Sixth-Grader’s Marriage Essay Causes Stir in Her Catholic School

Annabelle Thies is a Vermont sixth-grader who has come to the easy conclusion that you can both be supportive of LGBTQ rights and Catholic–something that people much older than she continue to struggle with.

Annabelle published a column in The Commons, an online news source,  in which she defends the rights of LGBTQ folk, especially her aunts and uncles who are in happy same-sex marriages. She describes an incident where she was told  that being queer and Catholic are mutually exclusive saying:

“According to my friend, the classmate said, ‘I don’t think that Annabelle and her family are good Catholics because they believe in gay and lesbian marriage.’ “

But Annabelle had a different perspective:

“The Catholic religion teaches that men and women were designed to fit perfectly together and that people who marry the same sex are not obeying God’s law. Well, guess what: My family doesn’t believe that, and neither do I.”

Annabelle consulted her mother, who has two queer siblings:

“I told my mother about the situation. She gave me some good advice. She told me that the people who think or say hateful things have never experienced an Aunt Kate, and Uncle Dan, or a Paul who have made everyone’s lives better. She told me to pray for those people so that they can open their hearts to others. I completely agree with her. She also told me that we ‘have to try extra hard to love people who are afraid to love us.’”

Faced with this conflict, Annabelle resolved it by going to her faith’s deepest teaching: :

“I was baptized Catholic and am a strong believer in Christ, but one thing that has challenged my faith is this topic. Hate-filled comments — especially from people who say that they believe in Jesus and his unconditional love — don’t make sense to me. If you actually look in the Bible, we are told to love one another. That means everybody. I will never stop loving my family because of who they love or who they marry. God loves everybody, no matter who they love. I’m proud of my faith, and I’m proud of my family. No one can take my love for either away from me.”

Annabelle believes that a more welcoming church is possible, in part by the support of the people in the pews–like herself:

“I think that you can still be Catholic and support gay marriage because I’m Catholic and I support gay marriage.”

Because the school’s administration responded negatively to Annabelle’s outspoken support of her queer family, her mother, Bethany Thies, resigned from the Brattleboro Catholic school where she had worked. In a follow-up essay in the same paper, Richard Levesque, a parishioner from the Thies’ church:

“It appears that Annabelle’s mom, as a result of the essay, has resigned from her job in admissions and development at St. Michael’s School. I must confess that we do not know the details of her departure, but we are aware of the ‘morality clause’  that may have been behind her departure.”

Levesque goes onto express his continued support of Annabelle and her family, saying:

“Recently, the pastor of St. Michael’s parish asked that we pray for and support our youth of today because they will be our leaders tomorrow. Well, if our future leaders advocate and stand for justice and love toward family and neighbors, as illustrated by Annabelle Thies, then surely our church and our community will be in good hands.”

Isaiah 11:6 says that “A little child will lead them.” And while I will not make the mistake of referring to someone as articulate and passionate as Annabelle Thies as a child, I believe that her no-nonsense approach to loving the queer people in her life, while continuing to be a strong Catholic voice, could teach the adults in the room a thing or two about love.

–Kaitlin Brown, New Ways Ministry, May 15, 2018

7 replies
  1. Tom Bower
    Tom Bower says:

    Why is it that the Catholic Church makes it so difficult to be a member? I doubt Christ would pass muster given all of the fringe members of society he chose to love. In deed we know he was considered a bad Jew because of his company. Perhaps that is a heartening thought.

    Reply
  2. Loretta
    Loretta says:

    My comment focuses on the teaching that “men and women are designed to perfectly fit together. “ Really. That reductionist reasoning is void of the dignity of humans both female and male. Further, these one liner statements are seldom challenged. “Men and women are designed to fit perfectly together” is animalistic and could be used to justify rape, domestic violence and every other kind of exploitation men have used to use women. All of us know men and women who are in relationships and they do not fit perfectly together because fitting together isn’t a biological reality but an emotional and spiritual one. For me, rather than decry the injustice of firing people who support their family members, I prefer to challenge the very reasoning of the arcane and misguided disciplines and sexual teaching of the Church. Another example is the procreative teaching of sexual intercourse. Procreative is NOT just biological but also emotional, social, spiritual and mental.

    Reply
  3. DON E SIEGAL
    DON E SIEGAL says:

    This is a very serious blog entry. In the times of false news, is there any independent verification of these events? As for the child’s story, was it indeed written by her alone? The thoughts and sentence structure look more advanced than what a sixth grader would be able to write.

    Reply
    • dee
      dee says:

      I can’t speak to verification, but I have a 5th grader and a 10th grader. Either one of them is capable of the writing quoted above. While yes, a 6th grader may have had some assistance in writing this essay, helping a kid with homework is a pretty common occurrence (especially if a parent is also a teacher).

      Reply

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