On Thursday, Oct. 9, junior Michael Cicirelli will be the keynote speaker at the Kelley Center to begin his Project Halo college tour. He spoke to The Mirror to discuss his plans.
The Mirror: You’re from Ohio and most students at Fairfield aren’t outside of the New England region. How did you hear about Fairfield and why did you decide to come here?
Michael Cicirelli: I was looking for a very rigorous and credited science and premedical program to begin my studies. Fairfield seemed to have a high rating for excellence in the sciences and I was immediately drawn to it.
TM: How did you get involved with Project Halo and what are its objectives?
MC: I designed Project Halo in response to the hate crimes spurred by ignorance and lack of exposure to the LGBT community.’ Halo has three objectives: the first is to educate the greater community on what it means to be LGBT, the second objective is to enter into a dialogue concerning our current belief systems and why those feed into these biases, and the third objective is to provide a warning, showing individuals who might be tempted to indulge in this negative behavior what their victims experience and ultimately look like.
TM: What is involved during your college tour and what other campuses will you go to?
MC: My college tour centers on spreading the word about tolerance and acceptance far and wide.’ Project Halo will travel and tell the same account that Fairfield University will hear this coming Thursday. We are looking into many other institutions, next on the list is Holy Cross University on Nov. 5.’
TM: The press release Fairfield put out said that you were inspired due to incidents that occurred in high school. What sorts of things happened?
MC: Come and see Project Halo and you will definitely find out.’
TM: Did you find a different atmosphere at Fairfield?
Cicirelli: I definitely found a less volatile atmosphere here on campus. I enjoy my professors and my fellow students and rarely have a run in with intolerance. … I can only speak for myself though.’ Our University has plenty of room to grow, as it should and will, but in the years that I have been here, it has definitely made a promising first step toward tolerance and acceptance.
TM: Did you go to a Catholic high school or were you raised Catholic? If so, how do you reconcile your sexuality with religious beliefs?
MC: I did not go to a Catholic high school but I was raised in a very Catholic home.’ My sexuality and my religion never really had to be reconciled. I was very proud of whom I was and always felt that being gay was just as much a gift from God as someone having a beautiful singing voice. The difference being that my gift is still misunderstood, but we are working on that a day at a time.
TM: I’m not sure if you have seen this, but there is already some controversy about you speaking [From the Web site: http://angelqueen.org]: One of the posts even says ‘The Cardinal Newman Society Web site reports that Fairfield in effect will turn an on-campus bar into a gay bar to host a ‘Coming Out Night’ by the University’s Gay-Straight Alliance club. Most likely underaged students and others will be there- possibly resulting in a sort of acting-out of a scene from the V-monologues where a lesbian plys an underaged girl with liquor in order to seduce her.’ Another says that, ‘They’re turning what was once a Catholic university into a San Francisco bathhouse.’ I feel like most students and people on Fairfield’s campus would disagree with these statements, but it shows that there are some people with that mindset still around. What would you say to them?
MC: I forgive you.
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