Long-awaited white smoke billowed over the Vatican today to announce the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, an Argentinian Cardinal, to the role of Pope Francis. What does this mean for us? 

There’s been a lot of speculation about whether the new Pope would be more or less socially conservative than his predecessor, but the verdict on this one is that he’s just as anti-gay as Benedict. A number of predominantly Catholic nations are slowly working toward equality for LGBT people, and the Pope undoubtedly still has influence on people’s opinions regarding issues like marriage equality and same-sex adoption.

A couple of examples, quoted from The Advocate, analyzing the Pope’s anti-gay track record:

• When his nation was debating marriage equality in 2010, he was a staunch opponent, calling it a “destructive attack on God’s plan.” The law passed nonetheless.
• “The National Catholic Reporter said Pope Francis called adoption by gay and lesbian people a form of discrimination against children,” said Herndon Graddick, president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, in a statement. “The real discrimination against children is the pedophilia that has run rampant in the Catholic Church with little more than collusion from the Vatican.”
• Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, publicly rebuked Bergoglio for his comment about adoption, according to the National Catholic Reporter, which describes him as “unwaveringly orthodox on matters of sexual morality, staunchly opposing abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception.”

None of this is surprising in the least, but it’s also not much to worry about. We’ve been doing incredibly well all over the world in spite of homophobic religious leaders. Another anti-gay Pope won’t slow this movement’s incredible momentum.