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Gay marriage passes in New York state N.Y. becomes sixth and largest state to legalize gay marriage

2011-06-25T18:34:00.005-04:00

Same-sex marriages can begin in July after Gov. Cuomo signs bill into law

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43507672/ns/politics-more_politics/t/ny-becomes-sixth-largest-state-legalize-gay-marriage/

By MICHAEL GORMLEY
The Associated Press
updated 6/25/2011 9:51:54 AM ET

ALBANY, N.Y. — After days of contentious negotiations and last-minute reversals by two Republican senators, New York became the sixth and largest state in the U.S. to legalize gay marriage, breathing life into the national gay rights movement that had stalled over a nearly identical bill here two years ago.

Pending any court challenges, legal gay marriages can begin in New York by late July after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed his bill into law just before midnight Friday.

At New York City's Stonewall Inn, the Greenwich Village pub that spawned the gay rights movement on a June night in 1969, Scott Redstone watched New York sign the historic same-sex marriage law with his partner of 29 years, and popped the question.

"I said, 'Will you marry me?' And he said, 'Of course!'" Redstone said he and Steven Knittweis walked home to pop open a bottle of champagne.

New York becomes the sixth state where gay couples can wed, doubling the number of Americans living in a state with legal gay marriage.

"That's certainly going to have a ripple effect across the nation," said Ross Levi, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda. "It's truly a historic night for love, our families, and democracy won."

"We made a powerful statement," Cuomo said. "This state is at its finest when it is a beacon of social justice."

The leading opponent, Democratic Sen. Ruben Diaz, was given only a few minutes to state his case during the Senate debate.

"God, not Albany, settled the issue of marriage a long time ago," said Diaz, a Bronx minister. "I'm sorry you are trying to take away my right to speak," he said. "Why are you ashamed of what I have to say?"

The Catholic Bishops of New York said the law alters "radically and forever humanity's historic understanding of marriage."

"We always treat our homosexual brothers and sisters with respect, dignity and love," the bishops stated Friday, "We worry that both marriage and the family will be undermined by this tragic presumption of government in passing this legislation that attempts to redefine these cornerstones of civilization."

Legal challenges of the law and political challenges aimed at the four Republicans who supported gay marriage in the 33-29 vote are expected. Republican senators endured several marathon sessions, combing through several standard but complex bills this week, before taking up the same-sex marriage bill Friday.

Almost identical bill defeated in 2009
The bill came to the floor for a vote after an agreement was reached on more protections for religious groups that oppose gay marriage and feared discrimination lawsuits.

"State legislators should not decide society-shaping issues," said the Rev. Jason McGuire of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms. He said his organization would work in next year's elections to defeat lawmakers who voted for the measure.

The big win for gay rights advocates is expected to galvanize the movement around the country after an almost identical bill was defeated here in 2009 and similar measures failed in 2010 in New Jersey and this year in Maryland and Rhode Island.
Story: Some celebrity quotes on NY's new gay marriage law

Jerry Nathan of Albany, who married his partner in Massachusetts, called the vote "an incredible culmination of so much that's been going on for so many years it doesn't seem real yet."

Ultimately, gay couples will be able to marry because of two previously undecided Republicans from upstate regions far more conservative than the New York City base of the gay rights movement.
Image: People in the Senate gallery react to the passage of gay marriage at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y
Mike Groll / AP
People in the Senate gallery cheer the passage of a gay-marriage Friday night at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y.

Sen. Stephen Saland, 67, voted against a similar bill in 2009, helping kill the measure and dealing a blow to the national gay rights movement. On Friday night, gay marriage supporters wept in the Senate gallery as Saland explained how his strong, traditionally family upbringing led him to embrace legalizing gay marriage.

"While I understand that my vote will disappoint many, I also know my vote is a vote of conscience," Saland, of Poughkeepsie, said in a statement to The Associated Press before the vote. "I am doing the right thing in voting to support marriage equality."

Also voting for the bill was freshman Sen. Mark Grisanti, a Buffalo Republican who also had been undecided. Grisanti said he could not deny anyone what he called basic rights.

"I apologize to those I offend," said Grisanti, a Roman Catholic. "But I believe you can be wiser today than yesterday. I believe this state needs to provide equal rights and protections for all its residents," he said.

A huge street party erupted outside the Stonewall Inn Friday night, with celebrants waving rainbow flags and dancing after the historic vote.

Watching the festivities from across the street was Sarah Ellis, who has been in a six-year relationship with her partner, Kristen Henderson. Ellis said the measure would enable them to get married in the fall. They have twin toddlers and live in Sea Cliff on Long Island.

"We've been waiting. We considered it for a long time, crossing the borders and going to other states," said Ellis, 39. "But until the state that we live in, that we pay taxes in, and we're part of that community, has equal rights and marriage equality, we were not going to do it."

The bill makes New York only the third state, after Vermont and New Hampshire, to legalize marriage through a legislative act and without being forced to do so by a court.

© 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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'Have to do this': Cuomo charts course for gay marriage in NY

Wall Street donors and advocates also show more might than an ineffective opposition

Image: Andrew Cuomo
Mike Groll / AP

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reacts after same sex marriage was legalized after a vote in the Senate Chamber at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y., on Friday.

By MICHAEL BARBARO
The New York Times
updated 6/25/2011 2:36:57 PM ET

In the 35th-floor conference room of a Manhattan high-rise, two of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s most trusted advisers held a secret meeting a few weeks ago with a group of super-rich Republican donors.

Over tuna and turkey sandwiches, the advisers explained that New York’s Democratic governor was determined to legalize same-sex marriage and would deliver every possible Senate vote from his own party.

Would the donors win over the deciding Senate Republicans? It sounded improbable: top Republican moneymen helping a Democratic rival with one of his biggest legislative goals.

But the donors in the room — the billionaire Paul Singer, whose son is gay, joined by the hedge fund managers Cliff Asness and Dan Loeb — had the influence and the money to insulate nervous senators from conservative backlash if they supported the marriage measure. And they were inclined to see the issue as one of personal freedom, consistent with their more libertarian views.

Within days, the wealthy Republicans sent back word: They were on board. Each of them cut six-figure checks to the lobbying campaign that eventually totaled more than $1 million.

Steve Cohen, the No. 2 in Mr. Cuomo’s office and a participant in the meeting, began to see a path to victory, telling a colleague, “This might actually happen.”

The story of how same-sex marriage became legal in New York is about shifting public sentiment and individual lawmakers moved by emotional appeals from gay couples who wish to be wed.

But, behind the scenes, it was really about a Republican Party reckoning with a profoundly changing power dynamic, where Wall Street donors and gay-rights advocates demonstrated more might and muscle than a Roman Catholic hierarchy and an ineffective opposition.

And it was about a Democratic governor, himself a Catholic, who used the force of his personality and relentlessly strategic mind to persuade conflicted lawmakers to take a historic leap.

“I can help you,” Mr. Cuomo assured them in dozens of telephone calls and meetings, at times pledging to deploy his record-high popularity across the state to protect them in their districts. “I am more of an asset than the vote will be a liability.”

Over the last several weeks, dozens of lawmakers, strategists and advocates described the closed-door meetings and tactical decisions that led to approval of same-sex marriage in New York, about two years after it was rejected by the Legislature. This account is based on those interviews, most of which were granted on the condition of anonymity to describe conversations that were intended to be confidential.

‘I have to do this’
Mr. Cuomo was diplomatic but candid with gay-rights advocates in early March when he summoned them to the Capitol’s Red Room, a ceremonial chamber with stained-glass windows and wood-paneled walls.

The advocates had contributed to the defeat of same-sex marriage in 2009, he told them, with their rampant infighting and disorganization. He had seen it firsthand, as attorney general, when organizers had given him wildly divergent advice about which senators to lobby and when, sometimes in bewildering back-to-back telephone calls.

“You can either focus on the goal, or we can spend a lot of time competing and destroying ourselves,” the governor said.

This time around, the lobbying had to be done the Cuomo way: with meticulous, top-down coordination. “I will be personally involved,” he said.

The gay-rights advocates agreed, or at least acquiesced. Five groups pushing for same-sex marriage merged into a single coalition, hired a prominent lobbying firm with ties to Mr. Cuomo’s office and gave themselves a new name: New Yorkers United for Marriage.

Those who veered from the script faced swift reprimand. When Assemblyman Daniel J. O’Donnell, an openly gay Democrat from Manhattan, introduced a same-sex marriage bill in May without first alerting the governor’s office, he was upbraided by Mr. Cohen. “What do you think you’re doing?” the governor’s aide barked over the phone.

Mr. Cuomo’s hands-on management was a turning point not just for the marriage movement, but also for his long and fraught relationship with the gay community. Advocates groused that he had waited until 2006 to endorse same-sex marriage, years after many leading New York political leaders did so. And many of them still remembered his work on his father’s unsuccessful 1977 bid for mayor of New York, which had featured homophobic posters aimed at Edward I. Koch.

Over time, however, championing same-sex marriage had become personal for Mr. Cuomo. He campaigned on the issue in the race for governor last year, and after his election, he was staggered by the number of gay couples who sought him out at restaurants and on the street, prodding him, sometimes tearfully, to deliver on his word.
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The pressure did not let up at home. Mr. Cuomo’s girlfriend, Sandra Lee, has a gay brother, and she frequently reminded the governor how much she wanted the law to change.

Something else weighed on him, too: the long shadow of his father, Mario, who rose to national prominence as the conscience of the Democratic Party, passionately defending the poor and assailing the death penalty. During his first few months in office, the younger Mr. Cuomo had achieved what seemed like modern-day miracles by the standards of Albany — an austere on-time budget and a deal to cap property taxes. But, as Mr. Cuomo explained by phone to his father a few weeks ago, he did not want those accomplishments to define his first year in office.

“They are operational,” he told his father. Passing same-sex marriage, by contrast, “is at the heart of leadership and progressive government.”

“I have to do this.”

A Democratic surprise

Nobody ever expected Carl Kruger to vote yes.

A Democrat from southeast Brooklyn, known for his gruff style and shifting alliances, Senator Kruger voted against same-sex marriage two years ago, was seen as a pariah in his party and was accused in March of taking $1 million in bribes in return for political favors.

Some gay activists, assuming he was a lost cause, had taken to picketing outside of his house and screaming that he was gay — an approach that seemed only to harden his opposition to their agenda. (Mr. Kruger has said he is not gay.)

But unbeknown to all but a few people, Mr. Kruger desperately wanted to change his vote. The issue, it turned out, was tearing apart his household.

The gay nephew of the woman he lives with, Dorothy Turano, was so furious at Mr. Kruger for opposing same-sex marriage two years ago that he had cut off contact with both of them, devastating Ms. Turano. “I don’t need this,” Mr. Kruger told Senator John L. Sampson of Brooklyn, the Democratic majority leader. “It has gotten personal now.”

Mr. Sampson, a longtime supporter of same-sex marriage, advised Mr. Kruger to focus on the nephew, not the political repercussions. “When everything else is gone,” Mr. Sampson told him, “all you have left is family.”

With Mr. Kruger suddenly a possible yes vote, the same-sex marriage organizers zeroed in on the two remaining Democrats who had previously voted no but appeared open to switching sides: Shirley L. Huntley and Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., both of Queens.

Senator Huntley, a close friend of Mr. Sampson, had privately assured him that she would support the marriage bill, largely out of personal loyalty to him and fellow Democrats.

Persuading Senator Addabbo proved trickier. Same-sex marriage advocates had nicknamed him the Counter, after he told them that his vote would hinge entirely on a tally of his constituents who appealed to him for or against the measure.

By mid-May, Mr. Addabbo sent word to Mr. Cuomo that the numbers were not there for same-sex marriage.

Until then, members of the same-sex marriage coalition had deliberately refrained from inundating Mr. Addabbo’s office with feedback from supporters of the bill, fearing it might alienate and offend him.

But now, the advocates received a message from the governor’s office: Open the floodgates. Brian Ellner, who oversees the marriage push for the Human Rights Campaign, called the head of his field team, who had compiled an exhaustive list of supporters of gay rights in Mr. Addabbo’s district.

“Bury him in paper,” Mr. Ellner said.

Over the next week, the field team collected postcards signed by 2,000 of Mr. Addabbo’s constituents who favor same-sex marriage, twice as many as he had received in the previous few months combined.

When his final tally was completed in early June, he had heard from 6,015 people — 80 percent of whom asked him to vote yes. “In the end, that is my vote,” Mr. Addabbo said.

Republicans resist

In a private room at the Fort Orange Club, a stately brick manor in Albany where the waitresses still wear French maid uniforms, a pollster laid out the results of his research on same-sex marriage for Senate Republicans in early June.

There was little political rationale for legalizing it, the numbers suggested: statewide support did not extend deeply into the rural, upstate districts that are crucial to the state’s Republican Party. And with unemployment at 9 percent, the issue was far down the list of priorities for voters.

Many of the Republicans wanted to avoid ever taking a vote on the issue — a simple strategy to carry out. As the majority party in the Senate, they could block any bill from reaching the floor.

But the caucus — a group of 32 senators who had seized control of the Senate in the elections last year but held just a single-seat majority — was far from unified. And, crucially for same-sex marriage advocates, the Republicans’ relatively untested leader showed no interest in forcing them to reach a consensus. “My management style,” the Senate majority leader, Dean G. Skelos of Long Island, had told lawmakers, “is that I let my members lead.”

Mr. Cuomo was determined to exploit the leadership vacuum by peeling off a few senators from moderate districts.

A major target was James S. Alesi, a Republican from suburban Rochester, who seemed tormented by his 2009 vote. Cameras in the Senate chamber captured him holding his head in his hands as the word “no” left his mouth.

The coalition approached him from every angle. The Republican donors invited him to a meeting on Park Avenue, telling him they would eagerly support him if he backed same-sex marriage. “That’s not the kind of lily pad I normally hop on,” Mr. Alesi recalled.

The advocates collected 5,000 signed postcards from his constituents and nudged a major employer in his district, Xerox, to endorse the bill.

And Mr. Cuomo called him, over and over, to address his objections and allay his fears. He told Senator Alesi that as the first Republican to endorse same-sex marriage, he “would show real courage to the gay community.”

On June 13, aides to the governor left urgent messages with same-sex marriage advocates, who had just left a meeting in Mr. Cuomo’s office, to return there immediately, offering no explanation.

As the group assembled around a conference table, the governor opened the door to his private office and peeked in. “I want to introduce the first Republican to support marriage equality,” he announced.

Mr. Alesi walked into the room, which erupted into applause. In emotional remarks, he apologized to them for what he called his “political vote” against same-sex marriage in 2009.

Bill Smith, a lobbyist for the Gill Action, a gay-rights group, turned to the governor in disbelief. “How many rabbits are you going to pull out of the hat?” he asked.

Outgunned opponents

It was befuddling to gay-rights advocates: The Catholic Church, arguably the only institution with the authority and reach to derail same-sex marriage, seemed to shrink from the fight.

As the marriage bill hurtled toward a vote , the head of the church in New York, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, left town to lead a meeting of bishops in Seattle.

He did not travel to Albany or deliver a major speech in the final days of the session. And when he did issue a strongly worded critique of the legislation — he called it “immoral” and an “ominous threat” — it was over the phone to an Albany-area radio show.

Inside the Capitol, where a photograph of Mr. Cuomo shaking hands with Archbishop Dolan hangs in the governor’s private office, the low-key approach did not seem accidental. Mr. Cuomo had taken pains to blunt the church’s opposition.

When he learned that church leaders had objected to the language of the marriage legislation, he invited its lawyers to the Capitol to vent their frustration.

Mr. Cuomo even spoke to Archbishop Dolan about the push for same-sex marriage, emphasizing his respect and affection for the religious leader. An adviser described the governor’s message to Archbishop Dolan this way: “I have to do what I have to do. But your support over all is very important to me.”

By the time a Catholic bishop from Brooklyn traveled to Albany last week to tell undecided senators that passing same-sex marriage “is not in keeping with the will of their people,” it was clear the church had been outmaneuvered by the highly organized same-sex marriage coalition, with its sprawling field team and Wall Street donors.

“In many ways,” acknowledged Dennis Poust, of the New York State Catholic Conference, “we were outgunned. That is a lot to overcome.”

With the church largely out of the picture, the governor’s real worry was the simmering tension in the Senate Republican delegation. Its members met, for hours at a time, to debate the political and moral implications of allowing a vote.

But each time new arguments arose. Some questioned whether homosexuality was genetic or chosen. Others suggested that the same-sex marriage legislation be scrapped in favor of a statewide referendum.

Mr. Cuomo invited the Republicans to visit him at the governor’s residence, a 40-room Victorian mansion overlooking the Hudson River, just a few blocks from the Capitol.

There, in a speech the public would never hear, he offered his most direct and impassioned case for allowing gays to wed. Gay couples, he said, wanted recognition from the state that they were no different than the lawmakers in the room. “Their love is worth the same as your love,” Mr. Cuomo said. “Their partnership is worth the same as your partnership. And they are equal in your eyes to you. That is the driving issue.”

In the late hours of Friday night, 33 members of the State Senate agreed with him.

Danny Hakim contributed reporting.

This story, "The Road to Gay Marriage in New York," originally appeared in The New York Times.

Copyright © 2011 The New York Times

Ricky Martin's book "ME"

2011-02-03T15:22:00.003-05:00

Excerpt from Me

By Ricky Martin

Just like everyone else, I have had to walk down my own spiritual path and live through my experiences—the good and the bad, the love and the lack of love, the sense of feeling lost and then finding myself—to arrive at where I am today. Before I could begin to answer the endless questions that were constantly asked of me, I needed to face myself.

Of course, some might say I should have done this many years ago, but in the deepest part of my being, I am certain that the moment is now, because that is how it was always meant to be. It is only now that I am ready, and it is only now that I can do it—not one day earlier or one day later.

The process of writing this memoir has not been easy. It has demanded a lot from me—above and beyond what I expected. I've had to tie up loose ends that I'd never attempted to tie up before, to work deeply into memories that were already erased from my mind, and to find answers to very difficult questions; but above all else...above everything, I have finally had to accept myself. I have had to bare myself utterly and completely to see myself exactly as I am. I discovered things that I liked—and others not as much. And it was precisely the things I didn't like so much that I became intent on remedying from the moment I became conscious of them. I would have never imagined that writing this book would lead me to where it has; however, today I know that I am a better man—and a happier man—because of what I have learned about myself throughout the process.

I wanted to say a lot in these pages, but I wanted to do it with humility and dignity, focusing on the experiences that have helped shape me. More than an autobiography, this book is a testament of my spiritual beliefs, an account of the steps I have taken to arrive at the place of happiness and completeness where I now find myself.

The Real Ricky Martin

The Oprah Winfrey Show
November 02, 2010

From the time he was 12 years old, Ricky Martin drove women wild. As a member of Latin American boy band Menudo, Ricky's youthful good looks sent teenage girls worldwide into hysterics.

As Ricky got older, his sexy voice, red-hot dance moves and chiseled good looks turned him into an international solo sensation. He sold out stadiums, gave one of the most explosive performances in television history at the 1999 Grammys and found himself surrounded with beautiful women on and off the stage.

To the world, it appeared Ricky was truly living la vida loca. In reality, he says he was living a lie. For years, Ricky declined to respond to rumors of his sexuality—until March 29, 2010. That day, Ricky came out on his website, saying: "I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am."

Now, Ricky is opening up about his decision to speak his truth in a new memoir, Me. In his first television interview since coming out, Ricky sits down with Oprah to reveal why he stayed silent about his sexuality for years and his decision to become a father.

Ricky says his 2-year-old twins, Valentino and Matteo, inspired him to tell the world he is a proud gay man. "I had to because I couldn't take it anymore," he says. "But who gave me that final push was definitely my children, because if I didn't come out for them, what was I going to be teaching them? How to lie? I don't want my family to be based on lies. I want to be transparent to them. I want them to be proud of their dad. I want them to be proud of themselves, of their family."

After writing that message and posting it, Ricky says he felt a rush of emotion. First he says he was numb, then relieved. "I was in my studio alone for a minute. My assistant walked in, and I just started crying like a little baby," he says. "He [grabbed] me in my arms. He goes: 'Let it go. Let it go. Finally you're free.'"

Watch Ricky remember that experience

In that moment, Ricky says he felt liberated. "I felt that I could finally say, 'I love myself completely,'" he says. "It's very difficult because for many years I was trying to pretend I was somebody."

Ricky says he knew from a young age that he was gay. "I was 4, 5 years old and I felt this chemistry," he says. "The first day I went to school, when I came back, the first thing they asked me was: 'Do you have girlfriends already? How many girlfriends do you have?' ... I was like: 'What? I don't understand what you mean.'"

Ricky says he never felt he could be himself. "For many years, I was told that the way I was feeling was a mistake. I was told that what I was feeling, that my emotions, were evil," he says. "I would try to deny those emotions as much as I could. There was a moment in my life that I thought I was a really bad person, that I was not enough."

Ricky says his parents were always there for him.

When Ricky was 20, he says he fell in love with a man for the first time—and had his heart broken. "I was ready to give up my career," he says. "And he told me: 'I think your mission in life is very clear. You move masses of people. And I cannot be a burden to that. If something goes wrong between us, you're going to blame me for that.'"

Ricky was devastated. "I was sad and my mom asked me, 'Are you in love, my son?' And I said, 'Yes, Mom, I am in love,'" he says. "[She asked], 'Is it with a man?' [I said], 'Yes, Mom, it's with a man.'"

Then, Ricky says his mother embraced him. "[She said]: 'I love you. Don't worry,'" he says. "She told me everything's going to be fine."

As Ricky's mom held him, he says she began to cry. "She said: 'Oh, my God, what's going to happen to my child? What's going to happen to his career?'" he says. "Unfortunately, people [were] not ready back then, and unfortunately we're still dealing with this issue of homophobia."

Ricky says his dad also accepted him. "I have a really cool dad," he says.

Despite his parents' acceptance, Ricky says the pain of that breakup pushed him farther away from his truth. "[I thought]: 'Being heartbroken? I don't want to feel ever again. So you know what? I'm going to start going out with women because maybe this is telling me that this is not my path.'"

Ricky says he had passionate affairs with women—and even fell in love. "I felt with women and I felt amazing. I felt comfort. I felt passion and sexual. It felt good," he says. "I had long relationships with women. In fact, they are still my friends today."

Ricky attributes his chemistry while performing with women to his love of entertaining. "I just allow my thoughts and my feelings and the music [to] take over," he says. "Yes, we are sexual beings. Let's enjoy it. Let's have fun. This is me. When I'm onstage, I just feel it."

Although he had relationships with both men and women, Ricky says he is gay. "I am not bisexual," he says. "I am a gay man."

On March 26, 2000, Ricky's interview with Barbara Walters aired before the Oscars®. During the interview, Barbara said to Ricky: "You know, you could stop these rumors. You could say, as many artists have, 'Yes I am gay.' Or you could say, 'No, I am not.'"

Ricky responded: "For some reason, I just don't feel like it."

Though Ricky says he expected the question, he says it felt like Barbara wouldn't let it go. "I have a lot of respect for Barbara. She's an amazing journalist, and she was doing her job," he says. "I was feeling she was beating me up."

In that moment, Ricky says he felt punch-drunk. "Was I ready to tell the world who I was?" he says. "Maybe I didn't even know who I was."

After the interview, Ricky says he felt invaded. "I felt violated in many ways. But once again, it was not the first time I was asked this question in an interview," he says. "But this was a massive TV show, and then that gave the right to every journalist to ask."

Oprah: One of the things you say in Me is that the constant bombardment of the gay question actually pushed you further away from the truth.

Ricky: Because it was treated in a very scandalous way. And people were mocking my sexuality, and I was like: "I don't want to be that. Is that me? I totally want to reject myself. You know what? I think I hate myself." And that's where you go. Those are the thoughts where you go. That's why I must insist when someone is not ready, we must not try to force that person to come out. Right now we're dealing with people that are being bullied because they are gay, and now we're dealing with people that are committing suicide because they're forced to come out. And that is horrible. You're ready whenever you're ready. You have to go through a process. You have to go through a very spiritual process in order for you to accept yourself, and then it feels amazing when you do so.

The scrutiny and secrets had begun to take a toll on Ricky. "You just go to bed and you say, 'I hate myself.' And you just don't want to say that again," he says. "[I'd think]: 'Look at everything you've done with your family. With your charity. Look at all the love that you've given. How can you hate yourself?'"

To heal, Ricky stepped away from the spotlight. While working with his foundation in India, Ricky learned about the horrors of sex trafficking and founded the People for Children project to help defend exploited children around the world. Ten days after the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, Ricky and his team arrived to assist in the humanitarian efforts and help ensure that human traffickers wouldn't take advantage of the devastation.

While in Thailand, Ricky met a baby who would change his life forever. A baby, nicknamed Baby Wave, was the last unclaimed orphan at a local hospital in Phuket. He was found abandoned in a park with a short note pinned to his blanket. "Please adopt this baby. I cannot afford to take care of him. His parents are missing because of the tsunami disaster at Patong. If you cannot adopt this baby, please take him to the orphanage adoption center."

Ricky writes in Me about meeting Baby Wave. "The first thing I thought was that I wanted to adopt him," he says. "Of course, given that he had become a national hero, that was not even an option."

PAGE 7 of 12

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Ricky-Martin-on-Coming-Out/7

Elton John and David Furnish's Baby Boy!

2011-01-19T11:13:00.002-05:00

Meet Sir Elton John and David Furnish's Baby Boy!

Posted Tue Jan 18, 2011 10:33am PST by Us Magazine in Stop The Presses!

Ladies and gentlemen....introducing Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John!

In the new issue of Us Weekly (out Wednesday), Sir Elton John and David Furnish share first-ever photos of their beautiful baby son, who was born on Christmas Day.

*******

Sir Elton, 63, and his partner David Furnish have appointed a top Hollywood interior designer to turn the unit beside their luxury home into a dream nursery, The Mail on Sunday in the UK reported.

Although the work is not yet finished, several months after it started, eight-day-old Zachary is already installed there, and looked after by round-the-clock nannies.

"Elton and David have wanted this baby for a long time. They bought their first apartment in 2007 and then the following year they bought the smaller one next door," a New York television star who is a long-time friend of the couple said.

"Everyone originally thought they bought the smaller apartment because they wanted extra space, but then I found out they were trying to have a baby.

"They haven’t said whether they have knocked the wall down between the two apartments but I must say at Elton’s age, I wouldn’t blame him if there is no adjoining door. Will he really want to be woken up at night by a screaming baby?

"From what I understand the baby and his nannies are living in one apartment and Elton and David are living in another."

The couple have hired "interior designer to the stars" Martyn Lawrence-Bullard to decorate the baby’s unit. Lawrence-Bullard, who also masterminded Sir Elton’s flat, was overheard telling a friend: "I am still decorating it. It is not quite finished yet."

"It seems a slightly odd arrangement when you have waited so long to have a child. It certainly gives a new answer to the question: what do you give the baby who has everything? His own flat, of course," a source at the building, the 32-storey Sierra Towers, said last night.

"Everyone in the building has been talking of nothing else but the baby all week.

"Apparently he is seriously cute with wispy blond hair. He is in his own apartment with a Filipino lady and an African-American nurse, who are with him 24/7."

Sir Elton’s spokesman Gary Farrow yesterday said of the baby’s sleeping arrangement: "It’s private. No comment."

Zachary was born to a surrogate mother on Christmas Day. Sir Elton, who has battled alcohol and cocaine addiction throughout his career, and Furnish picked an egg donor to match their specifications.

Sir Elton and Furnish rang in the New Year at the five-star Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel at the end of Rodeo Drive, a 10 minute drive from Sierra Towers.

They joined their decorator Lawrence-Bullard and his partner, photographer David LaChapelle and magazine editor Ingrid Sischy at Wolfgang Puck’s acclaimed Cut steakhouse at the hotel.

The group donned fake black plastic top hats and blew cheap trumpets to welcome in the New Year.

