Tied up in Knox

Bill Donohue and other Catholic leaders are fulminating about President Obama’s appointment of Harry Knox to his Faith-based council. They say Knox is a “virulent, anti-Catholic bigot” and have written a letter to Obama to get him kicked off the council. Knox is the director of the religion and faith program for the Human Rights […]

Bill Donohue and other Catholic leaders are fulminating about President Obama’s appointment of Harry Knox to his Faith-based council. They say Knox is a “virulent, anti-Catholic bigot” and have written a letter to Obama to get him kicked off the council.

Knox is the director of the religion and faith program for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group. To be sure, Knox has criticized Pope Benedict XVI, as you might expect a gay rights leader to do. But does that mean he’s “anti-Catholic” or “clearly bigoted”?

Donohue, et alia (House Minority Leader John Boehner signed the letter) provide the following “instances of Harry Knox’s bigotry.”


In March, Knox said: “The Pope’s statement that condoms don’t help control the spread of HIV, but rather condoms increase infection rates, is hurting people in the name of Jesus.”

In reference to a bishop’s instruction that a lesbian couple in Wyoming could not receive communion at Mass, Knox, said: “it is immoral and insulting to Jesus to use the body and blood of Christ the reconciler as a weapon to silence free speech and demean the love of a committed, legally married couple.”

In reaction to the Vatican’s refusal to sign a U.N. agreement that called for decriminalizing homosexuality, Knox and the HRC signed a statement with other groups that read, in part: “By refusing to sign a basic statement opposing inhumane treatment of LGPT people, the Vatican is sending a message that violence and human rights abuses against LGBT people are acceptable.”

In March, HRC launched a new Web site called EndtheLies.org designed “to confront right-wing lies and distortions repeatedly used to defeat LGBT equality measures.” The wall features an image of Pope Benedict XVI and this statement: “Pope Benedict XVI has called same-sex relationships ‘a destruction of God’s work,’ opposed a U.N. resolution decriminalizing homosexuality, and claimed in March 2009 that the use of condoms increases HIV infections.”

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