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."

An Open Letter to the Health Minister of India Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad

By Vivek Divan
GayBombayGroup
July 06, 2011


Dear Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Health Minister of India
It appears you need a dose of enlightenment since your recent statements
on homosexuality smack of either ignorance, misinformation or rank
prejudice. I hope that this missive serves that purpose, although I am
doubtful. On the other hand, I hope that it shames you.

I know what shame is like, having lived most of my life in a world that
never understood a core part of me — my sexuality. For your
irresponsibility you deserve no part in the governance of a nation that
prides itself on tolerance and diversity. Your bosses should dismiss you
immediately, but I have a feeling they won’t.

It is hard to imagine that you are the health minister of India. I imagine
that responsibility entails in its very essence promoting the well-being of
all Indians. And not consigning some of them to the margins and fueling
hatred and disgust against them.

What a travesty, especially since your humbug is directed against a
community, which has, in its attempt to emancipate itself, done nothing but
subscribe to the highest ideals that India’s Constitution aspires to — by
using democratic judicial processes to seek equality and understanding,
protesting their plight through non-violent means founded in free speech and
expression, and by working painstakingly within the community to alleviate
the impact of serious health problems such as HIV and social issues like
violence.

We haven’t attempted to bribe or use inflammatory language and tactics. We
have based our struggles on sound knowledge, on the unceasing appreciation
that there is a humanity in all persons, which will eventually locate the
truth. Not on the cronyism that must come ‘naturally’ to you.

And you call us ‘diseased’. If anything, you are deficient — in your
knowledge, your humanity and your responsibility as a servant of the people.
Tell us Mr Azad — what have you done to serve us as health minister of
India? What has been your commitment to ensure that India’s response to HIV
is at the cutting edge of science and entrenched in inclusiveness? Instead
of using diversionary tactics by inciting pointless hatred, what have you
done to improve public health in India so that states are coaxed to ensure
that hospitals, primary health centres and medical practitioners aspire to
the core values of this essential service?

While economic indicators bode well for the nation’s progress, health
indicators paint an entirely different picture to which you seem to be
blind. What are you doing about maternal mortality, dear sir? Some 100,000
women die from pregnancy-related causes each year — more than anywhere else
in the world. And what are you willing to do to rise above the votebank
politics that you and your ilk engage in?

You have said that homosexuality has been imported from the West. Well,
apart from the phenomenal ignorance that such a statement reeks of, you
should also know that many other things are imported from the West including
a vast amount of the resources used in the name of ‘development’ and
parliamentary democracy of which you are a part of.

Homosexuality is as intrinsic to India as, say, the corruption your
colleagues indulge in. In which case, why don’t we consign your tainted
colleagues to the scrapheap? The nation would be a far better place.

Link: http://www.hindusta ntimes.com/ / Article1- 718146.aspx

More Anti-Gay Distortions and Lies From Another Church

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
July 18, 2011

The following editorial is from 'The Trumpet', an online newsletter of the Church of God, regarding the California law that requires some gay history to be included in public school education curricula:

"Landmark law reveals that the war against family is intensifying"

--"California’s public schools will be required to teach students about the contributions of homosexual Americans beginning on January 1, 2012, after Gov. Jerry Brown (photo right) signed a landmark bill June 16, 2011 requiring the material to be added to social studies textbooks and curricula...

--"The California Family Council said that since the material is not part of a sexual education' class, parents will not have an opting-out option, and will not be told beforehand about classes teaching the new material...

--"Opponents were upset with Brown’s decision to sign the bill, and questioned whether instruction about homosexuals in public schools is necessary. “If children in other countries are learning math and science, and American children are learning about the private lives of historical figures, how will our students compete for jobs in the global economy?” said Sen. Sharon Runner.

--"The most basic building block of a strong and stable civilization is the traditional family structure, and this law represents the latest in a long list of assaults against it...

--"In 1976 Herbert Armstrong (photo right) wrote of a “'widespread and aggressive conspiracy to destroy the institution of marriage... Every subtle method is being employed to capture the minds of those of pre-marriage age'”

--"Clearly, minds back then were captured and attacked. Now they are 35 years older and have raised another generation even more deceived about traditional marriage and family."

My reply:
Show me one scrap of evidence that society is worse off for tolerating homosexuals, offering them equal rights, allowing them to enter loving relationships; show me one scrap that heterosexual marriage is worse off due to gay marriage; show me one scrap that children are really at risk from having a gay teacher or being taught about gay contributors to our great society.

