The University of San Diego recently put together its annual Supreme Drag Superstar event, wherein renowned drag queens come together to give the student body a little time to relax and unwind in light of upcoming exams. It's just a light and fluffy show featuring men in dresses and wigs, but of course, a small but vocal minority of religious students took this as a "slap in the face" (their words, not mine) and decided to try to pray the show away.

Some Catholic students strongly believe that this type of show shouldn't be held on campus.

“There are a lot of Catholic students on campus who specifically came to this school with the intention of attending a Catholic university, so to a big extent, it feels like a betrayal almost,” said Urbanek.

Still, some drag show supporters say the controversy needs to be put in perspective.

“I think it's unfortunate that someone has to tell them they can't wear what they're wearing because it represents something that seems to be a lot bigger, but in reality it's just an entertainment show,” said attendee "Sister Amanda." [SOURCE]

First off, the host of the show was Manila Luzon, which . . . Seriously, Manila Luzon is performing at your school. That is nothing short of a gift from God. How very dare you.

Second -- Well, I'm not sure how many times this can be repeated, but IT'S A DRAG SHOW. Shit's not that serious. Even if you prayed to have the show cancelled, I'm pretty sure God has more important things on his/her plate. It's not like God's going to look up from his/her desk and go, "Wait, shit, a drag show? Well fuck, I was going to help Africa today, but you guys have real problems." 

Considering that past popes' views on homosexuality and gay marriage have ranged from "pretending it doesn't exist" to "it's a sin and you're going to burn in hell forever," the bar for progressive views has been set pretty low for Pope Francis. At this point, he could say something like "gays aren't that bad, I guess" and he'd still be one of the most progressive popes to ever come out of the Catholic Church.

According to a new piece from The New York Times, back in 2010, Pope Francis gave the most lukewarm endorsement for civil unions ever when he told a group of colleagues that civil unions was slightly less offensive to him than gay marriage. Sadly, that almost borders on progressive for the Catholic Church. Congrats on your D minus, I guess.

Argentina was on the verge of approving gay marriage, and the Roman Catholic Church was desperate to stop that from happening. It would lead tens of thousands of its followers in protest on the streets of Buenos Aires and publicly condemn the proposed law, a direct threat to church teaching, as the work of the devil.

But behind the scenes, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who led the public charge against the measure, spoke out in a heated meeting of bishops in 2010 and advocated a highly unorthodox solution: that the church in Argentina support the idea of civil unions for gay couples.

The concession inflamed the gathering — and offers a telling insight into the leadership style he may now bring to the papacy. 

On one hand, I give the barest minimum of kudos to him for almost sort of being progressive about this, but then not really. Truly, you have earned your D minus (the gentleman's F!). On the other, I've gone over this before, but civil unions are a neutered version of marriage that placates those who don't have full equality by giving them a way to commit to someone legally but with far fewer legal benefits. So if the Catholic church actually wants to remain relevant and not end up a relic in the face of 21st-century knowledge, they may want to drop some of their more discriminatory policies in favour of combining scientific evidence with dogma.

Let me get one thing clear: the majority of Christians are sane, rational people who treat other people with kindness and respect. Unfortunately, the most vocal ones tend to be those who err on the dumber side of things.

Take for instance Mary Hesson. She's a Christian writer and seems to be of the mind that trans rights will force Catholic children out of public schools. How? Well, this is never really explained, but she's pretty adamant this might possibly happen maybe.

Here's an excerpt from her article, titled (unironically) "Will 'Transgender Rights' Drive Catholics out of Public Schools?" THERE IS NO EYEROLL BIG ENOUGH FOR THIS FUCKERY.

In its rush to support the “progressive” agenda for transgender rights, the Board of Education has thrown privacy and safety – for the other students – right out the window. That’s bad enough. The full impact of its decision, however, is even worse.

It’s an insidious strategy that promotes a view of the human person utterly incompatible with Christianity. 

Wait, how is being compassionate and accepting of others incompatible with Christianity? I thought that was the whole point of being religious. That you were supposed to use your belief system to embrace and love others. But wait, it gets worse!

It’s bad enough that children in public school must learn in an environment that no longer recognizes God. But it’s even worse when that educational environment no longer recognizes basic truths about the human person.

Catholics in the past have been able to opt-out of public school sexuality education classes; it’s impossible to opt-out from a pervasive culture based on a flawed anthropology.

