Sex! A Prescription for Aging

Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz.com
Laguna Beach, December 31, 2009

My partner and I had sex the other night.

No, this is not an expose or verbal porn. I offer these words as a reflection on at least three of life’s major happenings: aging, sex and love, i.e.long term relationships—all rolled into one.

I am almost 70. My partner is almost 59. We have been together for more than 20 years. Our sex was comfortable and pleasing and unplanned as usual. In the afterglow and a while later, I wondered that our little tryst defied certain cultural myths about sexual energy—that it diminishes with age and flattens out over time with the same partner.

Shouldn’t it? After a lifetime of moderate carnal experience shouldn’t my sexual energy be on the wane along with my muscular strength, my eyesight and mental acuity? I can’t run as fast, lift as much or endure as long as I did in my thirties. And in these matters I have adjusted downward both my behavior and my expectations.

But, strangely, my sexual energy has not diminished significantly and certainly has not flattened. Looking from the other ‘end’, from my twenties, I could not imagine ‘old people’ having sex; it was something that faded away or shriveled like going bald or forgetting recent events. Yet here I am—here we are—still intermittently charged to give it another go with the same guy.

Why?, I ask. Is this actually unusual? Perhaps not. And is this consistent across gay and straight orientations? How is it that a partnership maintains a repetitive sexual activity over many years? “Love” is the oft quoted reply but I have further thoughts.

I wonder if it has to do with the alleged ‘gay lifestyle’? Nearly all gay men I know, from twenties to seventies +, enjoy viewing sexy other men of different ages, races, shapes, colors, hair styles, muscle size, and a hundred other variants of appearance. (And I presume (?) the same for lesbians as well.) I irregularly swap internet photos of handsome specimens with half a dozen friends and they in turn swap with others. (On the other side of this, I am endlessly amazed at the countless ‘charged’ people who like to show off their bodies with stills or videos to a huge and anonymous public.)

Curiously, most of my fellow swap-mates are also in long term relationships which makes me wonder about their sex drives and if there is a correlation—or not--between this sort of stimuli and their private bedroom behavior. I can’t say there is a direct correlation for me. Exchanged photos are only occasional and sporadic. My activity with my partner is also occasional as well but does not follow in sequence upon the arrival of a hot fresh image of an appealing ephebe au naturale.

What the photo or video does is keep the ‘matter’ fresh. Almost like taking a vitamin supplement, a photo or a real-life beauty doesn’t jolt me (except for a rare one of exceptional quality) but more often it helps maintain an on-going level (a ‘minimum daily requirement’, if you will) of hormones as a re-energizer--a sort of light charge.

(I have no statistics, but it’s hard to imagine married heterosexual men exchanging exotic digital images of women with other married men—or wives with other wives of hot ‘Playboy’ guys. However, the porno industry is a multi-billion dollar business, mostly among heterosexuals simply because there are more of them, so there’s something going on.)

But I digress. The point here is sexual energy in ‘older’ gay men and how the current keeps charged. A close friend, aged about 70, insists that being sexual—online and offline—keeps his mind and body alert with a sense of vitality and aliveness. The opposite of withering.

Trolling bars and clubs with a leering eye is not what I’m talking about, not looking for erotic pickups to satisfy a craving or an addiction. Rather, a continuous 'spirit-like' energy revived regularly by spontaneous live sex with one's self or a significant other or a paramour or from pleasurable photographic erotica or a serendipitous quickie in a steam room at the club, or an occasional ‘evening out’ at a sauna with or without one’s partner.

And it’s not just the encounter that’s involved here; it’s also the readiness to allow it, the willingness to invite it, the ability and agility of mind to acknowledge the affirming energy of sexuality, even when it does not particularly look for or lead to an encounter, such as viewing a water-polo game. There is a ‘pleasant awareness’ in the event, not unlike acute listening for birds’ songs in a forest or aesthetic alertness to the ambiance of a sunset moment.

