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Loading ...Vatican trashes first UN declaration of LGBT human rights
12.02.2008 1:50pm EST
(Rome) International human rights groups are denouncing the Vatican for condemning a proposed United Nations declaration which would - for the first time – call for civil rights for gays, lesbians and the transgendered.
The proposed declaration condemns “discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity” and will be presented at the General Assembly on Dec. 10 by France.The document has been signed by the member states of the European Union. It was drafted by France, which currently holds the rotating EU Presidency.
Dec. 10th was chosen to present it to the General Assembly because the date marks the 60th anniversary of the UN declaration of human rights.
More than 80 nations have laws denying or limiting LGBT civil rights. Some Moslem countries impose the death penalty on homosexuality while others have lengthy prison sentences.
The Vatican in a statement said the declaration would force countries to legalize same-sex marriage.
Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s permanent observer at the UN, said in the statement that the declaration would discriminate against states which support traditional marriage.
“If adopted, they would create new and implacable discriminations … For example, states which do not recognize same-sex unions as ‘matrimony’ will be pilloried and made an object of pressure,” Migliore said.
Franco Grillini, founder of Italian LGBT rights group Arcigay, called the Vatican position “total idiocy and madness.”
“The French resolution, which is supported by all 27 members of the European Union, has nothing to do with gay marriage. It is about stopping jail and the death penalty for homosexuals,” Grillini told the Reuters news service.
The Vatican has long been an opponent of LGBT rights – especially marriage.
It fought hard against same-sex marriage rights in Holland, Belgium, Spain, Canada and South Africa, all of which went on to legalize gay unions. In the U.S., the Catholic Church was heavily involved in the fight against gay marriage in Massachusetts and Connecticut, both of which now allow gay marriage, and was instrumental in the passage of Proposition 8, which overturned the California Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriage in that state.
In October, the Church said it was considering psychological testing for prospective priests to screen out candidates “with strong homosexual tendencies” and heterosexuals “unable to control their sexual urges.”
In the Vatican’s comments about how countries will be pilloried for their stances, I do not hear him condemn those countries that kill gay men and women.
I would expect nothing less from such godly men. I can wait for them to apologize for it in 2708.
I would like to tell the Vatican a little story. John 8. I think it’s in your book.
Belgian lace albs and red Gucci pumps, INDEED! Her Popishness can kiss my superannuated homosexual posterior.
Bud Burgoon-Clark, who worked for the Romish PAGAN FERTILITY CULT for a half-century LONGER than he SHOULD have!
When will the Vatican start to live by the teachings of Jesus instead of dogma?
I am not a christian but I do believe in the teachings of Jesus. Judge not, love and etc. The church as to stop trying to control everyone and just follow the example of the person they worship.
How very ‘Christian’ of the Vatican to put its political agenda ahead of basic human rights.
“Love the sinner, hate the sin” my heinie!
Non-practicing American buffet RCC…but …who cares what an old repressed misogynist homophobe spouts. RCC is losing so much clout by not restructuring to allow civilized progress within itself.
The Vatican is increasingly irrelevant, like the Cult of Diana. When people stop going to your temple and making offerings, they’ve pretty much stopped listening to you. They’ll rant for another century or two, as fewer and fewer flat-earthers respond.
Instead of screening priests for “homosexual tendencies,” why doesn’t the Roman Catholic Church screen for pedophilic/predatory tendencies, i.e. prior offenses related to sexual violence/abuse? Like, within their own diocese, for example?
I don’t like straight child molesters any better than gay ones.
What else would we expect from an institution that worked with the Nazi party and helped murder millions more in genocidal Rwanda?
Tax the churches!!!
how interesting that hte one’s who proclaim to represent the love of Christ are the first in line to condemn as a forer and recoevered altar boy and catholic i support taking away the tax exempt status for all churches, religious groups think of hte windfall we would have in proeprty and income tax from these monied holier than thous?
I still want to know when do WE get to vote on their marriage and or other civil rights like they recently did in Califonria I’ll step of my soapbox now
Terrorist group — probably… but definitely a cult — the RC Church fits that definition precisely, and it is clearly a dangerous one. It is time to stop financing this dangerous and bizarre cult with our tax dollars because we do not collect theirs; remove the tax-exempt status of churches now!
Not like the Vatican or the Catholic Church has ever discriminated against or incited great hatred and caused untold misery and even death to hundreds of millions of homosexuals throughout the anals of history.
Yet one more item in a list of atrocities committed by the RCC over the last 2,000 years. They should be condemned as a terrorist group and their leaders held accountable for crimes against humanity.
Surprise! Surprise!