Say this for the California Catholic Conference: They don’t want to rewrite history. They just want to hide it. With dreary predictability, the bishops’ policy arm is condemning a bill that would require social studies texts to include the contributions of LGBT Americans. The mere acknowledgment in print of our existence, let alone our positive role in history, is apparently enough to send the bishops into a tizzy.
The Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful Education Act has passed both house of the California legislature and is awaiting the signature or veto of Gov. Jerry Brown (a onetime seminarian), who hasn’t said whether he supports the bill or not. The conference had unsuccessfully tried to defeat the bill by urging Catholics to lobby their legislators—whom the conference in a display of what it sees as charity called “politicians subject to the winds of political correctness.”
Now the bishops are looking to put the pressure on Brown. Los Angles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez recently described the bill as “another example of the government interfering with parents’ rights to be their children’s primary educators.” (He also opposes another bill allowing children 12 and up to get an HPV vaccination without parental permission. Apparently, it’s more moral to promote cancer deaths than sexual activity.)
State Sen. Mark Leno, who sponsored the bill, has said that the “collective silence on this issue perpetuate negative stereotypes” that contribute to bullying. Leave it to the Catholics to find someone to argue that saying good things about gays and lesbians is a bad thing. William May, chairman of the California-based group Catholics for the Common Good, said in a letter to the head of the state Assembly’s Education Committee that bulling of gay kids not about to be solved by “cosmetically sexualizing social studies”—proving once again that Catholic ideologues only see sex where the rest of us see role models.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Schlukitz
Kinda makes one feel all warm and fuzzy inside, doesn’t it?
Abirdwillingtobeitself
One thing I notice about Catholic criticisms of gay rights, dumb as they are, is that it’s never about effeminacy. They don’t see gay people as gross, happy-go-lucky sissy boys the way Evangelicals do. This suggests to me that they’re more open to changing their minds.
TMikel
What about the sexual abuse of priests? Will they want to exclude that as well. The Roman Catholic Church has outlived its usefulness in the United States. This is just the latest in the church’s attempt to control people – all people except its child abusing priests.
Jeffree
@Schlukitz: Awww, the catholics would try to keep Galileo out of the books too, if they could: that little episode made’em look kinda bad !
@Abird__: Yeah but the RCs still confuse pedophilia & homosexuality. The pace the church changes at says they won’t stop thinking we’re intrinsically disôrdered until the 30th century.
ewe
That photo is absolutely no different that RuPaul on her pedestal.
Schlukitz
@ No. 4- Jeffree
And then there was the little matter of Giordano Bruno; incarcerated for seven years and burned at the stake in the Square of the Flowers in downtown Rome, but not before driving an iron spike through his tongue as punishment for his “heretical”, free-thinking speech.
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/john_murphy/giordanobruno.html
“The church destroyed so much knowledge that it took Western civilization almost 1700 years to arrive where the pagan Greeks were, in 300 BCE. Why do we know of Copernicus and Galileo who mistakenly left the sun the center of the universe, but not Bruno, who saw the infinite? Those who control the present control the past. That’s why.”
asdSR
Churchs at it again-trying to silence important truths for the sake of its dogmatic bs. Galileo anyone?
Jeffree
@Schlukitz: Thanks for the “lezione” and the link. I’d read a bit about Bruno on one of the science sites I haunt, but was fuzzy on the details. The RC church is already imploding & those California bishops are definitely trying to “control the past”.
Yep, we all know that letting students read Walt Whitman, study Stonewall or listen to Cole Porter leads to a huge surge in the number of LGB sophomores !
randy
Wow — the Catholic church really has it in for gays. They know that if people read nice things about gays, they won’t be so eager to throw us to the wolves.
They are now officially anti-education (as they always were, actually). They are saying they prefer to keep people ignorant so that the church can fill their head with it’s own prejudices.
Soon, the church will be irrelevant to anyone’s belief system.
randy
Another thing — I bet if the bill were to teach that gays are horrible people and deserving of death, would the bishop complaint that the state is interfering with parental rights? of course not — they would remain silent.
