In their classic work After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s, Marshall Kirk and Hudson Madsen, both homosexual, said that most of the gay community’s problems involve a rejection of morality. The most common effect was narcissism. It’s the only word to explain their reaction to AIDS: it was everyone’s fault but theirs. Anyone doubting this should watch the Oscar-nominated documentary “How to Survive a Plague,” by David France, a talented gay writer. Mayor Ed Koch, ever honest, accuses ACT-UP of using “fascist tactics.” These were evident when ACT-UP members rushed St. Patrick’s Cathedral in December 1989, disrupting Mass, spitting the Eucharist on the floor, stopping people from going to Communion. The film shows some of this.

Ann Northrop led the charge, saying: “We want everybody to join us, to support us, to destroy the power of the Catholic Church. They are all murderers.”  Protesters are shown in St. Pat’s screaming, “You’re killing us. Stop it.”

Though the movie was made to garner admiration, it falls far short of this goal. It does elicit pity, especially for off-the-wall activist Ray Navarro, who often dressed up as Jesus. The footage of his dying days in a wheelchair is truly moving. Knowing he was finished, he says, “There are many years to come. Let’s hope. So, what the hell—life is worth living. Isn’t it?” Sadly, he died at 46.

SNAP director David Clohessy berates the Church for not reporting suspected sexual abusers, yet he himself admits failing to report a priest who molested a male youth. He accuses the Church of lying, he admits under oath lying to the media about his work. He claims the Church lacks transparency, but he doesn’t disclose his own funding sources. He alleges the Church gave victims inadequate counseling, yet he admits SNAP offers none. In 2007 they spent $593 for “survivor support.” (Clohessy, who has no counseling license, holds sessions at Starbucks). However, in 2008 he spent $92,000 on travel.

SNAP is broke. It recently emailed donors, pleading: “We are barely meeting our everyday expenses.” That’s because they have nothing to do. The homosexual abuse scandal ended almost three decades ago. Few of their rapacious lawyer friends who sued the Church are there to grease them anymore. Hence their latest stunt.

Before the conclave, SNAP released a “dirty dozen” list of cardinals. They’re clearly in panic mode and need to kick-start their operations once again. They claim to be furious about those “who pretend the worst is over.” They have to say that. They’ve got no other choice but to lie.

On March 1, the Washington Post covered the “survivors” movement. One activist confessed it “diminished quite a bit,” citing fewer of the “gray-haired folks.” Another reluctantly admitted the movement has “run out of steam.” SNAP’s best days are behind it, and Clohessy knows it.

Over the past several years, New York State Assemblywoman Margaret A. Markey of Queens has introduced legislation that would address the sexual abuse of minors. There’s one problem, though, with her proposals: her bills focus unfairly on private institutions, while they leave abuse in the public institutions virtually untouched. This year’s version of her bill offers no change; it would open up a one-year window for alleged victims who were abused in a private institution regardless of when it took place. At the same time, however, it changes nothing for a victim who was abused in a public school even as recently as Thanksgiving (the victim has only ninety days in which to report the abuse).

On March 8th, Markey held a rally in Manhattan outside City Hall in an attempt to persuade the public. It is interesting to note, however, that the roster of speakers at the press conference does not include anyone from the Department of Education. Doing so would open Assemblywoman Markey up to questions that she does not want to answer. One question would be this: why is it that a private school student who had his crotch grabbed by a janitor a quarter century ago has greater rights than a public school student who was abused by a teacher only a few months ago.

The Catholic League contacted Assemblywoman Markey’s office earlier this year to disucss the discrepancy in her bill, asking for clarification—we never heard back. The reason is simple. Markey doesn’t want to answer the big question: why is there a disparate treatment of private and public institutions? Note: in 2009, after months of protest by the Catholic League, Markey amended her bill to cover both public and private institutions, but it was quickly shot down by public school groups.

