S3: E3. The Stained Glass Closet
How do you come out in a religious community that loves you conditionally? What do you tell yourself about your faith and your desires when your Church views your sexuality as disordered? In this episode of Sexing History, we focus on the experiences of three gay men who were priests or seminarians in the St. Louis diocese beginning in the 1990s. Their overlapping stories, their friendships, their faith, and the ways in which they came out to themselves and each other within Catholic institutions, speak to the intertwined histories of desire and devotion.
Protesters demonstrating in 1973 on behalf of Brian McNaught, a Michigan Catholic columnist, who was fired for coming out as gay.
Hosts and Creators: Gillian Frank and Lauren Gutterman
Senior Producer: Saniya Lee Ghanoui
Producer and Story Editor: Rebecca Davis
Assistant Producers: Stephen Colbrook and Mallory Szymanski
Research Associates: Katie Kenny and Felix Yeung.
Interns: Hugh MacNeil, Ian McCabe and Emily Vaughn.
Thank you to Brian McNaught, Gary Meier, Phil Tiemeyer, and Jeff Vomund for sharing their stories with us.
Episode Music:
Marty Haugen, “Gather Us In”
Marty Haugen, “All Are Welcome”
The Choir of Trinity College, “Traditional: Inspired by Love and Anger”
Blue Dot Sessions, “Scraper”
John Keys, “There is a Longing in Our Hearts”
Bob Dufford, “Be Not Afraid”
Zach Williams, “Chain Breaker”
Bernadette Farrell, “Come to Set Us Free”
Dan Schutte, “What You Hear in the Dark”
Blue Dot Sessions, “McCarthy”
Blue Dot Sessions, “The Yards”
Rita Connolly, “I Arise Today - Irish Reflection”
John Stephens, “Live Like You’re Loved”
Dignity Boston, “There is Another Way”
Blue Dot Sessions, “Celestial Navigation”
Windemere United Church Toronto, “For Everyone Born (A Place at the Table)”
Archival Audio:
Gary Meier (2013)
“Dignity: A National Program for Gay Catholics” (1973)
“Today Show” (1998)
Selected Bibliography:
Jones, Timothy. 2011. “The Stained Glass Closet: Celibacy and Homosexuality in the Church of England to 1955.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 20 (1): 132–52.
McCartin, James P. 2010. Prayers of the Faithful: The Shifting Spiritual Life of American Catholics. Harvard University Press.
———. 2016. “The Church and Gay Liberation: The Case of John McNeill.” U.S. Catholic Historian 34 (1): 125–41.
———. 2018. “Sex Is Holy and Mysterious: The Vision of Early Twentieth-Century Catholic Sex Education Reformers” in Devotions and Desires. University of North Carolina Press.
Petro, Anthony Michael. 2015. After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion. Oxford University Press.
White, Heather R. 2015. Reforming Sodom: Protestants and the Rise of Gay Rights. University of North Carolina Press.
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Further Readings
