Gay Rights and Religion
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Toward a Welcoming Catholic Viewpoint on LGBT Rights
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How American Evangelicals are Killing Gay People in Africa
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Pope Benedict XVI Would Like to Welcome the Tired, Hungry, Anti-Gay Huddled Masses
Quitting Scientology Because of Homophobia
Published October 26, 2009 @ 07:21AM PT
Hollywood director Paul Haggis, whose film "Crash" won best picture several years ago (over "Brokeback Mountain," no less) has penned a heartfelt and poignant letter to the leaders of the Church of Scientology, breaking with the religion over what Haggis sees as homophobic actions in the debate over California's Proposition 8 -- the ballot measure passed last year that rescinded the rights of gays and lesbians to marry in the state.
Haggis writes in his letter that in the lead up to Prop 8, and in the wake of its passage, the director urged the official church to distance itself from the discriminatory ballot measure, and issue a statement saying that it respected the rights of gays and lesbians to marry. After almost a year of run-around from church officials, Haggis made his resignation from the body official with a letter to the church's spokesperson, Tommy Davis.
Hey Pope Benedict XVI: Fight Climate Change, Not LGBT People
Published October 15, 2009 @ 12:07PM PT
During an annual end-of-year message last year, Pope Benedict XVI made a very un-peaceful move in comparing the threat of climate change to homosexuality and gender identity. The Pope, usually not one to miss a beat when it comes to calling LGBT people sinful, said that homosexuality was about as much of a threat to the human race as climate change.
Clearly this Pope has never visited the Maldives, or he might come to think that an entire nation being swallowed up by a rising ocean might be significantly worse than two women sleeping together.
The Pope's address was a veiled attempt to say that gender theory -- the type of thinking about human sexuality that promotes tolerance and acceptance of LGBT people, and views sexual orientation as a much more complex issue than the church's black-and-white thinking -- would dismantle humankind. Gay rights groups justifiably blew a gasket.
Today, on Blog Action Day (http://www.blogactionday.org/), it seems critical to think back about Pope Benedict XVI's unfortunate comparison, and challenge the Pope not to fall into the same sort of destructive thinking. If this is a planet worth saving, it's going to take all walks of life -- from queer people to the most devout Catholics.
It's a good thing that Pope Benedict XVI sees climate change as a threat to humanity. The Catholic Church has some muscle, given that it's one of the largest religious denominations in the entire world, and it should be treating the issue of climate change as if it were a threat to humankind. It is. But to say that gay people are as much a threat to the world as climate change isn't productive. It's hurtful.
Two months from now, when the Pope gives another annual message, here's hoping he touches on climate change. And here's hoping he leaves the gay-bashing out.
Using the Book of Leviticus to Beat Gay Men Into Comas
Published October 14, 2009 @ 03:43PM PT
As the U.S. Congress prepares to finally pass hate crimes legislation that includes protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, a bloody and gruesome example of why such hate crimes protections are needed is coming out of New York. Over the weekend, two men beat and mauled 49-year-old Jack Price near his home in Queens, New York. They left him for dead, crushing his lungs, breaking his jaw, and lacerating his spleen. His condition was so bad that when he was finally rushed to a hospital, he had to be put into a medically-induced coma so that doctors could treat him.
Disturbing. Brutal. Bigoted. Disgusting. And beyond these terms, what's another scary part? Friends of the perpetrators are saying that the hate crime was justified because of the book of Leviticus.
One of the friends gave an interview to WABC News in New York, and the commentary is repulsive.
"I don't want no man blowing me a kiss either. I mean things happen," said Marcel Gelmi, a friend of one of the attackers. "I've been beat up like that too, but you don't see me on the news and my family crying and this and that. Wounds heal."
Somehow I highly doubt that Gelmi has been beat up to the point where he had to be placed in a medically-induced coma so that doctors could save his life. Gelmi also showed the TV reporters a tattoo he has on his arm, from the book of Leviticus.
