Antony and the Johnsons singer Antony/Anohni Hegarty has spoken out against an alleged meeting between Pope Francis, head of the Catholic church, and the conservative Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who has refused to give same-sex marriage licences on religious grounds, with the Pontiff even rumoured to have praised her for her courage.
“Apparently Pope Francis was working behind the scenes to undermine gay rights in America,” Hegarty wrote last night on the band’s Facebook page, “How shameful and pathetic of him. I have been so impressed with his approach to climate and his call to end the death penalty in the US. But for him to make insidious comments about how the ‘traditional family’ is under threat (presumably from gay marriage) and then to secretly meet that poor misguided cretin Kim Davis…”.
“Francis attempts to distract us from Catholic sexual predators with a smokescreen of fake moralising about gay people and their rights to live as equals in society,” Hegarty writes, suggesting that the Pope “should line up one hundred gay, lesbian and transgendered people from around the world and wash and kiss their feet,” in the mode of Jesus washing and kissing the feet of his disciples.
“He should issue a formal apology on behalf of the Vatican for centuries of persecuting, torturing and killing gay and transgendered people in the name of their god,” Hegarty continued, asking, “Or are we not worthy of his humility, unlike criminals, the American indigenous, and the poor?,” ending the post by saying, “And he doesn’t even have the political courage to speak of his bigotry directly. Knowing it would hurt his popularity, he slithers around in secret, watering the seeds of hatred and violence against gay, lesbian and transgendered people”. “Jesus Wept,” Hegarty concludes, signing off as Anohni, the name the transgender singer announced in February she would be using for her next record, Hopelessness, co-produced with Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke.