In late 2006, the New York Daily News reported on Italian speculation that Benedict is himself homosexual. A gay television personality, Fabio Canino, "opened his show with a puff of pink smoke wafting from the Vatican chimney" and cited the pope's "fondness for shopping and Prada shoes as evidence" that he is a "kindred" spirit. Canino also said that Benedict's hunky private secretary, Monsignor Georg Ganswein (pictured above), was the pope's "boyfriend." , was the pope's "boyfriend."
Based on my experience, the worst homophobes (especially in the Southern Baptist and ultra-conservative Protestant denominations type) are the self-hating, angry closet cases, who long for a same sex partner but are too paralyzed by religious dogma to act upon it. Instead, they attack others who are not afraid of their sexual orientation almost out of jealousy fueled hatred. If Benedict is gay and has a boyfriend, he would not fit the typical pattern. But then, the Catholic Church's history is full of gay popes (the 1500's were full of them), popes who fathered children, etc., so perhaps the catholic hierarchy doesn't fit the typical Evangelical Christian model.
