association and I want you to think of
the first word that comes to mind when I
say the acronym LGBTQ and I’m also going
to guarantee that it is not catholicism
so you can imagine how i feel when i
tell people especially other LGBTQ
identifying people that I am Catholic as
an LGBTQ person they either think I’m
kidding
or they hope I’m kidding and despite
having this progressive Pope and these
new ideas coming forward there is still
such a huge separation between the
church and its parishioners particularly
those who identify as LGBTQ we have this
separation and luckily it’s it’s fixable
it’s fixable the younger generation is
clearly more progressive and modern and
and they have all these ideas and and it
gives me hope
book and in 2014 there was a Pew
Research Center study and 70 percent of
all Catholics stated that homosexuality
should be accepted within the church and
that number ballooned to 85 percent
among 18 to 29 year olds and even the
lowest group the 65 and older group
there were 57% who stated that
homosexuality should be accepted within
the church now you want to talk about
same-sex marriage obviously the numbers
go down a little bit but still 57% of
all Catholics believed that same-sex
marriage should be accepted again that
number rose among amongst 18 to 29 year
olds and unfortunately the lowest
percentage was in that 65 or older group
it was the only group that did not have
a majority approval so we see that
there’s still that major separation so
that separation boils down to two words
in my mind allowance and acceptance
and as a self-respecting gay male I’m
going to use Broadway as my analogy
allowance allowance insinuates providing
permission so I’m going to use the the
the reference of Oliver Twist so imagine
the LGBT community coming up and coming
up to the church and they say please sir
may I have some more of my human dignity
and then you have acceptance which
insinuates which attenuates believing
something to be true or valid so I use
the analogy of a me at the very end when
Daddy Warbucks says I’m going to adopt
you you’re going to be fully accepted
into my family now this Pope that we
have he’s amazing in my eyes in many
people’s eyes he’s so progressive people
are saying but he just toes that line of
allowance he we fall short of the
acceptance the quote that he’s so famous
for Who am I to judge it gave such a
glimmer of hope to the LGBT community
now still paraphrasing the quote was
about if a person is gay and and seeks
the Lord and is willing Who am I to
judge that person he also on a separate
occasion said that the Christian
community should apologize to the gay
community but we fall short of that
acceptance when we realized that in
December of 2016 he approved a reproof a
document that stated that people with
deep-seated homosexual tendencies or who
support the so-called gay culture are
not allowed to be priests in the
Catholic Church so we have this
community who wants so desperately to
give themselves to the church and
they’re allowed to but they’re not
accepted so that brings me to where that
comes from which is very clearly the
Bible and now we have the words of the
Bible that people take literally but
then we have the interpretations of the
Bible so the words that so often get
used to prove that the homosexual
sexuality is illegal are those verses
from Leviticus and you know a man shall
not lay with another man
but if we use Leviticus the argument on
the flip side is to say well if you’re
going to quote Leviticus you might as
well quote the fact that we shouldn’t be
eating shellfish or we shouldn’t be
wearing clothes made of more than one
fiber and if you really want to quote it
we should also still have slaves so it’s
all a matter of interpreting and I’m
going to use the creation story as an
example we all know the scientific
impossibility of the world being created
in seven days that’s very easily
comprehendible it took billions of years
and we’re still working on it so what
you what we should be taking out of that
is the moral of the story God had
nothing and look at what he did in seven
days look at the magnificence that he
produced out of nothing
so when you have nothing or we feel like
we have nothing what magnificence can we
produce that’s the moral of the story so
what I’m trying to say is we should be
using the Bible not as a literal life
guide but as a moral life guide the
problem is now we’re now we’re moving
into hymns that are being interpreted in
my opinion the wrong way so there was a
recent article in a major online
catholic publication written by a
high-ranking member of the catholic
church and it was entitled all are
welcome but the all are welcome had an
asterisk clearly we know that that
insinuates there’s something to be to be
mentioned there but the original him is
was written by Marty Hagen and I hope I
said his name right but each verse
starts with the words let us build a
house and it ends with the chorus all
are welcome in this place so obviously
we take that to mean the church and that
we’re accepting people into our house
into our home into the house of God but
the fourth verse is really what I want
to focus on
it says here the outcast and the
stranger bear the image of God’s face
let us bring an end to fear and danger
and then it finishes all are welcome in
this place so I’m going to run with that
idea that the LGBT community are the
outcasts and the strangers and that we
bring all this fear and danger into the
church my interpretation would be that
the members of the church community
should be working to dispel that fear in
danger and bringing those people into
our church because they would like to be
there the author however says
differently it says it doesn’t the
author says it does not mean that
someone is entitled to work for the
church or fill a ministerial position
while being publicly involved in an
immoral relationship or activity and
given recent firings among Catholic
schools and churches around the country
we’re going to take a moral and
interpret that to mean homosexual the
article if the way I read it was one
entire contradiction because the in the
beginning the author said that Catholics
should be inviting others even
recruiting others to be a part of our
church but then he goes on to say while
all are welcomed not everyone is suited
for the Catholic community so now the
Catholic community is a football team or
an AP on an AP class you’re not suited
to join us in this community and that to
me just sounds a little um christ-like
the author also says if they’re
conscious or conscience or lifestyle
leads them elsewhere so be it now we
could have a completely separate
conversation about my opinion on the use
of the word lifestyle
to talk about the LGBT community as if
it were a choice but it might have
believed that now they’re supposed to
have a guilty conscience about wanting
to be Catholic and LGBT we need to
remember that faith that religion unlike
love is a choice
faith is similar to love in that it’s
innate in our being but luckily this is
not something new
is not a new separation a new divide
there’s a community a national
organization that’s been around since
1969 and they are called dignity USA
they provide Catholic services for the
LGBT community their family and friends
and as you can assume they are not
recognized by the Catholic Church
currently there are over 35 chapters and
I am blessed and honored to be the
president of Washington DC’s local
chapter but I have to tell you we
struggle the same as the same as the
Catholic Church the Greater Catholic
Church we’re struggling to find members
because people don’t
to be frank they don’t want to be
Catholic and it’s because of that
separation of antiquated ideas and
policies and the separation between
those and the younger more progressive
Minds one of the requirements to be a to
give a TEDx talk is to be an expert on
your subject and while I am certainly
not an expert on Catholicism or Catholic
teachings though I am learning more and
more every day at what I am an expert on
is my experience and my view of what
acceptance is going to look like in the
church acceptance is going to be
providing opportunities to meet with
LGBTQ people and groups to hear their
stories to want to know why they want to
be LGBT and Catholic let me clarify they
don’t want to be LGBT again it’s not a
choice but why they choose to be
Catholic while identifying is LGBT
acceptance is actually living out the
words and actions of Christ not just
talking about it accepting those who are
different and bringing them into the
house of God and allowing them to
express their faith the way they would
like to and finally acceptance is a day
where LGBT people do not have different
experiences than other Catholics and
that is my hope that is my prayer but I
am certainly not going to count the
amount of rosaries I would have to say
before
that happens thank you [Applause]