Administrators at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis have decided that Catholic beliefs require them to refuse to recognize the fact that one of their students is transgender.

Last spring a female student arrived at school with parental units to meet with administrators because the student had come to realize that he was a boy and wanted to be referred to as male.

They asked the school where we stood on it. We explained we were there to care for her, love her, and we still wanted her to be a student in full standing.

--Principal Dave Worland

The fact that they couldn't use the pronoun "him" should have been an indication that things weren't going to go so well. Principal Worland contacted the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. There was a decision made at that level that teachers and staff would not address the student using his male name or use male pronouns.

Apparently compassion and respect for transgender people is against Catholic catechism.

We wanted to make sure they would realize we still recognize her as a female, call her by the name she used when she enrolled as a freshman, and treat her throughout the day as a female student.

--Worland

The student has attended Cathedral High anyway. On National Coming Out Day last Thursday, a host of Cathedral High seniors voiced their support. Twitter and Facebook accounts were abuzz with stories of the school's behavior.

I probably met with over a hundred of our seniors over this.

--Worland

Worland claims that he explained to the students that the school's stance was rooted in the Catholic Church's teachings that say that changing one's gender is wrong. Worland did not go as far as to explain why.

I felt like at the end of the day the students were much more understanding of the school's view.

--Worland

You wish.

Student comments:

As a student at cathedral I believe that the administration is taking this way too far. Sending students home for supporting a classmate is ridiculous. On a daily basis we are told by the administration to "be yourself" and accept yourself for who you are, but they won't even give him a chance to do that. When it comes down to it cathedral doesn't really care about us, it just has a name to uphold.

He is my best friend and I will always support him. It's completely and utterly ridiculous. The day consisted of the administration freaking out over small pieces of adhesive paper. All we were doing was showing our support for him. I've been asking over and over again why Cathedral takes direction from the Archdioses [sic] when we are NOT affiliated with them. We do not receive money from them. The only reason I have been given is that they have control over our Catholic title. My question is why do they have control over our title?

All in all, I love ya, man. We are all behind you. :)

Non-student comments:

The "devout" of many strains of Christ, no, Paul-ianity like to think that accepting people as gay or trans would be tantamount to saying that God makes mistakes. They prefer to think that only what they see in front of them is what God made, and that people who "think" they are gay or trans are being tested by God; that they must reject these "mis-guided" feelings to be one with God, and the faithful (thereby also reducing the anxiety of those among the faithful who clearly are worried about such types of feelings).

It never occurs to those same faithful that maybe the real test for gay or trans people is to accept themselves the way God made them (even if they don't understand the 'why' of it), and to be true to themselves and that creation, rather that to continue to deny and lie about who they really are just to please, or avoid the scorn and/or reticence of others. Such a "test" would of course also challenge the faithful, revealing whether they trusted 
God to make a perfect world as he/she/it, rather than they saw fit, and to accept that world. The existence of gay and trans persons also tests whether the hearts and minds of those faithful are tempered by God's compassion……

Exactly *which* teachings are those, please? Up until around 2000, there were trans people in the Church & it was even possible to have your records changed. Perhaps it's based in the Bible somewhere? No, that's not it. The only mention is Deut, but that was clearly refuted and clarified later in Issiah, Matthew and Acts -and they even cross reference each other to make it perfectly clear that gender variant people are welcome and will have a "special place in God's Kingdom".