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.
It's a little late, but still seasonal. Happy First Contact Day! This Star Trek holiday, April 5, commemorates the fictional arrival of extraterrestrial aliens in 2063. I may have enjoyed a really lovely Easter brunch this year, amid Holi and Ramadan/Eid al-Fitr, and Passover barely more than a week away, but I'm no Christian, nor any of the other recognized options.
My fantastical faith, however, has many of the traditional trappings. You want a savior to be tested in the desert? As third officer on a Pan Am flight from Karachi to Istanbul in 1947, Gene Roddenberry, who later created Star Trek, was the ranking officer to survive that ill-fated flight's crash landing in the Syrian desert.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!