The Gayest Year Ever

One of the only downsides to not subscribing to the Star Tribune is that you lose touch with the latest and greatest methods the paper has found to alienate sizable portions of their potential subscriber base. Case in point is a column in the Lifestyle section called "Withering Glance," which offers a couple of gay dudes (Rick Nelson & Claude Peck) the opportunity to vamp about the latest and greatest goings-on in the homosexual world. Here's a sample offering from today's paper:

RN: So, was this the gayest year ever, or what?

CP: It weren't no "Brokeback Mountain," peanut, but there were plenty of noteworthy GLBTish occurrences. Locally, Sen. Larry Craig and his wide stance goo-goo eyes turned our little flyoverland airport into a tourist hotspot. Who knew it would take a "straight" man to familiarize a mainstream audience with the notion of the tearoom tryst?

This is the Sunday edition of the major daily newspaper in the Twin Cities, mind you not an alternative weekly or the latest "Lavender." A paper that Twin Cities families might well be reading together late Sunday morning after church. Mommy, what's a tearoom tryst?

In addition to celebrating and promoting the gay lifestyle, the boys at "Withering Glance" aren't adverse to taking shots at religious leaders who dare teach morality that makes them uncomfortable:

CP: In other Twin Cities news, archbishop-in-waiting John Nienstedt decided to out-pope the pope in a published statement, that said, in part, "Those who actively encourage or promote homosexual acts or such activity with a homosexual lifestyle formally cooperate in grave evil and, if they do so knowingly and willingly, are guilty of mortal sin." This divisive ultra-orthodoxy does not appear to have played that well with anyone outside of Opus Dei.

Apparently Claude's definition of "ultra-orthodoxy" is anything that follows the actual teaching of the Church. Lest there be any doubt, here's what the Catechism says on homosexuality:

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

Not a lot of wiggle room with that last sentence is there? Other than easily outraged gay activists, a few "progressive" parishes in the Twin Cities, and the local media, I actually think that Nienstedt's remarks have played just fine. Especially among most Catholics in the archdiocese, who after all are the ones his message was directed to in the first place.

I'm not sure where Claude gets his impressions on how they've gone over. Must be reading the Star Tribune a lot.