Petition to Pope Francis and U.S. Catholic Bishops

Faith in America has launched a petition drive via Change.org to make a plea to Pope Francis and the always anti-gay U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to cease preaching that homosexuality and homosexual relationships are a sin.  Study after study has shown that the number one cause of homelessness for LGBT youth is religious based discrimination and bigotry that motivates parents to treat their LGBT children as if they were disposable trash.  This bigotry in turn traces ultimately to the writings of unknown ignorant authors from two millennium ago.  I would urge readers to sign the petition.  Here are highlights about the petition:

Pope Francis and Catholic Bishops, we are asking for your help and the Catholic Church's leadership in righting a grave moral wrong that is being perpetrated on untold millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth as well as their parents, siblings and other members of their families.

By teaching that homosexual conduct is sin or that homosexuality is a sinful inclination, the Catholic Church and other Christian and non-Christian churches are causing immense emotional, psychological, spiritual and physical harm to these youth and families worldwide.

• Last year at least 200,000 LGBT youths experienced homelessness in the United States. LGBT youths make up 40% of the homeless youth population in this country, despite comprising only about 5% of the overall youth population.
• A recent study of Family Rejection found that parents who identified as "strongly religious" were significantly more likely to reject their LGBT children.
• A recent study published by the American Psychological Association reported that a majority of gay participants cited religious teaching as the primary source of conflict within families after they came out.
• LGBT youths who are rejected by their families are eight times more likely to attempt suicide than LGBT youths whose parents accept them.

The pain and torment does not end with LGBT youth as the conflict results in derogation to the entire family – parents, siblings, grandparents and other relatives.

The conflict is often viewed as irreconcilable and parents and other family members feel they cannot affirm the LGBT youth and remain true to their faith. The young person may feel they are the source of such conflict within the family and then are burdened with more guilt from feeling they have brought pain and anguish to their parents, siblings and others.

Such emotional, psychological and spiritual trauma leads many young LGBT youth to feel they must leave the family as their way of resolving the conflict.

Most tragically, many LGBT youth decide that suicide is their only escape from the type of personal and familial conflict that results from religious teaching that condemns their same-sex attraction as a sinful inclination or their sexual acts or expressions of affection with other same-sex individuals as sin. 

So many of these youth feel their sexuality is in conflict with their Christian faith as church teaching tells them they are separate and apart from God. Parents, siblings, grandparents, other relatives and peers also experience this conflict and therefore a profound hindrance to the Gospel is being allowed to flourish within our society.

When the church in the past has refused to examine fault within scriptural teaching, such moral wrongs as genocide, slavery, subjugation of women have flourished within society. The ultimate result of the church's complicity in such moral failure is the denigration of the Christian faith. We see this happening today in relation to traditional church teaching on homosexuality. A younger generation recognizes the church's inability and unwillingness to right a grave moral wrong being perpetrated on their LGBT brothers, sisters, parents, relatives and friends.

We are asking that you, Pope Francis and Catholic Bishops, to allow the Catholic faith to lead the world's religious communities in bringing an end to this grave moral failure in the church's response to and its embrace of LGBT youth and families.

 I have signed the petition and I hope you will do so as well.

9th Circuit Strikes Down Marriage Bans - 5 More States to Join Marriage Equality Column

Yesterday and today have been devastating days for Christofascists and their sleazy political whores in the Republican Party.  Between the U.S. Supreme Court action yesterday which tacitly affirmed the rulings of the 4th, 7th and 10th Circuits and today's ruling of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals striking down same sex marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada, when all the dust settles the number of states where same sex marriage is legal will surge from 19 states to 35 states (including Alaska and Montana).  Should the 6th Circuit rule the same way, then the gay marriage states will number 38 - far more than those that had legalized interracial marriage prior to the ruling in Loving v. Virginia.  The 9th Circuit ruling can be read here. There obviously must be much wailing and gnashing of teeth in hate group headquarters (not that these folks will surrender and seek real jobs).  Metro Weekly looks at today's 9th Circuit ruling.  Here are highlights:

A federal appeals court struck down same-sex marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada Tuesday in what is the latest of a series of victories for marriage equality just this week.

In a 3-0 opinion authored by Judge Stephen Reinhardt, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found bans on same-sex marriage in Idaho and Nevada violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“To allow same-sex couples to adopt children and then to label their families as second-class because the adoptive parents are of the same sex is cruel as well as unconstitutional,” the ruling states. “Classifying some families, and especially their children, as of lesser value should be repugnant to all those in this nation who profess to believe in ‘family values.’ In any event, Idaho and Nevada’s asserted preference for opposite-sex parents does not, under heightened scrutiny, come close to justifying unequal treatment on the basis of sexual orientation.”

Monday’s decision by the Supreme Court also impacts states under the jurisdiction of the 4th Circuit, 7th Circuit and 10th Circuit Courts of Appeals, meaning same-sex marriage will likely soon be legalized in West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming. On Tuesday, Colorado’s attorney general ordered county clerks in the state to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. When the other states impact by the Supreme Court’s decision comply, 30 states, plus D.C., will allow same-sex couples to marry.

Should Tuesday’s ruling by the 9th Circuit be petitioned to be heard by the Supreme Court, it seems unlikely the justices would hear the case following Monday’s decision to reject cases striking down same-sex marriage bans in five states. As such, the 9th Circuit’s decision will likely impact other states in the circuit that ban same-sex marriage, including Arizona, Alaska and Montana, but not immediately.

“Today’s decision from the Ninth Circuit brings to 35 the number of freedom to marry states, and 64% of the American people now live in a state where gay people will soon share in the freedom to marry,” Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry, said in a statement.

 When I came out 13 years ago, I never thought I would live to see this day.  In fact, when I came out, even consensual same sex sexual relations could land one with a felony conviction here in Virginia.  Thankfully, Lawrence v. Texas ended that constant worry and now my husband and I are fully legally married in Virginia.   Not to sound cruel, but I have zero sympathy for the Christofascists who have inflicted so much harm on so many for so long.  Hopefully, they will soon become a scorned and largely irrelevant minority.