Mar62015
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News Archive (2015)

A Place to Call Home

By Mateo Williamson

Approximately half of the youth who come through our shelter doors are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Where I work, this is our daily reality—a ceaseless, increasing epidemic of LGBT youth homelessness, with no apparent end in sight.

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A Privileged Ministry

By “Sister Monica”

When I was 55 years old and had been a Catholic sister for 37 years, I met a transgender woman, a new experience for me.  I immediately felt drawn to her and wanted to understand her life better.  Later as we sat in my living room, I felt privileged to be entrusted with her sacred and harrowing story of transition.

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Question Time

by Hillary Howes

In the Catholic Church, as a transsexual woman, I don’t officially exist. Officially, the Catholic Church does not have a public policy on the range of gender expression, but considering their policy on gay men, lesbian women, divorced women, women priests, and women who abort, I should count myself as lucky.

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In recognition of Marianne Duddy-Burke

In their latest issue, Boston Spirit, an LGBT magazine in Massachusetts published a list of the top 25 LGBT Power Players of New England. Publisher David Zimmerman and editor James Lopata presented the list with the question: "Are there true 'leaders' of the community these days? Have we come so far that we no longer need the bold, outspoken, aggressive leaders of the past?” Mr. Lopata goes on to say "Power does not reside in people or things, rather, it flows through them, like water in riverbeds - pooling in places, surging in others." Don't we know that! 

Reflecting on the Pope's Comments

I am writing this in the wake of Pope Francis’ eventful visit to the Philippines. The Pope’s warning against “ideological colonization” and his apparent characterization of same-sex marriage as a threat to the family were shocks to many of our members. DignityUSA issued a strongly worded response, and several of you took the time to share your own reaction. The sense of being let down by the comments was prevalent. One reader said he’d had a statue of the Pope out as a sign of hope, but put it in the back of a closet

Gay Catholics “Disturbed and Disappointed” by Pope’s Remarks in Philippines,

Strongly Differ with his Suggestion that Support for Gay Marriage is “Ideological”

Boston, MA, January 16, 2015 “DignityUSA is disturbed and disappointed by Pope Francis’ remarks in the Philippines referring to support for same-sex marriage as ‘ideological colonization…that is trying to destroy the family,’” said the organization’s Executive Director, Marianne Duddy-Burke.  “Especially in light of the more welcoming and sensitive tone on LGBT issues that the Pope has taken over the past two years, it is disconcerting to hear a phrase that is a hallmark of extreme right-wing religious leaders and politicians coming from the leader of the Catholic Church.  We hope that these recent remarks do not represent a resurgence of anti-marriage equality activity from the Vatican and the world’s Catholic bishops, just a short time after the Pope seemed to discourage such activity in the United States and elsewhere.

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