Who We Are Now
We are a Catholic ministry that supports our LGBTQ+ community and our families by sharing our personal stories and by promoting equality and inclusion among all people. We have done this work for many years in the Archdiocese of Detroit.
As baptized Christians, we are part of the Church. We celebrate God’s acceptance of ourselves and all our kin in all our variations, just as we are created. We gather, support one another, and share our stories.
We love and respect the Catholic Church. We are deeply troubled, however, by the approach taken by some of our Church leadership to our LGBTQ+ community. As people of faith, we cannot remain silent when damaging labels such as “intrinsically disordered,” “objectively disordered” and “depravity” (and the teachings and behaviors that result from use of this language) are promoted. This destructive language persists in Church teachings in firm opposition to the long-standing consensus of scientific research and clinical literature, which asserts that LGBTQ+ individuals represent normal, healthy aspects of human sexuality and human bonding. The hurtful language wounds us because we know that we are, and have always been, one before our Creator.
The litany of resulting harm to LGBTQ+ people includes the termination of beloved teachers and church employees, spiritual abandonment, the breakup of families trying to follow Church teaching, internalized shame, blatant homophobia and transphobia, discrimination, and oppression. These forces have impacted the mortality rate of the LGBTQ+ community with higher incidence of premature death due to violence and suicide. The institutional Church has brought on itself the scandal of injustice.
We welcome the day when we and our LGBTQ+ friends and family members are fully accepted by the entire Church, even as we know we are accepted by God, who created us as we are. We pray with confidence that with acceptance will come acknowledgement and support of all legal marriages, of committed and loving family units, of transgender and nonbinary people, and of workplace equality for the many LGBTQ+ people employed by our churches, schools, hospitals and other Catholic institutions and agencies.
