World

Argentine gay activist criticizes Pope Francis

Francis led campaign against same-sex marriage in Argentina

Published

13 years ago

March 15, 2013

Michael K. Lavers

Esteban Paulón of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Federation of Argentina. Photo courtesy of Esteban Paulón.

Argentina’s leading LGBT rights advocate on Wednesday criticized Pope Francis’ strong opposition to marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Esteban Paulón, president of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Federation (FALGBT,) noted during an interview with the Washington Blade hours after the College of Cardinals elected Francis that he was among the most vocal critics of a same-sex marriage bill that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner signed in 2010. The new pontiff, who was the-then archbishop of Buenos Aires, described the measure in a letter he wrote to four Argentine monasteries before the country’s Senate approved it as a “machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.”

Francis further categorized the bill as “the work of the devil” that would “spark God’s war.”

“He organized people who mobilized themselves en masse against the equality law and the rights of the collective diversity in moments during which the enormous social and parliamentary consensus that the equality law had in our country was clear,” Paulón said.

Fernández strongly rebuked Francis’ comments.

“It’s worrisome to listen to expressions such as ‘God’s war,’ ‘The work of the Devil;’ things which actually bring us back to the times of the Inquisition, to Medieval Times,” she said while on an official trip to China during the same-sex marriage debate.

The Argentine president further referenced the Crusades as she criticized Francis’ remarks.

“It establishes, as a society, a place which I don’t think any of us wants to have,” Kirchner said. “We are all willing to debate, to discuss, to dissent, but do it within a rational frame without stigmatizing others because they think differently and fundamentally.”

Paulón noted to the Blade that Francis lived in a country in which same-sex marriage has been legal for more than two years.

“This law did not cause any catastrophe, it did not damage the family, it did not cause the destruction of anything,” he said. “It has strengthened families; it has granted rights that have made many people happy.”

Francis, a Jesuit who was previously known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was born in Buenos Aires to Italian immigrant parents in 1936.

He became archbishop of the Argentine capital in 1998. Pope John Paul II in 2001 appointed him cardinal.

Francis was also reportedly the runner-up in 2005 when the College of Cardinals elected Benedict XVI to succeed the previous pontiff.

In addition to his opposition to marriage rights for same-sex couples, Paulón noted the new pope also spoke out against Argentina’s law that allows trans people to legally change their gender without sex-reassignment surgery. Francis has also claimed that adoption rights for gays and lesbians in the country constitutes discrimination against children.

The new pontiff has also been outspoken against efforts to allow abortion and in-vitro fertilization in Argentina.

A journalist in 2005 accused Francis of conspiring with the military junta that governed the country from 1976 to 1983 to kidnap two Jesuit priests. Up to an estimated 30,000 Argentines died or disappeared during the so-called dirty war, but Francis in 2010 told a court he actually tried to help the priests and others whom the regime had targeted.

In spite of the controversies, he has reached out to people with HIV/AIDS.

The National Catholic Reporter reported he kissed and washed the feet of 12 AIDS patients at a hospice he visited in 2001. Francis has also defended the poor and the public sector.

“On some issues the church has a discourse of mercy, of piety, of compassion,” Paulón said.

Francis faces criticism from other Latin America activists

Other LGBT rights advocates throughout the region have also criticized Francis, who is the first non-European pope.

“The Vatican and the entire hierarchy of the Catholic church have once again shown indifference at the very least to the human rights of people, electing as their highest representative someone who has stigmatized and offended the love between same-sex couples, calling it a danger to the family, for children and as a move towards the devil,” a spokesperson from the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, a Chilean LGBT rights group, said in a statement.

Ricardo Montenegro Vásquez, director of Orgullo LGBT Colombia, also spoke out against Francis’ election.

“With his election, the Vatican conclave insists on sowing prejudice and hate against some people who more than simply repudiating, deserve understanding and social inclusion,” he said.

Rev. Victor Bracuto of the Metropolitan Community Church in Buenos Aires, pointed out Francis’ advocacy for the poor and speaking out against corruption. He also highlighted the pontiff’s opposition to Argentina’s same-sex marriage and gender identity laws and his reputed ties to the military junta.

Bracuto described the conclave’s decision to elect Francis as a “strategic political decision” in a statement he e-mailed to the Blade.

“He will be a pope of friendly discourse with the poor, austere and pious, but a cloud will continue to hang over his head over the dictatorship, excluding the GLBTI collective,” he wrote. “He will seek to ensure that the ‘politics of right’ do not spread.”

In spite of her previous statements against the new pope, Fernández congratulated Francis in a statement she issued shortly after the College of Cardinals elected him. She will also attend his installation Mass in Rome on March 19.

“It is our desire that you have, assuming the helm and guidance of the church … successfully carry out your extremely important pastoral charge in pursuit of justice, equality, fraternity and peace for mankind,” Kirchner said.

Paulón acknowledged many of his countrymen feel a sense of pride over Francis’ election.

More than 75 percent of Argentines are Catholic, but Paulón concedes he does not feel the church’s opposition to same-sex marriage and other issues will change under Francis’ pontificate.

“We would like to be optimistic but we do not have much reason to be so,” he said.

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National

LGBTQ Catholic groups slam Trump over pope criticism

‘Moral truth and compassion always overcome ignorant hate’

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2026

Michael K. Lavers

Pope Leo XIV (Photo via Vatican News/X)

LGBTQ Catholic groups have sharply criticized President Donald Trump over his criticisms of Pope Leo XIV.

