Trans Issues Hit MPR, Kersten Gets Corrected

Minnesota Public Radio has a pretty good story about transgender people in Minnesota. "[F]or most of the population, gender identity is black and white. But for those people in the middle, navigating around the gender binary is next to impossible. "All of our systems depend on that gender identity for some reason or another," explains Gries. "And we just place a huge importance on it." Systems like your driver's license, Social Security, hospital forms -- the list goes on."

Jake Reitan writes about same-sex marriage and civil union in the Star Tribune. "I look forward to the day when I too will find the love of my life. And while I long for that day, I know it will come with struggle. When I attempt to have my marriage recognized by the government, it will be denied. What came so easily for my straight siblings, legal marriage by a sweep of a pen, will likely only come for me, a gay man, after a difficult and protracted struggle. This struggle will most certainly come with heavy prices for the gay and lesbian community."

The Archbishop Harry Flynn took Katherine Kersten to task for her Dec. 4 column on the restructuring of the board at the University of St. Thomas. I published a similar story regarding the flap over the restructuring on Nov. 28.

Archbishop Flynn criticized Kersten's column in a letter to the editor of the Star Tribune on Friday calling the her work "inaccurate and slanted":

"Kersten used only the first sentence of my statement in her column. The other two sentences were ignored. They read as follows: "The Saint Thomas board will always include bishops or priests. Any rumors or speculation about the 'de-Catholicization of the University of Saint Thomas are ill founded, inaccurate and ludicrous.'"

The editing of my statement leaves open to question her motivation in writing this one-sided and inaccurate column.

Both the University of St. Thomas and the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis rejected the notion that changes to the university's board of directors will influence the Catholic nature of the institution.