Robert Garcia, soon to be the first gay, immigrant US congressman, will take his oath of office on three unique items.
The California Democrat will be sworn in to Congress as soon as a new House speaker is elected, and when doing so, will hold “underneath the Constitution… three items that mean a lot to me personally”.
“A photo of my parents, who I lost to COVID, my citizenship certificate, and an original Superman #1 from the [Library of Congress],” he tweeted on Tuesday (3 January).
The comic book holds a special place in Garcia’s heart.
“Congressman Garcia learned to read and write in English by reading Superman comics so it’s especially exciting he was able to borrow this rare copy from the kind folks at the Library of Congress,” said his spokesperson Sara Guerrero.
The politician came to the US from Peru with his family at five years old, and has said that migrating was “his proudest moment” and a huge reason for his career in politics.
It’s unclear when Garcia and fellow members of Congress will be sworn in, as the House has so far failed to elect a new speaker – something that hasn’t happened in more than a century.
A group of Republicans are refusing to back majority candidate Kevin McCarthy. The House’s tight split means that without their support, no candidate can get over the line.
Voting will continue on Wednesday, but there’s no telling when or if McCarthy will be able to unite his party.
Robert Garcia’s political career began in 2009 – having been politically active long before then – when he served as a member of the Long Beach City Council until 2014.
He eventually assumed higher office, becoming the mayor of Long Beach between 2014 and 2022.
During that time, he became known for his socially progressive politics and his efforts to mitigate the environmental impact of local businesses.
After gaining access to the Library of Congress, Garcia tweeted that he was “freaking out” about having found both the first issue of Superman and the first issue of Spider-Man.
“I’m going to have a hard time deciding which one to check out first,” he said.
When he’s eventually sworn in, Garcia will also bring a photo of his parents.
Gaby Elena O’Donnell and Greg O’Donnell passed away in July and August 2020 respectively from COVID-19 complications.
Garcia honoured both his parents after their deaths on Twitter, saying that the two were “just totally in love. They were always happy’.
“I think about, during these times, my mother’s optimism in us building a better future and a better community,” he said. “She always said to me and to my brother that we’ll never be able to give back to our country what our country has given to us.”
A trans woman won a major Delhi region for her party during an election on Wednesday (7 December).
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Bobi won the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election after votes were counted this week.
The trans politician won Sultanpur-A ward against Congress candidate Varuna Dhaka by 6,714 votes according to Indian Express.
Her win came just hours before it was announced that the AAP crossed the finish line with 134 seats, winning against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The win means that the AAP now holds a strong majority over the municipal corporation, which makes up one of the three municipalities in Delhi, overseeing the region.
Voters line up to cast their vote in the MCD elections. (Getty)
Sultanpur’s new representative, who is often nicknamed Bobi “Darling”, has routinely said she would work in cleaning up the corruption within the MCD and “beautify” the constituency.
“I want to dedicate my victory to the people who worked so hard for me,” she said.
“I would like to thank everyone. Now I just have to work for development in my area.”
A long-time social worker, Bobi originally ran as an independent candidate during the 2017 MCD election, but later joined up with the self-proclaimed “anti-corruption” party.
She is also well known for her work toward improving education and social mobility in and around Sultanpur.
Her victory was incredibly close during pollings, with BJP regularly overtaking AAP multiple times before votes were fully counted.
In the end, BJP failed to win the constituency and the wider election, finishing with 104 seats according to NDTV.
Bobi’s win is a huge step for LGBTQ+ representation
The victory is another huge step for LGBTQ+ rights and representation in India.
While the country has many rights in place for queer minorities, it still has a long way to go in actualising true equality.
Same-sex marriage is still forbidden, despite routine attempts by activists to reverse the government’s policy.
Lead petitioners Supriyo Chakraborty and Abhay Dange argued that not extending the rights of marriage to LGBTQ+ couples is an affront to their human rights.
The inability to marry means that the couple cannot adopt together, nor can they inherit each other assets.
Additionally, it means that hospital visits for medical emergencies could be refused since the two are not legally recognised as family.
As part of Trans Awareness Week, the community honours those we’ve lost on Trans Day of Remembrance every year.
Candlelit vigils take place worldwide each year commemorating the trans lives lost to transphobic hate crimes each year. This year, those vigils will happen on Sunday (20 November).
As well as a time to remember those lost to violence, and to raise awareness of hate, Trans Awareness Week is also about honouring those who fought so hard for the community and for their right to exist.
