Nigeria Celebrates Homophobia and Hetero Infidelity

Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
December 12, 2011

The following homophobic and irrational opinion article appeared in the Nigerian Vanguard newspaper today written by Kola Animasaun. This was written in light of the impending passage of a virulent anti-gay statute in the Nigerian senate.

(I quote the first four paragraphs)
"Where do human rights begin and where do they end? I should think they should begin with al God-given rights and end where God's laws naturally "adhere to proper human rights."

"But the British Prime Minister has extended it to include making homosexuality legal. The British have been doing the best for themselves to redraw the natural laws in the last few years. They have made nonsense of the Bible and the Qur'an. And you want to believe that they do not believe in any of them.

"You hear of partners - male and female - living together and making nonsense of the sanctity of marriage. That of course does not seem to be the limit. Now, you have marriage between man and man; woman and woman.

"From time immemorial God warned us against both extremes. And he even demonstrated what would happen if we go against His injunctions. We should not forget the people of Lot - many years and many centuries ago - who were punished by turning them into pillars of salts - both sodomites and lesbians..." (read full story here)

Kola Animasaun is an author; one of his books is entitled 'The Voice of Reason'.

My response to this mindless discrimination follows:
Sirs and Mesdames,
Regarding your writer's words "making nonsense of the sanctity of marriage", instead of blasting a very small minority (of gays) who wish to love in private, I suggest the leaders--political, media and religious--of Nigeria look in the mirror and see how much straight married adults make nonsense of the sanctity of marriage by their infidelity and deceptive attitudes toward their vows.

By the tens of thousands, it is well known that husbands stray far and wide from their spouses--as evidenced by the huge increase of HIV cases among heterosexuals. How many of these men have abandoned their wives and children? How many secretly pursue sex with other women--and men? (It is telling that on today's 12/12/11 front page of the Vanguard there is a joke cartoon that openly suggests infidelity between a husband and his laundrywoman!).

In today's issue of PMNews (Nigeria) the author--a Nigerian woman--has written: "We now live in a civilised world where men carry the Bible and Koran on one hand, while they use the other to commit all sorts of crime. People keep using religious words and titles just to cover up for different atrocities they perpetrate. In fact, the pew is now more sanctified than the pulpit. Why go on preaching against people with two wives when clergy have five girls in his church and two from each church he visits? Why do you claim to be very polished and educated that you can’t imagine yourself with two wives when God knows you have ten already?"

Indeed, these are the people who should be demonized and condemned for their sinful and callous behavior--based on today's reality. Gays who want equality and marriage are a very very small minority of Nigerians who only want to be left alone to love in peace and are much more likely to be faithful than heterosexual husbands.

Reacting hysterically and disproportionately to these few gays--who could never possibly threaten the institution of marriage--today's alleged Christian leaders think they have found the real demons in the moral corruption in Nigerian society, basing their condemnation on ancient Biblical scripture that is unscientific, historically inaccurate, mysterious and factually confusing. (Not to mention prejudicial and selective: recall that the Bible says the greatest abomination is charging interest on borrowed money!)

Gays are not a threat to modern Nigerian society; corruption, greed, theft, infidelity, poverty and religious warfare are far more dangerous than a few homosexuals who simply want to care for each other. Also, be reminded that countess scientific studies have confirmed that (1) homosexuals have always existed in African cultures and (2) people are born with a predisposition toward sexual orientation; they don't suddenly chose it at the age of seven, fifteen or twenty-three as a fun thing to do in order to get beaten up for it!

Tend to your own morals before you condemn others. I think Jesus said something like that.



Protest the anti-gay Nigerian law
Forbes Magazine: Obama's Threat
The Economist Report
Washington Post Warns of HIV Increase


Other Nigerian homophobic rants online:
Business Day Online
Daily Trust
Nigeria Masterweb Daily News

+ much more

Belize LGBT Activists Mount Historic Challenge to Anti-Gay Laws

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
December 1, 2011

A November 16, 2011 Guardian newspaper report announced a new challenge in Belize to its anti-gay laws. The legal suit is the first contest by a new human rights organization that intends to overturn all post-UK former colonies that have laws criminalizing homosexuality. "The Human Dignity Trust (HDT), which launched its campaign in London on Thursday, is targeting the 80-odd states where consensual sexual activity between adults of the same gender is outlawed. More than half are Commonwealth countries which inherited their regulations from British colonial rule. In some like Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon and Ghana the laws are seen by some as justification for violent attacks on gay and lesbian people."

(photo right: for tourists Belize is a paradise; for gays it is less than that.)

Not surprising, Belize's Anglican, evangelical, and Catholic 'spiritual leaders' have united to oppose the effort. They will announce their objections in a court hearing this week. As if to add injury to insult they insist they have evidence that homosexuality can be 'cured'--against all scientific studies to the contrary. It will be a contest between intelligent modern thinking and archaic religious bigotry.

It is endlessly frustrating to read the same old, absurd and morally-twisted arguments of such people as Belize Catholic bishop Dorick Wright, Anglican bishop Philip Wright and Evangelical Rev Eugene Crawford in Belize City. These supposed 'good Christians' are quoted as saying, "the people of Belize will not surrender our constitution, our moral foundations, and our way of life to predatory foreign interests."

Indeed! These are the very ones who are devoid of moral foundation in their modern use of ancient books of ambivalent religious mystery that have no factual source or verifiable accuracy; they justify their bigotry purely on prejudicial misinterpretations and mistranslations of alleged scriptures that were in fact 'invented' by highly fallible writers (with no acknowledgement of dissenting views) and politically imposed upon an ancient nomadic populace who could not read or write, hence violating their native animist belief system. (photo left: courthouse in Belize City)

It is a pathetic miscarriage of Christian justice to use such fragmented, unreliable, multiply-translated, man-made, opinionated and selected bits of 'scripture' as a basis for a guide to daily life nearly two thousand years later. These old texts are about as accurate and truthful for today's science-based life as using ancient Egyptian pharonic scribblings on medical procedures as a guide for surgery today. Would anyone in their right mind allow a physician schooled in these antique lessons to perform life-saving procedures to heal injuries or disease?! For the same reasoning, how do modern religious believers follow equally archaic words?

