Bill Donohue

Pope Francis is obviously worried about “fags” in the seminaries, and even in the Vatican.

On May 28, it was reported that in a private meeting with 250 Italian bishops the week before, the pope said he opposed having openly homosexual men in the seminaries. He said the seminaries were already too full of “frociaggine,” or “faggotry.” After being criticized, the Vatican said the pope “extends his apologies.”

Now the Italian news agency, ANSA, is reporting that when the pope met privately with priests at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome on June 11, he said, “In the Vatican, there is an air of ‘faggotry.’”

The use of the gay slur is not the real issue, though it is surprising to hear the pope speak this way twice within three weeks, and just two weeks after his apology was issued for the first infraction. The real issue is the prevalence of homosexuals in the seminaries and in the Vatican.

As I recount in my book, The Truth about Clergy Sexual Abuse: Clarifying the Facts and the Causes, the damage that homosexuals—not pedophiles—have done to the Catholic Church cannot be overstated. They are responsible for 81 percent of all the cases of the sexual abuse of minors from 1950 to 2002; almost all of the males were postpubescent.

Pope Francis didn’t need the data to know that homosexuals have taken over too much of the Catholic Church. He has previously spoken openly about the “gay lobby” and the “gay mentality” in the Church.

When a bishop told the Holy Father that it was no big deal that several priests in his diocese were homosexuals—it was just an “expression of affection”—the pope strongly disagreed. “In the consecrated life and in the priestly life, there is no place for that kind of affection,” the pope said. He also warned priests against aligning themselves with the “gay movement.”

Pope Benedict XVI has also warned of the damage that homosexuals have done to the priesthood. This explains why he said that those with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” should not be ordained. Pope Francis has continued this policy.

It is not just Pope Francis who has expressed concern about the number of homosexuals in the Church. Father Andrew Greeley said in 1989 that “Blatantly active homosexual priests are appointed, transferred and promoted. Lavender rectories and seminaries are tolerated. National networks of active homosexual priests (many of them administrators) are tolerated.” In 2000, he testified that seminary professors “tell their students that they’re gay and take some of them to gay bars, and gay students sleep with each other.”

In 2002, Bishop Wilton Gregory (now a Cardinal) said, “One of the difficulties we do face in seminary life or recruitment is when there does exist a homosexual atmosphere or dynamic that makes heterosexual men think twice” about joining the priesthood. He said it is “an ongoing struggle” and that the Church must be careful not to be “dominated by homosexual men.”

Pope Francis is clearly worried that there are still too many homosexuals in the priesthood. Calling gays “fags” should not mask what is bugging the pope. His critics are trying to divert attention from the real problem.

For PDF version, click here.

The following report examines the efforts undertaken by the Biden administration to advance the LGBT agenda around the globe. It begins by exploring the overarching policies that Biden has pursued. It then catalogs how these aims have played out in specific regions.

White House

On February 4, 2021, President Biden issued a memorandum NSM-4 on “Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Persons Around the World.” Significantly, it was given a “national security memorandum” number making it of  an even higher importance.

In Biden’s speech on September 21, 2021, to the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, he said, “We all must defend the rights of LGBTQI individuals so they can live and love openly without fear, whether it’s Chechnya or Cameroon or anywhere.”

President Biden’s Executive Order 14075, “Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals,” instructed the Secretary of State, together with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Administrator of United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to create a plan to combat “conversion therapy” around the world.

State Department

Secretary Antony Blinken said, “We are engaging around the world in cultural diplomacy. We’re engaging in also making sure that we’re doing what we can to help protect the rights of marginalized groups, including notably the LGBTI+ community which in so many countries around the world is under threat, and many cases under growing threat.”

Under Blinken’s leadership, the State Department has observed International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia; Coming Out Day; Spirit Day; International Pronouns Day; Intersex Awareness Day; Intersex Day of Solidarity; and Ace week (celebrating those with asexual-spectrum identities). Additionally, the State Department has participated in Pride Month celebrations around the world. Numerous bureaus and embassies hosted and participated in wide-ranging Pride events creating social media toolkits that were shared with all embassies and consulates.

Scores of U.S. embassies flew Pride or Progress flags. Several of the host nations still protect traditional values, and therefore, the American effort could be viewed as a form of imperialism, foisting these degenerative values on these countries. Examples of this include: the Holy See, Angola, Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Belize, Bermuda, Bulgaria, Burma, the Central African Republic, Chad, China, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Curacao, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Eswatini, Fiji, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Mauritius, Moldova, Montenegro Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Northern Macedonia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, South Korea, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.

