We know questions like this one are deeply personal to queer students and can be difficult to encounter. We aim to make an inclusive event that everyone can enjoy; we can always do better. So if you’re open to it, we would love to talk with you—or any deep thinkers on this topic who you know—to learn about how to make Marriage Pact better and more inclusive. If you have any questions or suggestions, please reach out to us at hello@marriagepact.com

Context that informed our perspective

Just ten years ago, in 2011, the majority of US states had voter-approved constitutional bans on same-sex marriage. Still today, the queer community doesn’t have the same range of social rights as others—for example, since 1983, the American Red Cross has banned blood donations from men who’d had a same-sex encounter.

How the United States reached full marriage equality (via .Mic) Sources: Human Rights Campaign, Pew Research Center, and National LGBTQ Task Force.

Progress has been made in the past decade—such as the Supreme Court’s 5–4 decision in Obergefell (2015), which legalized same-sex marriage everywhere in the US. And even more recently, in June 2020, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that employers could not discriminate against employees on a basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.

But the truth is, a sizable number of people in college today grew up in all of those states, and had parents who voted for those constitutional bans. Others grew up in a country where a religious or cultural majority imposed those laws as matters of faith and cultural homogeneity. Still more simply hold these beliefs themselves.

Today, we respect the queer community not by pretending these deeply-held beliefs aren’t held by any of our peers—but by creating an effective means of identifying them, so participants in the Marriage Pact won’t be victims of covert or overt discrimination when they reach out to their match for the first time.

We can always do better. If you’re passionate about these topics, or have insights or ideas about how we can make the Marriage Pact more inclusive, please email us at hello@marriagepact.com.