This is the article that appeared in the June 2023 edition of Catalyst, our monthly journal. The date that prints out reflects
the day that it was uploaded to our website. For a more accurate date of when the article was first published, check out the news release, here.

As we went to press, we learned that the Los Angeles Dodgers have reinvited the anti-Catholic homosexual drag group, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, to an LGBT event. But this issue is not over.

It was announced in mid-May that the “Sisters” were to be presented with a Community Hero Award at the “10th Annual LGBTQ+ Night” on June 16 at Dodger Stadium.
On May 16, Bill Donohue sent a letter to the head of Major League Baseball, Commissioner Rob Manfred, asking, “if a group of white boys in black face—a modern day Al Jolson ensemble—were to be honored by an MLB team, there is little doubt that the event would be cancelled and sanctions would be forthcoming. There is no difference between this and the hateful farce of awarding the ‘Sisters.'”

On May 17, the Dodgers disinvited the “Sisters.” But then gay and trans activists, along with local government officials, besieged the Dodgers. On May 22, after meeting with these people, the Dodgers reinvited the “Sisters.”

The Dodgers not only reinvited the bigoted drag queens, they apologized to them, thus endorsing anti-Catholic bigotry.

In a statement released to the press, the Dodgers said they had “much thoughtful feedback from our diverse communities, honest conversations within the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and generous discussions with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.”

There was no indication that Catholic leaders, clergy or lay, were invited to participate in these “honest conversations.” Only one side was listened to—the side that sponsors hate speech. The fact that gay and trans leaders agreed with the vulgar anti-Catholic rhetoric and behavior of the “Sisters” means they now have no moral leg to stand on when asking for an end to bigotry against them.

Donohue anticipated that the decision to disinvite the “Sisters” could happen, which is why he personally prepared a report on them the day before they were reinvited. It is available now on our website and will be published in the next edition of Catalyst.

Donohue said he would love to sit down with Stan Kasten, president and CEO of the Dodgers, and Manfred, after they have read the report, and then ask how can they possibly defend such an obscene anti-Catholic group. No decent person could possibly defend such a vicious assault on Catholic sensibilities.

Our next step is to persuade Catholics in the Los Angeles area not to attend Pride Night on June 16. By boycotting this event, we can send a message to the Dodgers, and to Major League Baseball, that anti-Catholic bigotry cannot be tolerated.

To this end, we sent the report to every parish in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Disney has seen better days. The latest financial data shows that these are bad times for the once family-friendly giant.

In mid-May, it was reported that Disney+ subscriptions had taken a nose dive, plummeting by 4 million customers around the world. Its streaming business lost $659 million during the first three months of this year. It has lost more than $1 billion in each of the last two quarters.

News reports note that at least part of this decline is a direct result of the pushback by parents against the entertainment giant. One story attributed the company’s problems to its embrace of “identity politics—particularly, transgenderism, drag queens, and other types of gender non-conformity.”

The release of our Disney movie during the first quarter of this year obviously played a role in accounting for its woes—millions have seen it—but exactly how big our input was is something we will never know.

If its numbers were going north, instead of south, during the time our documentary was released, we could conclude that we failed to move the needle. That, however, is not the case.

We know one thing: our film won another major award. “Walt’s Disenchanted Kingdom” was named a GOLD Award Winner for Best Documentary Short in the overall competition. Jason Meath, who was co-executive producer with Bill Donohue, picked up the BRONZE Award for Best Director.

We still don’t trust Disney. But we’d be happy if they proved us wrong.

William A. Donohue

On April 27, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Catholic League at the New York Athletic Club. In attendance was the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Bishop Peter Byrne, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, Bishop Joseph Coffey of the Archdiocese for the Military, and several priests, including Father Gerry Murray of EWTN fame.

Several notable lay people were also in attendance. They included Tom Monaghan, founder of Ave Maria University and Ave Maria Law School; Chris Ruddy, founder of Newsmax; Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center; Lauren Green, Fox News religion reporter; Bob Royal, editor in chief of The Catholic Thing; George Schwartz, CEO of Ave Maria Funds, and many other distinguished persons.

