People vs. the Pope in Argentina

Gay people are the enemy of religious dogma whether they want to be or not. It is not the other way around, Churches are not attacked and discriminated against by gay people. Yet the leaders of institutionalized churches follow gay people around harassing their rights, lives and happiness.

In Argentina, as most of us know by now, gay marriage has been passed by the national legislative body. The major opponent to the passage of this law was: The Catholic Church.

In its race to derail the change, the church organized large protests involving tens of thousands of opponents of the measure, with Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, calling the bill a “destructive attack on God’s plan.”

The Catholic Church views homosexuality and more specifically, normalizing homosexuality, as destructive. This is no minor point for the Church, which, apparently spent money, time, and effort to "enforce" the idea that homosexuality is not normal.

But the people defied the Pope. No small victory "...in a region where the separation of church and state is not always so clear..."

Yet, back in the USA, we find that religion holds politicians in check even though we have a Constitutional separation of church and state. The irony is bitter. At least the Mormon church was found guilty of malfeasance in California. Ya, that's right, they broke the law in order to harass, intimidate, and denounce you and me.

The battle in Argentina is not over though, and the opponents of gay normalization will stay on the offensive (pun alert!) and press forward with legal challenges.

However, it is important to celebrate this victory for homosexuals. We are in an age of rapid and surprising change.