"Leviticus. You should not lay with a man as one does with a woman. It's an abomination."
Of course, if Gelmi actually bothered to open his bible instead of just tattooing religious right soundbytes onto his arm, he'd find that the real abomination is interpreting a biblical verse as license to violently assault people because of their sexual orientation. I don't seem to recall anything in the Bible where God blesses the beating, the lacerating of one's spleen, the breaking of one's jaw, or the crushing of one's lungs simply because one is gay.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown summed up this beating pretty damn well: "This is probably the most vicious and brutal incident that I've seen, captured as it was on videotape."
If these two men are guilty -- and all indications, including video that captured the horrific assault, seem to suggest that they will be -- they deserve to be held accountable for their actions. And if there was ever a reason to make sure that expanded hate crimes laws find their way to President Obama IMMEDIATELY, this is it.
Mormons and Catholics Waste Church Resources Fighting Marriage Equality
Published October 14, 2009 @ 04:57AM PT
Sen. Harry Reid is the highest-ranking member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints serving in Congress. His church was one of the biggest funders of the anti-gay ballot initiative in California, Prop 8, which rescinded marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples. Sen. Reid is now saying that as a whole, the Mormon Church has bigger fish to fry than fighting marriage equality.
According to the Salt Lake City Tribune, Sen. Reid regretted the divisiveness caused by the Mormon Church's involvement in Prop 8, and wished the institutional church would have spent resources on something much more productive to society.
"He said that he thought it was a waste of church resources and good will," LGBT rights activist Derek Washington told the Tribune. "He said he didn't think it was appropriate."
Sounds about right. Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to take away the civil rights of gays and lesbians doesn't sound like the type of investment anyone should support, let alone the Senate Majority Leader. Now let's see if we can find a Catholic politician to criticize that Church's behemoth money dump in Maine to do discriminate against gay and lesbian couples. Numbers were released yesterday in the state, and the Catholic Diocese of Portland donated $245,000 to fight marriage equality in the state.
Meanwhile, God was heard to say yesterday, "Do you know how many hungry people $245,000 could feed." Way to misplace your priorities, Catholic Church.
U.S. Catholic Bishops Plan to Attack Gay Marriage with November Statement
Published October 13, 2009 @ 08:57AM PT
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is planning a major statement on marriage in November, preparing to issue new language about how the church views same-sex marriage. Unfortunately, the new language is more of the same from the U.S. bishops -- hateful, tired, and representative of a theology that views people who are LGBT as less than.
The statement, "Marriage: Love and Live in the Divine Plan," (PDF) not only blasts gay marriage, but also tackles contraception and cohabitation. The statement calls all of them intrinsically evil.
But the harshest words are reserved for marriage equality, which the U.S. bishops see as one of the most troubling developments in contemporary society. They dedicate 42 lines of text to the issue.
"[Same-sex marriage] harms both the intrinsic dignity of every human person and the common good of society," the U.S. bishops write. "The legal recognition of same-sex unions poses a multifaceted threat to the very fabric of society, striking at the source from which society and culture come and which they are meant to serve."
They go on to write that LGBT people should live a life dedicated to chastity, and that male-female complementarity reigns superior to basic equal rights.
With this statement, the U.S. bishops just might have made the Catholic Church the most anti-LGBT religious institution in the country. Say what you want about the craziness of Focus on the Family, or the wingnuttiness of the Family Research Council, or the anti-gay dollars from the official Mormon Church. But this statement will be signed on by more than 300 U.S. Catholic Bishops, covering the entire country.
And it's yet another example of how the official Catholic Church is moving to the far end of the radical right spectrum.
Fortunate Families, a Catholic organization made up of parents who love and affirm their LGBT children, issued a newsletter last month with an article by David Boies (PDF), one of the lawyers leading efforts to challenge bans on gay marriage in federal courts. Boies wrote, "Countries as Catholic as Spain, as different as Sweden and South Africa, and as near as Canada have embraced gay and lesbian marriage without any noticeable effect -- except the increase in human happiness and social stability that comes from permitting people to marry for love."
