We condemn discrimination against gays, and we condemn sex amongst gays.

The above mixed messages are brought to you by the United States Catholic bishops, who confered Tuesday to draft a document that advises followers of their faith on how to deal with gays, and gayness. The resulting statement contains gay outreach guidelines, which gay Catholic activists find only alienate the very people they attempt to reach.

The statement, Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination, was adopted at a meeting of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops by a 194-37 vote, with one abstention. It is well intended on the outset, encouraging Catholics to make an effort to accept homosexuals; but all the same, discouraging efforts to accept homosexuality.

An example: welcoming gays to the Catholic flock but forbidding those who engage in gay sex to take the holy communion. Seriously, is this still a traumatic reaction to that kiss from one male to another that ended the last supper in bad taste?

Catholic bishops suggest it’s okay to be gay but not okay to live a gay lifestyle, as if the two should be separated. The statement proposes it isn’t a sin to be attracted to someone of the same sex – but it is a sin to act on these same-sex feelings. To wit: fall in love but don’t make love.

“This document proposes that lesbian and gay people be viewed not in the entirety of their lives but in one dimension only – the sexual dimension,” says Francisco DeBernardo, executive director of an independent outreach to gay Catholics, the New Ways Ministry. He adds, “No other group in the church is singled out in this way.”

Are the bishops asking for some ass-whupping of the cultural odds making and political prop betting kind? Does this Catholic angst have anything to do with the free Britney Spears sex tape leaked online?

Gay sex is decidedly sinful behavior, according to the statement that appears to be doing more harm than good. On the same breath, bishops counsel that children of gay Catholics may be baptized if raised in the faith, but oppose gay marriage and adoption by gay and lesbian couples. Id est: guys make ugly brides and scary mothers (and vice versa).

Sam Sinnett, president of an advocacy group for gay Catholics, DignityUSA, finds the statement damaging because it urges gays to “stay emotionally and spiritually in the closet”. It recommends that gays acknowledge their sexuality only to themselves rather than to the world.

The very idea of a gay outreach guideline, as is the statement, is flawed and prejudiced. ‘Gay outreach‘ makes the presumption gays are a needy, underprivileged, and/or segregated group being done a favor or given a handout. ‘Outreach guideline‘ promotes the notion of a conditional kinship with gays; let’s be friends, but only if this and that were true.

“To be a Catholic is a challenge,” states Bishop Arthur Serratelli of Paterson, NJ, doctrine committee chairman. “To be a Catholic requires a certain choice.”

Gay sex today remains illegal in some 80 nations of the world, out of 192 – in some cases, punishable by death; only male-male sex is outlawed in 42 of those countries. Homosexuality was considered a disease by the World Health Organization until only 1990, and considered a disorder by the American Psychiatric Association until 1973. LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) movements exist with the common goal, usually, of social equality and/or liberation from sexual oppression.

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