It has been a year since transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney appeared on a Bud Light beer can, costing Anheuser-Busch a staggering $1.4 billion. Even after that fiasco, other American corporations like Target and Disney just didn’t seem to get it. While college campuses are the safe space for liberal causes, you might think that someone like Dylan Mulvaney would not be someone who would show up at a religious-affiliated university. Think again.
Read More: Whither Bud Light on the One-Year Anniversary of the Dylan Mulvaney Debacle?
On Monday, April 22, Dylan Mulvaney will speak at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. Why would Dylan Mulvaney speaking at a university be newsworthy? Because St. Louis University (SLU) is a Catholic university. Mulvaney’s appearance has people from both sides of the transgender issue weighing in.
Robert Fischer is the spokesman for PROMO, Missouri’s LGBTQ+ advocacy group. He stated that St. Louis University is “walking the walk,” as they have partnered with the group for things like trainings and public events. He added, “It’s something to be celebrated — religious communities who celebrate and showcase trans and LGBTQ communities. Sometimes those speakers or voices are left out.”
Micah Ballard is director of development and finance for the Metro Trans Umbrella group. He stated,
Obviously giving a voice to trans people at a Jesuit institution is a big deal. It’s cool to see them bringing in a very different perspective students aren’t used to.
Of course, not everyone is on board with Mulvaney’s appearance. Alexandra Leung is the President of the College Republicans at SLU. She stated that the ideology Mulvaney is advocating for goes against Catholic teaching, but also said the group had no plans to protest at the event.
Leung added, “Mulvaney’s comments have been deemed disrespectful and derogatory towards women and to SLU’s central mission.”
Leung also mentioned that the College Republicans wanted to invite Paula Scanlon, a women’s sports activist–who, like Riley Gaines, was forced to compete against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at the University of Pennsylvania–to give a balancing perspective to the issue, but were told that the university that “security could not accommodate their request.”
College Republican President Alexandra Leung is right. Transgenderism does go against Catholic teaching. But the Church’s leader, Pope Francis, has at times, seemed to be on both sides of the issue. He has said “Gender ideology, at this time, is one of the most dangerous ideological colonization. It goes beyond the sexual.” But in July of 2023, he told a young transgender person that “God loves us as we are.” He has also said, when asked specifically about gay people, “Who am I to judge?”
The Dylan Mulvaney event is being organized by a group at SLU called Great Issues Committee. On the group’s school website, it describes its mission as “to stimulate insightful, provocative debate on current issues that will inform and educate, as a service to the St. Louis University community.” Great mission. But if that is the case, if the College Republicans cannot invite a speaker with a differing viewpoint, why can the Great Issues Committee? Why doesn’t the Great Issues Committee invite a speaker who would give a response sanctioned by the Catholic Church to the issue?
Makes you wonder, how many other Catholic universities are being forced to decide between staying true to teaching Catholic doctrine, or teaching the doctrine of the church of Wokeism.