‘E-Christians’ Reject New US Ambassador to Spain for Being Gay
The new American ambassador to Spain has been announced: James Costos. The new ambassador, who holds a degree in Political Science, has three traits that stand out: he is a top executive of the television production company HBO, a strong defender of animals — a member of the HSUS organization, dedicated to the condemnation of animal cruelty — and is openly gay.
He is also a relentless persecutor of piracy, opposes bullfighting, and is a prominent activist of the LGBT cause.
According to the online newspaper 20 minutos [es], during Obama's presidential campaign, Costos — whose title was announced on June 15, 2013 — and his renowned decorator spouse Michael Smith:
James Costos (left), US ambassador to Spain, and his spouse, Michael Smith. Photo from the blog Anotaciones de Pensamiento y Crítica.
(…) recaudaron más de 3,5 millones de dólares para la campaña de Obama entre 2011 y 2012, cuando prestaron el lujoso ático que poseen en Manhattan (Nueva York) y la gigantesca mansión que comparten en Los Ángeles (California) para varios actos de recaudación de fondos.
Some are of the opinion that his nomination could be a reward for his donated favors during the presidential campaign, but others allege that his nomination is due to pressure from the Hollywood lobby, which views with concern the frequently discussed [es] amount of piracy in Spain.
What does seem clear is that Costos has been entrusted with a country in which being homosexual should not be a serious problem. In fact, the gay community is well-integrated in Spain, and according to a report from the Pew Research organization, 88 percent of the population considers that it must be a fact accepted by society. Same-sex marriage has been legal since 2005, being the third country in the world that approved it, after the Netherlands and Belgium.
However, even though the nomination of Costos has been announced without fanfare in the Spanish political scene, there is an organization that is completely against his appointment: E-Christians, an ultra-Catholic website of Catalan origin, has been especially critical of the American government for sending Costos to Spain. They have gone so far as to start a petition [es] to urge the Spanish ministry of Foreign Affairs, José M. García-Margallo, “to not give blessing” to the new US ambassador to Spain”, which is to say, to reject Costos as ambassador. According to the text shown when signing the petition:
El Sr. Costos y su pareja son promotores del homosexualismo político en aquel país [EE.UU.] y ha sido nombrado por esta razón. Su presencia significa la voluntad de intromisión en la política interior española para promover el homosexualismo político, un hecho inaceptable desde el punto de vista de la neutralidad formal que debe poseer toda representación diplomática.
E-Christians is a website founded in 2001 by Josep Miró i Ardèvol [es], member of the Convergència i Unió party, former agricultural advisor of the autonomous Catalan government, and former city councilman for Barcelona. According to the newspaper El Plural [es],
Josep Miró y Ardèvol, president of E-Christians. Photo from the blog El Trastevere.
[E-Cristians] defiende los valores de la Iglesia y se opone al matrimonio homosexual o al aborto. Defiende que la crisis actual está causada por la pérdida de los valores cristianos y de la aceptación por la sociedad de la homosexualidad y la interrupción del embarazo.
Carlos Gil Fernández [es] commented on this article:
Nunca pensé que en mi vida iba a decir esto: me empieza a caer bien el Embajador de los EE.UU. Quién me ha visto y quién me ve, todo por culpa de los fachas ultracatólicos.
Rafael90 [es] mentioned on the website menéame:
Ultracatólicos en puestos de gran poder político–>¡Bien!
Homosexuales en puestos menos importantes (embajador)–>¡Abominación suprema!
Homosexuals in less important positions (ambassador)–>Supreme Abomination!
On the Internet, the majority of the comments went against the claims of the E-Christians. On Twitter, some users succinctly expressed their anger and clear rejection of this initiative and its promotors: “Can this be more silly?” (marian/@marianMasoto54 [es]); “Disgust for radical Catholics” (Sergio – 3ªRepública/@sergiofdezp [es]); “You can never cure stupidity” (AGP/@agonzalezpac [es]); “Moron coming to attack!!” (Moisés Prieto/@MoissPrieto [es]); “Well, well, well. This is respect” (Ernesto S. Pombo/@espombo [es]).
Other Twitter users were more explicit, such as Carlos Saenz Eíriz [es] and jm renye [ca]:
@cseiriz: elplural.com/… DE QUÉ VAN ESTOS Srs ? PÓNGALOS YA EN SU SITIO Y QUE HAGAN PROSELITISMO EN SUS IGLESIAS….SI LES DEJAN.
@JmRenye: Que es dediquin a netejar la merda que tenen a casa seva i deixin als demes en pau.
5 comments
I find it very ironic that Spain, a country that has legalized gay marriage, still holds prejudicial views against homosexuals. It is a contradiction and proves that the European society, despite claiming to be so socially liberal, is still very narrow-minded. For instance, what happened in France when its Congress legalized gay marriage just a few months ago? Massive protests took place in Paris and all over the country.
In the United States, the scenario is more realistic. Based on recent events, such as the Supreme Court ruling last summer which struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, the society is evolving until the day that equality for all will take place. Probably, a slower but more grounded approach. At least we are not being as hypocritical as Spain and other European countries.
lol are you serious? The US not being hypocritical? Did you not forget the Civil Rights Act of decades ago, and how racism continues to exist today, where there is an unbalance of time served among blacks and whites for the same crimes?
And have you been to Spain? I have, and I went during their gay pride celebrations, not intentionally, but it fell around the same time that I was visiting Spain for a music event and I decided to check out their gay pride festival. It was massive and incredible. It’s the biggest pride festival in all of Europe, over 1.5 million people are there during the whole celebration. Gays, lesbians, straight couples, you see them all there.
You cannot judge what the feelings of a few, especially among the politicians, to represent the feelings of the majority of the people. It’s the same thing here in the US, there are definite racist politicians out there, but that doesn’t mean that we are all racist and prejudice. This article just came out today that shows more how much Spain really supports homosexuality. http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/new-poll-finds-spanish-people-disapprove-gays-least210414