Posted by Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
May 2010
From:Chivuli Ukwimi, Health and Human Rights Officer, IGLHRC
Cape Town (cukwimi@iglhrc.org)
and
Dunker Kama, Administrator, CEDEP
Blantyre, Malawi (shorinjkenpo@yahoo.co.uk)
Capetown, South Africa
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and the Malawi Center for the Development of People (CEDEP) are outraged by the sentence of 14 years with hard labour imposed today by a Malawian court on Tiwonge ("Tionge") Chimbalanga (20) and Steven Monjeza (26). The Magistrate's Court in Blantyre imposed the maximum sentence following the conviction of the two on May 18 for "unnatural offences" and "indecent practices between males" under Sections 153 and 156 of the Malawi Penal Code.
"This harsh sentence compounds the impact of an already unjust conviction," said Chivuli Ukwimi, IGLHRC Health and Human Rights Officer. "Its devastating effect on Steven and Tionge is just the beginning. It will endanger lives by driving at-risk communities underground, beyond the reach of programs to address HIV and AIDS."
In his ruling, Judge Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa stated, "The engagement and the living together as husband and wife of the two accused persons, who are both males, transgresses the Malawian recognized standards of propriety since it does not recognize the living of a man with another as husband and wife. Both these acts were acts of gross indecency." These views were similar to those expressed by the State Prosecutor, Barbara Mchenga, who asked the court to "consider the scar this offence will leave on our morality."
Dunker Kama, Administrator of CEDEP, responded by stating, "There is nothing immoral or indecent about love. The only thing immoral or indecent is throwing innocent people in jail for more than a decade."
The harsh sentence sends a negative message to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Malawians who already face discrimination and persecution. It is also likely to have an adverse effect on much needed efforts to address HIV and AIDS.
"The government of Malawi has double standards," said Gift Trapence, CEDEP Director. "Its own national strategic framework on HIV/AIDS includes men who have sex with men. Now, it is imprisoning them."
This case and the criminalization of homosexuality in the Malawi Penal code amount to a violation of the human rights and protections to which Malawi is ostensibly committed through its own constitution and the regional and international human rights treaties to which it is party.
IGLHRC and CEDEP will continue to support Monjeza and Chimbalanga, including an appeal of this verdict and the repeal of all laws that unjustly discriminate against LGBT Malawians.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Gay Pride Attacked in Belarus
Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
May 15, 2010
Saturday May 15 2010, gay Pride day in Minsk, Balarus, arrived and there were no unusual surprises: trouble was anticipated and trouble there was.
The gay participants knew the police would try to stop them. The police knew where the marchers were and intercepted them--but not before the combined rights activists from Moscow and St Petersburg joined the Belarus activists to unfurl a big rainbow flag, about 8 meters long (25 feet), and carry it along one of the main streets for a short distance. A few other participants unfurled their own smaller flags so the dozens of reporters and photographers from local and international press could take photos and have short interviews. Read more details from Logan Mucha's report.
Events happened quickly once the police came into contact with the rights celebrants. The black uniformed troops jumped out of their trucks and quickly grabbed the big flag away from the marchers and spirited it away as other black shirts began arresting people (marchers and protesters) and shoving them into the trucks.
Reports vary about the actual number of people arrested but it was generally known there were fewer than 15 marcher arrests. One report said about the same number of skinheads were arrested. See this filmed report from Naviny.by.
Diplomats were called and the usual shuffle of affairs to get the arrested activists released although the Russian embassy basically said to the Russian participants "you're on your own since you are in another country and under their laws."
Symbolic of the corrupt and inefficient governance in Belarus is that eight of those arrested and detained were told by the police that they (the police) did not have petrol in their vans and could not take them to the assigned detention center where they were supposed to remain until the court hearing! Instead they were told that they would be released with a stern warning to show up in court on Monday. (This changed later when gasoline was mysteriously found and the captives were moved to a detention center until Monday.)