As we age, I and my peers value our health and take responsibility to maintain it with diet, exercise, preventive health care, cultural stimulation, productive interests that include hobbies, travel, creating art--as well as sexual stimulation.

Not a bad prescription for getting old, eh?

And I think the same goes for lesbian women!

Readings:
Aging Among Gay Men
Older Homosexual Males
Older Lesbian People
Lesbian Aging
Gay and Lesbian Aging

Author of Ugandan Gay Death Bill Fears For His Life

Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz.com
Laguna Beach, California
December 30, 2009

Another (bizarre and specious) public announcement comes from the author of the Ugandan gay death bill, David Bahati. In this outcry, instead of targeting gay people, he claims he is a target of hateful intentions and fears for his life. See this report from the San Francisco Examiner.

How awful!

Imagine this 'innocent' man being put under threat by some anonymous party who threatens his pursuit of life and liberty.

Now he might possibly (although unlikely) begin to appreciate the feelings of countless LGBT Ugandans who will live with the same fear thanks to his extremist and dangerous proposed bill he has submitted to the Ugandan parliament.

Being Straight and Not Married; Being Gay and Not Married

Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz.com
December 26, 2009

I visited my 94 year-old stepfather over Christmas. He lives with his 93 year-old girlfriend. He’s my ‘step’ because he married my mother when they were both 75; they had good years before she died of lung caner—she smoked when she was a young parent; it was the fashion then. He took loving care of her and she died at their home.

Fourteen years later John is weaker but stable and he is dealing with another failing ‘spouse’. He’s not married to this woman (they’ve lived together for about 6 years) and he can’t care for her as he did my mother. So he is faced with a dilemma as to what to do. Ask her family (she has two grown children and some grandchildren) to place her in assisted living? Move her to one of their homes? Bring in daily help? John’s daughter, who lives nearby and frequently talks to him, has suggested the latter.

She’s difficult and resistant at times and neglects her own hygiene. She doesn’t eat and drink adequately. It bothers John to nag her to eat, drink or bathe. He didn’t say it aloud but it was obvious during my visit that he is tired of her and would rather not be bothered with her care. Let her family take over.

It’s sad to see this bright and spunky woman fade but her body is deteriorating and John is not up to 24/7 care and he is not legally bound to her. Therein lies a quandary. With no legal ties to her and with former affection obviously worn out, what’s he to do?

As we talked about this, the conversation felt somewhat mean-spirited, as if the ‘friend’ was a visitor who had overstayed her welcome. Without the ritual of marriage and the legal papers to ‘seal’ his bond with her the situation is different from with my mother (also, my mother was more easy going and easier to care for). He is ready to see lady friend go—not to die, but to see her live and be cared for elsewhere.

I can’t generalize this situation too far but I wonder how this (heterosexual) partnership compares to a gay relationship where there is no marriage license. Nearly every enduring gay partnership lacks the legal document of marriage, even in this age of gay marriage. Most of us don’t expect it; it’s not a norm, not a tangible bonded contract ‘for better or worse...’ yet many long-term couples I know remain tight into old age, through illness and unto death.

What’s the difference? Just a piece of paper? One relationship seems separated by the lack of the paper and another seems tightly bonded by the lack. I have seen numerous long-term gay partnerships move toward the ‘final stage’, especially in the generation of AIDS, and I’ve not seen a dynamic similar to my step-dad’s. These gay couples stayed close right to the end. (To be fair, I do know of a recent older straight non-married couple who hung in there to the end of the male partner; but there was a lot of money to be gained afterward and they were together for almost 30 years. So perhaps it’s not an equal comparison.)

If John and lady friend were married I know he would not be saying these things about her presence in his life. Such is the symbolic power of marriage on the affairs of hetero people and such is the enhanced force of non-married love and commitment needed to surmount its absence.