Leo on April 13 told reporters while traveling to Algeria that he had “no fear of the Trump administration” after the president described him as “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy” in response to his opposition to the Iran war. (Trump on the same day posted to Truth Social an image that appeared to show him as Jesus Christ. He removed it on April 13 amid backlash from religious leaders.)

Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, during a Fox News Channel interview on the same day said “in some cases, it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of what’s going on with the Catholic church, and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.” Vance on April 14 once again discussed Leo during an appearance at a Turning Point USA event in Athens, Ga., saying he should “be careful when he talks about matters of theology.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni; former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Miguel Díaz; and Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, are among those who have criticized Trump over his comments. The president, for his part, has said he will not apologize to Leo.

“The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants,” said Leo on Thursday at a cathedral in Bamenda, Cameroon.

Francis DeBernardo is the executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based LGBTQ Catholic organization. He told the Washington Blade on Thursday that Trump’s comments about Leo “are one more example of the ridiculous hubris of this leader (Trump) whose entire record shows that he is nothing more than a middle-school bully.”

“LGBTQ+ adults were often bullied as children, and they have learned the lesson that bullies act when they feel frightened or threatened,” said DeBernardo. “But secular power does not threaten the Vicar of Christ, and Pope Leo’s response illustrates this truth perfectly.”

DeBernardo added Trump “is obviously frightened that Pope Leo, an American, has more power and influence than the president on the world stage.”

“Like most Trumpian bullying, this strategy will backfire,” DeBernardo told the Blade. “Moral truth and compassion always overcome ignorant hate. Trump’s actions are not an example of his power, but of his impotence.”

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, an LGBTQ Catholic organization, echoed DeBernardo.

“He [Trump] has demonstrated throughout both presidencies that he doesn’t understand the basic concepts of any faith system that is founded on the dignity of human beings, the importance of common good,” Duddy-Burke told the Blade on Thursday during a telephone interview. “It’s just appalling.”

Duddy-Burke praised Leo and the American cardinals who have publicly criticized Trump.

“The pope’s popularity — given how much more respect Pope Leo has than the man sitting in the White House — is a blow to his ego,” Duddy-Burke told the Blade. “That seems to be a sore sport for him.”

“It’s such an imperialistic world view,” she added.

Leo ‘is the real peacemaker’

The College of Cardinals last May elected Leo to succeed Pope Francis after his death.

Leo, who was born in Chicago, is the first American pope. He was the bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru from 2015-2023.

Francis made him a cardinal in 2023.

Juan Carlos Cruz — a gay Chilean man and clergy sex abuse survivor who Francis appointed to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors — has traveled to Ukraine several times with Dominican Sister Lucía Caram since Russia launched its war against the country in 2022. Cruz on Thursday responded to Trump’s criticism of Leo in a text message he sent to the Blade from Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.

“I am in Ukraine under many attacks,” said Cruz. “Trump is an asshole and has zero right to criticize the Pope who is the real peacemaker.”

Belarus

Belarusian president signs bill to allow LGBTQ rights crackdown

Alexander Lukashenko known as ‘Europe’s last dictator’

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2026

Michael K. Lavers

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko (Photo by palinchak/Bigstock)

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday signed a bill that will allow his government to crack down on LGBTQ advocacy.

The measure that Lukashenko, who is known as “Europe’s last dictator” and is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, signed would punish anyone found guilty of “propaganda of homosexual relations, gender change, refusal to have children, and pedophilia” with fines, community labor, and 15 days in jail.

The House of Representatives, the lower house of the Belarusian National Assembly, last month approved the bill. The Council of the Republic, which is the parliament’s upper chamber, passed it on April 2.

Belarus borders Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Kazakhstan is among the countries that have enacted Russian-style anti-LGBTQ propaganda laws in recent years.

The European Commission in 2022 sued Hungary, which is a member of the EU, over its anti-LGBTQ propaganda law. Hungarian voters on April 12 ousted Viktor Orbán, a Putin ally who had been their country’s prime minister since 2010.

Senegal

Senegalese court issues first conviction under new anti-LGBTQ law

Man sentenced to six years in prison on April 10

Published

4 days ago

April 15, 2026

Michael K. Lavers

(Bigstock photo)

A Senegalese court has issued the first conviction under a new law that further criminalizes consensual same-sex sexual relations.

The Associated Press notes the court in Pikine-Guédiawaye, a suburb of Dakar, the Senegalese capital, on April 10 convicted a 24-year-old man of committing “acts against nature and public indecency” and sentenced him to six years in prison.

Authorities arrested the man, who Senegalese media reports identified as Mbaye Diouf, earlier this month. The court also fined him 2 million CFA ($3,591.04).

Lawmakers in the African country on March 11 nearly unanimously passed the measure that increases the penalty for anyone convicted of engaging in consensual same-sex sexual relations from one to five years in prison to five to 10 years. The bill that Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko introduced also prohibits the “promotion” or “financing” of homosexuality in Senegal.

MassResistance, an anti-LGBTQ group based in the U.S., reportedly worked with Senegalese groups to advance the bill that President Bassirou Diomaye Faye signed on March 31.

“This prison sentence is unlawful under international law,” said Human Rights Watch on Wednesday. “Senegal is bound by treaty obligations that protect every person’s right to dignity, privacy, and equality.”