I’m not gay and I’m not catholic, and boy is that a good thing because I can’t see how it is possible to be both.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph this week, Cardinal Keith O’Brien revealed himself to be a doctrine driven fantasist, with no understanding for human relationships. A fact that is probably not surprising given that he is the celibate head of the Catholic Church in Scotland; what has surprised me however was the amount of people who seem to agree with him on the Telegraph website. (Well, suppose it is the Telegraph)

I suspect that Cardinal O’Brien would get on well with another outspoken catholic, Rick Santorum, currently running for the Republican nomination in America. Santorum has suggested that “religious people” have a constitutional right to discriminate against gay people, and for good measure, will annul any same sex marriages already standing if elected president. This seems to sit well with the Cardinal’s assertion that same-sex unions are “madness” and a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right”.

What does that mean? If you are gay you relinquish your human rights and become some sort of second class citizen, to be openly discriminated against? I’m sorry, this is not about religion, this is bigotry of the oldest kind, and it comes from fear.

It seems to me that the Cardinal and the politician, despite their faith do not believe that we are all created equal, but that they are in fact quite a bit more equal than other sectors of society. Narcissistic, but also insecure, they are unable to tolerate difference, and see it as a threat, which cannot therefore be tolerated.

There is also a strong thread of denial in both these men; Cardinal O’Brien described the idea of same sex marriage as an attempt to “redefine reality”, “at the behest of a small minority of the population”. Well, the reality is that homosexuality exists, has done for centuries and will continue to do so. I think that the biggest denial of all is the refusal to believe that a family has to have a man and a woman at its head to be acceptable.

I can honestly say that all of the abused, neglected and emotionally injured clients I have ever worked with have been raised in heterosexual relationships. Children need love, attention, attunement and security; none of which are dependent on the gender of their parents.

Another defence mechanism described by Freud was that of reaction formation; this works by behaving in a way that is opposite to the true impulses that feel too dangerous to be acknowledged.

I think it would be lazy to suggest that Cardinal O’Brien and Rick Santorum repel any suggestion of homosexuality, because it is at heart what they feel themselves to be; but on the other hand what are we to make of them, that they are just bigoted, judgemental individuals? Hm, I guess so.