EWTN host and Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo was the Master of Ceremonies. As expected, he had everyone laughing. He introduced Walter Knysz, the chairman of the board of the Catholic League. He spoke at some length about our founder, Father Virgil Blum, and how we have grown since his death in 1990. Cardinal Dolan also addressed how the Catholic League has changed since 1973, offering his personal reflections about it. I wound up the program.

My comments were mostly on the changing face of anti-Catholicism. From colonial times to the mid-twentieth century, our nation’s “last acceptable prejudice” was driven by the WASP elite, mostly over theological differences.

The animus against Catholic individuals waned once JFK was elected president in 1960. However, hatred of the institutional Church continued, with even greater vigor. This time it was militant secularists who were the biggest bigots on the block, bashing the Church for its teachings on marriage and sexuality.

When I took over in 1993—I will be president and CEO for 30 years on July 1—most of the anti-Catholicism emanated from the media, the entertainment industry, the arts, education and activist legal organizations.

The first big change, I told the crowd, became evident in the late 2000s when Barack Obama was elected president. Now the government had become the biggest threat to Catholicism, especially with Obama’s Health and Human Services mandate; it tried to force the Little Sisters of the Poor, and other Catholic non-profits, to provide for abortion-inducing drugs in their healthcare plans.

Matters have only gotten worse under President Biden. Though he identifies as a Catholic, he is presiding over the most anti-Catholic administration in modern times, perhaps ever.

Never a pessimist, I ended my talk mentioning several things that give us hope. The extraordinary reaction to our Disney movie—millions have watched it—surely has something to do with the fact that Disney’s subscribers have taken a deep dive. The blowback that Anheuser-Busch is experiencing for hiring a transgender person to hawk Bud Light is encouraging. I offered many other examples.

I cited the movement by African Americans, Asians, Hispanics and Muslims toward a more aggressive embrace of traditional moral values as another example of how things are changing. I told the attendees that at the end of the day we have only two choices: we can either quit or fight. For us, it’s a no-brainer.

While there is reason to be optimistic, I would be lying if I said Catholics are not worried about our society.

During the cocktail hour, and later in the evening, I had a chance to talk to many people. Virtually everyone I spoke to, male or female, young or old, clergy or lay—it made no difference—is seriously concerned about the state of our country. On so many levels, our country is going south, especially culturally.

We are tired of being lied to. From Covid to transgenderism, we have been lied to incessantly. Indeed, in my closing remarks I said we should be skeptical of elites. To be specific, I said that the next time you hear some “expert”—the ones with the alphabets after their name—say something that strikes you as nutty, trust your gut, not them.

We know that the Catholic Church has the answers to what ails us. Unfortunately, that voice of reason is being thwarted by the ruling class, the elites who run our major institutions. They have broken bread with the so-called progressives, or what is more accurately called the woke mob. But they don’t have to have the last word.

Enough of that. Back to the party.

If there is one thing that happened at our Gala dinner that stood out, it was the way Cardinal Dolan worked the room. He met virtually everyone, going around from table to table. He won a lot of people over, and no one was happier with his affability and graciousness than the boys from my local pub. They are now his biggest fans. They are also the thirstiest people I have ever known.
On pp. 8-9, you’ll find an assortment of pictures from this event. It would not have been such a success without the work that our vice president put into it, Bernadette Brady-Egan. She will be VP for 28 years come July 1. This was one of her many shining moments.

To view photos from the Catholic League’s 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner click here.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue wrote the following letter to Brendan Whitworth, the CEO of Anheuser-Busch, explaining his concerns about the Human Rights Campaign pressuring him to stand by Dylan Mulvaney, the transgender person who ignited the Bud Light controversy.

May 1, 2023

Dear Mr. Whitworth:

Anheuser-Busch’s reputation has been taking a beating lately, due exclusively to the marketing decision to feature Dylan Mulvaney as a promoter of Bud Light. While it may take a while to regain your footing, it can happen quicker than most people think, provided you make the right move. That move would be to simply sell your beer, and stop engaging in controversial political and social issues. In short, to be officially neutral is the best policy.

My reason for writing is the news story, published by The Hill, which says that the nation’s largest LGBT organization, the Human Rights Campaign, is encouraging Anheuser-Busch to stand by the decision to feature Mulvaney.

