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Loading ...Neff: The sins of the Pope
The United States, by ruling of the Supreme Court, did not decriminalize homosexuality until 2003.
No kidding.“American Idol” has been on the television longer than consensual same-sex sex has been legal in some U.S. states.
This month, perhaps this week, France will introduce to the United Nations General Assembly a statement about human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity, including torture, arbitrary arrest, killings, political, social and economic discrimination and the criminalization of same-sex love.
Scott Long of Human Rights Watch called the statement, “One of the most comprehensive affirmations of human rights relating to sexual orientation and gender identity that any international body has seen in recent years.”
The statement, building on the UN’s record of promoting LGBT rights, is neither a resolution nor a declaration. It will not be binding. It will not have the force of law in the member states. It will not even be voted upon.
But it hopefully will have symbolic impact and it will send a message to the 86 countries that criminalize same-sex sexual activity. The penalty for such activity is imprisonment in some nations and death in at least seven nations — Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Mauritania and parts of Nigeria and Pakistan.
All the European Union members, as well as a number of non-EU countries and Latin American nations, have signed on to the statement to decriminalize homosexuality.
The United States, however, has not signed on to the document.
To anyone’s surprise?
And the Vatican has taken a stand against the statement.
To anyone’s surprise?
In defense of the Vatican’s opposition, Archbishop Celestino Migliore said a statement to decriminalize homosexuality would lead to bias against those who discriminate against gays and lesbians.
“If adopted, they would create new and implacable discriminations,” Migliore told Reuters. “For example, states which do not recognize same-sex unions as ‘matrimony’ will be pilloried and made an object of pressure.”
The French government and some GLBT rights groups responded by calling Migliore’s reasoning wrong or misguided and emphasizing that this statement is intended to discourage nations from sentencing gays to prison or death, an argument that should but doesn’t sway the Vatican. Apparently the Catholic Church’s abhorrence of the death penalty is not as great as its abhorrence of homosexuality.
Because I’m a columnist and not the French secretary of human rights or the spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry, I don’t need to be political. I can confide: I think it would be great if the statement was used to put pressure on nations that promote discrimination, disrespect human dignity and violate human rights.
I can also say that the GLBT community has long maintained that decriminalization has far-reaching impact in regards to employment, marriage, benefits and raising children.
In pushing for decriminalization in the United States, activists and attorneys argued that laws criminalizing consensual sodomy were used to justify denying gays and lesbians jobs and promotions and custody of their children.
My old reporter’s notes quote a director at the American Civil Liberties Union, following the release of the Supreme Court ruling against sodomy laws, as saying, “For years, whenever we have sought equality, we’ve been answered both in courts of law and in the court of public opinion with the claim that we are not entitled to equality because our love makes us criminals. That argument — which has been a serious block to progress — is now a dead letter.”
The Court itself said that the U.S. Constitution protects the right of gays to form intimate relationships and “retain their dignity as free persons.”
Gays, the Court said, have the same right as heterosexuals to “define one’s concept of existence, of meaning, or the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”
The statement soon to be read at the United Nations will not have the influence in any nation that the U.S. Supreme ruling had in this country.
But the statement will affirm, as the Court did, gays rights to form intimate relationships, to live with dignity and to seek equality. And, if this is what the Vatican fears, we should say, “Watch out.”
The catholic church can no longer burn me at the stake, but wants to make my life as a gay man as hard as possible. While this is unfortunate, in the long run it’s a very good atheistic propaganda! Therefore, I applaud the catholic church for slowly digging its own grave! May the poison of religion vanish from the face of the earth!
if gay/lesbian/bi/transgender Americans have the same rights as heterosexuals, why is it that marriage is not, wow another political matter that has somehow included religious opinion. Seriously, American politics would go well if it only created laws on morality rather than public and overseas opinion.
I’m wondering if JB (author of the “enough with religion-o-phobia” comment) lives on the same planet that–much less in the same country–that most of us do. Is he straight? Or simply a self-loathing gay man that calls himself “straight-acting”?
His assertion that religion is not our enemy and that we “dumbasses” need to learn to fight the right fight leaves me wondering what fight he thinks is worth fighting. I hope that he (the true “dumbass”) isn’t gay…we don’t need such fools working against us in the tough battle for equal rights; which IS most certainly fueled and funded on the other side by organized religion.
