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15 Mar 2013

Appointment of Pope Francis "a bad sign for LGBTI rights": Argentina LGBT Federation

The Argentina LGBT Federation has issued a media statement saying the election of the former archbishop of Buenos Aires as the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide is a "bad sign for LGBTI rights" as he had obstructed the legislative advances of LGBT rights in Argentina.

The Federación Argentina LGBT (FALGBT) released a statement on March 14, 2013, a day after former archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio was selected to be the new Pope: 

Pope Francis
The election of the until yesterday Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio, as the new Pope, marks the clear desire of the Vatican to radicalize its position against the recognition of diverse family structures. During the campaign for Marriage Equality in Argentina, Bergoglio led a crusade in the name of “God’s War” against it, which he declared a “plan of the devil.” The Argentina Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Trans expresses its deep regret for the appointment of the Archbishop of the City of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio, as the new Pope.

Jorge Bergoglio, who was twice the President of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, led the campaigns against the laws of Marriage Equality (2010) and Gender Identity (2011/2012), obstructing the legislative advances that were fought by the work of the FALGBT and the sexual diversity movement.

In the year 2010, during his public arguments against the law of equality, Bergoglio stated that, “The Argentine people will have to confront, the next weeks, a situation whose result can gravely hurt the family. This is the bill on same sex marriage."

In addition he stated that, with the legal acceptance of egalitarian matrimony in Argentina, there would be at stake, “The identity and the survival of the family: father, mother, and children. At stake is the life of so many children who will be deprived from the human development that God wanted by giving them a father and a mother. At stake is a direct rejection of the law of God, also engraved in our hearts."

In those same declarations Bergoglio expressed: “We remember what God himself said to his people in a moment of much anguish: ‘this war is not yours but God’s.’ May they assist, defend, and accompany him in this war of God’s.”

Note that now, Pope Francisco I is an active militant against the right for secure, legal and free abortion, still awaiting debate in the Argentine Parliament despite the enormous social and parliamentary consensus that the ruling has. Likewise, the performance of Bergoglio during the last military dictatorship is being investigated, especially regarding the theft of babies and disappearance of priests of liberation theology.

In that respect Esteban Paulón, president of the FALGBT, expressed, “If it is truly certain that we do not have expectations for change on the part of the Vatican, the election of someone who promoted a “God’s War” against Marriage Equality, does not stand to correct us. His radical position in turn on this theme, the law of gender identity and safe, secure, and free abortion, impedes us from being optimistic in this respect.”

In addition, he added, “The fact that the works of Francisco I have lived the last two and a half years in a country with Egalitarian Marriage and the fact that none of the catastrophes that he predicted have occurred, stand to change his negative position on the laws of equality. At least he will no longer be able to argue from a lack of knowledge since clearly Argentina is a country with more rights, peace, strengthened families, and diversity after the Law of Marriage Equality and the Law of Gender Identity.

Finally, he mentioned “beyond the personal convictions, the Church continues to hold a specific weight with great strength in global public opinion and in the decisions of many countries. It would be positive if the Vatican, at the hand of Bergolio, changed its positions and finally signed the UN Declaration against the penalization of homosexuality.”

Reader's Comments

Comment #1 was deleted by its author on 2013-03-16 01:39
2. 2013-03-15 21:00  
Hi, totally agree with you! If the gay community cannot respond properly and gracefully, we strengthen the discrimination against the group. I'm sure there are couples who live peacefully and are in fact making significant contributes to the world despite their sexuality. Do they need a parade to fight for their rights?
3. 2013-03-16 00:39  
Looks like they want a big hug from his Holiness!
4. 2013-03-16 01:24  
I think it is very difficult to turn around the freight train of equality.
5. 2013-03-16 03:48  
I say start taxing all churches and then you will see a change in their pompous holier than thou attitude and more accountability. They need to pull their hypocritical nose out of each others "you know what" and help the world develop in a positive way instead of marching to their self serving and arcadian rhetoric that does no one, (other than themselves), any good. Down with gayness...........is the church connected to a little hitlerism?!?! not to mention.....down with condoms too!.....don't get me started on that one! Churches.....boooo!
6. 2013-03-16 03:49  
Since when has any pope ever been good for anyone’s human rights, except for the sheople believing in all that religious gobbledegook?
7. 2013-03-16 10:56  
I wonder how Frank is going to deal with the paedophiles in the rank and file. Shouldn't one clean one's own home first before trying to clean other people's?
8. 2013-03-16 14:59  
good
在中国还是刚刚开始罢了,也希望外界多多支持我们生活在中国大陆的同志谢谢
9. 2013-03-16 14:59  
good
在中国还是刚刚开始罢了,也希望外界多多支持我们生活在中国大陆的同志谢谢
10. 2013-03-17 07:37  
Heavy taxation will shut the Church's mouth because it will be busy doing the accounting than propagating its widespread homophobia.
11. 2013-03-17 21:50  
To be honest, I was pretty disappointed by the first 265 popes. But I had a really good feeling about the next one.
I was wrong.
12. 2013-03-18 13:31  
Did anyone really expect change... its the Catholic church!
13. 2013-03-18 14:15  
Since when was the Pope GOOD news for LGBTI rights?
14. 2013-03-18 15:58  
Jesus in the gospels warns against teachers misleading the little children.. & if they did, it would be better for them to tie a mill-stone around their necks & to drown themselves.

Equating the recognition of same sex union as being a direct threat to the heterosexual family unit is misleading, erroneous & irresponsible. The church is again, ignoring the growing body of scientific research that points to homosexual orientation being not a matter of choice but biological & evolutionary predisposition. Instead of asking the question: Why did God create homosexuals the way they are, & to see how homosexuals fit into the Creator's Grand Design, the church is again falling into the same trap as they did in declaring the world is flat, & burning heretics at the stake for disagreeing with them.

Why doesn't the church instead focus its attention on issues directly impacitng the heterosexual family units for eg domestic violence, poverty, break up of families in war torn countries & so on??

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