Teen refuses teacher’s demand to hang poster LGBT poster at Catholic school

A teenage boy at St. Patrick’s Grammar School in Northern Ireland refused a teacher’s request that he hang up a poster promoting an “LGBTQ+ youth forum.” The boy and his parents are complaining that such a poster doesn’t belong in a Catholic school.

“We are sending our children to get a Catholic education in a renowned Catholic school,” the boy’s father told the Irish Times, speaking anonymously. The poster his son was asked to hang was “promoting a lifestyle that we vehemently disagree with.”

The student’s parents have retained a lawyer (solicitor), who is seeking an assurance from St. Patrick’s that this won’t happen again.

The “LGBTQ+ youth forum” is organized by homosexual/transgender activist group Cara Friend. Cara Friend praised St. Patrick’s Grammar School for promoting its event.

St. Patrick’s Grammar School “is an excellent example of promoting LGBTQ+ inclusion and visibility in schools,” Declan Meehan, deputy director of Cara Friend, told the Belfast Telegraph. He called the Catholic school “a fine example of true Christian ethos through that inclusion and visibility.”

The forum, scheduled to take place on March 24, “will see LGBTQ+ young people from all across Northern Ireland gather for a day of consultations and discussions around the matters which matter most to LGBTQ+ young people. The Forum will be opened by the NI Commissioner for Children and Young People, Koulla Yiasouma.”

It’s open to those between the ages of 12 and 25 “who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, queer or questioning.”

St. Patrick’s website says the school is "noted for its warm, welcoming atmosphere and for the positive, affirming relationships among students, teachers and parents.” 

“Being a Catholic school, we are keenly aware of our responsibility to build upon the values of the homes and parishes our students come from, and we seek to nurture faith and Christian living in all our students,” it states.

The Catholic Church teaches that God created humans as “male and female” and gave them to each other in marriage so they could “increase and multiply.” 

Sexual attraction, as well as the sexual act between a married man and woman, have been specifically created by God for the purpose of procreation. The Catholic Church remains true to God’s original creative plan when she declares authoritatively and for all time that homosexual acts are “acts of grave depravity” and “intrinsically disordered” since they are “contrary to the natural law” in that they “close the sexual act to the gift of life.” 

“They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved,” states the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

Meanwhile, in nearby England and Wales, parents are contending with a pro-LGBT program being imposed on Catholic schools. The UK bishops approved this program, which drew some of its materials from major pro-LGBT activist groups.