Each year, the State Department releases its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, known as Country Reports. These 195 Country Reports evaluate in detail the human rights record of every country in the world as perceived by the State Department. Beginning in 2022, 67 countries were criticized under the category of “Involuntary or Coercive Medical or Psychological Practices Specifically Targeting LGBTQI+ Individuals.”  Additionally, The Country Reports identify 154 countries as having inadequate “legal gender recognition.” In other words, the State Department considers it a potential human rights violation if other countries do not easily facilitate changing the sex designation on official documents or name changes for someone who identifies as the opposite sex. Examples include: Albania because its law does not “guarantee the individual’s right to self-determination of gender,” the Central African Republic because “the constitution defines marriage as ‘the union between one man and one woman,'” Kazakhstan because “some families and private religious practitioners engaged in prayers and religious ceremonies intended to alter the sexual orientation or gender identities of LGBTQI+ individuals,” Madagascar because “individuals cannot self-identify in their official documents,” Malaysian because the law “does not recognize LGBTQI+ individuals, couples, or their families,” and Nicaragua because “the law curtailed the rights of LGBTQI+ households by defining families as necessarily headed by a man and a woman.”

In September 2021, President Biden appointed Jessica Stern as the administration’s LGBTQI Special Envoy. In her time at the post, she has traveled to 22 different countries to advance the LGBT agenda globally. In 2022, she attended a Pride parade in Lithuania where she celebrated the number of children she saw in attendance. She spoke with civil society organizations about removing “gender markers” from the national ID system and denouncing conversion therapy in Brazil.

In 2021, the State Department issued “Memorandum on Advancing Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons Around the World.” The memorandum calls for the department to “lead a standing group, with appropriate interagency representation, to help ensure the Federal Government’s swift and meaningful response to serious incidents that threaten the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons abroad. When foreign governments move to restrict the rights of LGBTQI+ persons or fail to enforce legal protections in place, thereby contributing to a climate of intolerance, agencies engaged abroad shall consider appropriate responses, including using the full range of diplomatic and assistance tools and, as appropriate, financial sanctions, visa restrictions, and other actions.”

In 2022, the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor solicited “new proposals for programming to support the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons, with a focus on LGBTQI+ inclusive democracy, and particularly marginalized populations including lesbian, bisexual and queer women and transgender, intersex and other gender diverse persons, as well as under-resourced regions.”

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

A January 2023 USAID report, “Integrating LGBTQI+ Considerations into Education Programming,” recommended training educators to use appropriate pronouns and changed reference to mother or father to “parent/parent” or “parent/guardian.” Other parts of the report called for the abolition of school policies that are “based on the gender binary,” including dress codes or prohibitions against “long hair or long nails for some students.” Additionally, the report states “Ensure that education officials do not reveal a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity without the student’s permission – even to the student’s family.” Furthermore, USAID drew on resources provided by the anti-Catholic Southern Poverty Law Center to craft this report.

In August 2023, USAID’s “LGBTQI+ Inclusive Development Policy,” states, “USAID affirms and celebrates lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) people and all people of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex characteristics as integral parts of every society.”

Peace Corps

“In June 2021 Peace Corps’ Europe, Mediterranean, and Asia Region hosted (with the support of the Office of Overseas Programming and Training Support) hosted a LGBTQI+ support and non-discrimination webinar for 21 posts, during which Peace Corps North Macedonia presented on best practices for supporting Transgender Volunteers and Peace Corps Thailand presented on best practices for placing and supporting same-sex couple Volunteers.”

National Endowment for the Humanities

Between October 1, 2020, and September 30, 2023, the United States has issued more than 1,100 grants to fund the LGBT agenda around the world. Many of these grants are administered by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

One of these grants gave $1 million to Outright Action, an LGBT activist organization, working in Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Ukraine, the Philippines, Iran, and China.

Another project that received funding was translating the “Homosaurus” into Spanish. The “Homosaurus” is a thesaurus of LGBT terms such as “anonymous sex,” “aromantic porn films,” “pederasts,” “children’s sexuality,” and “gay children.” Additionally, the “Homosaurus” defined “fetishes” including “ephebophilia” (a reference to being attracted to people aged 15 to 19) and “Hebephilia” (attracted to children aged 11 to 14).

Sub-Saharan Africa

In 2021, the U.S. Embassy in Mauritius awarded a grant to a prominent LGBT organization “to establish a public research space promoting the wellbeing and integration of the LGBTQI+ community.”

In August of 2021, the U.S. Embassy in Angola hosted “an informal roundtable discussion between a congressional delegation led by U.S. Representative Karen Bass and members of Angolan civil society which included representatives from Angolan LGBTQI+ organizations.

