Ask a homosexual

People who criticise gay sexual relations for religious or moral reasons are increasingly being attacked and vilified for their views, a Vatican diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said the Roman Catholic Church deeply believed that human sexuality was a gift reserved for married heterosexual couples. But those who express these views are faced with "a disturbing trend," he said.

"People are being attacked for taking positions that do not support sexual behaviour between people of the same sex," he told the current session of the Human Rights Council.

Another day, another Cardinal whining about Catholic bashing. It is silly enough that the Vatican can pretend to be a real country and have diplomats, but when they start complaining they are oppressed it all becomes a bit tiresome.

Besides, isn't it true that the seminary is a breeding ground for homosexual activity? I don't know; let's ask a Catholic:

Some seminaries may be, both Protestant and Catholic. The Anglicans have accepted homosexual clergy, as have other mainline Protestant denominations. The colleges of the U.S. also try to give orientations to their students in which they promote homosexual activity, as does the [UN] United Nations and [PP] Planned Parenthood, as you can see from this week's story about a UN/PP presentation for Girl Scouts. In one report, a majority of homosexuals have admitted to a preference for younger males.

Attempts are being made by homosexual organizations in the US, and have been successful in other countries, to lower the age of consent to 12 or 14. Sexual abuse in the Church is primarily same-sex, but the problem of sexual abuse is not a Catholic one, it is a societal one.

It is popularly identified with the Church because it can be sued and because it is unified. Public school districts, for instance, have as many sex offenders transferred around, but they can leave one district and go to another, and no overarching authority can be held responsible.

Mary Ann

Well, I am glad we cleared up that matter. But - to quote the Desperate Bicycles - as one door closes, another shuts. Is not "Mary Ann" an early 20th century term for homosexual man? It says so in the Shorter Oxford.

Besides, I want to make sense of this rather peculiar passage by Michael Fowler in The New Zealand House (Auckland: Lansdowne Press, 1983)

The 1930s Spanish bungalow - cement plaster on netting over dry construction on timber framing - and 'hey presto' - the Costa Brava arrived on the Waitemata Harbour. It may well have been Queen Anne at the front but probably Mary-anne at the back, for the parapets usually disguised a single pitch roof shedding to the rear.

What does Mayor Fowler mean? Are single pitched roofs a queer thing? I do recall that, in the 1980s, the classified advertisements section of London's Time Out magazine contained many insertions by men seeking sexual connexion with other men who were roofers or who looked like them. Perhaps someone can explain.

In the meantime, here are The Homosexuals: