The Pope’s anti-gay marriage statements made it to the set of ABC’s The View on Tuesday. Despite their mixed bag of terminology and examples, they at least seemed put off by Joseph Ratzinger‘s insinuation that gay marriages threaten “the future of humanity.”
Barbara Walters discussed the Elton John and husband David Furnish‘s son, Zachary, who was born in December 2010 via a surrogate mother. Walters said people are struggling everywhere to define what’s a family, and mentioned her friends’ grandchildren which were conceived with the help of a sperm bank. Her conclusion was that Ratzinger was claiming that if you get married and don’t procreate, it will “wipe out humanity.”
Joy Behar, who was recently married at 68, joked that she was indeed married to procreate. She added that despite the existence of homosexuality “since the Neanderthals,” and there have been billions of people nonetheless.
Elizabeth Hasselback, the shows Republican host, said the possibility of divorce affected her marriage, not gays. She said the condemnation of gay marriages seemed “inhumane.”
Whoopi Goldberg pointed out that non-Christians may have views different than the Pope’s, and that people have had children other than the expected “normal way.”
Sherri Shepard said that she had suffered from infertility before, and then said she had a problem with religious leaders hadn’t yet “cleaned house themselves” — specifically metioning the Catholic’s molestation scandals and others’ homosexual infidelity scandals.
In a historic move, Michael J. O'Loughlin, an award-winning journalist and gay man, has been named executive editor of the National Catholic Reporter, the nation's leading independent Catholic news organization.
A New England-based journalist, O'Loughlin has amassed more than 15 years of experience covering religion as a reporter, editor, podcast host, and author. For the past nine years, he has worked at America Media, the Jesuit news and commentary outlet, serving seven years as national correspondent and most recently as founding executive director of Outreach, an LGBTQ Catholic news site.
A federal judge has ruled in favor of William Saki, an Ohio man who sued after the state rejected his request for a personalized license plate reading "GAY," which he sought to mark National Coming Out Day and "express a central part of his identity."
The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) had rejected the plate as "Inappropriate/Invalid," according to its online registration tool.
Saki then tried to register other plates, including "QUEER" and "HOMO," but those were also rejected, according to the Ohio-based LGBTQ outlet The Buckeye Flame.
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