Gay Marriage Opponents Pray to Loving God for Bigotry

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
June 25, 2011

Recent news reports have posted this story:

Timothy Dolan, the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York (photo right), on Sunday prayed for the defeat of a gay marriage bill in the Empire State. During Sunday's prayer service at St. Patrick's cathedral in New York City, Dolan said: “Any presumption to redefine that sacred vocabulary, I'm afraid is at our common peril."

After his unsuccessful plea apparently fell on deaf divine ears, and the vote to approve gay marriage was passed, opponents of the ruling were seen praying in the state house in Albany, one holding a rosary in his hand.

So, I wonder just what all these prayers say; perhaps this:

Dear (Christian) God in heaven, I beseech you to inspire our legislators (including the Jews, non-believers and non-practicing theists among them) to resist the equality measures being imposed on us that propose to treat all citizens alike, to offer free choice of relationship form and bond.
Please do not let the radical liberal gay agenda foist human dignity and 'pursuit of happiness' upon our sexist, patriarchal, discriminatory ecclesiastical and idolatrous traditions (that protect dirty secrets of child abuse).
Please don't let them misuse the issues of love and compassion to persuade legislators to vote for fairness and legal equality. Don't let long-term gay and lesbian couples committed together for 30, 40 or 50 years deter you from seeing such illicit relationships as sinful, immoral or diseased. And move especially against happy young couples since it can only lead to debauchery and disease.
Please see the truth of these fervent homophobic prayers and intercede directly into the minds of those secularist senators who live too much in this progressive era of human rights, with "liberty and justice for all". Amen
(Photo right: Richard Adrian Dorr and John Mace, together 61 years)

Homophobia is Fear of Oneself

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
June 19, 2011

Progress or standoff? Gay Pride in UK vs Croatia: Homophobia, Changing Culture and Fear

Two news stories arrived on my computer today about two very different Gay Pride Parades, one in Oxford, England and the other in the Croatian city of Split.:
Croatia - http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/11/Jun/1104.htm
Oxford - http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/11/Jun/1101.htm

Oxford (photo right) was happy, colorful, celebratory, positive and fun with participation of parents, children, city officials and friendly policemen. There were police present for safety and security for all--spectators and marchers. There were no ugly incidents or homophobic actions.

Split, in the beautiful Adriatic country of Croatia, was violent (photo below left) with assaults on the gay marchers as well as the 200 police assigned to protect them. They were overwhelmed by the abuse, insults, thrown bottles and rocks and eggs as well as bodily attacks by the skinhead nationalists, religious fundies and a general assortment of bigots who hate gays. As a result the parade was aborted and hundreds of people were arrested.

These two extremes of behavior are bookends of modern civilizations' reactions to the phenomenon of homosexuality, a minority proportion in every society. In some countries it creates enlightenment and compassion. In others, a firestorm of hostility, discrimination and criminalization.

Yet, societies change: it was the British who imprisoned 'sodomists' at the turn of the 20th century, including Oscar Wilde. Today the UK is one of the most pro-gay countries in the world. Its ambassadors to other countries are mandated to press for human and gay rights in their assigned locations.

How does such change come about? What happened in the UK that has not happened in theEastern Europe, the Middle East or Africa? How is it that famous and influential people, such as Ian McKellen in London, are much less afraid to come out while activists such as David Cato and FannyAnn Eddy are murdered in Uganda and Sierra Leone or Brian Williamson in Jamaica?

It's easy to say that religion is the prime homophobic force (it is certainly one of them) but there are many churches, synagogues and mosques in England as well as in liberal places like Denmark and New Zealand where anti-gay sentiments do not get assaultive.

Politics as a prime haven for anti-gay bigotry? Sometimes, but there are hateful elected MPs in London as well as in liberal Berlin and Washingotn DC where gays live mostly peacefully.

Researchers have found various other forces that press against homosexuality, in addition to the obvious ones above, other influences such as education level, economic level, exposure to gay people as well as media attitudes.

