This is a supremely cool video, and it happens to have been made by a friend of mine.

Though we in the LGBT community run the gamut of belief and lack thereof, it’s so important that we have all of our different voices in play, speaking out in the ways we’re best suited for.

I got this AP report from Rex Wockner:

Citing a shortage of priests who can perform the rite, the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops are holding a conference on how to conduct exorcisms.

The two-day training, which ends today in Baltimore, is to outline the scriptural basis of evil, instruct clergy on evaluating whether a person is truly possessed, and review the prayers and rituals that comprise an exorcism. Among the speakers will be Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston, Texas, and a priest-assistant to New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

“Learning the liturgical rite is not difficult,” DiNardo said before the conference, which is open to clergy only. “The problem is the discernment that the exorcist needs before he would ever attempt the rite.”

Signs of demonic possession accepted by the church include violent reaction to holy water or anything holy, speaking in a language the possessed person doesn’t know and abnormal displays of strength.

The full exorcism is held in private and includes sprinkling holy water, reciting Psalms, reading aloud from the Gospel, laying on of hands and reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Some adaptations are allowed for different circumstances. The exorcist can invoke the Holy Spirit then blow in the face of the possessed person, trace the sign of the cross on the person’s forehead and command the devil to leave.

Hmm, just like that — PRESTO — the church reentered Medieval times. How, exactly, is this church still relevant on moral issues? And, do we really need more Catholic priests blowing people…in the face.

If you ask me, I’d say the Catholic Church is in need of a serious exorcism.

The New York Times wrote a piece on Saturday about Eve Tushnet under the headline, “A Gay Catholic Voice Against Same-Sex Marriage.”

Tushnet grew up in a liberal home and was an out lesbian as a teenager. However, she attended a conservative meeting at Yale and then became a Catholic. Bizarrely, she now identifies as an out and proud lesbian who abstains from gay sex and is anti-gay.

It turns out Ms. Tushnet also enjoys all the trappings of gay life, while striking a conservative pose.

Get this. She dresses in trendy clothes, like a Park Slope lesbian. She lives in Washington’s uber-gay DuPont Circle…and she listens to gay synth pop.

“I really think the most important thing is, I really like being gay and I really like being Catholic,” she says. “If nobody ever calls me self-hating again, it will be too soon.

“Nothing is quite as great as getting up in the morning, listening to the Pet Shop Boys and going to church.”

Actually, Eve is self-hating. Imagine a black person choosing to live in Harlem during the civil rights era, dressing in distinctly African-American styles — yet adamantly and outspokenly opposing civil rights — and defending the indefensible by proclaiming, “But, I listen to the Jackson 5.”

Eve’s tired schtick is breathtakingly condescending and transparently patronizing. If she wants to be an anti-gay bigot, she should drop the pretentious poseur performance and refashion herself as Anita Bryant. At lease Bryant was honest in her presentation and did not work so hard to appear trendy and, “like, totally rad dude.”

I don’t really care that Tushnet has elected to remain celibate. If she has chosen to embrace a unimpressive, petty, and puny version of God who is a scold on “hole patrol” — well that is her business. Her loneliness and sexual repression is her choice and I respect it.

However, her blog reinforces the negative message that there is something wrong with gay intimacy. Her solution is that millions of healthy LGBT people adopt her obviously unhealthy sexual hang-ups and religious neuroses. This is a particularly egregious message when young LGBT teens are still committing suicide because they are told that there is something wrong with them. Ms. Tushnet’s work feeds into this bigotry and provides the rationalization and justification for harming people who have done nothing to hurt her.

Given the several century sodomy spree by Catholic priests with underage boys, the reshuffling of these reprobates like a deck of cards at Caesar’s Palace and the Vatican excusing those holding the church accountable as purveyors of “gossip” — the last thing we want or need is some self-righteous, sexually dysfunctional Catholic lesbian doling out advice on sex.

When I hear someone from this church opine on sexual morality, I automatically press the mute button and tune them out. After the raping of an untold number of youth, The Roman Catholic Church has lost its way and surrendered its moral authority to lecture gay people — or anyone — about sex. Particularly, when our relationships are healthy, productive, happy and between consenting adults.

Eve Tushnet would not be so angry and bitter if she — to quote her beloved Pet Shop Boys — ended her ridiculous routine found a nice West End Girl.

Larry King hosts the debate between Sinead O’Connor, the intellectually dishonest, anti-gay Bill Donohue, former CNN anchor Thomas Roberts, himself abused by a priest as a teenager. and a couple of priests. Bill Donohue basically continues his campaign of not caring about the victims and defending the Pope no matter what. He also continues his disgusting argument that raping minors isn’t so bad if they’ve hit puberty.

The only good thing about this scandal is that it’s exposing people like Bill Donohue for the rape apologists they truly are.

There’s an entertaining moment in this segment where Sinead O’Connor says something very sensible, and indeed, conciliatory — she is, after all, a committed Catholic — and Bill Donohue loses his mind. I’m going to guess he’s not accustomed to respecting a woman’s forthright opinion, but again, that’s just a guess.

In this third clip, Bill Donohue hilariously claims that he is “second to nobody” in fighting for victims of sexual abuse. Amazing. The self-aggrandizement is simply amazing:

(h/t Joe.My.God)

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence on Sunday hosted the National Organization for Marriage’s rally for antigay heterosexual Christian couples. The Providence Journal covered the event.

Antigay couples in attendance listened to Christian music, attended a worship service, and “renewed vows” against gay couples and their children.

One couple in particular, Paul and Lori Thomsen, traveled from out-of-state to convey the message that gay couples don’t love God, their families, or their partners:

“I came because I love God. I love my family. And I love my wife,” said Thomsen, a Warren native who now lives in Mansfield, Mass., with his wife of 21 years, Lori.