Wait, are you upset that you can't just choose to let your kids go uneducated, just so you wouldn't have to acknowledge the humanity of being transgender? What in the hell?

As someone who studied the Bible, I can tell you that most of it is just batshit lunacy. That being said, if you're willing to sift through it, there are some great, compassionate bits in there that outline a pretty great moral code to live by. Loving your fellow human beings, being charitable and compassionate, helping those who need it the most. But trying to raise your children to be uneducated because of your own personal transphobia and homophobia? That wasn't in there. And if it was, it was in the crazy parts.

All I can say is that no, transgender rights won't force Catholics out of school. There's no such thing as a finite amount of education, and there's no such thing as a finite amount of rights. Just because we embrace other people, that doesn't mean we have to make room for them by shunning others. There's room for everyone at the table; just fucking relax. 

I'm going to play this one out with a quote from Stephen Colbert that encapsulates why this is bullshit . . . 

For every crazy asshole preacher claiming that gays are responsible for hurricanes and tsunamis, there are hundreds of loving, rational religious people who love their neighbours and treat others as they wish to be treated. Unfortunately, the law of publicity is that the louder, dumber and more shameless you are, the more attention you get.

And that's why there are, like, five different Kardashian shows on TV right now.

Back on topic: Wes Breedwell, a Christian-rock fan and an employee of seven months at a Christian music venue, is one of those good Christians who loves Jesus and treats people with respect and dignity. But when he wore a T-shirt that proclaimed his support for same-sex marriage, he was promptly fired from his job. Once again: he wore a T-shirt supporting gay marriage. That's all he did. Nice.

Wes Breedwall immediately made his firing, and the reason why, public by posting a photo of himself in the T-Shirt on Instagram stating in part: 'Here is a picture to show my support for equality and free speech including social media. Cheers to my friends for having my back through all of this.'

The T-Shirt is from the Connecticut-based punk band Hostage Calm which spoke out this week (21 January) in defense of their fired fan.

'We called this brave man to hear his story, demonstrate our support, and figure out how we can help,' the band wrote on their website. [SOURCE]

First off: Breedwell is badass as fuck. I just want that on the record. Wes Breedwell kicks all the ass.

Second, it's really, really quite sad when a major component of your religion is intolerance haphazardly disguised as misguided moralization. Honestly, there are tons and tons of compassionate people of various religious affiliations out there, and when they stand up and say, "Hey, I don't think two dudes getting married causes tornadoes," we're taking a step in the right direction.

There's nothing inherently wrong with organized religion. Unfortunately, we have no real way of knowing or understanding life's greatest mysteries, so if someone's belief in a higher power can make them a better, happier person, so be it. Religion starts being a problem when it becomes an impediment to progress: namely, the idea that it's better to accept religious dogma than it is to allow scientific breakthroughs to dictate what we know about our world.

I say all this because I'm about to go in on another bigoted Catholic high school, and I don't want it to seem like I'm just harping on religion for the sake of harping.

Say hello to Saint Francis Prepatory School, a New York Catholic high school that has recently come under fire for firing Mark Krolikowski, a teacher who identifies as transgender, for "insubordination." Of course, Krolikowski allegedly had a great track record, but sure, insubordination. Furthermore, after Krolikowski came out as transgender, the principal allegedly said that he was "worse than gay." Oh my sweet fuck.

Mark Krolikowski (who prefers male pronouns and to be referred to as Mr. K by his students, according to his lawyer) received several accolades for his work over the years. According to ABC News, that work included co-leading his St. Francis Prepatory School students in a musical performance for Pope Benedict XVI.

But after Krolikowski grew out his hair and began painting his nails and wearing earrings along with suits and neckties, Bishop Leonard Conway, St. Francis Prep's principal, objected, calling him "worse than gay" in 2011. Conway notified Krolikowski that he would no longer be welcome at public events if he arrived in women's garb.

The New York Post reports that Kolikowski agreed to tone down his appearance and even received excellent evaluations during the 2011-2012 school year. However, in June he was told he was being insubordinate, and he was terminated in August. After months of trying to settle with the school out of court, Krolikowski is now suing for unspecified damages. [SOURCE]

See? This is the problem with religion, or any other major belief: religion is meant to uphold goodness and humanity, but more often than not, people end up devoting all their time to upholding the religion. Not only are you completely missing the point, but ultimately, you're just not being a very good person, no matter how you gauge it.