(LifeSiteNews) — Notre Dame students are expressing opposition to a drag show that is scheduled to be held on their university’s campus next month in South Bend, Indiana.
“Notre Dame Right to Life condemns the university’s decision to sponsor a drag show in direct violation of Catholic identity,” the school’s pro-life group posted Thursday on X.
UPDATE: Working link is https://t.co/49y1a0jRJE
— ND Right to Life (@NDRightToLife) October 20, 2023
“In supporting lies about the human person… the university is not only actively working against her mission but permitting irreparable damage to its community and image,” Nico Schmitz said in an opinion piece published October 11.
Schmitz is the editor of The Irish Rover, the school’s student-run Catholic newspaper.
No Place for Drag at Our Lady’s university.
Read this issue’s editorial on newly released details of an upcoming drag show on campus. https://t.co/7zRXMa4VsN
— The Irish Rover (@IrishRoverND) October 11, 2023
A website titled “NoDragND” has been set up to allow persons to send Father John Jenkins, the university’s president, an email urging him to cancel the performance.
According to a flyer for the event, the Film, Television, and Theatre (FTT) Department will host three “drag queens” on Friday, November 3. The performers’ stage names are “Blair St. Clair,” “London BaCall,” and “Cordelia.” Blair, whose real name is Andrew Allen Bryson, was a former constant on TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race. He regularly posts lewd photos of himself on social media.
FTT professor Pam Wojcik is teaching a class titled “Drag on Screen” this semester. She defended the disturbing event while speaking with Campus Reform. “I don’t see any reason that drag would be perceived as being anti-Catholic in any way,” she said.
The event has other sponsors as well, including the Department of Gender Studies, Department of Music, Department of American Studies, the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, and the Initiative on Race and Resilience.
Rover reporters W. Joseph DeReuil and Peter Rzepniewski said they could not confirm if the show was happening for sure, however, as the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center did not list it on its events page.
Notre Dame was founded by French priest Fr. Edward Sorin in 1842. Its formal name is Notre Dame du Lac, or “Our Lady of the Lake.” Once known as the foremost Catholic institution of higher learning in the country, Notre Dame’s Catholic identity has been severely diminished since the 1970s.
In 1972, then-university president Father Theodore Hesburgh made the school co-educational. Previously, young women studied across the street at St. Mary’s. Hesburgh also oversaw the drafting of the heavily criticized Land O’ Lakes statement, a document signed by the presidents of prominent Catholic institutions that declared independence from formal church authority and doctrines in the name of “academic freedom.”
Jenkins, the school’s current president, infamously invited pro-abortion U.S. President Barack Obama to give the commencement address in 2009. He also approved abortion-inducing drugs to be covered in employees’ insurance plans. The school also touts a Gender Studies Program and used its official X account to say “We celebrate all LGBTQ+ identities” this June to kick off “Pride Month.”
Happy #PrideMonth! We celebrate all LGBTQ+ identities and reaffirm our commitment to being a welcoming, safe and supportive place for ALL members of the Notre Dame family.
We see you. We’re glad you’re here. You are an important member of our community. pic.twitter.com/b0ou28Iia8
— University of Notre Dame (@NotreDame) June 1, 2023
Notre Dame also sells LGBT books for children at its store and in recent years has invited a growing number of pro-abortion and left-wing speakers to campus.
Jenkins recently announced that he will be retiring in the spring.