LGBT student groups on Catholic campuses form association to expand acceptance

Yesterday, on the 25th anniversary of National Coming Out Day, a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender student groups based on Catholic campuses announced the founding of an association that will call on the Roman Catholic Church to expand its acceptance of LGBT rights.

The group calls itself the Catholic Association of Students for Equality, or CASE, and so far, the number of schools participating include DePaul University, Chicago; Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.; Fordham University, New York City; Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, Calif; College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass.; University of San Francisco; Loyola University, Chicago; Loyola University, New Orleans; Loyola University, Maryland; Boston College; and Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles.

As part of the announcement, the group sent letters to bishops, diocesan officials and Catholic school administrators. The letters highlighted the benefits of collaboration between LGBT organizations and Catholic institutions and used sections from scripture and the catechism to support its arguments.

CASE describes its purpose as "sharing best practices between LGBT groups, and raising awareness about the positive results of Catholic-LGBT collaboration and acceptance." They also started a Facebook page to share the stories of member schools and to offer advice to unrecognized student groups.

Thomas A. Lloyd, the founder of CASE and a student at Georgetown, offers a thoughtful reflection on the new organization in a post today in the Guest Voices section of the Washington Post blog.