I had planned to devote this reflection to an unabashed celebration of DignityUSA’s many accomplishments over our 40-year history. Just as I opened a file to begin writing, my phone rang. The caller was a 50-something woman from a small city in the Northeast, who told me she has been part of Courage (an organization promoting chastity as the only option for Catholic lesbian and gay people) for years. She has recently realized that she deserves a life that is richer than the celibate, shameful existence she has endured up until now.

DignityUSA, the nation’s foremost organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics and our friends and families, expressed profound disappointment with California’s Supreme Court decision that upheld Proposition 8’s ban on marriage between gay and lesbian couples. However, the group noted that the Court’s allowing the 18,000-plus same-sex marriages that occurred before the ban took effect to stand was a sign of hope.

by John J. McNeill, (Lethe Press; ISBN: 978-1-59021-042-0; $20.00)

Reviewed by Jeff Stone, Dignity/New York

To many of us in DignityUSA, John McNeill is a familiar and beloved figure. Yet because he is so well-known to us, it is possible to lose sight of the vast scope of the achievements and gifts of this prophet in our own land. In 1970, John published the first theological articles defending homosexuality from a Catholic perspective, which became the basis for Dignity’s original Statement of Position and Purpose. In 1972, he cofounded Dignity/New York. In 1976, he published the groundbreaking book The Church and the Homosexual, which brought his subject into the international spotlight for the first time. Over the next two decades, John followed with Taking a Chance on God; Freedom, Glorious Freedom and his autobiography, Both Feet Firmly Planted in Midair.

Let me tell you about the Parc55 Hotel — site of our 2009 convention! I just spent a weekend there for our April Board meeting. I took Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) from the San Francisco Airport to the Powell Street Station, San Francisco …about a 30-minute ride. BART was a pleasure to ride. It reminded me of Washington, DC’s METRO. When you come out of the Powell Street Station, the Parc 55 Hotel is looming above you! The Hotel has just been renovated from top to bottom. The hotel room was spacious, although storage is scarce.