It takes a huge leap of blind foolishness to state in a modern public forum such prejudicial ignorant opinions against scientifically verified aspects regarding human sexuality. Homosexual behavior is an inherent variety of human nature that has existed in every society that's ever emerged on the planet. There is no sound verification of homosexuality being 'imported' or forced on a people from alien sources.
(photo right: activist Caleb Oroczo, head of UniBam--leading the court suit against the government)

Modern 'thinkers' who claim spiritual leadership would do well to go back to deeper research and investigation into their alleged sources in culture and language. There, if they have the intellectual open-mindedness, will they not find any specific reference or rule regarding the sexual nature of human beings, other than some comments on marriage. Modern religious bigotry against homosexuality has no true scriptural standing. Prejudice is just that--opinion without truth.

And speaking of "predatory foreign interests", it was the Christian armies, missionaries and inquisition that targeted violence against peoples of other territories, tribes and cultures in the mad crusade of 'saving the heathen' from their native beliefs and worship rituals, which had served them well enough for thousands of years.

Shame, shame on Catholic bishop Dorick Wright, the Anglican bishop Philip Wright and the evangelical Rev Eugene Crawford. Let's hope their irrational hateful beliefs are crushed under the truth and science of modern enlightened thinking.

In front of the Anglican cathedral in Belize City there is a 'peace post' with the inscription: May peace prevail on Earth. Let's hope this bit of hypocrisy reverses to become a reality. (photo left)

Read more about LGBT life in Belize here.

Bangkok: Flood, Sex and Tears

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
11/11/11

I'm in Thailand for the umpteenth time. Last time the big event was was funeral for the king's sister, a prolonged three-day elaborate ritual of pageantry and pomp. It was covered extensively on Thai television and attended by hundreds of thousands dressed in black. The focal person was His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the longest reigning monarch in the world--since 1946. Disturbing to see was his frailty. A special elevator was installed in his sister's cremation temple that lifted him six steps since he was unable to walk up, where he then lit the funeral pyre.

This year his health continues to be very fragile. The Bangkok Post reported that he was unconscious for a while yesterday until doctors discovered an internal bleed and was stabilized.

Aside from the personal and intimate aspects of this situation is the looming reality that his much-unloved son will follow as monarch, leaving Thais to worry about the political stability of the country that's already shaky with changing prime ministers several times over the past five years.

So there will be tears aplenty soon in the kingdom for this old much revered king who must soon pass away.

As for the sex trade here, it is a much over-rated and exaggerated slice of life, as sex issues often are anywhere. Most Thais do not relate to the red-light activities in the three or four major cities; a modest portion of foreign visitors or expats do indeed come for the carnal pleasures which are easily had if one is looking for them. Heteros outnumber homos, as usual, so an observer can see many middle-aged and older men walking along with a young smooth-skinned women, holding hands or not, and probably sporting a shopping bag of gifts from 'daddy' to his 'girl'.

The gays are not dissimilar with older gents from all over North America and Europe accompanied by young sweet-faced Thai guys. Or visiting one of the several sex club saunas. It's a common sight here that blends into the larger city scenes of markets, bright lights, tourism and traffic. It's too simplistic to judge this sexuality as an exploited industry; it is after all a consensual adult activity and serves both parties well, albeit for different purposes, both pleasure and profit.

So in Thailand there will be sex for sale or trade, now and after the kingship changes.

The major situation at the present time, in central Thailand, is the severe flooding that has occurred over the past two months following unusually heavy el nino-induced rainstorms. Surrounding Bangkok are tens of thousands of inundated acres and many small villages where the water has reached to the second floor of houses. As of November 11, the water seems to have crested but is receding very slowly leaving countless piles of ruined furniture, farmland, livestock and houses, not to mention roads and local sanitation facilities, factories and lost jobs. Manufacturing around the world has been affected by the shutdown of these essential supplier sources.

It is a especially sad because virtually all of these poor rural village and townspeople have no insurance or sufficient savings so any repairs and restoration is left for owners and tenants to do by hand. Much criticism is aimed at the unpreparedness of the government despite the mountains of sandbags in and around Bangkok. In various places poor planning has made sandbagging worsen the water flow. Some residents in the suburbs were so irate they tore open sandbag dikes because they were inhibiting drainage from their homes.

So in Bangkok this year there is flood, sex and tears.
------------------

A friend recently asked, why go to Bangkok?

My responses are many: because the people are pretty here--men and women. Because of the cooking aromas of the portable street kitchens. Because the architecture is different, including the monstrously new glass skyscrapers and condo towers adjacent to old wooden houses set among green trees along narrow alleyways and back streets. Because of the night market and it millions of 'stuff'. Because people bow to one another with respect.

Because of the elevated SkyTrain that whisks us across the city in no time. Because of the up-most-scale hotels along the Chao Praya River (now flooding). Because of the cheap ($7) foot and body massages from guys and gals (some of whom are willing to arouse a customer for an extra fee). Because of the soothing affordable facials ($15). The rooftop swimming pools. The sounds of endless new construction. The color of orchids. The countless golden shrines set up to honor the aged and frail king, as well as Buddha (with glowing incense sticks).

Because of the language which sounds exotic and looks like elegant scribbling; because there's a 7/11 store on every corner. Because there are fruit stands on every other corner. Because the locals treat tourists with politeness; whenever you buy something the merchant puts hands together and bows gratefully. Because the young guys wear their thick black hair in so many styles from wild bush, to slick down.

Because they wear sandals here. Because service workers do good work. Because Thailand is the most westernized SE Asian country with slick new train service from the BKK airport to city center and air-con express buses from the airport to Pattaya/Jomthien beaches. Not because of the beggars sitting on the sidewalks hands uplifted in appeal. Because the city virtually bubbles with human activity almost 24 hours a day.

Irresponsible Recommendation for Uganda from Lonely Planet

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
November 5, 2011

Well, this is pretty revolting!

Lonely Planet, the widely-respected travel information and guidebook company has chosen one of the world's most homophobic and gay-violent countries as their number one pick for "Best in Travel" listings for 2012 --Uganda, Africa. A country where human rights should more correctly be called religious fundamentalist rights or in-power political rights or corrupt police rights.

Surely the Lonely Planet committee that picked this country out of many other more humane destinations were aware of the abysmal violations of its citizens and especially the LGBT (gay) population. Uganda already criminalizes consensual adult same-sex behavior and more recently the Parliament is dithering with a new law that would penalize such behavior with the death penalty--including jail time for anyone who knows of homosexual behavior and does not report it.

