News
Robert Nugent, co-founder of LGBT Catholic ministry dead at 76
Vatican banned Robert Nugent from pastoral duties
Father Robert Nugent, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, passed away on Jan. 1. (Photo courtesy of New Ways Ministry)
Nugent emerged as one of the first Catholic priests in the United States to speak out publicly for full acceptance of gays and lesbians within the church and to seek to open a dialogue with church leaders about church doctrine on homosexuality, according to Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the Mount Rainier, Md.,-based New Ways Ministry.
“When few priests would do more than whisper about homosexuality, Father Nugent was meeting with lesbian and gay people and encouraging them to claim their rightful place in the Catholic Church,” DeBernardo said in a statement. “During a time of intense homophobia in both church and society, he exhibited uncommon courage and foresight in welcoming and affirming the goodness of God’s lesbian and gay children.”
In 1999, more than 20 years after Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick founded New Ways Ministry and served as its lead organizers, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, issued an order on behalf of the Vatican prohibiting Nugent and Gramick from engaging in “any pastoral work involving homosexual persons.”
Ratzinger issued the order in his role at the time as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a church body that, among other things, investigates alleged breaches of church doctrine and enforces church rules related to clergy. The order came 15 years after then Cardinal James Hickey of the Archdiocese of Washington first started to raise questions about New Ways Ministry’s positions on homosexuality in 1984.
Hickey’s concerns led to a formal investigation into the actions of Nugent and Gramick launched in 1988 by Cardinal Adam Maida of the Archdiocese of Detroit, who was named head of a Vatican commission formed to examine Nugent and Gramick’s alleged breaches of church teachings.
“The ambiguities and errors of the approach of Father Nugent and Sister Gramick have caused confusion among the Catholic people and have harmed the community of the church,” Ratzinger wrote in a May 31, 1999, statement. “For these reasons, Sister Jeannine Gramick, SSND, and Father Robert Nugent, SDS, are permanently prohibited from any pastoral work involving homosexual persons and are ineligible, for an undetermined period, for any office in their respective religious institutes.”
DeBernardo said that from the time the order was handed down through 2000, Nugent and Gramick traveled throughout the country urging Catholic leaders and lay people to contact the Vatican to have the order overturned.
When that effort failed, and after deep reflection, Nugent agreed to abide by the order while Gramick declined to do so, DeBernardo said.
According to DeBernardo, Nugent returned as a parish priest in New Freedom, Penn., where he had spent most of his time since being forced to leave New Ways Ministry.
“A loyal son of the Church, he attempted to help the institution live up to its most cherished ideals of human dignity, equality and respect,” said DeBernardo.
Nugent was born and raised in Norristown, Penn., where he graduated from local Catholic elementary and high schools and entered St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1961, according to information provided by the Society of the Divine Savior, also known as the Salvatorians, the religious order to which Nugent was a member during most of his priesthood.
Nugent was ordained as a priest in 1965 after completing four years of theological studies at the Philadelphia-based St. Charles Seminary.
Prior to his collaboration with Gramick in founding New Ways Ministry, he served as a priest in parishes in Philadelphia and Levittown, Penn., and worked as a graduate assistant at Villanova University, where he received a master’s of science degree in library science. He received a master’s degree in Sacred Theology in 1983 at the Yale Divinity School.
DeBernardo and Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of the LGBT Catholic group Dignity USA, said Nugent’s more than 20 years as a leader of New Ways Ministry continues to have an impact on LGBT Catholics and Catholic clergy despite his absence from direct work on LGBT issues in recent years.
“Dignity USA gave Bob a lifetime achievement award in 2001 to recognize just how important he was as a ground-breaking figure in lesbian and gay ministry throughout the 70s and 80s,” Duddy-Burke said. “I continue to meet people who say Bob’s writings, workshops, and personal ministry were the thing that gave them hope as they were coming out in the 70s and the 80s,” she said.
“It is impossible to overestimate the impact and value of Father Nugent’s lesbian and gay ministry,” DeBernardo said. “He educated a generation of pastoral leaders who began to put into practice the inclusive ideals that he taught. A tireless researcher and writer, he produced a number of important works on pastoral care that helped to shape the movement in Catholicism of gay-friendly parishes.”
Added DeBernardo, “A sensitive counselor, he supported scores of gay priests and brothers as they worked at reconciling their spirituality with their sexuality.”
