Catholics Really Hate Gays

So the Catholic Church really has shown over the last several years that they can't really truly be happy unless they are oppressing the gays.

In Massachusetts and in Washington, DC, the Church has chosen not to offer adoption and foster services at all just in case they might one day have to allow a gay couple to foster or adopt a kid. Meanwhile, I can think of a lot more gay people I would trust around children, but whatever.

They also recently cut off all health benefits for all spouses of their employees in Washington, DC, because they don't want to accidentally support the spouse of any potential gay employees they may one day have. That's just fucked up.

So it should go without saying that in any discussion of immigration reform, the Catholics are really super against adding any kind of gay recognition to whatever bill ends up in Congress. This would be concerning, except they may not have the ability to stop our cause.

Have a look at the percentage of Catholics in these countries that already allow gays to sponsor their partners for immigration:

1. Australia - 25.8%
2. Belgium - 75% - (gay marriage also legal)
3. Brazil - 73.6%
4. Canada - 42.6% (gay marriage too)
5. Czech Repu. - 26.8%
6. Austria - 73.6%
7. France - 83-88%
8. Germany - 34%
9. Netherlands - 30% (gay marriage too)
10. Spain - 94% (gay marriage too)

Soon to be added:

* Ireland - 87.4%
* Portugal - 84.5%

By comparison, the Catholic population of the US sits at just 23.9%.

There is a whole strategy at Bilerco from blogger J. Todd (Tif) Fernandez which goes into quite a bit of detail on why the Catholic Church is going to have a hard time backing away from supporting immigration reform, even if the gays are included.

Strategically, the Catholic church hierarchy is in a classic conundrum. In this storm, the Catholics are threatening to walk away from the coalitions if they support our inclusion. But this time they have no where to go and they have a horrible position to maintain in doing so because the immigration reform messaging is all about "fairness and family cohesion" - "coalitions and human rights" - and "comprehensive" reform. People instantly understand that it is messed up when the USCCB says "fairness for everyone but THEM" - "coalitions of everyone but THEM" and "family unification for everyone but THEM". Simply put, we win this argument because it exposes the injustice so clearly.

I encourage you all to head on over to Bilerco to read more about it.

-Andy