Uganda: Stealing the Spotlight From President Museveni

Neophyte Legislator Proposes Deadly Laws Against Gays: Unleashes International Protest

Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz
Laguna Beach, CA

Yoweri Museveni has been president of Uganda for 24 years in a country that had suffered decades of government corruption, mismanagement, bloody guerilla activity and civil war, all preceded by the the horrors of the Idi Amin tyranny in the seventies. His rise to power through danger and rebellion and military manipulations were fraught with complicated deals and reprisals along the way. The long path to power was a high-risk-high-stakes political chess game--which he won by stealth and bullets.

Holding that power from 1986 through the tumultuous eighties while 'sort of' leading the country to a democracy has been a delicate balancing act by this seasoned political warrior. He is big improvement over the 'strong man' dictators in Africa who ruled most African countries after independence in the seventies and eighties.

He has brought relative stability and economic growth to Uganda, despite widespread poverty and an intransigent rebel war in the northwest near war-torn Congo. In recent years he initiated an effective national response to HIV/AIDS. But the disease pandemic has been a complicated thorn in the side of the government as infection continues to spread and it has also stirred a long-hidden cultural taboo: homosexuality in Uganda.

There are laws that criminalize same-sex behavior but they have been unevenly applied. This has encouraged the growth of gay groups, at first in the service of HIV education and prevention, and more recently, advocating for health outreach to the highest HIV risk group--men who have sex with men (MSM) and their 'right' to non-discriminatory treatment. Not surprising, this activist agenda brought homosexuality onto the public stage, in full view of political and religious leaders who at first denied there were homosexuals in Uganda. Since this ruse failed they shifted to blaming the West for exporting the immoral acts to Uganda. (photo left: David Cato of SMUG gay group)

Needless to say, this heightened publicity brought increased harassment and recriminations against LGBT citizens. Some arrests were made and police tried to blame gays for the corruption of youth. It became a relatively low-level culture war for several years. Most Ugandans had much more to worry about than the presence a few 'different' people.

Then came 2009 and the war erupted into an international scandal. Three American 'reparative' advocates held a tiny but highly publicized seminar in Kampala during which they proclaimed their (unscientific and discredited) views that homosexuality was a disease that should be legally opposed and cured with prayer. Hardly anyone paid attention--with the exception of a neophyte first-term member of the Ugandan national parliament named David Bahati, who liked what he heard from the right-wing Americans.

Six months after the seminar (the Americans met with local legislators during their visit) Bahati sponsored the most deadly anti-gay bill ever presented to the government. The bill, he said, was encouraging "constructive criticism" to improve the existing laws against gays and insisted that 'strict measures' were needed to keep homosexuals from "recruiting" children. Among other things, the bill calls for anyone convicted of a homosexual act to face life imprisonment. "Serial offenders" also could face capital punishment.

As well, anyone who "aids, abets, counsels or procures another to engage of acts of homosexuality" will receive seven years in prison if convicted. This includes landlords who rent property to homosexuals and anyone with "religious, political, economic or social authority" who fails to report a homosexual friend or acquaintance could receive three years in jail.

Needless to say this draconian and extreme proposal has resulted in world-wide condemnation and opposition from the United Nations, the European Union, western governments and religious leaders. Sweden has threatened to cut its foreign aid to Uganda.

This now presents Mr. Museveni--a president who has survived wars, political and economic crises, corruption, poverty, and an epidemic over the course of 24 years--with being upstaged by an upstart religious zealot legislator who has grabbed a tiger by the tail and is ignorant of the global consequences of his myopic bigotry. This surely was an embarrassment to the president, especially at the recent Commonwealth Nations conference where he was taken aside and warned by the British and Canadian Prime Ministers and pressed by the American secretary of state about this bizarre and regressive proposal. Even the Vatican has opposed the bill.

And how very ironic that Mr Bahati, who reviles the west for imposing their 'corrupt' lifestyle on Uganda's sovereignty should have been so attracted to another western 'import' in the form of a highly prejudicial and phony cure for homosexuality to the point of using it as a foundation for an evil proposal that flies in the face of all human rights decency. Talk about the blind leading the blind!

