OK, who can explain to me why a poster of a man breastfeeding at work would be controversial? I just can’t see it.

Let’s tick off the elements:
A man in a suit with his chest exposed. If this was a problem, most Guess ads would be banned.
A man holding his child. Can’t even imagine a problem there.
A man with his child on his chest. I’ve seen that in Sears catalogs, for cryin’ out loud.
A baby in a diaper. Um, yeah.
An office. Uh-huh.

I got it. It must be the poster of Lucy Lawless’ legs on the wall.

Seriously, though, the real reason it was pulled was the same reason it was made: it makes people think about the double-standard we still have. If men needed to breastfeed at work, do you think there’d be any problem?

I would like to be as sophisticated as Chris, and as brief, but I can’t. So I’ll start with “AAAaargh!” I understand that the Vatican is all about tradition. I understand that homosexuality is a touchy subject for them, especially as it’s turning out that many “celibate” priests are not, and at the expense of kids who are at a severe power disadvantage. Still, the Pope gets to make rules for Catholics, because that’s how the system works. I accept that. BUT…

Now the Vatican thinks that it gets to make rules for everyone, even you and me. So everyone “committed to promoting and defending the common good of society” (which I actually THOUGHT included me), whether Catholic or not, is supposed to oppose homosexual marriage, and not just that, but any legislation that would give gay couples the same rights as married couples.

“Why?” you may ask. Go ahead, ask. Okay, I’ll play Pope and explain. See, kids, homosexuality violates something called “natural moral law.” God, who is omnipotent, didn’t intend for there to be homosexuality. Humans are sinful creatures with free will, and homosexuality is just a terrible perversion of what God wanted, but since we can do what we want, it sometimes happens.

If our all-powerful God intended there to be homosexuality, there would be homosexual animals, right? See, animals don’t have free will, they HAVE to follow God’s laws. And since there are no verified examples of homosexual behavior among, say, oh, I don’t know… penguins, bonobo chimps, whales, giraffes, rodents, geese or bears… (These are NOT just random examples.) …then homosexuality must be unnatural, right? And a violation of this “natural moral law,” right?

Our friends the Italians are fighting the good fight, though, with great protest signs like “Democracy, yes. Theocracy, no.” and are comparing the Vatican to the Taliban. The Italians literally have Vatican City surrounded, so we can hope. And pray.