The Danish government is planning on legalizing same-sex marriage come June 15, but at least two people haven’t gotten the memo that their country is embracing equality: A priest in Aalborg just ate some crow after refusing to bury a lesbian, while a former integration minister is under fire for rejecting marriage equality with an odd comparison to slugs.
According to Homotropolis, a priest in the Church of Denmark refused to bury a 74-year-old woman earlier this month because she had been in a same-sex relationship for 30 years.
“I thought, can it really be true that we should be ashamed of it?” said Kirsten Østergaard, the daughter of the deceased. “I looked at my mother’s life partner and she was completely silent… It’s a terrible situation to put her in.”
The elder Østergaard’s partner is 80 years old.
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Fortunately, after Kirsten and her family complained, the holy man did a complete 180:
“It was a mistake on my part, the biggest mistake I have ever made as a priest. It was a blunder and a mental short circuit that goes against everything I stand for.
At first I had agreed to carry out the funeral, but then it crossed my mind that it would be wrong to conduct funerals of gay people when I do not want to marry gay people. But it was completely wrong of me.”
George Hinge of LGBT Denmark calls the priest’s actions “illegal and obscene” and it’s hard to disagree. A mental short circuit is when you forget what month it is, not when you go against everything you supposedly believe in.
The Bishop of Aalborg has since asked the unnamed clergyman for a written explanation. Maybe he should be asking for his collar instead.
Elsewhere, the topic of gay people getting married led former church minister Birthe Rønn Hornbech to remark that “apart from the killer slug and a few other species, the world consists of males and females—and that is why the world still exists.”
The killer, or Spanish slug (arion vulgaris) is hermaphroditic. It’s considered a blight because a single slug can lead to an infestation.
Hornbech’s statement was met with outrage by gay Danish culture minister Uffe Elbæk and other influential politicians in Copenhagen: “Thank you for reminding us of the scary amount of homophobia that exists just beneath the nice polished Danish surface,” Klaus Bondam, former employment and integration minister, wrote on Elbæk’s Facebook post about the incident.
In 2010, Hornbech was criticized and eventually sacked when it was discovered that Palestinians had been illegally denied Danish citizenship with her knowledge.
The ex-minister told the Danish newspaper BT on Wednesday, “What I said yesterday was a description of reality.”
Source: Homotropolis. Photos: Håkan Svensson, Tomasz Sienicki
Belize
Of course the priest refused the burial. It would violate his childish doctrine. Perhaps the family of the diseased should just hold an independent burial–that is a lot more sacred than anything that the Catholic Church can offer.
Daez
Perhaps the priest thought to bring light to the stupidity that exists when you can bury a gay/lesbian person but not marry them. I’m sure I’m giving him to much credit, but that is exactly what happened.
R
I’m Danish and I can tell you that my Facebook wall yesterday was filling up with criticism about this incident. It’s uncommon for homophobia to be publicly spoken or acted on, so it has been a big deal. But there will always be cases like this until society grows more tolerant. The positive side of the story is that he apologised.
Kurt
@Belize: The Church of Denmark is a Lutheran body, not Catholic.
Kev C
Killer slugs are slow death. Slow and sticky.
Mark
Great!! So now I am being compared to a SLUG?
w.e.
The only good queer is a dead queer – oh wait, not even then?
Hyhybt
“it would be wrong to conduct funerals of gay people when I do not want to marry gay people.”
All right.. the reason usually given for not wanting to marry gay people is basically that you believe gay couples are, by definition, not capable of marriage.
The equivalent for funerals? “Oh, she can’t be dead, she’s a lesbian?”
Angry
On the other hand, if gays were in fact like the Spanish slug, we would not need to have breeders at all. Jus Sayin’
Jon
Or you can throw away religion for the poisonous nonsense that it is and have a secular burial with dignity.
stanJames
@Belize: Maybe they should bury him up to his head. Then stone him to death as per leviticus or the Muslim beliefs system.
If the guy was a catholic priest then its time to check his thingy and look for boys in the church with hemorrhoids