FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Wayne Besen, Executive Director
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
TWO Calls Cardinal Francis George’s Apology to the LGBT Community a Positive Development
We Called for His Resignation But Remorse Is a Good Start, Says TWO
CHICAGO – Truth Wins Out commended Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Francis George today for apologizing to the LGBT community after he made intemperate remarks comparing the LGBT movement to the Ku Klux Klan.
“I am truly sorry for the hurt my remarks have caused,” George said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. “Particularly because we all have friends or family members who are gay and lesbian. This has evidently wounded a good number of people. I have family members myself who are gay and lesbian, so it’s part of our lives. So I’m sorry for the hurt. When I was talking I was speaking out of fear that I have for the church’s liberty and I was reaching for an analogy which was very inappropriate for which I’m sorry. I didn’t realize the impact of what I was saying. … Sometimes fear is a bad motivation.”
Truth Wins Out placed a full-page ad in last Sunday’s Chicago Tribune headlined “Hey, Cardinal Francis George, Gay is not like the KKK.” TWO also started an online Change.org petition calling on George to step down that reached more than 5,400 signatures. Pressure continued to build with the Gay Liberation Network and the Rainbow Sash Movement planning to protest the Cardinal this weekend.
“We called for Cardinal George’s resignation but we think remorse is a positive step in the right direction,” said TWO’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “It is gratifying to see the Cardinal take personal responsibility for the hurt he has caused and we hope this incident leads to improving relations with the LGBT community.”
George’s offensive remarks first came during a dispute over the scheduled starting time of the annual gay pride parade in June. The event was originally set to begin at 10am, but a priest bitterly complained that the starting time would interfere with morning services. In an interview with Fox News in Chicago, Cardinal George said: “You know, you don’t want the Gay Liberation Movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.”
Truth Wins Out (TWO) is a nonprofit that fights anti-LGBT religious extremism. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
I’m surprised to see anyone back off from anti-gay rhetoric. I guess things are improving. Now let’s work on Santorum.
I was very critical of anti-gay activist George’s remarks. But if someone genuinely apologizes and is sincere, as this seems to be, we should give him/her the space to grow and evolve. We all make mistakes. If he learns from this one, then that is a good thing. And I thank him for apologizing. God does move hearts and minds.
I’m willing to give Cardinal George the benefit of the doubt. If he is genuine in his remorse for what has been said, fair enough. We have all had times when we’ve spoken intemperately. Now we will see where this goes.
How long before he gets a slap down letter from Benny 16 for being nice to the ‘sodomites’?
What exactly is this ungrounded fear he has for the church’s liberty? Since when has any denomination, particularly the roman variety, had its freedom curtailed and been told what it can and cannot do? If anyone’s liberty has been curtailed, its our own when the likes of him and his church lash out at states allowing same-sex marriage and funding hate groups such as NOM to thwart equality. We’re the only group that does not have full freedom and rights.
[...] Source: http://www.truthwinsout.org/pressreleases/2012/01/21334/ [...]
[...] Source: http://www.truthwinsout.org/pressreleases/2012/01/21334/ [...]
[...] Source: http://www.truthwinsout.org/pressreleases/2012/01/21334/ [...]
Apparently (no surprise) Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute has HUGE issues with it.
http://illinoisfamily.org/news/contentview.asp?c=35481
Wayne,
The Pope just declared a lie that gay marriage “threatens the future of humanity”, a direct hit on gays and gay marriage. Have we had enough of the pointy hats vile garbage hurting gays, some beyond repair? This is only one shot of many he has taken at gays.
With the divorce decline in full-gay-marriage Massachusetts and Canada not falling in the ocean along with the other countries that have gay marriage, isn’t this along the same lying guidelines that Cardinal George just apologized for? Is it time to call the Pope on his utter b******t via a petition request for a personal apology?
It’s a new year and a new day. Is it time we come out swinging with two flame throwers frying hate speech, instead of one?
http://www.reuters.com/article/comments/idUSTRE8081RM20120109
Also:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/09/us-pope-gay-idUSTRE8081RM20120109
No, it is not “a positive development” — it is a strategic retreat so that he and his Church can continue to call us “evil” and our very lives “intrinsically evil” and a “threat” to my own family.” His “apology” is nothing — it is fluff on a rotten heap of nasty garbage – and he will merely seek to rephrase his abject stupidity and nastiness towards us gay folks. Do not be fooled by such a retreat from one comment while the rest of his stand.
Nothing short of Acceptance will be tolerated by me. Nothing short of a complete and utter abdication of the Church’s constant anti-gay rhetoric will please me. I’m not lulled into this “oh, he’s apologized for the KKK” comment while he continues with each and every other obnoxious comment he and his Church have ever made.
It is nothing. He’s a poseur. He’s only apologizing for this instance — not the totality of his and his Church’s delusions and abject stupidity when it comes to me and mine. No, this is nothing. I want the Church to say “gay is good.” Anything less is mere political puffery meant to lull a few of us to a false sense of security. Sorry, not good enough Cardinal George. Sorry, TWO, but this apology is nothing, absolutely nothing, in the greater scheme of things. I shall never deign to be called “evil” even if by a more acceptable analogy he might pull up from his fetid mind. Complete and utter surrender to our acceptance as decent fine good people and nothing less is acceptable.
Thanks again for the blog post.Much thanks again.