Making Waves By Challenging the Catholic Church on Gay Rights

You gotta love those voices in the wilderness who challenge institutional prejudice and discrimination by doing something bold. Case in point, Lucinda Naylor.

The Minnesota woman is Catholic, a former artist-in-residence at one of the state's biggest Catholic Churches, and a diehard believer in the principle of equality. That's why Naylor hates to see the leadership of the Minnesota Catholic Church spend so much time and money trying to elect anti-gay politicians and stop gay marriage.

So what did Naylor decide to do? Well, in the wake of the Minnesota Catholic Church spending heaps of money on hundreds of thousands of DVDs blasting gay marriage, Naylor decided to use her artistic abilities to send a message of love, respect, and equal rights. She asked equality-minded Catholics to donate their copies of the DVD, and in turn, she'd use them to create an art project that would stand up to the sentiment that says you can't be Catholic and support gay rights.

That's just what Naylor did. And the result is a shimmery, silvery, sleek sculpture called "The Wave" that challenges the leadership of the Catholic Church to get with the program, and stop demonizing LGBT people.

"These discs originally carried a divisive message sent in the name of the Catholic Church, seeking to block the civil rights of same-sex couples. I say sent in the name of the Church, but not the Church I know. The Church I know is inclusive, not exclusive," Naylor says of her work. "The Wave is about the Spirit of inclusion and love, which is sweeping though the Catholic Church as it continues to change, as usual from the people up to the hierarchy."

Isn't that refreshing. Of course, it's also the perspective of the vast majority of Catholics in this country, who continue to support LGBT equality while their leaders do anything but.

What's perhaps most exciting about Naylor's project is the community aspect to it. This just wasn't a few random DVDs that she managed to collect; this was a statewide effort to find those Catholic families who supported LGBT equality, and urge them to take a stand. And boy, did they. Some sent their DVDs to Naylor in the mail, others had them delivered with food, and some came back with writing on them "Return to sender: This is offensive material." Even more were slipped to Naylor during Mass, put in collection baskets instead of donations to the Church hierarchy.

Naylor says on her blog that the one thing she heard over and over again was this: "Thank you for changing this message into one of love."

So check out the images here, or view them on Naylor's Facebook page too. In the end, this was an art project that saw close to 2,000 people contribute. That certainly speaks a lot louder than the handful of Church leaders who continue to peddle homophobia instead of love for thy neighbor.

Photo credit: DVD to ART 

by Michael A. Jones  gayrights.change.org