Armand
The author of this article needs to perform a thorough research on the HPV vaccine and its dangerous side effects. I actually agree with the Bishop against allowing under 12 year old girls without parental consent to get the vaccine.
JT1962
Armand, the law about HPV vaccine says nothing about allowing girls under 12 years old to get the vaccine without parental consent. It would allow girls 12 and UP to get it. Before you write, make sure you comprehend what you’ve read, please.
asdSR
The Church, like mentioned earlier, is by definition(like all religion) against education and treating gays with dignity. They take the word of “God” and their bronze-aged myths to be all important, beyond respect for their fellow man.
More importantly though is the fact that Michele Bachmann is actually as of now ahead of Mitt Romney in the GOP primary. She can in fact win the primary and become president. “Gays are with Satan and live lives of bondage” is what is coming directly out of her mouth. We must not let this crazy bitch win you guys!!! WTF are people thinking!!!
Armand
@JT1962:
Re-phrased: The author of this article needs to perform a thorough research on the HPV vaccine and its dangerous side effects. I actually agree with the Bishop against allowing 12 year old girls and up without parental consent to get the vaccine.
Rainfish
Interesting link below to three well known “boy-loving” Popes which are well documented in several historical texts.
Pope Paul II (1464-1471)
“Knowledge of Paul’s sex life comes primarily from the papal biographer Bartolomeo Sacchi, who called himself Platina and wrote five years after Paul’s death. Platina paints a portrait of a fun-loving pontiff, “prone to lust” who surrounded himself with attractive young men and shunned the close company of women. Because he could easily be moved to tears by the sight of one of his favorite Italian boys, his cardinals refered to him as “Our Lady of Pity”. ”
————–
Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484)
“Immediately after his election, he violated his papal oath by appointing two handsome nephews, Pietro Riario and Giuliano della Rovere (who later became Pope Julius II), as cardinals. By all accounts, Pietro was the Pope’s lover, and the pontiff enriched his nephew on a scale unprecedented in the history of the papacy.”
———————-
Pope Julius III (1550-1555)
“Although an outstanding canonists, his careless homosexuality, especially as he got older, created a monstrous scandal for the papacy. In his sixties, he picked up a 14-year-old boy on the streets of Parma. The boy, ironically named Innocenzo (, was stunningly beautiful and Julius was so enraptured with him that he forced his brother to adopt Innocenzo.
…Gossip called the boy Julius’s “Ganymede,” and the Venetian ambassador reported that Innocenzo shared the pope’s bedroom and bed. The relationship became a staple of anti-papal polemics for over a century: it was said that Julius, awaiting Innocenzo’s arrival in Rome to receive his cardinal’s hat, showed the impatience of a lover awaiting a mistress, and that he boasted of the boy’s prowess.”
Source Link:
http://www.true2ourselves.com/forum/sexual-morality/4792-three-gay-popes.html
MattGMD
Since the catholic corporation consistently insists on inserting itself in politics, then it seems the right thing to do would be to pay real estate and corp income taxes.
roland
@asdSR: Not all religious myths are homophobic. In fact it’s usually the teachings that are homophobic. Not all religions are inerrancy-freaks either.
Disney Princess From Hell
The Catholic clergy is comprised of little more than child molesters donning lavender. The Catholic Church picks on us because we are the last demographic that it is socially acceptable to bash. They used to blame Jews for all the world’s problems, but that became unfashionable after the Holocaust. When it eventually becomes unacceptable to bash gays, the Catholic Church may have to actually accept responsibility for the crimes they’ve committed throughout history. Or, more likely, they will manage to find another excuse for their atrocities. I applaud the California legislature for refusing to be intimidated by this coalition of pedophiles and pedophile-enablers. Hopefully Governor Brown will do the same.
Queer Supremacist
Instead of raising taxes on “the rich”, since there may not be any left soon, why not just tax the churches instead?
They certainly deserve it for all they’ve done to impede social, economic, and scientific progress in the West.
McGullen
@Queer Supremacist: the number of rich people in America is on the rise right now.
Dana
Governor Brown has signed the bill into law. So take that and shove it up your ass, California Bishops!
geo
good