From Mexican revolutionaries to New York drag queens, these trailblazers prove that trans and non-binary lives have always mattered.
Rita Hester
Trans woman Rita Hester’s tragic death in 1998 sparked the existence of Trans Day of Remembrance as it’s known today.
Hester was a popular part of the Boston trans community and was intertwined with the city’s rock scene. Described as a magnetic personality who “was out for good times,” there was rarely a moment when she wasn’t dancing the night away with friends
On November 28, 1998, she was killed at her home in Massachusetts in a horrendous crime that still hasn’t been solved. In response, a candlelight vigil was held, with 250 people attending.
This later inspired activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith to create a web project named Remember Our Dead which honoured trans people who were victims to horrible hate crimes.
This became Transgender Day of Remembrance and has been held in cities across the world ever since.
Lucy Hicks Anderson
Lucy Hicks Anderson was born in 1886 and became a socialite and hostess. (Twitter/@historyteller)
The story of Lucy Hicks Anderson proves that, no matter your background, the struggles of trans people across the world are ubiquitous.
Anderson was born in Kentucky in 1886. From an early age, she expressed a desire to present as female and socially transitioned in her teens under advice from doctors despite the term transgender not yet existing.
After leaving school at age 15, Anderson worked in various jobs until she was able to buy a California brothel, becoming a well-known socialite and hostess.
When claims that an outbreak of disease came from her establishment, Anderson was forced to undergo a medical examination that outed her to authorities.
Attorneys tried her for perjury, claiming that she had deceived the government about her gender. During the trial, she stated: “I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman. I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman.”
The court convicted Anderson and sent her to a men’s prison. After serving her sentence, Anderson relocated to Los Angeles where she lived until her death in 1954.
Amelio Robles Ávila
The amazing thing about trans activism is it can take several forms – from street protests to simply correcting pronouns. In Mexican trans colonel Amelio Robles Ávila’s case, it was holding a pistol to a transphobic soldier until they correctly gendered him.
Born in 1889, Robles’ life was defined by the bloody conflict of the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s.
He joined the army in 1911 and was sent to the Gulf of Mexico to obtain money from oil companies for revolution efforts. Two years later, aged 24, he began to identify as a man and demanded to be treated as such.
Historical accounts detail Robles’s lengths to combat transphobia, including threatening those who called him Doña or madam with a pistol.
Robles was eventually promoted to colonel, commanding 315 men during the Agua Prieta Revolt. He donned the nickname “el coronel Robles,” and was described as a capable military leader. He died aged 95 on 8 December 1984.
SOPHIE
SOPHIE performs at Mojave Tent during the 2019 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival. (Getty)
Sophie Xeon, better known as SOPHIE, is one of the most significant trans musicians of all time and well-known for defining the hyperpop genre.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland on 17 September 1986, she became obsessed with music at a young age after her dad played electronic music in the car.
Her music became incredibly influential and is one of the foundations of hyperpop. Her song “Immaterial” has been listened to over 22 million times on Spotify.
She died on 30 January 2021 after falling from a cliff while trying to take a picture of the moon. Artists including Charli XCX, Sam Smith, and Rihanna expressed their condolences.
Not a huge amount is known about Jens Andersson, but what is known is that of a life defined by transphobia and a lack of understanding about non-binary people.
Born in the 1760s, Andersson began presenting as male when he moved to Strømsø, Norway in 1778.
After getting married, his wife later privately told a minister she thought her “husband might be a woman” and as such, Andersson was accused of sodomy.
During the trial, when asked about his gender, an associate answered: “He believes he may be both.”
After awaiting punishment “by fire and flames,” Andersson somehow escaped prison before a verdict was reached, the rest of his life is a complete mystery.
Blake Brockington
A photo of Blake Brockington before his death in 2015. (Twitter)
Trans male high school student Blake Brockington gained popularity after being the first trans high school homecoming king in North Carolina.
After coming out while in tenth grade, Brockington struggled with his parent’s disapproval, eventually joining a foster family.
In 2014, he collected $2,555 during a charity drive at his school in East Mecklenburg and became the first openly trans high school homecoming king.
He his platform to advocate for LGBTQ+ youth issues and spoke during a Trans Day of Remembrance service at Charlotte Independence Square.
Brockington took his own life at just 18 years old in March 2015. He was laid to rest in South Carolina.
