KENILWORTH, 31 AUGUST 2003 — The Vatican’s recent condemnation of gay relationships, and its demand that Catholic politicians oppose them, has scored its first direct hit in Colombia, South America.
The Colombian Senate in Bogota has shelved plans to legalise same-sex relationships, a decision that was received with “satisfaction” by the hierarchy of the country’s Catholic Church.
The bill was supported by three ex-presidents and had been expected to pass easily until the Vatican’s Inquisition (now called Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) issued a document on 31 July 2003 which stated that all laws that seek legal recognition of homosexual unions are “gravely immoral” and cannot receive the vote of Catholic politicians.
George Broadhead, secretary of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA), commented: “We suspect this will be the first of many defeats for the international gay community that will follow from the Vatican’s document. The establishment of partnership rights is being attempted all over the world, but suddenly they have run up against a significant hurdle. Already the right-wing in the Canadian parliament is trying to water down the proposals to introduce marriage there, and in the United States politicians are under intense pressure from the Catholic hierarchy to oppose the move to introduce partnership rights.”
Meanwhile, in Poland – one of Europe’s most Catholic countries – Senator Maria Szyszkowska has introduced a bill to set up gay civil unions that grant many of the rights and privileges of marriage. She took action after hospital authorities refused to let a dying man’s lover visit him. According to the Chicago Tribune, the bill has received support from leaders of the ruling Democratic Left Alliance and the head of the populist Self-Defence Party.
“Even representatives of the gay community told me to slow down, but I decided to go for it,” Szyszkowska told the Tribune. “If we are going to be part of Europe, we have to learn to accept some things that we may not personally agree with. Tolerance is what a democratic society is all about.”
A recent survey found that 62 per cent of Poles strongly oppose the idea of gays living together as a couple and 14 percent somewhat oppose the notion. Only four per cent like the idea.
George Broadhead said: “The Catholic Church has yet to make its feelings known, but with the pope’s personal interest in the future of Poland, Senator Szyszkowska shouldn’t hold her breath for an early victory.”