Protesters Join LGBT Marchers to 'Protest the Pope' in London

On Saturday, Sept. 18, tens of thousands of protesters, estimated at upwards of 20,000, turned out in the streets surrounding London's Downing Street, the home of the Prime Minister, to protest the pope's visit to the United Kingdom.

The pope's visit was shrouded by controversy. The head of the church in England publicly clashed with his his boss in Rome before the trip over the church's attitude toward LGBT Catholics. Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, spoke of gay Catholics as being in a "difficult" place because while the church does not condemn gays as being sinful for their sexual desires, it does condemn as "inherently evil" any expression of sexuality between two individuals of the same gender. The archbishop implied that a place might be made in the future for a recognition of same-sex relationships --�far at odds with the Vatican.

The protesters were certainly angry about what they (and many others) saw as the pope's half-hearted response to the child-abuse scandal. Far from receding the scandal, which began unfolding in the United States and spread to Ireland, has now spread to nearly every Catholic nation in Europe.

Like many once-stalwart Catholic countries, Belgium has become more secular in recent years. The huge scandal there, which encompasses the highest orders of the prelates and hundreds of victims, threatens the church's authority to its core.

In Britain, the thousands of Catholic pilgrims gathered in Hyde Park to pray with the pope. But, as the U.K. Telegraph reported, thousands nearby chanted "provocative slogans and brandished placards -- many designed to deliberately offend --� reading: 'Pope's opposition to condoms kills people', 'Keep the Pope out of women's' reproductive rights' and '[fuck] the Pope ... But wear a condom.'"

Prominent among the marchers were LGBT protesters, joined by abuse survivors, atheists and anti-poverty activists.

Peter Tatchell, perhaps the most prominent gay-rights activist in the country and a leader of the anti-pope protests since the announcement that he would visit the island kingdom, criticized the pope on several fronts.

"The Pope's apologies do not ring true," he told the Telegraph about the pope's statement on child abuse. "Even today, he is refusing to hand over Vatican files he holds under lock and key. Priests who sexually abused children should be brought to justice and the church should do its bit."

Calu Lema, who described herself as a "tax-paying lesbian," said, "Why should I, as a lesbian taxpayer, pay for his state visit when he is opposed to women's rights to contraception, opposed to gays and gay marriage and opposed to human rights?"

One of the most prominent protesters was Sir Ian McKellen. The highly respected actor and late-in-life gay rights activist wore a T shirt that said, "Some people are gay. Get over it."

Ashley Huxley, a 26-year-old lesbian, told the Community LIve Journal that she had only taken part in one protest before. But she wanted the world to know how unhappy she was with the government's helping fund the visit. "This man is against homosexuality," she said. "But I am a homosexual. It was important for me to come here to make this stand."

Noted atheist Richard Dawkins mocked the pope's attribution of Hitler's atheism. He read statements from the dictator that indicated that, far from renouncing his Catholic upbringing, he considered it an integral part of his worldview -- and that the German Catholic hierarchy agreed: