The Catholic Church Remains Opposed to All LGBT Protections

Personally, I remain dumbfounded by LGBT individuals who remain in the Catholic Church which, despite Pope Francis' occasional "gay friendly" comments, remains virulently anti-gay when there are accepting denominations that have nearly identical liturgies - e.g., the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ("ELCA") in particular (I left the Catholic Church in 2001 and ultimately found a home in the ELCA).  A piece in the National Catholic Reporter - not controlled by the Vatican - looks at just how extreme the Catholic Church's anti-LGBT jihad is in comparison to even the Mormon Church.  Not only do the Catholic bishops oppose any non-discrimination protections for LGBT individuals in employment, housing, public accommodations and health care access, but they also lobbied against any federal funding for a suicide prevention hotline if it included resources for LGBT individuals. One can only conclude the bishops' view is better dead by suicide than gay. Add to this the still ongoing sex abuse scandal that has shown the moral bankruptcy of the Church hierarchy which has fought tooth and claw to avoid compensation victims, and exposed the hierarchy as a veritable moral cesspool.  Here are highlights from the NCR article (note that the bishops are no friends to women either):

When the U.S. Congress passed the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act last fall to establish a toll-free number with assistance for those with mental health crises, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops quietly lobbied behind the scenes against the legislation. 

The bishops' justification? The legislation contained special funding for LGBTQ support.

A similar path has been taken by the U.S. bishops since March 2013 toward the Violence Against Women Act, bipartisan legislation that established a separate office and additional funding for the prosecution of violent crimes against women.

"All persons must be protected from violence, but codifying the classifications 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' as contained in S. 47 is problematic," the bishops wrote in a statement signed by the heads of four committees and one subcommittee.

Relatedly, the bishops have long opposed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), legislation that dates back to 1974 and has been proposed by each Congress since 1994. The bill prohibits discrimination in hiring and employment due to sexual orientation, and the bishops argue that it fails to distinguish "between sexual inclination and sexual conduct" and does "not represent an authentic step forward in the pursuit of justice in the workplace."

Such reasoning is, in part, why the U.S. bishops have opposed the recently passed House legislation known as the Equality Act, which would expand federal civil rights protection against LGBTQ persons, while eliminating religious freedom protections.

In an effort to reject any legislation that acknowledges the category of LGBTQ persons, an approach the bishops' conference has followed for years, it has also refused to support compromise legislation to the Equality Act known as the Fairness for All Act, which has received the backing of frequent Catholic-allied faith communities, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Orthodox Union, and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

Some observers worry that the U.S. bishops' posture is based on a narrow view of the law and bad political strategy.

"Many Americans think that traditional believers seek a general 'license to discriminate' and that hostility to the LGBTQ community is the public face of Christianity," four leading First Amendment scholars wrote in an open letter.

Thomas Berg, a professor of law and public policy at the University of St. Thomas and one of the signers of that letter, told NCR that "a refusal to consider LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws, even when balanced with significant religious liberty protections, makes it very difficult to dispel that attitude."

The proposed Fairness for All legislation, introduced in the U.S. Congress by Utah Rep. Chris Stewart, aims to both outlaw discrimination against LGBTQ individuals in most areas of employment, housing, access to credit and social services, while preserving RFRA and allowing religious organizations and individuals that define marriage differently than the federal government to hire based on their sincerely held beliefs.

While the legislation would add sexual orientation and gender identity-based protections to federal civil rights code, it would also protect faith-based organizations from losing their federal funding if they adhere to a different definition of marriage than the government and would prevent houses of worship from losing their tax-exempt status for doing the same.

Unlike many of their long-standing allies, the U.S. bishops reject this approach.

Despite such efforts to combine anti-discrimination provisions for LGBTQ people with provisions aimed at securing religious freedom, the general strategy of most Catholic bishops has been to simply double-down on opposition to the Equality Act, without any consideration of possible alternatives.

"If you say we can't support any anti-discrimination protection for sexual orientation or gender identity because such behavior or identity is wrong or flawed," he warned, "then it's very hard to explain to someone else why they should support religious freedom protections or traditional religion when they believe its behaviors or tenets are wrong."

One can only hope that Professor Berg is correct and that the bishops (along with evangelicals and Christofascists) are ultimately undermining public support for "traditional religion" and its hate and divisiveness.