The University of Notre Dame, which has struggled over how to voice support for gay marriage and transgenderism without outright betraying its Catholicism or enraging the local bishop, took a major step closer to explicit support on Thursday. (READ MORE: Bishop Chastises Notre Dame for Event With Transgender ‘Abortion Doula’)
In a tweet for Pride Month, which included a photograph of a rainbow over the university’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart and Corby Hall, a residence for on-campus priests, the university stated: “Happy #PrideMonth! We celebrate all LGBTQ+ identities and reaffirm our commitment to being a welcoming, safe and supportive place for ALL members of the Notre Dame family.”
The tweet concluded: “We see you. We’re glad you’re here. You are an important member of our community.”
Happy #PrideMonth! We celebrate all LGBTQ+ identities and reaffirm our commitment to being a welcoming, safe and supportive place for ALL members of the Notre Dame family.
We see you. We’re glad you’re here. You are an important member of our community. pic.twitter.com/b0ou28Iia8
— University of Notre Dame (@NotreDame) June 1, 2023
In particular, the phrasing “We celebrate all LGBTQ+ identities” pushed the envelope on the university’s previous stance that it welcomed all LGBTQ people but followed the Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality and gender identity.
“Celebrating” an identity is likely the closest the university can get to endorsing homosexual practices and transgender medicine while still speaking euphemistically. It connotes, for example, that the university honors and supports a male’s identity as a woman. In addition, it exemplifies support for homosexual practices, given that honoring such activities is culturally understood as necessary in order to be an ally who celebrates lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer identities.
Notre Dame’s tweet shows just how much the LGBTQ community has succeeded in garnering the support of historically religious and conservative institutions that have stated commitments against homosexual practices. Not going all-in on celebrating LGBTQ+ identities is no longer acceptable if one wishes to be part of mainstream American society. Evidently, Notre Dame isn’t willing to excise itself from the mainstream.
Notre Dame has been tending toward this point for years. In 2021, the university acknowledged Pride Month on its website for the first time. It also announced at the time that it would officially recognize an LGBTQ alumni group that did not support the Catholic Church’s teachings on sexuality and gender.
Last year, the university required matriculating students to partake in a gender ideology training session. That video made overtures to appear as though it was in accordance with Catholic Church teaching, but it also parroted the central tenets of the Left as it relates to transgenderism.
Prior to those official actions, Notre Dame’s divergence from the Catholic Church on LGBTQ issues had been more subtle and unofficial: Resident assistants would wear rainbow ally pins and place LGBTQ signs on their doors, the university ignored that the LGBTQ club all but officially opposed Church teaching, and students were asked at orientation sessions to state their pronouns.
By winning over Notre Dame, LGBTQ activists have achieved an incredible victory. Now, all but the most explicitly countercultural institutions have thrown all of their support behind them.
If LGBTQ activists should have any worry, it’s that Notre Dame’s comments section was filled with images noting that, in Catholicism, June is the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
June is for the Sacred Heart pic.twitter.com/ZkSsEfMZuQ
— Don E. Darko (@SecretofSchmitt) June 1, 2023
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