ENOUGH with religion-o-phobia that is more fervent and vicious than any religions opposition to LBGTQ-ness. Given the recent racist and almost violent protests after the passage of Prop-8.
Fight for separation of church and state, fine. This is what this Republic was established to protect against.
Religion IS allowed. Religion IS allowed to believe what it wants to.
Religion IS NOT your enemy.
Your enemy are those that wish to bridge the gulf between Republic and Theocracy.
I am more than willing to join you in that fight.
But if you make the fight against religion then you make more enemies even among those predisposed to support you than you realize.
STOP FIGHTING RELIGION.
Start asserting your constitutionally protected rights.
You risk finding mortal enemies among those who might actually be able to support your rights.
Don’t understand?
You better start fighting the right battles. Dumbasses.
Was that clearer?
I was a Catholic all of my 55 years of life but now I am ashamed of my church. I have seen them refuse to give communion to a people who don’t always agree with the church’s view. They will give communion to murders and rapists but not someone who is gay or pro choice. The Pope feels that he can tell everyone what to believe and how to live. I have stopped going to church and have started looking at other religions which hurts my heart but I want to be accepting not only “tolerated”.
most religions hate gays
they are cause of hate and suffering .
the hate speech form religious leader should be taken to court and dealt with the law . they are inciting the masses to hate us . in the name of some phony gods
Theofascists…is not far away folks. Remember Papa Ratzi, was a Nazi..he was a brown shirt…eg like ROTC for Nazis…and the Right Wing is glorying in the RCC’s condemnation…in fact, this is a quote from Matt Barber and ONE NEWS NOW: epresents just one step in the overall plan of homosexual strategists, according to Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel. “It’s a brave new world out there, and homosexual activists have infiltrated the ranks of the United Nations. So I will not be surprised if this resolution does in fact pass,” he contends.
. . . If the resolution succeeds, Barber fully expects a push to begin for recognition of homosexual “marriage” that could become a party of international treaties, binding signatory nations to recognition.
Using the threat of gay marriage to oppose a pro-gay law, ordinance, or resolution is a tactic the religious right have undertaken since their success in the 2004 general election. It is said that Bush was elected on the backs of so-called values voters who came to the polls in huge numbers to oppose same sex marriage.
Since that time, the religious right have sometimes tried to beat back potentially pro-gay laws or ordinances (be it anti-discrimination laws or hate crimes legislation) by claiming that they would lead us down a slippery slope to gay marriage, polygamy, and out-and-out chaos.
It’s never amusing when they manipulate this fear, but on this occasion it’s downright ugly.
To hear Barber say it, THE UNITED NATIONS SHOULD NOT WORRY ABOUT ADVOCATING THAT LGBT’S NOT BE PERSECUTED BY ARREST OR DEATH. Gays getting torched out of their homes or publicly hanged doesn’t seem to be a big deal to him. But allowing those same gays to MARRY? That’s worse than the Apocalypse.
So the Right is thrilled to become TheoFascists and follow PapaRatzi…..and depending on how many follow…it could be a very bad year.
“Does anyone really care what the pope says?”
There are over 1bn people in the world who claim to be Catholic. While I’m sure the number of practicing Catholics is somewhat smaller, I think it’s fair to say that the number of people who DO care what the Pope thinks is not inconsiderable.
Organized religion creates the “demons” that they then claim to help rid you of. Talk about creating your own market. (Heir Benedict is a weird, creep old guy!)
Does anyone really care what the pope says?
It’s time to send the Vatican ambassadors of fairy tales back to Rome to mend the tears in their dresses.
They do not deserve representation in any country’s Embassy Row nor at the United Nations.
They are irrelevant.
The pope is the best argument for legalized abortion there is.
In addition to the obvious disdain of the church for homosexual persons ; it is an affront to the judicial and legislative wisdom of countries like Holland , Spain , and Canada , that have recognized equality of legal rights for all citizens ( and taxpayers.) And , …..Happy Holidays to All , and Best Wishes for 2009.
“The church wants to retain its power and influence, even at the expense of GLTB lives.”
Well of course! It needs some place to direct all that hellfire and damnation. Without the devil, would there be any need for God?
The Catholic Church’s opposition to gay rights (any church’s opposition, actually) has an unmasking effect. The church wants to retain its power and influence, even at the expense of GLTB lives.