Holy Sashes
Commentary by Steve Yuhas
June 8, 2004

It seems like every other week I’m forced to pen an article dealing with the stunts committed by gay activists in the name of the rainbow.  This time the stunt was the filling of Catholic churches with men and women, ostensibly Catholic, who wore rainbow colored sashes as a symbol of their gayness for the entire world, the clergy and fellow church-goers, to see with the hope of being denied Holy Communion.

Far be it from me to say who can and cannot receive the most sacred blessing in all of Catholicism, a blessing used to consecrate life, marriage and bury the dead, but I am qualified to speak to the inappropriate nature of the political stunt. 

CNN was abuzz with talk as two men squared off over the controversy dealing with the annual wearing of rainbow sashes by gays in major and small cities across the nation last Sunday.  Television crews were in full form in order to catch the Catholic leaders of some of the largest diocese in America denying Holy Communion to wearers of the rainbows. 

I suppose it would be naïve to think that the television cameras simply decided, “Hey – let’s go to St. Paul’s Cathedral and film the Eucharist today.”  I’m sure the press releases had something to do with it.

So what is the most recent inappropriate action of gay activists? 

Gay Catholics who are so hell bent on making their Church the topic of talk shows that they go out of their way to announce to their churches that they are gay and then get upset when the Church actually follows her doctrine regarding homosexuality.

Doesn’t hurt that the gays have the help of a media savvy press relations office at their headquarters either – can’t make a political statement without issuing a media release in order to get television cameras to cover the event.

What is the insane desire to wear a sash to church announcing your sexual desires?  For gays it seems that everything they own and everything they are comes down to who wears the most rainbows.  Rainbows on cars, rainbows on sashes and rainbow flags where there used to be an American one seems to be the rule.  There was a time when gays insisted that they just wanted to be left alone to live their lives, now they are wearing rainbow sashes to church to make sure that everyone knows they’re gay.  What is the point?

I mean, have you ever seen a straight person wear a sash across their chest to announce their straightness?  What about people into bondage?  Surely the Church frowns on that type of sexual behavior – where are all the leather sashes?  I can’t imagine what people into bestiality would wear to Church, perhaps a leather sash as well, but they’d certainly need something to make sure they were not confused with people simply into bondage?  Oh, the confusion over the sashes.

It seems that the only people who have to put their private sexual proclivities front and center, even in the most inappropriate of places (read: church) are gay people.  Why is that?

It could be that the “we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it…” mantra is working and gays believe that everywhere is now the perfect place to announce their sexuality.  It might be that gay people are so bent on pushing their sexuality down the throats of their neighbors and co-parishioners that they are willing to do anything to get attention.  Or, as I strongly suspect, it could be that gay people just can’t get beyond their sexuality into the things that truly matter in life. 

If the sash wearing Catholics disagree so strongly with the Church over the fundamental teachings which define homosexuality activity as a sin, why are they so insistent to remain members?  Surely they could find a church more in line with the lifestyle that they enjoy – as a matter of fact the gay community invented a “church” (the Metropolitan Community Church) that does exactly that.  It is a “church” that stands for nothing and makes no judgments on behavior – exactly what the gay activists are looking for.

Why put on a show for the media in order to make public the contempt you hold for your own church?  Nobody forces grown men and women to be Catholic, if it is such a repressive institution – why not simply leave it?

The part of this that really irks me is that these little stunts do little to further the cause that these people claim so much to care about: namely, equality.  If gays are so concerned about everyday average people accepting them and their partners into society, why pull stunts like showing up in groups with television cameras in tow to make a mockery of the most important religious rite in the Catholic Church?

Gay people have gone from being silent to being too damn loud if you ask me.  It isn’t enough that they’ve forced a marriage debate into the mainstream of society or that promiscuous sex and illicit drug use is rampant in the gay community right?  No, sir, now we need to be treated to a mockery of a faith that over a billion people around the world embrace just because a few gay people with a press release want to stir up trouble.

It is amazing that there are gay people who still ask themselves why mainstream America finds us so abhorrent.  It is days and weeks like these where I share the sentiment with people in America who ask themselves why gays have to be so up front about whom they sleep with. 

Most Americans are fair minded and couldn’t care less, but when gays force their sexuality into the churches and other inappropriate places, it defeats the whole purpose of asking people to just let us live our lives being left alone.

Gays are running out of time before America finally says, enough is enough and a true backlash against obnoxious gay activism begins.  Until gays can show respect for the religious people in our nation and the traditions that made our country great, they ought to stop demanding that people tolerate those things their religions find objectionable.

It is time to end this vocal loathsome gay activism and just be who you are without wearing your sexuality on your sleeve.