Around the world, other countries have threatened to cut off foreign aid to Uganda if the bill passes. All major human rights organizations as well as the UN, UK Prime Minister Cameron, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu and President Obama oppose this egregious proposal.

Where is Lonely Planet's head to value human abuse over human dignity. With the abundance of knowledge that LP has about Uganda this is no mere oversight. Diminishing the horrors there by referring to them merely as "issues" in the abstract (as said in their blog) only makes LP seem more the blind fool who is indifferent to the wide-spread persecution and abuse going on there. Clearly wild animals and pretty waterfalls in Uganda--wonderful as they are--cannot count for more than human conditions there.

Lonely Planet says, "stability is returning and it won’t be long before visitors come flocking back." Not true. The appearance of stability is due to the stranglehold that President Museveni on political power. His presidency has been impaired by invading and occupying Congo during the Second Congo War (which has resulted in an estimated 5.4 million deaths since 1998) as well as conflicts in the Great Lakes region. Rebellion in the north of Uganda by the Lord's Resistance Army continues to perpetuate one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Museveni also manipulated the parliament to abolish presidential term limits in 2006 and has harassed the democratic opposition. (photo right, rural children)

Lonely Planet says, "Human rights abuses aren’t uncommon, and the country breathes a collective sigh whenever President Museveni thinks of another ruse to stay in power for a few more years." This is a myopic an distorted view of life on the ground. Human rights abuses are not "aren’t uncommon". This double negative mutes the real brutality that is launched on gay people, political opponents, tribal minorities and the impoverished. And only the military, religious right and the corrupt welcome more years of Museveni. as if 26 years in office are not enough repression and flawed elections. Human Rights Watch criticizes Uganda for unlawful prosecutions of civilians in military courts as well as health neglect, hard labor, and abuse in Ugandan prisons.

Lonely Planet needs to remove Uganda from it's list of favored tourist nations. At the very least, move it to the bottom of the list.

If anyone doubts this reasoning, let them read the following 55--and growing--news and reports archived by GlobalGayz.com; and these are only for 2011. The archive goes back to 2002:
Gay Uganda News & Reports 2011 Sep-Dec
Gay Uganda News & Reports 2011 May-Aug
Gay Uganda News & Reports 2011 Jan-Apr

Jamie and Jamey: Gay Youth Bullied to Death

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
October 2011

Yet two more teen suicides spurred on by high school bullying and harassment from peers. (Read previous blog on gay teen suicides.)

Last month, 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer killed himself in Buffalo, N.Y., after years of homophobic harassment. (photo right)

Last week in Ottowa, Canada 13 year-old Jamie Hubley took his life. He too was taunted and ridiculed, in this case because he preferred dance to football, art instead of mechanics. There is no apparent evidence that Hubley was gay or displayed homosexual tendencies in public.

But it doesn't take that to ignite an immature homophobe to action; mere suspicion, innuendo and peer presumption is enough to make a strong case against a child who is not fully 'macho' and make him an easy target for scorn and cruel language.

What is it about homosexuality that inspires hate, injury and an intent to kill? An innocent soft artsy-type of kid minding his own business is mowed down by assaultive insulting language and he succumbs? Evil is often beyond a reasonable answer. (photo left Jamie Hubley with his father)

The unseen problem in the It Gets Better crusade is that it often gets worse before better as helpless children are sucked into a maelstrom of anguish depression and turbulent confusion where it's impossible to feel assured of a less painful outcome a year or three later.

How do we take hold of a sinking fragile ego and brace it, anchor it against the terrible angst of peer scorn--often anonymous over the Internet from senders who hide--knowing their attack is shameful and cruel.

I say first and foremost yank the kid out of his or her school and transplant them to a safer place. Don't wait while your child is in pain. Find another school, a charter school, private school, home schooling, internet courses...

The second step is to fight back; mount a very public protest against the school, in newspapers, social media, radio and TV interviews condemning the hate crime of bullying.

The third is to use the force of law and court action to threaten back the individuals and system that tolerates crime. Many Catholic priests and the church itself are now under assault for tolerating child abuse. This is no different. Use the technology the internet against the perpetrators to uncover their identity and eject them from school and bring charges. Hate crime should be handled like physical assault. Identify and prosecute both the kid and their parents.

Then demand the school system mount a high awareness program against the crime and evil of bullying, compelling every student to attend assemblies where speakers and victims and bullies tell their stories. Empower kids to go public against bullies, expose them and make them the shamed ones--and then offer them and their families counseling that may hopefully change behavior by deeper understanding of the harm and crime of bullying.

Bring bullying out of it's bullied kids become the hidden closet and make it a public nuisance so that victims become victors and perpetrators become the fearful one begging for mercy--and given it.

Jamie Hubley and Jamie Rodemeyer should be alive and proud boys not motionless victims.

Read more about gay teen bullying and suicide:
-http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/10/21/hundreds-mourn-gay-canadian-teenager-jamie-hubley/
-http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1073942--gay-students-endure-cycle-of-hate-in-schools
-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/toan-lam/bullied-teen-posts-it-get_b_1022753.html
-http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/a-year-after-teen-suicide-spate-more-gay-students-are-speaking-out-schools-taking-action/2011/10/22/gIQAD5rv6L_story.html
-http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/22/2467455/on-the-road-to-equality.html

Remembering 1912 and birth of a mild child... my father.

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
October 13, 2011

It was 99 years ago this month that a remarkable child was born to a laborer's family in rural New Jersey. The laborer had little formal education but many manual skills; the mother stopped being a teacher to raise six children that were to come; little Roger was the second born.

He was at heart an artist but, like so many others in the first half of the 20th century, was swept by circumstance and unquestioned social customs to follow the majority into marriage and fatherhood (or war) before he really knew what he was doing or what he wanted. Personal desire or creative autonomy were not available to good young men. Rather, find an eligible pretty girl and marry and make grandchildren...

