Catholic U. of America Cancels Milk Screening, Calls It 'Advocacy' Event

The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., this week canceled a screening of Milk as a kickoff to LGBT Awareness Month, with administrators saying the event amounted to endorsing a position contrary to Catholic teaching, The Boston Globe's Crux blog reports.

School officials had approved the screening of the Oscar-winning Harvey Milk biopic last month, organizers said, but the university rescinded the approval on the grounds that advertising for the film and related activities "called into question whether the event had changed in nature from one of education to one of advocacy," according to a statement the school issued to Crux. The statement also said that earlier, "there had been no indications that the program would be a kickoff to LGBT Awareness Month."

The event, which was to take place Wednesday night but was canceled the same day, was to be hosted by the College Democrats. It was scheduled to include talks by university professor John White and Kevin Walling, a gay Catholic University alumnus who chairs the Democratic Central Committee for Montgomery County, Md., regarding gay rights and the Democratic Party as well as the film screening.

"I thought [the cancellation] was an incredibly asinine decision that the school made," College Democrats member Jackson Tovar told Crux. Both the College Democrats and school spokesmen, however, said they are working on rescheduling the event.