LESBIAN 'MARRIAGE' AT NOTRE-DAME ENDS IN PUNCH UP

PARIS, June 5 (AFP) - About 20 members of the group Act Up [At the time of this post, the Act Up Paris site is down.] entered the cathedral and proceeded to perform the mock marriage, before baffled tourists and worshippers, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.

One militant - dressed as a priest - pronounced the two women married, while other Act UP members chanted: "Pope Benedict XVI, homophobe, AIDS accomplice."

Yes, well, these French exemplars of the deep-think no doubt gave a lot of thought to their chant, but for the life of us we are at a loss how one can be both a homophobe and an AIDS accomplice, as the former proscribes the lifestyle predisposed to the latter.

The demonstration marked the first anniversary of France's first gay wedding, performed last year in the Bordeaux suburb of Begles. The union of two men has since been declared null and void by the French courts.

The president of Act Up Paris, Jerome Martin - who participated in Sunday's demonstration - told AFP by telephone that he also had been hit in the melee, but said the priest had exaggerated the actual events. [The "activists" pushed Monsignor Patrick Jacquin to the ground and kicked him in the neck.]

"We did not want to be aggressive with respect to the worshippers... the aggressive security detail wanted to rip up our banner," he said.

Can't we all identify with animal fury amok when some security detail makes to rip up our nice banner decorating someone else's property and insulting the proprietor? Of course we can.

Just what was this demonstration about? Well, we are guessing, but the Act Up Paris folk feel they are not respected by the Pope in particular and, more generally, the Catholic Church. So to achieve this respect they feel they deserve, they go about disrespecting the Pope and the Catholic Church. Wait, wait, doesn't that invalidate the Act Up Paris claim on the Church's respect? If Act Up believes homosexuals deserve respect regardless of how odious the Pope and Church find the homosexual lifestyle (not homosexuals themselves), then isn't Act Up Paris obliged to extend this respect in kind toward the Church?

Apparently not. Act Up Paris is satisfied to self-excuse its loathings and to advertise the gay lifestyle with shameful pranking.