Gay Rights Activist Murdered in Honduras

Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz.com
December 17, 2009

Once again we are humbled and infuriated that yet another courageous gay activist has been gunned down for his human rights work. In a previous blog we considered the irrational persecution and killing of LGBT (gay) people across the world and how human fear and hatred make us inhumane.

The illegal coup in Honduras has taken many lives in the name of political idealogy. Many of the dead will be remembered by only a few family members. Some of the outspoken courageous ones will be mourned across the world. Walter Trochez is one of these.

From: Radio Mundo
December 14, 2009
25 year-old activist Walter Trochez was murdered Monday in Tegucigalpa. He was a gay rights advocate and a member of the National Front of Resistance against the Coup in Honduras.

Trochez, who had publicly reported the abuses of Roberto Micheletti’s de facto regime, was shot in Tegucigalpa’s downtown. A few days before his death, he had been brutally beaten by officers of the dictatorship while they were interrogating him to extract information about the leaders of the peaceful resistance.

The activist had recently published an article exposing the de facto regime for its human rights violations. The article, titled “Increase in hate crimes and homophobia towards LGTB as a result of the civic-religious-military coup in Honduras”, was about how what is currently going on in Honduras is a step backwards for the most inclusive processes that have been taking place in Latin America in the recent years. (Full text in Spanish of Trochez's open letter here.)

“It is worth stating that the explicit support of the church in Honduras to the military coup of June 28, 2009 prevented holding a referendum organized by the legitimate constitutional government, while it put dictator Roberto Micheletti in power”, reads the article. It also explains that homophobic hate crimes have increased since the coup, promoted by the Honduran church, with the complicity of the oppressing groups.

“Once again we say it is NOT ACCEPTABLE that in these past 4 months, during such a short period, 9 transexual and gay friends were violently killed, 6 in San Pedro Sula and 3 in Tegucigalpa”, said the activist in his article, following several press releases of the gay, lesbian, transexual and bisexual community.

The young activist finished his article saying “As a revolutionary, I will always defend my people, even if it takes my life”.

Historic Gay Book Signing at Beirut Book Fair

Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz.com
Laguna Beach, CA December 16, 2009

'Gay Travels in the Muslim World' editor Michael Luongo will be signing the new Arabic translation of his book at the Beirut Book Fair in BIEL on Tuesday, December 22, at 6pm, at the Arab Diffusion (Al Intishar al Arabi) Publisher's stand, number G18.

This is the first time a gay American book has ever been translated into Arabic and the first time a gay book has ever been presented at a Middle Eastern book fair.

The book is a collection of first person essays by gay Muslim and non-Muslim authors, featuring stories on Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Morocco and other Muslim countries, serving as a bridge between cultures. The English language version of the book is published by Routledge Press. One of the chapters was written by GlobalGayz.com owner/writer Richard Ammon.

After Lebanon, Michael Luongo will travel to Syria, Jordan, Egypt and other locations in the Middle East. More on the book is at www.gaytravelsinthemuslimworld.com.

Luongo has been blogging about his time in Beirut for the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-luongo/beirut-book-fair-for-gay_b_396622.html

From that blog, he said:
I had already been told by Georges Azzi of HELEM, Lebanon's gay rights group, that the publisher had given the book prominence, a large poster of its cover on the wall. I found the poster was next to one on a book about the CIA, making me a little skittish in what kinds of conspiracies my own book might be considered a part of...
The book was also everywhere in the stand, piled in a corner and on the aisle as everyone walked by. I wandered around to get a feel for the Fair, looking also for people at the various Middle Eastern publishing houses I had met at other fairs around the world. In contrast to New York or London, the Beirut Book Fair is rather calm, but plenty of Arabic writers were around, surrounded by fans and cameras...
I feel my first day here was successful, and Mr. Mroue had sold quite a few books, and Mohammed, the friendly greeter I met on the way in, even made sure to say goodbye. The real test comes with the official signing event for the book, Tuesday December 22 at 6pm Beirut time. I don't know how many are likely to come, but word is certainly getting around. More...

