Huffington Magazine Issue 38 | Page 30

JEFF J MITCHELL/GETTY IMAGES Voices T MICHELANGELO SIGNORILE HUFFINGTON 03.03.13 The Fallacy of the AllPowerful ‘Gay Lobby’ HE NEWS that the UK’s most senior Catholic cleric, the anti-gay Cardinal Keith O’Brien, has resigned over allegations of unwanted sexual advances on priests, combined with last week’s reports of a secret gay cabal within the Vatican that supposedly pushed Pope Benedict to resign, is explosive. The stunning news certainly bolsters the argument that the Catholic Church is in crisis and that the pope’s resignation is reflective of that fact, but it’s important to separate the sensationalism in this rapidly developing story, not to mention the anti-gay bias, from the facts and the probabilities. ¶ First off, the idea that an all-powerful “gay lobby” forced Pope Benedict to resign, as some of the international media reports have insinuated, is pretty ludicrous. If there really were such an influential gay cabal, you’d better believe that Cardinal Cardinal Keith O’Brien was pushed to resign by the Pope last week.