Greg Bourke will receive the GALA ND/SMC and ARC ND Distinguished Alumni Award at the University of Notre Dame. The distinguished alumni award is given to graduates of either Notre Dame or Saint Mary’s College who have made significant contributions to the LGBTQ+ community through their professional or community service activities. Bourke is one of the named plaintiffs (with his husband Michael De Leon) in the landmark US Supreme Court decision Obergefell vs. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015. Because of their fight for equality, they were named 2015 Persons of the Year by the National Catholic Reporter. Bourke and De Leon have been active in establishing LGBTQ+ alumni networks at the University of Notre Dame, University of Louisville, University of Kentucky, and other organizations.
Bourke recently published Gay, Catholic, and American: My Legal Battle for Marriage Equality and Inclusion (University of Notre Dame Press, 2021), which Foreword Reviews calls “a remarkable memoir… about how [Bourke] and his husband became plaintiffs in one of the most pivotal Supreme Court cases in LGBTQ+ history.”
During the GALA ND/SMC and ARC ND Alumni Weekend, there will be a panel discussion and book signing for Gay, Catholic and American on Saturday, April 9. The awards dinner and ceremony will be that evening at 6:00pm. You can read more about the events here.
ARC ND is the Alumni Rainbow Community of the University of Notre Dame, an Alumni Association group dedicated to bringing together Notre Dame LGBTQ+ alumni and allies.
This piece first appeared on undpressnews.nd.edu.
For more information, contact: Kathryn Pitts, University of Notre Dame Press, pitts.5@nd.edu, 574.631.3267.