New President of Georgetown University Has Strong Pro-LGBTQ+ Record

The new president of Georgetown University, Washington, DC, has a strong record of supporting LGBTQ+ equality.

Eduardo Peñalver

Eduardo Peñalver, who was appointed president earlier this fall, succeeding John DeGioia, who resigned in 2024 after suffering a stroke, will become the university’s first Latino president and the second lay person to serve in that role (DeGioia was the first lay president of any U.S. Jesuit university).

Peñalver, who served as the as dean of Cornell University’s law school, before becoming president of the Jesuit-run Seattle University, has a strong record of advocating for immigrant rights, affirmative action, and diversity initiatives, including LGBTQ+ issues.

The Hoya, Georgetown’s student newspaper, reported:

Peñalver has been an outspoken proponent of LGBTQ+ rights since at least the mid-2000s, criticizing religious conservatives who opposed gay marriage and defending a gay teacher who was fired by a Catholic school. At Cornell, he denounced a policy from the first Trump administration restricting transgender military personnel, saying it was antithetical to the university’s values.

“An actual or effective ban on transgender individuals serving in the military in any capacity is antithetical to our deepest held beliefs and to the bedrock principle of equal justice under the law,” Peñalver wrote in a 2018 statement to the Cornell law community. “A categorical prohibition of military service by transgender people, regardless of their qualifications, is lacking in any rational basis and is the epitome of invidious discrimination.”

At Seattle University, Peñalver criticized similar restrictions, writing that discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals “stands in opposition to both our mission and our Catholic, Jesuit values.”

In his 2013 critique of a gay teacher fired from a Catholic school, Peñalver wrote:

“I want to separate the question whether Catholic institutions have the right to do this sort of thing from the question whether they should, on either moral or prudential grounds.  I am not aware of divorced and remarried teachers getting fired.  The axe always seems to fall on those who are somewhat more easily marginalized:  unmarried pregnant teachers, gay teachers, etc.”

When the Trump administration prohibited transgender people from serving in the military in January 2025, Peñalver’s statement to the Seattle University community stated, in part:

“At Seattle University, we are deeply committed to the Jesuit principle of cura personalis—care for the whole person. This principle calls us to see the dignity and humanity of every individual, which affirms that all people, regardless of their circumstances, must be treated with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Discrimination against any person, including LGBTQ individuals and transgender people, stands in opposition to both our mission and our Catholic, Jesuit values.”

The Hoya also noted the new president’s commitment to diversity and justice by quoting from a statement he wrote at Seattle University:

“Drawing on this tradition, as we face the challenges that lie ahead, Seattle University will not compromise our principles (‘the end for which God created us’). We remain committed to providing economic opportunity for those who have historically been, and continue to be, excluded from higher education and to our values of radical hospitality.”

Georgetown University has been a leader on LGBTQ+ equality in Catholic higher education for several decades now.  At a time when the U.S. federal government continues its attack  on diversity issues, particularly LGBTQ+ ones, at colleges and universities, it is reassuring to know that this tradition will continue under its new leadership.

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, December 12, 2025

For previous Bondings 2.0 posts about LGBTQ+ issues at Georgetown University, click here.