Introduction
In this bulletin, we supplement our previous report about the drag show scheduled for November 3 on campus. We focus upon a heartening campaign against the show by Notre Dame women students – a drive we urge our readers to join – and a compelling Irish Rover editorial.
Notre Dame Women Student's Initiative
In a letter to the Notre Dame Observer, a group of Notre Dame women students charge the administration with an obligation especially to its women students to disallow the use of university funds for “drag artists to come to Notre Dame, dress as women, defile femininity, and most importantly, promote the disordered ideology that gender and sexuality are fluid – in direct contradiction of Church teaching.”
These are performances, they write, in which “femininity is publicly degraded by men who believe that womanhood can be reduced to exaggerated makeup, provocative clothing, and erotic dance.”
And this at a university dedicated to Our Lady, who is “the very essence of the spirituality, femininity, and motherhood that women of faith aspire to.”
The students report that Father Gerry Olinger, the Vice President of Student Affairs, dismissed their protest by invoking academic freedom. (No surprise there. Recall our report about Father Olinger’s indoctrination of first year students in gender ideology.)
The students’ rejoinder:
This event is not for the sake of study or dialogue; it is not the result of faculty or student research; it is not for the sake of academic inquiry. Three male “artists” are being paid to parade around in provocative women’s clothing under the guise of “self-expression” and “bodily autonomy.” If this is academic freedom, then the phrase is meaningless.
“Our very identity is being ridiculed under Mary’s watchful eye,” they protest. “The line has been crossed! Enough is enough!”
The students close by declaring, “Students, faculty, alumni and parents must speak out” and urging all who share their views to send email messages through their transmission site: NoDragND.org
We join our voices to theirs. Your messages will go to Father Jenkins, university administrators, and the heads of each sponsoring department.
(For the full text of the student’s letter, go here. We are pleased to note that a Sycamore Trust Hansen student leadership awardee, Merlot Fogarty (’24), is a principal organizer of this student protest.)
The Irish Rover Editorial
The case against the drag show has also been powerfully laid out in an Irish Rover editorial by its editor-in-chief Nico Schmitz. We reprint it below with permission.
As a preface, here are some supplementary notes:
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With exquisite timing, the drag show performance is to be held during the nationally renowned annual conference of the DeNicola Center for Ethics and Culture. From the gaudy drag show posters dotting the campus, the visitors will know that while they are there the university will take a deep dive into drag ethics and culture.
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Dr. Pam Wojcik, who is responsible for the drag show, says she wants to dispel “the hysteria of Republicans trying to ban something that they don’t understand” and doesn’t think drag is “counter to the teachings of the Church.” The Vatican’s Congregation for Education, which called a drag show at the University of San Diego a “scandal,” disagrees.
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In addition to what The Rover says about the principal performer, Blaire St. Claire, we can report that he (he often uses “she”) was Miss Gay Indiana in 2016; that he “is a total stud now and fans are ravenous” (Out magazine with accompanying “sexy pictures”); and that he “is a Twunk now and everyone’s thirsty” (Pride magazine with a photo to prove it).
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On the off chance that some of our readers might not be familiar with the term “Twunk,” we note that it refers to a “muscular twink.”
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And, no, “Miss Gay America” is not a typo. It is a drag pageant. One of many in this bizarre milieu, e.g., America’s Bearded Queen.
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For one of St. Claire’s educational videos, go here.
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A second performer, London BaCall, is a former Miss Gay Harrisonburg. For posters and photos of his customary venues, go here. And for an example of his performances, by all means go here.
Has there ever been an event at Notre Dame calling forth such tacky material? This is a cheap and vulgar business. Those who sponsor it and those who permit it should be ashamed of themselves. Let’s pitch in with the women students through NoDragND.org.
No Place for Drag at Our Lady’s University
“To a great extent the level of any civilization is the level of its womanhood”
– Venerable Fulton J. Sheen
Official posters recently confirmed the Irish Rover’s September 13 report that several university departments will host a drag show on campus this November. Allowing this event to proceed would constitute implicit acceptance of drag’s sexualized, grotesque, and provocative conception of the human person by the university and its administration.
The November 3 event, open to all Notre Dame students and faculty, will feature performers “Blair St. Clair,” “London BaCall,” and “Cordelia.”
The first, whose given name is Andrew Allen Bryson, was previously a contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race and appeared on RuPaul All Stars. Bryson has consistently tweeted photos in which he is almost completely nude, and he frequently links his OnlyFans, which is a popular subscription-based media platform primarily used to promote self-made pornography.
In a recent instagram post, the second performer, London BaCall, explained his acceptance of his sexuality: “The most freeing day of my life is when I realized that not only was I going to embrace being a f-[expletive], a fairy, and a sissy, but I was going to be the most fabulous version of that I could possibly be. I’m proud to be feminine.”