These couples implicitly declared to about 20-30 gay people in attendance:

“Marriage is for US and not for YOU.”

Some gay couples who attended opted not to bring their children, for fear of the children’s safety. (Read More)

Under pressure from the Vatican to deny the existence of homosexuality and to expel same-sex-attracted aspirants, Catholic seminaries are now telling the Vatican what it wants to hear: that “difficulties” regarding seminarian “homosexual behavior” (whatever that is) have been “largely overcome.”

Meanwhile, the prevalence of sexual abuse among priests remains poorly surveyed, as the Vatican falsely believes that the expulsion of gay celibate seminarians and the suppression of gay celibate priests will somehow rid them of priests and seminarians who are attracted not to men or women, but to kids.

The report by the Vatican’ Congregation for Catholic Education implies that more should still be done to police seminarians’ thoughts and routine daily behaviors, according to the National Catholic Reporter:

“Laxity of discipline,” unmonitored off-campus trips and use of the Internet were additional concerns, according to the report.

Instead of looking for evidence of sexual abuse, the Vatican advises seminaries to look for “evidence of homosexuality” — whatever that is.

Advocates for clergy and for the victims of sexual abuse criticized the report:

Marianne Duddy-Burke, who heads DignityUSA, a pro-gay Catholic group, said the Catholic Church has “reinforced a climate of secrecy” in the seminaries that existed in the 1940s and 1950s.

“It’ not that gays aren’t going into seminaries,” she said, “it’ that closeted gays are going into seminaries.”

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said “the central problem is, and always has been, chancery offices, not seminaries.”

“Arguing that some Vatican “probe’ of seminaries is needed is just more of their finger-pointing and blame-shifting,” said SNAP President Barbara Blaine.

The Roman Catholic Church generally does not fire church music directors for presumed premarital sex, usury, moderate gambling, smoking, or countless other vices.

But when a Verona, Wisconsin, church fired music director Charles Philyaw for being honest with the congregation about having a gay partner who was also a member of the church, the hypocrisy of antigay parishioners and an ex-gay advocate became apparent. The June termination at St. Andrew Catholic Church was reported Monday by the Wisconsin State Journal.

Parishioner Jo Ellen Kilkenny said, “We are all sinners, but when you hold a leadership position, you’re held to a higher standard than people in the pews.” She may be right to hold leaders to a higher standard — but that’s beside the point: Kilkenny tolerates sinful church leaders — she just doesn’t tolerate homosexual Catholics. In particular, she could not stomach receiving the Eucharist from someone (Philyaw’s partner) whom she knew to be gay.

Another self-deluded parishioner, Mark Heyde, incomprehensibly believed that laying the groundwork for Philyaw’s termination would somehow save Philyaw’s soul. Two other antigay parishioners, Kevin and Julie Keyes, fled responsibility for their actions, deflecting blame for Philyaw’s termination to church officials.

The diocese refused to comment — but made its unfortunate moral double-standard clear by referring media to a vocal ex-gay activist: (Read More)

Against freedom: An antigay Catholic group is upset that many Catholic universities permit freedom of speech and freedom of association among their gay-tolerant students and faculty. Styling itself as “The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property,” the group claims that, out of 211 U.S. Catholic universities and colleges, at least 96 have pro-tolerance clubs on campus. Patrick Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society equates tolerance of homosexual persons and their constitutional rights with promotion of homosexual activity, and he insinuates that sexual honesty is incompatible with “students’ moral formation.” Focus on the Family appears sympathetic to both Catholic antigay groups. (Focus)

Freedom from crime a “special right”: In its ongoing war against young victims of violence, the antigay American Family Association of Michigan has targeted state Sen. Valde Garcia, a Republican, for his support of legislation to protect students from bullying. Gary Glenn of AFA/M asserts that protection from bullying amounts to “special rights” if youths’ specific at-risk demographics are acknowledged. But Garcia says he had already threatened to withdraw his sponsorship of the legislation unless a list of protected demographics was removed. However, Garcia then contradicted himself — admitting he would hypothetically support legislation granting explicit anti-crime protections if they were limited to seniors, children and police. According to Sean Kosofsky of The Triangle Foundation, “If it’s not specific, it [anti-bullying legislation] will end up having little impact.” Kosofsky added, “There’s nothing gay about this bill whatsoever. It protects all students.” (Daily Press & Argus)

Gay genetics study: ABC News oversimplifies research into ties between genetics and homosexuality by falsely suggesting up-front that researchers seek a single gene that might explain sexual orientation. That’s not the case. According to the fine print in ABC’s own news story, the hypothesis is more complex:

Dr. Alan Sanders, a psychiatric geneticist at Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute, is currently heading the biggest study ever undertaken on sexual orientation. He’s looking at the genetic makeup of more than 700 sets of gay brothers.

“I think the evidence is pretty convincing already that a substantial contribution to sexual orientation comes from genetics,” he said. “It’s probably the single biggest factor that we know about.”

FRC apologizes: Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council apologizes for suggesting that America export its gay citizens in lieu of granting legal immigration to their foreign partners. (FRC Blog)

Kern meets with PFLAG: Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern still says equality for gay people is a bigger threat to America than terrorists — and further calls her opinion “Biblical.” But she has also met with members of the Oklahoma City chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and stated that she opposes discrimination against gays in the workplace. That should infuriate Concerned Women for America, which defended Kern’s terror talk as something that “reasonable people can debate.” Earlier, Kern debated a gay Christian pastor on KFOR-TV. (Queerty, PageOneQ, Good As You)