A spokesperson for the Salvatorians said arrangements were being made for a funeral for Nugent in New Freedom, Penn. DeBernardo said a memorial service for Nugent would be held in the D.C. area within the next several weeks.
District of Columbia
Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade
WorldPride organizers announced Thursday that actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, powerhouse performer Reneé Rapp, and LGBTQ trailblazer Deacon Maccubbin will serve as grand marshals for this year’s WorldPride parade.
The Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., revealed the honorees in a press release, noting that each has made a unique contribution to the fabric of the LGBTQ community.
Cox made history in 2014 as the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category for her role in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.” She went on to win a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for her documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” which followed seven young trans people as they navigated coming out.
Rapp, a singer and actress who identifies as a lesbian, rose to prominence as Regina George in the Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” She reprised the role in the 2024 film adaptation and also stars in Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” portraying a character coming to terms with her sexuality. Rapp has released an EP, “Everything to Everyone,” and an album, “Snow Angel.” She announced her sophomore album, “Bite Me,” on May 21 and is slated to perform at the WorldPride Music Festival at the RFK Festival Grounds.
Deacon Maccubbin, widely regarded as a cornerstone of Washington’s LGBTQ+ history, helped organize D.C.’s first Gay Pride Party in 1975. The event took place outside Lambda Rising, one of the first LGBTQ bookstores in the nation, which Maccubbin founded. For his decades of advocacy and activism, he is often referred to as “the patriarch of D.C. Pride.”
“I am so honored to serve as one of the grand marshals for WorldPride this year. This has been one of the most difficult times in recent history for queer and trans people globally,” Cox said. “But in the face of all the rhetorical, legislative and physical attacks, we continue to have the courage to embrace who we truly are, to celebrate our beauty, resilience and bravery as a community. We refuse to allow fear to keep us from ourselves and each other. We remain out loud and proud.”
“Pride is everything. It is protection, it is visibility, it is intersectional. But most importantly, it is a celebration of existence and protest,” Rapp said.
The three will march down 14th Street for the WorldPride Parade in Washington on June 7.
Congress
House passes reconciliation with gender-affirming care funding ban
‘Big Beautiful Bill’ now heads to the Senate
The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted 215-214 for passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” reconciliation package, which includes provisions that would prohibit the use of federal funds to support gender-affirming care.
But for an 11th hour revision of the bill late Wednesday night by conservative lawmakers, Medicaid and CHIP would have been restricted only from covering treatments and interventions administered to patients younger than 18.
The legislation would also drop requirements that some health insurers must cover gender-affirming care as an “essential health benefit” and force states that currently mandate such coverage to find it independently. Plans could still offer coverage for transgender care but without the EHB classification patients will likely pay higher out of pocket costs.
To offset the cost of extending tax cuts from 2017 that disproportionately benefited the wealthiest Americans, the reconciliation bill contains significant cuts to spending for federal programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The Human Rights Campaign criticized House Republicans in a press release and statement by the group’s president, Kelley Robinson:
“People in this country want policies and solutions that make life better and expand access to the American Dream. Instead, anti-equality lawmakers voted to give handouts to billionaires built on the backs of hardworking people — with devastating consequences for the LGBTQ+ community.
“If the cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP or resources like Planned Parenthood clinics weren’t devastating enough, House Republicans added a last minute provision that expands its attacks on access to best practice health care to transgender adults.
“This cruel addition shows their priorities have never been about lowering costs or expanding health care access–but in targeting people simply for who they are. These lawmakers have abandoned their constituents, and as they head back to their districts, know this: they will hear from us.”
Senate Republicans are expected to pass the bill with the budget reconciliation process, which would allow them to bypass the filibuster and clear the spending package with a simple majority vote.
Changes are expected as the bill will be reviewed and amended by committees, particularly the Finance Committee, and then brought to the floor for debate — though modifications are expected to focus on Medicaid reductions and debate over state and local tax deductions.
2025 D.C. Trans Pride was held at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library on Saturday, May 17. The day was filled with panel discussions, art, social events, speakers, a resource fair and the Engendered Spirit Awards. Awardees included Lyra McMillan, Pip Baitinger, Steph Niaupari and Hayden Gise. The keynote address was delivered by athlete and advocate Schuyler Bailar.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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