No one was seriously injured although folks were bashed around and handled roughly. More details can be read at the Reuters website.
The important issue of this broken event was less to do with waving flags and giving speeches and claiming human rights for LGBT people. But more to do with raising international awareness of human rights abuses, discrimination and homophobia in Belarus; to embarrass the government into paying attention to these issues and to homosexual Belarussian citizens. The current government is generally repressive, headed by a former Soviet apparatchik who governs the country in the dictatorial Soviet manner. There is little chance for gay rights to make headway other than to make trouble and use the press to raise LGBT voices loud enough to be even slightly heard in the government.
Part of that effort to embarrass and shame the authorities was the screening of the documentary called Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride (see the summary trailer here) which displays the stark difference between repressive countries toward gays and the liberated countries as seen through gay Pride parades, from Vancouver to Sri Lanka to Moscow, among others.
Later in the night of Saturday there was a party planned at Minsk's only gay club. Police surrounded the place to allow the party and to protect the people inside from the protesters on the outside. Eight people are still in custody until Monday but the Slavic Awards will be made tonight at the party. Then all will go home sometime to sleep and wake up to a quiet Sunday morning Minsk, as if nothing had happened.
Belarus has shamed itself. Although it can pretend to ignore a handful of queer crackpots waving flags, the symbolic meaning of Saturday will ripple across the borders to political and rights leaders who care about equality and human rights. The day will stand in Pride history and as a stain upon a morally corrupt government that will someday fall as human rights continues its slow and victorious march across homophobic and repressive Eastern Europe.
GlobalGayz.com
May 15, 2010
Saturday May 15 2010, gay Pride day in Minsk, Balarus, arrived and there were no unusual surprises: trouble was anticipated and trouble there was.
The gay participants knew the police would try to stop them. The police knew where the marchers were and intercepted them--but not before the combined rights activists from Moscow and St Petersburg joined the Belarus activists to unfurl a big rainbow flag, about 8 meters long (25 feet), and carry it along one of the main streets for a short distance. A few other participants unfurled their own smaller flags so the dozens of reporters and photographers from local and international press could take photos and have short interviews. Read more details from Logan Mucha's report.
Events happened quickly once the police came into contact with the rights celebrants. The black uniformed troops jumped out of their trucks and quickly grabbed the big flag away from the marchers and spirited it away as other black shirts began arresting people (marchers and protesters) and shoving them into the trucks.Reports vary about the actual number of people arrested but it was generally known there were fewer than 15 marcher arrests. One report said about the same number of skinheads were arrested. See this filmed report from Naviny.by.
Diplomats were called and the usual shuffle of affairs to get the arrested activists released although the Russian embassy basically said to the Russian participants "you're on your own since you are in another country and under their laws."
Symbolic of the corrupt and inefficient governance in Belarus is that eight of those arrested and detained were told by the police that they (the police) did not have petrol in their vans and could not take them to the assigned detention center where they were supposed to remain until the court hearing! Instead they were told that they would be released with a stern warning to show up in court on Monday. (This changed later when gasoline was mysteriously found and the captives were moved to a detention center until Monday.)
No one was seriously injured although folks were bashed around and handled roughly. More details can be read at the Reuters website.
The important issue of this broken event was less to do with waving flags and giving speeches and claiming human rights for LGBT people. But more to do with raising international awareness of human rights abuses, discrimination and homophobia in Belarus; to embarrass the government into paying attention to these issues and to homosexual Belarussian citizens. The current government is generally repressive, headed by a former Soviet apparatchik who governs the country in the dictatorial Soviet manner. There is little chance for gay rights to make headway other than to make trouble and use the press to raise LGBT voices loud enough to be even slightly heard in the government.
Part of that effort to embarrass and shame the authorities was the screening of the documentary called Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride (see the summary trailer here) which displays the stark difference between repressive countries toward gays and the liberated countries as seen through gay Pride parades, from Vancouver to Sri Lanka to Moscow, among others.
