March 1, 2011 - 10:14pm
The Complete Spectrum: A new look at equality
BY CHRISTOPHER DYER
As of last week, the Archdiocese of Boston has decided to revamp its discrimination policy to include protections for LGBT children, and those of LGBT parents, in their admissions process. The move was a direct result of previous negative attention placed on a parochial school that rejected an 8-year-old boy for being the son of a lesbian couple.
This event, which occurred in the St. Paul School in Hingham, MA, was met with disapproval from many prominent funders of Boston's Catholic schools, including the Catholic Schools Foundation. The Foundation's executive director, Michael B. Reardon, voiced his organization's approval of the new policy's “clear message of inclusiveness,” which he sees as “essential to Catholic education.”
But, a part of the policy, stating that admission should in the end be decided for “the best interest of the child,” opens up new questions.
Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of the gay Catholic organization DignityUSA, approved of the new policy's inclusiveness, but wondered whether school principals and pastors that determine this “best interest” would do so fairly. Duddy-Burke noted that, “the people of the Church are changing, and by and large very affirming of gay people, and the hierarchy and the doctrine are lagging decades behind.”
Opponents to LGBT-Catholic education inclusiveness also argue that placing an LGBT related-child into an environment that is so hostile to them can be harmful. And personally, I'm inclined to agree with this statement.
Considering this, we are left with two questions: Is the fight for acceptance and inclusiveness worth all the hardships that befall its proponents? And will the fight ever succeed? Well, one need only to remember the significance of today's date for the answer.
