Boy Scouts’ New Gender-Inclusive Name Not An Issue for Catholics, Says Leader; And More News

Here are some items that may be of interest:

1. The Boy Scouts of America’s rebranding will not impact Catholic scouting, according the National Catholic Committee on Scouting’s executive director, John Anthony. This week, the Boy Scouts announced that from February 2025 onward, the organization would be known as Scouting America in an acknowledgement that its membership has expanded to include multiple genders. The Boy Scouts’ decision in 2019 to admit female members was controversial among some church leaders, extending the decades-long controversy in Catholic scouting about gay members and leaders. But now, according to Anthony, a new name recognizing a gender-inclusive organization “doesn’t really impact us at all.”

2. The Minnesota Catholic Conference has organized protests against a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution expanding non-discrimination protections based on gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation, among other provisions. The bishops claim, per The Catholic Spirit, that the amendment “would impose the belief on people that gender identity is a social construct that people can decide on their own,” as well as harm religious liberty and protect abortion rights.

3. Catholic LGBTQ+ advocates were included in a Washington Blade series on LGBTQ+ religious history in the Washington, D.C. area. Written by Emma Cieslik, herself a queer Catholic, the series examined how the region’s faith communities and the LGBTQ+ movement interacted in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, beginning with Frank Kameny and the Mattachine Society’s engagement of clergy and extending into broader efforts. According to Cieslik:

“In 1971, Dignity/Washington — a chapter of the Catholic LGBTQ organization Dignity USA — was established by six people in the first-floor cafeteria of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Sr. Jeannine Gramick, Patrick Mills, Fr. Greg Slamone, Joe Cicero, and another individual saw a need for a queer Catholic ministry and started the chapter. The group became a chapter in 1972 and met at the Newman Center on GWU’s campus. Several of these founders also established the LGBTQ Catholic New Ways Ministry just across the river in 1977.”

4. Police arrested a teenage boy who allegedly spray-painted pro-LGBTQ+ messages at Central Catholic High School, Lafayatte, Indiana. According to AOL, the teen wrote “Queer Lives Matter” and “God loves trans kids too” across the windows of the school’s chapel. One local LGBTQ+ group, Pride Lafayette, condemned what it described as vandalism. The group’s president, Ashley Smith, commented:

“‘We do not condone this type of behavior at all. . .This act was nothing but criminal. It is not OK for our community as a whole to see this, and we find this reprehensible. Someone is clearly trying to divide the community, more so than we are as a society. This individual clearly needs some guidance. We are sorry that Central Catholic must deal with this. . .We have offered our help in cleaning this up. We are all neighbors and part of the same greater community.'”

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, May 14, 2024