Later in the night of Saturday there was a party planned at Minsk's only gay club. Police surrounded the place to allow the party and to protect the people inside from the protesters on the outside. Eight people are still in custody until Monday but the Slavic Awards will be made tonight at the party. Then all will go home sometime to sleep and wake up to a quiet Sunday morning Minsk, as if nothing had happened.
Belarus has shamed itself. Although it can pretend to ignore a handful of queer crackpots waving flags, the symbolic meaning of Saturday will ripple across the borders to political and rights leaders who care about equality and human rights. The day will stand in Pride history and as a stain upon a morally corrupt government that will someday fall as human rights continues its slow and victorious march across homophobic and repressive Eastern Europe.
Friday, May 14, 2010
The Disease of Homophobia
Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
Mat 14, 2010
Hopefully some day coming out won’t be such a big deal and won’t be news--or do we gay (LGBT people) secretly like the rush of notoriety, the fuss, the ‘news worthy’ event, by appearing to win one more to our club, gaining over the homophobes and discovering the inside thrill of breaking into freedom.
In Iraq or Palestine coming out will get you killed. But in the West it would appear that it’s no big deal.
So why the headlines when an entertainer or movie star comes out: singer Ricky Martin and actress Cynthia Nixon (photo below left) recently announced publicly they are gay. Big deal or not?
Greg Louganis, Matthew Mitcham (photo right) are famous athletes who came out, not with a
bang but with whispers and gossip, not willing but not unwilling. Others were infamously outed in the press with some fanfare and scandal: “did you hear about Ted Haggard!?”
The Wall Street Journal considers coming out as noteworthy news: When Your Teenager Says She's Gay.
Coming out, regardless how it’s done, willing or unwilling, is a kind of rebirth from fear and hiding into truth and honesty. It’s a gay version of a bar/bat mitzvah going from child to adult; a step away from shame toward integrity. Even Haggard can be more honest—even while trying to affirm his “heterosexual side.”
Coming out is no small event; it’s a major rite of passage to declare oneself different from one’s family tradition, from hetero society, from religious conservancy. The world shifts for a person when they come out. There’s no going back to ‘normal’. The cut is made and can’t be undone. It’s an irreversible stage of growing up, from victim to victor.
But unlike other natural changes (voice change, crevice hair, height growth, sexual awareness) this one takes courage to embrace in most cases because of toxic social homophobia that muddles nearly all cultures with a historic pale of forbidding and cursing from long-ago, mostly based on vague religious origins that fundamentalists
now take as ‘gospel truth’.
Such blind belief, buried in mystery and codified into sanctimonious absolutes and legal codes--without close examination of the validity of the sources--is another wonder of human nature: to believe that myth is truth, that fiction is fact, that sexual varieties don’t exist, that women are less; that Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha had direct links to the Divine. All are myths solidified by habitual unquestioned retelling and surrounded by officious systems.
Human sexuality is probably one of humanity’s most mysterious and fearful forces because it exposes in overt behavior the deepest covert feelings and hidden urges of an individual. Sex reveals secrets. Observe the numerous fundamentalist male preachers who are caught with their pants down with an escort. Observe the Catholic priests imposing sexual pleasure on under-age parishioners. (photo left Cynthia Nixon with fiancee Christine Marinoni)
And it’s not just the church folks who protest too much. Homosexuality is being portrayed as a disease by notable people featured in this week’s tabloids. Anti-gay Christian activist George Rekers who has been ‘involved’ with a younger man is vehemently denying such charges: “I will fight these false reports
because I have not engaged in any homosexual behavior whatsoever. I am not gay and never have been...” (He should bite more than dust for his hypocrisy and also should be pitied for the soulful anguish his internal homophobia is causing him to suffer.)
Followed today by Elizabeth Taylor’s verbal offense against Michael Jackson’s former doctor who outed Jackson.
Such use of sexual orientation as a weapon of hostility and derogatory slander are pathetic in their shallowness and ignorance. It’s like trying to degrade a person for having freckles. Ridiculous.
