A Michigan Catholic priest has told guests at a conference this week that gay sex is a little bit like putting a piece of a bagel into your ear. During the three-day event Welcoming and Accompanying Our Brothers and Sisters with Same-Sex Attraction, Reverend John Riccardo said the analogy was helpful when explaining to young high school students God doesn’t hate gays, rather that gay sex is just unnatural, the Advocate reports “What if I just rip open a bagel, I take it, and I cram it in my ear. What would you say?” asked Riccardo. When eager students would respond “that doesn’t go there,” Riccardo would say “exactly,” adding that in doing so would “ruin your ear canal.” Riccardo also told attendees he had a family member with a lesbian daughter who was welcomed and not excluded, but the young woman and her partner were not permitted to sleep together in the family home because it was “harmful”. “The goal here isn’t going from being gay to being straight. The goal here is going from not knowing Jesus to knowing Jesus,” he said. HIV researcher Timothy Flanigan who also spoke at the Plymouth event warned against sex between men in his lecture HIV and Other Health Risks Associated with Men Who Have Sex With Men. “Male sex, anal sex facilitates the spread of all sorts of diseases ... bacterial infections, parasitic infections ... anal sex is risky, dangerous. ... And oral sex also carries with it its own risks as well,” he said.Delivering the closing Mass on Wednesday was Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron who said it was not being a "bigot” to take a stand against same-sex relations. He praised participants for helping gays and lesbians “grow in chaste continence ... share in the chastity of Jesus Christ.” But some of the conference’s messages have not gone down well with all Catholics. Members of Fortunate Families Detroit, a Catholic LGBT-supportive group, were among protesters stationed outside the venue. Fortunate Families Detroit member Tim Nelson said the church had a limited knowledge of human sexuality and was yet to catch up with the 21st century. “It’s medieval times all over again. ... If God created people gay, then gay sex seems to be a natural thing.”