Plead

South Africa has the most progressive constitution in the world, so they say, which protects all people against discrimination. It is ironic that some British (by the way, gay) couples get married in Africa. This is not the whole story of Africa, however. Gay activist Juliet Victor Mukasa, chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda, says “Lesbians and gays, all sexual minorities, have been excluded from the national AIDS policy, and there’s just death, we’re just dying off, of HIV and AIDS.” In Kenya two separate penal codes relate to the gays and the archaic laws can lead to a 5 to 14 year jail term for homosexuality. “Amongst traditional Kenyan people, it was unheard of,” says Pastor Kuchio. He believes the practice must have been imported into Kenya. Gay community’s monthly party now gets police protection. But mention something as fundamental as a gay pride march and it is met with laughs. CNN has a story about this.

And also do check out this interesting blogs: Rants and raves of a Kenyan gay man and Akinola, Repudiate Anti-Gay Violance

What’s in a Name?

California overturns gay marriage Ban; It is the 2nd state to allow gay marriage

JULIET

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
…

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

ROMEO
I take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet; Act II.

Not Just a Star; The Moon

Jerusalem, 2006

“This year I invite all residents of Jerusalem to join the march and demand that Jerusalem remain both a holy and a democratic city. The prophet Zachariah calls on us to imagine the plazas of Jerusalem filled with old men and women, boys and girls playing together. The prophet adds, “Do not contrive evil against one another… those are the things I hate, declares the Lord.” If we wish to see Zachariah’s prophecy come true, we have to fight evil by speaking lovingly and respectfully – especially when we disagree. (glbtjews)

LEVI WEIMAN-KELMAN, rabbi of Kehillat Kol HaNeshama, a Reform congregation in Jerusalem

Pale Red

Sunil Babu Pant, President of BDS

The Blue Diamond Society (BDS) of Nepal is one of the world’s most respected advocacy organizations fighting for the human rights of sexual minorities. Sunil Babu Pant, Founder and President of BDS, is Nepal’s first openly gay politician who was selected to represent a small communist party in the country’s new constituent assembly.

It is really interesting to hear that a communist party in a third world country tolerates gays. The struggle of LGBT people in the third world countries is not easy to grasp. Nepal is a country between China and India; so this amalgamation of the most advanced front of freedom with the worst form totalitarianism may come as no surprise.

The Ambassador

John Bolton

John Bolton is one the few people in this world who I can perhaps fully associate with. Andrew Sullivan characterizes him this way: “a libertarian type on social issues, while being a rogue unilateralist abroad.” The former ambassador understands what is at stake when we talk about middle east, Islamofascism or terrorism. Quite understandably he also supports expanded civil rights for gay people. This isn’t so surprising. The very same rationale taken to justify a more inclusive society inside the US must be applied to explain why it is important to approach the Middle Eastern dictators as the challenge of the century. This means persistence, not unilateralism.

The First Action Hero

Arnold Schwarzenegger

WOCKNER: Speaking at the Log Cabin Republicans National Convention in San Diego, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the effort by anti-gay forces to amend the California Constitution to permanently ban same-sex marriage is “a total waste of time”. Asked about constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage he replied: “first of all, I think that it would never happen in California because I think that California people are much further along with that issue. And, number two, I will always be there to fight against that, because it would never happen. I think we need a constitutional amendment so that foreign-born citizens can run for president, but not about gay marriage. That’s a total waste of time.”

Pais

Would Jesus Discriminate?

Matthew 8:5-13: “And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, And saying, Lord, my servant [pais] lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.” So What?

ambiguity/hypocrisy

Roy Cohen [By Robert Mapplethorpe, 1981.]

Because of his quintessential ambiguity, Roy Cohn was one of the gayest icons in the US political history. He was a lifelong Republican who in the 1950s worked on the red-baiting McCarthy Hearings, using economic and even sexual blackmail to coerce testimony. As a lawyer he later represented mobsters such as Fat Tony Salerno and members of the Gambino crime family. He was eventually disbarred for unethical and unprofessional conduct. Although he had been “outed” decades before and made little effort to hide his lifestyle, he continued to officially deny his homosexuality until his death from AIDS in 1986. Far far beyond throwing judgment, is hypocrisy a gay thing?

Sense and Sensibility

2008 Democratic Primary Election: Hillary vs. Obam

This primary election is really exciting and educating because the identity politics of the 1960s, and its ensuing challenges, has reached its peak. Oprah, an African American woman, backs an African American, not a woman; and Marianne Williamson has just made this facile argument that she was not going to vote for Hillary Clinton because: “I’m not going to vote with my vagina.” Williamson must bear this in her mind that women did NOT have the right to vote for over 120 after the declaration of “human” rights exactly and merely because of their vaginae i.e. solely because they were women. To a libertarian mind like mine it seems now, Clinton is the obvious best option not because of (nor in spite of) her gender but more importantly because of her credence. Let’s not down play the importance of identity politics.

Southpaw

Does left-handedness need to be celebrated?

I am in doubt again. Do we really need these advocacy and agitation anymore? It sounds like I am asking whether or not snow is white. “We” are still different, and “we” are still treated differently. But now I’m thinking isn’t this, this different stuff, just part of the game …and, for ever? So why should we defend it, why should we celebrate it? I have always thought of being queer something like being left-handed? – And of course much less dichotomous than that. Thus as it is funny or just for fun to have the left-handed festival, or union or magazine, it must be nothing more than fun to do collective gay things. It must be. It is not, however. Doubts fade. We should go on, because “to see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” (George Orwell)