….in support of same-sex civil unions. The Catholic Church continues to be an age-old example of high drag (grown men with “Dorothy’s red shoes”). The Pope, other Catholic priests and even some of the orthodox offshoot’s clerics have gowns that would make any queen jealous. In the 14th century, the worshipers drank wine in a week-long Carnival festival.
–Detail from Carnival in Rome, Johannes Lingelbach, ca 1650
Drag queens nowadays and Catholics alike love to do a number called ‘Gloria’. It is too bad that the gay community and the Church are so at odds, given their long history. Many accounts of Catholic Carnival parties in the 14th century conveniently omit mention of same-sex love between priests. And let’s not forget the abuse of young boys by priests throughout the 20th and 21st centuries – thousands of stories more horrifying and salacious than those derived from any gay bar backrooms during the 70s and 80s.
Despite this storied history, the official position of the Roman Catholic Church is still that homosexual relationships are condemnable, and that homosexual behavior itself is deviant.
Pope Francis seems intent on making a change. He has long taken a softer stance on same-sex relationships than his past colleagues. In a new interview for the documentary ‘Francesco’, Pope Francis voiced support for same-sex civil unions. This is the first time any sitting Pope has done this (Pope Francis had previously endorsed same-sex civil unions when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires).
Gay rights have made leaps and bounds in parts of the world over the last 50 years, but many countries still criminalize gayness. Catholics make up over 15% of Earth’s population, so the Pope’s words have the potential to enact a good deal of change in our ever-changing world. He has not voiced support for same-sex marriage, perhaps a too radical idea for all 1.2 billion Catholics. Still, his words represent a softening in the church’s highest office.
What would Jesus say about this? Well Jesus did say something… but rarely does the church acknowledge that in Matthew, Jesus was chastising the Pharisees in their treatment of eunuchs (intersex or castrated folk and first century sissy-boys) by saying that “For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it” (Matthew 19:12 KJV).
Basically, Jesus’ friend Matthew is telling us and the world that all of these people are still children of God, and – aside from those who “were made eunuchs of men” – are “Born This Way”, as Lady Gaga would say. This writer believes that most mammals are tribal, and many are bisexual, gay, and heterosexual. Yet, all statistics show that the bisexuals are the largest profile in human sexuality.
Jesus never preached damnation, nor did the Catholic Church. They took a hundred years in the closet to hide the fact that the relationship between Johnathan and David was a love affair: “…the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David…” on their first meeting (1 Sam 18:1, KJV). Not to mention the Sapphic love of Ruth and Naomi: Ruth tells Naomi, “…where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried…” (Ruth 1:16-17). We dare not mention Cain and Abel, who either mated with their mother, Eve, or a sister.
While we’re on the issue of incest, the church needs to stop the centuries of false teaching that the men of Sodom and Gomorrah wanted to have sex with angels. The verses clearly distinguish that the men of the cities wanted to meet the angels (“bring them unto us, that we may know them” (GEN 19:5 KJV)), but Lot, supposedly interpreting that they wanted to have sex with angels, offered his two daughters. It seems a little odd to this writer that one would offer his daughters to a bunch of gay sodomites. The story goes on after Lot left Sodom and Gomorrah with his wife and two daughters.
His dear wife disobeyed God by turning around, and God turned her into a pillar of salt. That night, the HOOOOLY bible gives the true meaning of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot got drunk, his daughters got drunk, and daddy had sex with the oldest daughter. The next night, the older daughter told her younger sister it was good, and she needed to “do” daddy. Daddy seeded them both. Clearly, the writer of this story celebrates incest. It is the defining point and purpose of the story. Incest because there were no other people? Or incest because the girls were horny? You decide.
All these years later, the Pope caught on to the power of love and acceptance that Jesus preached. In the ‘Francesco’ interview, he said “homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God. You can’t kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this.” Rupaul Charles, of Rupaul’s Drag Race fame, says, “as gay people, we get to choose our family,” because so families elbow their gay members out in one way or another. Hopefully, Pope Francis’ words represent a cultural shift toward acceptance that eases the burden of finding family for gay generations to come.