Vatican: LGBT Catholics Find Little Encouragement in Family Synod Document

The “working document,” released that will guide discussion at this fall’s Vatican synod on the family doesn’t reflect a lot of outreach to LGBT people — and LGBT Catholic groups are objecting.

The portions of the paper dealing with LGBT issues “hardly reflect the rich discussions which have taken place, internationally and at all levels in the Church, on the welcome, respect, and value which should be afforded to lesbian and gay people in the Catholic community,” says a press release from the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics, a coalition of LGBT-supportive groups.

The coalition also denounces the document’s “unfounded statement” that international organizations are threatening poor countries with a loss of financial aid if they do not adopt marriage equality. The church should instead condemn countries that criminalize LGBT identity, with punishments including torture and the death penalty, the group said in its release. Read More

US: The Family Research Council’s anti-trans guide is an embarrassing failure of logic

Conservative Christian think tank and political lobbying organization, the Family Research Council has long traded in dubious claims and hateful rhetoric. New document, “Understanding and Responding to the Transgender Movement,” is no exception: Authors, Dale O’Leary and Peter Sprigg, fall back on the usual appeals to discredited pseudoscience and decades-old scholarship. But they also embrace a far more surprising referent, the language of the feminist and queer activists they’ve spent decades fighting, even as they back away from their own conceptual and intellectual vocabularies.

While the FRC pitches itself as a defender of a “Christian worldview,” O’Leary and Sprigg claim to be protecting a far more nebulous concept. “In recent decades,” they write in their introduction, “there has been an assault on the sexes.” Read More

Poland: For Poland's gay community, a shift in public attitudes, if not laws

Many European Union nations are enhancing rights for their LGBT citizens. But not Catholic Poland. This former Soviet satellite constitutionally restricts marriage to a man and a woman. Recent efforts to pass laws to protect the LGBT community in Poland from discrimination and violence have gone nowhere.

But there is one notable change these days — in Polish attitudes. Homophobic attitudes were prevalent among Polish lawmakers when Robert Biedron was elected as a MP in 2011. "I was the first member of the Polish parliament who was openly gay," Biedron says, "and they would not be brave enough to shake hands publicly because somebody would think they're gay."

Polish gay rights activists note other changes, too, including the opening of central Europe's first homeless shelter for LGBT teens earlier this year in Warsaw. Marianna Szczygielska, the project coordinator for the Warsaw-based Campaign against Homophobia, says attitudes toward gays began to change in 2004: "With [the] opening of borders after joining the European Union, things have changed, especially for queer youth," she says. "Even LGBT characters being featured in popular TV series, that already makes a difference in social acceptance."  Read More

Israel: Homophobic op-ed by Islamic leader raises Arab Israeli ire

A homophobic article by an Israeli Islamic leader has sparked a flurry of condemnations by Arab civil society, shining a light on a usually suppressed debate on gay rights. Commenting on the same-sex wedding of Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, Sheikh Kamal Khatib, deputy head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, launched a scathing attack on homosexuality in an op-ed titled “You make me sick,” published on Yaffa48.com.

“Western societies have reached the lowest of lows,” wrote Khatib, and that society was succumbing "to moral degradation." "It is noteworthy,” he continued, “that suspicious local organizations, tabloids and biased writers have been advocating this perversion. To all those, I say not ‘may you be well and have boys’ but rather ‘may you be miserable and suffer plagues and AIDS, you perverts!'”

Khatib’s comments quickly drew fire from Israeli Arabs on social media.

Al-Qaws, a Palestinian NGO supporting sexual and gender diversity in Palestinian society, argued in a rare statement that Khatib’s concern over homosexuality may indicate a paradigm shift in Arab treatment of the subject: “We wonder,” the organization wrote, “Is this a miserable attempt to exploit the issue of gays for political purposes, or did the Sheikh see change taking place before his eyes and get nervous?”  Read More

US: Episcopal Church formally embraces same-sex marriage

The bishops of the Episcopal Church have authorized their clergy to perform same-sex weddings. Episcopalians overwhelmingly voted to allow religious weddings for same-sex couples, solidifying the church's embrace of gay rights that began more than a decade ago with the election of the first openly gay bishop.

In resolutions adopted here at the denomination’s General Convention meeting in Salt Lake City this week, the bishops have endorsed new liturgies or services for same-sex couples wishing to marry in church. The bishops also approved changing the church’s canons, or rules, governing marriage, making them gender neutral by substituting the terms “man and woman” with “couple.” However, clergy were also given the right to refuse to perform a same-sex marriage, with the promise they would incur no penalty, while bishops were given the right to refuse to allow the services to take place in their diocese. Read More

South Korea: This is what happened when Christian groups tried to shut down Korea Pride

Tens of thousands of people marched through the South Korean capital in an LGBT pride festival, despite attempts by Christian groups to shut it down. The atmosphere was defiantly jubilant at the parade, the culmination of the three-week long Korean Queer Culture Festival.

