Homophobia has no place in modern life

Spontaneous protests erupted in many US cities last week following the November 4 ballot, which resulted in the passing of Proposition 8 and a ban on same-sex marriage in California. A whole new LGBTI generation has had a rude awakening and many are now aware that no civil rights can be taken for granted.

Much criticism has been flung at the Mormon Church for pouring millions of dollars across state line to support Proposition H8 (read HATE). It's ironic that an organisation whose founders promoted polygamy now so openly take the moral high ground and tell everyone that the institution of marriage between one man and one woman is sacred. But they are just like other medieval-minded religious organisations which, so not to lose their support base, seek to uphold procreation over the actual lives of real people. I can only hope that they will one day renounce their institutionalised homophobia, just as they gave up "plural marriages" (even if it's just to stave off property seizures by the federal government) and, more recently, racism (by accepting black members).

The light-hearted documentary "Suddenly, Last Winter", now showing at Lido, recounts similar bigotry. Journalist couple Gustav and Luca take us on a journey around the vicissitude of the domestic partnership law, which met fervent opposition from the Catholic Church and its followers as well as strong Gay Pride turnouts. The optimistic ending is a nice touch, and I believe that it will be true sooner than we think.

One thing that kept coming up in the film was the assertion that homosexuality is against nature. But, really, what has nature got to do with it? None of these believers seemed to take their dogmatic argument very far. Homosexuality is actually more natural than a lot of things that we humans do - for example, appendectomies and blood donations. And it's definitely more natural than celibacy. We already know how that policy turned out for the Catholic Church.

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