Later this week, notoriously anti-gay Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York will offer the final blessing at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, just like he did last week at the Republican Party convention in Florida.
Contrasting Dolan’s long history of homophobia with the party’s inclusion of federal workplace protections and marriage equality in its 2012 platform, Will Kohler of Back2Stonewall called last week for all LGBT convention delegates (a record-setting number) and equality supporters to protest during Dolan’s prayer this Thursday:
There will be over 500 LGBT delegates at the 2012 Democratic National Convention and unless the DNC rescinds Cardinal Dolan’s invitation and replaces him with a more suitable religious leader I call upon EVERY ONE of them and LGBT journalists, bloggers and straight allies to protest during Dolan’s prayer. Stand up and turn your backs, walk out, or shout out. Let Dolan know that he and his anti-gay bigotry is unwelcomed and also let the DNC know that we will not take this slight lightly.
Enough is enough!
What do you think? Would a public show of disapproval of Timothy Dolan’s anti-LGBT activism send an important message about the political risk of pandering to homophobic religious conservatives, or would it undermine the party unity that conventions work so hard to cultivate?
Protesting while Cardinal Dolan is offering the closing prayer does not strike me as an effective way to get the point across and could draw more criticism of the protesters than support. One woman’s opinion.
Dolan should be banned from the premises. The Democratic Party Platform should include a statement of determination to lift statutes of limitations for the prosecution of child rape in every state. The Platform should further contain a demand that the Catholic Church acknowledge its role in demonizing WWII era homosexuals and in getting them deported to concentration camps where they were tortured and/or murdered. The platform should specifically state that because the Church has not acknowledged its WWII-era persecutions of homosexuals, its continued demonizing of, and politicking against them is monstrous and completely unacceptable.
I agree with Loretta. Most of the stations that cover the Democratic convention will not be airing his prayer, just as they did not cover his prayer at the end of the Republicant convention. Just ignore his prayer. Walk out before it (as I suspect a lot of delegates will be doing, since it is really an anticlimax to the convention’s events). But shouting at him would be rude and would distract from the importance of the night. After all, the prayer is irrelevant to the convention, no matter who is praying it.
My opinion, for what it might be worth, is that by inviting Dolan to say the closing prayer, the Democrats have taken away from the Republicants any advantage they hoped to gain from having Dolan. My reaction to Warren’s prayer at the Inauguration was different. The government was still defending DOMA, DADT was still in effect, and the other events moving our community forward had not yet taken place. And Warren spoke during the Inauguration ceremony, not when the event was basically over.
I think that the selection should be criticized. I think that a progressive preacher or priest should have been chosen and promoted.
That said, I would not be for any onsite demonstration. Obama came out for marriage, did not defend DOMA, and got rid of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. That is enough for me to let this one go for the sake of unity.
We can make our point, as TWO has, without becoming a distraction the way Clint Eastwood did.
I think it was weaselly to invite that old, tired, self-loathing queen to the Democratic Convention but now that the damage is done, you just grin and ignore it. The people who like Dolan would never have voted for the President anyway, so his invitation was a dumb and reactionary move by whatever Poobah did it. I will be glad when American political conventions can dispense with this religious mumbo jumbo that everyone ignores anyway.
I understand the objections to Dolan but would not participate in the proposed protest. Dolan stands a very good chance of hoisting himself on his own petard, very much as Warren did at the Inauguration-demonstrating a problematical grasp of the place in which he will stand at the DNC’s invitation. He stands an even better chance of being widely ignored-especially if others avoid bringing inappropriate attention to his performance.
A timely protest should have been filed with the Convention organizers. The course I would suggest is an after the fact complaint outlining the structural problem involved and detailing the ways in which his actual benediction offers to be counterproductive.
It is of some note that Warren’s presumptuous performance at the Inauguration can be seen as the end of the rise in public esteem and influence which had preceded it. Perhaps Mr. Dolan will experience something similar with regard to his papal aspirations.
Dolan knows where the Democrats stand on LGBT equality issues, this just proves what a media w***e he really is. He should have never been invited and should have had the decency (laugh) to decline.
This guy’s absurdly pretentious costume tells the whole tale. Dom Bede Griffiths, OSB — a brilliant and beloved Catholic Benedictine monk, who was the Abbot of a trans-denominational Christian Ashram in India (Google his name for more information), and who had some very distinguished gay writers and scholars among his admirers — always garbed himself as a simple Indian monk. The self-posturing of these Vatican pretenders is simply out of the ballpark.
“Darling, your dress is lovely but your purse is on fire.”
I rather think it would burn his a*s if the deligates all sent Dolan a thank-you card for having blessed gay people in their political struggle.
I support Cardinal Dolan and look forward to hearing him speak.
[...] before the Cardinal arrived, homosexual activist Will Kohler of Back2Stonewall called on all 500 LGBT delegates and associated reporters and activists in the convention hall to “stand up [...]