Gays Say Catholic League Ad Smears Gays Everywhere

by Susan Marie Kovalinsky | March 30, 2010 at 07:35 pm

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Catholic League Misleading Ad Smears Gays

In New York City, the gay publication, "Truth Wins Out", is harshly condemning the Catholic League and its President Bill Donohue for its full-page New York Times ad.

Calling the Catholic Church an "enabler" of abuse, the site charged that the ad attempted to deflect blame for the crisis by smearing the gay community.

The New York Times has been running an investigative report series about a Father Lawrence Murphy, who is charged with having molested some 200 disabled boys in his charge, during the years he was director and fundraiser of a Wisconsin boarding school for the deaf.

Murphy was said to have used fear of God and his authority as a priest and father-confessor to lure dozens, and then hundreds, of under-aged and disabled young males to engage in sexual relations with him.

As early as the 1950s and '60s, reports had been made about Murphy when boys spoke out to nuns, supervisors, and other authorities about the abuse, but somehow Murphy remained immune to consequences.

It is now being questioned if the present Pope XVI had received and ignored letters about Murphy in 1996.

This scandal is one more, a top of a global net of scandal that the Catholic Church, the Pope, the Vatican, and all have been caught up in in recent years and months.

"This was a disgraceful ad and an unconscionable attempt to smear gay and lesbian people," said Truth Wins Out's Executive Director Wayne Besen. "Clearly, the Catholic League is more interested in finding scapegoats than solutions."

Deflecting Blame, Using GLBT Community as a handy scapegoat?

The Ad had the title, "Going for the Vatican Jugular", and within it the text, "The Times continues to editorialize about the pedophilia crisis, when all along it has been a homosexual crisis."

A spokesman for Truth Wins Out said that it should be recalled that there is in fact no pedophilia scandal with the neighborhoods, community centers, and organizations peopled by those who are gay.

And it was pointed out sharply that this apologia for the priesthood and Father Murphy is at its core a cheap shot at the gay community, an attempt to scapegoat them, and an insult upon the injury of broken trust.

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization which educates the GLBT community, and educates against misinformation campaigns such as the "Ex-Gay" therapy movement.