Christian groups have been running a campaign for weeks to try to block the parade. In May, they camped out for a week in front of the police station where parade organizers had to apply for a permit and filed a competing request to hold an event in the same place. Police initially responded by canceling the parade citing the conflicting permit applications, but a court ruled that the parade had to be allowed. The Seoul police deployed thousands of officers to keep order between the queer festival — which began in a large grassy plaza in front of city hall — and eight counter protests that entirely surrounded the area. Read More

US: In some states, defiance over Supreme Court ruling

More than a dozen states that saw gay marriage bans struck down last week by the U.S.  Supreme Court are vowing to protect religious liberty, even though they grudgingly accept that the ruling is now the law of the land. 
 
In the wake of Friday's decision, Texas’s attorney general told county clerks in the state that they have a statutory right to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples if they have religious objections to gay marriage. 
 
In Alabama, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore — a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage — said a new state court order could temporarily delay the practice, only to walk back the remarks. 
 
And in Louisiana, the attorney general contends there is nothing in the Supreme Court’s ruling that renders it effective immediately, raising questions about how soon the state would have to comply. 
 
Many other states across the South and upper Midwest are criticizing the ruling as an encroachment on states’ rights and religious freedom, though most acknowledge they cannot ignore it.  Read More

Pope’s Encyclical Rejects Abortion And ‘Gender Theory’

Pope Francis has released his encyclical “Laudato Si” (“be praised”) which has a particular focus on global warming and ecological issues he believes are threatening mankind. Media coverage of the encyclical has almost exclusively focused on the pope’s urging for a solution to global warming.

But the 184-page encyclical covers far more than environmental issues. In his letter, Francis also reaffirms the Catholic Church’s stance against abortion and contraceptives, its rejection of “gender theory,” its plea for the wise use of technology and the value of human work. Read more

US: Evangelicals open door to debate on gay rights

As a young, gay Christian activist, Matthew Vines considered it a victory just to get into a room at a conservative Christian university with influential evangelicals who disagreed with him over what the Bible says about homosexuality. Youth ministers and chaplains are studying how to respond to students struggling with their sexual identities. Governing boards are re-examining their policies on allowing openly gay people in Bible studies. And pastors are preaching and writing about, rather than ignoring, the recent books arguing that the Bible can be read to support same-sex marriage.

Few are dropping their opposition. But aware that they are seen by many as bigots, some evangelical leaders are trying to figure out how to stand firm without alienating the rising share of Americans — especially younger ones — who know gay people and support gay rights, or who may themselves come out as gay.

“Because this is such a relatively new thing, pastors and church people want to know, ‘How do we navigate this, and how do we navigate this well, without doubling down or capitulating?’ ” Glenn T. Stanton, the director of family formation studies at Focus on the Family, said. Read More

How recognizing LGBT Jewish identities and ritual practice enriches the entire Jewish community

Ritual Reconstructed is a collaborative project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project is a partnership between Liberal Judaism and several universities to work with London-based Jewish lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex communities to explore faith rituals which combine both Jewish and LGBTQI identities.

We’re working with film, performance, installation and narrative storytelling to look at the ways in which Jewish LGBTQI people engage in religious and community life.

We are also working with Rabbis, philosophers and theologians to enable us to explore the importance of  ‘queering’ text and to think about how we can challenging hetero-normative assumptions about what it means to be a ‘good Jew’. The aim of the project is not only to demonstrate the richness, pride and imagination LGBTQI Jews bring to ritual practice, but also to show the importance of inclusive religious identities. Read More

Australian Archbishop Denis Hart lobbies parents to support 'the meaning of marriage'

Children at Catholic schools have been sent home with glossy booklets that oppose gay marriage following a request by the Archbishop of Melbourne. The 15-page booklet, "Don't Mess With Marriage" said redefining marriage would have "far-reaching consequences". "All marriages would come to be defined by intensity of emotion rather than a union founded on sexual complementarily and potential fertility."

The Safe Schools Coalition, which works to create a safe environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender students, urged principals not to distribute the material. The coalition's co-ordinator, Roz Ward, said the material could damage the mental health and wellbeing of same-sex attracted young people, by suggesting their relationships were unnatural or not as important.

 "At school it is particularly important that they can feel they can be themselves and valued for who they. In a situation where you feel that is not valued, everything else becomes more difficult." She said same-sex families who sent their children to Catholic schools would see this as a "direct attack on their existence as gay Catholics". Read More

Russian Orthodox Church ends ties with protestants over gay marriage

The Russian Orthodox Church says it is severing ties with the main protestant churches of France and Scotland over the issue of same-sex unions. The Moscow Patriarchate said that "formal contacts" with the two institutions were pointless after France's United Protestant Church last month voted to allow pastors to bless same-sex marriages and the Church of Scotland approved ordaining clergy in same-sex civil unions.

"We regretfully acknowledge, that today we have a new divide in the Christian world, not only regarding theological subjects, but regarding moral issues as well," the patriarchate said in a statement.

The Moscow Patriarchate noted that it had previously suspended ties with the U.S. Episcopal Church in 2003 after it consecrated an openly gay bishop, and with Sweden's Lutheran Church after it sanctioned ceremonies for civil unions in 2005. Read More