Advocate: Pope Is Person Of The Year

The Advocate writes:

Edie Windsor is a hero, one well worth recording in history books that retell the story of DOMA's demise. But she is not the Person of the Year. She couldn't possibly be, not for The Advocate, where we celebrate the work of so many who contributed to that landmark Supreme Court victory. The most influential person of 2013 doesn't come from our ongoing legal conflict but instead from our spiritual one — successes from which are harder to define. There has not been any vote cast or ruling issued, and still a significant and unprecedented shift took place this year in how LGBT people are considered by one of the world's largest faith communities.

Pope Francis is leader of 1.2 billion Roman Catholics all over the world. There are three times as many Catholics in the world than there are citizens in the United States. Like it or not, what he says makes a difference. Sure, we all know Catholics who fudge on the religion's rules about morality. There's a lot of disagreement, about the role of women, about contraception, and more. But none of that should lead us to underestimate any pope's capacity for persuading hearts and minds in opening to LGBT people, and not only in the U.S. but globally.

Gay City News reporter and Queer Nation member Andy Humm comments at the above link:

"This is just about the most pathetic, self-hating bowing down to a bigot that I've read in my 40 years of gay activism. Francis is doing good public relations in the service of propping up the patriarchy--an infantile style of governance that sees the 'leaders' as parents and the members as children. Catholics need to grow up and govern their own church if they want to avoid continued scandal. The fact that so many are in a thralll to this man--who has not changed one iota of anti-gay, anti-woman doctrine--is pathological."