This is disconcerting to Catholics, and for one very good reason: the Human Rights Campaign is the most vocal advocate of the Equality Act, the most anti-Catholic piece of legislation ever considered by the United States Congress.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has published the most definitive analysis of the Equality Act for the Catholic community. The following ten points are among their list of concerns.

• “It would likely require taxpayers to fund elective abortions, because of the way it redefines ‘sex’ discrimination.”
• “It would also likely force doctors and hospitals to perform abortions even if it’s against their conscience or beliefs.”
• “It would mandate that doctors and counselors—who help everyone in need regardless of their identifying as LGBT or otherwise—now perform and promote life-altering gender ‘transitions,’ even when they do not think it is in the best interests of their patient.”
• “It would shut down Catholic foster care and adoption agencies, which have helped children in need for over a century without discrimination, just for protecting the children’s rights to be in a home with a married mother and father.”
• “It would mandate that schools fully embrace and impose some children’s ‘gender identity’ on other children (in conversations, restrooms, etc.), likely punishing children who disagree.”
• “It could make schools change their curriculum to falsely teach children that they can change their sex, and
that doing so and that having same-sex relationships are the only way to go for some of them to be healthy.”
• “It could close Catholic girls’ schools and boys’ schools or make them co-ed.”
• “It would reinforce already-mounting efforts to strip churches, and religious schools, hospitals, and other charities, of their federal tax exemptions on the basis that their beliefs on marriage, sex, and gender are mere bigotry.”
• “It would prohibit free and truthful speech by requiring everyone to use others’ ‘preferred pronouns’ and show other support for gender ‘transition’ in workplaces, schools, and more.”
• “The Equality Act attacks religious freedom by making itself a special exception to the bipartisan Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which has never been done before.”

If Anheuser-Busch were to make an announcement that it will no longer align itself with any activist organization—whether it be the Human Rights Campaign or the Catholic League—it would not only get this monkey off its back, it would encourage all corporations to get back to what they do best: selling their products and services without taking sides on divisive political and social issues. That is a winning prescription.
Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President

The decision by the Navy to feature a drag queen as a recruitment model impelled Catholic League president Bill Donohue to write a strong rebuke to General Mark A. Milley; several others were copied.

May 4, 2023

Dear Gen. Milley:

News stories abound about the decline in enrollment in the armed forces, yet conditions worsen by the day. I am at the point where I don’t believe there is a sincere effort to increase the troop level. Indeed, I believe that there are some in high places who have their own agenda.

I am writing because of the latest scandal in the armed forces. The Navy is featuring a drag queen, a man dressed as a woman, to recruit new members. He misidentifies himself as “non-binary.”

It does not matter that this is a pilot program—the Navy would never allow a pilot program featuring a white sailor in black face. Everyone knows what’s going on. That this is happening in the wake of the Bud Light catastrophe makes me wonder whether the elites in the armed forces live in the real world.

A Navy spokeswoman is quoted as saying that this effort is being undertaken “to reach a wide range of potential candidates as the Navy navigates the most challenging recruiting environment it has faced since the start of the all-volunteer force.”

That person is either stupid or lying. We all know why the Army, Navy and Air Force missed their recruitment goals by the thousands this year; the Marines held steady. It’s because these branches have adopted the policies of the far-left, the woke brand of politics. As such, they have gone off the rails, alienating millions of Americans. If someone sought to deliberately sabotage the armed forces, he could not do a better job.

With regard to the Navy, what normal man or woman would want to join an organization that hires the mentally challenged, or worse, to recruit new members? As I indicated, this is not an accident.

We are being played, plain and simple. What has happened to the armed forces? Do you think real men buy into this insanity?

Catholics are overrepresented among those in uniform. As president of the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, and as an Air Force veteran, I am outraged that this morally debased campaign has taken place.

Please get back to basics and stop with these deliberate efforts to politicize the armed forces. Trying to sexually engineer our troops is bad enough, but to express shock that recruitment levels are down—when drag queens are used as model recruiters—is insulting and offensive.

You are in a position to affect change. Please seize this moment.

