Vatican attacked for opposing gay decriminalisation

By Philip Pullella

 

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Gay rights groups and newspaper editorials on Tuesday condemned the Vatican for its decision to oppose a proposed U.N. resolution calling on governments worldwide to de-criminalise homosexuality.

 

The row erupted after the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations told a French Catholic news agency the Holy See would oppose the resolution, which France is due to propose later this month on behalf of the 27-member European Union.

 

Archbishop Celestino Migliore said the Vatican opposed the resolution because it would “add new categories of those protected from discrimination” and could lead to reverse discrimination against traditional heterosexual marriage.

 

“If adopted, they would create new and implacable discriminations,” Migliore said. “For example, states which do not recognise same-sex unions as ‘matrimony’ will be pilloried and made an object of pressure,” Migliore said.

 

A strongly worded editorial in Italy’s mainstream La Stampa newspaper said the Vatican’s reasoning was “grotesque.”

 

Pointing out that homosexuality was still punishable by death in some Islamic countries, the editorial said what the Vatican really feared was a “chain reaction in favour of legally recognised homosexual unions in countries, like Italy, where there is currently no legislation.”

 

Franco Grillini, founder and honorary president of Arcigay, Italy’s leading gay rights group, said the Vatican’s reasoning smacked of “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 Reuters. 

FRANCE DEFENDS RESOLUTION

 

The resolution is to be presented by Rama Yade, France’s state secretary for human rights. On Tuesday the Paris government defended the resolution.

 

“France’s initiative … is an initiative that is based on existing texts. The idea is not to create new rights. The idea is … to make decriminalisation possible,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said.

 

Human rights groups say homosexuality is still punishable by law in more than 85 countries and by death in a number of them, including Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen.

 

Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi said “no one wants the death penalty or jail or fines for homosexuals” but defended Migliore’s comments, adding that the Vatican was in the majority on the issue.

 

“It’s not for nothing that fewer than 50 member states of the United Nations have adhered to the proposal in question while more than 150 have not adhered. The Holy See is not alone,” Lombardi said.

 

An editorial in Rome’s left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper said the Vatican’s position “leaves one dumbstruck.” Margherita Boniver, a leading member of the Italy’s leftist Democratic Party, called it “alarmingly anachronistic.”

 

Grillini, the gay rights activist, said he feared what he called another “Holy Alliance” between the Vatican and Islamic states at the United Nations to oppose the proposed resolution.

 

At a major U.N. conference on the family in Cairo in 1994, the Vatican teamed up with Islamic and Latin American countries to defeat an abortion rights proposal.The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. But in October, a leading Vatican official called homosexuality “a deviation, an irregularity and a wound.”

Peter Tatchell praises English bishops for challenging ‘bigoted’ Vatican over homosexuality

 

The gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has praised the “liberal” Catholic bishops of England and Wales for challenging the “outdated, bigoted” attitude of the Vatican towards homosexuality.

Speaking on behalf of OutRage!, the hardline lobby group that in the past has adopted the appalling tactic of disrupting Masses, Tatchell strongly welcomes a Bishops’ Conference leaflet that urges the faithful to use the bidding prayers “to express appreciation for the gifts that homosexual Catholics bring to their faith community”.

Personally, I can’t think of anything worse than being patronised from the lectern by someone reading out a bit of politically correct doggerel from Eccleston Square. Still, I’m sure some gay activists linked to the Bishops’ Conference will be delighted by his endorsement.

The bishops, on the other hand, spend a lot of time trying to pretend that their teaching is identical to that of the Holy Father. How embarrassing for them that Peter Tatchell has revealed the vast gulf between Eccleston Square and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

As he says in his press release: “The Vatican identifies homosexuality as a deep-seated personality disorder and psychological flaw; variously condemning same-sex acts as ‘grave sins … objectively disordered … intrinsically immoral … (and) contrary to natural law.’ Even men who have a gay orientation but abstain totally from sex are condemned by the Pope as possessing a ‘tendency towards an intrinsic moral evil.’

“This leaflet challenges these outdated, bigoted attitudes. It reflects the growing acceptance of loving, loyal, long-term same-sex relationships by grassroots Catholics.” 