On November 29, 2021, Botswana’s Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision to strike down a law that forbade “carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature.” U.S. Embassy staff attended the November 29 decision and the October 12 Court of Appeals hearing on the case. The Embassy also coordinated a statement with the UK, EU, Australia, France, and Germany celebrating the decision and congratulating activists for their “long but successful struggle.”

In 2022, the U.S. Mission to Botswana offered a grant opportunity called “Beyond Decriminalization: Expanding LGBTQI+ Rights in Botswana.” The grant would provide $300,000 to “carry out a program to promote greater social acceptance of LGBTQI+ persons, including among influential religious groups and traditional groups (our italics).”

In May of 2022. the U.S. Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) to Zimbabwe conducted a press interview discussing the Department’s Human Rights Report and the importance of International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia. The DCM emphasized “the growing recognition of LGBTQI+ human rights and said all should live their lives authentically and without fear.” The embassy also featured an excerpt of the interview on social media.

In July of 2022, the U.S. Ambassador to Benin participated in a reception “to elevate the importance the United States places on the defense and protection of human rights – in particular LGBTQI+ inclusion.”

In 2023, after the Ugandan parliament passed a bill restricting homosexual conduct, “according to Ugandan news outlets, U.S. officials threatened to withhold funds used to treat 1.4 million Ugandans living with HIV/Aids. That would include withholding $400 million annually that goes toward life-saving anti-retroviral drugs.”

In August of 2023, State Department LGBT Envoy Jessica Stern traveled to Mauritius where she participated in a “conference for LGBTQI+ human rights defenders from throughout Africa, as well as scheduled meetings with civil society, officials from the Government of Mauritius, and likeminded international partners.”

In 2023, LGBT Envoy Stern also traveled to South Africa where she “outlined some key areas on which she’s focusing her efforts, including decriminalising homosexuality, legal gender recognition, intersex rights, ending LGBTQI+ violence, and fighting against conversion therapy practices.” During her trip she spoke in favor of using U.S. diplomatic power to change LGBT laws particularly in Africa saying that “it becomes really important that the US government uses our political power to fight sodomy laws, fight for legal gender recognition, and fight gender-based violence, but also that we put our money where our mouth is – and that means increasing our financial support for LGBTQI+ advocacy everywhere.”

In February of 2024, the U.S. State Department announced that it would consider withholding funding and aid from Ghana in response to the passing of anti-LGBTQ legislation. The law would prohibit the forming or funding of LGBTQ+ groups with offenders potentially being sentenced to three years in jail. In a statement, State Department spokesman Mat Miller said the bill “would certainly have a chilling effect on foreign investment and tourism in Ghana,” noting that “should the bill pass, it would potentially have ramifications on U.S. assistance.”

During the Biden administration, the U.S. Embassy in Cabo Verde has remained in regular contact with the Cabo Verde National Commission for Human Rights and Citizenship (CNDHC) through the final phase of its “LGBTI Citizenship Project.” The aim of this project is “to draft legislation to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation as well as gender identity, race, color, origin, ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, disability, health, and immigration status.”

Middle East and North Africa

In June 2021, the U.S. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates flew the LGBT Pride Flag in recognition of Pride Month. This caused a backlash in the country. The former director of Dubai’s finance department called the move “very disrespectful” and a senior Emirati official referred to the flag flying as “[rubbing] it in our faces.”

In 2021, after the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain flew the Pride Flag, “Bahraini [Member of Parliament] Ahmed Al-Dumstani published a copy of a joint statement signed by 21 lawmakers that calls for a government response to the US embassy’s rainbow flag display. The statement describes the rainbow flag as a ‘blatant provocation against Bahraini society’ and ‘a violation of international and diplomatic relations.'”

In June of 2022, the official Twitter account of the U.S. embassy in Kuwait posted an image of a Pride Flag with a pro-LGBT message. Kuwaiti officials accused the embassy of violating international conventions that require diplomats to “respect the laws and regulations of the receiving state.” The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry summoned the top U.S. diplomat and sent a memo to the U.S. Chargé d’Affaires James Holtsnider requesting that “the embassy…respect the laws and regulations in force in the State of Kuwait and the obligation not to publish such tweets.”

USAID’s Middle East and North Africa partnered with Civil Society Organizations “to create a toolkit to enhance security protections for organizations working with key populations — including gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who use drugs, sex workers, and transgender people — on HIV programming. LGBTQI+ organizations from across the region have used the toolkit to assess their strengths and areas for growth, and to organize, plan, and strategize for resilient health programming and rights advocacy.”

