Just as New Jersey is getting ready to put gay marriage back on the table an unsurprising voice of opposition has reared its head. Pope Benedict XVI in an annual address to the diplomatic corps yesterday said that married homosexuals were one of the major threats facing the family, threats that could undermine "the future of humanity itself." Because the Catholic Church has a perfect record there, right?
In his speech, Ratzinger told diplomats from the around the world that children's education needed good "settings" and that "pride of place goes to the family, based on the marriage of a man and a woman. This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself."
Luckily for the Pope, he has a strong arm here in the states in the fight against gay nups. Archbishop Timothy Dolan, soon to be Cardinal Dolan, has been incredibly vocal in his disdain for marriage equality.
Meanwhile, closer to home than the Vatican, Democratic pols in Trenton are pushing to make the Garden State as gay-friendly as the Empire State. Though a gay marriage bill was rejected in January, 2010 by a vote of 20-14-3 abstain, there is high hopes it might do better this time around. And the change is no small part because of New York!
"You might call it the Andrew Cuomotization of legislators in New Jersey," Steven Goldstein, president of Garden State Equality, told the Star-Ledger. "Andrew Cuomo has set the stage for the legislature in New Jersey and in other states, by championing the cause or marriage equality not begrudgingly but with gusto. And that’s happening in New Jersey now."