It's not what he really wanted. He preferred to listen to Beethoven, not crying babies. He would rather play his violin than sit behind an accountant's desk in a big corporation to pay a mortgage. (photo right, Roger age 5 with sisters, 1917)

Led slowly astray from his true self he was nevertheless an honest and obedient son and husband who went to college, found the girl, my mother Betty, and fulfilled his parent roles responsibly. But these did not fit well. He was never a good-enough son or a fulfilling spouse or an intimate father. How does one learn these things without someone to emulate? His father was moody and harsh and his wife frustrated and demanding (not their fault, just the way they turned out.)

He persisted as long as he could to perform but as time went on felt he was losing hold of his dreams, his self, his balance. Eventually at 51 he gave it up in the fumes of monoxide in the family garage. Lost and isolated. No one at the time really understood, partly because he did not confide his truth to anyone. It is a very sad story that no longer is told since his parents and siblings and wife are gone as well; silence smooths over the storms of an anonymous life.

But Roger's kids still remember; I remember it well and am the only one who still tells his story--my version of it. And I will be the last to tell it. One cannot recall what is not remembered and no one after me will remember, I'm sorry to say.

But that is the way of most of the world and it can't be changed. One unknown person's tragic drama is another's indifferent ignorance. The rest is silence.

So for now, this day, his birthday on October 13, I pause in the midst of my own drama of 'getting and spending' to meditate, to lament, to give thoughtful thanks for passing along Beethoven to me...

Thanks daddy.

PS: Roger's favorite uncle John was killed in World War I. Read his biography here
and his war story here.

Britain Threatens Homophobic Countries with Aid Cuts

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
October 13, 2011

How fine is this: the British government is threatening to cut its foreign aid to homophobic countries because of their laws and treatment against LGBT citizens. If only more wealthy countries got serious about backing up their human rights standards with financial penalties we might see some serious change of policies in places like Malawi, Uganda, Ghana, Cameroon and Jamaica. These and scores of other small states make blood sport and score political points with homophobic rhetoric and organized anti-gay assaults. (photo right, UK Prime Minister David Cameron)

Such barbaric behavior is not just 'simple violence', it is a deep reflection of a society's public health, of their integrity and justice values. To treat any minority with disdain or abuse because of a superficial variation of religion, ethnicity or sexuality is a measure of the core heart of a culture. In the case of many homophobic countries this core is morally corrupt as police stand by and allow violence or blatant discrimination to occur in public, goaded on by goon squads brainwashed by their own leaders.

And not just small countries. Russia, Indonesia, China and Kazakhstan are huge societies with entrenched homophobia. This will indeed be a long culture war--but at least it is a war and not an overwhelming slaughter of helpless sheep. Against these evil forces are the 'good guys' who see cultural diversity as an asset, who see sexuality on a continuum of love. Forces led by the United Nations Human Rights Commisioner Navi Pillay who has openly declared strike-back efforts to oppose discrimination. (photo left UN Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay)

These forces also include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, America's Human Rights Campaign, Britain's Stonewall Association, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Brazil's Grupo Gay da Bahia, South Africa's constitution and hundreds of other LGBT organization around the world--including Nepal's Blue Diamond Society. Not to mention the thousands of 'foot soldiers' across the democratic world who advocate daily for equality in marriage, adoption, family rights in their city, state and country. As well, other countries such as Sweden have warned homophobic countries (i.e. Uganda) of aid cuts if homophobic laws are passed.

Now comes Britain with its heavy influence to threaten small anti-gay bullies within its commonwealth consortium with foreign aid cuts. As it should be.

Some are protesting such punitive action claiming aid cuts will hurt poor people. No doubt they will--but no less than currently as huge sums of foreign money are siphoned off by corrupt bureaucrats before they reach intended health or education programs.

If the forces of change and progress do not 'weigh in' with strong corrective measures--and money is certainly one of the strongest motivators for change--then nothing will change and ignorance and brutality will continue to persist at the hands of religious and political bigots who pretend to be leaders.

Three cheers for the Brits!

An Inspiring Lesbian Leader Has Died: Paula Ettelbrick

By Richard Ammon

GlobalGayz.com

Today is a very sad day due to the premature death of one of America's most dedicated and inspiring lesbian leaders, Paula Ettelbrick, former executive director of IGLHRC (International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission). I met Paula several times over the past decade at several international LGBT conferences as well as for some lunches. She never failed to be receptive to new ideas and respectful to people from a wide spectrum of humanity.

Her vision for the world was always upward and outward; she envisioned a better world through personal commitment to human rights everywhere by engaging in progressive activism and tireless organization building.

It's always easy to sit back and let others push the envelope of human development but Paula deeply felt the need to be a part of change. part of the future for LGBT people globally. Her vision was universal; her mission was a commitment to a more decent world.

I will always remember her pretty face and bright spirit. She will keep me moving upward and forward to a more just and equitable social world. Said she: “Justice for gay men and lesbians will be achieved only when we are accepted and supported in this society despite our differences from the dominant culture and the choices we make regarding our relationships.”

Her two children, Adam and Julia, are blessed to have such a loving and devoted mother. Indeed, Paula was a loving mother to a whole world of LGBT children growing up in difficult circumstances, helping to light their way to dignified and respected lives.

Other tributes to this fine woman:

The New Civil Rights Movement.com

LGBT/POV

New York Times

Towleroad.com

Homophobic Bullying Takes Another Teen Life

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
September 26, 2011

Beyond grief is the loss of young Jamey Rodemeyer, only 14, whose fragile ego was finally crushed by the poison of homophobic bullying from classmates at his Williamsville North High School in upstate New York on September 20, 2011.

A child's death at any young age is tragic enough, but a deliberately targeted murder seems more horrible than an accidental or disease death. This child was clearly an innocent victim of American scripture-based discrimination against homosexuals.

Hatred in youth is inherited from hatred in parents, peers, church, school, society, government. Homophobia so devastating and pervasive among bigots that it is taken as normal, as a right of passage in high school, as a righteous act of religious ethics, as a popular political position.

Homophobia is truly a social cancer that kills children. If a manufactured product injured children or a medication were deemed harmful it would be recalled and removed from store shelves very quickly. But because so many local and federal politicians are steeped in self-declared 'legitimate scriptural views' of sex and marriage they feel homophobia is justified; based in blood-soaked Biblical-Koranic-Talmudic conditioning this killer disease remains in the public domain with no remedy in sight.