Other studies of homophobia have observed, as I do here, that a fundamental homophobic force is sexuality itself. People in all cultures are attracted to and are fearful of sex. It is a twisted paradoxical force that resides in all sentient beings and causes conflicted as well as pleasurable feelings. We all feel sexual drives--gay straight or bisexual--toward a variety of people over the course of our lifetimes. Most such interactions are desirable and acceptable (syntonic) yet it's not uncommon to feel attracted to others who are not acceptable (dystonic) and, further, to others who cause disruptive distress; we desire them anyway.

To desire what is forbidden or disliked is a tormenting experience, whether toward another man's wife, a child or a same-sex person. Strong cravings evoke strong emotions of desire as well as oppositional inhibiting behavior.

Homophobia is based in fear and anger toward one's own cravings. Fierce Muslim hostility to gays is rooted in deep seated desire for sex that is forbidden (despite the documented fact that many young Arab males' first sexual experience is with another male during their teen years). Equally fierce Christian opposition to gays is rooted in the historic suppression of human sexual desire, straight and gay. The publicized pervasive priest sex scandals of recent years is only the tip of a deep desire for such forbidden fruit.

Inhibited craving, denied desire is often uncontrollable. The sexual urge is a fundamental hard-wired system in our psyche. It varies from person to person, from strong to mild--like the need to talk, to touch.

When covert desire and arousal gathers enough force it overrides sensibility, reason, integrity, common sense and human rights. Uganda's MP David Bahati is so fiercely anti-gay that he is willing to see gays die before accepting their humanity. Jamaican MPs allow murder and beatings of LGBT people with no efforts to stop it. Malawi gladly throws gay in jail to the cheers and jeers of the populace. In America wacko right-wing pastor Phelps prays that gays will all get AIDS and die. Moscow's mayor does not restrain goon squads who whip up hate and violence against Gay Pride marchers.

Such is the power of sexual fear, of blind irrational violence that it threatens humanitarian progress and threatens the awakening of civilizations to a higher level of social evolution. The recurring human capacity to hate and destroy other humans is truly the dark side of the soul. It has been present since time immemorial, from Kubla Khan's marauding armies that hacked heads and bodies to the egregious slave trade out of Africa to Stalin's pogroms agains this own people to Fred Phelps' curses on deceased people. Such are the many forms of evil on the face of the earth perpetuated by disturbed minds trapped in fear, alienated from compassion. Hatred of homosexual people is raw fear of one's own self.

American Founding Fathers: Elegance and Shame

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
June 3, 2011

In the past week I have visited the mansions of three early presidents of America: Jefferson's 'Monticello' (photo right), Monroe's 'Ashlawn' and Andrew Jackson's 'Hermitage', in Virginia and Tennessee. Viewing these stately properties a modern visitor can glimpse a past way of life both elegant as well as rustic.

The dark side of these these presidential estates, as well as most other estate owners, is that the landed gentry owned many black slaves who were indentured for life and considered as property to be treated according to the whim of their owners. Modern docent guides give sanitized lectures on the plantation life of the late 18th and early 19th centuries as visitors stroll along manicured garden pathways viewing the neatly restored gardens, kitchens, barnyards and rough-hewn slave cabins.

To make matters worse for the blacks, these former presidents, before and after their terms in office, accrued large debts which they could not easily resolve. After their deaths, their heirs were forced to liquidate the big estates to pay the debts including the cruel act of selling slaves which were more valuable than real estate. Heartless auctions forced black families to be torn apart.

Jefferson was somewhat kind in giving freedom to his closest slave assistants. Jackson was less kind. But all three lived in the 'dark ages' when the American economy was wholly dependent on cheap African labor, indeed they worked for nothing. Disobedience or attempting to escape captivity led to whippings or execution by their 'owners'. Even Washington followed the common practice (rarely) of whipping and hanging of disobedient slaves even though he (and Jefferson and Monroe) disapproved of slavery.

There are many photos of slaves in the American presidential homes depicting slave life. The faces of the slaves dressed in servants clothing, tilling the fields, cooking or forging horseshoes are the faces of resigned, unfree people captured and contained within a cruel life, working 6 days a week from sun-up to sun-down.

