Pope Says Gay Marriage Offends Human Truth, Threatens Justice and Peace

Pope Benedict attacked gays in his message for World Day of Peace 2013 today.

Said the Pope in his message, via Ansa.IT:

"There is also a need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union...Such attempts actually harm and help to destabilize marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society. These principles are not truths of faith, nor are they simply a corollary of the right to religious freedom. They are inscribed in human nature itself, accessible to reason and thus common to all humanity. The Church's efforts to promote them are not therefore confessional in character, but addressed to all people, whatever their religious affiliation. Efforts of this kind are all the more necessary the more these principles are denied or misunderstood, since this constitutes an offence against the truth of the human person, with serious harm to justice and peace."

Ian McKellen to Anderson Cooper: 'I've Never Met a Gay Person Who's Regretted Coming Out' - VIDEO

Ian McKellen and Anderson Cooper sat down today to talk about The Hobbit, but spent part of the segment talking about being out and proud, and the progress on gay rights in the last 20 years.

Said McKellen, discussing a time when homosexuality was illegal: "I was making love until I was about 30 with my live-in boyfriend and we were breaking the law every time we had sex. Breaking the law. We could have been arrested. All the bad laws have gone. But there's a long way to go."

McKellen then praised Obama for coming out for marriage equality, eliciting a big round of applause from the audience.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

A Cappella Dynamos Pentatonix Turn Out an N'Sync Medley: VIDEO

Who needs Justin, Joey, Chris, JC, and Lance when you have these five? Outstanding.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Evangelical College Chancellor Says Gays 'Don't Exist' on His Campus Because Everyone Signs an Honor Code

Dr. Michael Farris, the Chancellor and Founder of Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, claims there are no gay students on his campus:

It’s simple, really. Homosexuals can’t exist at Patrick Henry College because the students sign an honor code, Farris claimed. “[Homosexuals] could not sign our honor code,” Farris said, adding that he considers the actions of gay men and women “sinful.”

“Part of the honor code is to be sexually pure,” he added.

So you can imagine the chancellor’s consternation when he learned of Queer at Patrick Henry College, a six-month-old, provocatively-titled blog operated by three pseudonymous writers – all of whom graduated from or have taken classes at the school.

Patrick Henry has threatened to sue the blog.

"Kate Kane", one of the bloggers behind QueerPHC, responds to Farris' statements about the existence of gay students:

There’s a stark difference in the definition of our terms. In the eyes of those like Farris, homosexuality is just a sexual action or sexual lifestyle. For us, it’s an orientation, a marker of personal identity. Is it possible that there are no students having gay sex while enrolled at PHC? Entirely possible. But that doesn’t erase the existence of LGBTQ students at the school.

In a student body where there are so many virgins, why is it difficult to believe in the existence of a gay virgin?

It’s difficult if you believe homosexuality is completely synonymous with having gay sex.

In addition, Farris seems to think that any LGBTQ student who signed the honor code would be lying. But if a student’s sexuality has been repressed for years, they may not even realize they are anything other than straight or cisgender until after they enroll at the school. Personally, I did not begin to come to terms with my orientation until I was nearly ready to graduate. A student may also realize they are LGBTQ, but attempt to suppress it because they believe that being queer is wrong. Enrollment at a school like PHC could be part of a larger attempt to continue to live as straight or cisgender. Finally, since many parents hold the purse strings, some LGBTQ students might not have much of a choice as to where they attend school.

But regardless of why we enrolled at the school, we have all studied at PHC. It’s time to acknowledge our existence.

Vikings Asst Coach Wants Chris Kluwe to Lay Off the Activism on Gay Rights and Other Issues

Minnesota Vikings Assistant Coach Mike Priefer tells the AP that punter Chris Kluwe's activism on gay rights and other issues is "getting old" and it's time to concentrate on football:

The Vikings have generally stood behind their renaissance man, rarely getting in the way when he has tried to use his platform to raise awareness to issues away from the field. Kluwe became an important and high-profile advocate for gay marriage during the election. He's also addressed what he sees as a problem the NFL has with drunken driving in the wake of Dallas Cowboys player Jerry Brown's death and criticized voters for not putting a punter into the hall.

With the Vikings (7-6) trying to chase a playoff spot in the final three games of the season, Priefer thinks it's time for Kluwe to cool it with the activism and concentrate on his job.

"To me, it's getting old," Priefer said. "He's got to focus on punting and holding."

Stephen Hawking, Fellow Scientists Call for Pardon of Gay UK Codebreaker Alan Turing

Professor Stephen Hawking and a long list of scientists have joined the chorus of voices calling for an official pardon of Enigma codebreaker Alan Turing, in a letter to the UK's Telegraph:

We write in support of a posthumous pardon for Alan Turing, one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the modern era. He lead the team of Enigma codebreakers at Bletchley Park, which most historians agree shortened the Second World War. Yet successive governments seem incapable of forgiving his conviction for the then crime of being a homosexual, which led to his suicide, aged 41.

We urge the Prime Minister formally to forgive this British hero, to whom we owe so much as a nation, and whose pioneering contribution to computer sciences remains relevant even today. To those who seek to block attempts to secure a pardon with the argument that this would set a precedent, we would answer that Turing’s achievements are sui generis. It is time his reputation was unblemished.

Lord Currie of Marylebone
Lord Grade of Yarmouth
Lord Faulkner or Worcester
Lord Rees of Ludlow
Astronomer Royal
Lord Sharkey
Lord Smith of Finsbury
Baroness Trumpington
Sir Timothy Gowers
Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics, Cambridge University
Dr Douglas Gurr
Chairman, Science Museum Group
Professor Stephen Hawking
Sir Paul Nurse
President, the Royal Society

During World War II, Alan Turing, who is known as the father of modern computing, devised the Turing Bombe, a codebreaking device that was used to decipher the Nazi enigma codes, up to 3,000 messages per day. He was also gay, and two years after being convicted of "gross indecency" for being homosexual and sentenced to undergo hormone therapy, he killed himself with a cyanide-laced apple.