In a slight gesture toward justice (revenge is what many are calling for against the perpetrators, their parents and school officials) the local police in Amherst, NY, are investigating to determine if any hate crimes were committed against Jamey; it's hard to imagine they were not as he received anonymous (and traceable) condemnations and urgings to kill himself from schoolmates.

These bullying kids had no idea of the deadly effect of their actions, not unlike being ignorant of the risks of playing with a loaded gun; stupid on their part and irresponsible on their parents' part.

Jamey had been verbally assaulted by cyberbullies who made degrading comments with gay slurs on his Formspring account, a website that allows anonymous postings. "JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND [sic] UGLY. HE MUST DIE!" one post reportedly said. Another read, "I wouldn't care if you died. No one would. So just do it :) It would make everyone WAY more happier!"

The danger of such abuse we have known for a long time. To counter this criminal behavior the internet pro-gay 'It Gets Better' campaign has been online for over a year. Strangely, Jamey had posted his own video on YouTube that was encouraging in tone and looked beyond current problems to future promise of better times.

But something snapped in his mind within a month and he collapsed under the cruel rejection from schoolmates. Shame is one of the most painful punishments a person can endure. Many Asian and Arab gay people remain deep in the closet for fear of being shamed or bringing dishonor to their families. Other LGBT people have come out and in turn been murdered by a family member to avenge the dishonor.

Such powerful hate-and-shame-fueled homophobia is so overwhelming that it turns a loving parent or brother into a murderous family member. What switch gets flipped to turn love to hate for no apparent reason--no action, no words, no overt offense from the gay person.

And from classmates who have less bonding the curses are all the more easy to make. This is not just a personal tragedy, it's a national disgrace among those who advocate intolerance and discrimination.

Also see:
Lady Gaga dedicates song to Jamey Rodemeyer
GlobalGayz blog about teen suicides.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell--Gone, Not a Day Too Soon

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
September 20, 2011

Another pernicious piece of discrimination and bigotry has gone under the wheels of progress, and not a day too soon.

How legislators can twist themselves and our country into illogical contortions of ignorance that blatantly violate constitutional rights with such laws as DADT, is beyond me.

But not really given so many other shameful statutes such as the DOM act that is supposed to protect straight marriage. Protect from what? DODT protect troops from what? Is sexual orientation a form of disease?
(photo: Col. Grete Cammermeyer)

DODT was a piece of legislation but it was also symbolic of how socially diseased our conservative branch of culture is, how much our much balled Christian democracy can violate all spiritual decency and secular fairness.

I am repeatedly amazed at how much supposedly cognizant, rational, 21st century legislators can be so ignorant of their own irrational, undemocratic thinking that is based on primitive, revengeful, wrathful Biblical scripture which violates modern standards of respect.

DADT crushed constitutional guarantees of equality, heaped dishonor on honorable citizens, violated bonds of brotherhood in the military--all because of bizarre Biblical ancient phrases that have no relevance in modern society.

The repeal of DADT offers a glimmer of hope that secular, truly democratic, fully constitutional thinking can trump the homophobic distortions of right-wing primitive fundamentalist thinking.

A Word About Mychal Judge, NYC Gay Priest Who Died on 9/11

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
September 12, 2011

Many stories circulate about this Catholic clergyman, a Franciscan friar; about his past alcoholism; his down-to-earth style of ministering; chaplain for the New York Fire Department; saying mass in the local firehouse; dubbed the 'Saint of 9/11,' in a 2006 documentary; his private homosexual orientation; his friendships with homeless people, rock-and-rollers, recovering alcoholics, local politicians, and middle-aged couples from the suburbs; and his love of Irish music...

In a word, Mychal Judge was a man of cross-cultural compassion whose hazel eyes saw a person's soul and the good in each regardless of their world circumstances. A man whose ecclesiastical training was set in one doctrinal system but who embraced all doctrines. No divisions, no prejudice, no boundaries.

He was a good man in the most real sense of the word: benevolent, a person who (from Middle High German 'gatern') united differences and offered his heart to those who lost theirs or were weak in spirit.

I doubt there a better way to describe to describe Mychal Judge--or Jesus himself--two men who died before their time serving others.

Also read:
-The lesson we could all learn from the gay hero of 9/11
-More stories about Mychal Judge
-Final video footage before his death

The lesson we could all learn from the gay hero of 9/11:
Brendan Fay, a friend of the priest, said of him: "On 9/11, the one thing we can take from Mychal Judge is, in the midst of this hell and war and evil and violence, here is this man who directs us to another possible path as human beings. We can choose the path of compassion and non-violence and reconciliation. Mychal Judge had a heart as big as New York. There was room for everybody. And I think that's the lesson."

9/11: Grief and Ignorance

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
September 11, 2011

9/11 comes on strong this year, a flood of media stories, personal memorials, new analyses, videos of ground zero, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania. Grief, horror, shock and much loss. My cousin emerged from the subway at Church Street that morning, looked up and saw the collapsing mushroom cloud and ran for his young life, not stopping for fifty blocks, he said later.

Sudden human death is one of life's most traumatic events. An attack of this kind evokes severe anguish for loved ones and overwhelming anger at the perpetrators. The terrorist group that engineered this nightmare were acutely mad and hateful; since then they have been justifiably demonized. America the wounded heroic country assailed by a wacko fringe of Saudi Al Qaeda killers .

So the usual version goes as we focus on our own aggrieved feelings and reject those killer Muslims.

But in today's complex world, the story of 9/11 is not simple. The necessary and unanswerable question is 'why'? Why were 3000 people slaughtered on that September day (plus post-attack 4500 war-related deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan)? Who and why could be so hateful to cause such devastation

'Muslim extremists' is the overt answer. They envied our American way of life. They hate our religion and our democracy and free markets. Demonizing starts and ends there for most people--us and them.

But the larger answer is less simple and less self righteous. Since the 20th century America has positioned itself, indeed intruded itself, as a militant godfather into the affairs of foreign nations: Korea, Vietnam, Granada, Argentina, Panama, Serbia, two European 'World' wars and (post 9/11) Iraq and Afghanistan to mention only some overt actions. Many more intrusions are covert and hidden from the public view.

America has also inserted itself as a charitable nation as well. Countless humanitarian governmental and non-governmental (NGO) organizations exist overseas working on behalf of health, agriculture, industry and politics. No country in the history of civilization has ever intended more help for others. Much good has been done; much love has been left behind--but also resentment in the form of our materialistic and condescending style of 'helping' others, in both visible and invisible actions. Aid workers ride around in white pickups and SUVs leaving dust behind in the faces of impoverished walking locals on their way to an American-funded water well.

