Erasing is the right word. Most Catholic priests won’t even use the words gay, LGBTQ, or transgender. The Church’s official position is that such identities are invalid, that they don’t accurately describe people. They say gay people don’t exist, just sinful people who make bad choices about who to have sex with. Trans people don’t exist, just sinful people who make bad choices about how to dress and present themselves.

Two years ago when the US Catholic Bishops Conference lobbied Congress to drop LGBTQ people from groups targeted for help in the new, bipartisan suicide hotline law, they did so on the grounds that LGBTQ people, as a class, do not exist and that Congress should not recognize our existence.

Catholic lay people were shocked. The National Catholic Reporter called the USCCB out in strong, morally outraged language.

But that hasn’t changed the fact that most U.S. Church officials will not say gay, will not say trans, will not say LGBTQ.