Jesuit law schools co-sponsor GLBT bar association event

The law schools of Seattle University and (my old alma mater) Gonzaga University recently were “bronze sponsors” for the 2012 Annual Banquet of QLaw, the GLBT Bar Association of Washington. According to the Seattle PI, the event’s honored guest was Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry, a pro-gay marriage group. Washington State’s legalization of same-sex marriage—and the push to get a referendum repealing it on the ballot in November—were reportedly the subject of Wolfson’s keynote address:

Opponents of same-sex marriage will collect enough signatures to force a statewide vote and Washington is due for a nasty, costly Referendum 74 campaign in the fall, supporters heard at a Thursday night banquet.

“There will be a ballot measure vote in November,” Evan Wolfson, founder and president of the national group Freedom to Marry told QLaw, the GLBT Bar Association of Washington.

…

The gay-lesbian bar group was in a celebratory mood last night in the wake of Washington becoming the seventh state to approve marriage equality.  Maryland became the eighth a few weeks later.  In both states, a Catholic governor — Chris Gregoire in Washington, Martin O’Malley in Maryland — threw weight behind approval.

The PI story concludes:

The dinner produced one more small reminder of the extent of support for making Washington a pluralistic, inclusive place.

The law schools at Gonzaga University and Seattle University — both Catholic institutions affiliated with the Jesuits — were bronze-level sponsors of the banquet.

Gonzaga has come under fire recently for inviting Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu to be its commencement speaker on May 13. The Cardinal Newman Society reports that the university did not respond to inquiries regarding the invitation to Tutu, a Nobel Laureate who has publically stated his support for legalized abortion and for the work of abortion-provider Marie Stopes International.