Glorious as these mansions are with their silken bed linens, fine dinnerware and finely crafted furniture, 'great' America still lives in the shadow of this ugly tortured history of slavery as well as the brutal and deceitful treatment of Native Americans.

So visiting these national landmarks is tainted with the national shame we bear.

Memorial Day Remembrance of Army Private John Ammon

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
May 31, 2011

Memorial Day is different from other holidays. Unlike Thanksgiving, Fourth of July or religious festivals where the celebrations recall rather abstract events, Memorial Day for me is about a particular person known and loved by his family and friends. Memorial Day is both a remembrance of millions of lives cut short by war and a remembrance of my granduncle, John Ammon (photo right), who was killed in the mud of France just before World War I ended in 1918. He was thirty years old--an orphan, a patriot, a noble friend and loving brother, a doting uncle, a caring companion and a fearless soldier. He deserves more homage than I can give here.

As a small gesture of honor, I went to his grave today in a quiet corner of Arlington National Cemetery (photo below right). The modest white granite marker is almost never visited and is nearly forgotten by his descendants after 93 years. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

How much more can a person give to a cause, to his country, to his unit, to his family than to bravely sacrifice his life? To endure the horrors of war's hell and not survive, to die in the blast of an artillery shell, instantly.

I remember him this day, and beyond, with a sad and grateful heart. Several years ago my cousin Albert and I wrote a tribute to uncle John, about his life and his death recalling as much a we could from his letters from the front and from family stories. In the process he became more real, a person of kindness, fairness and integrity.

As a son of a Swiss immigrant he was aware of a greater American purpose than himself and joined the army to commit to that higher cause. (photo left, printed memorial from the government of France in recognition of John’s sacrifice “pour la liberte pendant la Grande Guerre: Hommage de la France”; signed, Poincaire, President de la Republique.)

Shipped overseas in the spring of 1918 with his Company I, he was part of the final October assault against the Germans in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in the Champaigne region of northeast France. In the course of a month thousands of soldiers on both sides died in a torrent of steel and blood. (Read the book 'All Quiet on the Western Front' by Remarque to understand the horrors and agony of this battle.)

Uncle John almost made it through this holocaust, to October 16, when an artillery shell struck him and his buddies as they were maneuvering in the tiny village of St. George, within view of the local cemetery. He was buried with his friends not far away and later taken to Arlington Cemetery. His grave stone silently bears witness to this fine man on this Memorial Day 2011.

Read his story: Remembering John Ammon

A Moment of Joy in the Slums of Rio de Janiero

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
May 20, 2011

Surrounding the upscale condo towers and long white beaches of Rio de Janiero, up on the hills, there are numerous slum neighborhoods, shanty towns, where millions of people live in substandard housing with open sewers, tangled electric wires, broken walkways, private militias and drug gangs with machine guns as well as honest ordinary people with low paying jobs.

Rio's favelas appeared in the 1970s when many jobless rural people moved to urban areas hoping for a better life--in addition to the already impoverished city dwellers.

But with minimum skills and children in tow finding an affordable place to live became a nightmare and many people were forced to move 'uphill' into a favela (neighborhoods). Today Rio has more than 500 favelas (Sao Paulo has more than 600.)

The problems of life in these 'hoods seem endless: basic housing, safety, schools, medical care, clean water, earning a living. A recent innovative enterprise has been turning the favelas into tourist attractions with guides leading small groups through the narrow twisting alleyways among the extremely dense and crowded dwellings.

I took a tour through the biggest favela in Rio, Rocinha, during my recent trip. All appeared chaotic but controlled. It's impossible for an outsider to understand the social structure here given the 'layers' of control and influence. City officials, city police, federal military units, neighborhood bosses, drug gangs, armed youth militias. Our guide led our group (quickly. so as not to linger and perhaps see something illegal) down through a winding broken route cheered only by colorful graffiti and glimpses of the city and sea far below.

We stopped at an artists' cooperative, a bakery, crafts shop and were treated to a spontaneous dance performance by a darling 9 year-old boy (apparently on his way home from school) accompanied by a 'bang-on-a-can' band using plastic buckets and tin cans as instruments.

