Conservatives Freak Out At Cecilia Gentili’s Big Queer Funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral

Conservative outrage over the funeral of the transgender activist at St. Patrick’s led to statements by the New York Archdiocese that they’d been unaware of Gentili’s trans identity when they approved it.

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The time may come when the rift between the Catholic Church and its LGBTQ+ members is healed, but the funeral of Cecilia Gentili at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, on Thursday, February 15, was not destined to be a healing moment. Under an onslaught of conservative fury, the Archdiocese complained that they were tricked into hosting a service for Gentili, an iconic transgender activist, performer, and former sex worker. They went on to hold a “Mass of Reparation” to cleanse the sin of transgender joy and solidarity from their hallowed cathedral.

“The Cathedral only knew that family and friends were requesting a funeral Mass for a Catholic, and had no idea our welcome and prayer would be degraded in such a sacrilegious and deceptive way,” reads a statement from the pastor of St. Patrick’s, Rev. Enrique Salvo.

Much of the early mainstream coverage of the raucous, joyful, and openly political funeral implied that it reflected a growing openness in Catholicism towards the LGBTQ+ community. The New York Times’ coverage, for example, contrasted the funeral with the Church’s legacy of promoting fear and misinformation about gay people during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. Stories in both the New York Times and the New York Post also quoted Catholic parishioners responding positively to the service, giving quotes to the effect that they felt the Church should welcome all comers.

However, conservative activists both inside and outside of Catholicism were furious at the event. The Heritage Foundation’s most vehemently anti-trans propagandist, Mary Margaret Olohan, seemed particularly incensed, tweeting “How did [Cardinal Dolan] allow this to take place?” and referring to Gentili as a “dead prostitute” and a “man who identifies as a transgender woman.” Olohan also referred to Gentili as a transgender prostitute in her piece for the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal website.

screenshot from the Daily Signal

In truth, while Gentili had both illegal immigration and sex work in her history, these were long past by the time of her death at 52, according to her New York Times obituary. After spending time in rehab, Gentili worked in direct service at a clinic for transgender people with HIV and AIDS, and then in advocacy. She lobbied for the decriminalization of sex work, as well as trans rights causes. She also appeared in the Netflix series Pose as a sketchy purveyor of black-market trans surgeries, performed two one-woman shows, and wrote a memoir in the form of letters to her hometown in Argentina.

Even in the early coverage, it was clear that the organizers of the funeral saw St. Patrick’s as hostile territory. On Last week, the organizer of the funeral, Ceyenne Doroshow, told the New York Times that the family had kept Gentili’s transgender identity and background “under wraps” when they requested the venue. Doroshow elaborated on these comments in statements to the Washington Post on Sunday, February 18, explaining that the Church’s treatment of the queer community played a role in the selection of St. Patrick’s.

screenshot from the Washington Post

However, both Doroshow and friend and funeral organizer, Katia Perea, stressed to the Washington Post that the funeral was not intended to be a mockery of either St. Patrick’s or Catholicism. While conservatives have derided everything from the clothing of the mourners to a song performed by Billy Porter that incorporated words from the prayer Our Father as mockery, New York Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling pointed to two incidents that he believed crossed the line of propriety: the chanting by some attendees of “Ave Cecilia” during the singing of the hymn Ave Maria (which Doroshow told WaPo she intervened to stop, but not before the crowd applauded) and a speaker who referred to Gentili as “the mother of all whores” in reference to her activism on behalf of sex workers. The WaPo story also complicates the question of whether the Archdiocese knew who they were hosting, as Doroshow told them she described Gentili as a sex worker advocate and advised them to Google her.

Gentili’s family released a statement responding to the condemnation by Catholic authorities. It read, in part, “Her heart and hands reached those the Church continues to belittle, oppress, and chastise, and she changed the conditions for countless people, including unhoused people and those who needed healthcare.”