ROME, ITALY – Gays and transsexuals won’t go to heaven, a top Roman Catholic cardinal said Wednesday.
“Transsexuals and gays will never enter the heavenly kingdom,” said Javier Lozano Barragan, until recently the Vatican’s ‘health minister’.
“It’s not me who says so, it’s St Paul,” he said, referring to the saint credited with forging the early Church.
St Paul (5 BC-67 AD) wrote many epistles (letters) to the rapidly spreading early Christian community.
In one of them, to the Romans, he said about unbelievers: ”God gave them up to degrading passions. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error”.
Barragan, who still holds positions on various Church bodies, added that people were not born gay but became so.
“Perhaps they aren’t guilty but by acting against the dignity of the body they will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven,” he repeated.
Barragan’s remarks drew a prompt reaction from the Italian gay association Arcigay, which said “yes, it’s true, we won’t ever get into your heaven, which is a murky and unjust place”.
It added that Barragan’s statement came in the wake of a spate of attacks on gays and “a media campaign against the dignity of transsexual persons,” referring to unflattering portraits of prostitutes involved in a Rome sex scandal. In its teachings, the Catholic Church describes homosexuality as a “disorder” which bars active gays from taking part in the Church.
The Vatican sparked polemics last December when it opposed a proposed United Nations declaration to decriminalise homosexuality in the world.
But in July the Holy See said it agreed that homosexuality should be decriminalised and backed the Council of Europe’s plans to prepare a measure on the issue.
At least 86 countries ban gays and many others approve their torture and imprisonment.
The seven Islamic-led nations of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Nigeria and Mauritania mandate the death penalty for gays.
Cardinal Barragan, 76, resigned in May as head of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Workers, because of his age.
from ANSA Italy
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Adam Lambert

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – For the second time since his controversial American Music Awards performance, ABC has canceled an appearance by Adam Lambert, this time on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
On his Twitter account, glam rocker Lambert, who finished as runner-up on “American Idol” in May, wrote, “Yes, sadly friends, ABC has canceled my appearances on Kimmel and NYE. don’t blame them. It’s the FCC heat … I AM doing Leno though. And lookin into something for NYE … It’ll all blow over. Let’s focus on being positive! ”
“NYE” presumably means ABC’s telecast of “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.” Sources say Lambert’s appearance on the Dick Clark-produced event was still tentative.
Lambert was booked to perform on Kimmel’s outdoor stage December 17 before his performance at the November 22 American Music Awards. During the live telecast of the awards show, the openly gay Lambert caused a furor with a rendition of his debut single, “For Your Entertainment,” that included simulating oral sex and kissing a male keyboard player.
After ABC, which had broadcast the show, received more than 1,500 complaints about Lambert’s performance, the network canceled Lambert’s scheduled appearance on its “Good Morning America” news and talk show.
CBS’ “Early Show” swooped in and booked Lambert instead, only to get blasted by some viewers for blurring video footage of the kiss between Lambert and the keyboard player.
Disney/ABC Television Group president Anne Sweeney recently said the company was reviewing the steps it takes to vet live performances and plans to contractually obligate artists to match their stage shows to their rehearsals.
“We certainly don’t want to suppress artistry at any level, but we also have to be very cognizant of who our audience is,” Sweeney said.
from Reuters

ALBANY, NEW YORK – A bill that would have allowed same-sex marriage was rejected by New York lawmakers, a bruising outcome for national advocates in a state that was the site of one of the gay rights movement’s defining moments four decades ago, and a huge victory for opponents who said it could influence votes elsewhere.
“It’s just a huge win,” said Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, a nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to protect marriage. “It’s going to help cement defeat for gay marriage in New Jersey, and I think it’s going to get a whole bunch of politicians in New Hampshire who voted for gay marriage this year pretty nervous when they come up for election.”
So far this year New Jersey failed to schedule long-expected votes on bills to legalize gay marriage, Maine voters rejected a measure and California voters rescinded their law. Supporters, however, point to Vermont and New Hampshire, where lawmakers adopted gay marriage bills this year, while the city council in Washington, D.C., is expected to legalize gay marriage next month.
Iowa’s Supreme Court also recognized gay marriage this year. Gay marriage was already legal in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont.
Richard Socarides, who was former President Bill Clinton’s senior adviser on gay rights issues, called New York “clearly the biggest prize in this effort.”
“Not only will it affect a lot of people because New York is a big state,” he said, “but symbolically New York is the country’s leader in finance, the arts and culture. It’s a bellwether for the country.”
Across the Hudson River, New Jersey was watching.
“Here in New Jersey, many of the legislators would rather not vote on it,” said Gregory Quinlan, of New Jersey Family First, which opposes gay marriage.
He said New York’s action underscores that reluctance and bolsters his group’s position.
But Steven Goldstein, CEO of Garden State Equality, countered that the demographics of New York and New Jersey are very different.
“If Democrats in New Jersey don’t lead the way, as they promised, to pass marriage equality in 2009, there could be a mutiny against the New Jersey Democratic Party the likes of which this state has never seen,” he said.
On Wednesday, New York’s bill was defeated 38-24 in the Senate led by liberal New York City Democrats holding a single-seat majority. It was the last hurdle for passage for the measure passed three times by the Democrat-led Assembly and strongly pushed by Democratic Gov. David Paterson.
Gallagher said she never expected such a lopsided margin. She said the supporters of the bill hurt their cause by equating opponents of gay marriage to slave owners and Nazis.
“The gay marriage movement usually looks very smart,” she said. “Now it looks flat-footed.”
Evan Wolfson, director of the national gay rights group Freedom to Marry, said the vote stung. He and other national advocates blamed in part the fractured dynamics of the New York Senate, where Democrats won a slim majority this year after a half-century of Republican control, only to face defections from its ranks and a Republican-dominated coup that gridlocked the chamber this summer.
The Senate’s Republicans who were expected to cross the aisle to support the measure had a scare put into them in November. The state’s Conservative Party reasserted its power in GOP politics when the Conservative candidate in a special election for an upstate congressional seat attracted so much support he forced a more moderate Republican to end her campaign.
But advocates say there were victories in the loss and New York – site of the 1969 Stonewall Inn riots, considered the birth of the modern gay rights movement – may have provided a model for success.
The “cause of inclusion” has gained, said Wolfson.
“Most striking was the eloquence and the passion and the details of what people had to say in this very personal and rich way,” said Wolfson, who like thousands nationwide watched the Senate’s webcast of the more than two-hour debate.
Democratic Sen. Liz Krueger, of Manhattan, talked about her grandparents who escaped discrimination against Jews and were steeped in religion.
“My religion, I believe, teaches me I must vote yes today,” she said.
Sen. Eric Adams, a Brooklyn Democrat and black civil rights activist, said gays are now in the position of the Irish, Italians, blacks and other oppressed groups.
“I am hoping New York state comes out of the closet and understands that all Americans deserve the right to marry who they love,” Adams said. “This is about love … we have no right to deny that.”
During debate, Sen. Ruben Diaz, a conservative minister from the Bronx, led the mostly Republican opposition.
from The Associated Press