Dallas (Vichy) Voice uncritical cheerleading for Pope Francis' statement on LGBTQ. Update: Francis slur in private, twice.
Though Pope Francis' statement might have some marginal benefit in some situation, it was uncritically reported by the Dallas Voice to the detriment of Gays.
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UPDATES:
Pope Francis uses homophobic slurs twice since the Dallas Voice did their original uncritical report. We will update this.
Repeats slur again.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/11/europe/pope-francis-homophobic-slur-repeat-intl-hnk/index.html
Pope Francis uses vile slur about Gay men.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czrrexn0094o
In this article they are already coming up with excuses for him.
One of Italy’s largest newspapers, Corriere della Sera, quoted several unnamed bishops suggesting that the pope may not have been aware of how offensive the word is in Italian.
Vatican veteran reporter and author Gerry O’Connell also suggested that the pope’s remark was “a gaffe on the part of the pope, rather than a slur,” as a nonnative Italian speaker.
Of course there is an apology non-apology.
“The pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he extends his apologies to those who were offended by the use of a term that was reported by others,” Bruni said.
It isn’t that he is apologizing for using the term, it is just for those who would find a homophobic slur offensive, he regrets them being offended. It implies that maybe they are too sensitive souls, since there are others who were supposedly not offended. What does this “reported by others” mean? Is it that it would be okay had it been kept a secret?
The Gay Catholics have already reduced this to a slip up or something and nothing really to be concerned about.
Dallas (Vichy) Voice minimizes it.
This is David Taffet’s damage control for the benefit of Pope Francis.
Actually, Francis has a fairly good record on gays in the church. In 2013, when asked about gay Catholics, he responded, “Who am I to judge?” And on other occasions, when asked about LGBTQ Catholics, has said “There’s room for everyone” in the Catholic Church.
https://dallasvoice.com/pope-apologizes-for-homophobic-slur/
Report follows this photo.
March 31, 2023
Dallas, Texas 75216
Leo Cusimano Publisher/President
Dallas Voice
1825 Market Center Blvd,
Ste 240,
Dallas, TX, 75207
Dear Mr. Cusimano:
I am writing you about an article published in the Dallas Voice, online, Jan. 25, 2023, “Pope says being gay shouldn’t be criminalized,” by David Taffet. It is online at this URL:
https://dallasvoice.com/pope-says-being-gay-shouldnt-be-criminalized/
This unfortunate article assesses the impact of Popes Francis’s statement about LGBTQ entirely upon the skewed gushing uncritical assessment of the New Ways Ministries, a group of Roman Catholics begging for acceptance by their church. David Taffet’s article is entirely one-sided.
A closer examination of the import of Francis statement reveals that it is at best a marginal improvement for LGBTQ and perhaps actually undermines LGBTQ rights. It suggests that it isn’t done for the benefit of the LGBTQ, but in the self-interest of the Roman Catholic church.
[1] Still sinners. This statement sees the rights of LGBTQ as an act of Christian charity rather than LGBTQ have rights in a society that isn’t a theocracy and Christians don’t get to dictate who gets what rights. We live in a secular democracy and have rights regardless of their approval.
Further, how committed are people going to be for LGBTQ rights when it is the rights of those stigmatized as sinners? I suspect not very much.
Pope Francis statement merely asks for people to be charitable for a moral under class.
I suggest this statement for the various Christians with addled thinking about the LGBTQ:
It is up to Christianity to figure out how Christianity can exist in a universe where LGBTQ exist, NOT for LGBTQ to figure out how they can fit into Christianity.
[2] Impact and substance: It is not clear from the reporting whether these statements of Pope Francis are going to be a policy of the Roman Catholic church and to what extent. Will it be binding on cardinals, bishops and other Roman Catholic institutions? Or is it merely an opinion without force of Pope Francis? Or just a happy suggestion? Will it last beyond the life span of Pope Francis. Has it been incorporated into any Roman Catholic policy documents?
