Tim Rosenberger finished last in a five-candidate race for Georgetown University class president. (Photo courtesy Rosenberger)

Tim Rosenberger, an out gay student who serves as secretary of Georgetown University’s LGBT campus group, GU Pride, lost his race for student president at Georgetown on Feb. 19, finishing last in a five-candidate race.

According to Georgetown’s student newspaper, The Hoya, the winning candidate, Joe Luther, and his vice presidential running mate, Connor Rohan, ran an unprecedented satirical campaign that mocked the Georgetown Student Government Association as being unresponsive to the needs of the students.

Rosenberger told the Blade he saw no signs of anti-gay sentiment in the campaign or in the unorthodox statements and positions taken by Luther, who received 1,080 votes or 30 percent of the first round vote in an instant runoff voting system, according to figures reported by The Hoya.

The Luther-Rohan ticket received a final vote count of 1,693 votes, or 54 percent, after three additional rounds of adjusted counting as part of the runoff.

Rosenberger, a junior majoring in English, and his vice presidential running mate, Reno Verghese, who’s straight, received 154 votes, or 4.3 percent, of the vote in the first round before being eliminated from contention.

“The two guys that won are good guys,” Rosenberger said. “I didn’t see that coming, but I’m not unhappy about it,” he said. “Actually, out of all the tickets they may be the second best qualified to do good things for the gay community at Georgetown.”

The Hoya published a large photo of Luther and Rohan kissing each other on the lips at their election night celebration. Rosenberger said the two, who are straight, apparently did that as part of the satirical gestures they made during their campaign, which appears to have struck a chord of dissatisfaction among the student body over the existing student government.

In addition to his involvement in GU Pride, Rosenberger has been active in the D.C. Federation of College Republicans.

Last month, a conservative online Catholic publication called Pewsitter published an article attacking Rosenberger as a “militant homosexual activist/Catholic/Republican.” The article quoted an anonymous Georgetown student urging fellow students to support candidate Abby McNaughton, whom the student described as a “faithful Catholic” better qualified to carry out Georgetown’s tradition as a Jesuit school.

McNaughton denounced the article, saying she was never contacted by the publication and believed it unfairly criticized Rosenberger. McNaughton finished second in the race for student president.

Asked if he thought he might have lost support among some students because of his sexual orientation, Rosenberger said, “Not particularly.” He added that the votes he did receive came largely from fellow gay students.

“The gay community at Georgetown really rallied around me and helped staff this campaign and we wouldn’t have had a campaign without them,” he said.

Two years ago, out gay student Nate Tisa won election as class president, becoming the first open gay to win the class president post at Georgetown and one of the first out gays to win such an election at a major Catholic college in the U.S.