As Furnish left he said: "The baby is beautiful. He’s back at the apartment sleeping. We’re just so excited."

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* Lavish: Elton's spending spree for newborn son
* Breaking news: Elton's baby joy
* It takes two: Elton John and Lady Gaga record duet
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* Sad end : Elton John denied baby adoption

* Buying a baby - not a pair of shoes The Daily Telegraph, 3 hours ago
* Who's the daddy? Elton doesn't know The Australian, 17 hours ago
* Two godmothers for Elton's boy Herald Sun, 10 days ago
* Elton John's family dream is born Courier Mail, 1 Jan 2011
* Elton's spending spree for new baby Courier Mail, 1 Jan 2011

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/body-soul/sir-elton-johns-new-baby-boy-lives-in-flat-next-door/story-e6frfou0-1225980466138#ixzz1BUzdVp9T

SAS plans first same-sex wedding in the air

2010-09-02T14:27:00.003-04:00

SAS is looking for the ideal same-sex couple so they can be married while flying on one of the Swedish airlines' planes.

Photograph by: Daniel Kfouri, AFP/Getty Images

By Belinda Goldsmith, Reuters September 2, 2010

LOS ANGELES - Scandinavian airline SAS is planning the world's first same-sex wedding in the air.

SAS, which is co-owned by the governments of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, said it hopes to host the wedding aboard an Airbus A340 between Stockholm and New York on Dec. 6.

To find the couple, the airline has launched a social media campaign called "Love is in the air" (www.flysas.com/love (http://www.flysas.com/love)) encouraging couples to set up a profile and compete for votes.

"Airlines, including SAS, have organized weddings onboard flights for decades, but we would be the first in the world to organize a same-sex wedding in the air," Robin Kamark, Chief Commercial Officer, SAS, said in a statement.

"SAS is the national airline of three of the world's most liberal and progressive countries in the world, especially when it comes to LGBT rights, so we feel this is a natural celebration of love."

The winning couple will receive business class return flights with SAS to New York, three nights' accommodation in New York, flights to Los Angeles, and three nights' accommodation in West Hollywood.

SAS said it was also running a U.S. version of the competition where one couple will win a wedding and honeymoon package to Sweden.

.

Catholic priest reveals active GAY sex life

2010-08-26T10:27:00.001-04:00

"I suspect that anywhere up to 50 percent of Catholic priests are not celibate."

Thursday 26th August 2010 | 3:29 PM
http://www.seekingmedia.com.au/news.php?newsid=1127&g=1

A gay Catholic priest has revealed that up to half of priests, both gay and straight, are sexually active.

"I have not been able to keep my vow of celibacy," the priest says, speaking exclusively to DNA Magazine's Nick Cook in the current issue.

"Sometimes I need to be held and cared for - and I enjoy the sex.

"I know that for a large part of the world it means I'm not a good priest, but without it I'd be a worse one."

To protect the priest's identity he is known in the story as ‘James'.

James says he strongly opposes the Church's stance towards homosexuality.

"I'm speaking out because far too many people have suffered under the Church's teaching on homosexuality. I just can't accept it and I haven't for years," he says.

When asked if he thinks he's the only sexually active priest James says, "I know I'm not.

"I suspect that anywhere up to, if not more than, 50 percent of Catholic priests are not, or have not always been, celibate.

"I know of priests who have had long-term relationships with women.

"Celibacy is for some people but it's not everybody. That's why I think celibacy imposed is wrong whether you're gay or heterosexual."

James is out to a number of other priests and his bishop knows that he is both gay and sexually active.

"My bishop is a good man. He himself would have issues with the Church teaching on this."

As part of the story DNA went to a Mass for gays at St Joseph's Church in the Sydney suburb of Newtown and spoke to Father Peter Maher, who happily hands out communion to gay men despite the Church ruling that those who are sexually active are living in mortal sin and should not receive it.

When told about James' circumstance Father Peter simply shrugs. "Whether a priest is gay or not makes no difference to me," he says, stating that he knows a number of gay priests.

He adds: "There are plenty of priests who have failed to live celibate... That would not change my opinion of the priest at all."

Former Bush campaign chief tells magazine he's gay

2010-08-26T10:21:00.002-04:00

Ex-GOP chair says he will advocate for gay marriage, regrets not coming out earlier

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38857056/ns/politics-more_politics/?GT1=43001

updated 8/25/2010 8:34:43 PM ET

Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has told family and associates that he is gay, The Atlantic magazine's politics editor reported Wednesday.

Marc Ambinder, who is also chief political consultant to CBS news, said in an online post that Mehlman told him in an interview that he concluded he was gay fairly recently and now wants to be an advocate for gay marriage.

Mehlman told The Atlantic that he anticipated that questions would arise about his participation in a late-September fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the group that supported the legal challenge to California's ballot initiative against gay marriage, Proposition 8.

"It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life," Mehlman, now an executive vice president with the New York City-based private equity firm KKR told The Atlantic. "Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I've told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they've been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that's made me a happier and better person. It's something I wish I had done years ago."

Behind-the-scenes advocacy

The Atlantic said that in off-the-record conversations, Mehlman previously voiced support for civil unions and beat back Republican officials' efforts to attack same-sex marriage. He insisted, too, that Bush "was no homophobe," The Atlantic said. He often wondered why gay voters never formed common cause with Republican opponents of Islamic jihad, which he called "the greatest anti-gay force in the world right now."

Mehlman told The Atlantic that he could not, as an individual Republican, go against the party consensus as it stepped up anti-gay initiatives. He said he was aware that Karl Rove, Bush's chief strategic adviser, worked to make sure that anti-gay initiatives and referenda would appear on November ballots in 2004 and 2006 to help Republicans.

Mehlman, The Atlantic said, acknowledged that if he had publicly declared his sexuality sooner, he might have played a role in keeping the party from pushing an anti-gay agenda.

He told the magazine he regrets not taking the party message to the gay community.

While in office, Mehlman dodged media efforts to confirm rumors and stories about his sexuality, he told The Atlantic. Republicans close to Mehlman either said they did not know, or that it did not matter, or that the question was offensive.

Ken Mehlman, speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press" during a Nov. 13, 2005, taping, now says he's gay.

Party principles 'consistent'

In advocating for same-sex marriage, Mehlman told the magazine he would appeal to Republican principles.

"I hope that we, as a party, would welcome gay and lesbian supporters. I also think there needs to be, in the gay community, robust and bipartisan support [for] marriage rights."

Ed Gillespie, a former RNC chairman and longtime friend of Mehlman, told The Atlantic that "it is significant that a former chairman of the Republican National Committee is openly gay and that he is supportive of gay marriage." Gillespie told the magazine he opposes gay marriage, but stalwarts like former Vice President Dick Cheney and strategist Mary Matalin advocate for gay rights.

But, Gillespie told the magazine, he does not envision the party platform changing anytime soon.

© 2010 msnbc.com Reprints

Judge overturns California gay marriage ban

2010-08-04T20:56:00.003-04:00

Opponents of Proposition 8 cheer outside U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Wednesday after hearing of the judge's ruling overturning California's same-sex marriage ban.

SAN FRANCISCO — In a major victory for gay rights advocates, a federal judge on Wednesday struck down a California ban on same-sex marriage.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the voter-approved ban, known as Proposition 8, violates due process and equal-protection rights under the U.S. Constitution.

The ruling met immediate criticism from Mormon and Catholic church leaders and cheers from gay-rights advocates.

"Moral disapproval alone is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and lesbians. The evidence shows conclusively that Proposition 8 enacts, without reason, a private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples," Walker wrote.

The judge added in the conclusion of the 136-page opinion: "Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license."

His ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought by two same-sex couples and the city of San Francisco seeking to invalidate the law as an unlawful infringement on the civil rights of gay men and lesbians. The landmark case is expected to be appealed and could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

Outside the federal courthouse in San Francisco, a cheer went up among a group of about 70 same-sex marriage supporters carrying small U.S. flags, as a large rainbow-striped flag — the symbol of the gay rights movement — waved overhead.

Read the judge's ruling (.PDF) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38560562/ns/us_news-life?GT1=43001

Prop. 8 foes laud ruling

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who both refused to back Prop 8 in court, praised Walker's decision.

"For the hundreds of thousands of Californians in gay and lesbian households who are managing their day-to-day lives, this decision affirms the full legal protections and safeguards I believe everyone deserves," Schwarzenegger said. "At the same time, it provides an opportunity for all Californians to consider our history of leading the way to the future, and our growing reputation of treating all people and their relationships with equal respect and dignity."

"In striking down Proposition 8, Judge Walker came to the same conclusion I did when I declined to defend it," Brown said. "Proposition 8 violates the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution by taking away the right of same-sex couples to marry, without a sufficient governmental interest."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the ruling encouraging.

"We must continue to fight against discriminatory marriage amendments and work toward the day when all American families are treated equally," Pelosi said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the ruling was an "enormous victory" and anticipated a Supreme Court hearing.

"The journey is not over, but today is a day to celebrate this historic victory for equal marriage rights," Feinstein said.

Prop. 8 backers outraged

Opponents of same-sex marriage derided the ruling.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which urged its top leaders to in California congregations top ask members to vote for Proposition 8, issued a statement on the ruling Wednesday, saying it "regrets today's decision."

"California voters have twice been given the opportunity to vote on the definition of marriage in their state and both times have determined that marriage should be recognized as only between a man and a woman," spokesman Michael Purdy said. "We agree. Marriage between a man and woman is the bedrock of society.

"We recognize that this decision represents only the opening of a vigorous debate in the courts over the rights of the people to define and protect this most fundamental institution — marriage."

The Catholic church also criticized the ruling.

Cardinal Francis George of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also criticized the ruling: "Marriage between a man and a woman is the bedrock of any society," he said. "The misuse of law to change the nature of marriage undermines the common good. It is tragic that a federal judge would overturn the clear and expressed will of the people in their support for the institution of marriage. No court of civil law has the authority to reach into areas of human experience that nature itself has defined."

South Carolina Republican Sen. James Demint called the decision "another attempt to impose a secular immorality on the American people who keep voting to preserve traditional marriage."

"Traditional marriage has been the foundation of civil society for centuries and we cannot simply toss it aside to fit the political whims of liberal activists with gavels," Demint said.

Ruling on hold

Despite the favorable ruling for same-sex couples, gay marriage will not be allowed to resume immediately. Judge Walker said he wants to decide whether his order should be suspended while the proponents of the ban pursue their appeal in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The judge ordered both sides to submit written arguments by Friday on the issue.

Prop 8, which outlawed gay marriages in California five months after the state Supreme Court legalized them, passed with 52 percent of the vote in November 2008 following the most expensive campaign on a social issue in U.S. history.

Both sides previously said an appeal was certain if Walker did not rule in their favor. The case would go first to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, then the Supreme Court if the high court justices agree to review it.

Walker heard 13 days of testimony and arguments since January during the first trial in federal court to examine if states can prohibit gays from getting married.

The ruling puts Walker at the forefront of the gay marriage debate. The longtime federal judge was appointed by President Ronald Reagan.

The verdict was the second in a federal gay marriage case to come down in recent weeks. A federal judge in Massachusetts decided last month the state's legally married gay couples had been wrongly denied the federal financial benefits of marriage because of a law preventing the U.S. government from recognizing same-sex unions.

The plaintiffs in the California case presented 18 witnesses. Academic experts testified about topics ranging from the fitness of gay parents and religious views on homosexuality to the historical meaning of marriage and the political influence of the gay rights movement.

Former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson delivered the closing argument for opponents of the ban. He told Judge Walker that tradition or fears of harm to heterosexual unions were legally insufficient grounds to discriminate against gay couples.

Olson teamed up with David Boies to argue the case, bringing together the two litigators best known for representing George W. Bush and Al Gore in the disputed 2000 election.

Defense lawyers called just two witnesses, claiming they did not need to present expert testimony because U.S. Supreme Court precedent was on their side. The attorneys also said gay marriage was an experiment with unknown social consequences that should be left to voters to accept or reject.

Former U.S. Justice Department lawyer Charles Cooper, who represented the religious and conservative groups that sponsored the ban, said cultures around the world, previous courts and Congress all accepted the "common sense belief that children do best when they are raised by their own mother and father."

In an unusual move, the original defendants, Brown, the state attorney general, and Schwarzenegger refused to support Proposition 8 in court.

That left the work of defending the law to Protect Marriage, the group that successfully sponsored the ballot measure that passed with 52 percent of the vote after the most expensive political campaign on a social issue in U.S. history.

Currently, same-sex couples can only legally wed in Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C.

The Vatican’s Gay Priests. Rome's Subculture of Gay Priests Rocks the Vatican

2010-07-29T21:36:00.005-04:00

The Vatican’s Gay Priests

For residents of Rome, the sight of courting priests is hardly an anomaly. But a recent exposé is rocking the Catholic Church.

Panorama

A gay priest, wearing his clerical collar, a shirt, and little else, was caught on video in an Italian newspaper’s investigation.

In the basement dining room of Le Mani In Pasta, a trattoria in central Rome, a young, glossy-eyed couple stare at each other across a table for two. They smile and blush over a private joke. There is no handholding or kissing, but they are clearly more than friends, even though they are both wearing dark shirts and the telltale white clerical collar.

For residents of Rome, the sight of courting priests is hardly an anomaly. The phenomenon is a well-known secret here, and one that was largely ignored until last weekend, when the Italian weekly magazine Panorama published a shocking exposé called “Le Notti Brave Dei Preti Gay,” or “Good Nights Out for Gay Priests.” Investigative journalist Carmelo Abbate spent 20 days undercover posing as the boyfriend of a man who ran in gay clerical circles, secretly videotaping the sexual escapades of three Rome-based priests. Abbate caught the priests on hidden camera dirty dancing at private parties and engaging in sex acts with male escorts on church property. He also caught them emerging from dark bedrooms in time to celebrate mass. In one postcoital scene, “Father Carlo” parades around seminaked, wearing only his clerical vestments. Abbate’s “date” even had sex with one of the priests to corroborate the story. “This is not about homosexuality,” Abbate, who is not gay, told NEWSWEEK. “This is about private vices and public virtues. This is about serious hypocrisy in the Catholic Church.”
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The exposé has touched a nerve within the Catholic community in Rome, but Abbate doesn’t believe that it will have any effect, especially given the Vatican’s other sex scandal. Yet unlike the pedophile-priest crisis, which has so far reached scores of dioceses in the United States and Europe, the gay-priest problem is—so far—an issue just for the Rome diocese on the Vatican’s home turf. Most priests in Rome have some affiliation with the Vatican, and Abbate says one of the priests caught on tape also gave mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican says that the offending priests from Abbate’s story will be sought out and stripped of their collars. Cardinal Agostino Vallini, head of the Rome diocese, is in charge of purging the offending clerics, and he has called on all gay priests who cannot respect the basic tenet of celibacy to get out of the priesthood. “Priests who are living a double life have not understood what the Catholic priesthood is and should not have become priests,” he said in a statement responding to the Panorama expose. “Consistency demands that they be discovered. We do not wish them ill, but we cannot accept that because of their behavior the honor of all the other priests is dragged through the mud.”

Vallini may have the right idea when it comes to punishing those who break priestly laws, but the church as a whole seems to find it difficult to differentiate its sex scandals—and to determine what role celibacy plays in either situation. In April, Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone famously blamed gay priests for the pedophilia problem during a press conference in Santiago, Chile. “Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relationship between celibacy and pedophilia,” he said. “But many others have demonstrated, I have been told recently, that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true. That is the problem.”

The Vatican backpedaled at the time of Bertone’s comments, admitting that 90 percent of sex-abuse cases do involve priests and adolescent boys, but changing the verbiage from “homosexual” to “same-sex attraction” when talking about the cases. But Abbate’s tell-all expose that launched the current scandal has nothing to do with the priest-to-young-parishioner relationship. In fact, the two sex scandals are vastly different. The gay priest problem is about celibacy, church law, and hypocrisy. The pedophile problem is about child abuse, criminal behavior, and abuses of power.

Victims’ rights advocates, however, have noticed that the Vatican seems more focused on sexual orientation than sexual deviance, and they are furious. While clergymen spent years covering up rumors of child-sex abuse and protecting each other, they’re calling instantly for the ouster of gay priests. “Priests who are committing sex crimes against children and bishops who enable and conceal the crimes are the ones leading double lives,” says Barbara Blaine, head of Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests. “They are the ones who should resign.”

Through the years, a number of directives have been issued addressing priest sexuality. A 1961 Vatican document signed by Pope John XXIII clearly outlines church policy. “Advancement to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers.”

In 2002, the church softened its stance slightly under Pope John Paul II, whose spokesman said the church should become “less welcoming” to gays in priesthood. “That does not imply a final judgment on people with homosexuality,” he said, refraining from calling homosexuality an “evil tendency” like under the earlier papacy. “But you cannot be in this field.” In 2003, before Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became pope, he described homosexuality as a “troubling moral and social phenomenon” affecting the church. And when he became pope in 2005, he focused on gay priests with a five-page “instruction” document calling homosexuality “objectively disordered” but allowed that men could enter the seminary after a period of abstinence. “Men who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture’ cannot be admitted to seminaries,” Ratzinger, as Pope Benedict XVI, wrote. “The only exception would be for those with a ‘transitory problem’ that had been overcome for at least three years.”

But requirements like those are impossible to enforce, and they are plainly ignored. In Rome’s medieval quarter of Trastevere not far from Le Mani In Pasta, the International Ecclesiastic Seminary attracts men from all over the world who want to study for the priesthood in the heart of Rome. A professor there, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect his job, says the vast majority of the young men who come to study are sexually active gay men who quickly become part of the lively gay culture in Rome. Not all the priests are gay or practicing, he concedes, but in recent years he says he has noticed that most new students are young men with a certain sexual slant, and he fears that the institution has a reputation for attracting only gay seminarians.

The exact number of gay priests worldwide is unknown. A study conducted in 2000 by Father Donald Cozzens for his book The Changing Face of Priesthood suggests that as many as 60 percent of all American Catholic priests were gay, but those numbers varied greatly depending on geographical location. “At issue at the beginning of the 21st century is the growing perception that the priesthood is, or is becoming, a gay profession,” Cozzens wrote in his book. “Heterosexual seminarians are made uncomfortable by the number of gays around them.”

Celibacy is not optional in the priesthood, so sexual orientation should be a moot point. But Abbate believes that in Rome, the heart of Catholicism, gay priests feel a certain liberty that straight priests do not. He says he found many openly gay priests on Facebook and other social-networking sites, including a popular Roman Catholic online community called Venerabilis. Abbate also discovered through his covert research that male escorts and transsexual prostitutes in Rome rely on priests as regular customers. Last March, a member of the Vatican choir admitted to police that he arranged male escorts for papal assistants, including Angelo Balducci, a high-ranking member of Gentlemen of his Holiness, a fraternal order whose members assist the pope. Abbate did not find the same code of conduct for heterosexual priests. “You just don’t see heterosexual priests out in the same way,” he says. “Gay priests live freely here; they just do as they please.”

The Catholic church and gay-rights groups quickly pointed out that Abbate’s piece was full of offensive stereotypes, right down to the cover shot of a man’s hands with pink nail polish clutching a rosary. Panorama is owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s media conglomerate, and the Vatican hinted that the attack was political in nature. Berlusconi’s own sex scandals and ongoing divorce have been widely criticized by the Vatican. Abbate shrugs off the insinuation, pointing to the countless other exposes he has done that have been just as hard on Berlusconi’s government. “This is about uncovering a story of extreme hypocrisy,” Abbate told NEWSWEEK. “It’s not a government agenda against the church.”

Pope Benedict XVI is at his summer retreat in Castelgondolfo outside Rome, and, for now, the Vatican is keeping quiet and leaving it up the diocese of Rome to clean up the latest problem. But weeding out noncelibate priests likely won’t make this problem go away, according to religious commentator Bryan Cones, who writes for the popular U.S. Catholic blog. “On this matter, the church’s real problem is the closet,” he says. “I must agree with the Vicar of Rome that it would be helpful if gay priests would come out—so we could thank them for their faithful service, especially as they have been unjustly tarred with ‘causing’ sex abuse. Unfortunately, our church leadership at this time is not creating the kind of open and safe space that would allow for such honesty.”

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/27/the-vatican-s-gay-priests.html

joana flores

EXACTLY. This should be known to everyone. When it comes to this type of phenomenon, you're either IN or OUT. If you want to be "homosexual" then so be it, go do that on your own personal time without disrespecting a wide variety of people. Like Fred Johnson said, "If you can't abide by the vow, don't enter the profession. If you don't like the Catholic church, don't join it."
Today, 18:39:54

Terence Weldon
Thank you for writing up what is an open secret in some circles, but is widely ignored. The Church's stated opposition to homosexuality is entirely hypocritical and weak in its scriptural foundation. More serious is that the hypocrisy you describe is only one part of it. Gay priests in Rome may be open - in other parts of the world, it is heterosexual priests who have regular mistresses. Priestly celibacy as a universal norm is a myth.

Nor is this a modern phenomenon. From the early church to more modern times, there have been mumerous canonized saints (eg Saint Paulinus of Nola), and bishops, cardinals and popes who have enjoyed sex with men,or who wrote love letter or poetry in homoerotic imagery, or glorified the male form in the homoerotic artworks commissioned for the Vatican.

(For more, see "Catholic Priests, Gay Sex - and Church History", at Queering the Church http://queering-the-church.com/blog/ecclesiology-ministry/church-history-ecclesiology-ministry/catholic-clergy-gay-sex-and-church-history/
What the Vatican press corps really should be reporting, is the sexual lives of the men at the top, who preach celibacy and threaten dire punishments for transgressors - but ignore their prescriptions themselves. It is widely believed the journos have the information. Why don't they publish?

Today, 02:21:07

William
They should be thrown out of the church with all the other homosexuals. You can't be Christian and homosexual. The bible is clear on the subject and so is the Catholic Church.
Yesterday, 19:05:20

I'm sort of amazed that Newsweek would tar itself by referencing this lurid, mid-summer-Italian-titillation bit of anti-gay "journalism". The "investigative" reporter found a couple older gay priests who hide from their colleagues, avoid the gay movement like the plague, hire rent boys, and are foolish enough to let down their guard to strangers, believing that anyone they meet in a gay bar isn't going to ruin their lives.

Maybe for the next issue, this "reporter" can get a female friend to pose as a prostitute and snag some straight priests.
Yesterday, 18:42:09

Well what do you expect from a bunch of guys who run around in dresses?

Ronald Nixon
Better other priest and escorts than little boys. This is actually one article about priest that doesn't make me angry.
Yesterday, 13:18:06
–
earthorbitsthesun
Mark
Celibacy has the meaning to remain "unmarried," in Western Catholic disciplines. The idea of staying "Unmarried" is their dedication to God and neighbor with an undivided heart by observing continence (celibacy). They limited ordination to unmarried men and requiring a commitment to lifelong celibacy.

Tony, Celibacy is also called "continence" - Self restraint, refraining from sexual intercourse. In Catholic morality, chastity is opposite the deadly sin of lust, and is one of seven virtues and any sexual actions are restricted to only after marriage.

Daniel Chapman
I'm just your typical guy, who happens to be gay. My view on this is based on experience. I say that the church should leave them alone, or they will continue to be forced to go to the sleaziest areas that the gay community has to offer.

As a bartender in a gay bar in the early 80's, I saw waves of priests on vacation. I was in South Florida and can attest that, on any given night, we had at least a dozen priests in our bar. It kind of freaked me out at the time, especially since they tended to take the young hustlers with them.

That having been said, why not leave them alone? Instead of driving them into the gay underground, let them have normal lives and attachments. Secrets corrupt a person. Always have, always will...

[Cet utilisateur est un administrateur] Ken S
The article says, " The Vatican says that the offending priests from Abbate’s story will be sought out and stripped of their collars." I don't know if the writers of this article intended this statement to be some form of a pun but if these priest have already stripped themselves of everything else, what purpose could possibly be served by stripping them of their one remaining piece of clothing?

Rome's Subculture of Gay Priests Rocks the Vatican - http://www.newsweek.com/2010...

Video of 3 Italian GAY priests caught on tape in GAY club and sex act with camera man.

2010-07-24T18:12:00.005-04:00

The Italian magazine, Panorama, is running a cover story this week called "Gay Priests' Nights on the Town." Using a hidden camera, the Italian magazine owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (nice rich pal of Benedict XVI) followed and recorded in video three Catholic priests, 2 Italian and one French, inside a gay nightclub. Then one of the camera man had sex with one of the priest inside a church building, again videotaping the entire scene. Afterwards, one of the priest don on an alb and performed the Mass.

Benedict XVI condemns GAYS as "intrinsic evil people" and he knows that 80% of priests are GAYS. So the double lives of priests and hypocrisy of Benedict XVI and the Vatican are now being revealed - in this video.

Nice job Panorama!

Thousands march for gay rights in Poland

2010-07-17T23:41:00.000-04:00

Sunday, July 18

WARSAW (AFP) - – Thousands of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and supporters of equal rights for sexual minorities marched in Poland's capital Saturday in the first annual EuroPride march in Eastern Europe.

The colourful parade wound through Warsaw in sweltering heat of close to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), urging the government in conservative and deeply Roman Catholic country to give homosexual partnerships legal status.

"We demand a civil partnership law," read a massive banner at the head of march, although participants acknowledged such legislation was not on the cards in a country where homosexuality is taboo and few choose to be openly gay.

"We're hoping to open up a debate on the topic of affording legal status to the partnerships of gay and lesbian couples but we're not optimistic such legislation will be passed anytime soon," Jacek Adler, editor-in-chief of the www.gaylife.pl website, told AFP.

Opinion surveys show that 80 percent of Poles oppose gay marriage and 93 percent believe gay and lesbian couples should not have the right to adopt children. Two out of three Poles oppose gay demonstrations.

Saturday's event was the first time the annual EuroPride parade was held in one of Eastern Europe's ex-communist states. Last year's march in Zurich, Switzerland attracted about 50,000 people.

Marchers, some from as far away as Canada, jived along the route to hits by gay icon Kyle Minogue among others.

But the event was a more low-key affair than those in western Europe which also feature scantily clad revellers and drag queens.

"I don't think Poland is as homophobic as some people think it is, but for whatever reasons, people are still uncomfortable with the issue of homosexuality," Ken Coolen, director of Vancouver's gay pride parade, told AFP.

"It's the midst of a change here in Poland, where more people are coming out," he said.

"We want to be in solidarity with Polish gay and lesbians and we want also to show the police in Poland that there is no problem to be openly gay in the police," Stockholm policeman Goran Stanton, who also serves as head of the Association of Gay Police of Sweden, told AFP.

About 2,000 police officers, some clad in riot gear, were on hand to provide security. Eight people were detained for attacking police officers, reports said.

People trying to block the parade hurled eggs and bottles at the marchers and Catholic groups distributed pamphlets to parade-goers with an image of Jesus Christ saying: "I have not come to condemn but to redeem."

They also held prayer vigils at local churches "in the intention of redeeming parade participants."

The decision to hold EuroPride in Warsaw sparked controversy in deeply Catholic Poland where gays have long complained of intolerance and openly homophobic remarks by politicians are far from rare.

"We started lobbying already in 2005 against all odds and amid a very unfriendly atmosphere towards gay rights in our country," said Adam Biskupiak of the Equality Foundation, a Polish group that organised the rally.

Poland's late conservative president Lech Kaczynski -- who died in a plane crash in April -- banned a gay rights rally by local campaigners in 2005 when he was mayor of Warsaw.

He later fell foul of the European Court of Human Rights for that decision.

City authorities declined symbolic or financial support for Saturday's EuroPride event.

Iceland PM weds partner as gay marriage legalized

2010-06-28T09:48:00.000-04:00

By The Associated Press

REYKJAVIK, Iceland - Iceland's prime minister has married her partner under a new law legalizing same-sex marriage in the country.

One of her advisers, Hrannar B. Arnarsson, said Monday Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir and writer Jonina Leosdottir were officially married Sunday, the day the law came into force.