Sexual desire trumps just about everything—wealth, religion, race, fame, power. Where are these predators coming from in their deep souls to fabricate such facades or auras of lies about their essential craven truth? Hiding sexual desire behind the mask of religious garb is a most shameful form of toxic internal homophobia. (Hate who you are but don’t hate others by victimizing them.)
Coming out would ‘cure’ the abuse and hypocrisy of closeted clerical cravings. Something like ‘the truth will set you free’. What do we lose by coming out? We lose a lie, a false identity, an ill-fitting mask of conformity.
In these modern times, we are seeing that the great trauma is less about revealing who we really are and more about the disease of social homophobia. We are highly social creatures and sometimes that’s not a good thing; society can kill gays, spiritually and physically. (See also how homophobic-tinged ("Hey, Speedo-boy...!") bullying drove UK Olympic diver Tom Daley to quit his school.) (photo right)
Another aphorism underlies the integrity of coming out: to thine own self be true...and it follows thou canst not be false to any man. No need to lie; how good does that feel!
GlobalGayz.com
Mat 14, 2010
Hopefully some day coming out won’t be such a big deal and won’t be news--or do we gay (LGBT people) secretly like the rush of notoriety, the fuss, the ‘news worthy’ event, by appearing to win one more to our club, gaining over the homophobes and discovering the inside thrill of breaking into freedom.
In Iraq or Palestine coming out will get you killed. But in the West it would appear that it’s no big deal.
So why the headlines when an entertainer or movie star comes out: singer Ricky Martin and actress Cynthia Nixon (photo below left) recently announced publicly they are gay. Big deal or not?
Greg Louganis, Matthew Mitcham (photo right) are famous athletes who came out, not with a
bang but with whispers and gossip, not willing but not unwilling. Others were infamously outed in the press with some fanfare and scandal: “did you hear about Ted Haggard!?”The Wall Street Journal considers coming out as noteworthy news: When Your Teenager Says She's Gay.
Coming out, regardless how it’s done, willing or unwilling, is a kind of rebirth from fear and hiding into truth and honesty. It’s a gay version of a bar/bat mitzvah going from child to adult; a step away from shame toward integrity. Even Haggard can be more honest—even while trying to affirm his “heterosexual side.”
Coming out is no small event; it’s a major rite of passage to declare oneself different from one’s family tradition, from hetero society, from religious conservancy. The world shifts for a person when they come out. There’s no going back to ‘normal’. The cut is made and can’t be undone. It’s an irreversible stage of growing up, from victim to victor.
But unlike other natural changes (voice change, crevice hair, height growth, sexual awareness) this one takes courage to embrace in most cases because of toxic social homophobia that muddles nearly all cultures with a historic pale of forbidding and cursing from long-ago, mostly based on vague religious origins that fundamentalists
now take as ‘gospel truth’.
Such blind belief, buried in mystery and codified into sanctimonious absolutes and legal codes--without close examination of the validity of the sources--is another wonder of human nature: to believe that myth is truth, that fiction is fact, that sexual varieties don’t exist, that women are less; that Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha had direct links to the Divine. All are myths solidified by habitual unquestioned retelling and surrounded by officious systems.
Human sexuality is probably one of humanity’s most mysterious and fearful forces because it exposes in overt behavior the deepest covert feelings and hidden urges of an individual. Sex reveals secrets. Observe the numerous fundamentalist male preachers who are caught with their pants down with an escort. Observe the Catholic priests imposing sexual pleasure on under-age parishioners. (photo left Cynthia Nixon with fiancee Christine Marinoni)And it’s not just the church folks who protest too much. Homosexuality is being portrayed as a disease by notable people featured in this week’s tabloids. Anti-gay Christian activist George Rekers who has been ‘involved’ with a younger man is vehemently denying such charges: “I will fight these false reports
because I have not engaged in any homosexual behavior whatsoever. I am not gay and never have been...” (He should bite more than dust for his hypocrisy and also should be pitied for the soulful anguish his internal homophobia is causing him to suffer.)