Sylvia Rivera
LGBTQ+ activism just wouldn’t be the same without Sylvie Rivera, a trans woman born in 1951 who was involved with the Gay Liberation Front along with icon Marsha P Johnson and fellow activists.
Born in New York City, she was abandoned by her father as a child, living on the streets in 1962 before being taken in by a local community of drag queens.
While she did not attend the Stonewall riots, Rivera still spent much of her life advocating for the rights of LGBTQ+ people in and around New York, including after Johnson’s death.
She died in 2002 due to complications with liver cancer. After her death, her activism was celebrated with a street sign in her name.
Rusty Mae Moore
Rusty Mae Moore was a trans rights activist who ran a de facto homeless shelter in the late 1990s and early 2000s known as the Trans House.
A trans woman herself, Moore ensured that trans people in New York were taken care of and protected.
She was described as a “second mother” to patrons of Transy House, with resident Antonia Cambareri saying: “She paved the way, recording our culture, allowing us to survive.”
Moore died in February 2022 in Pine-Hill, New York home at 80 years old.
Thomas Baty
One of the only images of Thomas Baty available today. (Bains News Source)
English scholar Thomas Baty, also known as Irene Clyde, was a gender binary-crushing visionary who defined his life around a rejection of societal gender norms.
Modern writers have described Baty as non-binary, though it is unclear if he identified with the term.
Baty published several books under the name Irene Clyde, most of which were feminism-based critiques of the gender binary in the form of essays or science fiction. Most notable was his book Beatrice the Sixteenth – a utopian novel set in a postgender society.
He died aged 86 in 1954 in Ichinomiya, Chiba, Japan.
Anderson Bigode Herzer
Trans man Anderson Bigode Herzer was a profound trans writer from Brazil whose experiences were used to create the film Vera by Sérgio Toledo.
Born in 1962, much of Herzer’s life was noted in a book titled A queda para o alto or Descending Upwards. He was institutionalised at 14 years old in a youth state detention centre until 17, when politician Eduardo Suplicy hired him as an intern.
Herzer struggled with mental health issues and trauma due to his detainment, taking his own life at just 20 years old.
Angie Xtravaganza talks during a clip of the documentary Paris is Burning. (Paris is Burning)
If you’ve watched the emotionally heavy documentary Paris is Burning, then Angie Xtravaganza needs no introduction. The trans performer was prominent in New York’s gay ball culture.
Xtravaganza was born in the South Bronx in 1964 where she was raised in a Catholic house of 13 children.
She started doing drag in 1980 and performed at balls at just 16. Her performances became well-known enough that she established the House of Xtravaganza in 1982.
She was diagnosed with AIDs in 1991 and died two years later at the age of 28.
Professional punching-down expert Dave Chappelle is set to get more Netflix specials despite accusations of being anti-trans.
The self-proclaimed “cancelled” comedian is once again set to join the world’s biggest streaming platform for a night sure to be filled with anti-trans comments, controversial statements and some jokes – if he can spare them.
in an interview with The New York Times, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said the company would order Chappelle comedy specials “again and again” despite the backlash.
“We’re just trying to be the most exciting entertainment company and more,” Hastings said, seemingly confusing the words entertaining and controversial.
“That special was one of the most entertaining watch specials we’ve ever had.”
Netflix bought Chappelle’s highly controversial comedy special The Closer for $24.1 million, releasing it to the platform in 2021.
In response to the show – which saw Chappelle make cutting-edge and topical Clifford the Big Red Dog jokes with the same reverence as a nine-year-old recanting jokes from a 2006 Family Guy box set – Netflix employees protested his “transphobic” gig.
Multi-millionaire Dave Chappelle then went on a campaign of crying that his special, which was watched for a collective 339 million minutes on a streaming platform with roughly 210 million paid subscribers, was all of a sudden “cancelled”.
It was so cancelled, in fact, that Chappelle – whose career must have been in tatters judging from how he was talking about his “cancellation” – only landed one single Netflix special.
But Chappelle was also called a “bigot” by a 16-year-old in a school – which planned to name a theatre after him – so, swings and roundabouts.
Dave Chappelle has routinely butted heads with the LGBTQ+ community
His run-ins with the LGBTQ+ community didn’t start there. The comedian has routinely made the transgender community the butt of his jokes, while also using AIDS as an oral sting to cap off his already repugnant bits.
