Catholic School Board Decision/ Being Catholic & Gay

Fintan · Jan 14, 2011

This is an article from the Hamilton Spectator (Ontario, Canada) in regards to an Ontario Catholic School Board (Halton) deciding whether or not to permit Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs into the school. Good Article.

Being Catholic; being gay

The Halton Catholic School Board voted in November to ban gay-straight alliance clubs, which are devoted to creating “safe space” for gay high school students — a group to which they can go where they can be sure that no one will make fun of them, or try to hurt them, because they are lesbian or gay. The clubs also exist to create understanding between gay students and straight students, like groups that foster dialogue between different churches.

The clubs do a lot of good. They have been run successfully in high schools across North America. I wish there had been a Gay-Straight Alliance Club at Westdale Secondary School here in Hamilton when I was a teenager. As an openly gay student who had to deal with gay-bashing and had no support from the school itself, I might have been spared some grief.

This year, we have seen a number of shocking suicides by young gay people who feel that they would rather be dead than continue to face homophobia. As a Catholic, I see this violence as a call to justice, in the tradition of Catholic teaching on morality.

Given all the good reasons to have gay-straight clubs, it is outrageous that Halton banned them. Some will say: “Well, what do you expect from a school board made up of Catholics? Catholics think gay sex is evil. If there’s a Catholic education system, it has to be anti-gay.” This reaction came from a lot of people who oppose taxpayer-funded Catholic schools.

The idea that Catholic schools “have” to be anti-gay has also been echoed by many Catholics who support the separate schools. From their point of view, it is fine and right to have anti-gay Catholic high schools because — they say — Catholics have a constitutional right to their own system, and you have to oppose gay rights to be Catholic.

On the first point, this group in the Catholic community has a strong claim. According to section 93 of the British North America Act, our founding constitutional law, Catholics have a formal legal right to separate education where they are a minority.

But there is an irony in invoking this part of the Constitution to justify anti-gay policies. At time of Confederation, the right to Catholic schools was recognized in law as a way of protecting minority freedoms. The Fathers of Confederation were taking a stand to protect some of the most vulnerable people in Canada, particularly the Irish Catholics (my own ancestors) and the French Catholics in Ontario.

The Irish and French Canadians were regular victims of Anglo-Protestant bigotry. Not forcing them to conform to Protestant faith was an early form of multiculturalism. It was a way to preserve the right of the individual in Canada to his or her own identity.

This is the thinking behind the legal right to Catholic schools. As a result, it is very contrary to the spirit of the Catholic school law for the schools to ban gay-straight alliance clubs. Today, gays are on the receiving end of hate and condescension the way that Catholics were in 19th century Ontario.

Sexual freedom and religious freedom are very alike. Both exist so that people can engage in a deeply personal search for happiness, spirituality, and truth. Building healthy adult sexual relationships is a way to find a flourishing life — to discover meaning. Seeking to know morality and the soul, through religion, is similar. As a society, we want to give wide circles of freedom to both of these kinds of searching.

The other thing that needs to be said is that many Catholics feel Catholic morality requires them to be pro-gay, or — for gay Catholics — to embrace who they are and not hate what God has made. Jesus said nothing about homosexuality. He loved marginalized people above all others. He said compassion and equality were the important things. When Catholics remember this, they see that it is straightforward to be pro-gay and Catholic.

For me, being Catholic has been an important factor in my figuring out how to be a responsible adult gay man. Through the church community, I have had the opportunity to volunteer helping people living with HIV and AIDS, and in food banks and shelters for the poor, gay as well as straight. Grappling with the status quo church teaching on homosexuality has been one of the hardest challenges in my life. I think I have dealt with it, and figured out that Jesus would have been fine with gay people. In any event, these days, like Jesus in his time, Catholics have more important things to worry about.

On Tuesday, the Halton Board will revisit the gay-straight club ban at a meeting. Hopefully, it will recognize that anti-gay Catholics need to respect pro-gay Catholics, and vice-versa — and that Catholic schools would be a good place to start.

Aidan Johnson is a Hamilton community activist working in corporate litigation at a national law firm.
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Catholic School Board Decision/ Being Catholic & Gay

Fintan Full Member

Fintan
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