Gay prom date

According to the church, homosexuals are "disordered." They can be good Catholics--but only if they don't engage in homosexual acts. Those are sins.

In the courtroom this week, this tortured logic resulted in several hilarious efforts to draw the line between "being" gay (allegedly okay, even on school property) and "acting" gay (not). "Acting" gay is narrowly defined by the school board as "romantic activity" toward a member of the same sex. For example, the school board would allow Marc to take his boyfriend to basketball games but not to the prom.

The board's lawyer also carefully explained to the court that two gay students could attend the prom together--provided they lied. The school would not object if they pretended to go alone, and then didn't dance with each other.

"They could go to the dance but couldn't dance," the judge paraphrased helpfully. The judge learned that even dancing can be divided into romantic and non-romantic. For example, a priest explained to him that the tango is romantic (so homosexuals aren't allowed to do it, I guess), but square dancing isn't, so they are.

So am I to believe that there is a list somewhere of dances that gay couples may do without running afoul of the church?

There is so much wrong with this case. In Canada, Catholic school boards exist to protect the rights of a relatively small minority, but they live off a combination of property taxes and funding from provincial governments. They are, in every respect, public institutions. But what they are suggesting is that the status accorded them to protect minority education rights be used to create what amounts to Catholic Zones in their schools, where the rules of the state can be selectively pared down to fit the doctrine of the church. Frankly, that chafes. If a gay couple can dance on the steps of parliament, then surely they can dance in any school gymnasium in the country--regardless of the views of the local rectors. (And by "dance" I of course mean "tango.")

Anyway, soapbox aside for a moment, this question has been lingering in my mind for a while: how could a gay person be Catholic? I mean, how could someone belong to a church that seems so intolerant of them? The Dignity USA FAQ on Catholicism and Homosexuality has some answers. As I was reading it I thought that religion, like sexual orientation, might also be "a state beyond a person's choice."