Church and gay rights – The Irish Tim

Contents:

• THE IRISH TIM VIEW ON GAY BYRNE: THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTNARY
• ANTI-GAY ATTUS NORTHERN IRELAND ARE CHANGG
• CHURCH AND GAY RIGHTS
• HOW IRISH GAYS BEME ‘NORMAL’ – AND WHY THE CHURCH WAS UNABLE TO DO MUCH ABOUT
• LAWS AGAST GAY NVERSN THERAPY 'ULD STOP PEOPLE OM SEEKG PASTORAL RE'
• CATHOLICISM’S OUTDATED VIEWS ON GAY MUNY

THE IRISH TIM VIEW ON GAY BYRNE: THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTNARY

“This submissn suggted that even though the Church rarely nmns gay people the days, directly creat an atmosphere where physil, psychologil and emotnal abe of gay people is tolerated and even enuraged.

In no other time uld a supposed light entertaer like Gay Byrne have stood at once for a challengg morny and a fortg provid jt the right amount of disturbance and disfort to make sure the natnal nversatn would start when the show was overThis is not to say that he was a mere product of his time and place. “There is no fix or cure for me; there is no therapy that will make me a gay man…Why would we say that a gay man n be fixed or cured?

ANTI-GAY ATTUS NORTHERN IRELAND ARE CHANGG

Enjoy more d and podsts on iOS or browser do not support the <d> words om a rated veteran of the war Afghanistan helped nvce Northern Ireland’s legislators to ll for a ban on “gay nversn therapy” siar to a bill unr nsultatn England. Harold McKee, a standard-bearer of unnism the Mourne Mountas, qu on October 30th, lamentg that gay marriage was unter to the “fallible word of God” Beattie says his live-and-let-live nvictns are born of three s of ary service Ai, the Balkans and Iraq, om which he learned that “people of all kds have a need to be rpected”.

CHURCH AND GAY RIGHTS

And gay rights are not entirely a new ncern for the UUP. In 1981 Jefey Dudgeon fought and won a battle European urts to get Northern Ireland to follow Great Bra—belatedly— crimalisg gay sex. Found by Ian Paisley, a preacher who vowed to “Save Ulster om Sodomy”, opposed same-sex marriage until the change was, effect, imposed by London January June Pla Bradley, the DUP’s puty lear, formally apologised for s “atroc” rerd on gay rights.

One pot of ictn, he says, was his belief that the party should move a progrsive directn, for example by supportg Gay Pri Thompson-McCormick, a gay wrer who liv England but had an Ulster Prottant upbrgg, spi a streak of pragmatism the DUP’s natural voters that he thks will eventually brg them around.

HOW IRISH GAYS BEME ‘NORMAL’ – AND WHY THE CHURCH WAS UNABLE TO DO MUCH ABOUT

Until then Mr Beattie will ntue to ffle feathers—and Sn Fe, which is stnchly pro-gay rights, will rejoice over s adversari’ nfn.

LAWS AGAST GAY NVERSN THERAPY 'ULD STOP PEOPLE OM SEEKG PASTORAL RE'

Sir, – The edorial ment that the actns taken agast our mister and the Council of Christ Church Sandymount "st the already damaged reputatn of relign on this island an even poorer light" uld not be more appose ("The Irish Tim view on the church and gay rights: the road to irrelevance", January 9th) the foundg nfsnal statement of the Prbyterian Church Ireland (PCI) had the potential to gui our Church lears another directn altogether, if they had only heed . Ireland and the Uned Stat have both travelled a dizzygly fast path acceptg homosexualy and supportg same-sex marriage.

CATHOLICISM’S OUTDATED VIEWS ON GAY MUNY

The two untri, lked mon stereotype by their relig fervour and their nservative moral attus, have both gone om prevalent homophobia to wispread acceptance ls than a the Uned Stat, popular support for gay marriage has gone om ls than a quarter 1994 to nearly two-thirds by 2013. This would be stunng before any referendum, but is all the more so sce 20 years ago, ls than 20 per cent of Irish rponnts accepted homosexualy, much ls same-sex marriage. The rapid pace of the shifts public opn only seems to crease, a s of support for gay rights and same-sex Bee of a peculiar paradox: the fact that homosexualy n be hidn mak s acceptance pecially rapid.

In nservative societi, the first openly gay people a society have to be pecially brave: and are likely to be different om the rt. They are “risk acceptant” the language of social science: willg to urt stigma and disda for their drs, behavur and mands, which are perceived as mpy, outrageo and radil by the rt of as more and more gay people e out, what is strikg about them is how “normal” they are: the neighbour or -worker wh whom we’ve shared gossip and beer out of the closet, but nothg else about them has changed.

In this suatn, most people will shift their view of homosexualy, rather than droppg a iend. In fact, recent experimental rearch shows that even a brief ntact of 20 mut or so wh a iendly dividual who reveals they are gay n have lastg effects creasg warm feelgs towards gays and votg on gay-iendly measur. After the legalisatn of homosexualy 1993, and the revelatns of what was often seen as church hypocrisy, the atmosphere beme ls the air cleared of cense, more gays uld e out – and their polil mands had also shifted, to the most mundane and “normal”: the right to marry and to have fai.