Gay Rights Movement with Correlation to the Catholic Church
The purpose of this project is to create a visual timeline that covers 3 different aspects of history: The Gay Rights Movement, the relationship the Catholic church has shared with homosexuality, and the personal lives of me and my brother Richard. This timeline begins with arguably the most monumental aspect of the Gay Rights Movement- the Stonewall riots. There are years' worth of fights for equality and events that occurred in the Catholic church regarding homosexuality prior to this date. For the sake of creating a clear and concise presentation of information, this is the event that begins the timeline as a whole.
It is also important to recognize that there are several events and moments in all three individual timelines that were not included due to the fact that they did not hold relevance to the project's core theme, however this does not make these excluded events any less significant. Lastly, throughout the timeline and the paper, I refrain from using the blanket term "LGBTQ" because these events focus mainly on those men and women who identify as gay. This is not silencing or discrediting the fight from the rest of the LGBTQ community, but instead allowed me to narrow the topic and compose a more effective argument.
The objective of compiling the dates of events, people, laws, and teachings through this timeline was to observe if there were any instances where one aspect potentially influenced the other. My goal was to discover if the American Gay Right's Movement has shifted how the Catholic church has progressed in regard to their views on homosexuality. I found that commonly with a large event in the timeline from the Gay Rights Movement, an event from the Catholic church soon followed. It is impossible to know whether one directly caused the other but given the closeness in dates in history it can be speculated that there is correlation and some degree of influence.
The following link will lead you to the same timeline as seen below, but is better resolution for viewing.
Timeline and Trajectory of the Gay Rights Movement and the Catholic Church
With a hint of Latuska
The first instance where the Gay Rights Movement might have impacted the way the Catholic church viewed homosexuality is in 1969 when the first Catholic organization for gay men and women was formed. The formation of Dignity followed the breakout of the Stonewall riots, where many men and women were outed as gay and shamed because of it. This is similar to when the AIDS epidemic began and spread rampant, especially amongst gay men, for years and the Catholic church responded with a Vatican congregation. This congregation in 1986 announced that those who identified as homosexual were intrinsically disordered and they stopped funding to all groups that supported the LGBTQ community. Following the election of Christian president, Bill Clinton, there were two major laws that effected the gay community- the Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act. Amid these new federal discriminatory laws in the 1990's, the bishops in the Catholic church released a letter for parents on how to cope with a homosexual child.
Starting in the 2000's there was an increased discussion on the rights of homosexuals, it can be assumed that because of certain laws that were lifted in 2003, that this influenced Pope Benedict to come out and reiterate that those who are gay cannot receive Holy Orders or be admitted into the seminary in 2005. This differs from what Pope Francis said in 2013 when he was asked to speak on the sexual orientation of Catholic priests and he responded, "Who am I to judge?" This quote from Pope Francis came shortly after another world figure at the time, Barak Obama, declared he supported the rights of the gay community.
The last observation I made is actually from my own personal timeline. My brother Richard came out in 2011 when he was starting medical school at Vanderbilt University. Richard is 13 years older than me which he means he grew up in a decade much different than my own- this fact is clear to see through this timeline. We have a similar history of growing up; we both went to Catholic schools all the way through college, but the difference is that Richard paved the way and made me feel comfortable enough in our Catholic environment to come out just a short 3 years after he did.
Today, scholars in the field of queer theology say that being gay is not a sin since inherently, people are born gay. They also say that gay people can live holy lives as long as they perform chastity. As for the Gay Rights Movement, the most successful achievement was accomplished in 2015 when gay marriage was legalized which is also where the timeline for the Gay Rights Movement on my project concludes. The final portion of my portfolio is dedicated to the most recent history of my brother and I with the momentous events of a marriage and beginning college. I thought this was an adequate conclusion given that without any of the events prior, the marriage of my brother and his husband would never be legal, and I would have never felt comfortable enough to attend a Jesuit university.