Those who are interested in true justice should support the legislation that’s been introduced by Assemblyman Michael Cusick, which does not discriminate between public and private institutions. His bill treats all alleged victims equally regardless of wherever the abuse occurred. Markey’s selective approach to child sexual abuse, on the other hand, leaves a large proportion of victims still seeking justice.

On February 20th, the New York Times featured a story on a priest from the Diocese of Bridgeport who was arrested, Msgr. Kevin Wallin; it was the second story on him that the paper had featured in recent weeks. On the other hand, however, two New York rabbis have been arrested this year. Yet each of them only merited one story in the Times. On January 31, Rabbi Yoel Malik was arrested. Rabbi Nathan David Rabinowich was arrested on February 14. (Only the print editions are being counted.)

•Msgr. Wallin was arrested for drugs.
•Rabbi Malik was arrested for sexually abusing three teenage boys. He was charged with twelve counts of sexual abuse, four counts of criminal sexual contact, eleven counts of endangering the welfare of a child, and a single charge of forcible touching.
•Rabbi Rabinowich was charged with four sexual offenses, including the attempted rape of a fourteen-year-old girl. The total number of words in the Times story on the priest was 3,496 (whereas today’s front-page story merited 2,745 words). At the same time, the total number of words devoted to the two rabbis combined was 828 (the stories appeared on pages 22 and 25, respectively). It’s not just the Times that gives rabbis a pass: the New York Daily News had two stories on Malik (only mentioning him by name in one!); the New York Post ran one story on him; the Daily News ran one story on Rabinowich; and the Post had none.

While Msgr. Wallin has multiple problems (he is a cross-dressing drug addict and, like Malik, he is a practicing homosexual), he is not a child rapist. So why the heightened interest in him, and the relative disinterest in the rabbis? It obviously doesn’t turn on the nature of the offense.

Malik’s arrest came less than two weeks after another member of his ultra-Orthodox Jewish group, an unlicensed therapist, was sentenced to 103 years in prison for sexually abusing a young woman from the time she was twelve. By the way, a rabbi who publicly criticized this rapist had a cup of bleach thrown at him, burning his eyes and face. It never made the front page of any news- paper.

We wonder why it is that the media continues to harp on the homosexual scandal in the Catholic Church that ended a quarter century ago. Over the last- decade the number of credibly accused priests has averaged in the single digits, among a popula- tion of over 40,000. No religious or secular group can match that. Yet today much larger scandals continue in other communities, secular and religious, that continue to go largely unadressed.

Here is how the Catholic Left reacted right before a new pope was elected on April 19, 2005:

• E.J. Dionne blasted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger for using “fighting words” in an address before the cardinals.
• Father Richard McBrien said, “I think this homily shows he realizes he’s not going to be elected. He is a polarizing figure.”
• Peggy Steinfels agreed, saying, “Oh well, that gets rid of him.”

A few hours later, he was elected Pope Benedict XVI.

Here is how the Catholic Left greeted the news:

• The president of Dignity, Michael Rocks, said of the new pope, “I didn’t think he had a chance because he already was so negative.”
• Sr. Donna Quinn, head of the pro-abortion group, National Coalition of American Nuns, slammed him for lacking “sensitivity” to women.
• Scott Appleby of Notre Dame opined, “This is the worst nightmare come true.”
• Ex-priest Paul Lakeland lamented that “this choice is nothing but backwards looking.”
• Andrew Greeley’s warning was ominous: “There might be a reign of terror for those who still
support the Vatican Council.”
• A spokesman for Call to Action exclaimed, “People here are in a state of shock.”

The Catholic Left is bound to turn on the new pope. Having lost on virtually every issue that excites them—and there’s nothing that excites them more than sex—they’re bracing for more bad news. What they want has already been tried: they want the Catholic Church to adopt the teachings of mainline Protestant denominations. Someone needs to tell them (gently, of course) that it didn’t work—they’re all in free fall.