CHICAGO (LifeSiteNews) — Three students at a Catholic university were harassed by 60 counter-protesters as they demonstrated against a drag queen show on campus.
On April 14, Emily Torres, Matthew McKenna and a third student at the Jesuits’ Loyola University in Chicago witnessed against an on-campus “Drag Race” as counter-protesters screamed vulgarities at them, according to Campus Reform, a conservative watchdog exposing liberal bias on U.S. college campuses.
The drag queen fans shouted “Show your face!” and “Turn around, b***h!” at the three protesters as they stood at the top of a campus staircase.
An audio recording revealed another student screaming, “I hate Catholic people,” followed by cheers from fellow protesters. Another recording seemed to capture evidence that a counter-protester stole posters from the faithful Christian students.
According to Loyola’s student-run newspaper, the Loyola Phoenix, Ryan Bradley, the president of Rainbow Connection, the campus LGBT group that organized the drag show, called the three protesters “homophobic.”
“It is a couple people with homophobic beliefs who are trying to disenfranchise the art of drag,” Bradley said.
Torres said she decided to protest the drag show for two reasons. “The first is that drag ‘queens’ tend to dress very promiscuously and have done so in the past at Loyola’s shows,” Torres said.
“What does this imply? That to dress and act like a woman is to dress sexually and to promiscuously dance around,” Torres continued. “By doing so, these men diminish female dignity and reduce women to sexual objects, which is degrading.”
She further argued that promoting drag shows should not be allowed in Catholic institutions.
“Not only have they been sexually explicit in the past (and mocked nuns), but there have been Catholic bishops who condemned hosting drag shows at schools. And it is not in accordance with the Bible for men to dress like women and for women to dress like men,” Torres said.
She related that a few men joined the initial three protesters and argued with counter-protesters.
McKenna explained that he had chosen to demonstrate after other forms of activism, including obtaining signatures from students and professors, had failed.
“The level of blasphemy which Loyola allowed for and directly funded with student dollars was intolerable and abominable,” McKenna declared.
“The protest served primarily as a message against this as well as a message against Loyola’s continual disregard for its own mission clauses and for the authority of the bishops and especially the Vatican,” he added.
Despite hosting events contrary to Catholic teaching, Loyola is still run by the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, an order of brothers and priests found by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1534. The university’s website declares that Loyola students are “stewards of our Catholic tradition and our unique Ignatian heritage.”
Loyola is not recognized as having a strong Catholic identity by the Cardinal Newman Society, an organization that assesses the moral values of colleges and universities.
Readers are encouraged to contact staff at Loyola to voice concern over a Catholic organization hosting an anti-Catholic event. Below is a list of contacts:
President
Mark C. Reed, EdD
Email:
Phone:
1- 312-915-6400
Provincial of the Jesuits USA Midwest Province
Fr. Karl Kiser, SJ
Phone:
(800) 537-3736
Vice President for Mission Integration:
Claire Noonan, D.Min
Email:
[email protected]
Phone:
312-915-6404
Director of Spiritual Formation:
Christopher Murphy
Email:
[email protected]
Phone:
312-915-6233
Associate Director of Spiritual Formation:
Lauren Schwer
Email:
[email protected]
Phone:
773-508-7431