Smithsonian employee advises Catholics in NCR column to pray to 'transgender' saints, smears Joan of Arc as a 'cross-dresser'

American Thinker ^ | 8/27/2026 | Monica Showalter

[simpson96]

On this Feast of St. Monica, I guess we Catholics need to add another wayward soul to our prayer list.

This one's quite a lulu.

Emma Cieslik, a 'museum specialist' at, not surprisingly, the Smithsonian, who claims to be Catholic, but not as loudly as she claims to be "queer, disabled and neurodiverse" in her social media bios, wrote this guest column for the National Catholic Reporter:

August is Transgender History Month, a time to reflect on the transgender people who have led the way for transgender people's rights and who continue fighting for legal recognition and protection. This history is intimately tied to the Catholic Church, where a rich history of saints whom medieval historians now identify as transgender inspires a new generation of saints living among us.

Saints that transgress and explode gender binaries have existed since the beginning of the church itself — from people assigned female at birth who lived as men and entered monasteries (such as St. Babylas of Perge, St. Eugenios, St. Euphordyne of Alexandria, St. Theodore, St. Marinos, St. Pelagius and St. Hilarion), to saints who stated that God changed their gender (such as St. Onuphrius, St. Wilgefortis, St. Juana de la Cruz and St. Perpetua), and saints who were persecuted for cross-dressing (St. Joan of Arc).

But despite the wealth of evidence of holy gender nonconformity — stories of the saints' lives remain some of the best preserved examples of medieval literature — this gender expansiveness was, and in some circles remains, largely ignored by scholars.

That's all garbage history, none of it true, all of it a sad bid to staple the transgender ideology of today onto people who lived in the past and can't speak for themselves.

[simpson96]

Ms. Cieslik

[mass55th]

I don’t recall Joan changing her name to John, and wanting to use the Men’s room.

[stanne]

This is easy. She did not watch Brandon Gill questioning her boss in the house hearing:

https://youtu.be/FJuwaDE9Mq4

2- easier- Joan of Arc was proven to have been miraculously guided, gifted and protected in her leading troops to victory. She is a saint. That’s whether people want to believe it or not

3- easiest- the Catechism clearly states - and it does not change- homosexuality is not a sin. The act of homosexuality is.

To present a saint as some kind of hero to any movement that has nothing to do with why she has been declared a saint is not acceptable. This woman can say she’s Catholic, and might be if she has received the sacraments

That would not make her a theologian with the authority to impersonate St Joan of Arc. She did not consult a proper Catholic theologian

Whether the Vatican finally comes out and condemns this or not.

[SaveFerris]

(August is Transgender History Month)

🙄🙄🙄

There is NO SUCH THING as a "TRANSGENDER" HUMAN
ANYWHERE on the face of the Entire Earth 🌎🌏🌍




Luke 17:32 Remember Lot's Wife.

[SaveFerris]

Looks like a typical Delusional Liberal

I don’t get WHY they’re so COMMITTED (cough 😷)
to the Sodom and Gomorrah Agendas

I’ve met a few like her

ALL Democrats by a substantial margin

[MikelTackNailer]

Okay Wikipedia,what the heck is "neurodiversity"? (Hip-wader Alert)

- The neurodiversity paradigm is a framework for understanding human brain function that considers the diversity within sensory processing, motor abilities, social comfort, cognition, and focus as neurobiological differences. This diversity falls on a spectrum of neurocognitive differences. The neurodiversity movement views autism and other neurodivergences as a natural part of human neurological diversity—not diseases or disorders, just "difference[s]".

Neurodivergences include autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, developmental prosopagnosia, developmental speech disorders, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysnomia, intellectual disability, obsessive–compulsive disorder, sensory processing disorder, synesthesia, and Tourette syndrome. -

=======================================================

So every theoretical psychological malady dreamt up since they changed homosexuality from mental illness to 'gender dysphoria' or 'lifestyle' (depending on their argument's convenience) is henceforth neurodiversity, and autism is now folded into the LGBT etc. etc. pretend victimhood ladder. They even have a little flag just for that:

Ever higher and deeper.

[SaveFerris]

They try

Boy do they try 🤦🤦‍♂️🤦‍♀️🙄

[j.havenfarm]

You’d never guess she’s “queer, disabled, and neurodiverse” just by looking at her

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“ August is Transgender History Month”

Just when I was getting over all the excitement about Homo Month and all the festivities.