Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Chicago’s Jesuit-run Loyola U. drag show asks: ‘what does your gender mean to you?’

by Kathleen Gilbert

  • CHICAGO, October 31, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Jesuit-run Loyola University of Chicago again hosted an annual drag show on the university campus last week, featuring a lineup of crossdressers and inviting students to “question why gender is rigidly controlled.”

“We all step in line when it comes to gender. Men wear pants. Women put on makeup. Girls get pink and boys blue,” states Advocate LUC, the school’s gay rights group, on the event’s Facebook site. “This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be if we never question why gender is rigidly controlled.”

Students were invited to “a night of inquiry, fun and dance as students perform in drag and share their experiences with their peers.” (Pictures of the event are available here.)

Patrick Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society, which noted the annual event on its blog this week, said the event betrays the trust of parents who wish to send their teens to a genuinely Catholic institution.

“When Catholic parents send their children to a Catholic university they should be able to expect at least basic standards of decency and morality,” wrote Cardinal Newman Society President Patrick J. Reilly in a letter to Loyola’s President last year.  “Events like this not only undermine the sacred trust parents have in Loyola University, but may lead to serious personal and social problems caused by confusion about sexuality.

“Drag shows debase the human person and are an affront to Catholic teaching on the dignity of the human person.”

Loyola’s Student Diversity and Multicultural Affairs website showed at least two more events this year involving homosexuality, including a panel discussion on “different religions and sexual orientations” Nov. 1, and a “Safe Space” training program Nov 29 teaching students to “provide a more hospital environment for LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex) people.”

To contact:

Michael J. Garanzini, S.J.
President, Loyola University Chicago
mgaranz@luc.edu
1 - 312 - 915-6400

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