In New York, the National Organization for Marriage, whose resources have been stretched thin from other campaigns in the Northeast, began making phone calls to recruit supporters only late last week.
The state’s Roman Catholic bishops have been somewhat distracted, too, having focused their lobbying energies this session on defeating a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse to bring civil claims, and have appeared unprepared for the battle over marriage.
“Frankly, the governor caught us all by surprise when he put this bill out there,” said Dennis Poust, communications director for the New York State Catholic Conference, the bishops’ political arm. “We weren’t expecting it.”
How appalling! The Catholic Church, who tries to use the argument about morality for discriminating against GLBT people is focusing their lobbying energies to deny victims of sexual abuse their day in court. The Church is more concerned about it's finances than the well being of people.
7 comments:
Yeah, and up in Maine, the Bishop of Portland is now a leader in a drive to overturn the same-sex marriage law there. How peculiar that these R.C. politicians with clerical titles demand the government out of their affairs while they jump in with both booties.
I, for one, absolutely believe that abusive clergy need to be prosecuted. But I think that there is some misinformation in the NYT article, if this article is talking about the Markey Bill.
The Markey Bill would eliminate New York's seven-year statute of limitations for a period of one year to allow allegations of incidents that had been barred by the running of the statute of limiations to be brought forward.
That's just crazy! We have laws, and those laws are for the protection of all citizens, both the accuser and the accused, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless the state proves otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt. Statutes of limitations exist to protect individuals from being charged when the evidence that might prove there innocence no longer exists or when recollection or memory may have been tainted by the passage of time. In these cases, we could be talking decades. The only crime in most states with no statute of limitations is murder.
I'm probably going to get flamed for taking this position, but I ask you whether you would like to be put into the position of proving that something did not happen 30 years ago? Good luck.
Having been part of the NH diosis I can say that not only is the Church primarily concerned with money, there are a lot of closeted self haters who are priests. I haven't gone out and named anyone, but you used to be able to see them down at the gay might clubs if you knew who they were.
The most revolting thing is that these dishonest holy men are party to the persecution of other gay men who are at least honest about themselves. The irony would make me laugh if it weren't so sad.
I'm so glad I found this blog. Every time I read something that MassResistance has posted, I sort of want to throw up a little bit. But it's also kind of funny how much they generalize and how completely ignorant they are...
When they negatively affect someone I know personally, though, it becomes a serious issue for me. They featured a picture of my friend kissing his boyfriend in their "article" about the gay prom in Boston, and he was pretty upset about it (although it actually was a pretty good picture of him!). It also really bothers me when they put words and phrases like "gay," "couple" (in reference to gay couples), and "coming out" in quotation marks... What? Are they trying to delegitimize it?
Sarah,
Tell your friend that he should feel lucky! You're nobody until Brian Camenker hates you! ;)
I've been a GLBT activist for years, I help run KnowThyNeighbor.org, and I'm friends with people like Dr. Pat Gozemba of Courting Equality, but I still haven't been hated by Brian yet! :(
In all seriousness he's going to learn to be very proud of that moment and that picture, tell him I said so.
John,
I don't know much about MassResistance yet - is Brian Camenker the one who runs it? I'm going to find a way to make him hate me, haha! I've always wanted to get into GLBT activism, but it's kind of difficult since I just graduated from HS (and my parents are only mildly supportive). But I'm moving to Chicago in August, so I figure I'll have more opportunities then.
I'm familiar with KnowThyNeighbor.org! I discovered my aunt on the petition, which was pretty frustrating.
And he is proud of the picture! I think he's going to put it on his facebook because it was such a good photo! :P
(Sorry for the lengthy response!)
Here's my facebook link, feel free to add me and to let share it with your friend:
John Hosty
We always have room for people to help with our cause, it's a lot easier than most people would think. As long as you know how to use a computer and share your thoughts you are ready to help! :)
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