The pair has been in a registered partnership since 2002 and had applied to have it converted into a marriage under the new law. No ceremony was held.

The law was passed without a dissenting vote in Iceland's parliament June 11.

Social Democrat Sigurdardottir, 68, became Iceland's prime minister last year, after the previous centre-right government was ousted by a wave of protest triggered by the country's economic crisis.

New York begins gay couple commitment ceremonies

2010-06-03T19:15:00.002-04:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City officials began offering wedding-like ceremonies for same-sex couples on Thursday, drawing as much criticism as praise from gay rights advocates who want nothing short of full marriage rights.

The ceremonies provide no new rights or advantages to same-sex couples -- other than the opportunity to have a wedding in the city's renovated marriage bureau.

The city has allowed gay and lesbian couples to register as domestic partners since 1993 but the additional rights conferred upon them lack validity outside city limits. Domestic partnership bestows gay couples more rights, such as bereavement leave, health insurance benefits and hospital visits as family members.

Now the city is hoping to attract same-sex partners to its marriage bureau, which underwent a $12.3 million renovation and re-opened last year in a direct challenge to Las Vegas as a destination for people to get married. The bureau features a floral and bridal gift shop and two simple, yet elegant chapels where couples are married by a marriage clerk.

The new rules allowing the same-sex ceremonies took effect on Thursday, but only two same sex couples turned up for the ceremony, said City Clerk spokesman Michael McSweeney.

Some gay rights advocates criticized the move as doing nothing to move closer to granting gay couples full recognition in New York state.

"It's a cheap ploy," said Jeff Campagna, founder of The Power, a gay rights organization. "What they're saying is pay $35, have a pretend marriage license ... it's a way to increase the coffers of the city, without increasing any benefits to the gay community."

Last December, New York's state senate rejected a bill that would have legalized gay marriage, despite popular support for the issue. Only the states of Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont have legalized gay marriage. The District of Columbia began allowing same-sex marriages earlier this year.

Forty other states have specific laws banning it. Voters in Maine repealed a gay marriage law recently and the New Jersey legislature rejected a gay marriage bill.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn hopes the commitment ceremonies in New York City will pressure the state legislature in Albany to extend more rights to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people, also known as the LGBT community.

"We are sending a message to Albany that New York City is doing everything we can to recognize the LGBT community ... giving domestic partners benefits, recognizing same sex marriages performed elsewhere, but the state is the only one who can take the next step," said Quinn, a lesbian.

McSweeney of the city clerk's office, which operates the marriage bureau, said the commitment ceremonies fit with the city's tourism strategy.

"We are always thinking of new ways of improving how we do our business ... but the idea is to also allow domestic partners the opportunity to proclaim their commitment to one another in a public setting, where they can invite their family and friends and have the same dignity as people who have a wedding ceremony," McSweeney said.

(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Paul Simao)

More on Gay & Lesbian Issues

* GLAAD Rallies Against O'Reilly The Advocate
* Church rejects Anglican pressure over gay rights Reuters
* Obama extends benefits for gay federal employees Reuters

# Gay & Lesbian Issues Video:Malawi pardons gay couple. Reuters
# Gay activists protest in Moscow Play Video Gay & Lesbian Issues Video:Gay activists protest in Moscow AFP
# Activists to defy Moscow gay pride demo ban Play Video Gay & Lesbian Issues Video:Activists to defy Moscow gay pride demo ban AFP

Gay couple released from jail after pardon from president

2010-05-31T09:05:00.006-04:00

LILONGWE – A gay Malawian couple sentenced to 14 years in prison were released from jail late on Saturday after a presidential pardon, Sapa news agency reported yesterday.

Malawi’s leader pardoned the couple on humanitarian grounds on Saturday after a meeting with UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, who applauded the move and urged the country to amend “outdated” laws on homosexuality. “We were asked to release them immediately,” prison service spokesman Evance Phiri was quoted by Sapa as saying.

Steven Monjeza (26) and Tiwonge Chimbalanga (20) were arrested after celebrating their engagement in a traditional ceremony in late December.

They were tried and found guilty this month of sodomy and indecency. The trial became a test case for gay rights in the southern African country.

Activists and the international community welcomed the pardon, with the White House urging an end to “the persecution and criminalisation of sexual orientation and gender identity”.

Homosexuality in Africa has become a contentious issue after a Ugandan lawmaker proposed a Bill including the death penalty for some acts, police raided a gay wedding in Kenya, and the Malawian couple were arrested.

While homosexuality is illegal in most of Africa’s 53 nations, including Malawi and Kenya, South Africa passed legislation in 2006 recognising same-sex marriages. – (Reuters)

Vatican Hit by Gay Sex Scandal

2010-03-05T03:17:00.000-05:00

(March 4) -- The Vatican is at the center of a gay sex scandal involving a young chorister who allegedly procured men, including at least one seminarian, for a lay member of one of Pope Benedict's inner circles.

Angelo Balducci, a civil engineer and honorary Vatican usher, was quoted in police wiretaps allegedly negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old Vatican choir member, about the kind of men he wanted brought to him. Some of the wiretap transcripts were published Wednesday in the Italian daily La Repubblica.

Balducci has been a member since 1995 of "Gentlemen of His Holiness," an exclusive fraternity of ushers within the papal household who serve during state and special occasions. Members of the group bore Pope John Paul II's coffin in 2005.

This latest Vatican embarrassment, coming not long after Irish priests were summoned to Rome to discuss decades of clerical sexual abuse in Ireland, surfaced inadvertently as a result of a probe into corruption involving public works contracts.

Balducci, who sits on the board of Italy's public works council and is a construction consultant to the Vatican, was one of four people arrested in February in connection with the corruption probe. He has not yet been charged in that case, which remains open.

On Wednesday, La Repubblica published excerpts from the wiretaps and other police documents from the probe, which indicated Balducci was in regular contact with Ehiem, a member of the Vatican's Giulia Choir. Police identified him as part "of an organized network ... to abet male prostitution."

Among the men allegedly procured for Balducci, according to the transcripts, were "two black Cuban boys," a former male model from Naples and a rugby player from Rome.

Ehiem told Panorama magazine in an interview set to run Friday that he had been introduced to Balducci 10 years ago. The Guardian quoted Ehiem as saying: "He asked me if I could procure other men for him. He told me he was married and that I had to do it in great secrecy."

Ehiem was fired Wednesday from his job in the choir, according to news reports.

Some of the more sensational excerpts from Italian police transcripts obtained by the Guardian quote conversations recorded in January between Balducci and Ehiem about a young seminarian. Balducci inquires about the seminarian and Ehiem says he is "probably at Mass or something."

When it turns out that seminarian is not available, Ehiem calls another time recommending one of the student priest's colleagues or friends. Ehiem says the substitute is "better, taller, a bit taller than you."

Still later, Ehiem is quoted in the transcript asking: "Can I send [him] around right away?" and asks where Balducci is. Ehiem is told that he is "up at the seminary ... where the cardinal lives." Ehiem then says the man "could get there within half an hour ... the time it takes to catch a taxi and get there."

Balducci's lawyer, Franco Coppi, told reporters Thursday night that he had no comment for the moment. "We have more serious questions to tackle," Coppi said. "Second, if these claims are correct, they regard his private life. It is disgraceful that these transcripts, which have nothing to do with the case, should have been spread about."

The wiretaps stemmed from a probe into public works contracts, including a venue in Sardinia that was planned for last year's G8 summit before it was moved to Abruzzo.

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/vatican-hit-by-gay-sex-scandal/19383948

Elton says Jesus was a "compassionate, super-intelligent gay man'

2010-02-25T23:47:00.002-05:00

Gay rock star Sir Elton John has told a magazine that "Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems."

The remarks, given in an interview with Parade magazine, are expected to spark an outrage among Christians, said a report in Undercover.com.au.

"On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don't know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East - you're as good as dead," Sir Elton reportedly said.

Luke Coppen, of the Catholic Herald, commented "Someone once said we all try to remake God in our own image. It's just possible that Elton John might be guilty of that."

Stephen Green from Christian Voice called Elton's comment "a desperate cry for attention".

Elton John: "Jesus was gay"

http://celebrities.ninemsn.com.au/blog.aspx?blogentryid=601448&showcomments=true

This should rattle some good old fashioned Christian outrage over at the Vatican and throughout middle America... Elton John reckons Jesus was a gay man.

In an interview with Parade magazine, the openly gay muso says, "I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems. On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don't know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East — you're as good as dead."

Elton probably knows his statement will have some Christians calling for his head (much like when the Beatles claimed they were "bigger than Jesus") but he obviously had a point to make, and publicity to grab.

Plus we can kind of see how he came to the conclusion that Jesus was gay, afer all, the man never married, he spent his whole life with twelve other fellas, he was a fantastic host (he turned water into wine) and he loved his mum...

...on second thoughts, we'll leave this one alone.

New US church leader says :HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT SIN

2008-10-04T12:41:00.003-04:00

NEW BISHOP: HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT SIN
New US church leader says

Homosexuality no Sin

Mon Jun 19, 2006 3:30pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newly elected leader of the U.S. Episcopal Church Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said on Monday she believed homosexuality was no sin and homosexuals were created by God to love people of the same gender.

Jefferts Schori, bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, was elected on Sunday as the first woman leader of the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church. the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. She will formally take office later this year.

Interviewed on CNN, Jefferts Schori was asked if it was a sin to be homosexual. "I don't believe so. I believe that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us," she said.

"Some people come into this world with affections ordered toward other people of the same gender and some people come into this world with affections directed at people of the other gender." Jefferts Schori, who was raised a Roman Catholic, supported the consecration of Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the first openly gay bishop in more than 450 years of Anglican history.

The Eternal Gospel Herald Vol. 4 No. 7 - Html PDF

Source: http://www.eternalgospel.org/

Transgender man allowed to remain as church pastor

The Rev. Drew Phoenix, pastor of St. John's United Methodist Church and a transgender person, stands outside the church on St. Paul Street. (Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor / October 30, 2007)

By Liz F. Kay Sun reporter
October 31, 2007

The highest judicial body of the United Methodist Church announced yesterday that a transgender man can remain pastor of a congregation in Charles Village.

The ruling by the Judicial Council affirms last spring's decision by Bishop John R. Schol to reappoint the Rev. Drew Phoenix -- formerly the Rev. Ann Gordon -- to St. John's United Methodist Church.

Schol's action had been appealed to the Judicial Council by several local clergy in the Baltimore-Washington Conference, who have raised questions about the proper role of transgender people within the church. ...

Story continues at link below-.Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.minister31oct31,0,3137806.story.

Are these the type of churches and pratices that the Modern-Day Seventh Day Adventist Corporate Church wants to embrace and emulate???

Is this Present Truth?

Is this our distinctive mission? ---I'll allow the Spirit of Prophecy texts to address those concerns: [Rev. 18:1-3, quoted.]

While this message is sounding, while the proclamation of truth is doing its separating work, we as faithful sentinels of God are to discern what our real position is.

We are not to confederate with worldlings, lest we become imbued with their spirit, lest our spiritual discernment become confused and we view those who have the truth and bear the message of the Lord from the standpoint of the professed Christian churches.
At the same time we are not to be like the Pharisees and hold ourselves aloof from them.--EGW'88 1161 (1893). {LDE 84.3}

Standard after standard was left to trail in the dust as company after company from the Lord's army joined the foe and tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy united with the commandment-keeping people of God.--8T 41 (1904). {LDE 182.3}
Last Day Events, Ellen G. White, PP. 84, 182.

California same-sex marriage - June 17, 2008

2008-06-19T19:34:00.001-04:00

CNN) -- Same-sex couples in California may be able to obtain marriage licenses on June 17, state officials said Wednesday.

The California Supreme Court struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional in a May 15 ruling, clearing the way for the state to become the second to legalize such marriages.

The state Department of Public Health -- which serves as State Registrar and oversees vital records -- said in an announcement that June 16 is the last day the state Supreme Court can rule on any requests for re-hearing. It released new marriage license forms for counties to use beginning the following day.

The new forms, which were also released, have lines for "Party A" and "Party B."

However, the "general information" page for California marriage licenses still stated as of Wednesday that "only an unmarried male and an unmarried female may marry in California."
The California Supreme Court issued the ruling in a consolidated case involving several gay and lesbian couples, along with the city of San Francisco and gay rights groups. A lower court had ruled San Francisco acted illegally in issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004.

In its 4-3 ruling, the state Supreme Court called marriage a "basic civil right."

Opponents of same-sex marriage have said a constitutional marriage amendment should be placed on the November ballot, and that national efforts should be made to generate a federal marriage amendment.

A constitutional amendment initiative that would specify marriage is only between a man and a woman is awaiting verification by the California Secretary of State's office after its sponsors said they had gathered enough signatures to place it on a statewide ballot.

Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriages in 2004, and gay couples need not be state residents there to wed. However, then-Gov. Mitt Romney resurrected a 1913 law barring non-resident marriages in the state if the marriage would be prohibited in the partners' home state.

Subsequent court and agency decisions have determined that only residents of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Mexico may marry in Massachusetts, unless the parties say they plan to relocate there after the marriage.

New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey and Connecticut permit civil unions, while California has a domestic-partner registration law. More than a dozen other states give same-sex couples some legal rights, as do some other countries.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/28/same.sex.marriage/

George Bush GAY?

2008-05-01T09:47:00.005-04:00

According to Alan Stang's courageous groundbreaking book, "Not Holier Than Thou: How Queer is Bush?" (2007) organized homosexuality, with its belief in sex-for-its-own-sake, is an important Illuminati control mechanism.

Stang speculates that Bush is a homosexual and demonstrates that, despite his Christian family pretensions, he has advanced the homo-sexualization of society and "given organized sodomy considerable control over the federal government." (66)

Stang documents that a well-known male prostitute, Jeff Gannon, made dozens of visits to the Bush White House in 2003 and 2004 often staying over night. Apparently the President could be easily blackmailed. And this doesn't even include Margie Schrodinger, the black Texan housewife whose name has disappeared down the memory hole. She formally charged the President with rape (about 2002) and then conveniently "committed suicide."

Stang's book is a thorough laundry list of homosexual activism within the Republican Party. It came out before Mark Foley and the Congressional Pages, Larry Craig and the 'wide stance." It tears the veil off the media's feel-good, sugar-coated image of homosexuality. It is hard to stomach but must be read. Why? Because some homosexuals, by their own admission, hate society and have no morality. Thus these particular homosexuals are perfect agents of Illuminati subversion.

Alan Stang is one of the most important journalists in America and I highly recommend his book. I hope he writes another about the Democrats. By now, you should know that Barrack Obama has a homosexual past. Listen to this interview with Larry Sinclair by Jeff Rense. Sinclair who claims he had sex with Obama is being ignored by the mass media, but you can bet that if BO started to steer an independent course, Larry Sinclair would suddenly be in great demand. I could go on about Hillary's threesomes but enough...

(Excerpt)Our "Leaders" are Sex Addicts
By Henry Makow Ph.D.
February 5, 2008

Benedict XVI lands in Washington with GAY secretary

2008-04-16T02:44:00.003-04:00

Here are the GAY protests happening during Benedict XVI's American visit - but of course all he is doing is laughing at all of us
as we lose our voice screaming out our vain protests
and his pompous stately welcome muffles our sights and sounds.

There must be a better God than the one he represents because
he is the one having fun with his GAY private secretary
while he labels us as "morally intrinsic evil homosexuals".

And his GAY Zeffirelli movie production of his visit is in full array......

--------

Papal Visit Provokes Array of Protests

By DAVID CRARY
The Associated Press
Sunday, April 13, 2008; 12:46 PM

NEW YORK -- Pope Benedict XVI may not see them or hear them, but aggrieved Roman Catholic activists hope his U.S. visit this week will help them draw attention to issues ranging from the ordination of women and gay rights to sex abuse by priests and the Vatican ban on contraception.

The groups have planned vigils, demonstrations and news conferences to press their causes as the pope visits Washington and New York. On Monday evening, the eve of his arrival, supporters of women's ordination will host what they are calling "an inclusive Mass" at a Methodist church in Washington, presided over by Catholic women _ including two who were recently excommunicated.

"We cannot welcome this pope until he begins to do away with the church's continuing violence of sexism," said Sister Donna Quinn, coordinator of the National Coalition of American Nuns.

Participants in the service will include Rose Marie Hudson and Elsie McGrath, who were excommunicated last month by Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis because they were ordained as part of a women-priest movement condemned by the Vatican.

"In the face of one closed door after another, Catholic women have been innovative, courageous and faithful to the church," said Aisha Taylor, executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference. "They continue to make a way where is none."

Gay Catholic activists, who plan to demonstrate Tuesday along the papal motorcade route in Washington, have compiled a list of statements by Benedict during his career which they consider hostile to gays and lesbians. These include forceful denunciations of gay marriage and of adoption rights for same-sex couples.

"He has issued some of the most hurtful and extreme rhetoric against our community of any religious leader in history, and we want to call him into account for the damage that he's done," said Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA.

Duddy-Burke said she hopes the protests will be coupled with celebration of the gains made by gay Catholics in America in recent years. She cited the growing number of parishes welcoming openly gay members and the dozens of Catholic colleges that now have gay-straight alliances.

Another gay Catholic group, New Ways Ministry, hosted a news conference at which speakers conveyed what they would tell the pope if they had the opportunity. The speakers included Gregory Maguire, author of the best-selling novel "Wicked," who along with husband Andrew Newman is raising three adopted children as Catholics in Massachusetts, the only state to allow same-sex marriages.

"We invite you to spend a day, a meal, a weekend with us," Maguire said in his message to the pope. "We don't want to serve as a poster-family for gay Catholics. ... We will just be ourselves, in all our confusion, aspiration, need and joy."

Another divisive issue being raised this week is the Vatican's ban on contraception. Gay rights groups and others say the ban undermines programs promoting condom use to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS.

In a conference call Monday organized by Catholics for Choice, four Catholic theologians will be examining the impact of the 1968 encyclical "Humanae Vitae," which defined the Vatican's opposition to artificial birth control.

"Catholics wonder why there's this huge disparity between what the hierarchy says we should do in regard to contraception and what Catholics on the ground actually do," said Catholics for Choice president Jon O'Brien.

He termed the ban "a great tragedy ... a policy that lacks compassion and understanding."

Asked about the prospects that Benedict might reconsider the ban, O'Brien replied, "I do believe in miracles."

GAY Jesus Last Supper Art in Austria

2008-04-07T20:40:00.005-04:00

A painting by a famous Austrian artist depicting a homosexual orgy of the Apostles has been swifly removed from an exhibition at a museum at Vienna's St Stephen's Cathedral but protest continues over other pictures said to portray a homoerotic vision of Christ's crucifixion.

Visitors read the description of Austrian artist Alfred Hrdlicka's bronze "Hommage a Pasolini" during the controversial exhibition "Religion, Fleisch und Macht" ("Religion, Flesh and Power") in Vienna's Cathedral Museum (Dommuseum) April 1, 2008. The museum has come under fire after displaying artworks including a homoerotic version of the Last Supper, which was later removed from the exhibition. The museum says the works are provocative but not blasphemous and that the exhibition was not supposed to be offensive. Picture taken April 1, 2008.

Erotic Jesus sparks art debate in Austria

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL0157328520080407?sp=true

Monday April 7, 2008

By Sylvia Westall

VIENNA (Reuters) - They knew it would be risky to exhibit a homoerotic version of Christ's Last Supper, but curators at museum of Vienna's Roman Catholic Cathedral weren't ready for a barrage of angry messages and calls to be shut down.

The source of the dispute, which Austrian media has dubbed Vienna's version of the Mohammad caricature row, is a retrospective honouring Austria's cherished artist Alfred Hrdlicka, who turned 80 earlier this year.

But not everyone has been wishing Hrdlicka a Happy Birthday. And the Cathedral Museum's director and Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna, have both come under fire from some museum visitors and Catholic websites.

The Church hastily removed the main picture, "a homosexual orgy" of the Apostles as Hrdlicka describes it.

But the protest has continued, much to the surprise of the small Cathedral Museum which is nestled down a narrow street in Vienna's historic Gothic quarter.

The museum's director defends both Hrdlicka's work and his decision to host the artist's controversial versions of biblical imagery in a museum tied to the Catholic Church.

"We think Hrdlicka is entitled to represent people in this carnal, drastic way," Bernhard Boehler said in his small museum office, across the street from Vienna's imposing St. Stephan's Cathedral.

He said the museum never intended to offend people but that art should be allowed to provoke a debate.

"I don't see any blasphemy here," he said, gesturing at a Crucifixion picture showing a soldier simultaneously beating Jesus and holding his genitals. "People can imagine what they want to."

Boehler says that picture drew particular criticism from some visitors, along with a sculpture of Jesus on the cross without a face or loincloth that some Christians found offensive.

But the most disputed work was 'Leonardo's Last Supper, restored by Pier Paolo Pasolini' which showed cavorting Apostles sprawling over the dining table and masturbating each other.

Hrdlicka says he represented the men in this way because there are no women in the Da Vinci painting which inspired it. Pasolini was a controversial Italian filmmaker and writer who was murdered in the 1970s.

The exhibition has attracted fierce criticism on religion blogs in Austria, Germany and even in the United States, with bloggers denouncing it with terms such as "blasphemy" and "desecration."

"The exhibition should never have taken place. The Director should apologise to Catholics worldwide for this," an article on conservative Catholic website kreuz.net said.

In the United States, conservative columnist Rod Dreher wrote on his widely read religion blog "I wouldn't have guessed that, given his reputation, a man like (Cardinal) Schoenborn would have stood for this abomination for half a second."

The museum took down the Last Supper piece at Cardinal Schoenborn's request just over a week after the 'Religion, Flesh and Power' exhibition opened, leaving a blank black wall at the entrance to the display.

"This has nothing to do with censorship, rather corresponds with the understood "reverence for the sacred," the Cardinal's spokesman said in a statement.

"It is also an act of respect towards those believers who feel this portrayal offended and provoked them in their deepest religious sensitivity."

The diocese says the museum's decision to show Hrdlicka's work does not mean it identifies with everything it portrays.

Hrdlicka agrees but points out that the Last Supper piece was not intended as a swipe at the Catholic Church.

"There was such a reaction to its physicality. For me it was quite surprising the museum wanted to show the piece in the first place," he told Reuters by telephone.

"If the Cathedral Museum is having problems now, it's not really my affair, it's for the Cathedral Museum to deal with." He said overall he was pleased with the display and praised the director for being "strong".

A communist and atheist, Hrdlicka has said the Bible is the most thrilling book he has ever read and that religious imagery forms a central core to his work.

Boehler says the angry emails he has received remind him of how some reacted to Mel Gibson's 2004 film "The Passion of The Christ". In his opinion, critics of the film's violence and physicality also missed the point.

"The Crucifixion was brutal and it would be a lie to say everything in our world is nice," he said, pointing out that Hrdlicka is an anti-war activist who has seen the effects of Nazism and violence first hand.

"We in Europe have been affected by this and it influences how we see (Hrdlicka's) work."

Boehler, like Hrdlicka, says the art debate can be compared to the Danish cartoon row, where an image of the Prophet Mohammad with a bomb in his turban enraged some in the Muslim world who saw it as blasphemous.

The angry reaction to Hrdlicka's work has only been verbal and the museum says some Christians have been balanced and support the exhibition, despite disagreeing with the artist's approach.

Curator Martina Judt said the exhibition was meant to prompt this kind of balanced reaction. The museum wanted to show that controversial works inspired by religious imagery can be discussed without taboo.

"People have said the Catholic Church has become a lot more liberal," she said. "But in the end, the reactions show this perhaps isn't the case."

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

Obama's Speech: A Brilliant Fraud

2008-03-21T02:01:00.004-04:00

Washington Post

The Speech: A Brilliant Fraud

By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, March 21, 2008; Page A17

The beauty of a speech is that you don't just give the answers, you provide your own questions. "Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes." So said Barack Obama, in his Philadelphia speech about his pastor, friend, mentor and spiritual adviser of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright.

An interesting, if belated, admission. But the more important question is: which"controversial" remarks?

Wright's assertion from the pulpit that the U.S. government invented HIV "as a means of genocide against people of color"? Wright's claim that America was morally responsible for Sept. 11 -- "chickens coming home to roost" -- because of, among other crimes, Hiroshima and Nagasaki? (Obama says he missed church that day. Had he never heard about it?) What about the charge that the U.S. government (of Franklin Roosevelt, mind you) knew about Pearl Harbor, but lied about it? Or that the government gives drugs to black people, presumably to enslave and imprison them?

Obama condemns such statements as wrong and divisive, then frames the next question: "There will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church?"

But that is not the question. The question is why didn't he leave that church? Why didn't he leave -- why doesn't he leave even today -- a pastor who thundered not once but three times from the pulpit (on a DVD the church proudly sells) "God damn America"? Obama's 5,000-word speech, fawned over as a great meditation on race, is little more than an elegantly crafted, brilliantly sophistic justification of that scandalous dereliction. (Bold emphasis added)

His defense rests on two central propositions: (a) moral equivalence and (b) white guilt.

(a) Moral equivalence. Sure, says Obama, there's Wright, but at the other "end of the spectrum" there's Geraldine Ferraro, opponents of affirmative action and his own white grandmother, "who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe." But did she shout them in a crowded theater to incite, enrage and poison others?

"I can no more disown [Wright] than I can my white grandmother." What exactly was Grandma's offense? Jesse Jackson himself once admitted to the fear he feels from the footsteps of black men on the street. And Harry Truman was known to use epithets for blacks and Jews in private, yet is revered for desegregating the armed forces and recognizing the first Jewish state since Jesus's time. He never spread racial hatred. Nor did Grandma.

Yet Obama compares her to Wright. Does he not see the moral difference between the occasional private expression of the prejudices of one's time and the use of a public stage to spread racial lies and race hatred?

(b) White guilt. Obama's purpose in the speech was to put Wright's outrages in context. By context, Obama means history. And by history, he means the history of white racism. Obama says, "We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country," and then he proceeds to do precisely that. What lies at the end of his recital of the long train of white racial assaults from slavery to employment discrimination? Jeremiah Wright, of course.

This contextual analysis of Wright's venom, this extenuation of black hate speech as a product of white racism, is not new. It's the Jesse Jackson politics of racial grievance, expressed in Ivy League diction and Harvard Law nuance. That's why the speech made so many liberal commentators swoon: It bathed them in racial guilt while flattering their intellectual pretensions. An unbeatable combination.

But Obama was supposed to be new. He flatters himself as a man of the future transcending the anger of the past as represented by his beloved pastor. Obama then waxes rhapsodic about the hope brought by the new consciousness of the young people in his campaign. Then answer this, Senator: If Wright is a man of the past, why would you expose your children to his vitriolic divisiveness? This is a man who curses America and who proclaimed moral satisfaction in the deaths of 3,000 innocents at a time when their bodies were still being sought at Ground Zero. It is not just the older congregants who stand and cheer and roar in wild approval of Wright's rants, but young people as well. Why did you give $22,500 just two years ago to a church run by a man of the past who infects the younger generation with precisely the racial attitudes and animus you say you have come unto us to transcend?

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The Great Non Sequitur

By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, March 7, 2008; Page A17

She threw the kitchen sink at him. Accused Barack Obama of plagiarism. Mocked his eloquence. Questioned his truthfulness about NAFTA.

Wasn't enough. Hillary Clinton still faced extinction in Ohio and Texas. So what do you do when you have thrown the kitchen sink? Drop the atomic bomb.

Hence that brilliant "phone call at the White House at 3 a.m." commercial. In the great tradition of Lyndon Johnson's "Daisy" ad, it was not subtle -- though in 2008 you don't actually show the nuclear explosion. It's enough just to suggest an apocalyptic crisis.

Ostensibly the ad was about experience. It wasn't. It was about familiarity. After all, as Obama pointed out, what exactly is the experience that prepares Hillary to answer the red phone at 3 a.m.?

She was raising a deeper question: Do you really know who this guy is? After a whirlwind courtship with this elegant man who rode into town just yesterday, are you really prepared to entrust him with your children, the major props in the ad?

