An extensive report by the National Catholic Reporter details how two anti-transgender groups have been building influence and shaping diocesan policies for several years, especially those written for Catholic schools.
NCR’s Katie Collins Scott focused her investigation on the efforts of the Person and Identity Project, a part of the larger anti-LGBTQ+ Ethics and Public Policy Center, as well as the Cardinal Newman Society, a conservative group largely known for its attempts to police Catholic colleges and universities.
According to NCR’s investigation, the groups began influencing Catholic policy around 2016 when then-president of the Ethics & Public Policy Center Ed Whelan spoke out in support of a North Carolina law preventing transgender individuals from using restrooms aligned with their gender. To counter trans acceptance, Whelan and the Center created the Catholic Women’s Forum Gender Project, a precursor to the Person and Identity Project, to “respond to the challenges of gender ideology.”
Similarly, the Newman Society provided Catholic schools with suggested policies for Catholic schools that are so extreme they recommend expelling transgender students. Since those policies were issued, at least 15 U.S. dioceses have used language from the guidelines, some only adopting a few phrases, and a few replicating large sections of the text. Importantly, the Newman Society permits usage of the work without the need to footnote or cite the authors, so only two of the dioceses using the language note the organization at all.
In total, 58 dioceses in the U.S. have LGBTQ-related policies, almost all of which are negative. Most of these policies focus on trans people, banning chosen pronouns, clothing, and names. David Palmieri, a Catholic educator and founder of Without Exception, an LGBTQ-positive group for Catholic educators, tracks these types of anti-trans policies in a public archive online.
Both the Person and Identity Project and the Newman Society attack what they call “gender ideology,” which the Person and Identity Project defines as “a false system of beliefs that permit a person to self-determine their gender identity based on feelings or “sense of self” and “asserts an individual’s ‘right’ to ‘transition.’”
Such a definition is rarely helpful, according to Steve Millies, professor of public theology and director of the Bernardin Center at the Catholic Theological Union. “They are all things the church objects to, and because they concern gender and sexuality, we’ve tossed them together,” he explained.
Elizabeth Sweeny Block, an ethicist at Saint Louis University, agreed. She noted that the term “gender ideology” is largely used to “condemn trans individuals, to deny their rights and to accuse those who support them of ‘indoctrinating’ youth.”
LGBTQ+ advocates and Catholics, including some conservatives, have raised concerns about both groups, criticizing both their approach and the substance of their attacks. Dawn Eden Goldstein, a conservative theologian and canon lawyer previously employed by the Newman Society, stated, “I see in Cardinal Newman the culture war spirit of arming against an alien secular invasion.” She thinks the society “is not finding ways to teach students how to show appropriate Christian love while continuing to promote church teaching.”
Goldstein is not the only voice critical of the group’s tactics. Tim Uhl, a former consultant to the U.S. bishops’ education committee and veteran Catholic school administrator, supports the notion of promoting Catholic identity in schools, but also disagrees with the Newman Society’s approach. Their work is often done “in such a way as to stir up anger,” he noted. “And that’s not the same as a group writing fair policies to serve all Catholic children.”
The Newman Society’s inflammatory style isn’t the only problem. NCR asked Catholic psychologist Julia Sadusky for her take on the organization’s guidelines. Her critique centered around the origin of the document and expertise behind them: “It would be important for me if I’m an educator implementing a policy to know that it was created through a multidisciplinary process, that the authors of that document represent philosophy, theology, psychology, endocrinology–all of the realms that impact the gender conversation in particular.” In particular, she questions the “level of psychological education and expertise” behind any organization attempting to address mental health.
Christine Zuba, a transgender woman who has attended talks by the Person and Identity Project, describes the “scare tactics and exaggerations” utilized by Mary Rice Hasson, a lawyer and co-founder of the initiative. “Hasson paints a picture of the lives of trans and nonbinary people that doesn’t really exist,” Zuba explained. “It is a negative picture, an unhappy picture. It’s a world that she’s trying to convince people we live in.”
Like the Newman Society, the Person and Identity Project has also shaped diocesan LGBTQ+ policies, but will not share numbers publicly. NCR was able to confirm that in fact more than 20% of U.S. dioceses list the project on their website as a source to learn more about gender issues. Furthermore, Hasson currently serves on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, led by Winona-Rochester Bishop Robert Barron. The committee’s new website links clearly to the Person and Identity Project on issues of “gender discordance” and includes resources for dioceses, Catholic educators, and parents, including what is termed “medical resources.”
Even as dioceses adopt anti-LGBTQ+ policies influenced by these groups, they are often issuing guidelines directly in conflict with the Vatican. For example, a 2023 document by Bishop R. Walker Nickless of Sioux City “denies enrollment to students who identify as transgender and prohibits trans people from receiving the sacraments.” Yet, a statement from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and signed by Pope Francis around the same time permits both baptism and godparent status for trans individuals. Even the more recent Dignitas Infinita does not declare that being transgender is “immoral,” while the guidelines from the Diocese of Green Bay, quoting the Newman Society, states as if it is established doctrine.
Despite the deep influence these groups have wielded on diocesan anti-LGBTQ+ policies, many Catholics and LGBTQ+ advocates continue to speak out against discrimination and exclusion. Palmieri acknowledges the desire to “be protective of our Catholic values and beliefs.” “But,” he contends, “there’s a narrow way to do that, which excludes anybody that would disagree, and then there’s a more open way–a more Jesus-centered and I think a more Catholic way.”
That universal and inclusive approach more closely follows both the example of Pope Francis and of Jesus’ own ministry to those on the margins.