Luongo is also the author of the Frommer's Guide to Buenos Aires.
He can be reached at mtluongo@aol.com and +1-917-270-6390 and in Lebanon at +961-70-560-970.

Human Myths That Make Us Inhumane

Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz.com
New York City

I am continually saddened by how far and deep irrational thought (myth) can infuse a society, especially regarding a political or religious issue.

Gay marriage is one issue that arouses irrational political and religious discomfort. It’s an issue that burns because it involves or implies human sexual behavior, which is an irrational force that urges many people into irrational behavior, usually surrounded by silence, rejection or advocacy—anything but indifference. Sex makes people squirm either in pleasure or in dismay. The myth of sex.

Marriage (hetero) on the other hand evokes a kind of charming myth, as some kind of ritual that bestows blessing, legitimacy and social approval on people. It’s associated with family, home, children, security—normalcy and stability in a world of flux and uncertainty. The ‘family unit’ is seen as the unquestioned bedrock of a culture despite its stressed and fraught reality and high divorce rate. The myth of family.

Add in the myth of ‘gay’ to the combination of sex and marriage and this creates another kind of myth that unsettles nearly every major society today.

Myths are countless, from Disney fairies to the magical figures who started world religions to alleged saints slaying dragons. Many are harmless and stimulate artistic imagination or are useful to perpetuate certain social ideals like ‘equality’. But other myths are dangerous and deadly such as the anti-gay myths that emerge from religious sources like the Bible and the Koran or the Talmud. The impact of these ancient books--all with mythological foundations--on the lives of modern LGBT people is staggering and forceful since out of myth comes very real behavior. And a belief in the rightness of one’s religious or political myths can lead to violence and repression and even warfare, or it can also lead to a Mother Theresa with boundless compassion.

Anti-gay mythologies certainly have led to a disproportionate tsunami against homosexually-natured people across the planet, from a mild silence among rural Thai farmers to Mormon excommunication to outright murder within the American (mostly Christian) military or to public execution in Muslim quarters, and even pervades wealthy corporate structures (where the myth of wealth reigns).

In the matter of gay marriage, myth has served as a lethal weapon against the current push for human rights equality. Something blinds the common mind from seeing the reality before them: human sexuality exists on a broad spectrum of behaviors, from monk-like celibacy to Copenhagen’s sex clubs to monogamous/polygamous marriage to secret transvestism, as well as transsexuality, open marriage liaisons and gay marriage. Human behavior is unquestionably the most diverse of any creature on earth.

But this is a reality that myth wants to deny, control, and constrain. A logical brain that deals with a thousands of ‘real’ decisions every week (driving, shopping, Twittering) suddenly becomes blind and irrational when sexuality or same-gender love and marriage come into view.

And people make big business off of this irrationality: churches evoke millions of dollars to defeat the ‘gay agenda’; bogus reparative ‘therapists’ charge big fees to ‘cure’ vulnerable homosexuals; marketing companies hire out their services to defeat gay marriage legislation and newspapers increase sales by covering ‘scandalous’ LGBT activity.

How deep these irrational myths go is seen daily in the reports from large and small countries, wealthy or poor: Americans defeat proposed gay marriage legislation; Ugandan and Rwandan politicians want to throw gay advocates in jail; Singapore will not consider disturbing the hetero-ist status quo. Jamaicans would be happy to kill you.
(Photo left: murdered African lesbian activist Fanny Ann Eddy)

The ‘real’ world of humans is surprisingly shaped by myths we do not see or recognize but urge us to act in inhumane ways.

PS: Another gay/human rights activist, Walter Trochez of Honduras, (photo right) was murdered on December 13, 2009. The madness continues. See story here.

Another Gay Ambassador Appointed

Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz.com
Laguna Beach California

Now for some good news among the waves of homophobia swirling around these days, especially from Africa.