In India I once spoke with a local AIDS organization director who turned down millions of Gates Foundation money because GF had their own idea of how to do HIV outreach in India. The rejection set GF back and forced them to reconsider their approach to native traditions and methods. Only when they agreed to follow the local lead did the money flow to the Indians.

The point here is that American good will is not so welcome around the world because it comes with strings attached: our way of life is better so do things our way. Our materialist wealth has lead to militaristic, religious and political arrogance and condescension toward smaller less powerful countries, which is felt and tolerated for the most part because they need the money.

But 'terrorists' (activists who resort to violence) don't want the money. They want their own culture, religion, laws and forms of government--whether American agrees with them or not. They hate our style of pushing small nations around and manipulating their politics. And they hate our neglect of desperate nations who do need our help but are mostly ignored. Perhaps more than any other nation, the 'nation' of Palestine has been viewed by many--especially Arabs--as an abused punching bag of western power (which includes Israel). Sixty years of conflict in the Palestine-Israel region still festers in the political bullring with no resolution in sight. Unconditional American support of Israel has brought down the wrath of Islam upon us, PLO terrorism not withstanding.

Is all this simplistic? Yes, but not wholly inaccurate. To understand why thousands of innocent American were killed on 9/11 we need to look at the thousands of lives lost, especially since World War II, in which America has transgressed on the territory and sovereignty of foreign nations. (We have been involved in 28 war actions since 1675; eleven of these on American soil; ten since and including WWII.)

We are not alone on this planet. We are not really a 'super' power with impunity for our foreign policies. We have offended others mightily. We are not wholly clean and the Arab and Muslims are not wholly dirty--we are all unclean with blood on our hands. 9/11 was a pitiful, small and horrifying effort at payback that solved nothing.

The only way forward to a peaceful world is to listen to one another as equals and join together to cure the hostility between our tribes. In the end, although some want war, most want peace much more.

How Far Away is Hope For LGBT People?

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
September 1, 2011

As I travel the world interviewing LGBT people about their lives, their cultures and countries I hear stories of effort, strategy, frustration and achievement. One question I have failed to ask these courageous activists, some risking their lives, is "how far away is hope?"

How far away is hope for equality, tolerance, acceptance, relationship recognition, political participation, religious compassion, social calmness...? And what is keeping it in the ever seemingly receding distance?

Another way to ask the question is how long will it take humankind to unlearn the teachings of religion against human sexuality. Indeed, can humanity unlearn something so ingrained in mind from religious prohibitions against sexuality--period. This most human of appetites is the most proscribed against.

The desire for another person is diminished by using the word sex; it reduces it to a genital activity when in truth there are more significant needs that are desired.

Even in the 'crass' exchange of money-for-sex , the so-called "world's oldest profession," there is good reason for that title. The desire for sexual intimacy has become hard-wired in our brains over milennia, beyond the instinct to procreate. With the developing mind becoming more learned by acquiring knowledge and sophisticated systems for survival, came also an increase in more sophisticated desire called intimacy, mental contact, emotional affection, nurturing, warmth, touch...

This want runs so deep that people will kill for it. Crimes of passion are a common occurrence in 'civilized' humanity, some resort to murder when it is frustrated , denied or betrayed.

The challenging question is, given this core aspect of human nature why is it that the religious/spiritual thought/belief systems that have emerged recently, over two or three thousand years, have become so antagonistic toward a human's fundamental need for intimacy and sexual desire? And why/where/when has come this fanatical obsession to reject, discriminate, punish or kill people whose desire for intimacy leans toward their own gender?

It is one of the greatest paradoxes that such an essential trait has become so stigmatized, sometimes to the degree that torture and murder feel justified in an effort to eliminate it.

How far away is hope? About as far away as modern human sexuality is from the human truth that people are different; people are born straight, gay and in-between.

Homophobes refuse to see this truth and prefer to cling instead to their hostile opinions; they refuse to see these opinions as imaginary fabricated beliefs made up by a (very) few tribal men and scribbled down--for what reason scribbled down?--despite their own inherent human desire for intimacy. Why would these early scribes 'legislate' or opine against their own nature? At the time, the reasons were likely less religious than political. Indeed, were they in fact writing about intimacy and sexuality at all or something more public--the various language translations and the inevitable changes of word meanings, in addition to the uncertain original meanings, have obscured the initial intent.

So the current anathema against homosexual desire continues unabated, unexamined, unintelligent and has little to do with any kind of divine source. Simplicity is dangerous in the minds of ignorant people who will not look beyond their own fears. Gay people are not some modern scourge; same-sex desire is not a recent 'problem'. Ancient attitudes about homosexuality are not authoritatively known. It's claimed the Bible is the 'word of god' without realizing there were many gods back then. Was there a God of gods who took a consensus and decided that sex had to be confined and controlled and homesex was a no-no? The questions into the past become ludicrous the further back we look and try to think clearly.

How far away is hope? Fortunately modern civilization has improved in certain countries--in fits and starts, stumbling along but for the better--so that things like democracy, equality and human rights have taken root and helped create an international judicial belief system that parallels the religious system. Judicial thought and action has begun to turn back the excesses and abuses of religion and forwarded human rights as an equal and better way of managing civilization. Slowly in one country after another, officially sanctioned legal decisions have blocked religious persecution (in the guise of discriminatory political statutes) from advancing further against homosexually-inclined citizens.

Slowly, gays rights have become part of the fabric of human rights as one bias after another is being taken down: gay relationships are legal, gay marriage is legal (and published in the New York Times); gays in the military will soon be legal; discrimination in jobs, housing, health care and inheritance are illegal; child adoption by gay couples is legal... All of which were opposed and prayed about by religious institutions. (Imagine praying to one's God on behalf of discrimination and bigotry!)

How far away is hope? In Zimbabwe or Iran it is far distant. In Holland, UK or, unevenly, in USA hope has already arrived.

Hurricane Irene. August 27-28, 2011. Central Massachusetts.

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
August 27, 2011

Oh, what a lovely hurricane.