Sincerely,

William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President

cc: Admiral Michael Gilday, Chief of Naval Operations
Gen. James C. McConville, Army Chief of Staff
Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., Air Force Chief of Staff
Gen. David H. Berger, Commandant of the Marine Corps
Rep. Mike Rogers, Chairman, House Armed Services Committee
Rep. Adam Smith, Ranking Member, House Armed Services
Committee
Sen. Jack Reed, Chairman, Senate Armed Services Committee
Sen. Roger Wicker, Ranking Member, Senate Armed Services
Committee

On March 27, Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old female (who misidentified herself as a male), shot and killed six innocent people in Nashville, Tennessee. The local police said she was planning the attack “over a period of months,” and that she had studied other mass murderers. They emphasized that the attack was “calculated and planned.” Importantly, they found a manifesto that laid bare her thinking.

The Nashville police said they would make public the manifesto as soon as their investigation was completed. They have not done so. All they have said is that the Christian school, Covenant School, and the church, were targeted; she once attended Covenant. “There’s some belief that there was some resentment for having to go to that school,” said Police Chief John Drake.

So where is the manifesto? Who’s holding it back? What’s driving this decision?

According to Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee, it’s not the cops who are balking—it’s the FBI. Furthermore, Nashville Council member Courtney Johnston has said the FBI has already said it would not authorize the release of the manifesto in its entirety.

This smacks of politics. It stinks to high heaven.

We know that media outlets, such as NBC, have tried to evade any mention of the transgender status of the mass murderer. We know that Jordan Budd, who runs Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere, has said, “It [the manifesto] should not be published.” We know that some transgender activists have threatened violence. Is this what the FBI is giving in to?

Criminal justice professor Joseph Giacalone opines that the FBI is afraid that “there is something in there [the manifesto] that is truly damaging for the transgender community,” and that “they are hesitant to do it because they are afraid of a violent backlash against that protected class of people.”

He’s right. But that does not justify censoring the manifesto.

The public has a right to know what motivated Hale. If she indeed was an anti-Christian bigot, as many sexually confused people are, then we need to know it. Quite frankly, there is a violent element in transgender circles, and Christians need to know if others are also targeting them. Hale may have operated alone, but was she inspired by hate speech voiced by transgender activists?

If the manifesto were made public, and innocent transgender persons were threatened or attacked, the guilty should be arrested and punished. But this is no excuse for not being transparent.

Unfortunately, Christians, especially Catholics, have reason to worry about the top brass in the FBI. After first monitoring traditional Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass, we recently learned that the agency was spying on mainline Catholics.

We also have to ask tough questions. Given this situation, are we to believe that if a crazed Catholic were to blow up an abortion clinic, killing six people, and law enforcement found a manifesto detailing his motive, that the FBI would censor its release? Or would it be more likely to make it public?

The ruling class is increasingly becoming the enemy of the people. We need one standard of justice for everyone. And that means, among other things, that Hale’s manifesto must be made public in its entirety, and with dispatch.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule in June on a very important religious liberty case; we filed a friend-of-the-court brief.

At issue is whether Colorado law can force someone to violate his sincerely held Christian beliefs on the subject of marriage. Lorie Smith is a web designer who filed suit against a law that would require her to design a website that heralds gay marriage. She has never denied her services to homosexuals, but she insists that to celebrate gay marriage is an infringement on her free speech rights and her religious rights. We obviously agree.

Representing the Catholic League is the Pittsburgh firm of Gallagher Giancola. We have accessed the services of Kathy Gallagher and Russ Giancola before, and have never lost.

The Supreme Court’s ruling will impact similar cases in 22 states, including multiple states with pending lawsuits in the lower courts. Currently, there is great confusion over this issue. When the high court ruled in the Jack Phillips Masterpiece Cakeshop case in 2018—he refused to make a wedding cake for a gay “married” couple—he won, but on a technicality. What happens in our case will affect him as well (he was sued again).

Lead counsel in this case, fighting for Smith, is the Alliance Defending Freedom, an outstanding law firm on our side. The Biden administration, the ACLU and other left-wing entities are on the other side.