During the Biden Administration, the U.S. Embassy in Algeria worked to promote “quarterly LGBTQI+-focused roundtables with like-minded diplomatic missions.”

During the Biden Administration, the U.S. Embassy in Jordan, initiated a quarterly dialogue with other like-minded missions. This partnership established an ongoing dialogue and agreed on principles of engagement and information sharing regarding LGBT issues.

Asia

In November of 2021, Special Envoy Jessica Stern participated in the U.S.-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue “to raise challenges on the promotion of human rights of LGBTQI+ persons in Vietnam, as well as highlight areas of progress and potential cooperation to further advance human rights protections,” including drafting a “gender affirmation law to ensure legal gender recognition and amendments to the Marriage and Family Law to provide same-sex couples property and inheritance rights.”

During the Biden administration, the United States Embassy in Uzbekistan has “consistently raised the issue of decriminalization [of same-sex activity] with the government and continues to look for ways to make progress on this sensitive issue.”

One potential human rights violation noted in the Kazakhstan Country Report was  “some families and private religious practitioners engaged in prayers and religious ceremonies intended to alter the sexual orientation or gender identities of LGBTQI+ individuals.”

Europe

In June 2021, 2022, and 2023 the Pride flag was displayed outside of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.

In September 2021, the U.S. embassy in Portugal gave $10,000 to fund a film festival called “Queer Lisboa.” This is an LGBT film festival held in Portugal that featured drag queens and depictions of incest and pedophilia. At the time, Chargé d’Affaires Kristin Kan said she was “very happy” to support this film festival as “part of our Diversity, Equality and Inclusion efforts.”

In 2022, the United States Embassy in North Macedonia “provided a small grant to an LGBTQI+ organization to host a series of workshops/discussions with the LGBTQI+ community, allies, and state institutions on recognizing and mitigating discrimination.”

In 2022, the United States Embassy in Albania announced that it will partner with The Justice Department’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT) “to train victim coordinators on LGBTQI+ rights, inviting prominent representatives from the LGBTQI+ community as well as representatives from the Institution of the Commissioner on Protection from Discrimination. The Albanian law ‘On Protection from Discriminations’ does not specifically include LGBTQI+ persons.”

In 2022, the State Department also wished to partner with OPDAT to amend criminal law in the Baltic states. In Estonia and Lithuania, they aimed to include gender identity as a protected class.  Meanwhile, in Latvia, they planned to make sexual orientation and gender identity into a protected class.

Latin America and the Caribbean

NGOs and churches from Caribbean countries have pushed back against the display of Pride flags, asserting in a joint statement that flying Pride flags at embassies “represents gross disrespect and an assault upon the consciousness of our societies.”

When the United States Embassy in Jamaica flew the Pride flag, it led to protests. One sign read “Stop cultural imperialism”; protestors also called the flag “an insult to our country.”

Bill Donohue

On June 14, Pope Francis is scheduled to meet 105 comedians from 15 countries. Americans who have been invited include Jim Gaffigan, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock, Tig Notaro and Whoopi Goldberg. The meeting is being arranged by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education and the Dicastery for Communication. Their goal is to “establish a link between the Catholic Church and comic artists.”

Perhaps it would be good to vet these comedians before introducing them to the pope. Then again it may not matter.

We have nothing to say about Jim Gaffigan or Chris Rock. But the others have said things about Catholics that should have been picked up by the members of these two dicasteries.

Stephen Colbert has compared the Eucharist to Doritos. “I know the Eucharist is usually bread, but through transubstantiation it becomes the Body of Christ, so I honestly don’t understand why Jesus can’t be a Dorito?” He has mocked Catholic objections to President Obama’s plan to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to pay for contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs in their healthcare plan. “Catholic groups are forced to provide contraceptives, but the pope wants his hat to be the only thing with a reservoir tip.” His show also depicted a priest distributing condoms instead of the consecrated Host.

Jimmy Fallon has smeared priests. “A priest in Italy has developed a new app that will let priests say Mass on their iPods. Yeah, altar boys are quickly learning the difference between itouch and bad touch.”

Conan O’Brien has portrayed all priests as molesters. “Kids can opt out of fondling by texting #nothanks to the Vatican.”

Whoopi Goldberg, who has had 6 or 7 abortions (she is not sure), has made a slew of attacks on priests, and has ripped Pope John Paul II for rejecting homosexuality and abortion. “Who the f**k is the pope to judge people like that?”