Followed today by Elizabeth Taylor’s verbal offense against Michael Jackson’s former doctor who outed Jackson.
Such use of sexual orientation as a weapon of hostility and derogatory slander are pathetic in their shallowness and ignorance. It’s like trying to degrade a person for having freckles. Ridiculous.
Sexual desire trumps just about everything—wealth, religion, race, fame, power. Where are these predators coming from in their deep souls to fabricate such facades or auras of lies about their essential craven truth? Hiding sexual desire behind the mask of religious garb is a most shameful form of toxic internal homophobia. (Hate who you are but don’t hate others by victimizing them.)
Coming out would ‘cure’ the abuse and hypocrisy of closeted clerical cravings. Something like ‘the truth will set you free’. What do we lose by coming out? We lose a lie, a false identity, an ill-fitting mask of conformity.
In these modern times, we are seeing that the great trauma is less about revealing who we really are and more about the disease of social homophobia. We are highly social creatures and sometimes that’s not a good thing; society can kill gays, spiritually and physically. (See also how homophobic-tinged ("Hey, Speedo-boy...!") bullying drove UK Olympic diver Tom Daley to quit his school.) (photo right)Another aphorism underlies the integrity of coming out: to thine own self be true...and it follows thou canst not be false to any man. No need to lie; how good does that feel!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Religious Fairy Tales vs Gay Marriage
Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
May 13, 2010
Today’s news brought a hysterically horrid report about the Pope in Portugal. He called for pastoral action to tackle abortion and same-sex marriage, which he called "some of today's most insidious and dangerous threats to the common good".
(Insidious means: harmful but enticing; seductive; having a gradual and cumulative effect; spreading harmfully in a subtle or stealthy manner.)
These vile words came as he spoke at the famous Fatima shrine, Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, one of the most revered sites in Catholicism.
The basilica (photo right) was built to commemorate alleged events of 1917 when three shepherd peasant children claimed to have had a vision of the "Virgin of the Rosary", (Our Lady of Fátima). The little children experienced the purported ‘Marian apparitions’ in a nearby sheep pasture. Strangely, people believed them and today millions of Catholics flock to the site in search of miracle cures and to worship there.
I find it incredulous that a modern Christian mind whose job it is to have compassion in the world for real human conditions could have such devout faith in unproven non-human fairy tales told by naive shepherd boys--and at the same time discredit real-life authentic love between two adults.
What’s terribly wrong with this picture!?
The Pope has no clue what gay marriage is and doesn’t want to know. He refuses to accept that it’s about love. That it’s a ceremony of devotion and commitment between two same-sex adults in the non-airy-fairy working world finding realistic ways to enhance each other’s daily lives.
The challenge is whether to attend to imaginary mythology or real life love? The choice seems so obvious as to not be a choice. Yet this supposed religious leader who wishes the world to be a better place, chooses to favor magical mysteries over real hands-on goodness in action.
The world will not be a better place until such influential leaders dressed in spotless while linen clothing and gold rings gives up his lofty spiritual myths, throws off his sterile robes and lives among the poor laying bricks and seeing the validity in all forms of human love.
He would rather protect sexual criminals in order to maintain hypocritical clerical ‘purity’ (talk about insidious!) than to recruit openly loving gay and lesbian adults into the church and bless them with marriage.
GlobalGayz.com
May 13, 2010
Today’s news brought a hysterically horrid report about the Pope in Portugal. He called for pastoral action to tackle abortion and same-sex marriage, which he called "some of today's most insidious and dangerous threats to the common good".
(Insidious means: harmful but enticing; seductive; having a gradual and cumulative effect; spreading harmfully in a subtle or stealthy manner.)
These vile words came as he spoke at the famous Fatima shrine, Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, one of the most revered sites in Catholicism.