After months of fruitlessly shadowboxing an ethereal opponent made up of equal parts hope, rhetoric and enthusiasm, Clinton had finally made contact with the enemy. The doubts she raised created just enough buyer's remorse to persuade Democrats on Tuesday to not yet close the sale on the mysterious stranger.

The only way either Clinton or John McCain can defeat an opponent as dazzlingly new and fresh as Obama is to ask: Do you really know this guy?

Or the corollary: Is he really who he says he is? I'm not talking about scurrilous innuendo about his origins, religion or upbringing. I'm talking about the full-fledged man who presents himself to the country in remarkably grandiose terms as a healer, a conciliator, a uniter.

This, after all, is his major appeal. What makes him different from the other candidates, from the "old politics" he disdains, is the promise to rise above party, to take us beyond ideology and other archaic divisions, and bring us together as "one nation."

It's worked. When Americans are asked who can unite us, 67 percent say Obama vs. 34 percent for Clinton, with McCain at 51.

How did Obama pull that off? By riding one of the great non sequiturs of modern American politics.

It goes like this. Because Obama transcends race, it is therefore assumed that he will transcend everything else -- divisions of region, class, party, generation and ideology.

The premise here is true -- Obama does transcend race; he has not run as a candidate of minority grievance; his vision of America is unmistakably post-racial -- but the conclusion does not necessarily follow. It is merely suggested in Obama's rhetorically brilliant celebration of American unity: "young and old, rich and poor, black and white, Latino and Asian -- who are tired of a politics that divides us." Hence "the choice in this election is not between regions or religions or genders. It's not about rich versus poor; young versus old; and it is not about black versus white. It's about the past versus the future."

The effect of such sweeping invocations of unity is electric, particularly because race is the deepest and most tragic of all American divisions, and this invocation is being delivered by a man who takes us powerfully beyond it. The implication is that he is therefore uniquely qualified to transcend all our other divisions.

It is not an idle suggestion. It could be true. The problem is that Obama's own history suggests that, in his case at least, it is not. Indeed, his Senate record belies the implication.

The Obama campaign has sent journalists eight pages of examples of his reaching across the aisle in the Senate. I am not the only one to note, however, that these are small-bore items of almost no controversy -- more help for war veterans, reducing loose nukes in the former Soviet Union, fighting avian flu and the like. Bipartisan support for apple pie is hardly a profile in courage.

On the difficult compromises that required the political courage to challenge one's own political constituency, Obama flinched: the "Gang of 14" compromise on judicial appointments, the immigration compromise to which Obama tried to append union-backed killer amendments and, just last month, the compromise on warrantless eavesdropping that garnered 68 votes in the Senate. But not Obama's.

Who, in fact, supported all of these bipartisan deals, was a central player in two of them and brokered the even more notorious McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform? John McCain, of course.

Yes, John McCain -- intemperate and rough-edged, of sharp elbows and even sharper tongue. Turns out that uniting is not a matter of rhetoric or manner, but of character and courage.

Osama-Obama pastor condemns America

2008-03-20T11:04:00.004-04:00

Obama's Pastor Embarrasses Entire Congregation http://nathanbradfield.blogspot.com/2007/03/obamas-pastor-embarrasses-entire.html

Obama the Traitor

Barack Obama IS Osama Bin Laden ???

Obama Disrespecting the Flag and US Anthem

Obama abandons American Flag Pin

Obama... Osama

BARACK OBAMA - The Osama Obama Groove

Kennedy Calls Obama "Osama Bin Laden" (This Is NO Joke)

New York Bishop hid GAY relationships

2008-03-03T13:58:00.007-05:00

From Benedict XVI & his live-in GAY private secretary, from Cary Grant to Howard Hughes, now here's a New York Bishop at St. John the Divine... these giant succesful men are coming out as bisexual and very very GAY! If all the 60% giant Jesuit-GAYS would come-out, we'd be in business in knocking down Benedict XVI, the most powerful leader against GAY marriage.

A Bishop Unveiled God’s Secrets While Keeping His Own
Photo:Ozier Muhammad

The New York Times
Bishop Paul Moore Jr., a pastor of St. John the Divine, hid gay relationships, his daughter wrote.

By PAUL VITELLO
Published: March 3, 2008

As is customary during Lent, the sermon at St. John the Divine Cathedral on Sunday touched on the themes of seen and unseen truths, knowing and not knowing what is before one’s very eyes.

It was not intended as a veiled reference to the disclosure this week that Paul Moore Jr., the late, revered Episcopal bishop who became a national figure of liberal Christian activism from the cathedral’s pulpit in the 1970s and ’80s, had lived a secret gay life.

“I’m an old English major, and I can overlay meanings on anything, but in this case it was just the Sunday sermon,” said the Rev. James A. Kowalski, who delivered the words.

In an elegiac article in the March 3 issue of The New Yorker magazine titled “The Bishop’s Daughter,” the poet Honor Moore describes her father, Bishop Moore, who died in 2003 at 83, as alternately passionate and elusive, capable of deep “religious emotion,” yet just beyond her emotional reach. It was only after he died, she said, that she fully realized that he had had gay relationships during his two marriages, the first of which produced his nine children.

Photo:Don Hogan Charles/The New York Times
Bishop Paul Moore Jr., seen in 1989 near St. John the Divine, led the Episcopal Diocese of New York from 1972 to 1989.

Bishop Moore was a famously outspoken Christian voice. His truth-to-power pastoring spanned almost half a century, including as leader of the Episcopal Diocese of New York from 1972 until his retirement in 1989. He marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was among the early opponents of the Vietnam War, railed at presidents and mayors for ignoring the plight of the poor, and, shortly before his death, took the opportunity of his last sermon at St. John the Divine, the seat of the diocese at 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, to deliver a scathing attack on President Bush and the war in Iraq.

The revelation of his hidden world comes at a time of deep tension within the Episcopal Church of the United States over the issue of homosexuality. Since the church ordained an openly gay bishop in the Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003, a dozen congregations in various parts of the country have withdrawn from the American branch of the church and aligned themselves with theologically conservative African or South American branches of the worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a part.

Those African and South American branches have described homosexuality as “an offense to God.”

At St. John the Divine, where inclusiveness toward those of all backgrounds and sexual orientations has long been fundamental to the culture of the congregation — in part as a result of Bishop Moore’s leadership — the reaction was more complicated.

“I’d like to say that we all have secret lives — and that’s why we come here,” said Mary Burrell, a longtime member of the congregation. “We are all sinners, trying to find our way.”

Everyone interviewed after Masses on Sunday praised Bishop Moore as a towering leader of his era. And nearly equal numbers said that because of the cultural mores of the time in which he lived, Bishop Moore may have deprived his family of the kind of intimacy that his daughter, at least, missed as a child. In her essay, she describes her father’s religious devotion — and perhaps the furtiveness necessitated by his other life, which was unknown to her at the time — as “a landscape, like a dream, a place to which my father belonged and from which my mother and I were excluded.”

Anne Wroten said she was saddened at the thought of “how much energy is wasted in living a closeted life, how much is lost in the forming of bonds with loved ones.”

Some were less kind, like Marsha Ra, who said, referring to the memoirist Ms. Moore, “I’m just so glad I never had children.”

Some were more fatalistic, in a positive way. “You know, if he hadn’t kept it secret, there would probably be nine fewer children in this world,” said Fred Imbimbo.

But few seemed to miss how the day’s sermon and readings resonated with the story of Bishop Moore as told by his daughter. The sermon was based on the Gospel story of Jesus restoring a blind man’s sight. It is a parable about recognizing the Messiah in the person of Jesus, but it is also about “opening our eyes and looking straight at the facts,” Mr. Kowalski said during his sermon. “Being able to see clearly what is in front of us.”

Howard Hadley, 62, a member of the church choir who considered himself a friend of the late bishop’s, said it came as no surprise to him to learn that Bishop Moore had been involved in gay relationships.

“It was the times he lived in. That’s the sad fact. But there was never any doubt in my mind about him,” said Mr. Hadley. “People who say they didn’t know? Well, you know, people see what they want to see.”

The writer of “The Bishop’s Daughter” might say that, in some cases at least, people see what they are invited to see.

Nazi Ratzi : GAY Marriage Threat to World Peace

2008-03-01T00:47:00.005-05:00

Gay Marriage Threat to World Peace: Nazi Ratzi

Former Hitler Youth and wealthy homophobe for Jesus Pope Nazi Ratzinger has said that gay marriage is a threat to world peace in the same way as nukular weapons. Honest, we’re not making this shit up, this multi-millionaire fucktard actually said this crap. (story)

Direct from Vatican City, “Pope Benedict XVI said in a statement Tuesday that abortion, birth control and same-sex marriage are threats to world peace, on the same level as nuclear arms proliferation, environmental pollution and economic inequality.” Nazi Ratzi did not indicate if raping altar boys was a threat to world peace, but we do know it is a threat to his income.

What a dumbass mean bastard of a mother fucking son of a bitch. Two guys get married and nukular war breaks out? I don’t exactly think so. Maybe it is about time for Nazi Ratzi to crawl back under his rock.

Let’s face it, Nazi Ratzi is the one using Weapons of Mass Deception.

Posted on December 13th, 2007 by Fagnit.

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Story

12-12-2007 22:19

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI said in a statement Tuesday that abortion, birth control and same-sex marriage are threats to world peace, on the same level as nuclear arms proliferation, environmental pollution and economic inequality.

In a 15-page message for the World Day of Peace, which will be observed Jan. 1, the pope links sexual and medical ethics to international relations and presents the nuclear family as the "first and indispensable teacher of peace" and the "primary agency of peace."

"Everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and woman, everything that directly or indirectly stands in the way of its openness to the responsible acceptance of new life ... constitutes an objective obstacle on the road to peace," the pope writes.

The pope also warns against what he describes as a global "arms race," and criticizes the U.S. for its handling of Iran's alleged nuclear arms program.

God's Rottweiler chews GAYS in Spain

2008-02-25T09:55:00.004-05:00

My GAY friends in England suggest I post this 2006 news when Benedict XVI, the worst opponent to GAY marriage, went to Spain and chewed on GAYS. What the pope refuses to see is that the people in Spain are for GAY marriage.

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'God's Rottweiler' Chews At Gay Marriage

Pope Benedict XVI lived up to his ‘Rottweiler’ nickname this weekend when he chewed into gay marraige and Spain’s Socialist government. Like the infamous dog breed he’s been equated with, Pope Benedict indicated that having sunk his teeth into Spain’s newfound secularism, he’s not about to loosen the bite.

Benedict was on a whistle-stop tour, that saw him in Valencia for 26 hours to conclude a Vatican fuelled gathering on family issues. He savaged gay marriage before even getting off his papal plane from Rome. Questioned on the role of gay marriage in society, the pope told reporters: "According to human nature, it is man and woman who are made for each other and to give humanity a future."

Critics have been swift to point out that an old man who’s experienced neither relationships, nor much life outside the church is unlikely to be the most qualified advisor on the subject of love and marriage. Regardless of this screaming anomaly, nearly 1.5m devotees turned out to hear his erroneous diatribe.

"The family is a unique institution in God's plan, and the church cannot fail to proclaim and promote its fundamental importance," Benedict said on his arrival.

As he arrived for his speedy pitstop, the Pope was greeted at the airport by King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Since his appointment in March 2004, Zapatero has completely liberalized Spain from its Catholic shackles and successfully steered the country into a secular fast lane.

The Pope’s visit comes a year after the Spanish government legalised gay marriage, sparking a sour dispute with Spain's Catholic bishops and the Vatican.

Another slap to the Vatican’s tenacious face, has been an easing of restrictions on both abortion and divorce, coupled with the rejection of plans by a previous, conservative government to make religion classes mandatory in public schools.

Spain was the first European country to allow gay marriage and the freedom for couples to adopt children.

The head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council on the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, denounced the legislation as profoundly iniquitous. If that has you reaching for the dictionary, don’t bother, it means ‘wicked’ and unfair.

The Pope and Zapatero met on Sunday evening, but it’s likely to have been deaf ears and cold shoulders all round. Much to the Vatican’s chagrin, Mr Zapatero didn’t attend Sunday's papal mass. [Gay-com-uk]

Obama GAY sex? (YouTube)

2008-02-19T22:47:00.015-05:00

YouTube
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Hillary-Obama parody

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Convicted Iraqi Billionaire Gave Obama Millions

Barack Obama’s “squeaky clean” reputation is once again being tarnished by shady entrepreneurs who have supported him financially, this time a convicted Iraqi billionaire who funneled millions to the Illinois senator in 2005.

A British newspaper has published a lengthy story on the scandal, which connects the Democratic presidential candidate and his indicted longtime Syrian financial supporter (currently on trial for corruption) with one of Britain’s richest people, a criminal Iraqi guru named Nadhmi Auchi.

It turns out that Auchi, convicted in Europe for operating a massive kickback scheme, gave Obama $3.5 million just weeks before the senator purchased a pricey mansion in an exclusive Chicago neighborhood. Auchi funneled the money to Obama through the senator’s friend and campaign bankroller, Antoin Rezko, the Syrian businessman charged with influence peddling, extortion and conspiracy.

A loyal Obama supporter for years, Rezko is on trial for plotting to squeeze millions of dollars in kickbacks out of firms seeking state business. He had been free on bail since being indicted last year, but was subsequently arrested and ordered to remain in jail after receiving a multi million-dollar wire from Beirut that led authorities to think he planned to flee to the Middle East.

It was Rezko who introduced Obama to Auchi, convicted in France in 2003 for operating what has been described as the biggest political and corporate scandal in post-war Europe. The legal problems didn’t deter Obma from taking Auchi’s money nor have they affected his empire. Auchi is reportedly among Britain’s wealthiest men and one of the richest people in the world, according to Forbes Magazine.

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From The TimesFebruary 26, 2008

Mansion 'mistake' piles the pressure on Barack Obama

Timesonline.co.UK

A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.

The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.

A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama's bagman Antoin "Tony" Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million.

Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city's South Side while Mr Rezko's wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15.

Mr Obama says he never used Mrs Rezko's still-empty lot, which could only be accessed through his property. But he admits he paid his gardener to mow the lawn.

Mrs Rezko, whose husband was widely known to be under investigation at the time, went on to sell a 10-foot strip of her property to Mr Obama seven months later so he could enjoy a bigger garden.

Mr Obama now admits his involvement in this land deal was a “boneheaded mistake”.

Mrs Rezko’s purchase and sale of the land to Mr Obama raises many unanswered questions.

It is unclear how Mrs Rezko could have afforded the downpayment of $125,000 and a $500,000 mortgage for the original $625,000 purchase of the garden plot at 5050 South Greenwood Ave.

In a sworn statement a year later, Mrs Rezko said she got by on a salary of $37,000 and had $35,000 assets. Mr Rezko told a court he had "no income, negative cash flow, no liquid assets, no unencumbered assets [and] is significantly in arrears on many of his obligations."

Mrs Rezko, whose husband goes on trial on unrelated corruption charges in Chicago on March 3, refused to answer questions about the case when she spoke by telephone to The Times.

Asked if she used money from her husband to buy the land next to Mr Obama's house, she said: "I can't answer these questions, I'm sorry."

Asked how long she and her husband had known Mr Auchi, she replied: "I will not be able to answer this question."

Mr Auchi's lawyer, asked whether the Fintrade Services loan was used to buy the land which became Mr Obama's garden, stated: "No, not as far as my client is aware."

Mr Auchi's links with Mr Rezko are a new political headache for Mr Obama, the charismatic Illinois senator vying to become America’s first African-American president.

Hillary Clinton has sought to make Mr Rezko, who has bankrolled Mr Obama's political career since his first run for the Illinois state senate in the mid-1990s, into an election issue by calling him a "slum landlord" in a televised debate. She has repeatedly suggested that Mr Obama has effectively not been "vetted" by media scrutiny and will not withstand "the Republican attack machine".

Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr Obama, told The Times: “The bottom line is Obama does not recall ever meeting him [Mr Auchi].”

The house-and-garden deal raised questions about whether Mr Rezko, a property developer and fast-food restauranteur, made it possible for the Obamas to purchase a mansion they could otherwise not afford.

Mrs Rezko paid the asking price for the garden but the Obamas bought the house for $1.65 million, - $300,000 less than the asking price. The sellers deny they offered the Obamas a discount on the house because the garden had fetched full price from Mrs Rezko.

Mr Rezko has since been indicted for allegedly scheming to pressure companies seeking business with the state of Illinois for kickbacks and contributions to the governor Rod Blagojevich's campaign. He goes on trial on March 3.

A prosecution document filed last month alleged that a "political candidate" - identified by the Chicago Sun-Times as Mr Obama - received a $10,000 campaign contribution from what is said to be a $250,000 kickback in the corruption case. That means Mr Obama's name could figure in Mr Rezko's trial, although he is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Mr Obama insists he never used his office to do favours for Mr Rezko but admits that, as an Illinois state senator, he once wrote letters to housing officials urging them to provide money in support of a proposed apartment building for elderly people which Mr Rezko wanted to build.

Mr Obama has publicly sought to atone for his closeness to Mr Rezko, paying $150,000 to charity to distance himself from a man accused of political corruption.

The spotlight fell on Mr Rezko's ties to Mr Auchi last month when the Chicago businessman was thrown in jail for violating his bail terms by failing to declare a different $3.5 million loan from the British billionaire, made in April 2007. Prosecutors feared Mr Rezko, who travels widely in the Middle East, might flee to a country without an extradition treaty such as his birthplace of Syria.

Mr Auchi was convicted of corruption, given a suspended sentence and fined £1.4 million in France in 2003 for his part in the Elf affair, described as the biggest political and corporate scandal in post-war Europe. He, in a statement from his media lawyers, claims he is appealing against the sentence.

Mr Auchi founded his Luxembourg-based General Mediterranean Holding (GMH) in 1979, a year before he left Iraq. He says that he did business with his native country when it was considered a friend of the West but ceased to trade with the late Saddam Hussein's regime once sanctions were imposed after the invasion of Kuwait.

Mr Rezko has told a court that Mr Auchi is a "close friend." Mr Auchi's lawyer told The Times: "It is untrue that my client and Mr Rezko are 'close friends'. Mr Auchi first met Mr Rezko after the 2003 Iraq war and they have a business relationship."

Mr Rezko and Mr Auchi have been partners in a pizzeria business in the Mid-West and a major 62-acre land development in Riverside Park in Chicago.

According to court documents, Mr Rezko's lawyer said his client had "longstanding indebtedness" to Mr Auchi's GMH. By June 2007 he owed it $27.9 million.

Under a Loan Forgiveness Agreement described in court, Mr Auchi lent Mr Rezko $3.5 million in April 2005 and $11 million in September 2005, as well as the $3.5 million transferred in April 2007.

That agreement provided for the outstanding loans to be "forgiven" in return for a stake in the 62-acre Riverside Park development.

A posting last week on a GMH-owned website, middle-east-online.com, portrayed Mr Auchi as a Middle Eastern "Donald Trump" with a global business construction empire.

Mr Auchi visited the United States in 2004. Pictures show him meeting Emil Jones, the president of the Illinois state senate, an ally of Mr Obama, a former state senator.

Both Mr Auchi and Mr Obama say they have no memory of meeting each other. But, according to a source, the two may have had a brief encounter at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago where Mr Auchi’s visit was being honoured with a dinner attended by the Governor when Mr Obama, coincidentally in the hotel, dropped in.

An aide to Mr Obama said he did attend an event at the Four Seasons at which Mr Rezko was present but does not remember meeting Mr Auchi. "He shook a lot of hands and met a lot of people," the aide said. "We do not remember individual people."

Prosecutors say that, after Mr Auchi was unable to enter the United States in 2005, Mr Rezko approached the US State Department to get him a visa and apparently asked "certain Illinois government officials to do the same." Mr Obama denies he was approached. Mr Auchi's lawyer has emphasised to The Times that it would be entirely false to imply that money had been lent by GMH to Mr Rezko in return for Mr Rezko seeking to assist Mr Auchi to obtain a visa. The two men's relationship, the lawyer stressed, was a busines s one.

Mr Auchi's lawyer said the purpose of the Fintrade Services loan was to "assist the financial position" of a pizzeria company called AR Pizza, in which GMH held a shareholding. He said the loan had since been repaid in the form of a greater stake in the Chicago 62-acre land project.

AR Pizza has since become a defendant in a civil lawsuit by the Papa John's pizzeria chain, which alleges that it continued to operate a string of former Papa John's franchises under the name "Papa Tony's" without permission.

Mr Auchi's lawyer said: "My client played no part in the management and/or day to day running of AR Pizza, the GMH Group being an entirely passive investor in the company. Further, there was no need as a mimimum return on the investment was guaranteed. As to the court proceedings, my client is not a party to these. He denies any wrongdoing in relation to his involvement in AR Pizza."

Mr Rezko was also a major fundraiser for Governor Blagojevich. The governor's chief fundraiser Christopher Kelly, who also served as his gambling adviser, is fighting tax charges related to betting losses. The Associated Press reported that last month Mr Auchi's conglomerate also gave a loan to Mr Kelly secured on a Nevada land deal which the governor’s bagman was involved in.

Have your say

Beware American citizens! Vote on policy and the political stance - don't be swayed too much by the spin or you'll regret it, look at what "New Labour" have done in the UK over the past 10 years or so...

Flagging banking, an insecure and scary place to live, a war on "terror" that saps our finances that we can't and will not win, rising living costs, failing health services and schools and an infrastructure under increasing strain from their liberal/haphazard approach to immigration...

ChasNDave, Brampton, Cumbria, UK

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Obama, Freemason, Related
To Both Bush, Cheney

February 13, 2008
by Leo Zagami

Obama outlines his ambitious geopolitical plans in a
recent essay for Foreign Affairs magazine. Foreign
Affairs is published by the Council on
ForeignRelations, which describes itself as a
non-partisan group of which he is a member. Established
in the 1920's and headquartered in New York, its membership includes prominent politicians
and business elite, including heads of academia and media. The
organization seeks to centralize both political power and market power to
craft legislation outside the checks and balances of
democracy.

The CFR is rarely mentioned by the mainstream media...
Obama is also a 32nd degree Prince Hall Freemason
loyal to the Craft and devoted to his principles so
forget about the "changes" and start thinking about the same
old , same old , coming once again into power.

Obama is illuminati aristocracy. his appearence from
'nowhere', and subsequent rocket to the front of the
political line are no coincidence. Believe it or
not, Barack Obama is related to both President Bush
and Vice President Dick Cheney as you can check here:

So the possible scenario is that Hillary might become
the Vice President of Obama at the end of this
political show , but in any case let's enjoy what the
American call Democracy a good show in the hands of
the usual suspects , and remember America the Pope is
coming with His Blessings this spring..ha..ha....and
make sure Brother Obama doesnt miss his Zionist masonic
meetings as he would love to be the main actor in the
reconstruction of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.

Maybe the next Anti-Christ to hit the US presidential
scene will be darker then some people have expected.

How QUEER is Bush?

2008-02-19T22:37:00.003-05:00

Not Holier Than Thou
$12.00

Homosexuality & Corruption in US Politics

George Bush and Karl Rove have always used homosexuality as a weapon, have righteously opposed it and have routinely accused people of it, knowing that those people were normal, while all along they have colluded to make the Republican Party a sodomite organization from the top down. That's the theme of the latest, incendiary book by Alan Stang, who says Republican leaders are using homosexuality to terrify critics into silence, so they can bring the United States to its knees.The book is Not Holier Than Thou: How Queer Is Bush, which includes a "Special Section on Dick's Dykes," a revelation available nowhere else of how Mary Cheney, the most famous lesbian in the United States, got to be what she is. Stang says the trouble could have started with Mamma Lynne's lesbian novel, Sisters. "And where was Dick when this cloaca of lesbianism was befouling the family hearth?" Stang asks.

HAPPY VALENTINES, MEN-FRIENDS

2008-02-10T18:59:00.001-05:00

Happy Valentines to all my Men-Friends in Europe and USA!

Here's a treat from Westlife, my favorite band, with a lot of GAY Mark Feehily, my look-alike-almost-twin, singing a lot!

Enjoy!

Charles

Westlife - Total Eclipse of the Heart (Live)

GAY actor Cary Grant

2008-02-10T18:45:00.002-05:00

Handsome Cary Grant

Cary Grant was one of my mother's favorite leading actor. She'd be rolling in her grave if she knew that he was GAY...

Cary Grant born 18 January 1904 (d. 1986)

Archibald Alexander Leach, better known by his screen name, Cary Grant, was an English film actor. With his distinctive mid-Atlantic accent, he was noted as perhaps the foremost exemplar of the debonair leading man, not only handsome, but also witty and charming. He was named the second Greatest Male Star of All Time of American cinema by the American Film Institute.

Grant starred in some of the classic screwball comedies, including The Awful Truth with Irene Dunne (the pivotal film in the establishment of Grant's screen persona), Bringing Up Baby with Katharine Hepburn, His Girl Friday with Rosalind Russell and Arsenic and Old Lace with Priscilla Lane. These performances solidified his appeal, and The Philadelphia Story, with Hepburn and James Stewart, presented his best-known screen role: the charming if sometimes unreliable man

Grant was one of Hollywood's top box-office attractions for several decades. He was a versatile actor, who did demanding physical comedy in movies like Gunga Din with the skills he had learned on the stage.

In the mid-1950s, Grant formed his own production company and produced a number of movies distributed by Universal, such as Operation Petticoat, Indiscreet, That Touch of Mink (co-starring Doris Day), and Father Goose.

Grant's personal life was complicated, involving five marriages and speculation about his sexuality.

In 1932 he met fellow actor Randolph Scott on set, and the two shared a rented beach house (known as 'Bachelor Hall') on and off for twelve years. Rumours ran rampant at the time that Grant and Scott were lovers.

Authors Marc Elliot, Charles Higham and Roy Moseley consider Grant to have been bisexual, with Higham and Moseley claiming that Grant and Scott were seen kissing in a public car park outside a social function both attended in the 1960s. In his book, Hollywood Gays, Boze Hadleigh cites an interview with director George Cukor, who said about the alleged homosexual relationship between Scott and Grant: 'Oh, Cary won't talk about it. At most, he'll say they did some wonderful pictures together. But Randolph will admit it – to a friend.'

According to screenwriter Arthur Laurents, Grant was 'at best bisexual'. William J. Mann's book Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969 recounts how photographer Jerome Zerbe spent 'three gay months' (his words) in the movie colony taking many photographs of Grant and Scott, 'attesting to their involvement in the gay scene'. Zerbe says that he often stayed with the two actors, 'finding them both warm, charming, and happy.' In addition, Darwin Porter's book, Brando Unzipped (2006) claims that Grant had a homosexual affair with Marlon Brando.

Many writers seem to have no doubt about the actor's bisexuality; Grant, however, did not identify himself as such. He had many gay friends, including Cukor, William Haines, and Australian artist and costume designer Orry-Kelly, but he is not alleged to have had relationships with them, well, with Haines, at least.

Wives of Cary Grant

Grant's third wife was actress and writer Betsy Drake. This was his longest marriage (1949 - 1962). In a 2004 interview for the Turner Classic Movies production, Cary Grant: A Class Apart, Drake mocked rumors of Grant's homosexuality. 'I didn't have time to think about his homosexuality,' she says, 'we were too busy fucking.'

His fourth marriage, to actress Dyan Cannon, on July 22, 1965, in Las Vegas, resulted in the birth of his only child, Jennifer, when he was 62. The marriage was troubled from the beginning (Grant was 61 and Cannon was 28), and they separated within 18 months, with Cannon claiming that Grant spanked her for disobeying him. The divorce, finalised on May 28, 1967, was bitter and messy, and the custody disputes over their daughter went on for years.

Grant married British hotel PR agent Barbara Harris (47 years his junior), on April 11, 1981, a marriage which lasted until his death.

More on Cary Grant

GAY aviator Howard Hughes & lover Cary Grant

2008-02-04T13:08:00.000-05:00

HOWARD HUGHES FLEW BOTH WAYS

A scandalous bio of Howard Hughes looks set to bring The Aviator down to earth.

