Amrei says...

Nov 12, 2009

Congratulations COMELEC! But eating shellfish is also an abomination...

as posted by Sass Sasot:

My dear Commission on Elections (COMELEC) of the Philippines,

I wish to congratulate you for doing such an act of pure love and piousness when you upheld God's Law in your decision regarding the petition of Ang Ladlad LGBT Political Party. Invoking Romans 1:26-27 was a brilliant idea! I feel so blessed that you guys are doing the job that the Constitution of the Philippines mandated you to do. And I feel so relieved that you guys are there to save my soul from being infected by the presence of a lesbian,gay, bisexual, and transgender political party in the 2010 elections.

I try to share the wisdom of your decision with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind him that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.

I'm really convinced that you are very right. You know, just like you, I take the Bible seriously in a very literal way because the Bible is the word of God and God is definitely very clear in whatever He's saying. However, I do need some advice from you regarding some God's command in the Bible. I will deeply appreciate if you tell me how to best follow them:

a) When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odour for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odour is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

b) I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exo. 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her? How much did you sell your daughters for? I’m really, really curious.

c) I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense. Do you allow your female staff in COMELEC to work during their menstrual period?

d) Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this doesn’t apply to us, that only Chinese people can have us as slaves and not the other way around. Can you clarify? Why can't I have a Chinese for a slave?

e) I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exo. 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself? Oh, am I allowed to kill President Arroyo when she works during the Sabbath? And, YES, am I allowed to kill you if I caught you working during the Sabbath?

f) A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Lev. 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? I know a lot of our political candidates eat selfish! O No! Please the 2010 Elections can't be infested by them!

g) Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. A lot of political candidates are wearing glasses, a lot of our former Presidents wore glasses. Are they immoral too?

h) Most of our male political candidates get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.19:27. Can we tolerate such immorality among our political candidates?

i) I know a political candidate who has a farm. I think he violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? (Lev.24:10-16) Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev.20:14)

j) A lot of Filipinas work as domestic helpers in other countries. A lot of them are beaten by their employers. Should I condemn their employers or should we just allow them to be beaten up as long as they can get up after a day or two as what Exo. 21:20-21 wants us to do: “If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property.”

k) Erap Estrada seems intent to run again as President. I just wonder whether you’ll approve his candidacy, specially that he is a well-known adulterer. The Bible say the punishment is death, why is he still alive? Is there something fishy going on?

l) Deut. 23:20 said that we shall not demand interest from our countrymen on a loan of money. Are our banks immoral? How should they be punished?

I know you guys have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. I still have many questions but that’s all for now. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Faithfully yours,
Juan de la Cruz

Filed under: homophobia

Loading mentions Retweet

Comment (0) »

angrymonkey says...

Nov 11, 2009

Dan Savage needs to read this.

White People Are Uniquely Homophobic (Womanist Musings)

Filed under: homophobia

Loading mentions Retweet

Comment (0) »

jbrotherlove says...

Nov 06, 2009

Gay rights and "cultural relativism"

Peter Tatchell's central contention -- that multiculturalism should not equal cultural relativism -- is shared by the activist and campaigner Linda Bellos. "Cultural relativism is destructive," she agrees. "It sets up a hierarchy of oppression, a kind of competition in which one minority group seeks to claim that it is more oppressed than another. In actual fact, most people have a set of identities that are multiple -- so, for example, there are many black people who are also lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, and I'm one of those people. For us, setting up a hierarchy of oppression means there's always conflict."

via New Statesmen

Filed under: homophobia

Loading mentions Retweet

Comment (0) »

wellhiddenmark says...

Oct 16, 2009

BBC NEWS | UK | Anger over Mail column on Gately

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8311499.stm

Filed under: homophobia

Loading mentions Retweet

Comment (0) »

23narchy says...

