Gays And The Semary

Contents:

• GAYS AND THE SEMARY
• GAY IENDLY? - ST. JOHN'S FOM
• ST. JOHN'S GAY MEN'S CHORUS
• EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS ST JOHN'S

GAYS AND THE SEMARY

E., lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer and/or qutng, tersex, asexual/aromantic/agenr, alli, and more) issu the St. Lavenr Graduatn is an annual ceremony nducted on numero llege mp to honor lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer stunts who have survived and thrived throughout the llege experience. There will never be a gay stunts' group--or gay film seri or gay dance--at St.

Yet the 64-year-old stutn, ntled the hills of Camarillo, Calif., may be one of the untry's gayt facili for higher tn.

Dependg on whom you ask, gay and bisexual men make up anywhere om 30 percent to 70 percent of the stunt body at the llege and graduate levels. "I don't want people to thk that a negative way, " says a 28-year-old gay alumn, who believ all semarians there are chaste, regardls of orientatn.

GAY IENDLY? - ST. JOHN'S FOM

But some semarians are gay, openly gay, and very loud about . "Though they nstute jt over 5 percent of the populatn, gay men may make up half the stunt body at the 76 high-school, llege and graduate-level semari across the untry, acrdg to broad timat.

There is no le agast celibate gays as semarians, theologians say. But for a church where prits preach that homosexualy is an "trsic evil, " is at the least ngo that so many would-be prits are gay. Amerin church lears are now wrtlg wh the mographic reali, part bee some of them are blamg gays for the growg crisis.

Semary cultur and admissns polici to see if more gays should be screened out. Though the pope has not addrsed the issue of gay semarians publicly, last year the Most Rev. Tarcis Bertone, secretary of the Vatin's Doctral Congregatn, clared, "Persons wh a homosexual clatn should not be admted to the semary.

ST. JOHN'S GAY MEN'S CHORUS

They nsir the wing sndal to be a "homosexual-type problem, " as Detro Cardal Adam Maida has said, spe the near pluraly among psychologists, soclogists and theologians--even abe victims --who say that is not se. "It's not a homosexual issue, " says the Rev. Pot man, says gay admissns, psychologil screeng tts and enforcement of celibacy l will all be the ncerns of Amerin prelat are reports that an aggrsive gay ethos has arisen on mp, maniftg unwelg cliqu and eccliastic flamboyance--a tenncy to embrace the stagier elements of the lurgy, for stance.

"People I know que well have left the semary eher disgt bee people are not keepg vows, or alienatn bee they're not gay.

"[T]here do exist a homosexual atmosphere or dynamic that mak heterosexual men thk twice, " he said last month. Such plats irrate gay clergymen and their fenrs. "Right now, gays are admted to semari as long as they meet the same rigoro standards as straights.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS ST JOHN'S

Acrdg to admissns officers, is mon to quire to an applint's sexual orientatn Charl Borromeo Semary Philalphia is believed to be the only one Ameri that bans gays outright, semary officials say.

"Shouldn't you nsir a homosexual as equally f? However, a growg number of admistrators are adoptg specific requirements for flaggg gays wh notor histori. Jon Fuller, a prit and physician at Boston Medil Center who specializ treatg prits afflicted wh AIDS, lls the effort to screen out gays "unfortunate.

" Not only will further rce the number of semarians, which has plunged om 49, 000 1965 to fewer than 4, 000 today, but may also retroduce a of secrecy among those gay men who enter the semary anyway--or disver they're gay only after enrollg. He accepts that his gay enrollment may be as high as 50 percent, but that hasn't ed any disfort to heterosexuals, much ls an epimic of straight flight, he says. JOHNS - Brian Phillips didn't e out as gay until he was years ago when he was growg up the ral muny of St.