Tens of thousands of Protestants demonstrated yesterday in front of government buildings
to express their opposition to proposed legislation that would make it
impossible to speak against or criticize gay rights.
The Evangelical Free Church of
China Yan Fook Church, which organized the event, estimated at least 50,000
people in the demonstration-concert-prayer service that was held at the Tamar
Park, in the area of the Admiralty. According
to the organizers, if the proposals become law, the freedom of opinion of anyone
who is opposed to standardizing rights for gay couples with that of love
between man and woman will be affected.
In
addition, as has happened in some countries - the United States and Europe -
there is a risk that the negative judgment of Christians regarding the
practices of homosexual and gay couples would become a crime punishable by law.
The
Rev. Jayson Tam, one of the leaders of the event, emphasized the very real risk
of a "reverse discrimination".
Homosexuality is far removed from
the idea of family in traditional Chinese culture. Some
famous gay singers such as Anthony Wong Yiu-ming and Denise Ho Wan-sze, along
with radical or gay parliamentarians, such as Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, have
launched a campaign in the territory to push the government to affirm all gay
rights legislation .
The campaign will last at least 18
months. They
are seeking that from the first official speech of the chief executive, Leung
Chun-ying, which will take place on January 16, a consultation on gay rights be
launched.
The global pressure of the gay
movement is leading many countries to deal with issues regarding discrimination
against homosexuals to the point of demands for gay marriage and adoption of
children by gay couples.
Yesterday
in Paris, there was a demonstration of hundreds of thousands of families, men,
women and children, against the proposal of President Francois Hollande to
legalize gay marriage and adoption of children. The
huge demonstration, which converged near the Eiffel Tower, was attended by
Catholics, Evangelicals, Jews, Muslims and homosexuals against gay marriage.
The proposed bill is seriously
affecting Hollande's popularity rating, already hampered by the inability of his
executive to respond to unemployment and the economic crisis. The
marriages between partners of the same sex are legal in 11 countries including
Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Norway and South Africa and
in 9 U.S. states, as well as in Washington.
The Catholic Church is often seen
and attacked as "the enemy" of gays. In
reality, the positions of Catholics are shared by many other religious
communities, which while respecting homosexuals, do not accept the equivalence
of gay marriage to traditional marriage between men and women, also because of
the consequences that this could have in the lives of children adopted by gay couples.
In his address
to the Roman Curia on 21 December, Benedict XVI spoke of an "attack"
to "authentic form of the family, consisting of father, mother and child"
and cited his agreement with a study by the Grand Rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim.
Yesterday,
in connection with the event in Paris, four activists - two French and two
Ukrainian - from the Femen group stripped topless during the Pope's Angelus in
St Peter's Square to demonstrate for gay rights.
The
unusual protest took place near the big Christmas tree in the square. The
four, who had drawn on their bodies the words "In Gay We Trust" were
detained briefly by police.