If you think the reception for the Vatican document on gay marriages was rough in the United States, it may be worse in Ireland. The Irish equivalent of the ACLU is warning that anyone who distributes the document may be guilty of hate crimes and could be prosecuted.
Ms Aisling Reidy, director of the ICCL,[Irish Council for Civil Liberties] warned yesterday that the statement could be in violation of the 1989 Incitement to Hatred Act. Those convicted under the Act can face jail terms of up to six months.
“The document itself may not violate the Act, but if you were to use the document to say that gays are evil, it is likely to give rise to hatred, which is against the Act,” according to Ms Reidy. “The wording is very strong and certainly goes against the spirit of the legislation.”
Except that anyone who used the document to say that gays are evil would be doing violence to the document itself and misrepresenting it—just as Ms. Reidy is doing. The document doesn’t incite hatred for gays, it simply states that homosexuality is objectively disordered, that gay marriage would undermine families, and that adoption of children by gay couples would be bad for kids.
But then in the politically correct world we live in, if you don’t accept someone’s “lifestyle choice” then you are intolerant and you hate the person, notwithstanding your protestations otherwise.