Will there be any retraction of statements made by Catholic leaders against the LGBTQ in the last few years? Will there be any apologies made for their opposition for the decriminalization of homosexuality in India, such as reported in their own newsletter.
https://www.ucanews.com/news/india-church-unhappy-with-legalization-of-homosexuality/83280
Will it result in any actions by the Roman Catholic church to oppose such anti-LGBTQ laws.
Is the LGBTQ to be so lacking in any expectations that any crumb and marginal thing is to be paraded around as some great thing?
[3] We live in the 21st century, not the mid-20th century: Maybe supporting decriminalization would be a big thing in the 1960s, but the year is 2023 when you published this article.
The Roman Catholic church is still actively campaigning against Gay marriage and anti-discrimination laws. The are still a serious global enemy of the LGBTQ.
I would suggest that there are self-serving reasons that Pope Francis has made this statement.
[1] Criminally prosecuting LGBTQ is an extremely unpopular idea in the Western world and in much of Asia it would be seen as irrational. The Roman Catholic church realizes that strategically they need to abandon this position.
[2] The Roman Catholic church is getting fairly hostile treatment in China and India and it is concerned with anti-Catholic persecution elsewhere. The Roman Catholics can’t appeal for a human rights policy to support their rights when they are fairly active in attacking the human rights of LGBTQ.
If they are still trying to criminalize LGBTQ, their policy isn’t about human rights and the end of persecution, but a self-serving policy that the wrong people are being persecuted, namely themselves, rather than the persons they would like to see persecuted, the LGBTQ.
[3] Pope Francis’ statement about criminalization will tend to obscure the anti-LGBTQ agenda of the Roman Catholic church especially with reporting like that in the Dallas Voice.
The Dallas Voice needs to recognize the reality of the modern LGBTQ community in what it is and who they are.
The Dallas Voice is reporting this issue from the narrow perspective of a small group. Of course, the Catholic LGBTQ have just as much right to have desperate hopes as anyone else and be Catholic. However, their concerns aren’t the concerns of the LGBTQ in general. The Dallas Voice shouldn’t be reporting Pope Francis’ statements only from the perspective of this small group, but report it in a relevant way to the LGBTQ community at large.
Consider this 2015 poll by the Pew Research Center.
Reviewing the results, you find that the majority of Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals aren’t Christian. The breakdown is:
Christian – 48%
Non-Christian faiths – 11%
Unaffiliated – 41%
Catholics constitute 17% of Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals.
It is now eight years later, 2023, and Christian religious affiliation has continued its precipitous decline. This is a Pew Charitable Trust 2022 review of the continuing decline of Christianity.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/09/13/modeling-the-future-of-religion-in-america/
This raises yet another question about the importance of Pope Francis’ statement about LGBTQ that the Dallas Voice didn’t consider. Is the opinion of a collapsing faith really that important?
The Dallas Voice needs to stop reporting the news as if the Dallas LGBT+ demographic is all Christian and all desperate to be accepted by Christians and also start having a critical perspective and report news regarding religion not confined to narrow sectarian aspirations of some Gays.
The Dallas Voice also needs to get serious about the human rights of Gays and not worry about what the Dallas establishment might think. The following are where the City of Dallas seriously lacks in its support of the LGBTQ.
· Dallas doesn’t have a human rights commission.
· The so-called sexual orientation anti-discrimination ordinance is a joke, formulated so that it could be claimed Dallas had such an ordinance without it having substance.
Both issues aren’t raised by the Dallas Voice.
Persons from really homophobic organizations were giving invocations at the Dallas City Council and it was reported in the Dallas Observer and NOT in the Dallas Voice. I raised the issue with the reporter that it was odd that this issue hadn’t been addressed by anyone else previously and only was being address in 2022 by me.
The club On Rotation in Dallas recently had its drag show shut down due to intimidation by Christians. It was reported in the Dallas Observer and in the Dallas Express, but not in the Dallas Voice.
If the Dallas Voice doesn’t want to be known as the Dallas (Vichy) Voice, it needs to stop colluding with the anti-LGBT+ policies of the Dallas establishment by giving them a free pass.
Sincerely yours,
Edward H. Sebesta