The spokesperson of Mexico’s Catholic church, Father Hugo Valdemar, has challenged the government’s anti-discrimination watchdog, Conapred, to imprison all those who don't agree with what he calls the “gay dictatorship.”
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Valdemar’s remarks followed a statement by the Conapred in which the institution characterized as "absolutely discriminatory” last week's series of rallies conducted across Mexico where thousands of people took to the streets to “defend their families and children” against same-sex marriages and adoptions – which are human rights provided by the Mexican constitution.
“There is persecution against the Church,” says Valdemar, who also condemned the fact that Conapred “censored” an article in the Catholic outlet “Desde la Fe” (from faith) entitled "No one is born gay" in which the author claimed that Dr. Richard Cohen – the director of the U.S.-based coalition, Positive Approaches To Healthy Sexuality – has helped homosexuals by means of the controversial so-called "gay conversion therapy" psychological treatment.
"It is something very serious, the state now determines the sexual behavior of citizens and forbids any attempt to return to normalcy... The state prohibits parents from helping their children to solve their sexual doubts and prohibits homosexuals from changing, but if they want to change their sex they fund that atrocity, it's something diabolic," Valdemar said in an interview with a Catholic TV channel.
Conapred has asked clergy to abstain from making comments on the legitimacy of same-sex marriages following the constant attacks by Catholic leaders and organizations such as the National Front for the Family, which has been calling for anti-gay rallies since Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto submitted a proposal to Congress that would legalize same-sex marriages nationwide.
The Catholic Church has said they are not promoting the rallies. However, individual clergy have been doing so and have also led demonstrations in some cities in an act that violates the secular nature of the Mexican state.
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Representatives of the National Front for the Family claim that they respect homosexuality. However, they demand that the state reject their constitutional right to marry, calling them "unstable people" in their propaganda. The anti-gay front plans to stage a mega-rally on September 24 in Mexico City, which has been recognized worldwide as a gay cultural capital.
Last June, the Supreme Court ruled that every civil authority should "recognize marriage as a human right and that people can enter into marriage without any kind of discrimination." But the ruling was not compulsory for all states, and couples across the country have had to sue in court in order to practice their right to marry.