Reporter Calls Church Homophobic Talking About the European Soccer Championship

Country: Poland

Date of incident: February 23, 2011


Homosexual Polish soccer fans are demanding that a separate seating section be created at the 2012 European Soccer Championship in Poland; they claim that gays and lesbians might otherwise be subjected to harassment and violence. Associated Press Sports Editor, Ms. Terry Taylor, reported about this plea with the following comment: "Homophobia also remains deeply embedded in Poland because of the legacy of communism which treated homosexuality as a taboo and the teachings of the church in the predominantly Roman Catholic country."

This negative stereotyping of Christians reinforces the wrong equation of knowledge-based sexual ethics with irrational „homophobia“. The choice of wording gives the wrong impression that Christians „judge and condemn people“ by objecting to a specific behaviour.   

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments „Let's follow the logic. Every world religion is either opposed to homosexuality or takes no position on it; not one finds it acceptable. So if being opposed to homosexuality makes one phobic, then almost the entire world (throughout all of history) suffers the same malady. Not only that, we are to believe that the problem in this case is not delirious homosexuals taking up the cause of segregation, it's the Catholic Church's teachings on sexual ethics.“