EXCLUSIVE AUDIO: 'I hate Catholic people': Pro-drag students harass protesters at Loyola

Three students at Loyola University Chicago (LUC), a Jesuit Catholic university, recently held a protest in opposition to a drag show on campus.

The drag show in question was held on April 14, titled “Drag Race.” The event was sponsored by the university’s Department of Programming and the Rainbow Connection. 

According to video footage and exclusive audio obtained by Campus Reform, the group of protesters stood their ground at the top of a campus staircase, being shouted down by their classmates. 

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“Show your face!” and “Turn around b***h!” were just some of the statements hurled at the protesters. 

Another student was caught on an exclusive audio recording saying “I hate Catholic people,” which elicited cheers from fellow protesters. Moments after this interaction, the audio recording picks up what sounds like a counter-protester stealing posters from the group of students. 

Emily Torres, one of the anti-drag protesters, can be seen in images obtained by Campus Reform holding a sign that reads “Drag Show Must Go.” Torres told Campus Reform that she decided to protest the event for two reasons. 

“The first is that drag ‘queens’ tend to dress very promiscuously and have done so in the past at Loyola’s shows,” Torres said. “What does this imply? That to dress and act like a woman is to dress sexually and to promiscuously dance around. By doing so, these men diminish female dignity and reduce women to sexual objects, which is degrading.”

Secondly, she argued that Catholic institutions should not be promoting drag. 

“Not only have they been sexually explicit in the past (and mocked nuns), but there have been Catholic bishops who condemned hosting drag shows at schools and it is not in accordance with the Bible for men to dress like women and for women to dress like men,” Torres said. 

Similarly, student protestor Matthew McKenna said he decided to protest because other forms of activism, including handwritten signatures from students and professors, were deemed ineffective. 

“The level of blasphemy which Loyola allowed for and directly funded with student dollars was intolerable and abominable,” McKenna told Campus Reform. “The protest served primarily as a message against this as well as a message against Loyola’s continual disregard for its own mission clauses and for the authority of the bishops and especially the Vatican.”

According to Torres, the three initial protestors were later joined by a few other men on campus who argued with counter-protestors. 

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The university’s student-run newspaper, the Loyola Phoenix, also covered the protest, revealing that approximately 60 counter-protestors were present in support of the campus drag show.

Ryan Bradley, president of Rainbow Connection, referred to protestors like Torres and McKenna as “homophobic.”

“It is a couple people with homophobic beliefs who are trying to disenfranchise the art of drag,” Bradley said. 

The paper’s Instagram post about the protest garnered hundreds of comments against the three students who chose to fight against drag shows on campus. 

Campus Reform reached out to every individual and institution mentioned for comment. This article will be updated accordingly. 

Bradley could not be reached for comment. 

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