Absurdity at the Highest Levels: The UN

By Richard Ammon GlobalGayz.com

Take note of this absurdity:
On Monday, December 20th, the United Nations General Assembly will vote on whether to include protection for LGBT people in a crucial resolution on extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings. This resolution urges States to thoroughly and promptly investigate all killings committed for any discriminatory reason, even on the basis of sexual orientation.

It is the only UN resolution ever to include explicit reference to sexual orientation.

The resolution passed successfully for the past ten years. However in a UN committee just last month, a number of States proposed to remove the reference to sexual orientation.

Shockingly, this proposal to delete passed: 79 States (mostly Muslim and African) voted to remove the reference to sexual orientation, 70 supported its retention, and 43 States abstained or did not vote. This amounted to a serious defeat for LGBT rights at the UN.

Do these opponents of integrity and human rights think they lack a sexual orientation?

Will homophobes never learn!? Their ignorance and blind bigotry, in government and in the streets, is killing countless people--due to AIDS as well as bigotry--from Asia to Africa and beyond.

This insane prejudice against sexual diversity goes beyond all human reason and 'common good'--despite religious pretensions of most faiths toward neighborly love and compassion toward those who are afflicted.

Pray to some higher power that the opponents of the UN resolution will see some light, dim as it might be.

The Most Profound Lesson of all Human Survival

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
September 25, 2010

Here is the latest on the front line of Russia's gay rights struggle:

Russia: Protest Over Gay Rights
By Reuters News
September 21, 2010
At least eleven gay-rights activists were taken into police custody on Tuesday at a protest calling for the arrest of Moscow’s conservative mayor, Yuri M. Luzhkov, left, a longtime opponent of gay rights. The rally was timed to observe the 74th birthday of Mr. Luzhkov, who is locked in an increasingly public struggle with the Kremlin over his job after 18 years as mayor of Russia’s economic powerhouse, a struggle that is testing President Dmitri A. Medvedev ahead of national elections in 2011 and 2012. The mayor has described homosexuality as satanic. There is little public support for gay rights in Russia, where the dominant church frowns on homosexuality..."

Gay Rights Icon in Russia Tells of Abduction
By Michael Schwirtz, New York Times
September 20, 2010
Gay rights advocate Nikolai Alekseyev says, he was kidnapped by people he believes to be members of Russia’s security services and held for two days at different locations outside Moscow where plainclothes officers threatened and verbally abused him. Mr. Alekseyev disappeared Sept. 15, sending ripples of anxiety through Russia’s small and embattled gay rights community and prompting statements of concern from European Union lawmakers. He resurfaced two days later, saying he had been detained while trying to board a plane at Domodedovo Airport here… Back in Moscow, Mr. Alekseyev said he still had little idea exactly who was behind his detention. The men never identified themselves, and Moscow’s tight-lipped police force has issued no statements on the matter..."


These stories may seem trifle bits on the world scene of bigger events such as war and economic recessions but these smaller issues are the true measure of a country's civil progress in modern times. In America, the on-going debate to remove the military's DODT policy was blocked by Republican's yesterday; the Vatican's persistent demonizing of homosexual orientation continues unabated; Russia's vehement opposition and roughing up of gay rights demonstrations; Indonesia's recent near-violent cancellations of a gay IGLA conference; continuing killing and injury of anyone suspected of being gay in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Sub-Saharan Africa…across to Papua New Guinea and in Jamaica where violence against gays is encouraged.

In the world of human affairs, homosexuality continues to fracture the surface of traditional cultures to reveal a common irrational force within the ordered way of life in 'civilized' societies. Such strange arousal of hostility is poorly understood by aggressors who don't want to know the reason for their behavior--commonly a knee-jerk impulse to strike out or curse the person who comes out with their sexual truth.

Why does this truth evoke such anger, rejection, violence and discrimination? Why does sexual diversity create such aversion in societies that otherwise display diversity in many other forms such as hair style, clothing, religion, literature, art, politics, language and professions. Diversity is a hallmark of human affairs, as in other animal and plant life forms. Diversity is inherent in all genetic life including inherent diversity of sexual expression. Civilization is diversity and variety. Nearly all of it is tolerated and appreciated--except sexual diversity. The degree of active suppression of sexual diversity is a measure of a culture's evolution (or lack if it) toward social improvement, political intelligence and higher consciousness.

This leaves few countries on the planet with a clean score. A fortunate few have legislation that coerces citizens to be tolerant and non-discriminating and penalizes violence against sexual minorities. Yet even here it takes enforceable laws to demand full-spectrum respect for diversity.

Fear of Differences
The source for all this homophobia worldwide is essentially a fear of different-ness, a fear that civilized self feels within its own nature; a fear that resides in the recesses of the evolved human brain. Because we are still evolving we remain connected to primitive forces that developed long ago to protect the human animal against threats from 'otherness', from imagined and real danger. Outside the clan, herd, pride, flock, gaggle or tribe of familiar knowns, all otherness is suspect. No human tribe has ever been freed from this primitive arousal against the unknown, against strangers. Hormones of hostility--survival desire--instinctively kick into motion and fists, sticks, stones, guns, missiles, lethal gas and weapons of nuclear destruction have accompanied us into modern times to protect us against ''them'.

