by Peter DelVecchio

Gay Catholics speak out during papal visit

While Pope Benedict XVI made his way through a jam-packed itinerary on his first U.S. visit from April 15-20, LGBT Catholics organized demonstrations, vigils and press conferences in Washington, D.C., and New York to protest the Vatican’s view of homosexuality as an “objective disorder.”

“The doors to the Vatican are really quite closed to any authentic dialogue with our community, and that’s very sad because Benedict should be our pastor and shepherd as he is to the rest of the church,” Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of Dignity USA, told ABC News.

In advance of the pope’s visit, New Ways Ministry delivered 40 letters from LGBT Catholics to the Vatican Embassy in D.C., including one from Gregory Maguire, the best-selling author of the novel that spawned the musical sensation Wicked. Maguire invited the pope to visit the Massachusetts home he shares with his husband and three adopted children, one of whom is receiving his First Communion this spring.

While security measures made close encounters with Benedict rare, members of Dignity Washington stood at a carefully selected spot on the papal motorcade route on April 16 to make sure Benedict saw their banner identifying them as out, proud, LGBT Catholics.

Members of Dignity New York organized several actions before and during the papal visit, including a demonstration and press conference at the United Nations and a vigil honoring the Rev. Mychal Judge, the gay chaplain to the N.Y. Fire Department who was killed in the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We called on [Father Judge] during the darkness of the AIDS crisis. When exiled and excluded by the institutional church, he provided sacraments in our living rooms and community centers,” vigil organizer Brendan Fay said, drawing a contrast between Judge and the pope. —Christopher Cappiello

McCain calls Hagee comment ‘nonsense’

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain repudiated as “nonsense” remarks made by anti-gay supporter Rev. John Hagee, who said Hurricane Katrina was punishment for the city of New Orleans’ Gay Pride parade.

“What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God,” Hagee told right-wing talk show host Dennis Prager Sept. 17, repeating earlier remarks to NPR. “[T]heir plan to have that homosexual rally was sin.”

“It’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense,” Fox News reported McCain as saying on his campaign bus April 24. “I don’t have anything additional to say. It’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, I don’t have anything more to say. … it’s nonsense. I reject it categorically.”

“Log Cabin obviously disagrees with the outrageous comments of Rev. Hagee, and clearly these comments do not reflect the views of Sen. McCain,” Patrick Sammon, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, told IN Los Angeles magazine.

Sammon also noted that Log Cabin has not yet endorsed a presidential candidate and probably will not decide until early summer. However, Sammon said, the gay Republican group has held conversations and met with the McCain campaign. “We had a good working meeting with senior staff and expect to be in continuous communication,” Sammon said. —Karen Ocamb

Rep. Barney Frank introduces marijuana bill

Openly gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced a bill April 17 to decriminalize personal possession of marijuana and legalize medical use of the drug in certain states, Politico.com reports. The bill would abolish federal penalties for possession of up to 100 grams of marijuana, but would not change laws concerning transport or sale. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) co-sponsored the bill.

“I think it is poor law enforcement to keep on the books legislation that establishes as a crime something which in fact society does not seriously wish to prosecute,” Frank said in a statement. “In my view, having federal law enforcement agents engaged in the prosecution of people who are personally using marijuana is a waste of scarce resources better used for serious crimes.”

“Congressman Frank’s bill represents a major step toward sanity in federal marijuana policy,” said Aaron Houston of the Marijuana Policy Project, a group supporting decriminalization. “The decades-long federal war on marijuana protects no one and in fact has ruined countless lives. Most Americans do not believe that simple possession of a small amount of marijuana should be a criminal matter, and it’s time Congress listened to the voters.”

Military recruitment: Rapists OK, gays no way

Department of Defense information released April 21 by the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee reveals that, in 2006 and 2007, persons convicted of manslaughter, rape, pederasty, arson, burglary, kidnapping and “terrorist threats including bomb threats” were permitted to join the armed forces under “moral waivers,” according to the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Palm Center, a social science research institute.

Openly gay persons are barred from serving under the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy instituted by President Clinton in the early 1990s. Moral waivers can be issued for “felonies, serious misdemeanors, illegal drug use and other crimes,” states the Palm Center release. Waivers in the Army increased from 4,918 in 2003 to 8,129 in 2006, and, starting in 2004, most Marine Corps. recruits were admitted under moral waivers, according to Palm Center data.

Between 2003 and 2006, “a total of 106,768 individuals with serious criminal histories were admitted,” said Dr. Aaron Belkin, the Palm Center’s director. “This … begs the question of whether it makes sense for the military to fire perfectly competent gay and lesbian troops while manpower shortages remain so serious.”

Meanwhile, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network kicked off a six-city tour in San Diego April 24 to campaign for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” under which more than 12,000 men and women have been dismissed since 1993.

The Western tour includes stops in Palm Springs, Las Vegas, Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs.

“Change doesn’t come from Washington, it begins with the American people; it starts right here in San Diego. Poll after poll show Americans favor lifting the ban, so we need to turn that support into a call for action that Congress cannot ignore,” said SLDN Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis.

According to Gary Gates at UCLA’s Williams Institute, a SLDN press release says, San Diego is home to more than 21,000 lesbian and gay military veterans; another 115,000 call California home. An estimated 65,000 lesbian and gay service members serve on active duty and in the reserves of the United States armed forces.

Indiana GOP congressional hopeful attends Hitler b’day bash

Tony Zirkle, an Indiana Republican primary candidate for the U.S. House, addressed the neo-Nazi American National Socialist Workers Party (ANSWP) at an April 20 event in Chicago commemorating Adolph Hitler’s birthday, according to the South Bend Tribune.

“Zirkle spoke on his history as a state’s attorney in Indiana, prosecuting Jewish and Zionist criminal gangs involved in trafficking prostitutes and pornography from Russia and the Zionist entity,” according to ANSWP’s website, overthrow.com.

“Nazism, socialism and fascism are polar opposites of what the Republican Party stands for,” said Chris Riley, St. Joseph County GOP chairman.