Capitalizing on the success of Martin Scorcese's movie, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Hughes, and is nominated for BEST PICTURE at tonight's Academy Awards, author Darwin Porter presents new allegations about the billionaire's shady dealings with some of the biggest names of the 20th century.

Porter adds some baroque touches to the rumors of Hughes's bisexuality, claiming that he bedded leading men James Dean, Randolph Scott, and Cary Grant. And he allegedly paid a million dollars in hush money after being arrested with a male prostitute in the 1950s.

Porter also says Hughes directed a then-unknown Marilyn Monroe in a lost "blue movie" in 1949. (And apparently, he gave Lana Turner syphilis for good measure.)

----

Hughes led a life of almost unprecedented debauchery, at least for his era. This biography documents that corruption and the A-list legends who collaborated. Hughes’s sexual and emotional odyssey is described frankly and even graphically, without apologies to the faint of heart. Throughout the unimaginable changes that affected America between Hughes’s birth in 1905 and the sinister circumstances of his death in 1976, this biography gives an insider’s perspective about what money can buy--and what it can’t.

Hughes emerges as the century’s greatest Lothario, with origins that included a devouring and incestuous mother, an indulgent but absent father, and seductions of the greatest all-star cast of lovers--male and female--ever assembled in a single lifetime.

Hughes feverishly seduced some of the world’s greatest women, but in this epic biography, he is also dragged kicking and screaming out of the closet. As his pimp, Johnny Meyer, once said: “Bossman was an equal opportunity seducer. The gender of his victim didn’t matter. He had just one requirement: Beauty.”

Thanks in part to these revelations, the canon of Hollywood legend will never be the same. The author’s rundown on the relationship of Hughes with Cary Grant, Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, Bette Davis, and Katharine Hepburn challenges virtually erything that has ever been filmed or written about those famous figures.

Howard Hughes: Hell's Angel
by Darwin Porter

ISBN 0-9748118-1-5
814 pages plus and index and 175 vintage photos. $26.95
Copyright 2005
Blood Moon Productions

NY GAY Priest is "out"...defrocked

2008-02-04T12:53:00.000-05:00

NY GAY PRIEST IS 'OUT'
SHACKED-UP GAY REV. IS GETTING DEFROCKED

New York Post

February 4, 2008 -- A popular Catholic chaplain at SUNY Maritime College in The Bronx has been fired and barred from acting as a priest after The Post told church officials that he has lived with another man in a pricey Manhattan one- bedroom apartment for years.

The Rev. Michael Moynihan's suspension as a cleric late last week comes a year after he resigned as the beloved pastor of a ritzy Connecticut parish amid a financial scandal there.

And it came after his Bridgeport [Conn.] Diocese bosses - who earlier caught Moynihan lying about the existence of secret bank accounts at his former parish - learned that the dapper, white-haired cleric misled them about living with a man in Midtown.

That roommate - a handsome television actor and singer named Michael Fawcett - for years was the children's choir director at Moynihan's ex-parish, St. Michael the Archangel in Greenwich, Conn.

That roommate - a handsome television actor and singer named Michael Fawcett

Moynihan, 55, now is not allowed to wear clerical garb, perform Roman Catholic church sacraments other than saying Mass for himself, or otherwise publicly act as a priest.

He resigned as St. Michael's pastor in January 2007, much to the dismay of many parishioners, after a probe found he had spent more than $500,000 in church funds from two secret bank accounts he had set up without being able to properly document the expenditures.

Despite losing his Connecticut job, Moynihan for the past year remained a priest in good standing and continued working as the longtime chaplain at SUNY Maritime College, a staterun school in the Throgs Neck section of The Bronx.

But that ended last week, when The Post told a spokesman for the Bridgeport Diocese that the priest's landlord had confirmed that Moynihan lived with Fawcett, 53, in a rented co-op unit at 300 E. 40th St. "Moynihan has lived with Fawcett for about a decade in the one-bedroom apartment, which rents for an estimated $3,000 to $4,000 per month, according to commercial database records.

On Friday, the Bridgeport Diocese issued a statement saying that prior to the financial scandal at St. Michael the Archangel, allegations had been made that Moynihan had "an improper relationship with" Fawcett, which "were vigorously denied by Father Moynihan and could not be substantiated.

"Nonetheless, Father Moynihan was asked to end all affiliation with [Fawcett] to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, so as not to undermine the church's mission," the diocese said.

Moynihan did not return requests for comment. "I don't have any comment," said Fawcett, who has appeared on an episode of "Law and Order."

See photos here

-----------

Benedict XVI lives with his GAY "private" secretary -- they should defrock themselves first like what they did with Fr. Moynihan instead of imposing a double standard in the Catholic Church.

USA Bishops against same-sex marriage

Benedict XVI the worst anti-GAY leader

Inland GAY Catholics struggle with church teachings

2008-02-04T12:36:00.000-05:00

Inland gay Catholics struggle to reconcile church teachings, their sexuality

Download story podcast

10:00 PM PST on Sunday, February 3, 2008

By David Olson
The Press-Enterprise

After Mike Neto came out as gay more than 25 years ago, he couldn't find a way to reconcile his sexual orientation with his Catholicism.

So the Palm Springs man searched for an alternative. He tried Christian Science, the gay-oriented Metropolitan Community Church and nondenominational Protestant churches that had liberal teachings on homosexuality. But he never felt comfortable.

His spiritual journey ended where it began. Neto, 59, again calls himself a Catholic.
"I was baptized Catholic, and I feel I'll always be Catholic," he said. "I still feel the Holy Spirit."

Neto's internal conflict is not unique. It is one familiar to many Inland gays and lesbians who were raised as Catholics and later found themselves pulled in two directions by their sexuality and their religion, which teaches that homosexual activity is a sin.

Neto's solution was to reject church teaching on homosexuality and to join Dignity, a nationwide group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics that sponsors Masses outside the Vatican's authority. The group has a growing chapter in Palm Springs.

Many gays remain within the Catholic Church itself, some attending a monthly Mass that the San Bernardino Diocese sponsors for gay Catholics and their families and friends. Others leave the church for liberal Protestant denominations. One man worships in a chapel he built in a shed behind his San Bernardino home.

Although they reach different destinations, many start on the same path: experiencing years of guilt and self-hatred that tear them apart and a feeling of being shunned by the church they love.

Bill LaMarche, a co-founder of Dignity Palm Springs, says the Vatican treats gay people as second-class citizens.

Read full article and see photos here.

Link: Benedict XVI The Worst Opponent of Same-Sex Marriage

The Worst Opponent of Same-Sex Marriage

2008-01-12T07:24:00.000-05:00

The Pope GRINCH

Pope Benedict is the worst anti-GAY religious leader.

It is imperative that we fight for and achieve GAY-marriage rights in the USA for our sake and that of our partners - so we can enjoy all the financial and tax benefits that heterosexual couples have...besides I'd prefer to give my pension benefits later on to my faithful partner (or he to me) than to Uncle Sam...

The Pope is desperately in dire need of plastic surgery at the age of 80...actually he'll be spending his 81st birthday in New York City.

So he has hired the openly GAY movie director (Jesus of Nazareth) Franco Zeffirelli as his papal image consultant.

Pope Benedict calls GAYS "morally intrinsic evil" people ...that technically makes his new papal image now a GAY Image...a "morally-intrinsic-evil-papal-IMAGE"!

Papa Ratzinger....in tutta la sua cattività !!

ROMA GAY PARADE 2007

Pope Benedict meets gay/lesbian demonstration WJT 05 Cologne

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEE55T0gLvA

USA Bishops against same-sex marriage

2008-01-09T11:24:00.000-05:00

THE MOST POWERFUL opponent fighting against same-sex marriage is the Catholic Church. In 2003 the USA Catholic Bishops Conference voted against same-sex marriage while at the same time they were covering-up the costly priest-pedophilia crime -- starting in Boston with Cardinal Law $89 Million, culminating with Cardinal Mahony paying the most $660 Million, tallying at $3 Billion up to today, and still counting.

After this long reading, enjoy the yummy YouTube treat at the end which demonstrates the criminal Cardinal Mahony's pedophile priests activities.

Boston Cardinal O'Mailley strategy

The Catholic Church has cultivated a campaign of harassment against Catholic legislators who support marriage rights for same-sex couples.

For months, the state’s four bishops — led by Boston archbishop Seán O’Malley — have mounted an unprecedented campaign to sway the votes of Catholic politicians on Beacon Hill. It began in earnest in June 2003, with the release of the bishops’ first statement denouncing same-sex marriage. On November 18, 2003, when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) determined that the ban on civil marriage for same-sex couples was unconstitutional, Archbishop O’Malley urged state legislators to thwart the SJC ruling. Within a week, he and his fellow bishops issued a joint statement opposing the historic ruling, which was either read from the pulpit or distributed at mass across the state — or both. On January 16, the bishops mailed a four-page, glossy brochure to one million Bay State Catholics urging them to work for passage of a constitutional amendment that would bar lesbian and gay couples from marrying. O’Malley has even aligned himself with radical evangelical Christians in the battle against gay marriage. On February 8, the Sunday before the first day of the constitutional convention (ConCon), the archbishop addressed an anti-gay-marriage rally on the Boston Common organized by Your Catholic Voice and featuring representatives from national right-wing groups like Concerned Women for America and the Family Research Council. He asked the 3000-strong audience to "stand together" to "affirm marriage and family" and then read from a February 6 statement opposing gay marriage that had been signed by 3000 religious leaders statewide.

New York July 11, 2007

Bishops urge rejection of ‘radical’ same sex marriage proposal

New York’s bishops are urging Catholics throughout the state to contact their state legislators after the State Assembly, acting on a bill proposed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer, voted 85-61 in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage.

Washington DC

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2004 — About 50 prominent religious leaders, including seven Roman Catholic cardinals and about a half-dozen archbishops, have signed a petition in support of a constitutional amendment blocking same-sex marriage.

Organizers of the petition said it was in part an effort to revive the groundswell of opposition to same-sex marriage that helped bring many conservative voters to the polls in some pivotal states in 2004. The signers include many influential evangelical Protestants, a few rabbis and an official of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

But both the organizers and gay rights groups said what was striking about the petition was the direct involvement by high-ranking Roman Catholic officials, including 16 bishops. Although the church has long opposed same-sex unions, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops had previously endorsed the idea of a constitutional amendment banning such unions, it was evangelical Protestants who generally led the charge when the amendment was debated in 2004.

ROME is where the HATE IS

The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith launched a renewed global attack against same-sex marriage today with the release of a document titled Considerations regarding proposals to give legal recognition to unions between homosexual persons. The Catholic Church's hateful document comes from the oldest of the Curia's nine congregations. Founded in 1542 by Pope Paul III, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was originally called the Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition: the same people responsible for torturing and burning victims to death in the name of God.

The Considerations is authored by the infamous Cardinal Ratzinger, a mean-spirited person known for an authoritarian streak that is appropriate for a grand Inquisitor. The document admits that it does "not contain new doctrinal elements" but that it is intended to "provide arguments drawn from reason which could be used by Bishops in preparing more specific interventions" and it is also "intended to give direction to Catholic politicians by indicating the approaches to proposed legislation in this area ..."

Indeed, in March, the Vatican released a new glossary of sexual terms which said homosexuals were not normal and countries which allowed gay marriages were inhabited by people with "profoundly disordered minds" (Reuters, July 31, 2003). Much of the twisted and contorted logic found in the Considerations can be found in previous shameful spewing of the Vatican, including:

Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons ( October 1986)

Pope Orders Politicians To Discriminate According To "Divine Plan"( Address of his Holiness Pope John Paul II November 4, 2000)

Family, Marriage and "De Facto" Unions, Pontifical Council For the Family (November 21, 2000)

The low points of the Considerations

"Homosexuality is a troubling moral and social phenomenon," the Considerations states in its introduction paragraph, noting in particular the "greater concern" of homosexual unions leading to the adoption of children. The rant continues: "homosexual acts go against the natural moral law ... Under no circumstances can they be approved."

The paper goes on to say that homosexuality is "an anomaly" that is "a serious depravity" and "intrinsically disordered" and "objectively disordered."

But in case you get the wrong idea from these hate-mongers, homosexuals "must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity." But then a few paragraphs later this sentiment is unmasked: "The Principles of respect and non-discrimination cannot be invoked to support legal recognition of homosexual unions."

Such is the sincerity of the Inquisition.

"Therefore, discreet and prudent actions can be effective," the paper says. These include pressuring governments to make their secular laws conform to Church dogma, and "above all, to avoid exposing young people to erroneous ideas" that would "contribute to the spread of the phenomenon". Lest we forget, this unholy tirade says, "Those who would move from tolerance to the legitimization of specific rights for cohabiting homosexual persons need to be reminded that approval or legalization of evil is something far different from the toleration of evil."

Same-sex marriage, the Vatican says correctly, will "modify the younger generation's perception and evaluation of forms of behaviour." The Catholic Church wishes to create new generations of homophobes and bigots.

"Allowing children to be adopted by persons living in such unions would actually mean doing violence to these children, in the sense that their condition of dependency would be used to place them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development."

It seems that the Inquisition would prefer that the faithful hand children over to the Catholic Church, whose leaders have shown willingness to cover-up and ignore the use of children as sexual toys for some of their priests.

Finally, the Considerations provides instructions to Catholic politicians:

"When legislation in favour of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favour of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral. When legislation in favour of the recognition of homosexual unions is already in force, the Catholic politician must oppose it in the ways that are possible for him and make his opposition known; it is his duty to witness to the truth."

The document, that will be cause for apology by a future Pope (just as the Church has apologized for similar aspersions cast on Jews), concludes:

"Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behaviour, with the consequence of making it a model in present-day society, but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity."

Politicians responses to these Considerations.

Learn about the TRUE - - Catholic Church in YouTube:

Link: Spiritually Incorrect

Top 50 GAYS in USA

2008-01-06T19:07:00.000-05:00

This was the 2007 list, 2008 should come out soon.

David Geffen Seizes Top Spot Of Gay Power List
Congratulations are in order for Velvet Mafia don David Geffen, whom Out magazine has named the Most Powerful Gay in the Universe, a title he will likely hold until the day his lifeless body is buried beneath the Carbon Beach sand he so dearly loves. NY Magazine has reproduced Out's entire Power 50 list, which includes Hollywood Gays of Note (we're ignoring the ones from less interesting industries) from the diverse worlds of talk-show hosting (#3 Ellen DeGeneres and #6 Rosie O'Donnell), superproducing (#18 Scott Rudin), evil agenting (#31 Bryan Lourd of CAA), superhero-movie directing (#32 Bryan Singer), soap-opera writing (#40 Marc Cherry), and glass-closeted Oscar-collecting (#43 Jodie Foster). All lower-charting Power Gays should immediately submit their full-page tributes in the trades recognizing Geffen's achievement before inventory sells out; those shut out because they waited too long will undoubtedly be subject to the DreamWorks mogul's bloody reprisals for their failure to publicly pledge their fealty in a timely fashion.

4/ 3/07
‘Out’ Ranks the Top 50 Gays; Anderson Is No. 2

Photo: Out magazine

When New York did a "Gay Life Now" issue in 2001, only seven of the forty prominent New York gays asked to pose for the cover were willing. Those big shots may have been gay, and they may have been out, but it just wouldn't do for them to be gay and out on the cover of a magazine. "There was a time when the closet was a necessary safe haven," our pal Maer Roshan, who edited the issue, wrote in an angry 2,000-word essay. "But now, it exists as an anachronistic monument to shame. It's time for our public figures to stop hiding in there — and for journalists to stop helping them." Six years and a month later, maybe at least that second part has come true. Here's a first glimpse at the cover of Out magazine's "50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America" issue. (Click here for a larger image.) Those are models holding Jodie Foster and Anderson Cooper masks on the cover. Neither, of course, would appear themselves.

1. David Geffen
2. Anderson Cooper
3. Ellen DeGeneres
4. Tim Gill
5. Barney Frank
6. Rosie O’Donnell
7. The New York Times Gay Mafia: Richard Berke, Ben Brantley, Frank Bruni, Stuart Elliott, Adam Nagourney, Stefano Tonchi, and Eric Wilson
8. Marc Jacobs
9. Andrew Tobias
10. Brian Graden
11. Jann Wenner
12. Andrew Sullivan
13. Suze Orman
14. Joe Solmonese
15. Fred Hochberg
16. Christine Quinn
17. Perez Hilton
18. Scott Rudin
19. John Aravosis
20. Sheila Kuehl
21. James B. Stewart
22. Nick Denton
23. Tom Ford
24. Nate Berkus
25. Adam Moss
26. Jim Nelson
27. Lorri L. Jean
28. Adam Rose
29. Annie Leibovitz
30. Simon Halls and Stephen Huvane
31. Bryan Lourd
32. Bryan Singer
33. Jonathan Burnham
34. Brian Swardstrom
35. Robert Greenblatt
36. Chi Chi LaRue
37. Dan Mathews
38. Neil Meron and Craig Zadan
39. Ingrid Sischy
40. Marc Cherry
41. Carolyn Strauss
42. Irshad Manji
43. Jodie Foster
44. Christine Vachon
45. André Leon Talley
46. Hilary Rosen
47. Matthew Marks
48. Benny Medina
49. Mitchell Gold
50. David Kuhn

New York Mag

Gay Muslims party in Berlin, nervously

2008-01-01T16:26:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR, MEN-FRIENDS!!!!!!

I was at TIMES SQUARE for the New Year's Eve countdown and met some nice GAY friends!
NEW YORK rocks!!!!!!

The crowd at Gayhane, a monthly party for Arab and Turkish gay men, lesbians and bisexuals at SO36, a Berlin nightclub. The event's name is fashioned from gay and "hane," Turkish for home. (Jan-Peter Boening for The New York Times)

By Nicholas Kulish
Tuesday, January 1, 2008

BERLIN: Six men whirled faster and faster in the center of the nightclub, arms slung over one another's shoulders, performing a traditional circle dance popular in Turkey and the Middle East.

Nothing unusual, given the German capital's large Muslim population.

But most of the people filling the dance floor Saturday at the club SO36 in the Kreuzberg neighborhood were gay, lesbian or bisexual, and of Turkish or Arab background. They were there for the monthly club night known as Gayhane, an all-too-rare opportunity to merge their immigrant cultures and their sexual identities.

European Muslims, so often portrayed one-dimensionally as rioters, honor killers or terrorists, live diverse lives, most of them trying to get by and to have a good time. That is more difficult if one is both Muslim and gay.

"When you're here, it's as if you're putting on a mask, leaving the everyday outside and just having fun," said a 22-year-old Turkish man who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear that he would be ostracized or worse if his family found out about his sexual orientation.

Safety and secrecy come up regularly in conversations with guests, who laugh and dance but also frequently look over their shoulders. To be a gay man or lesbian with an immigrant background invites trouble here in two very different ways.

"Depending on which part of Berlin I go to, in one I get punched in the mouth because I'm a foreigner, and in the other because I'm a queen," said Fatma Souad, the event's organizer and master of ceremonies. Souad, 43, a transgender performer born in Ankara as a boy named Ali, has put on the party for over a decade.

Souad came to Berlin in 1983 after leaving home as a teenager. She studied to be a dressmaker and played in a punk band but discovered Middle Eastern music through a friend and began teaching herself belly dancing. Souad started Salon Oriental, her first belly dancing theater, in 1988, and threw the first Gayhane party - hane means home in Turkish - in January 1997.

The club was packed by midnight and still had a line out the front door. On stage, Souad mixed a white turban and white net gloves with a black tuxedo with tails and a silver cummerbund, her face made up with perfectly drawn eyeliner and mascara. Dancing, she was all fluid motion, light on her feet, expressively twisting her hands and swiveling her hips.

Under flashing colored lights, guests, some with dreadlocks and others with carefully gelled coifs, moved to songs by the likes of the Egyptian Amr Diab and the Algerian Cheb Mami. Beats from traditional drums crossed with electronic ones, as melodies from flutes and ouds intertwined. When several circle dances - halay in Turkish - broke out at once, the floor began to shake from the stomping.

One of the regular DJs, Ipek Ipekcioglu, 35, said she got her start rather suddenly, when one of the founders of SO36 walked up to her and asked: "You're Turkish, right? You're lesbian, right? Bring your cassettes and DJ," she recalled. Ipekcioglu spins everything from Turkish and Arabic music, to Greek, Balkan and Indian, a style she calls Eklektik BerlinIstan. She has been a full-time professional DJ for six years and now performs all over the world.

The space is decorated with bright yellow wall hangings depicting elephants, camels and even a flying carpet, with an intentional degree of kitsch, Souad said, and an intentional distance from anything Islamic. "We take care that religion is not mixed in here, not in the music, either."

Outside, the boom of loud firecrackers can be heard, the first test rounds for the annual cacophony here that leaves New Year's revelers ears' ringing. Kreuzberg has been home for decades to large populations of Turks and Kurds, many of whom have very conservative religious values. Yet they have had to share the neighborhood that formerly abutted the Berlin Wall with many counterculture types, artists and anarchists and also gays and lesbians.

According to the city's Schwules Museum, partly devoted to the history of gay people in the city and the country, "a lively homosexual subculture had developed in Berlin by the second half of the 18th century or perhaps earlier." It was known as an oasis for gay men and lesbians in the Weimar period immortalized by the writer Christopher Isherwood and in the period when West Berlin was surrounded by the Wall. Today, the city has an openly gay and highly popular mayor, Klaus Wowereit.

But gay men and lesbians from Muslim families say they face extraordinary discrimination at home. A survey of roughly 1,000 young men and women in Berlin, released in September and widely cited in the German press, found much higher levels of homophobia among Turkish youth.

"These differences are there. We can't deny them. The question is how do we cope with them," said Bernd Simon, who led the study and is a professor of social psychology at Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel. "The answer is not to replace homophobia with Islamophobia," Simon said, pointing out that homophobia is also higher among Russian immigrants and in other, less urban parts of Germany.

"For us, for Muslims, it's extremely difficult. When you're gay, you're immediately cut off from the family," said Kader Balcik, a 22-year-old Turk from Hamburg. He had recently moved to Berlin not long after being cut off from his mother because he is bisexual. "A mother who wishes death for her son, what kind of mother is that?" he asked, his eyes momentarily filling with tears.

Hasan, a 21-year-old Arab man, sitting at a table in the club's quieter adjoining café, declined to give his last name, saying: "They would kill me. My brothers would kill me." Asked whether he meant this figuratively, he responded, "No, I mean they would kill me."

"I'm living one life here and the other one the way they wish me to be," Hasan said, referring to his parents. He said that he still planned to marry, but when he turned 30 rather than right away, as his parents wished. "I have to have children, to do what Islam wants me to do," he said. "I would stop with everything in the homosexual life. I would stop it."

He stood up from the table and called to his two friends. "All right, boys, let's go dance. We're here to have fun," and they marched off to the dance floor, smiling.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/01/europe/berlin.php

Pope's GAY Image Zeffirelli

2007-12-18T19:08:00.000-05:00

Pope Benedict calls GAYS "morally intrinsic evil" people but now he has hired the openly GAY movie director (Jesus of Nazareth) Franco Zeffirelli as his papal image consultant...that technically would give the Pope a GAY Image...a "morally-intrinsic-evil-IMAGE"!

Link: Pope Benedict the worst anti-GAY religious leader.

The ROSE sang by Westlife

2007-12-08T22:28:00.000-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS , Happy Hannukah and Happy Holiday Seasons, Men-Friends! Here is one of my favorite songs sang by my favorite band, Westlife, with their handsome GAY singer Mark Feehily. I saw them sing in England...they were HOT!

Westlife singer Mark Feehily has revealed he is gay. The boy band star told The Sun newspaper: "I am gay and I'm very proud of who I am. I'm not asking for any sympathy, or to be a role model to anyone else," he said, adding it was "the right time" to let people know the truth. Feehily, 25, added: "I'm not worried about how people react because I'm happy being who I am." His family and bandmates were already aware of his sexuality.

Mark Feehily (second left) said his bandmates were aware he was gay

The ROSE
When New York will approve same-sex marriage, I dream to get married under this song...

"When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you, yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him, Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden."

THE PROPHET Kahlil Gibran.......was GAY!

Posted on Our Lady's feast, to honor my late mother's devotion to her and my two sisters' relentless prayers to her...even if they disapprove of my being GAY...someday, they will know that G*d made me wonderfully this way!

GAY Maui, my paradise

2007-12-03T18:49:00.000-05:00

It is now winter in New York and one of my favorite places that I go to for a HOT paradise is Maui in Hawaii. (This is a must-go-to and must-see place at least ONCE in your lifetime.)

For GAYS who need a HOT vacation from winter, GAY Maui is definitely a paradise pit stop!

GAY Maui
http://hawaiig.com/Maui/gay_hawaii_maui_overview.htm

Gay Maui. A magical island that has been named 'Best Island in the World' time and time again. Crystal waters, golden beaches, beautiful scenery, tropical breezes, swaying palms, award-winning cuisine and world class resorts just to name a few.

Maui's diversity will amaze and delight you. With the states second largest gay and lesbian population Maui's laid back gay life is revered by our brothers and sisters the world over.

Just think a warm and accepting atmosphere, beautiful people, and a tropical gay paradise like none others.

You'll marvel at cascading waterfalls, the remote village called heavenly Hana, the picturesque Lahaina, a National Historic District, where history and fun combine to create a 'must see'.

You'll discover the Marine Preserve of Molokini, teeming with exotic sea life, and the majesty of Haleakala crater. Upcountry is another world – with alpine meadows, working cattle ranches, and the charming town of Makawao.

Surrounding everywhere, forty-two miles of glistening beaches meet the blue Pacific, where each winter thousands of Humpback whales give birth. Our friends and family come to play is called "Little Beach" at Makkena.

LITTLE BEACH AT MAKENA: Gay Maui's only gay beach famous for nude sunbathing. We strongly suggest you use sunscreen. To get to this Gay Hawaii play
land go about one mile south of the Maui Prince Hotel in Makena, turn right at the second paved road to the parking lot. Walk to the beach, turn right, and hike over the promontory at the end to "Little Beach." The far end is the gayest. Be advised that nude sunbathing is not legal in Gay Hawaii, but you wouldn't know it at this beach.

Kaanapali Beach: This is where beautiful people meet the beauty of nature! Very popular with visitors you will have fun looking at all the hot properties (guys 21y to 32y) and basking in the

luxury of a first class resort. Close at hand are places to eat, buy more sunscreen, do some world class shopping at stores like Gucci, and Chanel, and be entertained with the finest local entertainment. All centrally located in the Kaanapali area. If your not the rugged wash and wear type this is your beach! The swimming is excellent and the view is fantastic.

Wailea Beach: This is the closest that Hawaii comes to paradise found. Fronting the five star resort area of Wailea in some of the worlds most spectacular beaches. You'll love to be papered here

and if your staying in one of the resorts you can expect world class service from the staff who will even bring you a phone if you beckon for one. They are standing close by (not too close to be intrusive) to fulfill your every service request. Cold towel - done. Change of clothes - done. The latest novel - done. Of course this type of service does not come with out a price but if your going to spoil yourself you might as well do it right. The sand and water here are perfect for paradise with nothing but beach for as far as the eye can see.

GAY Hawaii
http://hawaiig.com/Oahu/gay_oahu_overview.htm

Since size often makes or breaks your average introduction, we'd first like to point out that Hawai'i is the world's most geographically isolated landmass. "Gay Hawaii" as it is often called is located 2,400 miles or a five hour plane ride from the West Coast of the U.S. nine from Atlanta, non-stop, and is well situated for a stopover en route to Australia or the Pacific Rim. Gay Hawaii is often called the "Crossroads of the Pacific."

With so much criss-crossing you can be assured that Gay and lesbian visitors the world over call paradise home when visiting Hawaii every year. Did we mention all the hot guys from all over the world from Australia to Russia? Ah, and all the hot local men that will have you packing your bags and begging to stay.

While Honolulu's gay scene has changed dramatically over the years, its long-standing epicenter is located just a few blocks from its original location around world famous Angle's Waikiki Bar. Until the mid 90's Hula's was the place to be in Hawaii but since it has moved to the far end of Waikiki and relocated in a transient hotel it has become the home of heavy weight bears (400lbs type). For gay travelers, an evening at Angle's is the obvious first step before moving on to other places. Step two would be to join the ONLY All Gay Hawaii catamaran cruises with Angles on Sundays!

Today's, Hawai'i is a modern, cosmopolitan, diverse, multi-cultural society. It is home to 1.2 million residents, of which over 200,000 gay and lesbian call paradise home. Nearly 7 million visitors including several hundreds thousand gay and lesbian vacationers alike visit the "Island's of Aloha every year." With visitors and local residence combined the gay population on the islands averages nearly 9,000,000 at any given time.

Hawaii's marriage of ancient traditions and cosmopolitan living that makes Hawaii one of the only places in the world to celebrate a tradition of acceptance of gay and lesbians, and a visitor's paradise!

JFK's GAY bestfriend had a room in the White House

2007-12-03T14:42:00.000-05:00

Jack and Lem
by David Pitts

This book definitely encourage our GAY culture. But it might disappoint a lot of women who admire JFK and who post his handsome image on their walls. Pity more so Marilyn Monroe and Jackie O who might have been "used" to cover-up JFK's possible GAY relationship with Lem. Or, JFK could have been bi-sexual! No offense meant to the Emerald Kings! Why not, countless politicians were and are bi-sexual today! They have beautiful wives and handsome children but secretly they are GAYS! (I heard that there is a mansion in New Jersey where politicians frequent for fresh young GAY men supply!)

I am looking for top 10 GAY Jesuits ('ex' are welcome, 2 are already posted here) and top 10 wealthy openly GAY men like David Geffen to knock down Humpty Dumpty Benedict XVI and all his Swiss Army will never put him together again...to prove him wrong that "GAYS are morally intrinsic evil". It is time that GAYS unite globally to fight those religious leaders and shut them up once and for all.

The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship

Book Review: gaylife.about.com

David Pitts chronicles two brilliant yet inseparable lives in his book, Jack and Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship . One life is of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president we all know and the other story is of his confidant, Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings. Lem Billings, although rarely written about in detail, was Jack Kennedy's best friend from their early days at the Choate Preparatory School for Boys, an exclusive boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, until JFK's untimely death in Dallas.

Pitts' biography isn't another angle on the ex-president's war efforts, foreign policy or yet another conspiracy surrounding his death; but a chronicle of Jack Kennedy's campy and carefree childhood, his poor life threatening health, his promiscuity and, most of all, his relationship with best friend Lem Billings.

Pitts stumbled across Lem Billings while doing research on his favorite subject, Jack Kennedy. He often ran across the same mysterious name, Lem Billings. Few accounts of JFK's social and political life elaborated on who Billings was, but one could not be mentioned without the other. Billings wrote of Kennedy and Billing's friendship, "It is largely unknown to the public and yet crucial to understanding who Jack Kennedy was."

And important it is! Billings, who lived until 1981, kept over 140 letters from his best friend. He even had his own room in teh White House. Jack and Lem is a brilliant account of personal side of the most political of Kennedy's. Jack and Lem shared a common wit, carefree nature and curiosity of life, making them inseparable as friends. They often made fun of each other and had numerous nicknames. During one of Jack's many bouts of sickness, he wrote Billings at Princeton, "I don't know why you and Rip [Horton] are so unpopular with the girls. You're not ugly looking exactly. I guess there's just something about you that makes girls dislike you on sight."

Kennedy and Billings' rants toward each other were commonplace. Jack later wrote to Lem, "Do you remember a fat blond boy named Jim Filer at Choate? He has quite a hero notion of me from Choate and from what I can gather most of the younger boys at school thought of me as sort of a god-like Casanova, if you know what I mean, and thought you were a big sh**, as near I can tell." Jack continued his play, "The next time I see him I'll go into more detail about why nobody at Choate liked you, although to tell the truth, he was rather vague about you—just thinks you're a sh**. Best Jack."

According to David Pitts, Lem Billings wasn't just Jack's best friend, he became another Kennedy child. He was close to the Kennedy children and spent most holidays with the family. Through interviews, Pitts writes of their experiences with Billings and how Jack's siblings saw their relationship. Ted Kennedy remembered, "I was three years old before it dawned on me that Lem wasn't one more older brother." Pitts writes, "So often did Lem come home with Jack that he kept more clothes in the closet than Jack did, Teddy added."

It would be of simple mind to shun this piece of history as an effort to tarnish JFK's reputation and Pitts seems to be all too aware of this danger. It's clear that Pitts shares the same adoration and devotion to Jack Kennedy as so many generations. His accounts of Kennedy and Billings is presented objectively without speculation.

Pitts also draws a very clear line, expressed through his word choice, that Jack and Lem isn't 300 pages of gossip and speculation, but a historical accounts of a friendship that turned into a life connection without crossing sexual boundaries. Think Oprah and Gayle. Not lovers, just life friends.

In fact, Pitts makes it a point to highlight Jack Kennedy's heterosexuality and promiscuity while simultaneously accounting for Lee Billings' failed attempts at heterosexual relationships. Homosexuality was a taboo topic during Jack and Lem's upbringing and Pitts is confident that Jack Kennedy knew of Billings' sexuality early on. Yet, to a insouciant Kennedy, Billings' slapstick friendship trumped his sexuality.

Parts of Jack and Lem are redundant, but gaining insight into the real essence of Jack Kennedy's life pre-assassination makes this account too enticing to set aside. Jack and Lem celebrates a Jack Kennedy never seen or read before. Jack Kennedy gave a country strength while devoted friend and confidant Lem Billings gave him strength and often showed him the lighter side of life, especially during his crucial early years. Bravo to David Pitts for finally telling their story.

Book review by: Ramone Johnson
http://gaylife.about.com/od/gaybooks/a/jfklembillings.htm

Benedict XVI's nephew in Munich is GAY!

2007-11-28T21:39:00.000-05:00

Benedict XVI's Private Secretary is GAY ...and his nephew is GAY and has a GAY bar in Munich!

St. Paul was GAY!!!!!! He's one of us!

2007-11-22T12:07:00.000-05:00

Men-Friends,Happy Thanksgiving and I've got GOOD NEWS for you! I just came from a recent (business) trip in Israel......the GAYS there are HOT! But the greatest discovery I made was "St. Paul was GAY !" from a book I read on the plane, Sins of Scripture, by Bishop John Shelby Spong (imagine a Catholic reading a Protestant book on his "pilgrimage" to the Holy Land! No, I wasn't reading Benedict XVI's books, too depressing and fallible) Bishop Spong has a very long section on "the Bible and Homosexuality" and he proves through his own words in Scripture that St. Paul was GAY. I copy some paragraphs here...at last and after all, the GREATEST GAY on our side is St. Paul! EVERYDAY the Catholic Church and the Protestants read his Epistles in their Mass. St. Paul, the most quoted writer in the Bible is GAY!

Christ said: "Seek and ye shall find". Here I am seeking for 10 GAY (ex)Jesuits and G_d gave me St. Paul instead in my quest. The top 10 GAY Jesuits will eventually appear, I've received emails but these Jesuits are not ready to come out yet and I respect that...all in due time. So, I'll start with St. Paul as the LEADER of GAYS in the Roman CATHOLIC Church! There are more chances that Benedict XVI will listen to me or US GAYS if we speak about St. Paul than the GAY-Jesuits for now.

Benedict XVI, who lives with his GAY Private Secretary, when they say Mass together and read the Epistles of St. Paul everyday should reflect on what Bishop Spong has to say.

To succeed in our cause to have same-sex marriage in New York and in the USA, we need to influence and change the mindset of religious leaders like Benedict XVI and the Protestant pastors - because the politicians who can vote and implement same-sex marriage, including George Bush, will always be influenced by the Pope and their pastors and their "fundamental" religious beliefs.

The Bible and Homosexuality

In Romans Paul described his inner struggle: "I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members" (7:23) Paul's experience was that he followed one law with his mind, another with his body. This sin that he feels "dwells in my members" caused him to proclaim that "nothing good dwells within me, that is my flesh." He went on to say, "I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do." He concludes this interior lament by saying, "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" It was a plaintive cry reflecting a longstanding memory. That plea ultimately fades into an acclamation when he asserts that he has been given victory over the affliction. "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, he says (Rom. 7:18-19, 24-25). Paul culminates this section by stating that he is now persuaded that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (8:39), not even our "nakedness," He adds in a revealing choice of words in verse 35. It is a remarkable portrait of a remarkable man. Perhaps what is even more unusual is that the words of Paul are still quoted today to condemn the homosexuality that Paul surely knew was his own hidden secret.

Yes, I am convinced that Paul of Tarsus was a gay man, deeply repressed, self-loathing, rigid in denial, bound by the law that he hoped could keep this thing, that he judged to be so unacceptable, totally under control, a control so profound that even Paul did not have to face this fact about himself. But repression kills. It kills the repressed one and sometimes the defensive anger found in the repressed one also kills those who challenge, threaten or live out the thing that this repressed person so deeply fears.

Much of the persecution of gay and lesbian people both within the church and in the broader society has been carried out by self-rejecting deeply closeted homosexual people. Frequently homophobic but homosexual clergy and bishops, together with their most loyal lay followers, have wrapped their externalized rage, their rejecting and sometimes killing fury, inside the security of some authoritative system. They quote either a hierarchy that claims infallibility or a sacred source from scripture that people have said is inerrant. That is how fanaticism works. That is certainly what is revealed in the Pauline tirade recorded in Romans 1 - a frightened gay man condemning other gay people so that he can keep his own homosexuality inside the rigid discipline of his faith. (Pages 139-140 Bold emphasis mine)

JFK

Today is the anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The person who sat beside me in the plane to Israel told me that there is a book about one of JFK's best and lifelong friends who was always with him wherever he went...was GAY. The book tried to prove that JFK too was GAY...(Marilyn Monroe and Jackie O must be turning in their graves) next time will quote from the book and post it here!

Happy Thanksgiving, men-friends!

You've got a friend, Charles

Amazon

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Links:

Benedict's GAY Secretary - German Georg

Benedict XVI-God's Rottweiler - PROTEST Benedict XVI visit in New York April 2008

Papal clone of John Paul II

Pope Benedict XVI: the worst anti-gay religious leader

2007-11-06T11:55:00.000-05:00

Benedict's GAY Secretary - German Georg

Benedict XVI-God's Rottweiler

Papal clone of John Paul II

The Catholic Church's global influence, meanwhile, shouldn't be underestimated, Sinnett said. The United Nations grants the Vatican status as a Non-member State Permanent Observer, rather than treating it as a nongovernmental organization.

"That means it has greater influence on all countries," Sinnett said. "When they use that power to interfere in the politics of another sovereign country, that is incredible."

Pope Benedict XVI’s strong stance against homosexuality makes him a dangerous threat to gay causes across the world, gay activists and religious experts said.

Blessed bigotry: Pope Benedict XVI is Anti-Gay Person of the Year

God’s rottweiler’ actively pursues political agenda against gay marriage, priests

EDITORS’ NOTE:As 2005 draws to a close, many media outlets will announce their selections for person of the year. In past years, Blade editors have selected a Story of the Year instead.

This year, the Story of the Year was, in our view, the extraordinary efforts of one individual to not only put a halt to the acceptance of gay people legally and within the mainstream culture, but to roll back such acceptance to an earlier, less tolerant and more discriminatory time.

Presiding over what some describe as the "strongest bully pulpit in the world," Pope Benedict XVI, just eight months into his tenure, has unilaterally targeted gays as moral threats to society.
From banning gay priests to publicly lobbying against legal recognition for gay couples in Spain and Italy, Pope Benedict XVI has aggressively lobbied against gay rights across the globe.

"His rhetoric is obscene. He wants gays clearly taken care of — it's almost like the Final Solution," said Kara Speltz, a Catholic lesbian activist for Soulforce, an organization dedicated to ending anti-gay discrimination within all religions.

For 20 years, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger served under Pope John Paul II before being elected the 265th pope on April 19.

During that tenure, Ratzinger authored some of the Vatican's most anti-gay rhetoric, including a 1986 Vatican letter calling homosexuality "an intrinsic moral evil" and a 2003 battle plan instructing Catholic politicians to oppose gay marriage and gay adoptions.

Dubbed "God's rottweiler" and "the enforcer" long before taking the helm of the church that boasts a billion members worldwide, Benedict's fervent approach to gay and other social issues is an intentional one meant to influence public policy, according to Chester Gillis, chair of the theology department at Georgetown University.

"He knows very well the kind of claims he makes have political implications. He intends for them to have political implications," Gillis said. "He wants to influence public policy in numerous places in the world and hopefully sway the powers that be to his side, especially on so-called social issues."

Pope has 'ear of the world'Under John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger served as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office once known as the Holy Inquisition. In that role, his writings were mostly circumscribed to Catholics and internal discourse within the church, Gillis said.

But now as pope, his words aren't just read by bishops but are heard throughout the world, giving Benedict enormous credibility when it comes to political influence, Gillis said.

"It's the strongest bully pulpit in the world," Gillis said. "What he says is noted by everyone.

Everyone may not agree or follow what he says, but clearly he has the ear of the world — and that's a very privileged position."

Benedict's most recent anti-gay action to gain worldwide attention was the Vatican's "Instruction concerning the criteria for the discernment of vocations with regard to persons with homosexual tendencies in view of their admission to the seminary and to Holy Orders," released Nov. 29. The document essentially bans gay priests.

The official "Instruction," from the Congregation for Catholic Education, stated, "One cannot ignore the negative consequences that can stem from the ordination of people with deeply-rooted homosexual tendencies."

The "Instruction" also said men "who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture' cannot be admitted to seminaries." The only exception would be for those with a "transitory problem" that had been overcome for at least three years."

In the United States, gay rights groups including the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force publicly challenged the ban and urged gay Catholics and their allies to speak out against it to local priests and bishops.

On Dec. 14, a group of gay Italian clergy posted an open letter to the Vatican on the website of the Italian news agency Adista, stating they felt like the Catholic Church's "unloved and unwanted children," the Associated Press reported.

Adista, which leaked the document on the gay priest ban last month, said 39 priests, 26 diocesans and 13 more members of various religious orders had signed the letter. But the text reproduced on the website did not include the signatures or list their names, the AP reported.
"We don't have more problems living chastely than heterosexuals do because homosexuality is not a synonym of incontinence, nor of uncontrollable urges," the letter states.

"We are not sick with sex and our homosexual tendency has not damaged our psychic health. … We are Catholic priests … with homosexual tendencies, and that fact has not stopped us from being good priests."

In November 2002, in the midst of the church sex abuse crisis, the Vatican press office announced that the Congregation for Catholic Education was drafting guidelines for accepting candidates for the priesthood that would address the question of whether gays should be barred. However, the document reportedly had been in the works well before then.

Gay Catholics and others have criticized the Vatican for blaming gay priests for the child sex abuse scandal, which they argued had nothing to do with homosexuality.

"This is a scapegoat scheme masquerading as Vatican decree," HRC President Joe Solmonese said in a statement. "What is being released today is a decree serving as a diversion that neither keeps children safe nor holds criminals responsible."

Soulforce's Speltz said Benedict is simply seeking to dissuade independent thought among Catholics and church leadership.

"He's trying to create 'Stepford Priests,'" she said. "And if any heterosexual Catholic thinks this is a good thing, they're living in an illusion."

Fighting gay marriageThe Vatican's losing fight against legalizing gay marriage in Spain came just weeks after Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI. The Spanish Parliament legalized same-sex marriage June 30. Same-sex marriage also is legal in Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium.

After the vote, the Catholic Church denounced the move as "unjust" and a threat to families.

Sam Sinnett, president of the gay Catholic organization Dignity USA, said it was not the people supporting Spain's public policy who had it wrong when the measure was approved, but rather the church's hierarchy, which is out of step with the times.

"Their consciences are misinformed," Sinnett said in May. "They need to learn about social and medical sciences [about homosexuality] and incorporate them into theology."

The Catholic Church's global influence, meanwhile, shouldn't be underestimated, Sinnett said. The United Nations grants the Vatican status as a Non-member State Permanent Observer, rather than treating it as a nongovernmental organization.

"That means it has greater influence on all countries," Sinnett said. "When they use that power to interfere in the politics of another sovereign country, that is incredible."

Mel White, founder of Soulforce, said this summer that Benedict and the Vatican's response to Spain's politics is indicative of the "Dark Ages mentality" of the Roman Catholic Church's leadership.

"They have gone from cardinals sitting in Vatican City having bad ideas to spreading these bad ideas to the world. The Vatican is now superimposing its theology on everybody," White said. "It has too much power to be considered anything but an enemy."

The Vatican has also been long criticized for opposing condom use in all circumstances. The policy has been blamed by many AIDS experts for contributing to the spread of the virus in many developing countries with large Roman Catholic populations.

Homosexuality in History: A Partially Annotated Bibliography

2007-11-06T10:28:00.000-05:00

Homosexuality in History:A Partially Annotated Bibliography Version

© Paul Halsall
Last Major Update, December 1998 Last Additions, Sept 7, 2000
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/gayhistbib.html

This bibliography is arranged according to subject matter. Although it originated (in 1989) in a bibliography of medieval homosexuality, and is most complete for that period, it now addresses the history of homosexuality in all periods. It is also now up to date. A few items appear more than once when they fit more than one category. Most of the annotations are mine, but some are from the bibliographies whence came the reference.

There has been an outpouring of scholarship on lesbian and gay history in the past ten years, and much more is in the pipeline. Any printed bibliography will date quickly, so if you are undertaking a research project, make sure also to search online databases. The library of the University of California System, available at http://www.melvyl.ucop.edu/ is especially useful.

This bibliography is extensive but not comprehensive. For further research consult the bibliographies of the newer specialist books in each area of interest. The most important secondary works, in my opinion, are given in bold text. These should be consulted first.
Additions

I am willing to make addition to this list. If you have suggestions, send them to:
halsall@fordham.edu

It is very important that publication information is included - full name of author, full title, place of publication, publisher, date.

If you have a more extended bibliography for a particular period or issue, I would also be willing to include that. Once again if you send it to me, please make sure it conforms (more or less) to Chicago Manuel of Style/Turabian guidelines.

Organization

I: Bibliographical Resources

II: History of Homosexuality - General Works
A: Theory
B: History
C: Readers

III: Antiquity
A: Sources
Ancient Near East
Greek
Roman

B. Works
General Antiquity
Ancient Near East
Greek
Roman

IV: The Middle Ages

A: Sources

B: Commentaries and Articles on the Above and Other Source Material
a) General
b) Chaucer
c) Dante
d) The Issue of "Friendship"

C: History of Sexuality & Homosexuality

D: Christian Attitudes to Homosexuality

E: Local Studies
a) Italy
b) France
c) Spanish Jewry
d) Byzantium
e) Medieval Islam
f) Elsewhere

F: The Middle Ages - Sexuality and Law
a) Church Law
b) Civil and Secular Law

G: Homosexual Individuals

H: Other Sexuality/Gender Issues
a) Homosexuality, Heresy and Witchcraft
b) Homosexuality, Leprosy and Sickness
c) Paedophilia
d) Bestiality
e) Transvestism

V: Early Modern Homosexuality - 1500-1800
A: General
B: Britain
C: France
D: Spain/Iberia
E: Netherlands
F: Italy
G: Other European
H: Colonial Americas

VI: Modern Western Homosexuality 1750-1980
A: General
B: Britain
C: France
D: Spain/Iberia
E: Germany/Austria
F: The Gay Holocaust
G: The Netherlands
H: Other European Countries
I: North America: Pre "Movement"
J: North America: Post "Movement"
K: Australia and New Zealand

VII: History of Homosexuality after AIDS
A: General
B: Anti-Gay: Criticism of Gay Male Culture by Gay Writers

VIII: Homosexual Individuals - After 1750

IX: Anthropological and Sociological Works
A: General
B: North American Native Cultures
C: Pacific Cultures
D: African Cultures
E: Other

X: Lesbians
A: General
B: Ancient and Medieval
C: Modern - Pre-"Movement"
D: Modern - Post "Movement"

XI: Homosexuality Outside Europe, Anglo/French North America, and Australiza/NZ
A: General
B: China
C: Japan
D: South Asia
E: Latin America
F: Middle East
G: Africa
H: Other

The Jesuit-GAY who defied Pope Benedict XVI

2007-11-05T23:59:00.000-05:00

The man who defied a future pope

Author and priest John McNeill refused to follow order from then Cardinal Ratzinger to stop gay ministry

John McNeill website: http://www.johnjmcneill.com/

Religion and homosexuality have always been a controversial combination. As touchy as the topic is today, it was almost taboo 30 years ago. But that didn’t stop John J. McNeill from writing the book “The Church and the Homosexual” back in 1976.

McNeill, a gay psychotherapist, theologian, teacher, scholar and ordained Catholic priest, has been a groundbreaker when it comes to the gay community and religion. The Hollywood, Fla. resident will speak at Stonewall Library & Archives on May 24.

After fighting in World War II, McNeill went to school and entered the Society of Jesus, a Jesuit order, in 1948. He then undertook a ministry of gay and lesbian Catholics. He became an ordained priest in 1959. McNeill then went on to earn his doctorate in philosophy in 1964.

McNeill started to write a series of articles on religion for his church newsletter. In 1976, they were compiled and published as the book “The Church and the Homosexual.”

“It was the first book by a theologian to challenge religion,” McNeill says. “It was the first book to call gay love good and holy.”

The book has gone on to get published in five languages.

As expected, the book stirred up trouble in the religious community. A year after the book was published, McNeill received an order from the Vatican’s “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” under Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI. The church wanted McNeill to be silent in the media.

“I observed [the order] for nine years,” he explains. “I was hoping the church would change its mind.”

Privately, he still provided ministry to gays and lesbians and led workshops and retreats.
In 1988, he received another order from Cardinal Ratzinger. This one told him to give up all ministry to the gay and lesbian community.

McNeill refused.

“They pushed me,” he says.

He would not back down and observe the order.

“I knew God was using me to speak to others,” he says.

The Vatican then expelled McNeill from the Society of Jesus. The reason given was that he was challenging the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church on the issue of homosexuality and refusing to give up his ministry and psychotherapy practice to gay men and lesbians.

In addition to touring the country and speaking out on his first book, McNeill also co-founded the New York chapter of Dignity, the organization for gay, lesbian and transgender Catholics. That group, in turn, helped start the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force.

He also kept busy writing his next two books, “Taking a Chance on God: Liberating Theology for Gays, Lesbians, Their Lovers, Friends and Families” and “Freedom, Glorious Freedom: The Spiritual Journey to the Fullness of Life for Gays, Lesbians and Everybody Else.”

The New York native moved to Hollywood, Fla., nine years ago with his partner of 41 years, Charles Chiarelli. The couple attend church together every week at the Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale.

The 81-year-old has not slowed down at all. He has been working on his latest book, “Sex as God Intended It.” It will be available in July.

“It’s about human sexuality,” McNeill says. “It’s about how God intended humans to use sexuality as play.”

He was recently honored by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force at Winter Party. He received a lifetime achievement award that stated, “Bringing the understanding to the world that to be gay is a gift from God.”

Currently, he is also producing a documentary on his life and work called “Uncommon Jesuit.” McNeill plans on showing a trailer of the film at Stonewall Library when he goes there to speak next week.

He continues to lead sermons and will lead his next at Dignity’s international meeting in Texas in July.

“God has used me as an instrument for all GLBT people,” he says. “God loves them as they are.”

By Sheri Elfman Friday, May 18, 2007

http://www.expressgaynews.com/2007/5-18/arts/feature/3719.cfm

David Geffen the Billionnaire GAY

2007-11-05T15:52:00.000-05:00

.
David Geffen, the richest person in the entertainment industry, is GAY!

.
GAY Personal Life .

David Geffen, who is openly gay, was the subject of a persistent but false 1990s rumor that he had married actor Keanu Reeves. [5]

According to Forbes ("The 400 Richest Americans of 2004") and other sources, Geffen has pledged to give whatever money he makes from now on to charity, although he has not specified which charities or the manner of his giving. In 2002, he announced a $200 million unrestricted endowment for the UCLA Medical School. The School thereafter was named 'David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA'. Geffen's donation is the largest donation ever made to a medical school in the United States.[6]

Geffen's Malibu home on the Pacific Coast Highway has been a battlefront in an ongoing struggle between property owners and beachgoers over access to public beaches in front of private residences. In 2002, Geffen sued to block access to the public beach in front of his home. His publicly stated concern was safety. In 2005, facing a rising tide of anger, Geffen relented and allowed access through a non-profit group. Garry Trudeau parodied this dispute in his daily comic strip Doonesbury.

Geffen has an estimated worth of $6 billion, making him the richest person in the entertainment industry.

Geffen owns the Malibu Beach Inn, Malibu, CA

David Geffen (born February 21, 1943) is an American record executive, film producer, theatrical producer, philanthropist. Geffen is noted for creating Asylum Records in 1970 (which merged with Elektra Records in 1972 to form Elektra/Asylum Records), and Geffen Records in 1980, along with his later role as one of the three founders of Dreamworks SKG in 1994.

Born into a European-Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, David Geffen's father, Abraham Geffen, is of Polish ancestry and his mother Batya Volovskaya is of Ukrainian ancestry. Both were immigrants from Europe who met in the Palestine-il and then moved to Brooklyn. Geffen graduated from New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn, then attended the University of Texas at Austin but soon dropped out. His mother owned a clothing store, Chic Corsets By Geffen, in Borough Park, Brooklyn. David's older brother Mitchell Geffen was an attorney who attended UCLA Law School and later settled in Encino, California. (Mitchell Geffen was the father of two daughters, who are David's closest surviving relatives.)

Geffen began his entertainment career in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency, where he quickly became an agent. In order to obtain the WMA job, he had to show proof of graduating college. Geffen forged a letter and submitted it to WMA. His colleagues in the mailroom included Barry Diller and Elliot Roberts, who later became David Geffen's partner in a management company. He was a hard worker, and spent his vacation time working in the mailroom of the Beverly Hills office of the WMA. He left William Morris to become a personal manager and was immediately successful with Laura Nyro and Crosby, Stills and Nash. In the process of looking for a record deal for young Jackson Browne, Ahmet Ertegün suggested that Geffen start his own record label.

Asylum Records

Geffen founded Asylum Records in 1970, which signed artists such as Jackson Browne, The Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Linda Ronstadt and J.D. Souther. Asylum was acquired by Warner Communications and merged with Elektra Records in 1972 to become Elektra/Asylum Records. Geffen remained in charge until 1975, when he went to work as Vice Chairman of Warner Brothers film studios. He then retired and was soon informed (erroneously) that he had a life-threatening illness. During his retirement period he spent a short time teaching business studies at Yale University. In 1980 a new medical diagnosis revealed the error in the original diagnosis and Geffen was given a clean bill of health, whereupon he decided to return to working in the entertainment industry.

Geffen Records

In 1980, he founded Geffen Records. The Geffen label's meteoric rise to prominence within the year proved a bittersweet success. The December release of John Lennon's album Double Fantasy seems an impressive feat for a new label, but at the time Lennon stated that Geffen was the only one with enough confidence in him to agree to a deal without hearing the record first. An alternate view is that Geffen was the only label head to pay attention to Lennon's wife-partner Yoko Ono. In December 1980 Lennon was fatally shot and Double Fantasy became a massive seller. Over the years Geffen Records/DGC has become well known as a label, releasing works by the likes of Asia with Steve Howe and John Wetton, Cher, Sonic Youth, Aerosmith, XTC, Peter Gabriel, Lone Justice, Blink-182, Guns N' Roses, Pat Metheny, Nirvana, Neil Young, and Weezer

The label was sold to MCA in 1990, and today is part of the Interscope-Geffen-A&M division of MCA's successor, Universal Music Group. The sale made millionaires out of several longtime employees including the A&R troika of Jon Kalodner, Gary Gersh and Tom Zutaut.

Geffen Film/DreamworksSKG

Through the Geffen Film Company, David Geffen produced dark-tinged comedies such as (the 1986 version of) Little Shop of Horrors, Risky Business and Beetlejuice. Geffen was the Broadway backer for the musicals Dreamgirls and Cats. In 1994, Geffen co-founded the DreamWorks SKG studio with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Geffen is legendary for being outspoken about several issues, particularly on music copyrights. When interviewed about the licensing deal between UMG and Microsoft Zune, Geffen revealed he feels all owners of portable media players are guilty of copyright infringement. "Each of these devices is used to store unpaid-for material. This way, on top of the material people do pay for, the record companies are getting paid on the devices storing the copied music."[1]

Politics

Geffen has developed a reputation as a prominent left wing philanthropist for his publicized support of medical research, AIDS organizations, the arts and theatre. He was an early financial supporter of President Bill Clinton. In 2001 he had a falling out with the former President over Clinton's decision to not pardon Leonard Peltier, on whose behalf he had lobbied the President.[2]

Geffen is currently supporting Barack Obama for President and raised $1.3 million for Obama in a star-studded Beverly Hills fund raiser. On 21 February 2007, in an interview with Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, Geffen described Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton in unflattering terms: "Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it's troubling." He said that Hillary Clinton was "incredibly polarizing" and described Bill Clinton as "reckless" and cast doubt on those who say he has become a different person since leaving office.[3][4]

Art collection

Geffen is a keen collector of American artists' work, including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning. According to the chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Paul Schimmel: "There's no collection that has a better representation of post-war American art than David Geffen's."[8]

In October 2006, Geffen sold two paintings by Jasper Johns and a De Kooning from his collection for a combined sum of $143.5m. On November 3, 2006, the New York Times reported that Geffen had sold Pollock's 1948 painting No. 5, 1948 from his collection for $140m (£73.35m) to Mexican financier David Martinez. Martinez is the founder of London-based Fintech Advisory Ltd, a financial house that specializes in buying Third World debt. The sale made No. 5, 1948 the most expensive painting ever sold (outstripping the $134m paid in October 2006 for Gustav Klimt's portrait Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder).

Personal Life

David Geffen is also the subject of several books, most recently The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood (2001) by Thomas R. King, who initially had Geffen's cooperation, but later did not. An earlier biography was The Rise and Rise of David Geffen (1997) by Stephen Singular. Geffen is also a featured character in the books "Mansion On The Hill" by Fred Goodman and "Hotel California" by Barney Hoskyns as well as several books about Michael Ovitz.

Geffen can be heard on Barbra Streisand’s The Broadway Album. The track "Putting It Together" features Geffen, Sydney Pollack, and Ken Sylk portraying the voices of record company executives talking to Barbra.[7]

External links
David Geffen at the Internet Movie Database
Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People
Is David Geffen gearing up to buy the LA Times?
David Geffen at All Music Guide

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Geffen"

New York Jesuit Provincial supports GAY priests

2007-11-05T12:07:00.000-05:00

Who we need is a "combination" of gays who are wealthy, famous, religious and respectable in society who will stand up for gays and secure a place for us, like a combination of David Geffen and the Rev. Gerald J. Chojnacki. A united front of these two men combined, a Billionnaire and a Society, would be a sure thing that will shut down the big religious institution pope Ratz (and William Donohue), and bring ALL religious kooks to their knees!

For those who do not know Fr. Chojnacki here is an excerpt from the NY Times (now owned by the Opus Dei and the Jews combined!)

The provincial of the New York province of Jesuits, the Rev. Gerald J. Chojnacki, also sent a letter to his priests on Monday denouncing any move to exclude homosexuals.

"We know that God does not discriminate," Father Chojnacki wrote. "We know that gay men who have responded to the call have served the church well as priests and religious - and so why would we be asked to discriminate based on orientation alone against those whom God has called and invited?"

New York Times

Americans Plan Rome Trip Over Ban on Gay Priests

Responding to reports that the Vatican may be close to releasing a directive to exclude most gay candidates from entering the priesthood, leaders of Roman Catholic men's religious orders in the United States are planning to travel to Rome to voice their objections in person.

The trip is one of the steps by leaders of Catholic religious orders to try to reassure priests and seminarians who have been rattled by news of a possible Vatican ban on the ordination of gay men.

Word of the trip, which has not been scheduled, was in an internal letter sent on Monday to leaders of religious orders from the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the key American coordinating body for more than 250 leaders of Catholic religious orders, like the Franciscans, the Dominicans and the Jesuits. The letter was provided to The New York Times by a member of a religious order who said he was pleased by the superiors' actions.

In addition, at least two leaders of Jesuit provinces have written to their priests and seminarians reassuring them that their sexual orientation is not an issue as long as they remain celibate and chaste.

"We're not going to push anybody overboard," said the Rev. John Whitney, head of the Oregon province of Jesuits, which includes 254 men in five Northwestern states.

The Vatican has not even released a document on the issue, which has been under discussion for more than 10 years. Several news outlets, including The Times, reported last week that Vatican officials had said it would most likely be released soon, but no Vatican directive is certain until it is formally promulgated.

Still, several religious superiors said on Thursday that even the anticipation that the church could exclude men from the priesthood because of their sexual orientation had prompted an outpouring of fear and concern among priests - gays and heterosexuals alike. The superiors said their goal was to communicate to their men that they understood the impact that such a directive could have, and to convey that to the Vatican in hopes they could have an impact on the document's contents.

"This is an anxious moment; it creates difficult issues for people," said the Rev. Paul Lininger, executive director of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, who signed the letter to his colleagues and spoke by telephone. "But we want to be able to say to our men that we will be able to talk to various types of parties, and when the time comes we will communicate back to you."

Father Lininger said the letter was supposed to remain private, "because we don't want to inflame situations, but we needed to respond."

That the leaders of religious orders would step forward is not entirely surprising, said R. Scott Appleby, a historian of Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.

"Historically the superiors of religious orders have been more independent of the hierarchy," he said. "They are relatively autonomous and responsible for their own company of priests and brothers, so they're more accustomed to looking out for their own."

Some Catholics have said they would welcome the ban because they attribute the sexual abuse scandal to gay priests who preyed on young men.

But Msgr. Francis Maniscalco, spokesman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the Vatican began examining whether to ordain gays long before the abuse scandal broke in 2002, and not because of pedophilia.

"The church is not saying anything like that," Monsignor Maniscalco said. "Pedophilia is its own psychosexual illness, and has its own kind of syndrome. This is looking at another issue, which is the training for celibacy and the ability to live a celibate life. We live in an age in which people are told to express themselves, in which the gay rights movement says to come to grips with your orientation and to live it. And in that environment, there can be confusion, even in seminaries."

The provincial of the New York province of Jesuits, the Rev. Gerald J. Chojnacki, also sent a letter to his priests on Monday denouncing any move to exclude homosexuals.

"We know that God does not discriminate," Father Chojnacki wrote. "We know that gay men who have responded to the call have served the church well as priests and religious - and so why would we be asked to discriminate based on orientation alone against those whom God has called and invited?"

He wrote that he had participated in the funerals of "some very fine and distinguished Jesuits" who were also gay men. "I find it insulting to demean their memory and their years of service by even hinting that they were unfit for priesthood because of their sexual orientation," wrote Father Chojnacki, who leads one of the largest Jesuit provinces in the country, with 437 men.

This letter was addressed to "Brothers and Friends in the Lord," and has been circulated even outside the New York Jesuit province by priests encouraged by its message. One such priest shared it with The Times.

Father Chojnacki did not respond to a request for an interview. A spokesman for the New York province, Peter Feuerherd, said the letter had been directed to New York Jesuits "and was intended to address their concerns."

About 15,000 priests belong to religious orders, approximately one-third of those serving in the United States. The other two-thirds belong to dioceses, whose local leaders are bishops. Religious orders also include brothers, who are not ordained as members of the clergy.

Religious order priests serve in many capacities: teachers and professors, missionaries and professionals in many fields and in parishes. There are also contemplative priests and brothers, who devote themselves primarily to prayer.

Many religious orders, like many diocesan seminaries, say their admissions policies do not discriminate against candidates on the basis of their sexual orientation.

Said Father Whitney, the Oregon provincial, "We continue to go by the standard we have always gone by, which is that our orientation is toward chastity, and that is the orientation we most care about."

By Laurie Goodstein

September 30, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/30/national/30catholic.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

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A Catholic Bibliography of GAY Culture

Homosexuality and Catholicism Bibliography:
Section VI LesBiGay Catholics

© Paul Halsall
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/lgbcathbib6.html

A: Relations with the Hierarchy
"3 Bishops Join Opposition to Vatican Policy", Los Angeles Times 10/31/92 ; sec. A p. 24 c. 3ABSTR: Three Roman Catholic bishops have joined more than 1,500 Catholics in signing a statement repudiating a Vatican document that supports legal discrimination against gays and lesbians in some cases.

"Angry reaction to Vatican observations on homosexuals", The Tablet 246:967 (August 1, 1992)

"Archdiocese Opens Door to Gay Group", Chicago Tribune 05/25/89 ; sec. 3C p. 6 c. 3ABSTR: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has formally recognized Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach-Chicago, a group representing gay Catholics. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese has announced it will extend its services to the group in attempt to make peace with the organization.

"Dignity wins suit", The Christian Century, 107 p1191 December 19-26 1990

"Georgetown does not have to recognize a gay student group", Christianity Today 27 No 18 p49 November 25 1983

"McNeill leaves Jesuits", The Christian Century 103 No 35 p1025 November 19 1986

"Outrage! protests outside Catholic School", The Tablet 246 (Jan 25 1992): 241

"Protest Outside Cathedral", New York Times 12/14/92 ; sec. B p. 2 c. 6ABSTR: About members of Act-Up and other AIDS advocacy groups protested outside New York City's St Patrick's Cathedral on Dec 13, 1992, saying that the Roman Catholic Church has lobbied against gay-tolerance education in schools.

"The Vatican statement on homosexuality", Christianity Today 30 No 18 p48 December 12 1986
"Vatican document on gays is not Christian (editorial)", National Catholic Reporter 28:24 (July 31, 1992)

"Vatican questions laws to protect homosexuals", The Tablet 246:935 (July 25, 1992)

"Vatican strikes at legal protection to protect homosexuals", The Tablet 246:935 (July 25, 1992)

"A Retrospective Look at Gay Rights Coalition of Georgetown Univ. Law School v. Georgetown Univ", George Mason University civil rights law journal, 1:1 (Sprg 1990), 121-

Ackerman, Todd. "Gay group is recognized at CUA", Register 65:1+ Feb 12 1989

Adams, Jane Meredith, "Gay Group Lashes Out at Church Sex Stance", Boston Globe 09/05/89 ; p. 3 c. 1ABSTR: According to a new statement of sexual ethics by Dignity, a national organization of homosexual Catholics, the Roman Catholic teachings on sexuality are not in touch with human experience of heterosexuals or homosexuals.

Anerich, John Paul., "Jesuit-run university just says no to gay group", Register 66:1+ (March 11 1990)

Baldwin, Louis, Pope and the MavericksHow infallible is the pope of Rome? According to Baldwin, many theologians have been troubled by some disconcerting historical data and have found it difficult to reconcile modern-day problems with age-old mandates, and he recounts the experiences of several noted theologians who have questioned papal infallibility.

Berrigan, Daniel, "The Leveling of John McNeill", Commonweal 104 (1977), 778-83On the mistreatment of Fr. John McNeill SJ over his book The Church and the Homosexual.

Black, Chris, "BC creates a panel to focus on gay campus life", Boston Globe 05/05/93 ; p. 29 c. 1ABSTR: Despite the Catholic Church's position that homosexual activity is sinful, Boston College, the third largest Catholic university in the nation, has established a special committee to provide support to gay and lesbian students, faculty and staff.

Boxall, Bettina, "Gay Catholics Urge Clergy to Denounce Letter", Los Angeles Times 08/01/92 ; sec. B p. 2 c. 4ABSTR: Condemning a recent Vatican statement defending discrimination against homosexuals, several gay Catholics called on church members and clergy on Jul 31, 1992 to denounce the document.

Chandler, Russell, "Catholic Bishops Prohibit Masses for Gay, Lesbian Group", Los Angeles Times 06/23/89 ; sec. I p. 3 c. 4ABSTR: Archbishop Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles and 12 other bishops from Southern and Central California have firmly prohibited Roman Catholic priests from celebrating Masses sponsored by Dignity, an organization of gay Catholics.

Clines, Francis X, "Gay and green and the gulf in between". New York Times 03/13/94 ; sec. 1 p. 29 c. 1 ABSTR: Francis X. Clines comments on the attitude of Mildred S. Kennedy, who came to America for the first time in 1988 on an alms-seeking mission to stabilize her integrated public school for Protestant and Catholic youngsters in Belfast Northern Ireland, concerning the celebration of St Patrick's Day by Irish-Americans.

Dillon, Sam, "Liberals cooperating in New York school races", New York Times 04/21/93 ; sec. A p. 1 c. 2ABSTR: In response to the alliance of the Roman Catholic Church, evangelist Pat Robertson and conservative community groups to influence New York City's May 4, 1993 school board elections, gay-rights advocates, liberal clergy and some parents and teachers groups are themselves organizing to fight the conservative agenda. The social-policy battles erupted after the ouster of Schools

Formicola, Jo Renee, "The gays, Georgetown, and the government", in Church polity and American politics; ed by M Segers, 1990 p233-249

Franklin, James L, "Catholic group asks gay panelist's ouster", Boston Globe 06/02/93 ; p. 20 c. 2ABSTR: The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has called on Gov Weld to dismiss David LaFontaine as chairman of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth because LaFontaine took part in two 1990 demonstrations the group said were marked by "hatred, bigotry and obscenity."

Franklin, James L, "Weld stands by gay panel appointee despite complaints", Boston Globe 06/03/93 ; p. 25 c. 1ABSTR: Massachusetts Gov Weld "has no plans" to fire David LaFontaine as chairman of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, a Weld spokeswoman said, despite complaints that LaFontaine took part in two 1990 demonstrations that a Catholic group says denied the rights of others.

Fried, Joseph P, "O'Connor says Catholic groups may shun St. Patrick's parade", New York Times 02/16/93 ; sec. B p. 5 c. 1ABSTR: Cardinal John O'Connor of New York City has said that Catholic groups may shun the St Patrick's Day parade if the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization is allowed to march under its banner.

Fuerbach, Peter, "Gays and the law", National Catholic Reporter 68:1+ August 9 1992
Garcia, Rick, "Poor Response", Chicago Tribune 05/22/91 ; sec. 1 p. 16 c. 6ABSTR: In a letter to the editor, Rick Garcia of the Catholic Advocates for Lesbian & Gay Rights says that the Chicago Human Relations Commission and Mayor Richard Daley's administration should forgo its public relations ploys and concentrate on serious issues, such as AIDS and hate crimes.
Goldman, Ari L, "Brooklyn Bishop Is Installed Amid Pomp and Harmony", New York Times 04/19/90 ; sec. B p. 1 c. 4ABSTR: Thomas Vose Daily was installed Apr 18, 1990 as Roman Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn in a ceremony that avoided controversy. Daily challenged Mario Cuomo and gay-rights advocates in his first press conference in Feb 1990.

Goldman, Ari L, "Catholics Meet on Gay Role in Clergy", New York Times 09/28/89 ; sec. B p. 2 c. 4ABSTR: More than 100 people from Roman Catholic institutions in the New York area gathered at the one-day conference entitled "Our Lesbian and Gay Religious and Clergy" to discuss homosexuality among priests, nuns and religious brothers.

Gramick, Jeannine (ed.), Homosexuality and the Catholic Church, Thomas More Pr 1983 176PContents: Preface, J Gramick. Reflections of a gay Catholic, B McNaught. Growing up lesbian and Catholic, A Borden. New sociological theory on homosexuality, J Gramick. Overcoming the structured evil of male domination and heterosexism, B Zanotti. Homosexuality, celibacy, religious life and ordination, R Nugent. Civil rights in a church of compassion, T Kane. Gay men and women and the vowed life, C Hubbuch. Moral theology and homosexuality, C Curran. Shifting attitudes toward homosexuality K McGuire.

Gramick, Jeannine., "Can gays and lesbians come out to be faithful Catholics?", US Catholic August 1992 57:6-13

Greeley, Andrew, The Catholic Myth: The Behavior and Beliefs of American Catholics, (New York : Collier/Macmillan, 1990)Greeley has been reported issuing homophobic comments about the "Lavendar Culture" in seminaries. Still, this is a very interesting discussion of what American Roman Catholics actually believe, with some discussion of attitudes towards gay people.

Griffin, Jean Latz, "Gays, Women Look to Bernardin for Aid", Chicago Tribune 11/09/92 ; sec. 2C p. 3 c. 5ABSTR: Members of Dignity, one of two organizations for gay and lesbian Catholics in Chicago, will join with several other Catholic women's and social justice groups around the US to hold a candlelight vigil at the home of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. The prayer vigil will ask Bernardin to repudiate a letter from the Vatican that says homosexuality is a "disorder" and suggests that gay men and lesbians should not be allowed to be teachers or adopt children.

Kane, Theresa, "Civil rights in a church of compassion", In Homosexuality and the Catholic Church; ed by J Gramick, 1983 p121-128

Kenkelen, Bill, "Protesting gay activists up the ante", National Catholic Reporter 26:3-4 Dec 22 1989

Kenkelen, Bill, "San Francisco Archbishop Expels Dignity Chapter from City Church ", National Catholic Reporter Dec 2, 1988; 25:7 p. 21 [Abstract from electonic database]: Nearly every Dignity chapter, a national organization of gay Catholics, including San Francisco and New York chapters, has been expelled. Though Dignity publicly questioned church sexual teachings, they never boldly opposed teachings. Reactions to the expulsion are discussed.

Lueck, Thomas J, "Homosexuals turn mass into silent protest of pastoral letter", New York Times 08/30/93 ; sec. B p. 4 c. 3ABSTR: A group of gay and lesbian protestors demonstrated on Aug 29, 1993 during Mass at St James Cathedral in Brooklyn NY, condemning a pastoral letter by Bishop Thomas V. Daily that opposed laws that would "legitimize homosexual activity."

Lynch, Father Bernard, Priest On TrialA priest from New York discusses his coming out and charges of sexual of misconduct that were brought against him then eventually dropped.

Masters, Kim, "Here Is 'the Church'", Washington Post 08/14/91 ; sec. C p. 1 c. 1ABSTR: The film "Stop the Church," which contains a "pervasive tone of ridicule" of the Roman Catholic Church by AIDS, gay rights and pro-choice activists, is discussed.

McBrien, Richard P., "Church's view of homosexuals needs straightening.", National Catholic Reporter 28:2 (March 13, 1992)

McCarthy, Tim, "Vatican goes public with revised document concerning homosexuality", National Catholic Reporter 28:9 (July 31, 1992)

McClory, Robert, "Bishops Buck Criticism, Attend Gay Symposium in Chicago ", National Catholic Reporter Apr 10, 1992; 28:23 p. 6 [Abstract from electonic database]: Three US bishops attended a symposium in Chicago sponsored by New Ways Ministry, an educational and research organization on homosexuality and the Catholic church. The bishops voiced their support for the gay community.

Neumeister, Larry, "NYC parade can exclude gays, US judge rules", Boston Globe 02/27/93 ; p. 3 c. 1 ABSTR: The Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Roman Catholic group that traditionally sponsors the St Patrick's Day parade, has a right to exclude a gay group from marching and the city of New York cannot interfere, a federal judge ruled.

Newman, Maria, "Mahony Vows Not to Be Intimidated by Gays", Los Angeles Times 12/05/89 ; sec. B p. 1 c. 2ABSTR: The day after four Roman Catholic churches were spattered with red paint by gay activists angry over the church's condemnation of the use of condoms for safe sex, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony said he would not be intimidated by threats or attacks.

Niebuhr, Gustav, "2 Bishops Sign Ad Backing Gay Rights", Washington Post 11/01/92 ; sec. A p. 4 c. 1ABSTR: Two Roman Catholic bishops, Walter F. Sullivan of Richmond VA and Thomas J. Bumbleton, auxiliary bishop of Detroit, signed a statement taking issue with the Vatican on the question of civil rights for homosexuals. The statement will appear as an ad in the Nov 13, 1992 National Catholic Reporter.

Nugent, Robert (ed.), A challenge to love: gay and lesbian Catholics in the Church, (New York: Crossroad, 1983)Contents: Introduction, Bishop Walter F Sullivan. Prejudice, religion, and homosexual people, J Gramick. The Christian body and homosexual maturing, J Zullo and J Whitehead. The homosexual condition and political responsibility, G Baum. Homosexuality, lesbianism, and the future: creative role of the gay community in building a more humane society, J McNeill. Homosexuals: a Christian pastoral response now, M Guinan. Moral methodology: a case study, L Sowle Cahill. An ethic for same-sex relations, M Farley. Point-counterpoint, E Malloy. The morality of homosexual marriage, D Maguire. Lovingly lesbian: toward a feminist theology of friendship, M Hunt. Education: sexual and religious, G Moran. Three passages of maturity, J Whitehead and E Eaton Whitehead.[ The spiritual journey of the homosexual - and just about everybody else, M Fox. Gay Catholics and Eucharistic Communion: theological parameters, B Williams. Gay and Lesbian ministry during marital breakdown and the annulment process, P Thomas. Vocation discernment and the homosexual, M Basil Pennington. Homosexuality and religious life, M Kropinak. Priest, celibate and gay: you are not alone, R Nugent.

Nunley, Jan, "Church silence on gay-bashing deadly", The Witness 73 p12-13,21 November 1990

O'Connell, Paul E. "Gay rights coalition . Georgetown University: failure to recognize a Catholic University's religious liberty", Catholic Lawyer 32:170-84 (no.2, 1988)
Olmstead, Robert, "Catholic gays meet; three bishops present.", Register 68:1+ (April 12, 1992)

Ostling, Richard N., "Gays vs. the Vatican" Time Dec 5, 1988; 132:23 p. 60 [Abstract from electronic database]:The Vatican has targeted the US organization Dignity in its directive that withdraws support from organizations that oppose the Church's teachings on homosexuality. ; Dignity

Poust, Mary Ann; Costello, Gerald M., "Desecration of cathedral outrages New Yorkers.", OSV 78:17 (December 24, 1989)

Rosenstiel, Thomas B, "O'Connor Renews Issue of Bias against Catholicism", Los Angeles Times 04/04/91 ; sec. A p. 5 c. 1ABSTR: John J. O'Connor, the Cardinal of New York, accused the media of exhibiting an anti-Catholic bias in its coverage of attempts to keep gay rights activists out of the city's St Patrick's Day parade. Other analysts have noted that anti-Catholic bias has deep cultural roots in the US.

Rosser, B. R. Simon, Gay Catholics Down Under: Journeys in Sexuality & Spirituality of Gay Men in Australia and New Zealand.It examines how men of Roman Catholic background have come to understand and integrate their homosexuality into daily life.

Sheehan, Pete. "A little bit o' Irish - a lot of controversy", OSV 80 (Feb 23 1992): 4

Soble, Ronald L, "4 Catholic Churces Defaced in AIDS Protest", Los Angeles Times 12/04/89 ; sec. B p. 1 c. 2ABSTR: Gay activists claim they splattered red paint on four Los Angeles Catholic churches to protest city Archbishop Roger M. Mahony's condemnation of the use of condoms to fight the spread of AIDS.

Stammer, Larry B, "Catholics name gay, lesbian to advisory board", Los Angeles Times 01/12/94 ; sec. B p. 1 c. 4ABSTR: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles said on Jan 11, 1994 that a new advisory board that includes a gay man and a lesbian woman has been appointed to assist the church's outreach to homosexuals. However, the archdiocese made it clear that it still disapproves of sex between unmarried people.

Stankiewicz, Elizabeth, "Activists Hit Vatican Support of Some Bias Against Gays", Boston Globe 07/18/92 ; p. 8 c. 1ABSTR: Gay activists reacted with anger and dismay to the Vatican's declaration that it will support discrimination against gays in certain circumstances, saying the church's position reaffirms stereotypes and ignores gays' basic rights.

Steinfels, Peter, "Vatican Condones Gay-Rights Limits", New York Times 07/18/92 ; sec. A p. 7 c. 1ABSTR: The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has sent a statement to Roman Catholic bishops in the US urging them to scrutinize laws intended to protect homosexuals and to oppose them if they promote public acceptance of homosexual conduct.

Stepp, Laura Sessions, "Vatican Supports Bias Against Gays", Washington Post 07/17/92 ; sec. A p. 1 c. 1ABSTR: The Vatican has declared its support for discrimination against gay people in such areas as public housing, family health benefits and the hiring of teachers, coaches and military personnel. In a Jun 1992 statement to US Catholic bishops, the Vatican described homosexuality as "an objective disorder."

Twomey, Steve, "Gay-Rights Activists Turn Out at Mass", Washington Post 01/07/91 ; sec. B p. 7 c. 4ABSTR: Gay rights activists demonstrated quietly at St Mary's Catholic Church in Washington DC as a follow-up to an altercation at the church at the same mass on Christmas morning.

Wilson, Nancy L., "A gay witness to Pope John Paul II", The Christian Century 104 p845-846 October 7 1987

B: Organizations

"A Better Course", Commonweal Sep 23, 1988; 115:16 p. 485-486

[Abstract from electonic database]: Cardinal Bernadin of Chicago is commended by an editorial for moving sponsorship of the gay mass to a broad based parochial group.

Baum, Gregory ,"Catholic Homosexuals", Commonweal 99 (1974): 147-81, repr. in Kathleen Leopold and Thomas Orians, eds., Theological Pastoral Resources: A Collection of Articles on Homosexuality from a Pastoral Perspective, 6th ed., (Washington DC : Dignity. 1981, repr. 1985), 7-10

Caglieri, Kevin, "Dignity: A Basic Ecclesial Community", Creation, (Sept/Oct 1990), 18-24

Article looking at the nature of Dignity, the lesbian and gay Catholic group, by a former national president of the organization, and a theologian in his own right.

Calendar, A Publication of Dignity New York, "The Cathedral Project: A Special Issue", Vol 14:4, May-Jun 1988

Best published source material on the Dignity/New York campaign against the exclusion of lesbian and gay Catholics by the Archdiocese of New York. Includes statements from the leaders of the protests, and submitted court documents.

"Can Gays and Lesbians Come out to Be Faithful Catholics?", US Catholic Aug 1992; 57:8 p. 6-13
[Abstract from electonic database]: In an interview, Jeannine Gramick discusses how she began working with gay and lesbian Catholics, Catholic church teaching on homosexuality, the needs of gay and lesbian parishioners and homophobia in the Catholic Church.

Davidson, David, "Dignity, Inc.: an alternative experience of Church", New Blackriars (1987) [No?], 192-201

Dignity Speaks to Bishops, n Kathleen Leopold and Thomas Orians, eds., Theological Pastoral Resources: A Collection of Articles on Homosexuality from a Pastoral Perspective, 6th ed., (Washington DC : Dignity. 1981, repr. 1985), 55-56

Text of a document Dignity presented to the US bishops in 1975. pp 57-58, give texts of bishops' report, plus positive resolutions passes by the National Federation of Priest's Councils (March 1974), the National Association of Religiou Brothers (June 1977), the National Coalition of American Nuns (1974), the National Association of Women Religious 9August 1978).

Gogin, Kevin R, Changing images : women and gay men in the Catholic Church, Typescript. Thesis (M. S. T.)--Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, 1984.

Grippo, Dan, "Why lesbian and gay Catholics stay Catholic", .U.S. Catholic,. Sep 1 1990 v 55:9, p.18

Even though they may not always be welcome, lesbian and gay Catholics believe their place in the church is worth holding on to

Halloran, Joe, Understanding Homosexual Persons, (Hicksville NY:, Exposition Press, 1979)

By a RC priest, on a years work with Dignity in the SF Bay area.

"Healy Says He Regrets Dignity Ban", National Catholic Reporter Jun 15, 1990; 26:33 p. 7

[Abstract from electonic database]: Jesuit priest Timothy S. Healy is deeply troubled over the memory of having to tell the Georgetown University chapter of Dignity, an organization for homosexuals, that they could no longer hold Mass on campus. Healy feels that the Roman Catholic Church's ban on Dignity was "obscene."

Holton, Robert, "Homosexuals with the courage to be different", OSV 81:21 August 30 1992about the anti-gay "gay group" Courage.

Insight (New York, N.Y. : 1976) New York, Dignity New York, inc. Dignity New York, P.O. Box 1554, FDR Station, New York, NY 10022. 4 v. ill. 29 "A quarterly of gay Catholic opinion."
Jacquet, Louis F., "Courage: a support group for Catholic Homosexuals", Liguorian 77:16-20 May 1989[Courage is actually a group which seeks to deny that Gay Catholics can have moral sexual relationships.]

Johnson, Daniel; Nicosia, Carolyn; Krody, Nancy, "International Dignity convention", Journal of Ecumenical Studies 18 p726-728 Fall 1981

Kenkelen, Bill, "Dignity Proposes New Sexual Ethic ", National Catholic Reporter Sep 8, 1989; 25:40 p. 6

[Abstract from electonic database]: At a recent meeting, Dignity, an organization of gay Catholics, passed a sexual-ethics manifesto. Dignity asserts that gay relationships, including sex, can be morally good.

Kenkelen, Bill, "Dignity Considers Bolder Approach", National Catholic Reporter Sep 15, 1989; 25:41 p. 3

[Abstract from electronic database]:Dignity, a gay Catholic organization that has been increasingly ostracized from Catholic dioceses, is considering taking bolder action. Dignity branches all over the US are considering outing gay clergy who hide their sexual orientation while attacking gay people who do not.

McNaught, Brian, "Gay and Catholic" in Betty Berzon and Robert Leighton, eds, Positively Gay, (Millbrae, CA: Celestial Arts, 1979), 56-64This collection also has articles on Protestantism, Judaism and a host of non-religious issues.

Maher, Donald, A Catholic Parish's Response to Gay and Lesbian Presence: A report on the Gay and Lesbian Ministry of St. Paul the Apostle and the survey of its membership, (New York: the author, 1994)

Miller, Neil, In Search of Gay America: Women and Men in a Time of Change, (New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989; pb New York: Harper & Row/Perennial)

Miller has four chapters on religion and gays: on a United Methodist minister; on Fr. Bill Dorn, a Dignity priest in Minneapolis ; on More Light Presybyterian churches; and on Washington DC Metropolitan COmmunity Church.

Nugent, Robert, "Courage Curbs Gays", National Catholic Reporter 21 (Han 18, 1985), 10

Nugent, Robert, and Jeannine Grammick, Building Bridges : Gay & Lesbian Reality and the Catholic Church, (Mystic, Conn. : Twenty-Third Publications, c1992.)

Reviews

Lambda Book Report Mar 1992; 3:3 p. 47-48

Levesque, Irma, SIECUS Report Apr 1992; 20:4 p. 22
Primiano, Leonard Norman, "Normative Religion vs. Vernacular Religion: Notes on the Study of Philadelphia's Gay Catholics", Paper presented at American Folklore Society Annual Meeting, Alberquerque New Mexico 23 October 1987.

Dignity/Philadelphia served as a case study of "vernacular religion".

Rashke, R., "Dignity like a Fishbone Lodgeed in the Churchs Throat", National Catholic Reporter (April 6, 1976), 28

Stephens, Michael., Gay Catholics in Britain : the story of Quest, 1973-83, (London : Quest, 1983)

Quest is a British Lesbian and Gay Catholic group which has maintained good relations with the British hierarchy - at the expense of not forthrightly saying "Gay is God". This account of its first ten years is a short, detailed, but adequately told narrative. The biggest crisis was the 1976 Vatican Declaration on Sexual Ethics - until then it seems, activists had thought change would be rather rapid. Micheal Stephens was the founder (?) and major figure in Quest during these years.

Unsworth, Tim, "Gay Catholics at Mass Clinging to Hem of Worn Garments ", National Catholic Reporter Aug 16, 1991; 27:37 p. 8

[Abstract from electonic database]: A mass held for gays and lesbians in a Tudor Gothic church brings 200 Christians who pray to a God who accepts them as they are. Homosexual Catholics who are seeking expression of their beliefs are discussed.

Vidulich, Dorothy, "Gay Group Says 'Outing' Bishops Is out of Bounds ", National Catholic Reporter Aug 14, 1992; 28:36 p. 3

[Abstract from electonic database]: Dignity/USA, the national organization for gay and lesbian Roman Catholics, has challenged recent threats by gays and lesbians to reveal the names of gay Catholic bishops. The threats came in response to a recently publicized Vatican document on homosexuality and civil law that rationalizes church opposition to laws forbidding discrimination based on sexual preference.

Wagner, Glenn, "Integration of one's religion and homosexuality: A weapon against internalized homophobia?" Journal of Homosexuality 1994; 26:4 p. 91-110

[Abstract from electonic database]: A study looks at the relationship between internalized homophobia and the process of integrating one's religious faith and homosexuality by comparing levels of internalized homophobia among male participants of Dignity, an organization of Catholic gay men and lesbians, with a community of gay men with Catholic

Wilson, Nancy L, "A Gay Witness to Pope John Paul II", Christian Century Oct 7, 1987; 104:28 p. 845-846

[Abstract from electonic database]: In an editorial, a member of Dignity International discusses why the Catholic gay-rights group accepted an invitation to attend a recent prayer service in the presence of Pope John Paul II, known for his negative attitude toward homosexuals.

Windsor, Pat, "Dignity, Church Find Ways to Peacefully Coexist ", National Catholic Reporter Aug 16, 1991; 27:37 p. 7-8

[Abstract from electonic database]: All but a handful of US dioceses and archdioceses have expelled Dignity, a national Catholic gay organization, from church buildings. The healing of the rift between the church and Dignity is discussed.

C: Spirituality

Dignity Region V, An Anthology for the Gay and Lesbian Community, (Grand Rapids MI: Dignity Region V, 1985)

Hunt, Mary E., "Valuing the Widow's Mite: The Contributions of Lesbian and Gay People to the Church Throughout the Ages", Empathy 1990 v 2:2, p.70

O'Neil, Thomas, Sex with God, new. ed. (New York: Wexford Press, 1994)

Poems discussing faith, AIDS, gay love and the Catholic Church's condemnations.

Stuart. Elizabeth, "Coming out of the Tomb", Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, Roman Catholic Caucus Newsletter, (1990)

Stuart. Elizabeth, Daring to Speak Love's Name: A Gay and Lesbian Prayer Book, (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1992)

A collection of prayers and liturgies for gay people, with prayers for celebrating gay relationships, housewarmings, coming-out, partings, healings and death.

Reviews

Boyd, Malcolm, Lambda Book Report Jul 1993; 3:11 p. 35

Woods, Richard, et al., "Towards a Gay Christian Ethic", Insight: A Quarterly of Lesbian/Gay Catholic Opinion 3:2 (spring-Summer 1979), 5-12

Zanotti, Barbara, ed., A Faith of One's Own: Explorations by Catholic Lesbians, (New Ways Ministry?)

D: Biography

Alves, Julio, "Recollections of a Young Catholic Sodomite", Christopher Street Jun 8, 1992; :180 p. 8-9

[Abstract from electonic database]: A gay man who grew up in Portugal discusses being banished from the Catholic Church when he laughed at the parishoners who were kissing a papier-mache likeness of Jesus Christ.

Duffy, Michael, "A Flagship Heels to Starboard", Time Oct 14, 1991; 138:15 p. 82

[Abstract from electonic database]: The appointment of the conservative Andrew Sullivan as the editor of the traditionally liberal "New Republic" is discussed. The outspokenly gay English Catholic conservative is profiled.

"Gay Men and Lesbians Describe Spiritual Journeys", National Catholic Reporter 30:38 (Sept 12, 1994), 7-10.

Accounts by Mary Hunt, Scott Trepania, Howard Warren Jr., Marianne Duddy, Marc S. Blumenthal and Kevin Calegari.

Giovanni, Leo, Gay and Still Catholic: A Journey Home, (1992)

Reviews

Craft, Carolyn, , Library Journal Feb 1, 1992; 117:2 p. 99

Deeley, Mary, Booklist Mar 1, 1992; 88:13 p. 1181

Holtz, Raymond C., Listen to the stories : gay and lesbian Catholics talk about their lives and the church, . (New York : Garland, 1991)

McNaught, Brian., A Disturbed Peace : Selected Writings of an Irish Catholic Homosexual, Washington, DC : Dignity, c1981.

McNaught, Brian., On being gay, (New York : St. Martin's Press, 1988)

Merrett, Jim, "Confessions of a Lapsed Catholic", Advocate: May 9, 1989; :524 p. 48-49

[Abstract from electronic database]:A man recalls a childhood friend's encounter with a priest during confession in which the priest asked questions that elicited candid responses. Alhthough the priest never molested the boy, it was not for a lack of interest. SUBJT: Clergy ; Homosexuality

Stahel, Thomas H, "'I'm here': An interview with Andrew Sullivan", America May 8, 1993; 168:16 p. 5-11

[Abstract from electonic database]: During an interview, Andrew Sullivan, editor of "The New Republic," discusses what it is like to be gay in the Catholic church.

Tucker, Scott, "True confessions", Humanist Sep 1993; 53:5 p. 45-46

[Abstract from electonic database]: A gay activist who was once a member of the Catholic church discusses his experience with the church. Even where gays must differ sharply with religious people, certain tactical alliances are possible.

Walter, Dave, "Battling the Church ", Advocate May 9, 1989; :524 p. 25

[Abstract from electonic database]: A homosexual describes how he came to sever his relationship with the Catholic Church because of the Vatican's homophobia. Religion's inordinate influence over society and individuals is the most serious threat to gay people and others.

Rosser, B. R. Simon., Gay Catholics down under : the journeys in sexuality and spirituality of gay men in Australia and New Zealand, (Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 1992)

Accounts of the lives of lesbian and Gay Catholics in Australia and New Zealand.

Gay Life and Culture, A World History

2007-10-20T13:36:00.000-04:00

Edited by Robert Aldrich, this is a thick and heavy 2006 book, 384 pages, lots of pictures, comprehensive, it chronicles the world history of gay and lesbian in Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages, Early Modern Europe until the Present.

The book clearly shows that there are gays in the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia. So whoever says "there are no gays in Arab countries" can't hide it based on this historical book.

Walt Witman was a champion for gays.

http://www.amazon.com/Gay-Life-Culture-World-History/dp/0789315114

Depose anti-gay Donohue

2007-10-18T23:19:00.001-04:00

We cannot allow William Donohue to rattle on his anti-gay monologues and give him all the floor. We got to unite and depose anti-gays like him and protest the venues where they appear like radios and talk-shows.

Gay Marriage

2007-10-18T22:08:00.000-04:00

Won't it be bliss the day we are accepted like "normal" people, with normal hearts and normal families?

Does gay marriage make a difference? or cohabitation is suffice of the love thereof?

http://truthspinners.blogspot.com/2007/10/of-course-marriage-makes-difference-for.html

Gay Men and Our Mothers

2007-10-18T14:15:00.000-04:00

Here is an article I saw by accident! today which is so consoling because my mother recently passed away. Ken describes how he reconciled with his dying mother who was disappointed that he was gay. He is a former Jesuit and lives in San Francisco. He is a Zen expert and I think that I will try his methods of meditation.

http://truthspinners.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Gay Men and Our Mothers

There are moments in life that require a few words, and this is one of them. ..

When I was describing mother to a friend, he just said, "That woman was a force of nature." He totally got that she was a very, very strong woman and a central figure in my life. That force of her character was, thankfully, balanced with enormous amounts humor and grace, good taste, refinement and a very sharp mind. But if any one of you ever really believe that she liked it when she lost the rubber in bridge, it had to be some mellowing in her later years that I didn't witness. It is no secret that she and I shared, at times, a rough road together. She was disappointed with the path that I chose in life and, I think, with the path that has been given to me, in this culture, by my sexual orientation. Though I held a grudge about that for a long time, I would like to share an experience that changed all that. During these last very difficult two plus years, when we knew that there would be no recovery, no going home, I knew anything that I really had to say to her had to said then or never said at all.

And so we talked one afternoon at La Posada, very openly and frankly - about everything. It was not an easy conversation for either of us. But as her strength was fading, she said that all she ever wanted was for me to happy. In that moment all I could feel was her constant love for me, and I knew that that had always been true. Even my regrets that I had not always been able to fully express the love that she deserved disappeared. So thank you mother, there are no more grudges. From my side any resentment has evaporated and that's because, in no small measure, you were so generous and so courageous in those last difficult 27 months.

Just a little background, in zen retreats there are only a few activities, meditating, eating, sleeping, and preparing the vegetables, which means lots of peeling potatoes. With this poem I asked all the people with whom I shared those retreats to pray for mother. I now ask that our prayers be added to yours, in gratitude that her suffering is over, and with the prayer and our blessing that she finds peace in the invisible life that is always with us.

When all the others were away at Mass
I was all hers as we peeled potatoes.
They broke the silence, let fall one by one
Like solder weeping off the soldering iron:
Cold comforts set between us, things to share
Gleaming in a bucket of clean water.
And again let fall. Little splashes
From each other's work would bring us to our senses.

Posted by tellall at 3:41 PM

The Mother of Us All and the Gift of Tears
Ken
Sunday, May 13, 2007

I woke up this morning missing my mother who has been dead now for several years. Given the contentious quality of our relationship for most of our 60 years together, I am surprised that oftentimes I find tears in my eyes when I think of her. I still remember phones calls where she slammed down the receiver, our long periods of not speaking, her steely resolve that I was going to get straight somehow, by the force of her will, and marry (being her son, that locked us in absolute stalemate for almost 20 years), her cold punishment for my seemingly uncooperative nature.

Thank you, Ken, for allowing me to post this in my blog. I shall try your Zen meditation ...Charles

WE are men-friends

2007-10-13T20:06:00.000-04:00

Welcome! This is a personal conversation blog with men-friends I originally met in Wayne's website. As simple courtesy, I didn't want to use up anymore space in his website (it was only serving my personal quest) so I started this blog.

The purpose of this personal blog is for others to help me become "un-Catholic" and get rid of the baggages of "religion that poisons everything" and become a free loving gay!

The name "You've got a friend" is from James Taylor's song of the same title. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb8koIkoCLs&mode=related&search=

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/james+taylor/youve+got+a+friend_20069226.html

Please feel free to write anything liberating. Together, we shall journey in this world and liberate ourselves and others to love freely and to live in "peace".

I am also interested in meeting good Catholic gays in NYC
and in having a monogamous relationship.

This was Wayne's original post:

Thursday, October 11, 2007
New Book: Youth Say Christian Intolerance of Gays Is a Turn Off
posted by Wayne Besen # 12:45 PM
-->
Majorities of young people in America describe modern-day Christianity as judgmental, hypocritical and anti-gay. What's more, many Christians don't even want to call themselves "Christian" because of the baggage that accompanies the label.

A new book based on research by the California-based research firm The Barna Group found that church attitudes about people in general and gays in particular are driving a negative image of the Christian faith among people ages 16-29.

It is time that moderate Christians disown the Religious Right and tell them to slither back into the cave. Not only is their obnoxious behavior detrimental to gay people, but it also makes Christianity look bigoted and backwards. For every convert these Bible-thumpers win, they turn off 100 people to all religion. Isn't it time for them to repent?

17 Comments:

Benedict XVI nephew is GAY and has a GAY bar in Munich - http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/ Anyone who'd like to go with me to Munich for holidays, let me know! Benedict XVI and the Opus Dei are the most anti-gay Christians, see the John Paul II Millstone http://www.jp2m.blogspot.com/
posted by Charles, nyc, at 10/11/2007 2:50 PM

It's amazing just how spectacularly religion has failed to live up to the standards that it gives lip service to. Even the American Episcopal Church just can't seem to bring itself to stand up with moral force and say, "No, we're not going to reject our gay members under any circumstances, and if that means splitting in two, then so be it." Religion is a failure that has created far more bad than good. It is time for it to take it's place in history's dustbin.
posted by Chris L., at 10/11/2007 3:30 PM

At the very least Wayne the christian right needs to back away from the gay issue in order to keep their evangelizing effort alive, heck the shortfall in the budget of focus on the family should be a wake up call to the organization that maybe demonizing gays is a money loser rather than money maker. Heck I don't expect the christian right to become champions of gay rights overnight but in light of this information I certainly hope they back off and focus on other important things.
posted by judah22, at 10/11/2007 9:13 PM

Chris, you're absolutely right. I'm an avowed atheist and you can't imagine the vile slurs, comments I get from people when they find out. They (mostly socalled christians) tell me that I can't make any moral judgments without a religious belief system in my life. Marx was ahead of his time, it IS the opiate of the people, very insecure, frightened people. Anne Coulter's recent remarks that people should convert to christianity is evidence of the perverse, sick minds that religion fosters and engenders, especially the three major denominations.
posted by Robert, NYC., at 10/12/2007 10:09 AM

It's no surprise that you get "slurs" from religionists when you tell them that you're an atheist. It's a reaction which comes from their deep, nagging insecurities and unrelenting mental dissonance about what they believe. But then again, the weak have always tried to pull down the strong.As for their argument that one can't make moral judgments without religion, one need only look at the actions of religionists to know that such thinking is mere nonsense. Nothing more need be said on such an absurd argument.The fact that they can't simply have their religion without smearing others shows that, on some level, they know they're wrong. But then again, if you were the type to look out your window and think that this all got started due to the actions of a talking snake, perhaps you'd be a little insecure and hostile too.
posted by Chris L., at 10/12/2007 10:21 AM

Robert, NYC, I empathize (and have heard a lot) with what you mean by vile slurs and comments - I am a Catholic gay and my former boyfriend (he moved to another country, I didn't want to leave NY) was a Protestant gay. Imagine what we went through. Benedict calls gays "morally intrinsic evil" while he preside over gay Cardinals and gay Bishops and gay priests. NY Cardinal Egan is gay and have a lawsuit -- see October 22, 2006 of http://jp2m.blogspot.com/ As the book "God is Not Great" says 'Religion poisons everything' .
posted by Charles, nyc, at 10/12/2007 3:18 PM

Robert, NYC, I empathize (and have heard a lot) with what you mean by vile slurs and comments - I am a Catholic gay and my former boyfriend (he moved to another country, I didn't want to leave NY) was a Protestant gay. Imagine what we went through. Benedict calls gays "morally intrinsic evil" while he preside over gay Cardinals and gay Bishops and gay priests. NY Cardinal Egan is gay and have a lawsuit -- see October 22, 2006 of http://jp2m.blogspot.com/ As the book "God is Not Great" says 'Religion poisons everything' .
posted by Charles, nyc, at 10/12/2007 3:36 PM

Chris and Charles, thank you.

Charles, whatever happened to the Egan lawsuit anyway? Wasn't he outed by a fellow clergyman? I remember reading something in one of the local New York papers about that. I wish we had a Mike Rogers among the clergy who could out all these hypocrites, philanderers and pedophiles at the prelate level, starting with a good house cleaning of the Vatican which I suspect harbors more than anywhere else. I can only imagine what goes on in enclosed orders too.
posted by Robert, NYC., at 10/12/2007 3:53 PM

There are a few REAL Christian churches around. Watch this podcast/video of a great sermon giving powerfully strong support to GLBT people. http://inchatatime.blogspot.com/2007/10/speaking-of-hope.html
posted by Anonymous, at 10/12/2007 10:05 PM

Robert, NYC., the judge who handled the Egan lawsuit has a sister connected with the NY Archidiocese in a land deal and his brother is the president of the Guild of Catholic Lawyers of the Archdiocese of New York...it's now on appeal.

You have a good point about the Vatican harboring all these pedophiles and hypocrites - and the best way to protest is not to buy any religious souvenirs and papal trinkets and stop church donations. (Were you a Catholic before, if I may ask?)

BTW, do you have any favorite spot(s) in NY where you hang out where I could join you sometime? or any suggestions from commentators in Wayne's web is welcome. (You can email me by clicking on my name that will lead you to Blogger)
posted by Charles, nyc, at 10/12/2007 11:38 PM

Charles, I was catholic at one time. I use lower case intial cap for "catholic" since I lost respect and belief once my orientation was deemed intrinsically evil by the church. The longer I've lived the less I've believed in a divine entity and for the past five years have come to the realization that I can no longer accept the christian belief system. I'm happier and at peace with myself, more than I have ever been because of it.
posted by Robert, NYC., at 10/13/2007 8:29 AM

Considering all the time, energy and creativity that gay people COULD bring to religious groups that accept them, it's *their* loss Robert.
posted by Anonymous, at 10/13/2007 10:26 AM

Anonymous, thank you.Charles, looks like my earlier statement earlier is coming to fruition. I just learned that a high ranking Vatican monsignor has been suspended after coming out. I'm sure more will follow and the witch hunt will begin from the top down or we'll see more leaving the clergy. Long overdue.
posted by Robert, NYC., at 10/13/2007 2:04 PM

I like Wayne's use of the word "repent" in this article. It's time we turned some of their pet words around on them: Repent, lifestyle, abomination...
posted by Anonymous, at 10/13/2007 2:09 PM

Robert--do you have a link?
posted by Ben in Oakland, at 10/13/2007 3:55 PM

Robert,perhaps you (or anyone) can guide me as to how you became "un-Catholic" and "feel at peace" with it, you said it's been 5 years now? How do you un-do what is part of life? Don't you feel rather ostracized and rejected (and alone without the church?)

When my former boyfriend's father passed away, he had a church funeral and the pastor had some slurs for us. The same thing happened when his mother died. When my father died, he came to my Catholic church and the priest had some slurs for us. When my mother wanted me over for Thanksgiving supper, she could only see me if he came with me. Imagine, the thick atmosphere over dinner.

How do you become un-Catholic? The church is part of us, like our schools; the rites of life are in the church.

But slowly, since the eruption of clergy sex abuse, I've come to believe that the Eucharist is only a "commemoration" and not the "actual flesh of Christ", because if for more than 5,140 priests (not countings other countries)can continually abuse minors BEFORE and AFTER consecrating the body of "GOD" himself, it's impossible that God was in their filthy abusive hands! Unless they are all like Judas who walked and ate with Christ but in the end could sell him for 33 pieces of silver.

AP news on the Vatican monsignor -
http://www.eitb24.com/new/en/B24_70468/life/VATICAN-PRIEST-Vatican-bars-gay-priest-for-anonymous-TV/

His television interview (in Italian) http://www.la7.it/blog/post_dettaglio.asp?idblog=15&id=1065

Thanks, Wayne, for giving us this forum.

So how about we hang out sometimes, anyone?
posted by Charles, nyc, at 10/13/2007 7:21 PM

Charles, nyc said...
Robert, Chris L, Ben, Anonymous and everyone, you are all invited to post comments in my new blog http://men-friends.blogspot.com/. I feel guilty using up Wayne's website so I created this new blog for our on-going conversation on these important matters. Waiting for you all! Charles, nyc

Come to http://men-friends.blogspot.com/
posted by Charles, nyc, at 10/13/2007 11:17 PM

Ben, hi. If you like, you can email me at robertocucina@earthlink.net and anyone else.

Charles, I just don't feel the need for belief in a deity, least of all the catholic church. It just doesn't interest me any more. No, I do not feel rejected at all, I don't even think about being an outsider, never occurs to me. I just can't see the point in religion at all. I don't need to worry that if I die, I will or won't go to heaven. I can't worry about something that may not exist, and probably doesn't, so what do I care once I'm gone? I've seen no proof of the existence of any divine entity. I have no objection to anyone's belief system, but this one is just not mine. I tend to put my energy into science for answers to questions and reasons I don't understand. Each to his own, live and let live.
posted by Robert, NYC., at 10/14/2007 9:31 AM

Charles-- giving up religion requires that you understand it. "True believer" minus "Atheist" = 1. One religion.

I look at all religions like a particular species of wasp that stings a spider, but paralyzes it only. It then lays its eggs in the spider. The eggs hatch, and the larvae proceeed to eat the still-living spider.

Death is a part of life. we don't need to fear death, though we may not welcome it or like the idea. Carlos Castaneda: "We must always live as if we could see death every time we look over our shoulders." Once you can give up that fear, religion no longer has any relevance.

Your comment about abusive priests is a key to understanding that all religion is just made up. If God sees and knows eveything past, present, and future, then he knows what these priests have done/do/will do. we are told that the priesthood is a gift from God--without that calling, you cannot be a priest. The church has an elaborate process to determine whether one has that gift.

So, either the church's process is bogus, or the calling from God is just made up, or god prefers perverts in the priesthood. Take your pick. In any of these cases, the church's to divine authority must be called into question.

And as Helen bunker Hunt once put it so succinctly, if you start asking questions, where to you stop.
posted by Ben in Oakland, at 10/14/2007 12:02 PM

Charles nyc reply October 14

Richard and Ben, Thanks for your replies in Wayne's website, we'll continue it here because I don't want to monopolize the topic over there. You can post easily in the "comments" and we'll take it from here. Next time, I will reply you in the "comments" section of this blog.

My problem is my parents were very religious. My mom before she passed away (recently) begged me to "convert" and become heterosexual in her dying bed! Her "faith" (like opium) kept her "strong" when she was a widow. I also have met "good priests" who left their countries to become missionaries. Do you see my dilemma? Religion could only be the reason for some rich men to become priests and serve God in another country. (Unless they had homosexual tendencies that they chose to "bury" in the priesthood.

Whenever I brought my mother to Mass, I no longer feel that "divine" presence that they taught us in Catechism, all that magic of the Host turning instantaneously into the flesh and blood of Christ. The thousands of abusive priests prove that God cannot exist in the Mass and the same evil hands that "consecrated" the host.

The Mass is like a Broadway show that people have been addicted to, like opium as you said , and all the "graces" it promises are like the "nice feelings" one come out after watching a movie or a concert. The Devil sure is one hell of a producer and he had a cast of thousands of pedophile priests and John Paul II and Benedict collaborated with him because they kept it under wrap for decades.

But how do we change the huge institutions of churches that condemn us? and let us not forget, most of all, they also influence and control the government policies that affect us, like same-sex marriage, or gay common-law benefits?

Chris L.
I await your replies in the 'comments' section too. I don't want to use up space in Wayne's web for my questions to you. Thanks. Charles

Sometimes, these types of people are so awash in ignorance, so saturated with illogical foolishness on this subject, that I think the best thing to do is to simply ignore them and not focus on them. I am starting to believe that people who say things like, "I disagree with 'the lifestyle'" aren't worth wasting our time on. Of course, the exception is when they try to influence public policy with their idiocy.
posted by Chris L., at 10/17/2007 12:07 PM

Chris L. HOW can we "simply ignore them and not focus on them" when they are the ones in-power who decide our "state of union" and our state of being in government policies (plus their dictum outside-the-church- there is no salvation)?
posted by Charles, nyc, at 10/17/2007 1:07 PM

Robert, two days ago, I faxed William Donohue a letter which told him exactly what I think of him. He was on the radio blaming gay people for the actions of his very own Catholic Church in the pedophilia scandal. He's just another mean-spirited, ignorant religionist with the typical below-average intelligence in tow, a typical Irish Catholic drunk. And as for these crazy Arabs, they're so divorced from reality that it's almost not even worth acknowledging them.
posted by Chris L., at 10/17/2007 10:18 AM

Chris L. can you tell me what you faxed Donohue (in my personal blog http://men-friends.blogspot.com/2007/10/we-are-men-friends.html) I'd like to write him too. posted by Charles, nyc, at 10/17/2007 10:54 AM