Mass. priest under fire for homily on trans community, false claims that kids identify as cats

A Catholic reverend in Dracut, Massachusetts, drew a lot of reaction for his Sunday homily on transgender people.

"We don't make any judgment calls on the people in transition, we treat people with dignity and respect," Rev. Kevin Sepe of St. Francis Assisi of Dracut said Sunday.

Sepe went on to say he did not support people who are transitioning using certain locker rooms.

"Should a man who is in transition be allowed to go into the female locker room?" Sepe asked the standing-room-only parish on Sunday. "I was thinking if I was in the YMCA locker room and someone in transition came in and was standing next to me, geez, not that I … you know … I just don't want to be around someone who's not the same gender in the male locker room."

The homily lasted for more than 15 minutes, and later on, Sepe touched on a debunked myth that public schools in Maine were replacing toilets with kitty litter boxes for those students who identified as a cat.

"Let's ratchet up one more, I have friends who live in Maine," Sepe said, adding those friends told him their plumber was called to a local school to replace the toilets.

"They have demanded their children, there are kids that think they are cats they wear a tail … I know, I am trying to remember, trying to get this through my head," he went on. "Now we have to pay for the kitty litter back in a public school, where does it end?"

During his unsuccessful Senate campaign in New Hampshire last year, Don Bolduc was among several Republicans to echo the outlandish claim about schools putting out litter boxes for children who "identify as cats."

Pinkerton Academy, which Bolduc named, was quick to refute Bolduc's "false claims suggesting that unhygienic, disturbing practices are taking place in our classrooms and spaces on campus."

In investigating the kitty litter myth, NBC News could find only one example of cat litter being kept for students by a school district — as part of emergency supplies for when students are locked down during a shooting at the Colorado school district that includes Columbine High School.

John Pitman attended Sepe's homily and said he couldn't believe it when the packed crowd of hundreds started clapping at the end. He said he just got up and walked out, disgusted over what he just heard.

"Disgusted, floored, befuddled, I just couldn't believe it was coming out of the mouth of a man who was supposed to embrace love and teach love, and teach all the good things in the world, and with everything going on in the world," Pitman said.

Another woman, who didn't want to be identified, said she too sat there in disbelief. She has a loved one who is transgender.

"I took it very personally. I think it attacked my values, it attacked what I teach all my children," she said. "I teach them love and not hate, and the message that was delivered was hate."

Sepe couldn't be reached and no one from the church returned our request for comment. No one was at the church on Monday, and soon after we started asking questions, the church sent out an email to all parishioners saying the building would be closed on Monday due to an "unforeseen facility issue."

The archdiocese of Boston also did not return a request for comment.

"The idea of people applauding after the homily, I haven't heard that in all my years going to mass," Pitman said. "They have enough going on they don't need someone who is supposed to give hope of love and Jesus and God to joke about them and make fun of them and belittle them."