The self-proclaimed TERF said that the trans community “hate my f**king guts” during his 2019 special Sticks and Stones while making an “LGBTQ+ alphabet” joke that was already as sour as summer-day milk years before Chappelle decided to make it a supposed slam dunk in a multi-million dollar comedy set.
“No matter what you do in your artistic expression, you are never, ever, allowed to upset the alphabet people,” he said. “You know who I mean. Those people who took 20 per cent of the alphabet for themselves. I’m talking about them Ls and Bs and Gs and the Ts.”
He then went on to say that transitioning is a “f**king hilarious predicament” and, while many competent trans comedians have certainly shown that to be true, Chappelle apparently thinks it’s the often mentally-crushing dysphoria within a trans person that’s just too funny.
He represented this perceived hilarity by doing a racist impression of a Chinese person and declaring that’s “how I feel inside”, because if a modern Chappelle joke doesn’t end in shock value, then it’s just a very rich, very powerful comedian making fun of a routinely discriminated, murdered, and vilified group with an extremely high suicide rate for an hour or two.
Anti-LGBTSQ+ slurs have skyrocketed on Twitter, despite Elon Musk’s claims to the contrary, a new study has found.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), along with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other groups, found that anti-LGBTQ+ remarks have risen by at least 1,458 times a day.
Additionally, offensive comments against Black people had risen to 3,876 times a day, according to reports from The New York Times.
“Elon Musk sent up the Bat Signal to every kind of racist, misogynist, and homophobe that Twitter was open for business,” CCDH chief executive Imran Ahmed said.
Despite this, Musk claimed that hate speech impressions were “down by a third from pre-spike levels” in a 24 November tweet showcasing a graph from a Twitter presentation.
However, aside from failing to report specific underlying numbers, many criticised Musk’s interpretations of the figures, with one asking how Musk is defining hate speech.
“The transphobia in my mentions is the worst it’s ever been,” one user said. “I guess that’s fine though, since you don’t consider that hate speech anymore.”
Another wrote: “Yeah, hate speech will go down when you stop considering hate speech to be hate speech.”
The Anti-Defamation League urged Musk to “dedicate resources” to policies that attempt to mitigate hate speech on the site, especially after the mass layoffs that the company experienced.
“His actions to date show that he is not committed to a transparent process where he incorporates the best practices we have learned from civil society groups,” ADL vice president Yael Eisenstat said.
“Instead, he has emboldened racists, homophobes, and antisemites.”
But things quickly became dire after Musk brought back several individuals who had been previously banned for posting hateful speech, including former president Donald Trump.
The influx of problematic content, along with the debacle surrounding Musk’s proposed Twitter verification model which caused abrupt chaos on the site before being shut down, prompted advertisers to reduce their spending on the platform.
This caused Twitter spokespeople to reassure advertisers in a Wednesday (30 November) statement reading: “Brand safety is only possible when human safety is the top priority.”
The South Korean army has refused to recognise the death of a trans soldier as “on-duty” after protests.
A committee made the decision during a Thursday (1 December) meeting, where they classified trans soldier Byun Hee-soo’s case as a “general death”.
Byun, who is believed to be the first openly transgender soldier in South Korea, was found dead at her home in March 2021 after being discharged from the military a year prior.
After her death, family members and LGBTQ+ activists called for the military to categorise her death as “on-duty”.
But the nine-member panel opted to reject the category after finding that Byun’s death had no “significant causal connection” with her military service.
Activists have argued that the Gyeonggi province tank gunner had been significantly affected by her discharge in January 2020 after undergoing gender affirmation surgery and that it ultimately led to her death.
The “general death” category allows her family to receive financial support, which includes a funeral allowance and compensation.
Activist and prosecutor Seo Ji-hyun said that the country “could have saved” Byun before she died.
“We could have saved her… We just had to let her live life true to who she was,” she said.
South Korea’s Trans Liberation Front CEO Kim Wo-myeon said that, during her funeral, she felt that “something was wrong with the world”.
Additionally, members of a presidential committee on military deaths urged the South Korean defence minister to classify Byun’s case as “on-duty” death in April, according to Yonhap News.
Byun Hee Soo’s legal battle against her discharge
Byun Hee-soo attempted to challenge the discharge during a legal case, but passed away before a ruling could be made.
The Korea Herald revealed that, prior to her death, she had been urging for a continuation of the legal battle so that she could return to military service.
Her family vowed to press ahead with the lawsuits, saying they would apply for a succession of the original case to “fulfil her dream [of serving the country as a transgender soldier] by winning the legal battle at all costs”.
