Roman Catholic

A priest in Bremerton, Washington, has discontinued his parish's sponsorship of a Boy Scout troop in the wake of a vote to drop the ban on gay Scouts, while keeping the ban on gay Scout leaders. In a letter to parishioners, Fr. Derek Lappe demonstrates his animus toward LGBT people as a rationale for disassociating Our Lady Star of the Sea from the Boy Scouts.

Within moments of the announcement that, by a 61% margin, the Boy Scouts of America would be dropping its ban on gay scouts, denominations and faith groups offered their reactions.

To give an accurate representation of where people of faith stand on marriage equality, let's look at some of the major denominations that support scouts for a quick recap. GLAAD has created a handy graphic that shows which denominations support inclusive scouting for all.

A group of gay and allied Catholics gathered to worship together at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City with dirty hands in response to comments made by Cardinal Timothy Dolan. However, even as they were gathering, they were told by the police that they would be barred from entering the Cathedral unless they washed their hands.

Carla Hale, the Catholic school teacher who was fired for being gay, has stated that he intends to fight to keep her job. Carla was a physical education teacher at Bishop Watterson High School for 19 years. After her mother died, the obituary in the local paper listed Carla and her partner as survivors.

On April 11, Nicholas Coppola delivered over 18,000 signatures gathered through Faithful America to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, asking that Nicholas be once again allowed to volunteer with his parish, after getting married to his husband. On April 23, Bishop William Murphy mailed them back, accompanied by one sentence: "FROM YOUR FAITHFUL ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP."

Carla Hale was fired from her job as a physical education teacher at Bishop Watterson High School, a private Catholic school in Columbus, Ohio for being gay. Students have rallied around Carla. Jackson Garrity, a senior at Bishop Watterson organized a Change.org petition, asking to have Carla reinstated as a teacher at the school.

The average Catholic supports marriage equality more than the average American. That's the story from a recent Quinnipiac poll that showed 54% of Catholics support marriage equality, which is higher than the national average of 47%.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the United Kingdom’s most vocal faith opponent of marriage equality, admitted to sexual misconduct. He resigned from his post last week, amid allegations of sexual misconduct with seminary students. He has now announced that he will no longer contest the allegations.