Harvard University’s Office of BGLTQ Student Life is offering students “Queer Spiritual Care” to help students of “any identity, background, and path” to think through topics of gender identity, religion, and spirituality.
Students can book “queer spiritual care conversations” with Matta Zheng, a graduate student in queer Buddhism at Harvard Divinity School, who uses “any pronouns.” Zheng has the title of “Queer Spiritual Advisor” at BGLTQ Student Life.
“Struggling with sexuality, and/or gender?,” a poster on BGLTQ Student Life’s website says. “Rethinking your spiritual and/or religious life?” and “Seeking non-judgemental confidential support?,” the poster continues.
Students can discuss a wide variety of topics with Zheng during a free thirty-minute conversation.
“These conversations are open to any topic relevant to one’s life and/or spiritual path,” the page says, “including but not limited to: gender, sex, sexuality, identity, religion, spirituality, relationships, personal development/formation, meaning-making, social life, and beyond!”
In an interview with The Harvard Crimson last year, Zheng described his job as unequivocally affirming the student’s identity.
“When students come to me — many, if not all the times — they’re really suffering because they’re worried, they’re concerned, or maybe they even believe that their person is fundamentally wrong in some way,” Zheng told The Crimson. “I am able, when it’s appropriate and when it works, to affirm to them in no uncertain language, in the fullest ways that I can, their full humanity, their full perfection, their full wholeness.”
Other schools also offer spiritual care for LGBTQ-identifying students. Campus Reform reported last month that the University of Southern California has a regularly-meeting “Queerituality” group.
“Greetings from Queerituality, a warm and welcoming community of 2SLGBTQ+ USC students and friends exploring the intersections of queerness and spirituality,” an Instagram post from the university’s LGBTQ+ Student Center said in the early fall semester.
Campus Reform contacted Harvard University, the Office of BGLTQ Student Life, and Matta Zheng for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