Today there are hundreds of hostilities being acted out between races, ethnic groups, religious sects, political factions and sexuality opponents in vain efforts to eliminate differences--to find peace through war. However, no matter what the method of attack or how widespread the genocide, virtually no human group has ever succeeded in eliminating its 'enemy' by violence. Tutsi, Armenian, Jew, Native American, Australian Aborigine, Muslim, homosexual--we are still here, still standing despite horrific tortures, atomic weapons, laws and fire. We are still diverse and still present. (Maybe pollution and climate change will change all that!)

It appears we are not willing to learn the lesson from all this pain, the lesson of compromise, inclusion, cooperation and tolerance that would ensure far more peace off mind among diverse humanoids than war can ever provide. We appear more willing to attack, oppose, create chaos and death than we are willing to learn the most profound lesson of all human survival--acceptance and cooperation among people of difference. Sexual diversity is one of the litmus tests of civilization. When homophobia is resolved, however it can be, humanity will have learned the 'secret' of peace on earth.
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See this article for an antidote to hostility: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/27happy.html?hpw

UK Government Aplogy to WW2 Hero Alan Turing

Westhampton, MA - September 11, 2009
Richard Ammon - GlobalGayz.com

On September 10, 2009, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown officially apologized to Alan Turing for the UK Government's persecution of this WWII hero because of his homosexuality.

Turing brilliantly invented his 'Turing Bombe' that crucially helped crack the German Enigma coded messages (sometimes thousands per day) during the war that ultimately helped the Allies win the war. But Turing, recognized today as the founder of modern computing, tragically killed himself in 1954 aged only 41 after being convicted of having a sexual relationship with another man.

The Prime Minister said (in part): "Alan Turing deserves recognition for his contribution to humankind. For those of us born after 1945, into a Europe which is united, democratic and at peace, it is hard to imagine that our continent was once the theatre of mankind’s darkest hour. It is difficult to believe that in living memory, people could become so consumed by hate – by anti-Semitism, by homophobia, by xenophobia and other murderous prejudices – that the gas chambers and crematoria became a piece of the European landscape as surely as the galleries and universities and concert halls which had marked out the European civilisation for hundreds of years.

"It is thanks to men and women who were totally committed to fighting fascism, people like Alan Turing, that the horrors of the Holocaust and of total war are part of Europe’s history and not Europe’s present.

"So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan’s work I am very proud to say: we’re sorry, you deserved so much better."

This is a worthy comment and much deserved and much belated. But it came only after thousands of petitioners signed a protest plea for the apology, not because the UK felt inwardly compelled by guilt or shame. (photo left: Alan Turing memorial in Sackville Park, London)

Retroactive wisdom is always welcome but it is of little value if it is not used to guide the present and future. And there are positive signs that this is happening: the British government has ordered its embassies to openly advocate for tolerance and acceptance of human rights for everyone, including homosexuals in all countries. In May 2008 the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed its commitment to "engage with foreign governments about the rights of gay. lesbian, bisexual and trans people". (Read the Report)

The apology is very welcome but as gay activist Nicholas Chinardet has written (in his blog): "let's not forget, at the risk of seeming ungrateful perhaps, that while the PM may have apologised, Alan Turing is still officially a criminal. He and all the other persecuted homosexuals should be pardoned, not solely apologised to. What are you going to do about that Mr Brown? An apology is not enough."

Someone has to lead the way to civilized world standards regarding sexual orientation and it's varieties. Sexual orientation is not an afterthought or decision or 'preference' or religious issue. It's a DNA issue.

Our appreciation goes to England and the few other enlightened governments who advocate equality and acceptance of human sexual varieties.

(...and what about the unfortunate case of Nobel Prize recipient Dr. Daniel Carlton Gajdusek?)

Leading Spiritual Teacher in India Discusses Being Gay as it Applies to Spirituality

Copenhagen, Denmark - July 26, 2009
Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz.com

Many years ago, I attended a couple of seminars offered by this "guru" when he was little known. Today he is one of India's most respected spiritual teachers, and I came across an article about what he recently said about being gay.

So much has been written about homosexuality since the Delhi High Court judgment to strike down Section 377, which the British imposed on the Indian legal system in 1861. Here is what Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had to say in a recent interview on the subject.

Question: The new Pontificate (Vatican) is expected to take a rigid stance on issues like those of gay relationships. What do ancient scriptures say about these matter?

Guruji: As far as the ancient scripture is concerned, there is neither mention nor prohibition of it. One thing the ancient scriptures say, as far as I know is that every human being is made up of both Mother and Father - half-female, half-male. The male tendency may be dominant; sometimes the female tendency may be dominant. It is a biological phenomenon. So if people are bound to have sunch tendencies, they should acknowledge it.

Question: Are you approving of gay marriages? Would you conduct gay marraiges?