The new USA ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa was sworn in the other day. Not a major political jolt or international flap but a decidedly moving event considering that the new ambassador, David Heubner, is openly gay. He was given the oath of office by VP Joe Biden, our good friend, as Heubner's 'spouse' Dr. Duane McWaine held the Bible for the ceremony.

Speaking after the swearing in, with the Vice President at his side, the new ambassador told the 100-plus people gathered that his grandfather came to America as an immigrant and his father worked for many years as a butcher. Observing this three-generation achievement Heubner said, ”I was sworn in next to a spouse of a different race and the same gender as I am. In America, such a trajectory is not only possible, it is natural.”

Heubner (photo left) joins the small rank of present and former openly gay ambassadors who have represented the USA abroad in a top diplomatic position. Two of whom I actively recall are James Hormel (Belgium), appointed by President Clinton, and Michael Guest (Romania), under Bush 2. However, Guest resigned in protest six years later after failing to persuade the State Department to treat partners of LesBiGay foreign doplomats in an equal manner as heterosexual partners. “This is not about gay rights. … It’s about equal treatment of all employees, all of whom have the same service requirements, the same contractual requirements,” said Guest.

Heubner will have a slightly easier time on this issue under the current administration which has already begun to offer more benefits to LGB partners, although still not fully equal.

At Huebner's Washington, D.C. law firm, Sheppard Mullin, Huebner was head of their China Practice. Home town for the new ambassador is Los Angeles. He is expected to leave immediately for Wellington this week. I am not sure if his partner, Dr. Duane McWaine, a respected Los Angeles psychiatrist, (photo right) will accompany him at this time. New Zealand is along way to go to cuddle!

The diplomatic seal of the State Department under which Huebner will now travel as Ambassador is shown above.

Now the question is, when will a lesbian diplomat be offered the chance to take the same oath?

Condemn the Ugandan Gay-Killer Legislation

Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz.com
Laguna Beach California

Populist pastor Rick Warren, the Jesus-loving pastor in California who proclaims Christian values as his life guides, has again elbowed his way to notoriety by his refusal to condemn the gay-killer legislation being considered in Uganda. (Read bill here)

He is hiding behind the charade of “not commenting on the political process of other nations.”

So his previous condemning of homosexuality only applies to the USA and to no other nation? Hardly

His invectives against LGBT people apply worldwide. We are everywhere and we are much more similar than different. Condemn one and he condemns us all.

What outrageous hypocrisy to posture as a Christian leader and not be aghast at the horrors of more impending cultural genocide in Africa. The intended Uganda legislation proposes the death penalty for a sexual act between consenting people and criminalizes a parent for not reporting their gay or lesbian child. "It's catastrophic," said Frank Mugisha, chairman of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a local activist group. "People are already being arrested and intimidated without the new law. What's going to happen if it's passed?"

This is a step far backward, even beyond the 1885 British laws that forbade ‘unnatural acts’ between consenting adults. Those laws resulted in the spread of the disease of homophobia across the world to all the UK colonies, including Uganda, of which today 40 of the 53 commonwealth countries still criminalize same-gender love. It should be a source of great shame to modern Britain.

How could Warren, a ‘man of the cloth’, not immediately see the danger of such draconian legislation and not jump in to condemn it. Warren has protested that thousands of Christians were killed for their faith in recent times. Does he not realize that 95% of the gay people being put under threat in Uganda are Christians? He is, in essence, by his silence on this matter, saying that it is OK to persecute Christians for reason of their sexuality, but not for their faith?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a clergyman of far greater wisdom and compassion is against Uganda’s use of religious bigotry to formulate state legislation that criminalizes citizens who simply want to love someone. He sees this as a defiling of religious purpose and a violation of Jesus’ message.

Uganda’s misguided violation of human rights in this matter is frightfully similar to South Africa’s former president Mbeki’s misguided opinion about HIV (not being the cause of AIDS) that resulted in needless tens of thousands of deaths among his countrymen, until he was thrown out of office for incompetence.

Ugandan president Museveni stands on the verge of egregious incompetence if he allows this legislation to go forward without opposing or vetoing it.

