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Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association
 London, England--The Vatican's latest attack on gay rights is a threat to the democratic
process in the West, says the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association.
"The Vatican's call on Catholic politicians to defy the democratic will of their constituents and cast their vote in the way the Vatican wants it is anti-democratic and dangerous," said Terry Sanderson, a spokesman for GALHA. "It is a clear illustration of why the Vatican's power in the UN and the EU must be curbed." GALHA's statement comes after the Vatican issued a document Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons, which says the issue is not up for negotiation and that Catholic politicians are required by the Holy See stand against these proposals. The issue of legal recognition for gay relationship is on the agenda in several countries at present - including Britain and Canada. Terry Sanderson commented: "Throughout the developed world surveys show that attitudes to the granting of civil rights to homosexuals are softening. The idea that permitting some kind of legal recognition to gay relationships is a threat to marriage is simply a red herring. What is actually happening here is that the Vatican is trying to revive its own waning influence by defining gay people as a threat to morality, and then attacking us." He said that the demand for Catholic politicians to follow the Vatican line rather than their own conscience was dangerous and a threat to open politics. "Do the people who elected these politicians realize that the strings are being pulled by a wholly unelected and unrepresentative theocracy?" The Vatican declared that nations must promote laws that "safeguard" marriage as being possible only between a man and a woman. He said: "in no way can cohabitation be placed on the same level as marriage, nor can they receive legal recognition as such." On Sunday the Pope said that the church's message on the "family" was being watered down in Europe, even by liberal Christians. He decried the "vague and little-demanding religious sentiment, which could become agnosticism and practical atheism." Terry Sanderson said: "The Pope's reactionary agenda is becoming more and more desperate and the Vatican's determination to promote it, at the expense of gay people, is shocking. The 'Holy See' is on the verge of asking the United Nations to upgrade its status there to full membership, where it will wield its influence to retard progressive humanitarian legislation. It is also pushing very hard for more influence in the European Union through a concerted campaign to have religion mentioned in the constitution. This has been resisted so far, but there are still several opportunities to change things." In the United States, a recent opinion poll showed that opposition to the idea of gay marriage is waning, and in the United Kingdom the Government is proposing new legislation that would give gay couples almost the same rights as heterosexual marrieds. Gay marriage is already possible in the Netherlands and Belgium and other gay partnership arrangements are extant in many other EU countries, including Germany, where the Catholic church has reacted with extreme aggression. Cardinal Karl Lehman said: "Now the associations of homosexuals have a potent arm to obtain further concessions on the road toward full equality with married couples, including the right to adoption". |