The Vatican has likened being gay to
incest and pedophilia in condemning a United Nations gay rights
resolution.
Earlier this year, the United States
backed a non-binding United Nations resolution condemning
discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
President Barack Obama and Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton cheered passed of the resolution in the
47-member Human Rights Council.
Obama called the resolution's passage a
“significant milestone in the long struggle for [LGBT] equality.”
“This represents a historic moment to
highlight the human rights abuses and violations that lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender people face around the world based solely on
who they are and who they love,” Clinton said.
While the measure was backed by
representatives from the European Union, Brazil and other Latin
American countries, African and Islamic countries condemned the
resolution, saying it had “nothing to do with fundamental rights.”
Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, the
Vatican's representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva,
objected to the resolution, the
Catholic News Agency reported.
“The archbishop expanded on a point
he has previously tried to impress upon the Human Rights Council, as
he observed that all societies regulate sexual behavior to some
extent – by forbidding practices like incest, pedophilia, or rape –
for the sake of the common good.”
While Tomasi reiterated that he does
not support violence against gay men and lesbians, he also suggest
that being gay is a choice.
“Instead of 'gender,' the concept we
should use is 'sex,' a universal term in natural law referring to
male and female,” Tomasi said.
“In fact, it seems that terms such as
'gender' or 'sexual orientation' are devised to escape reality and to
accommodate a variety of feelings and impulses that then are
transformed into rights.”