For a second time, the Pope has been heard using anti-LGBTQ+ hate speech while talking with Catholic leadership behind closed doors. The two instances have been reported by someone inside that leadership to the New York Times.
The word used, frociaggine, is considered offensive, and roughly translated to “faggots” by staff at University of Pennsylvania. The pope, in both instances, was discussing with leadership his view that there are already “too many faggots” in the seminary, and that they should limit entry of any more.
While this is disappointing, it is additionally frustrating that the reporting on this by the NYT neglects to mention that as recently as this April, the Pope made an official decree citing transgender people as essentially “affronts to human dignity.” Instead, it refers to the Pope’s history, in both of the recent articles, as one that was making peace and inroads into our community.
News outlets must stop crediting the pontiff and the Catholic Church in general as kind to LGBTQ+ people, as the NYT admits to in it’s own contradictory reporting. These articles are just the latest examples of the transgender erasure and tone-deafness at the NYT that 100s of advocates and professionals have been speaking out about over the last few years.