The basilica (photo right) was built to commemorate alleged events of 1917 when three shepherd peasant children claimed to have had a vision of the "Virgin of the Rosary", (Our Lady of Fátima). The little children experienced the purported ‘Marian apparitions’ in a nearby sheep pasture. Strangely, people believed them and today millions of Catholics flock to the site in search of miracle cures and to worship there.
I find it incredulous that a modern Christian mind whose job it is to have compassion in the world for real human conditions could have such devout faith in unproven non-human fairy tales told by naive shepherd boys--and at the same time discredit real-life authentic love between two adults.
What’s terribly wrong with this picture!?
The Pope has no clue what gay marriage is and doesn’t want to know. He refuses to accept that it’s about love. That it’s a ceremony of devotion and commitment between two same-sex adults in the non-airy-fairy working world finding realistic ways to enhance each other’s daily lives.
The challenge is whether to attend to imaginary mythology or real life love? The choice seems so obvious as to not be a choice. Yet this supposed religious leader who wishes the world to be a better place, chooses to favor magical mysteries over real hands-on goodness in action.
The world will not be a better place until such influential leaders dressed in spotless while linen clothing and gold rings gives up his lofty spiritual myths, throws off his sterile robes and lives among the poor laying bricks and seeing the validity in all forms of human love.
He would rather protect sexual criminals in order to maintain hypocritical clerical ‘purity’ (talk about insidious!) than to recruit openly loving gay and lesbian adults into the church and bless them with marriage.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Farewell to a Friend Dying Too Young
Richard Ammon
The Pines, Fire Island
Long Island, New York
May 8, 2010
This is where the gay boys are housed in their trendy unpainted wood and glass mansionettes surrounded by scrub oaks, wooden sidewalks, sandy beaches and testosterone. It takes a ferry to get here and much money to stay; it's definitely a place for upscale gay males and their less affluent friends, including weekend toy boys. In the small harbor float half a dozen luxury yachts belonging to the really rich.
But I was not there for the scene and neither were the other 15 guys and one woman who gathered one weekend in May at Steven's house on Neptune boardwalk. It was a party of sorts, except the guest of honor was not there. Conrad died a few months ago in Bali. Only his ashes
remained, transported here by his 'widowed' partner, Michael, in a carved wooden box (from Indonesia, of course).
Conrad and Michael were a gay couple living in Bangkok (photo left)--busy, compatible, productive and sociable. They loved long-distance living. Suddenly Conrad’s heart stopped. He was 62.
I knew Conrad since he was 18 and I was 26 at Tufts University but we had lost contact for years--resolved with a happy reunion last year in Bangkok, with Michael.
Reaching that far back into personal history is only possible with a rare friend who remembers shared vague moments, fragmented images or fumbling and forgotten passions. It’s a special reach back into the misty swamp of memory that only historical friendship can evoke.
I like the crashing feeling of being yanked backward 40 years to forgotten-yet-not places, people and action normally crusted over with time and re-awakened suddenly with a youth-charged old friend who speaks names and feelings and carnal moments of long ago. Conrad and I did that on our last visit.
Now those particular memory streams that he could re-awaken are silenced. I don’t mind the loss of those memories but I do mind losing him.
Surviving partner Michael (photo right) arranged everything perfectly for the memorial weekend--rooms at neighbors' houses, communal dinners at Steven's and the boat to take us out to sea to spread the ashes, followed by strewn flowers from the friends on deck. The weather was quite fine: some scattered clouds, sunshine, calm winds, warm early May. (A storm followed a while later.)
Michael held open the silken bag and the ashes fell to the sea. It seemed such a simple end to a life that was complex, adventurous, unique--now dust. As I age, illness and death encroach on one friend after another, one family member at a time. I don’t much like it. I’d like my favorite and long-distance friends, lovers, parents and chosen family to answer the phone when I call.
But the way of the world is not my will; there’s only the fading echo of their voices and the ashes in the wake.
