The Advocate's Person of the Year: Pope Francis

[Are_grits_groceries]

<snip>
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.

The remaining holdouts for LGBT acceptance in religion, the ones who block progress in the work left to do, will more likely be persuaded by a figure they know. In the same way that President Obama transformed politics with his evolution on LGBT civil rights, a change from the pope could have a lasting effect on religion.
<snip>
More:
http://www.advocate.com/year-review/2013/12/16/advocates-person-year-pope-francis
(They go into detail about their choice.)

Yeah, The Advocate is such a RW h8ter rag.

[Douglas Carpenter]

1. knr

[cali]

2. boy is this going to piss off the determined Pope haters.

k&r.

[eridani]

3. Given a choice between an economic populist/social conservative and a 1% apologist/social liberal--

--I'll take the former by a huge margin. Why? Because the culture war is over and our side won. Sure, there are elements still fighting a rear-guard action who can still do real damage, but occasional socially conservative pronouncements by the Pope or any other public figure aren't going to change the situation much.

On the other hand, the 99% is still getting creamed in the class war, and we can use all the allies we can get.

[madrchsod]

4. "Oh My Gay Stars" !!!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x152495

i wonder what our long lost friend thinks of this...

[dsc]

5. frankly I think a much better case, if they were going to go this route, would have been for Justice

Kennedy, though I would have had problems with choosing him just like I have problems with choosing the Pope. The Pope has changed the tone but not the substance of the churches pronouncements.

[el_bryanto]

6. This'll be interesting. nt

[Plantaganet]

7. Wait - did you hear that?

That's the sound of Harvey Milk's grave being pissed on.

[Are_grits_groceries]

8. Seriously?

Harvey Milk was a brave man and a pioneer.
However, he wasn't Larry Kramer. Kramer takes a blowtorch to issues, and his fire is needed.

I think Milk would have demanded that any person such as the Pope be held accountable. However, Milk would have at least given him a chance while keeping up the pressure for change.

Pope Francis has been in that position since March 13, 2013. He hasn't even been the head of the Church for a year. Because he hasn't cleaned out every nook and cranny and changed a doctrine that has been in place for hundreds of years he is excoriated.

Pope Francis should be watched as carefully as his predecessors. The tone of his message and the changes he has made are diametrically opposed to those that have been in place and supported by the Tea Party Bishops. If he stops making changes or if the ones he has made make no difference, then you have a different story.

[Plantaganet]

11. Seriously.

With strategy like this, we can expect very little progress for the gay community in the next several years.

[dsc]

9. harvey would be pissed but not surprised

[Beacool]

10. Oh boy, the fur is going to fly........

Hating on the Pope in 3...2....1