On the corner of Kenmore Avenue and Sheridan Road by Loyola University Chicago, a group of students yell, “Condoms! Free condoms!” Some people ignore the chants, keeping their heads down and crossing the street, while others hesitantly take the free contraceptives.
This is not out of the ordinary. Every Friday at 12:20 P.M., when classes are transitioning, members of Loyola’s Students for Reproductive Justice (SRJ) club gather on this specific corner to distribute free condoms.
Grace Rock, Loyola junior and SRJ Leader, can be found at every Friday condom distribution.
(Grace Rock, SRJ Leader)
“It’s so much fun,” Rock said. “Some people are really sheepish about it, won’t make eye contact. Most people are just like, wow, it’s really great that you do this.”
Distributing on the corner of Kenmore and Sheridan is a strategy move. Students for Reproductive Justice isn’t a registered student organization at Loyola. Therefore, they’re not allowed on campus grounds, they’re not recognized as a certified club by the university, they’re not allowed at the Org Fair (a huge multiple-day event at the beginning of each school where student club’s recruit members) and SRJ is not displayed on any Loyola affiliated website.
“We are not allowed on campus unless we choose to lose the radical aspect of our group, in that we would follow Loyola’s rules and regulations regarding reproductive justice…we would have to stop handing out condoms, etc., etc.,” Rock said. “That’s the reason we’re not a registered student org.”
Loyola Chicago is a Jesuit Catholic institution. The administration holds an expectation for every registered student group to follow Jesuit standards, some of which prohibit contraceptive solicitation.
Since SRJ isn’t allowed on campus, they distribute condoms on a street corner that’s not Loyola’s property.
In 2016, when SRJ was founded, the group was conducting their second ever condom distribution on one of Loyola’s quads. The demonstrators were removed from campus by administration in the middle of the event.
Instead of discontinuing the condom distribution, SRJ simply switched locations to a particular street corner that wasn’t Loyola’s property.
“Through loving engagement, radical activism, and collective action, we demand our right to sexual and reproductive health at Loyola,” SRJ’s Mission states on their website. “We are committed to fostering a sex positive group that values human sexuality and regards all consensual sexual activities as fundamentally healthy and pleasurable.”
Since the formation of SRJ in 2016 by Gannon Scholars at Loyola, the organization has provided the Loyola community with more than 4,000 free external condoms and other resources. So, why is the group so focused on providing reproductive products?
Rock said SRJ believes, “that healthcare is a human right and that right isn’t being fulfilled by Loyola, especially in terms of reproductive health care. It’s very intentional and intersectional in the ways that we try and make it available for everyone. We step in when we feel that Loyola isn’t providing a service.”
Loyola Chicago doesn’t administer contraceptives to its students, except for niche reasons. Birth control is sometimes provided through the Wellness Center, but only in cases of acne management or painful cramping/bleeding, not for sexual health.
While SRJ cannot provide birth control, they can give out condoms every Friday, and through their “Text Jane” service.
“Text jane operates on Wednesdays from 5:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.,” Rock said. “You can fill out an order or you can text a number using Google Voice. You can request condoms and lube from us and we will deliver it anywhere in the Loyola area. We also do dental dams. It’s free and anonymous.”
Any Loyola community member is welcome to utilize “Text Jane” on Wednesdays when they’re in need of reproductive health products.
Another setback for SRJ was funding. Registered student groups on campus are provided funding for events through the university. But SRJ has to receive their products from outside services.
“Everything’s given to us for free,” Rock said. “So, there’s the Great American Condom Company and also, we’re registered condom distributors through Trojan. And we get free products from Howard Brown.”
SRJ is committed to creating an intersectional campus for Loyola. Intersectionality is the crossing of social groups, such as race, gender, class, sexuality, and how those overlaps can create more discrimination against certain individuals.
A transgender male at Loyola Chicago faces more social hardship than a cis-male does because of the social complexities that face transgender people in the U.S. SRJ’s free tampon and pads movement attempts to ease some of the pain transgender men may face on our campus.
The group provides free menstrual products every week in female, male, and all-gender restrooms at Loyola. Some student’s question why the products are also placed in male bathrooms.
(SRJ’s free tampons and pads in the IC bathrooms)
“Everyone can menstruate, regardless of gender,” Rock said. “It’s ridiculous that those products aren’t available to us regularly. Since Loyola doesn’t provide free pads and tampons in the bathrooms, we took it upon ourselves to do that instead.”
As one of SRJ’s Leaders, Rock puts a face to the organization. Leaders are the people who conduct condom distribution, put the menstrual products in the bathroom each week and lead the SRJ meetings.
The Organizers of SRJ hold a very different position. Lauren Morrissey, Loyola junior and SRJ Organizer, has been with the group since the summer of 2016, right after it was founded.
“Organizers set up the conditions for the Leaders’ to be able to do the work,” Morrissey said.
Morrissey’s role looks a lot different than Rock’s.
“We have organized in the past two years around the demonstration and solicitation policies,” Morrissey said. “But most importantly, it was ideas and information that fall outside of the Jesuit Catholic context,” regarding what wasn’t allowed to be solicited at Loyola.
However, Loyola’s demonstration policy states that we are a free speech campus, meaning students can’t give out condoms, but do have a right to solicit ideas and information.
Morrissey and past founding organizers of SRJ worked with Loyola administration to officially remove the prohibition of ‘solicitation of ideas and information’ that don’t match the Jesuit Catholic context from their solicitation policy.
“(I)f you have the Jesuit Catholic context in your solicitation policy and free speech in your demonstration policy, what does that mean? If we are a free speech campus, technically we should be able to solicit whatever we want on campus, we should be able to exist on campus as a non-registered student org,” Morrissey said.
Loyola’s media relations office had this to say about their relationship with SRJ, “Simply put, the Student for Reproductive Justice has not applied for recognition, and they are not currently a Registered or sponsored student organization. While not formally recognized, they have a presence on campus, have used campus resources and they do occasionally meet and reserve space on campus.”
Morrissey wants to see a new organizing policy put into place for radical student organizations, such as SRJ. She wants this policy to provide students with rights to organize, protest and demonstrate on Loyola’s campus without penalty.
Being able to talk about sex and reproductive justice openly in a religious context is pivotal in Morrissey’s eyes. That’s why she’s attempting to change policy from within at Loyola to allow students that space to discuss sexual activity.
“As a Catholic person, I feel like those discussions are missing from Catholicism and that’s what’s perpetuating such unhealthy attitudes about women, about non-binary folk, about trans-folk,” Morrissey said. “It would be such a more inclusive and awesome institution if we had those discussions.”
Loyola’s Student Promise states, “Care for Myself, Care for Others, Care for Community.” Students for Reproductive Justice see gaps in this idea. They believe Loyola is leaving reproductive health out of the picture.
“I don’t think you can recognize the dignity of a person if you don’t give them reproductive autonomy,” Morrissey said.
(SRJ protest photo, found on www.studentsforreproductivejustice.com)