Sic transit gloria mundi. (everything changes)
The Pines, Fire Island
Long Island, New York
May 8, 2010
This is where the gay boys are housed in their trendy unpainted wood and glass mansionettes surrounded by scrub oaks, wooden sidewalks, sandy beaches and testosterone. It takes a ferry to get here and much money to stay; it's definitely a place for upscale gay males and their less affluent friends, including weekend toy boys. In the small harbor float half a dozen luxury yachts belonging to the really rich.
But I was not there for the scene and neither were the other 15 guys and one woman who gathered one weekend in May at Steven's house on Neptune boardwalk. It was a party of sorts, except the guest of honor was not there. Conrad died a few months ago in Bali. Only his ashes
remained, transported here by his 'widowed' partner, Michael, in a carved wooden box (from Indonesia, of course).Conrad and Michael were a gay couple living in Bangkok (photo left)--busy, compatible, productive and sociable. They loved long-distance living. Suddenly Conrad’s heart stopped. He was 62.
I knew Conrad since he was 18 and I was 26 at Tufts University but we had lost contact for years--resolved with a happy reunion last year in Bangkok, with Michael.
Reaching that far back into personal history is only possible with a rare friend who remembers shared vague moments, fragmented images or fumbling and forgotten passions. It’s a special reach back into the misty swamp of memory that only historical friendship can evoke.
I like the crashing feeling of being yanked backward 40 years to forgotten-yet-not places, people and action normally crusted over with time and re-awakened suddenly with a youth-charged old friend who speaks names and feelings and carnal moments of long ago. Conrad and I did that on our last visit.
Now those particular memory streams that he could re-awaken are silenced. I don’t mind the loss of those memories but I do mind losing him.
Surviving partner Michael (photo right) arranged everything perfectly for the memorial weekend--rooms at neighbors' houses, communal dinners at Steven's and the boat to take us out to sea to spread the ashes, followed by strewn flowers from the friends on deck. The weather was quite fine: some scattered clouds, sunshine, calm winds, warm early May. (A storm followed a while later.)
Michael held open the silken bag and the ashes fell to the sea. It seemed such a simple end to a life that was complex, adventurous, unique--now dust. As I age, illness and death encroach on one friend after another, one family member at a time. I don’t much like it. I’d like my favorite and long-distance friends, lovers, parents and chosen family to answer the phone when I call.
But the way of the world is not my will; there’s only the fading echo of their voices and the ashes in the wake.
Sic transit gloria mundi. (everything changes)
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Leo Tolstoy and Russian Soup
Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
Tula?
It's hardly a tourist hotspot, but this industrial city 120 miles south of Moscow is the location of a world renown site that has become a shrine of sorts for intellectuals, students and lovers of Russian culture. Just outside the city center is a sprawling estate of gardens, fields and forests and a few fine mansions. The estate is known as Yasnaya Polyana.
In the middle of this sylvan glen is the house that was once the home of Leo Tolstoy (photo right), the writer widely regarded as among the greatest of novelists. "His masterpieces 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina' represent in their scope, breadth and vivid depiction of 19th-century Russian life and attitudes, the peak of realist fiction." A description of his life an work can be found here.
A mile down a footpath is his grave set among tall pines. He died at a small village train station--Astapovo station--in 1910 after leaving home in an agitated state in the middle of winter at the age of 82.
But the drama of his last year (depicted in a 2009 movie, 'The Last Station', directed by Michael Hoffman starring Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy and Helen Mirren as Sofya Tolstoya) was not in my mind as I toured his house at Yasnaya (photo below left) where his personal effects give the place a feel of still being inhabited, including bed clothes, countless volumes of books, wash pails (he cleaned his own room), walking stick and family photos. And of course his writing desk, an 'altar' for writers, on which he composed his great works as the thoughts came up within his imagination and memory. Late in life his wife purchased a big Remington typewriter. In another room is a phonograph personally sent to him by Thomas Edison.
