Remnants of Resistance: Catholics Get Queer

October 27, 2023

As part of the One Institute's Circa Queer Histories Festival, CSUN's University Library and Queer Studies Program have partnered to produce a limited podcast series called Remnants of Resistance. Episodes will be hosted by Queer Studies faculty, and will delve into the unique and hidden stories in queer history contained within the Vern and Bonnie Bullough Collection on Sex and Gender and beyond.

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About the Episode

Catholics get queer in the 1970s and 80s by spreading the message that religion has always been a queer thing. The Catholic church had its official position of not supporting ministries to the LGBTQ community (at the time, the "gay community") and affirming that sexuality is only properly expressed within the sacrament of marriage between a man and a woman. Yet, the archives reveal that Catholics also organized to challenge this official position and spread a different message of full and emphatic affirmation of LGBTQ persons and sexuality, fully grounded within the Catholic tradition. Two sets of documents from the Homosexual Information Center Subject Files bring us these insights, Insight: A Quarterly of Gay Catholic Opinion and The Tablet, the bulletin of St. John’s Ecumenical Catholic Church, a rogue Catholic denomination that fully embraced its queerness and the ordination of women to the priesthood. Together, these examples of queering the church pose a necessary challenge to religious folks today about the work they must continue to do for the sake of its church's witness and integrity.

About the Hosts

Xochitl Alvizo (she/her) is an associate professor who teaches Women and Religion and the Philosophy of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality at California State University, Northridge. She teaches with Religious Studies, her home department, as well as the Queer Studies and Civic and Community Engagement programs. Her research areas include feminist and queer theories, congregational studies, ecclesiology, and the emerging church.

Emma Martinez Emma Danyella Martinez is a Chicana first generation college student from San Fernando, California. She is currently an undergraduate studying Art, concentration in photography, at California State University, Northridge. She has a passion for doing research and believes that knowledge is the key to everything. Emma Danyella works in the community with first generation college students as a mentor in encouraging them to pursue a higher education and their future goals.