I point to Arnold Schwarzenager, Newt Gingrich, John Edwards, Mark Sanford (gov. of South Carolina), Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggert, Paul Barnes, Earl Paulk, Joe Barron, JFK, Rudi Guilliani, Tiger Woods and more than a few others.
The list of heterosexual marriage destroyers goes on into history, not to mention the countless Catholic priests who have defiled families by child abuse.

Cease with these brainless bigoted attacks on respectable gay citizens.

Republican Candidates -- Are they not ashamed?

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
July,12, 2011

Leading Republican candidates can't wait to broadcast their bigotry against gay Americans. Incredibly, in public statements they are shamelessly lining up to promote discrimination as part of their conservative platforms.

What kind of humanistic, religious, American leadership can they possibly offer when they advocate overt abuse of human rights with their in-humanistic, un-Christian, anti-American rhetoric.--against gay marriage and in favor of Don't Ask Don't Tell and in favor of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

It is more than shameful. It is fascism in disguise to deliberately advocate scorn, denial, derision, contempt against those who do not think as they do. This is demagoguery in its vilest from. Their blatant homophobic assertions attempt to discredit same-sex sexual orientation as a natural phenomenon, despite countless scientific studies to the contrary. They prefer to blindly follow religious mythology on this issue and express sincere 'belief' in that vague source.

Such vile propagandizing campaigning will certainly work against them. Times are changing. Fundamentalist right wing bullying of LGBT Americans will not pass. The next generation is far more accepting of gay people and gay marriage--perhaps because they are listening to their consciences--and our Constitution--more than outdated (and mistranslated) scriptures and dogmas.

Quotes:

-Rick Santorum has joined Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann in signing an anti-gay marriage pledge. Also supports constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. He is opposed to all forms of government recognition for gay and lesbian couples.

The pledge, titled 'The Marriage Vow: A Declaration of Dependence Upon Marriage and Family' was introduced by the Iowa-based Christian conservative group The Family Leader. It asks 2012 candidates to vigorously oppose marriage equality, be faithful to their own spouse, vow to protect women and children from pornography and reject Sharia law. The group will not endorse any candidate that does not sign the pledge.

-Michelle Bachman's husband runs a clinic that practices reparative therapy that tries to cure gay people of their homosexuality. Bachman supports constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

-Tim Pawlenty has spoken against gay marriage and said deference should be shown to the military on DADT. Supports constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

-Newt Gingrich said the adoption of same-sex marriage in New York showed the nation is "drifting toward a terrible muddle." He also said both the Army and the Marines overwhelmingly opposed changing [DADT]. And as president I would listen to the commanders. Supports constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

-Mitt Romney: has called for support of federal marriage amendment but would not ban civil unions. DADT: I believe that DADT should have been kept in place until conflict (Iraq/Afghanistan) was over.

-Gary Johnson has spoken out in favor of gay rights issues, supporting civil unions: is among the field's most gay-friendly candidates; believes government should not intervene unnecessarily in the private lives of individual citizens and supports civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.

-Jon Huntsman supported civil unions as Utah's governor; would respect the decision of states that legalized same-sex marriage and not seek to override those laws with a federal ban.

-Ron Paul is the most libertarian; not necessarily opposed to a Constitutional amendment. His Libertarian ideology would say the question is irrelevant. Marriage, like any contract, is left to individuals, straight or gay.

-Herman Cain is a fierce opponent of same sex marriage or civil unions, asking his supporters to stand behind him and protect the sanctity of the institution of marriage. When pressed on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT), he said he would never have overturned it.

---------------
-Survey: 85 percent of Staunch Conservatives and 72 percent of Main Street Republicans oppose the right of gays and lesbians to marry.

-Republican strategist Steve Schmidt said, “The Republican Party is shrinking. One of the reasons it is shrinking is because there are large demographics in this country that view the party as intolerant or not relevant to them...

-Survey by Pew: 70 percent of those between 18 and 34 support gay marriage. Other studies show favor of gay marriage.

-Survey: RK Research confirms youth hostility toward the Republican Party’s position on gay marriage in its study of college students and the Republican Party. The surveyed students, when asked to rate the Republican party on 25 issues, gave the party a score of 3.8 (1-worst, 10-best) on gay rights, dead last of the 25 issues.

Book About Gay Life in New Zealand--by Aaron Allbright

Book review: THE LAND NEAR OZ: TWO GAY YANKEES MOVE TO NEW ZEALAND

In this book, memoirist and humorist Aaron Allbright examines the mystical fringes of life with a side of love and a little hash. Filled with great affection, indescribable moments of serendipity, and a few cattle calls, this debut is a raucous spot of fun.

