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- Category:
- News
- Author:
- Sunny Burns
- Posted:
- Thursday, 17 July 2008
A small group of gay and lesbian activists launched the first of two planned kiss-ins today (Thursday) as part of World Youth Day and Catholic Church protests.
The eager community members dressed as nuns and priests while handing out condoms and locking tongues at Hyde Park, to the obvious shock of pilgrims walking past.
Organiser Randah Wassef said while the group respected people’s rights to freedom of religion, he expected those people to also show respect for the group’s choice to express their sexuality.
“This is happening so we can send a message of love and acceptance out to the community, letting everyone know that all love is okay and should be celebrated,” Wassef said.
“Also, we are letting our queer Catholic brothers and sisters out there know that it’s okay to be who you are.
“Part of the message that bothers us from the Catholic Church is the pope’s stance on abstinence and homosexuality. What we are trying to say is that this stance is killing people around the world. We respect that some people wish to abstain, but if they don’t then safe sex should be engaged in.”
Tags: catholic, condoms, Hyde Park, kiss-in, protest, WYD
July 17th, 2008 @ 3:32 pm
Let the fun and games begin.
PS: Love the new website guys - great to see all the daily news updates plus the stuff in the paper every week. Great to know what is going on immediately as it happens. I will definitately be making this my homepage. Keep up the good work!
(Oh, but hurry up and bring back the poll)
July 18th, 2008 @ 4:40 pm
true, celebrating love is indeed wonderful in all shapes and forms however; dressing up as priests and nuns might be going a bit to far. i was born a christian though not a practising one; i still do respect other people’s choice of religion. we forever ask the public for their acceptance but is this the right way of doing it?
July 18th, 2008 @ 10:42 pm
Of course, people like Randah Wassef are completely cool when others publicly demonstrate their bigotry toward gays, right? After all, according to Randah it’s “OK to send a message of who you are”. Which exposes well the narcissism behind protesters; ‘it’s all about moi and my giving you the finger’.
By the way, I think ’safe sex’ killed a lot more people than abstinence, Randah.
Grow up.
July 18th, 2008 @ 10:48 pm
How about a bit of male-male kissing protests, just to really piss the pope off!
July 19th, 2008 @ 10:19 pm
I’m an Australian. When I went to School, we had one Roman Catholic student who stood out, because of her thick, black hair. At first, she was just like us, but when we had “Religious Instructions”, she had to go to the end classroom. Whenever she returned, she was a completely different person who acted, spookily. She chose not to integrate or assimilate.
Now, more have come to Sydney where they found and vandalised the War Memorial in Hyde Park, on their first day.
I joined thousands of participants at the last Gay Games in Chicago, where friendships were formed and nothing (especially sacred) was vandalised.
July 21st, 2008 @ 8:13 pm
What a pack of intolerant bigots!!!