Tuesday May 4, 2010
Ontario Catholic School Board Proud to Promote Prominent Gay Alumni
Featured ‘Catholic’ grads’s fashion work falls on the extreme end of sexually provocative
By Patrick B. Craine
TORONTO, Ontario, May 4, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A poster of “distinguished alumni” developed by the York Catholic District School Board highlights renowned twin fashion designers and prominent homosexuals Dean and Dan Caten. The pair, much of whose work falls on the extreme end of the sexually provocative (one of their runway shows in 2005 ended with a scantily-clad Christina Aguilera stripping off the pants of male models), are among seven alumni featured on the poster developed for Catholic Education Week, May 2-7, 10,000 copies of which have been distributed in parishes and schools.
“Every person on the poster this year and every single year was selected because they are making a contribution to their respective careers,” said Chris Cable, communications manager for the school board. “In the Catholic Church we do treat everyone as equals and we are inclusive.”
The Catens have designed clothing for such stars as Madonna, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Nicholas Cage, and Lenny Kravitz. They host their own radio show on Sirius XM, “Dean and Dan on Air: Style in Studio,” as well as a Bravo reality TV show, “Launch My Line.” In September 2009, the two were inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame.
Their shows regularly include male and female models wearing next to nothing, while their advertizing material similarly depicts scantily clad models in sexually explicit poses. In fact, in one recent video the Caten brothers chose to dispense with the clothing altogether.
A trailer for the Catens’ online store, Dsquared2, features the two middle-aged men staring at a young man as he walks towards them wearing a shirt with the word ‘Hater’. Declaring “there will be no haters around us,” the brothers rip off his shirt, his pants, and his underwear, exposing full frontal nudity.
The work of the brothers has been highlighted in homosexualist media, such as Xtra.ca, Queerty, and Gay.com.
But according to the Catholic school board’s Chris Cable, “There could be many homosexuals amongst [the featured] group of individuals or any other group of individuals who we have selected to speak to in the past. Their sexuality is not the reason why they’re being highlighted.”
LifeSiteNews asked Cable if the alumni’s witness to their Catholic faith was a consideration. “These individuals graduated from a Catholic school, actually more than one Catholic school – an elementary one as well as a high school,” she responded, “and they attest to their Catholic education as helping them in terms of achieving their success in their respective field.”
Asked if they were concerned about the possibility of scandal, Cable said, “We’ve had almost 10,000 posters sent to parishes, schools, we have not had a single scandalous remark, to use your terminology.”
Contact Information:
Archbishop Thomas Collins
Archdiocese of Toronto
1155 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario, M4T 1W2
Phone: (416) 934-0606, ext. 609
Fax: (416) 934-3452
Email: [email protected]
Susan LaRosa, Director of Education
York Catholic District School Board
320 Bloomington Road West
Aurora ON
L4G 0M1
Phone: 905-713-1211
Fax: 905-713-1272
E-mail: [email protected]