I like this image of what's about to hit our area (seen faintly in the upper right corner). So magnificent in its raw natural immensity--about 600 miles in diameter. Not that I like the toll it takes on the human environment but one has to stand in total awe of its power, size, intensity, ferocious appearance, agitated power and magnificent beauty. (click on photo to enlarge)

It appears overhead as we lilliputian humanoids run around with our over-bloated egos and political/religious opinions and international warfares and civil war slaughters of Arab-African-Asian countrymen, women and children... so overstuffed with our petty affairs and profits and market values and money that we care so little about the only planet we have to live on. We pollute and defile and abuse the globe as if there were a dozen nearby planetary alternatives to flee to when we've finished ruining the climate and soil of this one.

No, no. Delusional we are to think we can continue to dig up the forests and bury our plastics and lead-filled old computers and spew toxins and radioactive dust into the air.

Look at this incredible photograph of the hurricane. Yes, it is beautiful from afar, but I think it is an angry storm. It is a visceral form of nature palpably reminding us of who is ultimately in charge of our affairs. The planet has not completed its work; it is not a stable playing field for our human pleasures and deals. The forces of nature are very alive with hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes, forest fires, landslides, avalanches, ancient trees toppling and new seedlings sprouting.

Human creatures are not the ultimate life form. We are smart mutated species from a primitive past on our way to a 'destiny' shaped by our brain development, our impact on the earth, our aggression, our fear, our ignorance about how to create harmony and tolerance for human differences, and foolish decisions about how to steward our globe floating alone in the drift of the universe.

Ozymandias once stood as a great granite statue in the Egyptian kingdom dedicated to the most powerful pharaoh of antiquity, Ramsses II. Inscribed below on the pedestal of this ruler, this king of the planet, this pharaoh of great power were the words (from Shelley's poem) "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

I visited this colossal stone monarch several years ago at the Ramesseum (photo left), a memorial temple built by Ramesses at Thebes, near Luxor in Upper Egypt. The monument originally stood 56 feet high (17 meters), mighty and muscular, a monument to human art, power and ego.

Today this great nexus of power rests in broken pieces, felled by an earthquake, half buried in sand, mostly ignored (except for tourists) and unknown to the world, in this "annihilated place".

Hurricane Irene (ironically a Greek name meaning 'peace') is a vivid reminder of the change that comes to all human affairs and to this precious planet called home.

Shelley's closing words in his poem about this once pinnacle of human might should give us pause about our purpose, reason and effect of being here today:

"Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

Sic transit gloria mundi (thus passes the glory of the world).

Hot Men, Great Art and Great Thought

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
August 20, 2011

Recently I sent a gay friend some photos of 'hot' men, that is, beautiful looking adult males with minimal clothes that revealed their handsome faces and muscled bodies. Several such images are included here (taken randomly from the Internet).

After my friend finished swooning he recovered his breath and asked why did some guys have such wonderful appearances leaving most of us 'in the dust', so to speak.

Well, one answer to that erotically profound question is similar to why we have great artists among us who are capable of creating magnificence in a mostly mundane world: Michaelangelo, DaVinci, Rembrandt, Rafael, Turner, Picasso, etc. Or why there are great thinkers who come along and shape the hue of civilization: Karl Marx, Thomas Jefferson, Sigmund Freud, Richard Dawkins, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Reinhold Niebuhr, Jiddu Krishnamurti, etc.

So too with these inspirational images of beautiful men. They are like art, wordless and beyond thought, that touch a deeper level of our being. Indeed, they express the fundamental aspect of aesthetic value--beauty.

Whether intellectual, visual or erotic we desire to be touched at this level; it vibrates the 'soul' and lifts us out of our daily routine of common feeling and thinking that are framed by our immediate repetitive circumstances. Indeed some argue that such experience touches the vitality of the sacred.

'Gorgeous genes' are like artistic talent or intellectual creativity that raise the few above the many, the Bach cantatas beyond the pop jingles of Christmas carols, the Einstein theories above the TV soap operas, the BelAmi boys above the raunch of home videos.

The 'valence' of erotic representations, the appeal of superior male imagery, takes us momentarily beyond the barriers of common-ness into aesthetic fantasy, into a soothing hedonic moment of joy--not unlike viewing Michaelangelo's luminous statue of David. (photo right)

Why some people possess such superiority and most do not is simply the way of evolution as certain organic mutations are more effective at survival or attracting attention or expressing genius. Like much of life, it is simply chance happening.


So next time you go to a museum or an art show or read great ideas and feel aroused, animated, or imbued with the spirit of certain works, it's not so different from the private ineffable 'rush' we feel viewing beautiful male (or female, if you are so inclined) figures.


Enjoy the show and the feeling it evokes; it's there for us to be a willing audience and feel the breeze of beauty and the inspiration of unique originality. And be grateful for the exceptionals among us.

Two Fathers, One Boy: LIfe is Good

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
August 11, 2011


See this wonderful video of music, love, childhood fun, peer approval--a vision of the future : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qf0puHJ-KM

A twelve year-old boy, Terrence, sings a pretty song in tribute to his two fathers, a gay couple in Holland. He sings it at a children's concert in front of an audience of hundreds of other children about his own age who join in three times in the song's refrain:

I have two fathers,
two real fathers,
sometimes cool and sometimes strict,
but it's going great with us,
two real fathers,
who if they have to,
both can be my mother...


For anyone who feels weighed down by the hate, homophobia, fear-mongering and bigotry against homosexual people, this video is a balm, a soothing reminder that gay life is cheerful, tender, child-loving, compassionate and worthy of song and praise.

The hundreds of other kids singing in harmony with Terrence join with him in his love song that's full of respect for his two fathers.

Truly, from the mouth of babes shall come forth the love that will light the world and turn back the dark minds of discrimination and hatred.

The Way of the World: Dalai Lama vs China's Factories

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com

The following bit of news was written by Jamie Johnson and published in Vanity Fair magazine July 19, 2011
(http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/07/harmonic-divergence-wealthy-dropping-the-dalai-lamas-name-literally.html)

"It was big news last weekend when President Obama refused to let journalists into his private meeting with the Dalai Lama. The maneuver reflects increasing concerns in the U.S. that emphatic public support for the Tibetan leader will alienate Chinese officials, and in turn jeopardize our strategic interests in the world’s fastest growing economy... a rising number of international billionaires have begun to worry that backing the Dalai Lama could pose a risk to their personal wealth by potentially limiting access to lucrative markets in China... now that the seat of financial power has started shifting eastward, patronage of the Dalai Lama can come at a considerable cost. Sadly, China’s increasing sway over our economy compromises the Dalai Lama’s ability to attract wealthy American patrons...