The 'music' was rhythmic and the boy's dance (tap, Michael Jackson and street rap dance) was quite engaging. Afterwards, of course, we tipped the group--another enterprise in this hard luck place.

Our visit was peaceful and safe but it's not always like this; see photos of a police raid on drug gangs. "Between December of 1987 and November 2001, violent death claimed 3,937 Rio youths under 18 years of age, mostly drug gang 'soldiers'. By comparison, during the same period, 467 minors died in and around the West Bank between Jordan and Israel, which is considered a war zone by the international community." (BrazilMax News)... In Rio de Janeiro, it is said that the difference between a living veteran cop and a dead rookie is the split second it takes to think twice about killing a child because you never know if he is armed or not. (BrazilMax News 2003)

But like death, life goes on and most people want to move forward with their meager lives perhaps catching the occasional glimmer of hope. There are also charitable organizations in the favelas that run day-care centers, schools, medical clinics, church safe havens. Laundry is washed. TVs glow at night with sit-coms. Books are read...and pretty wrist bands (photo right) are hand-made and sold by enterprising mothers to support their families. It's love among the ruins.

Homophobia Kills--International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO), May 17, 2011

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
May 17, 2011

International Day Against Homophobia

If you knew this child had a homosexual orientation
would you refuse to feed him?
to clothe him?
to shelter him?
put him out of the family?
tell him he could not desire love?

Think about it: such rejections would kill him.

It doesn't make any difference whether he is 10 days
or twenty years old.

Homophobia kills.

A Child is Born, the Torch is Passed

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
May 15, 2011

Within 24 hours last week a dear friend's mother died of old age and my nephew and wife gave birth to a baby boy. There may be something profound in this cycle of life and death but I'm not sure. Is it just human anatomy changing forms? Is it an exchange of energy fields unknowable to us? Is it anything at all beyond itself?

Wiggly considerations aside, it all seemed irrelevant for a while this afternoon as I held the three day old critter in my arms, holding his little softball-sized head from flopping to the side, his sweet lips puckering and pursing, tiny nostrils breathing in the spring air, an occasional lifting of his lids to reveal his blue eyes not yet focused on what's around. His tiny fist held close to his mouth--the mouth that sought lunch from mom a while later, first from the left breast then the right. Suckling silently.

So incredibly vulnerable is the birthing days of a human being, the most endowed creature on the planet but the most helpless to start. And, ultimately and not sadly, helpless as the rest of us breeding and feeding, making and thinking, learning skills and gaining wisdom on the planet.

In an ideal world I would feel hope for this child to be nourished, directed and able to choose honesty and compassion as his life motifs, but the world he is headed into gives me pause. For all the wonderment of his birth there is caution in his future as I could feel it in my heart as I held his soft pink head.

As a 'gay uncle' I know first hand the evils that overtake once-healthy youthful minds and bend them into hateful homophobia. I hear the twisted talk of many (not all) religious leaders who are supposed to guide us toward a more loving world while declaring my personal way of being as an "inherent moral evil." I see the blindness of ethnic and racial madness that slaughters millions. I read of the cruel financial corruption in big enterprise. I know the ferocious humiliation of poverty and the toxic indifference of wealth.

This is not the world I want my nephew to learn from--yet he will.

As an antidote, I want him to learn the names of the trees around him (as my grandmother taught me) to study the planets, to learn the language of the sea, the sounds of the forest on a rainy night, the adagios of Mahler, the vibe of OM, to learn stillness in the great arc of his life and his death.

William Wordsworth's 1802 sonnet 'The World is Too Much With Us' laments the crushing world of materialism and cynicism then--and marks our present civilization:
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon...
The poet's great lament is today's lament. He longs for a more natural way of being, in harmony with nature, adorned with benevolent mystery.

So too will I, as I can, lean this new child toward benevolence and nature and great art--but also advise him how to be wise in the world, to defend again too much "getting and spending". And own a good dog, like Heather and Bing.