When Aaron Allbright and his better half, Beau, buy a piece of paradise from the direct descendants of the first English missionaries to inhabit the far side of the Far North of New Zealand, they meet the offspring of whores, convicts, whalers, English pirates and those first missionaries. Their closest seaside neighbor is Australia, 1,500 miles away (known to everyone thereabouts as Oz).

About the author:
Like Huck Finn, Aaron Allbright was born in Missouri and grew up on the banks of the Mississippi. He spent three years in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone before traveling overland through other parts of Africa for a year and crossing the Sahara twice. Later, he called Saudi Arabia (eight months) and France (four years) home.

In Paris, he was a member of the Union des Artistes and acted at the Duncan Theater in the Rue de Seine and at the Theatre de l’Atelier in Montmartre. He and his spouse trekked extensively in the Himalaya before settling in Orange County, California.

For the past six years, they have lived in New Zealand with two cats, two dogs, sheep, cows and a donkey named Don Quixote. The Land Near Oz is his first memoir. Aaron Allbright has degrees in Russian Area Studies, Russian literature, and linguistics and has taught in Sierra Leone–West Africa; Saudi Arabia; Paris; the University of California Irvine; and was a tenured professor at Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, CA.

From Orange County, California, to the land of cannibals and flightless birds, the Land Near Oz, two gay men decide to chuck it all and light out for the Territory—and to find what's over the rainbow. There are Maoris with traditional full face and body tattoos; a former member of Led Zeppelin; a Texan named Big Mama. And in the wild hinterland paradise of Evermore, dreams are made and life is good, but just not in the way either Aaron or Beau hoped, planned, or could have ever imagined.

Amazon link to the book

The Bible is Propaganda--Bring Me Science

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
July 10, 2011

Ya gotta love the old guy who said this:

"We should not accept religious literature instead of scientific report." The Delhi High Court bench headed by Chief Justice A P Shah remarked in response to a Solicitor General who cited an article condemning gay sex by quoting the Bible.

"These are not scientific reports. These are articles quoting Bible which is a propaganda. Your arguments should be based on scientific reports. Show us scientific reports which justify criminalisation of such acts (gay sex)," the Times of India quoted the Bench.

If only other national courts and legislatures would listen to such wisdom we would have societies dominated more by humanistic values than by religious bigotry and irrational political opinions.

Carry on Chief Justice A P Shah!

And may your words be heard around this troubled gay-hating world. Human development cannot progress forward with one foot stuck in gross ignorance, fear and hatred--against any minority.

Link to the Times of India story here.

Homophobia--Win a Few, Lose a Lot, Win a Few More

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
July 5, 2011

Sunday's New York Times (online, July 3) featured four articles about homosexuality in America--on the front page.

In the context of a recent wave of gay issues in the media (Governor Cuomo wins the NY gay marriage vote (photo right); Rhode Island approves civil unions; New Jersey's governor rejects gay marriage; the debate over DADT and DOM legislation; gay divorce; Republican presidential candidates taking positions on all these and the usual Catholic homophobia, etc.) this is not surprising, especially in the 'gay month' of June Pride. In one of these stories, no less a respected person than the NYT executive editor Bill Keller stated in a Sunday Magazine essay: "the move toward legalization of same-sex marriage in America had become inexorable."

Noble and affirmative and welcome as this position is, it's easy to take such comments in stride, here in media-blitzed, east coast, big city with a flamboyant gay parade, a governor and mayor out front, gay TV pop talent stars, gay Broadway plays. The present seems saturated with gay issues, which even President Obama is actively pondering ("evolving"), urged along by numerous gay people on his staff, to arrive at politically correct and humanistic positions toward his gay constituents. Clearly the cause is great and the struggle for equality goes on, step by step, city and state by city and state.

But we must not get too far ahead of the frontline in this culture war, which sometimes can be fatal to the 'special forces' of the gay movement. Surrounding, these mostly positive Times reports, are many more not so positive stories and postings that have come across my desk in the past few weeks, sent in from various countries including the USA:

Russia: June 25, 2011
About a dozen gay people were arrested and jailed for trying to hold a small gay Pride rally in Moscow. Police detained two groups of activists protesting their lack of rights in two central districts of the city. An Associated Press photographer saw unidentified individuals attack the demonstrators, trying to seize their banners before police moved in.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/25/russia-gay-pride-demonstrators-attacked-detained-_n_884510.html#s298183

