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Pope’s remarks upset gay groups

LONDON: Gay groups have reacted strongly to the Pope’s remarks in which he appeared to warn against homosexuality saying preserving the traditional gender identities was as important as protecting rainforest from ecological damage.

A Vatican spokesman clarified that the Pope never used the word gay or lesbian and that he was speaking “more generally about gender theories”, but gay campaigners insisted that his comments were directed against those who did not accept the “one-size-fits-all model” of sexuality. Rev. Sharon Ferguson, leader of Britain’s Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, called the remarks “irresponsible” and said they amounted to justifying “gay-bashing”.

“It is comments like these that justify the homophobic bullying…When you have religious leaders like that making that sort of statement then followers feel they are justified in behaving in an aggressive and violent way…,” she said.

Mark Dowd, the openly gay leader of the Christian environmental group Operation Noah said the remarks were “misguided” and showed a “lack of openness to the complexity of creation”.

“The problem is that if you study ecology seriously….you realise that ecology is complex. It has all sorts of weird inter-dependencies and it is the same with human sexuality. It is not a one-size-fits-all model,” he said.

A leader of the pro-gay Inclusive Church movement said “this sort of religious homophobia will be an alibi for all those who would do gay people harm”.

A spokesman of the gay charity, Pink Triangle, called the remarks “outrageous” and said they “reinforced” the Vatican’s “anti-gay reputation” following its opposition to a proposed U.N. declaration on decriminalising homosexuality. The remarks were contained in the Pope’s end-of-the-year address to the Vatican staff. He said defending the God’s creation was not limited to saving the environment but the church “must also protect man against destruction by himself”. It was “not an outdated metaphysics…if the church speaks of the nature of human being as man and woman and asks that this order of creation be respected”.

“Rain forests deserve, yes, our protection but the human being... does not deserve it less,” the Pope said.

The Church of England is already facing a split over the issue.

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