And Rick Warren faces a similar challenge. Either you subscribe to Christian values or you don’t. Jesus didn’t say you should love only certain neighbors and not others. Every Christian should condemn Uganda for proposing such an un-Jesus bill.

And don’t just blame Warren and Museveni. Behind this malevolent legislation is the bill's author, lawmaker David Bahati, who claims the legislation is about promoting family values. "Homosexuality is not part of the human rights we believe in," he said. (Author Jeff Sharlet claims this bill came about as a result of Bahati's membership in The Family.)

And don’t just blame Bahati. It’s no coincidence that this dimwit submitted his egregious bill to parliament shortly after a pitifully small but highly publicized three-day anti-gay conference was conducted earlier this year by American homophobics Scott Lively, who runs the California-based Abiding Truth Ministries (and claims gays caused the Nazi holocaust), Don Schmierer from International Healing Ministries (and board member of Exodus International) and Caleb Lee Brundidge, "a dreadlocked 'former' homosexual who claims he is cured and now works as a mentor of homosexuals looking for a cure." All are advocates of "praying away the gay," and have ‘faith’ that gay people can be made straight through spiritual intervention.

The trio also met with Ugandan parliamentarians and Uganda-based groups working to diminish human rights of LGBT persons; groups such as Kampala-based "moral watchdog," Family Life Network whose leader is Ugandan Stephen Langa. In their publicity, FLN said that Uganda "is now under extreme pressure from homosexual groups to de-criminalize homosexuality." (Last year a Uganda High Court ruling cited constitutional violations of the rights to privacy, property and the fundamental rights of women in the case of a lesbian who was arrested and harassed by police.)

Subsequent to the mini-conference an anti-gay group called Anti-Gay Task Force was formed to "fight against the spread of homosexuality and lesbianism in the country," according to Langa.

The anti-human rights effort was also fueled by Pastors Martin Sempa, Solomon Male and Michael Kyazze who said they received about 150 complaints from alleged sodomy victims claiming to have been abused by a number of church leaders. Uganda's gay community (SMUG) challenged the validity of the claim especially since the sources were dubious and there is no breakdown of the figures into heterosexual vs homosexual abuse. Sodomy is ignorantly presumed to be only a gay activity.

The sad thing is that all this friction and drama is really a tempest in a teacup as very few Ugandans have any interest in homosexuality. Gays have lived their lives quietly among the majority population for generations. The issue is being manipulated by a mere handful of political, religious and media groups to whip up attention, which in turn brings in foreign funds to ‘save’ Uganda from the evils of homosexuality and increase newspaper sales. Meanwhile less attention is paid to government corruption and the nation’s decrepit road systems (to name two of many wanting issues).

And it points out that American nosing into the affairs of other countries is not all military.

See more news about this issue at GlobalGayz News & Reports (Reports #30 +)

World AIDS Day Sundown

Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz
Laguna Beach, CA

The sun went down across the horizon this evening on this commemorative day for people lost to AIDS. A small candlelit gathering on the beach in Laguna (California) named friends, family and lovers who now live only in the memories of those who spoke. The prayers offered were a slight balm to survivors; the eternal waves lapping on the sand, a full moon and a slight evening chill over-arched the remembrance. Life and loss on the edge of the ocean. The faces, the laughs, the wit and sexiness of the departed flickered up, held for moments of silence, then released into the blur of individual memories.

It's hard to wrap life around death for long; there's so much to do tonight, tomorrow and next week. The busyness of being sentient doesn't really know what to do with permanent loss. How do I hold the long-ago body and soul of a lover in my vision; "how do you hold a moonbeam in your hands" as the musical line went.

Clinton Bleecker (photo) was such a person in my life for a while and he was very alive with his ethos... and then sickened and passed away at the age of thirty four. Too young.

Now I am 'old', as he would have been, and I feel the shortness of my own life. How we both regretted his shortness far too soon... Remembering is easy, being mortal not so, either long or short. Sic transit gloria mundi.