In a Deseret News feature profile, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan uses the soapbox opportunity to pontificate on his favorite topic: how marriage equality is bad for the Catholic Church. With little consideration for the experiences of same-sex couples and their families, Dolan’s primary concern is what backlash the Church will face as it continues to discriminate against and demonize the LGBT community:

“One of our arguments has always been that people of principle who feel this violates their deepest-held convictions are going to be forced to the wall,” Archbishop Dolan said. “We were told we were being Chicken Littles and that was ridiculous.”

But “no sooner was the ink dry,” he said, than priests throughout the state started coming to him with stories of couples threatening to sue if they didn’t agree to rent out their parishes for same-sex weddings.

Richard Barnes, executive director of the New York Catholic Conference, also echoed these concerns:

“I could foresee the state determining that we can’t make decisions on a moral or religious basis as we would have in the past regarding the employment of individuals who are actively defying church tenets,” Barnes said. “If that happened, we would be in a position where we were asserting our First Amendment rights in court.”

Dolan and Barnes are trying to suggest not only that they have a right to discriminate against people for being gay, but that they should also be shielded from criticism for doing so. Bishop William Lori testified before the House Judiciary Committee last week that he fears Church leaders will be smeared as “bigots” merely for practicing their “religious liberty.” But that “right” is an effort to demonize the gay community at every turn, which is why these Catholic leaders constantly try to paint themselves as the victims. Evoking sympathy for their beliefs distracts from their efforts to deny equality to the LGBT community.

It’s important to note that Dolan, Barnes, and Lori speak only on behalf of Catholic leadership, not all Catholics. In fact, only 35 percent of American Catholics oppose marriage equality, and most distrust the bishops because of their gross mishandling of the ongoing sexual abuse scandals. But that doesn’t stop individuals like Dolan from suggesting that the entire gay community should be subjugated to his minority beliefs. He claims that he’s the hero, offering “love, acceptance, dignity, and respect” to gay people, despite little understanding of the challenges their families face. Constantly harping about his own beliefs demonstrates what little concern he has for same-sex couples’ welfare.

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan tried to strike a moderate tone during Monday’s marriage forum in Poughkeepsie, New York, insisting that the Catholic Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage does not translate into animus for gay and lesbian people. When an audience member asked the full panel of religious leaders if they would support extending legal protections and recognition to gay couples, Dolan burst out in mock laughter as the question was referred to him, saying, “Oh thanks, he’s so generous!” He then suggested that the Catholic community would help gay couples who “have legitimate rights that are being hurt” and that they could receive some of the benefits of marriage without “redefining marriage.” “I remember hearing on the radio, in fact, that his partner — or whatever you call it — was being deported because they couldn’t be married and I tried to get in touch with him to say, we Bishops too have been on the vanguard of a just immigration policy, perhaps we could help,” Dolan offered. “I’m hoping that kind of outreach…might be helpful and at least give them the impression that we’re not out to get them.”

But when another questioner pressed Dolan on his commitment, asking if the Catholic bishops would support ending discrimination against binational gay couples, Dolan demurred. “The major thing is not to listen to one another, but to listen to God and he’s told us what marriage is about, so I don’t know,” he said. Watch both exchanges:

Gay and lesbian couples, however, face discrimination in the immigration process because the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and prohibits couples who are legally married in one of the six states (and DC) from petitioning the federal government for the same immigration benefits that are afforded to separate-sex relationships. And that’s precisely the with Dolan’s “benefits without marriage” approach. The federal government “has no definition and no frame of reference within its codes” for providing legal protections to civil unions or any other kind of relationship outside of marriage, so Dolan is left trying to convince gay people “we’re not out to get them” while denying them all of the benefits that are extended to similarly situation straight couples.

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan compared the “threat” posed to marriage by gays and lesbians to that of polygamy, adultery, and forced marriage during a forum on marriage in Poughkeepsie, New York last night, and insisted that he was not “anti-gay”:

DOLAN: While some defending marriage may have sadly and regrettably sunk into gay bashing, the groups represented here this beautiful evening were scrupulously fervent in their insistant that this was pro-marriage, not anti-gay. If you look at our pedigree of the faiths represented here this evening, you’ll note that we’ve been cogent in our defense of marriage against a lot of things — frivolous divorce, polygamy, adultery, forced marriages, cohabitation, just to mention a few contemporary threats to marriage. In our fight against divorce, we were not spiteful to those divorced. In our opposition to polygamy, we were not anti its practitioners. In our worries about adultery, we were not prejudiced against adulterers. And in our recent efforts we weren’t anti-gay, but pro-marriage.

Watch it:

Dolan has a long history of declaring his “love” for the gay community while insulting gay people and working to deny them equal protections. The archbishop led the religious opposition to New York’s civil same-sex marriage law, during which he compared extending marriage to gays and lesbians to communist dictatorships, incest and argued that it would be “perilous” and “detrimental for the common good.” “You don’t redefine marriage — a given — just to accommodate people’s lifestyle,” Dolan said in an interview with the National Catholic Register in late June.