CHICAGO – Loyola University Chicago (LUC) will be hosting its 8th Annual Drag Show on campus this week, according to an official student organization’s Facebook page. The event, hosted by LUC’s “LGBTQIA” student group Advocate, is part of “LGBTQIA Heritage Month.”
The event page description reads:
This year’s show is sure to be a blast with a strong line up of returning student performers as well as some first timers! Come enjoy a night of music, dancing, and just all-around fun that will provide a glimpse into what it’s like to live outside the gender binary.
The Cardinal Newman Society has reported on LUC’s annual drag shows during previous years. In 2011, the Director of Communications for LUC told the Society that the University “encourages open discussion” and “relishes the opportunity to engage ideas and different points of view.”
MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK
In 2010, Advocate members wrote an open letter to LUC’s administration over the fact that the drag show was moved from a lobby to “another, less visible location” due to complaints from two members of the Society of Jesus. The complaints argued that the drag show “promotes a lifestyle that is not aligned with the teachings of Saint Ignatius and the Catholic Church.”
Advocate stated the following:
Loyola University is considered one of the most diverse, welcoming and progressive Jesuit Catholic universities in the nation. The students of other colleges and universities admire our school for its acceptance of everyone, especially of queer individuals. Prospective students are attracted to this campus because of the work that LGBTQ and ally students in Advocate and our partner social justice student organizations do.
The Newman Society reported earlier this year on the University of San Diego’s (USD) drag shows, which attracted the attention of the Congregation for Catholic Education. The founder of the group Alumni for a Catholic USD filed petitions with the Vatican to review the situation.
The Congregation responded with the following:
In view of the gravity of the case, it is worth mentioning that in light of the show and the scandal that it caused, this congregation intends to act through administrative channels to the competent ecclesiastical authority in San Diego.
USD reportedly argued in a previous year that the drag show “supports the Church’s teaching on the innate dignity of the human person, and by illustrating cross-dressing, it does not promote either behavior or lifestyle that is contrary to the teachings of the Church.”
In reaching out to Loyola Chicago for comment, the Newman Society informed the University about the Congregation for Catholic Education’s correspondence regarding the drag show at University of San Diego. Loyola Chicago did not respond by the time this article was posted.
MORE NEWS: How to prepare for face-to-face classes
Authored by Kimberly Scharfenberger
Originally published here by Catholic Education Daily, an online publication of The Cardinal Newman Society
Published with permission
Join the Discussion
Comments are currently closed.