New York now has full marriage equality, Illinois, Hawaii, Delaware, Rhode Island have advanced civil unions this year. In New England and the North East, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and DC have…
Monthly Archives: June 2011
The Catholic Role in NY Gay Marriage
During the build-up to last week’s vote, a headline in the Christian Science Monitor posed the question: Could Catholics play a decisive role? Now that the vote is over and the dust settled, the answer is clear: Catholics did indeed…
35 Years as LGBT Catholics: Looking Back, Looking Ahead (Preamble)
Coinciding with the anniversary of Stonewall, and anticipating next week’s celebration of London Pride, the UK Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement met in Birmingham over the past weekend to celebrate their 35th anniversary. I was invited to lead a workshop…
35 Years as LGBT Catholics: Looking Back, Looking Ahead (1: Where Have We Come From?)
When I was invited by LGCM to look at this issue for their 35th anniversary conference, my first response was to question, “When, exactly, was 35 years ago?” The answer of course, was 1976 – which has two deeply personal…
35 Years as LGBT Catholics: Looking Back, Looking Ahead (2: Where Are We Now? Changes in the Church)
As we digest the impact of these past trends, I consider the implications in four key areas: the decline of Vatican power; internal contradictions in Vatican teaching on homoerotic relationships; the transformation of the laity; and the transformation of the…
35 Years as LGBT Catholics: Looking Back, Looking Ahead (3: Internal Contradictions in Church Teaching) -
After considering some of the transformations that have irrevocably changed the Catholic Church, I consider now some of the internal contradictions in Vatican doctrine on sexuality. Catechism, and homosexuality The Catechism instructs (correctly) that sexuality is an important element of…
35 Years as LGBT Catholics: Looking Back, Looking Ahead (4: Where Are We Headed?)
Predicting the future is dangerous, and I have no desire to make wild guesses, so I will simply point out one observation on what we can consider to be fairly certain, and a few more on what will be highly…
Sexual Nature: Picture Gallery
A standard argument for the Vatican doctrine that the sole purpose of sex is for procreation, is based on the assumption that all other forms and purposes of sex are not found in nature, and are therefore unnatural, and contrary…
David Frum: “I was wrong about same-sex marriage”
One of the characteristics of the conservative arguments against same-sex marriage has been how little basis they have in any kind of evidence. In one court case after another, arguments based on protecting the family have been shown to have…
Stonewall, and the Progress to LGBT Inclusion in Church
Stonewall has been very much in the news these past few days: while the interminable delays over approval of New York’s bill to recognize same-sex marriage was frustrating and stressful, the eventual passage, late on Friday night, coincided with celebrations…
