CHICAGO – Chicago Cardinal Francis George is drawing criticism after comparing the gay rights movement to the Ku Klux Klan.
George was asked during an interview on WFLD-TV what he thought about a local priest’s concerns that the city’s annual gay pride parade might interrupt morning Mass at his church.
George replied that he was concerned the gay rights movement might “morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.”
He says the rhetoric of the KKK and some in the gay rights movement involving the Catholic Church was similar.
On Thursday, a coalition of Catholic groups that work for LGBT rights called George’s comments “crude” and “demagogic.”
Organizers of the June parade agreed Wednesday to start later to avoid disrupting church services.