Tig Notaro claims she married a woman in 2015 and it was blessed by a deacon. She said of Jesus that he “was a woman and her pantsuits would blow your feeble-f**king minds.”

Some of those who serve on the dicasteries that invited these people are known to us.

On the Dicastery for Culture and Education are Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg, and Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark.

Hollerich has said that the official Catholic teaching on homosexuality is “no longer correct.” Cardinal Tobin agrees, saying the language is “very unfortunate.”

On the Dicastery for Communications is Cardinal Marcello Semeraro. Serving as a Consulter is Father James Martin.

Cardinal Semeraro, who was recently appointed by the pope to serve on the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote a preface to a book by a priest called, Possible Love: Homosexual Persons and Christian Morality.

Father James Martin, who is the poster priest for the LGBT cause, rejects the term “intrinsically disordered” to describe homosexuals, saying it makes them feel “subhuman.”

When all of these people meet, it makes us wonder who will have the last laugh.

Bill Donohue

The Biden Administration never stops telling us about the virtue of diversity and how we must respect it. Yet when it comes to the diversity that foreign countries exhibit, especially in matters relating to sexuality, it shows nothing but contempt. Instead of respecting the diverse cultural norms and values that exist in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, the Biden administration is shoving down their throats the corrupt sexual agenda of western nations.

We have prepared a report, “Biden Admin LGBT Imperialism,” that  documents the extent to which the administration is guilty of cultural imperialism. Here are a few examples.

President Biden hit the ground running, rolling out a slew of radical LGBT policies literally two weeks after he was inaugurated. He issued a memorandum on “Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Person Around the World.” It was given a national security number (NSM-4) to show its importance.But who asked Biden to promote his queer agenda around the world? And why the urgency? Aside from elites and wealthy left-wing advocacy organizations—who do not represent the masses—no one did.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is enthralled with this agenda. Early on he bragged that “We are engaging around the world in cultural diplomacy.” Wrong. The administration is engaging in cultural imperialism.

When U.S. embassies fly Pride Flags in countries that are averse to this indoctrination—including the Holy See—they are showing how little they respect the diversity that these nations represent. When the United States Agency for International Development tells educators what pronouns to use, and advises that when they learn of a girl who thinks she is a boy that they are under no obligation to tell her parents, this is a classic example of cultural imperialism.

The manipulation of religious groups, as has been done in Botswana, to promote LGBT policies that they reject, is another example of this malady. It got so bad in Ghana they even threatened to withhold funding unless officials there adopted laws on sexuality that the Biden administration favors. And why was it necessary to fund a film to be distributed in Portugal that features drag queens and depictions of incest and pedophilia? Do we have perverts working for us?

In the Fifties and Sixties, it was common to refer to Americans who disrespected local cultures abroad as “The Ugly American.” But they look positively beautiful compared to the bullies working for Biden today. They are disfiguring the cultures of foreign countries and are responsible for the increase in anti-American sentiment across the globe.

Most of the world does not want any part of being “included” in western programs that promote an offensive vision of sexuality. They want their diversity respected.

Contact Jessica Stern, the U.S. Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Persons: Special_Envoy_LGBTQI@state.gov

You may want to ask her why she left the + off of her email address. By doing so she is showing her disrespect for inclusion.

Bill Donohue

Silicon Valley is home to tech companies that are known for their embrace of the queer agenda, as well as their animus to people of faith. When it comes to advancing this cause, Google is hard to beat. It has spent a small fortune promoting the politics of the LGBT crowd.

Google is all-in on “Pride Month.” On its website it is featuring “8 Ways to ‘Find Pride’ with Google.” We prepared a report so that everyone can see just how deep a dive it is doing to further the mission of homosexuals and the sexually confused.

To read it click here.

Bill Donohue

Caitlin Clark has done more for women’s basketball than any other person. One would think that the superstar, who excelled at the University of Iowa and was the number-one draft pick in the Women’s National Basketball Association (she plays for the Indiana Fever) would be treated with applause by fellow players, the media and pundits. While many have lauded her, she has been savaged by others. The stench of bigotry is in the air.

Clark is a white heterosexual Irish Catholic with a boyfriend. That is hardly exceptional, but unfortunately for her, that matters to some of her critics. [Note: All of the persons cited are black, with the exception of Clay Travis.]

Clark’s Catholic faith is important to her. In 2018, she gave an interview to the Des Moines Register about her time at Dowling Catholic High School. “We get to live our faith every day. Dowling starts every day with prayer and ends every day with prayer. This is a big reason why Dowling has such a special culture and is such a special place to go to school.”

Sports columnist and podcaster Jason Whitlock notes that “Caitlin Clark’s sanity cannot survive the racial, sexual, and political blender participation in the WNBA will cause. She’s a 22-year-old white woman with a boyfriend raised in the Catholic faith. She plays on a bad basketball team that has started the season 0-5. She’s playing in a league that is hostile to virtually everything about her – skin color, sexuality, and faith.”

“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin argues that “There is a thing called white privilege. There is a thing called tall privilege, and we have to acknowledge that… I do think that she is more relatable to more people because she’s white, because she’s attractive, and unfortunately, there still is that stigma against the LGBTQ+ community. Seventy percent of the WNBA is black. A third of the players are in the LGBTQ+ community and we have to do something about that stigma in this country.”

WNBA player A’ja Wilson claims that racism is buoying Caitlin Clark’s success. “I think a lot of people may say it’s not about black and white, but to me, it is.”

Atlantic sports writer and former ESPN commentator Jamele Hill claims, “We would all be very naive if we didn’t say race and her sexuality played a role in her popularity….”

Mike Freeman, a columnist for USA Today, contends it was a moral outrage that Clark received a shoe deal while none of the black WNBA players had a similar sponsorship offer. He maintains that it “shows how black women are being ignored in a league that they dominate.” He went on to say, “What so much of this comes down to is a lack of respect for the black women of the WNBA.”

In an effort to dismiss Clark’s potential, former WNBA player Sheryl Swoopes says that Clark is overrated because she played in college for five years, was a 25-year-old and could easily dominate the opposition, and took over 40 shots a game. When critics pointed out that Swoopes was factually wrong on all of these claims, she responded to the blowback by saying, “For people to come at me and say that I made those comments because I’m a ‘racist’, like, first of all, black people can’t be racist.”

Clay Travis, the host of “Outkick,” notes that “Caitlin Clark is white and straight in a league that is primarily minority and lesbian. I told you this was going to be an issue, and now you got everybody acknowledging it all over the place. The average WNBA player does not like Caitlin Clark because she is white, because she is straight, and because now she is rich and getting a lot of attention. There is a great deal of resentment about that….”

Stephen A. Smith, the host of “First Take,” defends Clark, saying, “There are girls – young ladies – in the WNBA who are jealous of Caitlin Clark. She is a white girl that has come into the league….Where the resentment comes in is the hard work, the commitment, the dedication, the pounding of the pavement, the being on the grind all of these years trying to uplift this brand that is the WNBA and is women’s professional basketball and all of their efforts were in vain until this girl comes along and takes the league by storm… and has accomplished in a short period of time what they haven’t been able to.”

NBA all-star LeBron James also came to the defense of Clark. He took aim at her critics. “If you don’t rock with Caitlin Clark game you’re just a FLAT OUT HATER!!!” He added, “I’m rooting for Caitlin because I’ve been in that seat before.”

Most fans don’t care whether a player is white, black, straight, gay, Catholic, Protestant or Jewish. They cheer on the basis of performance, not the player’s demographic status. But to some players, pundits and journalists, these personal characteristics matter greatly. They are hung up on race, religion and sexual orientation. Their bigotry is palpable.

Part II 

Bill Donohue

This is the second of a two-part series. To read Part I, click here.

Part I of this series focused on the war on testing that is being waged by those who claim to be helping minority students, but are in fact keeping them from succeeding. These same persons want to dumb-down disciplinary measures, creating an untenable condition in the classroom.

Those educators, politicians and activists who are responsible for this development have such low expectations of minority students, especially African Americans, that it smacks of racism. They simply refuse to treat blacks as equals. They have sunk so low that they are no longer satisfied with lowering the bar—they want to do away with it altogether.

If there is one politician who epitomizes this vision of education it is Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York. Most Americans know nothing about him, with the notable exception of the irresponsible prank he pulled off last fall: he intentionally set off a false fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building. He was duly censured by the House for committing this criminal act.

Bowman took office in 2021 and fast became a member of the “Squad”; they are the most radical left-wing members in Congress. He made campaign promises when running for office in 2020 that were so extreme that even he had to walk away from some of them. [Note: What follows can no longer be found on his campaign website or his congressional one.]

Bowman is an enemy of school testing, not just standardized tests. He says those who believe in testing are part of a “test-and-punish regime,” one that stigmatizes students, teachers and schools that don’t pass the grade. He also doesn’t want to punish unruly students. “Instead of punitive discipline, such as suspensions and expulsions,” he advises, “let’s invest in restorative justice and trauma-informed pedagogy and care.” So when violence breaks out, bring in the therapy dogs.

Bowman listed 20 reforms that should be implemented in the elementary and secondary schools. We need more social workers and counselors, and less police officers. The professional talkers, he says, are best suited for dealing with students who refuse to go to school. This is his plan to “decriminalize truancy.”

Students should be required to spend “at least 60 minutes of gym/and or recess per day.” He does not say how much time should be spent on reading, writing, math and science.

Bowman wants to reform higher education as well. He wants free schooling in the public colleges and universities. Students should also be given grants to cover their living expenses. “This can be largely funded through raising taxes on Wall Street and a wealth tax.” For some reason, he did not apply his policy to Hollywood moguls or professional athletes.

The same wealthy Wall Streeters should also have to pay for all student loan debt. He does not say what is to be done about all those students and parents who shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars for their loans.

Should private colleges and universities also be tuition free? No. He says they shouldn’t even be allowed to exist. “Ban for-profit colleges.” Did you hear that Harvard?

What makes Bowman’s utopia so rich is that he wants to kill all charter schools, knowing full well that they are the best public school hope for minority students. Moreover, he ran a successful charter school before becoming a congressman.

In 2009, Bowman was the founding principal of Cornerstone Academy for Social Action Middle School in Manhattan; it was part of an educational initiative launched by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Like most charter schools, it quickly earned a stellar record. Bowman credited “High expectations” as the reason he succeeded.

So why would Bowman now want to drive charter schools out of business? Why would he want to force black kids to go to lousy public schools? Moreover, if having high expectations for black students worked well in his charter school, why the shift to low expectations now?

We know that the teachers unions give lavishly to Democrats who want to destroy charter schools, but if that is enough for Bowman to take the low road and sell out his fellow African Americans, then he has obviously become their enemy.

When Bowman was born in 1976, he lived in the East River Houses in East Harlem, more popularly known then as Spanish Harlem. I taught down the block from those units at that time, working with African American and Puerto Rican students in a Catholic school. My students were a model of academic excellence. One reason why they succeeded is because I demanded much from them.

There is nothing more racist than to treat blacks as second-class citizens, expecting little from them. But that is the way liberals treat them, including black radicals like Jamaal Bowman.

Contact Sarah Iddrissu, Bowman’s chief of staff: Sarah.Iddrissu@mail.house.gov

Bill Donohue

In the Olympics, we know who the fastest runner is by who crosses the finish line first. But it is not that easy to determine who is the best ice skater or springboard diver: whoever gets the highest composite score from a team of judges wins. When it comes to academic achievement, we rely on test scores.

Like the skater and the diver, judging academic success will never be as easy as determining who the fastest runner is; the fact that the judges usually differ is testimony to this verity. No matter, few conclude that it would be better not to have judges decide who should get the gold, silver and bronze medals.

Unfortunately, there is no shortage of prominent educators, politicians and activists who want to kill testing. While they focus on standardized tests, they typically object to testing in general. They do so because time and time again, black students do the worst, followed by Hispanics. Instead of helping these students clear the bar, they want to jettison it.

It is a lie to say that “students of color” can’t do well in school. Asians do. Indeed, most white kids can’t compete with them, never mind black and Hispanic kids.

We have known since the Coleman Report on education in the 1960s (named after sociologist James S. Coleman) that it is not what happens in school that is the primary factor accounting for academic proficiency—it is what happens outside of school. To be exact, it is what happens in the home that counts the most.

We know that Asians spend more time doing homework than any other racial or ethnic group; blacks spend the least amount of time. This underscores Coleman’s research. The reason for this condition is not hard to figure out: the typical Asian student comes from a two-parent home; the typical black student comes from a one-parent home. Kids raised in two-parent homes—including black kids—do better than kids raised in one-parent homes.

No state has declared war on school testing more than Oregon. It has suspended the graduation requirement for math, reading, and writing proficiency until the 2027-2028 academic year. It is doing so in the name of “equity.”

Oregon never seems to learn. The previous governor, Kate Brown, initiated the war on testing after it was learned in 2017 that students were going backwards in reading, writing and math. As I noted in The War on Virtue, it was reported that “roughly 60 percent of Oregon public school students fell short in mathematics as did 45 percent in reading and writing. It was the worst showing yet by Oregon schools, particularly in the language arts.”

The movement to kill standardized tests is based on the assumption that the tests are racist. This is more of a political statement than a conclusion based on scientific evidence, but it is nonetheless endorsed by the National Education Association. This is also the position of Ibram X. Kendi, the guru of Critical Race Theory: he has made a fortune making the case against racism by advancing a racist agenda against white people.

