LGBT Catholics Must Start “Stonewall” in Church, Says Former Vatican Official – Bondings 2.0

Yesterday, Bondings 2.0 featured excerpts from an interview with former Vatican priest Krzysztof Charamsa who came out as a partnered gay man before the 2015 Synod on the Family.

CharamsaStonewallThe previous post covered Charamsa’s thoughts on the Vatican’s panic over “gender ideology,” the deficiency at the Vatican of knowledge about gender and sexuality, church officials’ odd language about homosexuality, and the roots of church leaders’ opposition to equality for LGBT people and women.

Today’s post offers excerpts from Charamsa on Pope Francis, positive aspects of theology today, and what his hopes are for LGBT Catholics. You can read the full interview in the online journal Religion and Gender by clicking here. To read more about Charamsa’s story, click here.

Source: LGBT Catholics Must Start “Stonewall” in Church, Says Former Vatican Official – Bondings 2.0

‘I never felt the need to break away [from the Church]’ – SCO News

‘I never felt the need to break away [from the Church’

Ian Dunn talks to Stonewall CEO Ruth Hunt, a Catholic, in search of common ground between religious groups and the gay community.

The head of gay rights organisation Stonewall is not someone you would expect to find in the pages of The Scottish Catholic Observer. Current CEO Ruth Hunt is, however, a practicing Catholic and she is on a mission to break down barriers and foster better communication between religious groups and the gay community.

Ms Hunt (above) spoke to the SCO to mark lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) month, which this year had the theme of faith, religion and philosophy.

“I think at Stonewall we have often seen the idea that the faith community and LGBT community have to come to blows as something artificially constructed,” she said.

”There are many LGBT people of faith and many LGBT people have lots of friends and family in faith communities. To think in terms of binaries and opposites is not helpful.”

Source: ‘I never felt the need to break away [from the Church]’ 

Catholic primary school asks gay rights group to train staff to handle bullying | CatholicHerald.co.uk

Global education league table

Stonewall’s material is being used in classrooms across the country Photo: PA

 A Catholic primary school has invited the gay rights group Stonewall to give staff lessons to prevent “homophobic bullying”.

Sarah Crouch, the head teacher at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Wimbledon, south London, invited Stonewall, the gay rights pressure group, into the school to teach staff how to educate children in sexual equality.

The training day went ahead with the consent of all but one of the governors.

Miss Crouch said she called the campaign group into St Mary’s simply to train staff “on how to tackle homophobic language and bullying”.

She said: “As a school, and as Catholics, we are opposed to prejudice of any kind and felt it was important to tackle the issue of homophobic language and bullying.

“The training was very successful and we feel confident that if any incidents of this kind of language occurs our staff have the means to address it appropriately.”

-continue reading at Catholic Herald

via Catholic primary school asks gay rights group to train staff to handle bullying | CatholicHerald.co.uk.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Study shows over half of UK gay teens bullied at school |

Despite improvement in last five years, most lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils still face homophobic bullying at school and more likely to self harm

 More than half of lesbian, gay and bisexual teenagers in the UK are bullied at school, a study published today (3July) reveals.

According to The School Report by gay rights organization Stonewall, 55% of British youngsters aged between 11 and 18 experience homophobic bullying at school.

While 95% say they anti-gay words such as ‘poof’ or ‘lezza used and 99% claim to hear the phrases ‘that’s so gay’ or ‘you’re so gay’, The Guardian reported.

Most shocking is that 56% of those surveyed in the survey of more than 1,600 gay pupils have tried to deliberately harm themselves, including cutting and burning themselves.

Despite the figures being down on the last report in 2007, which saw 65% of gay teens admitting to being victims of homophobic bullying, there has been little improvement in occurances of anti-gay language.

‘I think some teachers – particularly those who were trained a while ago – think, mistakenly, that it is unlawful to teach children about homosexuality. Others dismiss homophobic bullying as banter,’ said Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill.

‘When a child is bullied for having ginger hair or being black, at least parents or carers can provide support at home, but many young people who suffer homophobic bullying don’t have that. Many feel so isolated they withdraw from education.’

– MATTHEW JENKIN, Gay Star News.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Gay marriage gets ministerial approval

Same-sex couples set to receive equal rights to marry, despite opposition from within the Conservative party

Ministers have pledged to push through legislation to give same-sex couples equal rights to get married despite mounting opposition from within the Conservative party and the threat of a split with the Church of England.

Following a day in which it emerged that the Home Office has had more than 100,000 responses to its consultation, a petition against gaymarriage has been signed by more than half a million people, and a poll by leading gay rights group Stonewall showed that four out of five people under 50 support the move to legalise gay marriage, one of the government’s few openly gay minsters appealed for more “calm” in the debate and for supporters of the move to show respect for opponents.

Greg Barker, the Conservative climate minister, said: “What’s important is, given how much the world has moved on in a good way in mainstreaming relationships [between gay couples] and how much acceptance there has been, we must now make sure this debate doesn’t polarise opinion again and it’s conducted in a civil and calm way, and we don’t project the worst views of our opponents onto everyone who disagrees with us.”

– full report at Guardian

Enhanced by Zemanta

Majority of religious Britons support gay marriage, poll shows

Majority of religious Britons back gay marriage, Stonewall poll reveals

YouGov survey for Stonewall flies in the face of Church of England warnings about impact of gay marriage

Despite condemnation by the Church of England today (12 June), a new poll has revealed more than half of religious people in Britain support gay marriage.

The findings by LGBT rights group Stonewall show three in five people of faith support the UK government’s plans to legalize gay marriage in England and Wales, with 71% of Britons saying they back legislation to extend civil marriage to same-sex couples.

The YouGov survey of 2,000 people also revealed four in five of those with a faith believe that it’s right to tackle prejudice against lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

The figures fly in the face of warnings by the Church of England today and fierce opposition from a large anti-gay religious lobby.

Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill said: ‘Recently we’ve heard senior clerics distressingly compare marriage for gay people to polygamy, bestiality and child abuse.

‘This polling holes below the waterline the suggestion that they speak for the majority of Britain’s faith communities and vindicates years of campaigning by Stonewall to change public attitudes.’

-full report at Gay Star News

Enhanced by Zemanta