The court eventually ruled in her favour on October 2021, saying that the army’s decision was “undoubtedly illegal and should be cancelled”.
The ruling added that it was “obvious that the decision should have been based on the premise that [Byun] was a woman”, as well as “various factors, such as special circumstances of the military, basic rights of trans people, and public opinions”.
Actor Kevin Spacey is to be charged with a further seven sexual offences after an investigation by the Metropolitan Police.
The Crown Prosecution Service has said Spacey will face charges over alleged offences against one man between 2001 and 2004.
The charges include three counts of indecent assault, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent according to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police allowed for further charges against the 63-year-old to be authorised. Spacey has pleaded not guilty to a string of allegations that stretch back 17 years.
Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, clarified the charges against the House of Cards actor in a statement, adding that officials had “also authorised one charge of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent”.
“The authority to charge follows a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation,” Ainslie added. “The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr Spacey are active and that he has the right to a fair trial.”
Earlier legal action dismissed
Spacey is already facing five charges of sexual offences in the UK, including four counts of sexual assault and one count of causing penetrative sexual activity without consent.
He is set to begin the trial for these charges in June 2023.
“I will voluntarily appear in the UK as soon as can be arranged and defend myself against these charges, which I am confident will prove my innocence,” he said following the initial charges.
The actor was dropped from his role in House of Cards shortly after allegations against him were made in 2017 by actor Anthony Rapp and was ordered to pay $31 million in lost revenue.
Rapp initially accused Kevin Spacey of making sexual advances towards him in 1986 – when Rapp was 14 years old.
After filing a legal action in September 2020, Rapp testified that he had decided to go to a bedroom during a party at Spacey’s Manhattan apartment, when Spacey walked into the room, seemingly intoxicated.
Rapp then alleged that Spacey touched him inappropriately, claiming he put him on the bed and climbed on top of him.
“It felt very wrong,” Rapp said. “I didn’t want him to do it, and I had no reason that made any sense of why he would do it. I felt like a deer in headlights.”
The case was later dismissed by the New York court after the jury found that Rapp did not sufficiently prove his claim that Spacey made the unwanted sexual advances.
A New Jersey high school tried to cancel an adaptation of the LGBTQ+ musical The Prom due to “community concern” over its themes.
Officials at Cedar Grove High School in Essex County, New Jersey planned to cancel a student production of The Prom – which sees a lesbian student try to bring her same-sex date to a school prom – but were forced to backtrack after opposition from the community.
The district’s superintendent Anthony Grosso told those concerned in a Friday (14 October) statement that the play would not be cancelled, but that students would perform a “High School Edition” of the play.
“After further inquiry with the licensing organisation, we were informed that a High School Edition of The Prom just became available,” he said in a statement. “Therefore, Cedar Grove Public Schools fully supports producing the High School Edition.
Cedar Grove’s music department issued a statement on Instagram after administrative officials initially told them that the play would not be going forward due to vaguely described “community concerns.”
The department called on members of the community to voice their concerns in a future meeting with the district’s Board of Education on 18 October.
“For a program that has run for over 20 years under the same director and never had a question of content for any show in the past, this is a first,” the statement read.
“After seeing [The Prom] a few years ago and learning that it was now available for schools to produce, the students themselves chose this musical as our next production. We would actually be the New Jersey high school premiere!
“We secured the rights, paid for the materials, and announced the show to students but have now hit a bump in our normal road.”
Supporters of the post included The Prom actor Josh Lamon, who replied to the statement saying: “Whatever we can do, I’m here for it.”
He shared the statement on social media, adding that the cancellation was “infuriating and deeply homophobic,” and that there is “nothing inappropriate in or about the show.”
Several users, including fellow Broadway stars, agreed with Lamon that this was “literally the reason they need to be doing this show!!” while others asked if they should “tell Stephen Colbert” since the talk show host is close by.
After the superintendent announced the change, department member Rebecca Altschul posted on Instagram thanking those who spoke out in support of the play.
Virginia governor Glenn Younkin has insisted his trans student bathroom ban isn’t “controversial”, despite widespread outrage.
The Republican proposed the policy – which disallows trans students to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender – in September.
He claimed during an interview on CNN’s State of the Unionon Sunday (9 October) that it was designed to allow parents to make decisions for their child.
n fact, along with making bathroom access dependent on gender assigned at birth, Youngkin’s policy proposal states that schools should defer to parents on names, nicknames and “pronouns, if any” for their children, as well as any “social transition”. It also suggests that schools should out trans students to their parents.
