National
N.Y. Catholic diocese removes married gay man from parish duties
Nicholas Coppola attends Long Island church


Oceanside, N.Y., resident (left) Nicholas Coppola claims the local Catholic diocese removed him from parish activities after he married his husband last October. (Photo courtesy of GLAAD.)
A New York Catholic diocese in January removed a gay man from public duties at his Long Island parish after he married his same-sex partner.
Nicholas Coppola has attended Mass at St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church in Oceanside, N.Y., since he moved from New York City four years ago. He has worked as an altar server, lector, religious education teacher and visitation minister for homebound parishioners. Coppola was also a member of a ministry that comforted parishioners as they prepared to hold funerals for their loved ones.
Coppola and his partner of nearly a decade married in October — two days before Superstorm Sandy inundated Oceanside and other communities along Long Island’s South Shore.
Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, which encompasses Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, on Dec. 5 received an anonymous letter that detailed Coppola’s work within the parish, but highlighted his sexual orientation.
“The problem is that he is a homosexual,” the letter reads. “He was recently married to another man. He does not hide this or keep it silent.”
Bishop Bob Brennan on Jan. 9 faxed a copy of the aforementioned letter to Father Nicholas Lombardi of St. Anthony’s. He stressed that “while not on a witch hunt, I know it would be of concern to you if a catechist were, in fact, ‘married’ as described.”
Coppola told the Washington Blade on Wednesday that Lombardi approached him after the first Mass he attended when he returned home from his delayed honeymoon over Martin Luther King, Jr., weekend.
“As I walked out of church, the pastor wanted to see me,” Coppola said. “That’s when he hit me with that. I knew he had a heavy heart doing it.”
Coppola said he wrote to Murphy, but he did not respond. He subsequently met with Brennan twice and said he and the bishop had a “fruitful discussion” during their first meeting. Coppola said Brennan told him during their second meeting that he could not “do anything.”
“He said my hands are tied,” Coppola said. “You made a public statement against church teaching.”
Coppola spoke with the Blade less than a week after New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that gay Catholics are “entitled to friendship,” while maintaining marriage should remain between a man and a woman. Dolan also conceded the church has to “do better to see that our defense of marriage is not reduced to an attack on gay people.”
Other gay and lesbian Catholics have been excluded from parish activities or even fired from their jobs at parochial schools over the last year.
Father Marcel Guarnizo last February refused to serve communion to Barbara Johnson during her mother’s funeral at a St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg, Md. The priest stepped down after the Archdiocese of Washington placed him on administrative leave.
Administrators at a Normandy, Mo., parochial school last February fired music teacher Al Fischer after a representative of the Archdiocese of St. Louis learned he planned to marry his partner of nearly 20 years in New York City. Steav Bates-Congdon claims he lost his job as music director of a Charlotte, N.C., parish in Jan. 2012 after he and his husband tied the know in the Big Apple a few months earlier.
Sean Dolan of the Diocese of Rockville Centre confirmed to the Blade that Lombardi removed Coppola from his positions within the parish because he “made a decision to marry civilly” and it was as “a public statement” that is “inconsistent with Catholic teaching.”
Gays and lesbians have been able to legally marry in New York since 2011, but Dolan stressed diocesan priests would also remove a heterosexual person from their public parish duties if they left their marriage and tied the knot with someone else without getting an annulment.
“We’re not singling anybody out,” he said.
Dolan said Coppola is welcome to attend Mass in the parish.
Coppola remains hopeful that he will be able to one day return to the altar.
“I’m welcomed by parishioners,” he said. “I’ welcomed by most clergy, being priests. It’s what’s coming down from the top. I’m hoping that this would open up the dialogue even further.”
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court to consider bans on trans athletes in school sports
27 states have passed laws limiting participation in athletics programs