Answer: Conducting marriages is not part of spirituality at all. It is a religious thing. Spirituality simply makes you aware that you are spirit and it uplifts you from all tendencies, whether you are for, or against, or paranoid about the sexuality of other people. All this is not concerned with spirituality. Spirituality makes you realize that you are not just flesh. You are light. So there is a gender equality in spirituality. Religion will not give you gender equality, whereas in spirituality, whether you are a mother, or father, it doesn't matter - you are equal.

Question: But here we are not talking about parenthood.

Answer: I am talking about the male and female tendencies in a person. Depending on whatever tendencies are strongest in the system, biologically, this will accordingly reflect in one's life and sexuality. So, I think, one should see that one is not just flesh because it's a temporary thing. Tendencies are temporary, but the spirit is much more than tendencies. You are the spirit, which is all light, all love, wisdom and knowledge. Your identification must shift from gender to spirit... and this is exactly what spirituality means - to rise above the tendencies that are impermanent.

We have seen that many straight people "get" gay tendencies, sometimes... and this creates fear in them. They are so scared about what is happening to them. When they start meditating, they rise above this, and become natural and loving. Even people, who brand themselves as being gay, suddenly find themselves being attracted to opposite sex... and it creates big confusion. This is why I say that you should not label yourself. You are much more than your tendencies. You are the beautiful spirit, and if that is also a label, it is better to have this label, than any other.

As a gay person, this is lovely to read. But it certainly is not new insight. Living inside the skin and spirit of the gay psyche, virtually all LGBT people feel the essential "purity" of their sentient self. (I'm not talking about closeted or self-hating homosexuals who deny their truth.) Different as our sexual orientation may be from the majority of people, we are not living in any "separate reality". We are all far more similar than different as human beings. What Guru Shankar is talking about is human essence, not human psychology or human behavior.

When we allow our minds to go into a higher level of awareness, sexual orientation becomes irrelevant. Ram Dass spoke about the experience of coming from a higher plain of awareness as well. Using tantric yoga breathing techniques infuses the body with an energy that offers a lighter view of sexuality that is neither maleness or femaleness. It is "is-ness", and I think this is what Shankar is talking about, not carnal issues or gay identity or sexual orientation.

Gays in the military: we are here and queer - get over it!

Westhampton, MA - July 12, 2009
Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz.com

US Secretary of Defense Gates said yesterday one possible modification to "Don't Ask Don't Tell" might be to consider the circumstances under which a service member is 'outed' in determining whether or not he or she must leave the military.

Gates offered as an example, "When we're given information from someone with vengeance in mind or blackmail, somebody who has been jilted. If somebody is outed by a third party, does that force us to take action?" he said. "That's the kind of thing we're looking at - seeing if there's a more humane way to apply the law until it gets changed."

For chrissake when will we grow up!? Parsing a blatantly vicious and discriminatory policy does nothing to change it. You can't partially suture up a gaping wound that bleeding. Highly skilled service people are being ripped from their careers this minute and they deserve better than a bigoted prejudicial reason for their discharge.

Dan Choi, a native of California and an Army Lieutenant (photo right), was dismissed from his commission last week. This is a immoral crime and an offense to all manner of integrity. It makes a mockery of our posturing about democratic rule of law and freedom and liberty.

What do Israel, Denmark, Holland, France, UK and other EU countries, who let gays serve in the military, know that we don't? Probably the simple truth that it doesn't matter. Sexual orientation is not an issue in the armed services of any country. Competence and loyalty matter most.

Unbelievable for modern progressive times, the top brass and congress absurdly let freakish religious homophobia influence military decision making. What next--chariots of fire instead of humvees?!

There are rare intelligent exceptions, however, as one fortunate "outed" gay soldier wrote, "They could have kicked me out when someone told. But my commanders weighed loss to the service against the benefit of me staying. They gave me a chance and I gave them everything I had. I served with pride not prejudice."

This fine testimony gives the hypocritical lie to the DADT policy: thousands of LGB (T?) people are serving (secretly) in the armed forces at this very moment--from high ranking Navy Admirals to new Air Force recruits. Is unit cohesion disturbed? Is 'homosexual recruiting' going on? Are the showers a risky place? Is there sneaky activity in the bunks at night? Are gay personnel flirting with battalion leaders?

How ridiculous even to ask. What sensible volunteer military person is going to risk their career and reputation on inappropriate behavior--gay or straight. The hysterical knee-jerk homophobic thought that went into making the DADT policy, based on ignorant stereotypical thinking, is far removed from reality. Gay men and women officers have as much integrity and self-respect and self-discipline as any straight officer to conduct their professional and personal lives in a proper manner. Gay and lesbian recruits are no different: they are in the service to serve not to cruise.

And I must add, from my personal experience across several decades of observing humanity, that, far from the typical straight presumption that we gay men are out to seduce every child, boy and man--I find that 98% of other males on this planet are decidedly NOT appealing to my eye and do not merit a second look. It's no different in military life. Do straight congressmen find every woman attractive? Again, it's ridiculous to ask. So wake up to the truth about gays and reflect it in military policy.

Call President Obama and Secretary Gates and let them know how you feel on the issue. The time for positive change is NOW.

Pentagon Communications Office: 703-428-0711

White House Comment Line: 202-456-1111