Standardized tests are not infallible and are open to criticism. But to dismiss them altogether does not do anyone a favor, including black students. For example, SAT scores remain a key indicator of how well a student will do in college. And it is precisely because standardized tests are a helpful guide to assessing academic success that we know that charter schools are of great benefit to minority students.

A Gallup poll published at the end of November found that black parents are very much in favor of testing, as are Hispanic parents. How else are they to know whether their child is succeeding or not? When asked how they would feel if they learned that their child received a B in math but was scoring below grade level on standardized tests, 72 percent of black parents said they would be extremely or very concerned about these results; for Hispanics the figure was 56 percent; for whites it was 52 percent.

To make matters worse, “equity education” in Oregon not only means a war on testing, it means a war on discipline. At the end of 2023, Portland Public Schools announced that teachers must work with disruptive students, taking into account their race; then they are to develop a “support plan,” eschewing punitive measures. What if the student engages in violence? He can be removed from the classroom but not the school. Mandatory suspensions are now banned.

This is madness. It is also racist. Racists make judgments about people based on their race, not their individual attributes. Lowering expectations for blacks is the most racist thing that white liberal educators have done to African Americans. It is also a recipe for failure.

Bill Donohue

Bill Maher’s HBO show on May 31 featured a discussion between the host and filmmaker John Waters on the subject of Pope Francis and clergy sexual abuse. Waters, who is a homosexual and former drug addict, addressed molesting priests, saying, “They’re not all gay—they’re pedophiles. That’s different.” Maher replied, “They’re not all pedophiles.” Waters answered, “Most are.”

So who’s right? Waters or Maher? Maher.

Researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice issued the two most authoritative studies on priestly sexual abuse; most of the abuse took place between 1965 and 1985. They found that 81 percent of the victims were male and that 78 percent were postpubescent. When adult men have sex with adolescent males that is called homosexuality. As for prepubescent victims, they accounted for 3.8 percent of the abuse. That’s called pedophilia.

In short, there never was a pedophile problem in the Catholic Church—most of the molestation was done by homosexuals. For more detail on this subject see my book, The Truth about Clergy Sexual Abuse: Clarifying the Facts and the Causes. As I have said many times, most gay priests are not molesters but most of the molesters were gay.

The media, of course, as well as gay activists and liberal Catholics, continue to lie about this issue. They mouth the refrain issued by Waters, hoping to exculpate homosexuals. But blaming pedophiles for homosexual-driven offenses is simply dishonest.

It’s worse than this. The fact is that some of the most prominent gay leaders have been supportive of adults having sex with minors, and some even justify man-boy rape. Moreover, while there are heterosexual pedophiles as well, the only ones who have an organization dedicated to pedophilia are gays. See our report on this issue.

June is Gay Pride Month. It’s time that gay leaders spoke to this issue with clarity. If everyone can’t agree that the sexual abuse of children is an abomination, we will never get rid of this problem.

Bill Donohue

Whenever there is a whiff of bad news about the Catholic Church, the mainstream media never miss a beat in reporting it. But when there is good news, they go mute. The latest example is the news about the almost complete eradication of clergy sexual abuse. Not one secular media outlet in the United States ran a story on this issue.

Every year, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issues an annual report on clergy sexual abuse. The audit is prepared by StoneBridge Business Partners, which works in cooperation with the National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People, a lay advisory board established by the USCCB.

The 2023 report, which covered allegations made between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023, found that there were 1,308 allegations involving 17 current year minors. Four of the allegations were made by males and 11 by females; 2 were listed as unknown. Of the 17, only 3 were substantiated.

During this period, there were 47,987 members of the clergy. This means that 0.006 percent of them had a substantiated case of sexual abuse made against him by a minor. (In the previous year’s report, there were 7 substantiated cases.) Of the accused, 91 percent are either dead or have been kicked out of ministry.

If there had been a sharp uptick in the number of cases, it would be all over the news. Such a story would have been picked up by the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC—and every left-wing internet and social media site. But because this problem has all been wiped out, practically no one knows anything about it.

The fact that more females than males are making these allegations suggests that the crackdown on homosexuals in the priesthood has worked. They are responsible for 8-in-10 cases of the sexual abuse of minors (only a very small percentage of these offenses have ever been committed by pedophiles). For more detail on this see my book, The Truth about Clergy Sexual Abuse: Clarifying the Facts and the Causes.

Congratulations to the bishops for implementing the necessary reforms. And shame on journalists and the talking heads for the total media blackout. There is no other organization in the nation where adults regularly interact with minors that has a better record on this issue than the Catholic Church.