Turkey: June 26, 2011
Thousands of Turks marched through Istanbul in a demonstration calling for improved rights and greater social acceptance for the country's homosexual community... as transgendered people continue to be murdered.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/06/26/turkey.gay.pride/index.html

Slovenia: July 18, 2011
A British police officer has spoken of his terror after being beaten by a gang of vicious thugs brandishing metal batons in a shocking homophobic attack. The gay officer was attacked while on holiday in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana by six or seven men who took exception to his sexuality.
http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/crime/gay_policeman_victim_of_horrific_homophobic_attack_in_slovenia_1_2787331?commentssort=1

China: April 6, 2011
A weekend raid at a club in Shanghai was a stark reminder of what can happen when homophobia meets the all-too-heavy hand of the law. Shanghaiist reports: Early Sunday morning, police stormed into Q Bar in the middle of a go-go boy performance, turned the lights on, and shoved about 70 bar employees and patrons (save the foreigners) batch by batch into a minivan that whittled them away to the Xiaodongmen police station, just a stone's throw away from the bar. The state-backed Shanghai Daily said the bar was targeted "after complaints that it was staging sex shows". This was vigorously denied by the bar's owner.
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/04/06/party-police-cops-raid-gay-bar-in-shanghai/#ixzz1R65yzcsY

Vietnam: May 21, 2011
Every day in Vietnam, stigma, discrimination and violence threaten the basic constitutional rights of gay men, including access to the information, products and services that they need for their well-being. There is a special concern regarding MSM’s access to HIV services, as HIV prevalence among MSM was 14% in 2009.
http://en.baomoi.com/Home/society/hanoitimes.com.vn/Vietnam-speaks-out-on-International-Day-against-Homophobia/145146.epi

USA: July 2, 2011
Governor Lincoln Chafee signed a civil unions bill into law, making Rhode Island the fifth after Illinois, New Jersey, Delaware and Hawaii to recognize gay and lesbian couples with civil unions.
As a result, Thomas Tobin, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, has barred gay Catholics from entering a civil union:
“I am deeply disappointed that Rhode Island will establish civil unions in our state,” he wrote in The Rhode Island Catholic. “The concept of civil unions is a social experiment that promotes an immoral lifestyle, is a mockery of the institution of marriage as designed by God, undermines the well-being of our family and poses a threat to religious liberty...Because civil unions promote an unacceptable lifestyle, undermine the faith of the Church on holy matrimony, and cause scandal and confusion, Catholics may not participate in civil unions. To do so is a very grave violation of the moral law and, thus, seriously sinful. A civil union can never be accepted as a legitimate alternative to matrimony.”
http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=8841&MediaType=1&Category=26

Uganda: May 11, 2011
Uganda's parliament on Wednesday delayed debate on a controversial bill that once proposed the death penalty for some gays and lesbians, but officials suggested lawmakers could take up the matter on Friday. [They did not.] U.S. and world leaders and rights groups have denounced the bill in recent months in hopes parliament would reject it. Internet petitions have gathered more than 1.4 million signatures. The bill was first proposed in 2009 but has been avoided in parliament.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42990706/ns/world_news-africa/t/uganda-anti-gay-bill-delayed-after-outcry/

South Africa: June 29, 2011
Lesbian South Africans are living in fear as rape and murder become a daily threat in the townships they call home. Noxolo Nkosana, 23, is the latest victim of a series of violent attacks against lesbians. She was stabbed a stone's throw from her home in Crossroads township, Cape Town, as she returned from work one evening with her girlfriend. The two men - one of whom lives in her community - started yelling insults. "They were walking behind us. They just started swearing at me screaming: 'Hey you lesbian, you tomboy, we'll show you,'" Ms Nkosana tells the BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13908662

There are few issues on the world stage more divisive than homosexuality. It is a fiery flashpoint in modern societies around the world, often hateful, sometimes murderous, always conflicted. Fueled primarily by religious bigotry that relies on ancient mythological 'holy' books, this is one culture war that may never go away since those old books are not about to be re-written--despite the fact that they indeed were originally written by unknown mortals living in primitive times.

Imagine if we used medical books from the middle ages to guide modern treatments. But religion is not science, which is based on facts and reality, and like politics people can hold whatever irrational views they want just because they want to and attribute their views to a religious doctrine or scripture, base on vague history, magical myth and entrenched hearsay. Bringing rationality into religion is like mixing oil with water. Nothing in nature or super-nature can ever cause them to blend. Rationality, religion and human sexuality will never be blended and will always be major hindrances and blind spots to civilization reaching its full potential; light and dark make gray in which one cannot see forward or backward.