OPINION: By Noeline Bautista from PROJECTeye

The starting gun has been fired on World Youth Day, which actually runs for six days from Tuesday 15 July to Sunday 20 July.

And yet, as the crowd goes wild, did anybody even notice a handful of contestants running in the opposite direction? One of them was a divorcee. Another was wearing an annoying t-shirt. And the guy I was cheering for… is gay.

So what does WYD mean to a community condemned by the Catholic Church? As recent protests indicate - not much.

For starters, a series of t-shirts that read “Pope Go Homo” were manufactured, purchased, and paraded – only to be banned. Deemed ‘annoying’, future prosecutors were threatened with fines of up to $5,500. Some critics are labelling it as a form of censorship.

"Jesus didn't run around handing out condoms,” said George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney. But NoToPope Coalition members did. Condoms were handed out to pilgrims on their way to a papal mass at Randwick Racecourse as a protest against the Catholic Church’s stance on abortion, contraception and homosexuality. This time, it was deemed legal by the courts.

Not until the lead up to WYD have protestors walked a finer line between ‘inconveniencing pilgrims’ and exercising their right within a democratic society to free speech.

This begs the question of whether religion and the state can ever become two truly separate affairs.

One glimpse at the Australian legal system, and the predominantly Christian ethos it was founded on becomes obvious. New legislation is enacted to protect the pilgrims of WYD from annoying protestors, yet the same restrictions weren’t enforced for the Dalai Lama, and nothing is done to curb the media induced sentiment towards Islam.

Would the Government be willing to spend $160 million dollars on the festivities of another religion?

Pope Benedict himself has said, "Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered towards an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder".

Because gay marriages are not legally recognised, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) couples are denied the same entitlements and benefits as their heterosexual counterparts. These include the perks of reduced tax for combined accounts, health insurance and retirement planning.

An LGBT individual cannot make claims on the house, car, social security payments, bereavement leave or superannuation on behalf of their partner – regardless of how much they love each other, or how long they have been in a relationship together.

Some would accuse the gay community, along with gay rights activists as attention seekers, deliberately causing trouble during WYD. But I wonder, how many heterosexuals would be willing to give up the aforementioned entitlements without a fight?

Too bad homophobic double standards aren’t a legally recognised form of discrimination.

“Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable” (Leviticus 18:22).

As the number of Catholic adherents drop, and with atheism, secularism and new age religions on the rise – could Catholicism be losing its relevance?

Anyone familiar with ancient history, or at least good with his or her trivia and useless information would know that gay marriages are so centuries ago! They were normal. Dick waddling Emperor Nero himself married a male slave. But how many people know what happened between then and now to make homosexuality so detestable?

The Old Testament was written during a time when the Jewish population was in decline, struggling to keep up with other ancient civilisations. In order to survive, the tribe enacted laws against male-to-male relations to counteract this.

Looking around, it seems that this Judeo-Christian law stuck around way longer than they intended. Only this time round, with quite the opposite effect. Instead of attracting followers, Catholicism is losing them.

“The fact that LGBT youth will feel left out at these events and/or that they won’t be able to be their true selves at these events is sad” says Genesis, 18.

Genesis is no longer the Catholic he was raised to become, feeling let down by a church that actively suppresses his sexual orientation.

The suicide rate amongst gay youth is seven times more than the average, according to Ms Evans from Community Action Against Homophobia.

This frightening statistic has the Catholic Church unscathed, refusing to recognise LGBT members unless they repent their ‘sins’ of homosexuality.

When the Bible taught Catholics to “love thy neighbour,” who knew it was conditional?

ProjectEye is a content partner for SBS providing critical news coverage of WYD08 from a youth perspective.
Source: Project Eye