Oct 16, 2009

Why there was nothing 'human' about Jan Moir's column on the death of Stephen Gately | Charlie Brooker | guardian.co.uk

Jan Moir's rant about the Boyzone star Stephen Gately is a gratuitous piece of gay-bashing

Charlie Brooker

guardian.co.uk, Friday 16 October 2009 16.54 BST

Article history

Jan Moir's column about Stephen Gately dances on his grave. For money. Photograph: Rex Features

The funeral of Stephen Gately has not yet taken place. The man hasn't been buried yet. Nevertheless, Jan Moir of the Daily Mail has already managed to dance on his grave. For money.

It has been 20 minutes since I've read her now-notorious column, and I'm still struggling to absorb the sheer scope of its hateful idiocy. It's like gazing through a horrid little window into an awesome universe of pure blockheaded spite. Spiralling galaxies of ignorance roll majestically against a backdrop of what looks like dark prejudice, dotted hither and thither with winking stars of snide innuendo.

On the Mail website, it was headlined: "Why there was nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's death." Since the official postmortem clearly ascribed the singer's death to natural causes, that headline contains a fairly bold claim. Still, who am I to judge? I'm no expert when it comes to interpreting autopsy findings, unlike Moir. Presumably she's a leading expert in forensic science, paid huge sums of money to fly around the world lecturing coroners on her latest findings. Or maybe she just wants to gay-bash a dead man? Tragically, the only way to find out is to read the rest of her article.

She begins by jabbering a bit about untimely celebrity deaths, especially those whose lives are "shadowed by dark appetites or fractured by private vice". Not just Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson. No: she's eagerly looking forward to other premature snuffings.

"Robbie, Amy, Kate, Whitney, Britney; we all know who they are. And we are not being ghoulish to anticipate, or to be mentally braced for, their bad end: a long night, a mysterious stranger, an odd set of circumstances that herald a sudden death."

Fair enough. I'm sure we all agree there's nothing "ghoulish" whatsoever about eagerly imagining the hypothetical death of someone you've marked out as a potential cadaver on account of your ill-informed presumptions about their lifestyle. All she's doing is running a detailed celebrity-death sweepstake in her head. That's not ghoulish, that's fun. For my part, I've just put a tenner on Moir choking to death on her own bile by the year 2012. See? Fun!

Having casually prophesied the death of Robbie Williams and co, Moir moves on to her main point: that Gately's death strikes her as a bit fishy . . . "All the official reports point to a natural death, with no suspicious circumstances . . . But, hang on a minute. Something is terribly wrong with the way this incident has been shaped and spun into nothing more than an unfortunate mishap on a holiday weekend, like a broken teacup in the rented cottage."

That's odd. I don't recall anyone equating the death with "an unfortunate mishap on a holiday weekend". I was only aware of shocked expressions of grief from those who knew or admired him, people who'd probably be moved to tears by Moir likening the tragedy to "a broken teacup in the rented cottage". But never mind that – "shaped and spun" by whom, precisely? The coroner?

Incredibly, yes. Moir genuinely believes the coroner got it wrong: "Healthy and fit 33-year-old men do not just climb into their pyjamas and go to sleep on the sofa, never to wake up again. Whatever the cause of death is, it is not, by any yardstick, a natural one."

At this point, I dare to challenge the renowned international forensic pathologist Jan Moir, because I personally know of two other men (one in his 20s, one in his early 30s), who died in precisely this way. According to the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (c-r-y.org.uk), "Twelve apparently fit and healthy young people die in the UK from undiagnosed heart conditions" every single week. That's a lot of broken teacups, eh Jan?

Still, if his death wasn't natural "by any yardstick", what did kill him? Moir knows: it was his lifestyle. Because Gately was, y'know . . . homosexual. Having lanced this boil, Moir lets the pus drip out all over her fingers as she continues to type: "The circumstances surrounding his death are more than a little sleazy," she declares. "Cowles and Gately took a young Bulgarian man back to their apartment. It is not disrespectful to assume that a game of canasta . . . was not what was on the cards . . . What happened afterwards is anyone's guess."

Don't hold back, Jan. Have a guess. Draw us a picture. You specialise in celebrity death fantasies, after all.