The opportunity to make money is something billionaires simply can’t resist—even if giving in to that persistent urge means shunning an enlightened spiritual guru."
--------------

Thus we have the way of the modern world. Not that I'm a spiritual follower of the Dalai Lama's Buddhist beliefs--not the issue here--but I do care that an intelligent and enlightened man (a lot more than most) is seen as losing traction to spiritless commercial forces of low-tech wage-earning and hi-tech investment profiteering. China is a factory producing infinite 'stuff' and the West is a hungry consumer of those goods, insatiably starved for more things, countless baubles, Wal-Mart discounts, stock deals... spending and getting.

Where is all this taking us? What human desire is being met by plastic bottles, credit cards, shiny cars, sugared food, clever-tech toys, FaceBook popularity, political positioning...?

What is the need we are trying to assuage? Some have suggested existential ennui, listless boredom, hollow spiritual life, loneliness... that we buy more and more stuff for our emotionally impoverished hovels and grand mansions. No matter the level of financial status, most of us in this 'advanced' country are addicted to a richly materialistic/monied throw-away lifestyle surrounded by noise (iPods, radios, TV, computers) that we no longer can see outside the cage.

At my local dump/transfer/recycle station in a rural town in western Massachusetts (population 1800) purchased goods become discarded goods: coffee-makers, children's books, dinnerware, air conditioners, stereo sets, microwave ovens, portable BBQs, baby strollers, sofas, pill bottles... off loaded to the recycle shed to be picked over with the leftover tossed over the edge into the dumpsters. (Some plastic, metal, glass, paper is recycled in a separate dumpster.)

But the volume of discards increases monthly, yearly. What is this? What is being thrown away besides stuff? I think at least part of our cultural soul goes out with the trash. We have become mis-users of the land, the planet. We have lost our feeling for our earth home.

After a recent festive party to celebrate a two-year-old's birthday, I watched as dozens of plastic cups, spoons and forks, plastic plates, paper napkins, extra cake, pretty gift wrapping and ribbons were tossed into plastic bag-lined trash cans then tied up and tossed in the back of a pickup truck on its way to the dump the next day.

What is the gift here? (Most of the plastic gift toys to the to birthday toddler will end up as toss-outs within a year.) What is really being thrown away?

I think the message of the Dalai Lama is being lost: compassion kindness and mindfulness beyond our immediate pleasure and families, compassion kindness and mindfulness toward the green planet, toward the needy world of other tribes suffering poverty and hunger, and toward our own 'being'. We have become saturated homo sapiens drowning in our own foreign-made abundance.

Is this the purpose of our being here? To make stuff and make profits? At what cost? What does China offer us beyond it's factories? What is the future the Chinese are leading us to?

I think it is not compassionate, kind or mindful.

Afghanistan Atrocity

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
July 31, 2011

Gays Are Not the Only Targets of Persecution in Afghanistan.

Read this and weep:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/world/asia/31herat.html?_r=1&ref=world

"It was the beginning of an Afghan love story that flouted dominant traditions of arranged marriages and close family scrutiny, a romance between two teenagers of different ethnicities that tested a village’s tolerance for more modern whims of the heart. The results were delivered with brutal speed.

"This month, a group of men spotted the couple riding together in a car, yanked them into the road and began to interrogate the boy and girl. Why were they together? What right had they? An angry crowd of 300 surged around them, calling them adulterers and demanding that they be stoned to death or hanged.

"When security forces swooped in and rescued the couple, the mob’s anger exploded. They overwhelmed the local police, set fire to cars and stormed a police station six miles from the center of Herat, raising questions about the strength of law in a corner of western Afghanistan and in one of the first cities that has made the formal transition to Afghan-led security...

Full story at NYTimes link.

So, this is what we are spending trillions of dollars on defending and costing thousands of our young soldiers lives, to allow such an atrocity against human decency?

This is an outrage of the first degree. Our government should hang it's head in enormous shame that we are putting our military in harm's way on behalf of a culture this primitive.

And this in "one of the first cities that has made the formal transition to Afghan-led security..."

Afghanistan will never be a win for the USA.

(Photo right: Rafi Mohammed, 17, in a juvenile prison for trying to elope with his girlfriend.)

A Shining Moment for LGBT Gay Rights

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
July 25, 2011

I've never seen anything like it.

A gay deluge in the media: gay marriage in NY; mainstream gay-theme films; congressional approval of an openly gay federal gay judge; children of gays; Obama's administration's removal of support for DOMA; major newspaper editorials applauding gay marriage; an historic UN resolution, in June 2011, condemning discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation; imminent repeal of DADT in the military; the opening of the week-long North American OutGames (gay olympics) in Vancouver; the highly visible 'It Gets Better' anti-bullying national project; the newly digitized Gay and Lesbian Review; and just this week, the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) granted consultative status to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA)...

There seems a current tsunami of social change, a cultural jump, a sudden leap into a new world (or part of it), a more humanistic world of civility, a world more aware, of progress against entrenched and angry prejudice against LGBT citizens.

Not to sugar-coat this unique phenomenon: there are still murders, violence and discrimination a-plenty around the world; a teenager in California is on trial for murdering a gay classmate; anti-gay protests in the USA against gay marriage; presidential candidates publicly airing their homophobic views; Focus on the Family anti-gay group distorting research at a congressional hearing (and getting caught); Michelle Bachman's connection to a gay-cure clinic; the Nigerian women’s soccer team claims homosexuality is eradicated among players...

But for now there is a shining moment when hope for a decent equitable society seems possible, appears happening, in America at least, as loving couples are given the freedom and right to marry and gay sexual orientation becomes a source of pride and a cause to celebrate our lives as good citizens, parents, professionals, military troops, judges and members of a country that makes humane things possible.

It is a moment a long time coming through terrible oppression, brutality and ignorance when gays were treated like animals. It is a long time coming from that to this recent (7-24-11) editorial comment in the New York Times:

"There are very few positions more repugnant than advocating intolerance."