Too bad the U.S. Catholic Church isn't listening to groups like Fortunate Families, or to this Catholic mother in Maine, or to this retired Catholic Bishop in Detroit when it comes to the matter of loving LGBT people.
The Exiling of a Gay-Friendly Catholic Leader
Published October 10, 2009 @ 10:13AM PT
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton is a lot of things. He's a former Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit. A founder of a peace and justice organization that a certain blogger used to work at. A leader in the peace movement since the 1970s up through today. And a Bishop who has challenged the concept that to be Catholic means to be anti-gay.
Because of those beliefs, he's being exiled from the Catholic Church.
The latest example comes from Marquette, Michigan, where a local group of peace activists invited Bishop Gumbleton to come and give a talk. Marquette's Bishop, Alexander Sample, issued a public letter saying that because of Bishop Gumbleton's stance that gay people should be treated as human beings, he's not welcome in the diocese.
"Given Bishop Gumbleton's very public position on certain important matters of Catholic teaching, specifically with regard to homosexuality and the ordination of women to the priesthood, it was my judgment that his presence in Marquette would not be helpful," Bishop Sample wrote.
Mind you, Bishop Gumbleton was coming to speak about peace -- not about gay rights or ordaining women. Yet this is what the Catholic Church has come to: censoring -- nay, banishing -- Catholics who won't toe the homophobic line of certain U.S. bishops and the Vatican.
Bishop Sample is a damn fool -- running a Catholic gestapo in charge of policing who comes in and out of his diocese lest folks hear a thing or two about equal rights.
Sadly, this isn't the first time Bishop Gumbleton has been told to keep out from a Catholic diocese. Tucson, Arizona's Bishop, Gerald Kicanas, also wouldn't allow Bishop Gumbleton to travel to his diocese to talk about peace and justice issues.
Apparently, censorship is more important to the Catholic Church than championing the cause of peace.
It's OK to Have a Queer-Friendly Rosary
Published October 04, 2009 @ 06:41AM PT
Conservative Catholics are in an uproar over a progressive church tradition that gives an LGBT-friendly stance on the rosary -- the set of prayer beads that Catholics use to honor Jesus's mother, Mary. The rosary has been said to be a ticket for personal and world peace for Catholics. Shouldn't that ticket to peace belong to LGBT Catholics, too?
Not if you talk to some conservative Catholics. Some are saying it's blasphemy for gay Christians to pray the rosary. Others are saying it's akin to sexual immorality and a covert way for "homosexual activists" to infiltrate the church. But isn't it funny that they're using a religious icon devoted to peace to snarl venom toward LGBT folks? Maybe these folks should go back and say a few rosaries themselves...
At issue is a service performed in Berkeley, California in September entitled "Praying the Rosary in Solidarity with LGBT Catholics." It's based on a tradition developed by the Metropolitan Community Church, and a tradition that has been embraced by several groups, including a California-based group known as Catholics for Marriage Equality. It involves praying the rosary from a perspective that sees the Bible as an LGBT-inclusive text, and not one that promotes fire and brimstone toward LGBT people.
In other words, praying a queer rosary is a way of healing the divide that has existed between religion and LGBT people. It's a practice meant to foster love and acceptance, and a practice meant to honor peaceful representations of Mary. There should be nothing blasphemous about that.
What's blasphemous is a church that is seeking to root out LGBT people. What's blasphemous is a Pope that says LGBT people are as evil as climate change. What's blasphemous is a Bishop in Maine who says that it's OK to discriminate against gays and lesbians.
Besides, something tells me that if Mary were walking the earth today, she'd likely be praying the rosary with people who are marginalized and struggling for equal rights. It has something to do with that pesky goal of siding with those that are without power, with those that are cast aside by society, and those that face discrimination and persecution because of who they are. Funny how those religious principles usually manage to get tossed aside by the rabid religious right.