“I just think the idea that we’re going to have policies that exclude parents from their children’s lives is something that I have been going to work on since day one,” Youngkin said.
“We campaigned on it. We empowered parents to make decisions with regards to [COVID-19] masking in Virginia. We have empowered parents to make decisions with regards to curriculum that fits their families’ decisions.”
As well as instructing students to use the bathrooms of the sex written on their birth certificate, the policies also prohibit preferred pronouns and given names without express consent from parents.
Youngkin describes these policy changes as fixing “a wrong” with previous guidance allowing for schools and institutions to decide on policies for specific students.
“The previous administration had a policy that excluded parents and, in fact, particularly didn’t require the involvement of parents,” he said. “Children don’t belong to the state, they belong to families.
“And so, in these most important decisions, step one has to be to engage parents, not the exclusion of a trusted teacher of an advisor, but to make sure that parents are involved in their children’s lives.”
Regardless of how significantly Youngkin believes in his policy changes, the assertion that the legislation is uncontroversial is not true, given the amount of pushback he has received from activists and allies.
Senate Democrats lambasted the move in a joint statement reported by The New York Post, saying they were “an outright violation of Virginian’s civil rights.”
Democratic delegate Mike Mullin called the new policy “absolutely shameful” in a tweet that criticised “calls for the misgendering and outing of children in schools where they’re supposed to be safe.”
Additionally, thousands of Virginia students from nearly 100 schools walked out of school on 28 September to protest the policy, saying that they are fearful of how the new policy could affect them.
“We want our school districts to stand up for us and support us and say they’ll reject these guidelines,” 16-year-old Lauren Truong told The Guardian after she lead fellow schoolmates in a walkout.
Additionally, high school senior Natasha Sanghvi said to NBC Washington that the group decided to hold the walkouts “as a kind of way to disrupt schools and have students be aware of what’s going on.”
Pope Francis reportedly encouraged an LGBTQ+ Catholic group to build a church “that excludes no one.”
According to L’Avvenire, the pope met with Italian LGBTQ+ Catholic group The Tent of Jonathon in a Wednesday (21 September) conference to discuss the organisation’s plan to build a hospitable church that would cater to LGBTQ+ people.
The group, which was founded in 2018, works with various religious organisations to provide “sanctuaries of welcome and support for LGBT people and for every person affected by discrimination.”
In an effort to convince Pope Francis, organisation members gave him a collection of letters from the parents of LGBTQ+ children who have faced “isolation and suspicious within the Christian community.”
Having urged religious parents to “never condemn your children” in a 26 January address, adding that parents should “not hide behind an attitude of condemnation,” the conferences appeared to convince him as he told the organisation to continue with the church’s construction.
Despite upholding traditional church teachings that claim homosexuality is “intrinsically disordered,” the pontiff has been surprisingly forthcoming about introducing LGBTQ+ members into Catholic proceedings.
In 2013, he famously said: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”
But there is still a long way to go for LGBTQ+ acceptance in the Vatican. During the same address, he condemned what was cryptically described as lobbying by the LGBTQ+ community.
“The problem is not having this orientation,” he claimed. “We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem.”
Pope Francis has also repeatedly shut down any hope of same-sex marriage in the Catholic Church, most recently in 2021 when he said he “doesn’t have the power to change sacraments.”
“I have spoken clearly about this, no? Marriage is a sacrament. Marriage is a sacrament. The church doesn’t have the power to change sacraments. It’s as our Lord established.”
Excommunications for LGBTQ+ positive paraphenalia is still incredibly common in local Catholic communities. In June, a middle school was kicked out of the Catholic fold after officials refused to remove Pride and Black Lives Matter flags from school grounds.
In a statement, Massachusetts bishop Robert J. McManus, who chose to excommunicate the Nativity School of Worcester, said: “I publicly stated in an open letter…that ‘these symbols (flags) embody specific agendas or ideologies (that) contradict Catholic social and moral teaching
“It is my contention that the ‘Gay Pride’ flag represents support of gay marriage and actively living a LGBTQ+ lifestyle.”
In response, school president Thomas McKenney said that the flags “represent the inclusion and respect of all people” and that they simply state “that all are welcome at Nativity and this value of inclusion is rooted in Catholic teaching.”