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear two cases involving transgender youth challenging bans prohibiting them from participating in school sports.
In Little v. Hecox, plaintiffs represented by the ACLU, Legal Voice, and the law firm Cooley are challenging Idaho’s 2020 ban, which requires sex testing to adjudicate questions of an athlete’s eligibility.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals described the process in a 2023 decision halting the policy’s enforcement pending an outcome in the litigation. The “sex dispute verification process, whereby any individual can ‘dispute’ the sex of any female student athlete in the state of Idaho,” the court wrote, would “require her to undergo intrusive medical procedures to verify her sex, including gynecological exams.”
In West Virginia v. B.P.J., Lambda Legal, the ACLU, the ACLU of West Virginia, and Cooley are representing a trans middle school student challenging the Mountain State’s 2021 ban on trans athletes.
The plaintiff was participating in cross country when the law was passed, taking puberty blockers that would have significantly reduced the chances that she could have a physiological advantage over cisgender peers.
“Like any other educational program, school athletic programs should be accessible for everyone regardless of their sex or transgender status,” said Joshua Block, senior counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ and HIV Project. “Trans kids play sports for the same reasons their peers do — to learn perseverance, dedication, teamwork, and to simply have fun with their friends,” Block said.
He added, “Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth. We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play.”
“Our client just wants to play sports with her friends and peers,” said Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Tara Borelli. “Everyone understands the value of participating in team athletics, for fitness, leadership, socialization, and myriad other benefits.”
Borelli continued, “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit last April issued a thoughtful and thorough ruling allowing B.P.J. to continue participating in track events. That well-reasoned decision should stand the test of time, and we stand ready to defend it.”
Shortly after taking control of both legislative chambers, Republican members of Congress tried — unsuccessfully — to pass a national ban like those now enforced in 27 states since 2020.
Federal Government
UPenn erases Lia Thomas’s records as part of settlement with White House
University agreed to ban trans women from women’s sports teams

In a settlement with the Trump-Vance administration announced on Tuesday, the University of Pennsylvania will ban transgender athletes from competing and erase swimming records set by transgender former student Lia Thomas.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found the university in violation of Title IX, the federal rights law barring sex based discrimination in educational institutions, by “permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”
The statement issued by University of Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson highlighted how the law’s interpretation was changed substantially under President Donald Trump’s second term.
“The Department of Education OCR investigated the participation of one transgender athlete on the women’s swimming team three years ago, during the 2021-2022 swim season,” he wrote. “At that time, Penn was in compliance with NCAA eligibility rules and Title IX as then interpreted.”
Jameson continued, “Penn has always followed — and continues to follow — Title IX and the applicable policy of the NCAA regarding transgender athletes. NCAA eligibility rules changed in February 2025 with Executive Orders 14168 and 14201 and Penn will continue to adhere to these new rules.”
Writing that “we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules” in place while Thomas was allowed to compete, the university president added, “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”
“Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the university for future generations of female athletes.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the department’s Office of Civil Rights sought to protect against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in education, bringing investigations and enforcement actions in cases where school officials might, for example, require trans students to use restrooms and facilities consistent with their birth sex or fail to respond to peer harassment over their gender identity.
Much of the legal reasoning behind the Biden-Harris administration’s positions extended from the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County, which found that sex-based discrimination includes that which is based on sexual orientation or gender identity under Title VII rules covering employment practices.
The Trump-Vance administration last week put the state of California on notice that its trans athlete policies were, or once were, in violation of Title IX, which comes amid the ongoing battle with Maine over the same issue.
New York
Two teens shot steps from Stonewall Inn after NYC Pride parade
One of the victims remains in critical condition

On Sunday night, following the annual NYC Pride March, two girls were shot in Sheridan Square, feet away from the historic Stonewall Inn.
According to an NYPD report, the two girls, aged 16 and 17, were shot around 10:15 p.m. as Pride festivities began to wind down. The 16-year-old was struck in the head and, according to police sources, is said to be in critical condition, while the 17-year-old was said to be in stable condition.
The Washington Blade confirmed with the NYPD the details from the police reports and learned no arrests had been made as of noon Monday.
The shooting took place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, mere feet away from the most famous gay bar in the city — if not the world — the Stonewall Inn. Earlier that day, hundreds of thousands of people marched down Christopher Street to celebrate 55 years of LGBTQ people standing up for their rights.
In June 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, members of the LGBTQ community pushed back, sparking what became known as the Stonewall riots. Over the course of two days, LGBTQ New Yorkers protested the discriminatory policing of queer spaces across the city and mobilized to speak out — and throw bottles if need be — at officers attempting to suppress their existence.
The following year, LGBTQ people returned to the Stonewall Inn and marched through the same streets where queer New Yorkers had been arrested, marking the first “Gay Pride March” in history and declaring that LGBTQ people were not going anywhere.
New York State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, whose district includes Greenwich Village, took to social media to comment on the shooting.
“After decades of peaceful Pride celebrations — this year gun fire and two people shot near the Stonewall Inn is a reminder that gun violence is everywhere,” the lesbian lawmaker said on X. “Guns are a problem despite the NRA BS.”
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