![Plaintiffs Gregory Bourke (left) and Michael DeLeon (right)[45] celebrate outside the Supreme Court building on June 26, 2015.](https://lgbtweekly.jeffjungblut.com/storage/2015/12/Bourke-DeLeon-300x247.jpg)
In an editorial published Monday, Greg Bourke and Michael DeLeon were named NCR‘s persons of the year for 2015 for “… their historic roles as plaintiffs in Obergefell v. Hodges and for their faithful public witness as gay Catholics.”
The National Catholic Reporter is an independent weekly paper that covers topics related to the Catholic Church, and has long called for the church to be more accepting of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, reports The Huffington Post. Last year the NCR named the Pope as its person of the year.
Bourke and DeLeon have been together for 33 years and are lifelong practicing Catholics who are raising two children.
“Bourke and DeLeon are emblematic of this major challenge facing the church today, because they force us to ask not how will we live out a hypothetical situation, but how will we live with Greg and Michael. They give flesh to an abstraction,” wrote the NCR.
“The answers the church is giving now are confused, uneven and often cruel. Greg and Michael — and countless gay, lesbian and transgender Catholics — deserve better.”
