CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Catholic nun whose speech created controversy among Charlotte Catholic High School students, alumni and parents will not be giving a previously-scheduled speech in May. The cancellation was made by the nun’s religious order in Nashville, Tenn.
Sister Jane Dominic Laurel stoked controversy after a March 21 mandatory assembly at Charlotte Catholic High School, where students recounted her saying masturbation and an absent father can make a boy more likely to be gay.
She also reportedly cited an abusive Australian gay couple as a reason why gay people are unfit parents and said gays have 500-1,000 sexual partners in a lifetime.
One gay student at Charlotte Catholic High, who asked that he not be named because he is not fully out to family or friends, told qnotes he was upset by the speech.
“I would like them to issue a formal apology to the students and to the parents and alumni,” the student said last week. “I want them to know how upset everyone is and for them to acknowledge that.”
Students, alumni and parents spoke out about the speech. In a letter, 86 alumni and 64 students called for an apology. A petition on Change.org has gathered more than 3,100 signatures.
EXTRA: Read the full alumni and student letter to the school
The decision to cancel the upcoming May speech at the diocesan youth conference in Asheville was made by the nun’s religious order, according to The Charlotte Observer.
“They felt like this just wasn’t a good time for the sister to speak again in the diocese,” Diocese spokesperson David Hains told the daily newspaper on Tuesday.
A meeting with Charlotte Catholic High parents is scheduled for tonight at 7 p.m. It is not open to media and will not be open to alumni or parents of younger children who attend the diocese’s elementary and middle schools.
Laurel has a history of extremist, anti-gay views. She has partnered with the Ruth Institute to present lectures and conferences opposing same-sex marriage. The Ruth Institute was formerly funded by the National Organization for Marriage, a group which has pushed anti-LGBT constitutional amendments nationwide and whose founder has compared gays to pedophiles.
In one lecture posted online, Laurel claims that more young women are engaging in oral sex and says, “This is not a normal sexual act. It’s something that’s imported from the homosexual culture. It’s not part of the natural love between man and woman.”
In another lecture, Laurel speaks at length about the Folsom Street Fair, a San Francisco fetish event. In another video, she says that androgyny is a tool of Satan and that “devil-worshipers” have three goals: to continue abortions, to destroy traditional marriage and destroy the distinction between male and female.