I Choose Life

Yesterday a traditionalist (trad) called me a Cafeteria Catholic due to my support for full Catholic Church inclusion of Neurodiverse and LBGTQIA+ individuals.   As I said in my previous post, I never dreamed that I would advocate for LBGTQIA+ inclusion due to my ultra-conservative religious background, not until I learned that Catholic parents of LBGTQIA+ children are choosing between their child’s right-to-life or stay in large parts of the Catholic Church.  I also learned this from parenting Neurodiverse young adults and serving in LBGTQIA+ religious trauma recovery where there are regular suicides, families being ripped apart, and lasting psychological damage, spiritual damage, and trauma occurring. It’s truly that serious. It’s also why I now condemn gay conversion therapy / reparative therapy which has been widely condemned and discredited by every major medical association in the world since the practice spikes the rate of suicide, long-term trauma, and different types of damage.  Every major medical association in the world also affirms LBGTQIA+ people and supports gender-affirming care, the opposite of what the Church has historically done.   So in short, we have to choose between the Sanctity of Life or weaponizing sexuality doctrine to harm and kill. I choose life and love of neighbor.

Here is a limited list of medical organizations which support gender-affirming care, LBGTQIA+ inclusion, and condemn gay conversion therapy / reparative therapy which includes forced celibacy.  Even if a young person initially wants to be celibate, it often ends in trauma, serious harm, and/ or suicide.  The risk is most times too high.

• American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• American Academy of Dermatology
• American Academy of Family Physicians
• American Academy of Nursing
• American Academy of Pediatrics
• American Academy of Physician Assistants
• American College Health Association
• American College of Nurse-Midwives
• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
• American College of Physicians
• American Counseling Association
• American Heart Association
• American Medical Association
• American Medical Student Association
• American Nurses Association
• American Osteopathic Association
• American Psychiatric Association
• American Psychological Association
• American Public Health Association
• American Society of Plastic Surgeons
• Endocrine Society
• GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality
• National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health
• National Association of Social Workers
• National Commission on Correctional Health Care
• Pediatric Endocrine Society
• Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine
• World Medical Association
• World Professional Association for Transgender Health

So Catholic parents of LBGTQIA+ children who are many times also Neurodiverse, here is some good Catholic teaching for those trads who want to use sexual doctrine as a weapon to destroy the LBGTQIA+ people and families.  If you want to get technical with Catholic Teaching, by advocating for LBGTQIA + inclusion, we are following Catholic Social Teaching which honors the Sanctity of life and Dignity of the Human Person, The Call to Family, Community, and Participation by keeping the family intact, which includes the LBGTQIA person.  I am following Pope Francis’s directive in his Encyclical Amoris Lattetita to give appropriate pastoral care to the LBGTQIA person by including him/her because it’s life and death, and Jesus’s 2nd greatest commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves.

“The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health states that every word and action of love, affirmation or acceptance can be the difference life and death for Neurodiverse / LGBTQIA+ people.”

So you can call me a Cafeteria Catholic all you want, but by excluding and rejecting the LBGTQIA person, that is destroying the person and their family to which they belong, and that’s less Catholic teaching than allowing the LBGTQIA+ person to be a practicing homosexual in a life-long committed relationship included within the context of their family.  Most are unable to live a life of celibacy without incurring lasting psychological damage or even death. Debating someone’s right-to-life is not negotiable.  The sanctity of life and human dignity always comes first in the Catholic Church. God doesn’t make junk, nor does He make mistakes. I choose life.