Leap! Pre-2004 Statements
LeAP!’s statement regarding the controversial August 1, 2004 statement released by the Vatican and carried by the Philippine Daily Inquirer (National Newspaper).
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VATICAN STATEMENT: ANTI-WOMEN, ANTI-LESBIAN
As women, as feminists, and as lesbians, we are saddened and dismayed that the Vatican, an institution that many of us have put so much faith in, would make condemn the women's movement and the feminist ideals that fuel it.
The document, ironically titled "On the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World", made sweeping declarations and accusations such as "[the drive for equality makes] homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually equivalent", and that the recent trend in the approach to women's issues is to "emphasize strongly conditions of subordination in order to give rise to antagonism".
The content of the document is archaic and patriarchal and the language of the document could be used to put an end to any effort to empower women, leaving those of us who are not yet free once again without hope. For a bastion of Christianity, the Vatican dangerously suggests that human beings are not in fact equal, and that homosexuals have no right to consider themselves of equal footing as others. It is a document that lends itself very easily to unscrupulous motives and to further oppression of gays, lesbians, and women, in the guise of morality.
This is something that could set back the progress of women's issues by several years, and disregard the decades of effort women have put into the fight for equality. Women asked for and got the right of suffrage. Women were given freedom of choice to work in and outside the homes. Women were taught they remain complete regardless of status or sexual attachment to men. When women learned to dream, and to reach these dreams, where they wrong to do so?
We in the Lesbian Advocates Philippines (LeAP!), Inc. believe that the statements of the
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VATICAN STATEMENT: ANTI-WOMEN, ANTI-LESBIAN
As women, as feminists, and as lesbians, we are saddened and dismayed that the Vatican, an institution that many of us have put so much faith in, would make condemn the women's movement and the feminist ideals that fuel it.
The document, ironically titled "On the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World", made sweeping declarations and accusations such as "[the drive for equality makes] homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually equivalent", and that the recent trend in the approach to women's issues is to "emphasize strongly conditions of subordination in order to give rise to antagonism".
The content of the document is archaic and patriarchal and the language of the document could be used to put an end to any effort to empower women, leaving those of us who are not yet free once again without hope. For a bastion of Christianity, the Vatican dangerously suggests that human beings are not in fact equal, and that homosexuals have no right to consider themselves of equal footing as others. It is a document that lends itself very easily to unscrupulous motives and to further oppression of gays, lesbians, and women, in the guise of morality.
This is something that could set back the progress of women's issues by several years, and disregard the decades of effort women have put into the fight for equality. Women asked for and got the right of suffrage. Women were given freedom of choice to work in and outside the homes. Women were taught they remain complete regardless of status or sexual attachment to men. When women learned to dream, and to reach these dreams, where they wrong to do so?
We in the Lesbian Advocates Philippines (LeAP!), Inc. believe that the statements of the