Next to his bed is a pad and pen in case ideas arose during the night, no doubt frequently. His was a mind alert to nuances, disparities, absurdities, unfairness, dramatic urgencies, futility and the emotional contagion of the human condition.
Walking among his household belongings and feeling the ambience of his life and the breadth of his mind, I felt humbled and rather envious that I have lacked the discipline across my lifetime to create such fine works, writings, that dissected and described human behavior in the poetic narrative form known as the novel--or even in a non-fiction documentary. Great writers and music composers have an immortality among human civilization on this planet that I admire and desire--a feeling dispelled only by looking at the stars in the universe where true immortality lies.
The visit to Yasnaya was inspiring and serene--and grounding. Immediately across the street from the columned entry to the estate was the homey Cafe Preshpekt that served delicious solyanka, a hearty Russian vegetable soup with chicken or beef. It too was life affirming.
Nearby is a language school for modern day students that includes the Yasnaya Polyana Hotel where I stayed for four restful days. There is also a conference center that hosts the International Tolstoy Conference in August 2010.
Gay Pride in Russia
Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz
April 27, 2010
Gay Russia is surprisingly alive or dead according to the view you have from being there.
Dense homophobia pervades the culture. A visitor will not find a public scene. No flags, no parades, no store-front centers or offices, one magazine, a couple of on-line gay sites that list a few venues, one in-the-streets activist organization that tries to mount a gay Pride event each June that's overrun with skinheads and police.
Or, a visitor can point to the vibrant gay night life in Moscow and St Petersburg--a dozen bars, discos, saunas in the two cities. Passport gay travel magazine recently described St Petersburg's biggest gay club, Central Station, as " a veritable maze on four levels connected by several stairways, a half-dozen bars, two stages, a sushi restaurant, comfortable nooks to chat in, and a dance floor. On weekends the club is packed with over 1,000 people. On Thursday nights about 100–150 gals show up for Lesbian Night."
In Moscow, the popular Propaganda bar-disco gets mixed reviews: "Propaganda is really good on Thursdays and really crappy on Fridays and Saturdays. The gay party on Sunday is excellent (not for girls, though). The food at Propaganda is very good and cheap." Or: "people who say that it is a cool place are definitely not from Moscow."
From either perspective, the LGBT scene in Russia is very limited. How could it be otherwise?
This vast country spans eleven time zones stretches more than ten thousand kilometers (6300 miles) from Western Europe to far eastern Vladivostok. There are a mere 142 million people living in 17,075,400 sq km (6,592,800 sq mi) of territory. That makes the population density about 21 people per sq mi! And how do you organize a party in a population where 90% of people do not own a computer!?
The answer is not easy. Nor is the LGBT effort currently under way by a tiny group of LGBT Russians who are trying to carry the modern banner of human rights and equality to the government and people of Moscow and St Petersburg. For the past four years, the gay rights organization GayRussia.ru--led by Nikolai Alekseev--have attempted gay Pride demonstrations at public locations. None of thee had official city approval even though Russian citizens have the right to assemble--with permission. Mayor Luzhkov has refused that permission four times in four years. It would seem the LGBT public efforts were stalled.
But instead of cowering n fear, as they did in communist times, GayRussia.ru has 'fought' back by staging rallies despite the ban. The results are a bit of blood, bruises, arrests and court appearances. And they plan another event this year in June 2010.
This is the new tactic in homophobic countries that are outgrowing their socialist heritages: Baltics, Balkans, Eastern Europe (and Turkey).
Russian activists are taking the middle way. The results will likely succeed since successful membership in the European Union demands respect for human rights for all and non-discrimination toward minorities. Such humane laws will not go backward and GayRussia.ru will succeed over time.
(This is NOT the tactic in extremely homophobic cultures that are deeply entrenched in Muslim heritages. Here the risk is death, not just a street tussle. There, GayRussia.ru members would be assassinated by death squads. So they don't go there. No gay rights activist go there and only work online to help individual sneak out of the toxic countries.)
Support gay Pride Russia in June 2010.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)