Video: “It Needs to Get Better” at Notre Dame

For more than a year we’ve been seeing videos telling young LGBT people that it gets better, but now students and staff at the University of Notre Dame are putting out the message that it needs to get better at their school.

The campus group 4 to 5 Movement posted the “It Needs to Get Better” video Tuesday on YouTube, pointing out the lack of an officially recognized gay-straight alliance at Notre Dame and the fact that the university does not include sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy. “Notre Dame remains the only top 20 university without a gay-straight alliance and without an inclusive nondiscrimination clause,” says one speaker in the video, while another mentions that the school always ranks high on the list of LGBT-unfriendly colleges and universities.

Speakers note that the university has rejected 15 requests for recognition of a GSA and that many other Catholic campuses have such organizations and inclusive nondiscrimination policies, such as Notre Dame’s sister school, Saint Mary’s College.

Also Tuesday, members of the 4 to 5 Movement presented Notre Dame’s president, Father John Jenkins, with a letter and testimonials on the need for a GSA, reports The Huffington Post. The letter reads, in part, “The lack of a recognized gay-straight alliance student club and the lack of an inclusive nondiscrimination clause creates a culture of fear and uncertainty among GLBTQ students, faculty, and staff in particular — a fear that discourages some from entering the Notre Dame family, a fear that provokes some to leave the Notre Dame family, and a fear that inhibits the ability of some to live openly.”

Watch the video below, and read more here.