We've got to give mad props to the teenagers at Charlotte Catholic High School in North Carolina. You are all wonderful.
The students at this soon-to-be infamous school were outraged by an assembly held on March 21st. The lecture, conducted by Sister Jane Dominic Laurel, revolved around paralyzingly unprogressive sentiments regarding LGBTQ folks. There's no official transcript, but witnesses agree that Sister Laurel has serious beef with gay men. She claimed that they are heavily promiscuous and usually have between 500 and 1,000 bang buddies in their lifetime. Raise your hand if you suddenly wish you were a gay man—I could (try to) handle 500 Zachary Quintos. The path to eternal gayhood isn't stellar though, according to Sister Laurel. In her speech, she claimed that jonesing for the same gender is caused by absent father figures and masturbation.
If you grew up in a single parent home and spent time kneading your muffin, you're going to be gay. Whoops!
The students were horrified. Some claimed to escape to the bathroom because they couldn't stand to hear any more. Others say that people cried. Parents were upset too—a divorced mother spoke up against Sister Laurel's words:
“In my home, there was outrage, embarrassment, sadness, disbelief, and further reason for my 16-year-old to move as far away from her religion as possible and as soon as she can," said Shelly Earnhardt.
Clearly, a Catholic high school wouldn't want a student to move away from her religion. Parents and students discussed Pope Francis (who we just love) and his perspective on these hot button issues. Then, they formed a petition to denounce Sister Laurel's speech and the school's decision to host her. We're particularly into the last two bullet points of this eloquently written speech:
"9. We resent the fact that a school wide assembly became a stage to blast the issue of homosexuality after Pope Francis said in an interview this past fall that 'we can not insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptives methods.' We are angry that someone decided they knew better than our Holy Father and invited a speaker who addressed the issue of homosexuality to our school to speak twice in the course of one school year.
10. We the students of Charlotte Catholic High School are confused why time was spent condemning the practice of homosexuality when we could have been spent condemning: world hunger, gun violence, the death penalty, unjust care of the elderly, human trafficking, genocide, discrimination etc.; OR been promoting: love, prayer, the Beatitudes, practical ways to serve Christ, patience, just war theory etc."
"We are angry that someone decided they knew better than our Holy Father" in context is pretty much the best thing that I have read all week. Bravo to these students. Bravo. Seeing Justin Bieber's dumb baby punk face in the news makes many adults lose faith in the younger generation, but kids like this represent hope. They stood up to their school and superiors for the sake of progress. That's not easy to do—especially alongside rampant insecurities and general teen hormonal fluxes. It seems we can't stop these voices, but we are 100% okay with that.
If you're interested in signing this petition, click here.
Image: surprised nuns are surprised. Courtesy of Paddy McCann, Flickr