In a 2011 Drag Show at James Madison University, “BaCall” shared an on-stage kiss with a co-star, telling the audience “She’s a queen and I’m a queen so get into it.”
In supporting lies about the human person—lies that say men can be women and that a minstrel show of femininity is a legitimate art form—the university is not only actively working against her mission, but permitting irreparable damage to its community and image.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “By creating the human being man and woman, God gives personal dignity equally to the one and the other. Each of them, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity.”
There is nothing confusing about the Church’s stance on issues of sexuality. The Catechism additionally describes that “Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity.… For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day.”
Drag shows, even when not performed for children, dishonor and violate this natural order. They skew the line between genders and celebrate the chaos and confusion of gender dysphoria under the guise of “self-expression.” Fundamentally, a drag show mocks all that it means to be a woman by painting a hyper-sexualized picture and making her an object of derision.
Such a performance is particularly egregious at a university dedicated to the exemplar of all women. Under the eyes of Our Lady atop the dome, this performance threatens to fundamentally insult the core of what it means to be a woman.
Despite the fact that withdrawing university funds from “controversial” events is not unprecedented, the administration has not indicated any intention of preventing the upcoming drag show from occurring on campus.
Last year, the university forbade Notre Dame Right to Life from purchasing tickets for Right to Life Michiana’s banquet with club funds, and did not make their annual contribution to the group, all because the speaker was Ben Shapiro. The Notre Dame Office of Mission Engagement and Church Affairs told members of the club, “This event is problematic. This speaker is problematic.” They then cited a 2010 tweet by Ben Shapiro as a reason for the university’s hesitation to associate with his speaking engagement at the benefit. Was anything that Shapiro said worse than the OnlyFans promotion of “Blair St Clair”?
Time after time, university administration and departmental bureaucrats demonstrate an unwillingness to defy secular narratives in favor of upholding any semblance of truth. Even if there were some academic benefit for departments to host men dressed as women to dance on stage—which there is not—there is no room for such a demonstration at a university that claims affiliation with the Catholic Church.
This performance is not hosted by a fringe part of the university. In addition to being marked with the official Notre Dame logo, posters for the production confirm the Rover’s September report that it is cosponsored by the Department of Music, the Department of American Studies, the Initiative on Race and Resilience, and the Gender Studies Program. It is also formally supported by the College of Arts and Letters through the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts Henkels Award—an official funding wing of the college established to bring in top scholars and performers who will have “a lasting effect beyond a series of lectures or performances.”
Controversial events that advocate for the mass murder of innocent children or celebrations of anti-Catholic transgender ideology cannot be dismissed as private events hosted by a few “crazy” individuals under the protection of academic freedom. Such arguments normalize disordered ideologies and relativize the coherent visions of truth, education, and the human person that the Catholic Church holds. They also fail to acknowledge that any association with such events dismembers the university’s internal vision of a Catholic education and community that attracts so many faculty and students to South Bend, Indiana each year.
As yet, university administration has not indicated any intention of preventing the upcoming drag show from occurring on campus. The Rover reached out to the president’s office several times before publishing its reporting piece on the drag show, and received no response. There is no reason to believe that the university will prevent this corrupting attack on femininity and the truth about the human person. Students, faculty, and staff who care about preserving Notre Dame as an authentically Catholic institution must make their voices heard on the matter.
Nico Schmitz, '24
The Irish Rover's Editor-in-Chief, Nico Schmitz is a senior studying in the Program of Liberal Studies with minors in constitutional studies and theology.
Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
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Oremus
Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. (1 Cor 3:18-19)
O God our Father, Eternal Wisdom and Love, You have created us in Your own image and likeness, and called us to live in humble obedience to You and according to the order which You have established to govern the universe. You sent Your Son, Wisdom Incarnate, to save us from sin and to reconcile us to You and to one another. He established the Church to be a saving witness of Wisdom and Love, Goodness and Truth to a rebellious world. We implore You to dispel the darkness that surrounds us. May all who have rejected the truths of creation, seeking to replace Your design for the human race with one of their own, be awakened to the destructive folly which passes for wisdom in this age. Enlighten us all by the Truth which sets us free and grant that we may courageously embrace the scorn and contempt of the wise of the world so that we may joyfully share in the Wisdom of God. Through the intercession of Notre Dame, our Mother, we make our prayer in the Name of Jesus, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.
The above prayer is by Sycamore Trustee Father John Raphael (’89). To join us in regular prayer projects such as our Novena for Catholic Education and our Meditation on the 12-Days of Christmas, please join our Apostolate.
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