The 2008 Edition of The Bible

The 2008 Edition of The Bible

 

The Bible is a product of its time. It is a collection of knowledge gathered by a certain group of people in a specific time period. Today, millennia later, we read editions of translations of translations. How does the Bible stay relevant for today — and the Old Testament is even older than the New Testament — so how can the information from the Bible be used in today’s world?

One answer — and a popular one at the moment — is to quote Biblical verses to advance discrimination against homosexuals. Most often it is Leviticus (Old Testament) which is quoted. Leviticus is simply a set of purity codes. These codes refer to cultural rules to physical cleanliness. These rules were designed to separate the Jewish people from the Pagans.

One of the Pagan beliefs was for men to lie with men “as with a woman”. This was not done for sexual pleasure, but as a means of emasculating the man. It was often done after a war victory as a way of making the defeated passive.

If the Christians insist on using Biblical quotes to squash gay and lesbian culture, then let us hold them to other rules and morals.

Exodus 21:7: The ability to sell daughters into slavery

Exodus 35:2: Anyone who works on the Sabbath should be put to death

Leviticus 11:7: Touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean. Sad news for football fans.

I could continue to list standards which no longer apply to our culture, except to Fundamentalists, but instead will point out what Jesus stated when asked what was the greatest Commandment:

Mark 12: 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love your Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’. There is no commandment greater than these.”

There is no exclusion after ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’. Not gender, race, religion nor sexual orientation. Maybe Christians should actually read — and understand — their Bible?

Bollywood: Film Brings Homosexuality Out Of Closet

Film brings homosexuality out of closet

NEW DELHI: Once upon a time in Bollywood, a handsome hero would croon and bash up a few goons to win over his coy but willing lady love. If the film worked, the director could live happily ever after. But the staple heterosexual romance is no longer the only stuff that Bollywood dreams are made of, as filmmakers turn to subjects that would previously have been considered too serious or unthinkable for a conservative audience. That is why there is much buzz about the industry’s latest offering, Dostana (friendship), a film about two men who pretend to be a couple, in which homosexuality — illegal in India — is a running theme. “I think the film does a lot for gays in a country where the word homosexual does not even exist for many people,” said leading gay rights activist Ashok Row Kavi. Homosexuality is punishable by a fine and a 10-year prison term in India, where a law prohibits “carnal intercourse against the order of nature,” although convictions are unheard of. A court in New Delhi is currently considering a suit brought by gay rights activists to decriminalise homosexuality, which is seen by many Indians as a “Western” import. “Men come to us and say they now know that there is a word for their feelings, as the term homosexuality is a recent construct,” Kavi said. In the film, there is no such confusion as Bollywood actors John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan pose as a couple to win over a prospective landlady who is averse to renting out her apartment to single men because of her young niece. Though the characters themselves are not homosexual, there are ample references to gay love – a topic that had been largely shunned by Bollywood, except in one low-key but acclaimed film My Brother Nikhil three years ago. “Dostana gives a feel-good vibe without being gloomy or sending out wrong messages. It is very clearly gay, with Bachchan shown driving a pink limousine,” said Kavi, who founded India’s first gay magazine, Mumbai Dost. “Rarely will you get to see two popular desi (local) heroes indulge in such gay banter, even though it’s make-believe,” film critic Nikhat Kazmi wrote in The Times of India. In one scene, the mother of one of the men finally comes around to accepting his “boyfriend” and wails: “Do I call you a daughter-in-law or son-in-law?” “That is something new,” Kavi said. The two “gay” men ultimately end up chasing the landlady’s young niece in Miami, where the film is set. Produced by top filmmaker Karan Johar, Dostana is already on its way to becoming one of the biggest Bollywood hits this year, industry watchers said. “It is doing very well among the younger, educated people in big cities,” said Indu Mirani, entertainment editor of the tabloid Mumbai Mirror. But Mirani cautioned against giving Dostana too much credit for championing the cause of gays and lesbians. “It’s too flippant, it won’t change anything. Sociological changes take years to happen,” she said. “The Indian audience is still not that evolved for Bollywood to try a film with gay characters in the lead.” – AFP

“West Wing” Video

Watch the “West Wing” clip dealing with homosexuality.

Courtesy of YouTube.