Catholics and LGBT equality and and more in this edition of Bent News.

(Based on @bentalaska 9/30 tweets and Facebook shares, with supplementation.)

Catholics and LGBT equality

• MN Diocese: Catholics for Marriage Equality “not in good standing w/ church.” (via @TPEquality) http://t.co/fMlPXdZb # [ThinkProgress LGBT]
• (In fact, a majority of Catholics favor equality: it’s the church hierarchy that it out of step with the laiety.) #

When that second tweet landed on Bent Alaska’s Facebook wall yesterday, it raised questions with one reader, who asked, “Where does that information come from? In my personal life, I haven’t seen that.”

There have been a number of polls over the past year or two which show that of all faith traditions, Catholics are the most supportive of LGBT equality including legal recognition of same sex relationships through marriage or domestic partnership. Some of the figures from those surveys are included in the Think Progress article linked in the previous tweet, which describes how the Minnesota Catholic Conference (MCC) and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are attempting to weaken Catholics for Marriage Equality MN. Both sides are engaged in a hard-fought campaign over a proposed amendment to the Minnesota Constitution similar to the one which entered the Alaska Constitution in 1998:  defining marriage as being only between one man and one woman.

“But the Catholic Church is not speaking on behalf of its membership,” Zack Ford of Think Progress writes,

In fact, if supporters of marriage equality were truly not “in good standing” with the Church, the Church would lose over half its membership:

• March, 2011: 53 percent of white Catholics support marriage equality.
• March, 2011: 74 percent of Catholics favor legally recognizing same-sex relationships.
• July, 2011: 59 percent of Catholics support New York’s marriage equality law.
• August, 2010: 63 percent of Rhode Island Catholics support marriage equality.

Follow this links to stories about the studies cited in the Think Progress article.  Detailed information can be found in a March 2011 study from the Public Religion Research Institue, Catholic Attitudes on Gay and Lesbian Issues: A Comprehensive Portrait from Recent Research Analysis.

Another great resource for Catholics who favor LGBT equality is the national organization Catholics for Equality.  They also have a Facebook page.

Other tweets

• Pentagon to allow military chaplains to perform same-sex ceremonies in marriage equality states (via @TPEquality) http://t.co/pFBjn6PF #
• Openly gay Congressman Jared Polis (D–CO) & partner Marlon Reis announce birth of their first child, a baby boy. http://t.co/BjN8AVnD #