Some of the country’s most prominent Catholic colleges and universities are holding separate LGBTQ-affirming graduation ceremonies this spring, including one that also plans to include a drag performance. At least 20 colleges or universities associated with the Catholic Church have held, or plan to hold, these “lavender graduation” ceremonies and celebrations, which are done separate from the main commencement ceremony and are intended to “honor and celebrate the achievements of our LGBTQ+ graduates,” according to a Fox News Digital review of university websites and social media posts.

The term “lavender” has been used to describe LGBTQ+ affiliations amongst the gay community for decades, but the phrase has also carried a loaded meaning in Catholic circles, where critics have used it in phrases like “lavender mafia” to refer to alleged homosexual networks within Church institutions. “Although intended as a compassionate gesture to students, the ceremonies reinforce harmful ideologies about sexuality and gender that contradict Catholic teaching,” the Cardinal Newman Society said in a news release.”They potentially lead students into sinful activity and undermine a Catholic college’s claim to teach the truths of the Catholic faith,” the Catholic education group continued.

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The Cardinal Newman Society first appeared here in 2015 when they called for boycotting all corporations who signed onto a Supreme Court brief calling for the legalization of same-sex marriage.

In 2016, the group joined countless hate groups and prominent evangelists in signing a declaration calling for the legalization of anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

The group is led by Patrick Reilly [photo], the former editor of Fordham University’s newspaper, who founded the group in 1993 because he was pissed that his school had recognized an LGBTQ student group. 

Among its board of directors is far-right commentator and US ambassador to South Africa, Brent Bozell, who in 2011 appeared on Fox News where he called President Obama a “skinny ghetto crackhead.”