When the members of UNITY, Canisius College’s Gay-Straight Alliance, decided to plan a student drag show on campus this spring, their goal was not to challenge 2,000-plus years of Catholic dogma. Yet this was the reason given by the college in canceling the event nearly three weeks before its intended date.

On March 6, a letter was sent to the student leaders of UNITY from the school’s administration stating that the drag show planned for March 30 was to be discontinued due to its “implicit challenge to Catholic teaching on homosexuality.”

The cancellation of the drag show resulted in an emotionally charged response from UNITY. According to UNITY’s president, Canisius student Luigi Rodo, the group’s members were shocked at the announcement because, he said, “up until receiving the letter, we thought everything was good to go.” Petitions immediately were sent by members via email to the administrators of the college, claiming that the decision was an act of sexual discrimination.

The administration at Canisius denies the accusation of discrimination. In the opinion of Father Michael Tunney, a Jesuit professor, the drag show was problematic from the beginning, mainly due to UNITY’s mantra of educating people on sexual orientation. “UNITY is a group that is held to a higher standard,” said Tunney. “Because of homosexuality and its troublesome nature in the church, this is a reality.”

The relationship between sexuality and traditional Catholic doctrine has often seemed irreconcilable, and is an issue that many students battle daily at colleges with a religious tradition. Religious institutions, in turn, struggle to identify the line between educating its students about sexuality while working under the confines of religious dogma, as in the example of Canisius College and UNITY’s cancelled drag show. The question remains: How is a Catholic institution supposed to provide an open forum for its students when tolerance of homosexuality runs contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church?

In 1993, the Cardinal Newman Society was formed in response to this contemporary quandary. As is stated on its website, the mission of the Society is to commit itself to the restoration of Catholic identity on college and university campuses in the US, or to preserve Ex Corde Ecclesiae—“from the heart of the church”—a document in which Pope John Paul II spelled out his vision for what a Catholic university should be. According to its president, Patrick J. Reilly, “homosexual activism on Catholic colleges has dramatically increased over the past several years, quickly eclipsing any other concern.”

Predictably, Reilly agreed with the decision of Canisius College to cancel the drag show. “A drag show is a form of entertainment and has no protection of academic freedom,” he said. “The college’s responsibility is to ensure an environment that is conducive to the Catholic lifestyle.”

However, college students often find it difficult to adhere to Catholic teachings when they are seen as incompatible with our constantly changing society. In the 1960s, following Vatican II, it seemed that the Catholic Church was finally acknowledging the need to harmonize itself with the people that make up its constituency.

It was not until 1997, however, that homosexuality was explicitly addressed, when American bishops wrote the doctrine entitled Always Our Children. In this message, written mainly for parents with children who had “come out,” along with a reminder to parents to practice Christ’s unconditional love there was an element of acceptance for all individuals regardless of sexual orientation.

According to Father Tunney, this doctrine was an important step for the Catholic Church in its pursuit of pastoral compassion. “This is a great opportunity for the Catholic Church to respond and care for its own people, which the church is beginning to grapple with in a very sensitive and productive way,” Tunney said.

By most measures, however, the Church is growing more and more conservative. In a country where freedom of expression is regarded as sacred, is it possible to find a middle ground at Catholic colleges and universities where students, and the organizations which represent them, are not discriminated against for their sexual orientation?

UNITY’s Rodo says that the drag show was intended to be educational. “It is controversial, but you can harness the controversy and use it for something greater than that—to educate people [about homosexuality],” said Rodo.

Dr. Conley maintains that the administration has supported UNITY and will continue to do so, and says that the decision to cancel the drag show was made in the best interest of the club. Father Tunney suggested that the college would be more likely to support a more clearly educational program: “A paper that is delivered on the history of drag,” Tunney said, as an example, “or new developments in AIDS research.”