Freedom of speech and freedom of religion are two of the most important rights we have as Americans. But left-wing sources are increasingly determined to weaken these rights, and this includes organizations that falsely claim they support them, such as the ACLU.

We hope to report in the July/August edition of Catalyst on the Supreme Court’s ruling.

One of the most significant findings in a recent survey by KFF/Washington Post on transgender persons is not even discussed in the Washington Post (WAPO) news story on the poll.

The 2517-word story, published May 5, covers just about every aspect of the 26-page survey except for the issue of mental health. It is hard to believe this was an oversight.
(The survey calls transgender persons “trans” for short; this explains the adoption of this term in this account.)

• When asked about their childhood, 81 percent of all adults surveyed said it was either a very happy or somewhat happy time; only 53 percent of trans respondents answered this way.
• Only 13 percent of adults said that growing up as a child or teenager they had an alcohol or drug use problem. The figure for trans persons is more than double, 29 percent.
• When it comes to serious mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, 32 percent of adults said they had such problems growing up. For trans adults the number is an astonishing 78 percent.

Respondents were asked how often they felt in the past 12 months about several emotional conditions. Here are the results.

• Lonely: 21 percent of adults answered always/often; 45 percent of trans answered this way.
• Hopeful: 50 percent of adults reported always/often, but only 29 percent of trans felt this way.
• Depressed: 22 percent of adults admitted to depression, but almost half, 48 percent, of trans confessed to being depressed.
• Anxious: The figure for adults was 31 percent; for trans, it was 56 percent.
• Happy: 59 percent of adults said they were happy, but only 40 percent of trans said they were.

When trans persons were asked about abnormal behaviors, the results were predictable.

• Engaged in self-harm: For adults, the number is 3 percent; it is 17 percent for trans.
• Suicidal thoughts: 16 percent of adults, and 43 percent of trans, said they thought about killing themselves.

Why didn’t WAPO mention any of this in its news story?

The conventional wisdom, as entertained by elites, is that any mental health problems that trans persons have is a result of discrimination. But that is not what the survey suggests.

• When those who identify as trans were asked if they had ever been refused health care from a health care provider, or someone else working in a health care setting, 82 percent said “no.”
• When asked if they had been denied a job or a promotion, 78 said they had not.
• When asked if they had ever been evicted or denied housing, 86 said “no.”

It is not societal rejection of trans males and females that is at the root of their problem—their problem lies deep within themselves. They are unhappy, lonely, depressed persons who are more likely to engage in self-destructive behaviors. That’s not normal. Their mental health problems are a reflection of their sexually confused status. They need help.

It must also be said that public policy should no more be driven by accommodating mentally disturbed trans persons than it should be driven by accommodating everyone else who has a mental disorder. It is one thing to reach out to such persons; it is quite another to restructure society in a vain attempt to rescue them.

One more thing. WAPO is intellectually dishonest to ask respondents if they agree that gender is assigned at birth. Gender is no more “assigned” than sex is.

Gender is a sociological term that refers to the roles that society considers to be appropriate for males and females. In other words, the current usage of gender is inaccurate—what is called gender is really the sex of the person.

Moreover, our sex is never “assigned” by anyone. It is exclusively determined by our father, and it is evident at the time of conception, not birth. It is anti-science to argue otherwise.

Judicial Watch announced in late April that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, along with CatholicVote, seeking communications the FBI may have engaged in concerning conservative Catholic organizations. The Catholic League was among those listed.

Judicial Watch is asking for all emails, Lync messages, and text messages sent to and from top FBI officials, beginning in March 2022.

The response is in reaction to news stories regarding the FBI’s decision to spy on various orthodox Catholic organizations.

In April, Bill Donohue wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking him to make public those documents that are related to the FBI’s outreach program to “mainline Catholic parishes” and “local diocesan leadership.” They were targeted because of “radicalization” within the Catholic Church.

At first, the FBI decided to monitor “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics,” those associated with the Latin Mass. Then it upped the ante, going after “mainline” Catholics.

Has the FBI been monitoring, or spying, on the Catholic League? We don’t know, but we sure would like to find out. When we learn the outcome of the Judicial Watch lawsuit, we will let you know.