"His mother is still insisting that her son died from a previously undetected heart condition that has plagued the family." Yes. That poor, blinkered woman, "insisting" in the face of official medical evidence that absolutely agrees with her.

Anyway, having cast aspersions over a tragic death, doubted a coroner and insulted a grieving mother, Moir's piece builds to its climax: "Another real sadness about Gately's death is that it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships. . . Gay activists are always calling for tolerance and understanding about same-sex relationships, arguing that they are just the same as heterosexual marriages . . . in many cases this may be true. Yet the recent death of Kevin McGee, the former husband of Little Britain star Matt Lucas, and now the dubious events of Gately's last night raise troubling questions about what happened."

Way to spread the pain around, Jan. Way to link two unrelated tragedies, Jan. Way to gay-bash, Jan.

Jan's paper, the Daily Mail, absolutely adores it when people flock to Ofcom to complain about something offensive, especially when it's something they've only learned about second-hand via an inflammatory article in a newspaper. So it would undoubtedly be delighted if, having read this, you paid a visit to the Press Complaints Commission website (www.pcc.org.uk) to lodge a complaint about Moir's article on the basis that it breaches sections 1, 5 and 12 of its code of practice.

via guardian.co.uk

Filed under: homophobia

Loading mentions Retweet

Comment (0) »

wellhiddenmark says...

Oct 16, 2009

Jan Moir's scurrilous vitriol dissected

http://enemiesofreason.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-there-is-nothing-natural-about-life.html

Sent from my iPhone

Filed under: homophobia

Loading mentions Retweet

Comment (0) »

23narchy says...

Oct 05, 2009

David Cameron is all talk and no action on homophobia | Peter Tatchell

Peter Tatchell challenges David Cameron

Conservative leader is all talk and no action on homophobia

What gay rights policies will a Tory government deliver?

London – 5 October 2009

“David Cameron is all talk and no action on gay rights. I challenge him to back up his gay-friendly words with concrete policies to end the remaining vestiges of homophobic discrimination. So far, he has not promised a single new policy for gay equality,” said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of LGBT group OutRage!

Mr Tatchell was speaking on the opening day of the Tory party annual conference, which is taking place in Manchester.

“The Conservatives will never be taken seriously as defenders of gay human rights unless they promise concrete policies for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. We don’t know what a Tory government would do because David Cameron offers only vague generalities, not policy specifics,” added Mr Tatchell.

“Mr Cameron has a poor voting record on gay issues. Only last year he voted to deny lesbian couples equal access to IVF fertility treatment. In 2003, he voted to retain Section 28.

“My challenge to David Cameron is this: what legal reforms will you pledge to the lesbian and gay community? What would you do, as Prime Minister, to end the homophobic discrimination that Gordon Brown is refusing to abolish?

“The LGBT community wants to know whether a Conservative governmet would:

“Amend the Equality Bill to protect LGBT people against harassment.

“Repeal the ban on same-sex civil marriage and on opposite-sex civil partnerships.

“End the blanket, lifetime prohibition on gay and bisexual men donating blood.

“Cancel Labour’s proposal to allow faith schools to teach sex and relationship education in accordance with their own religious ethos, which usually condemns same-sex couples as sinful, immoral, unnatural and inferior.

“Withdraw from the European Parliament alliance with the homophobic Polish Law and Justice Party, Dutch Christian Union and Latvian Fatherland and Freedom Party.

“Refuse visas and work permits to Jamaican reggae singers, like Bounty Killer and Buju Banton, who incite the murder of LGBT people.

“Halt the deportation of geniune LGBT asylum seekers to violently homophobic countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Nigeria, Jamaica, Iran and Uganda.

“Urge the police and CPS to prosecute record stores and radio stations that promote songs encouraging the killing of LGBTs.

“These are eight specific examples of on-going gay inequality. Will David Cameron get rid of them or will he retain them? Until he assures us that these discriminations will be ended by a Conservative government, Mr Cameron will not deserve the support of the lesbian and gay community,” said Mr Tatchell.

Filed under: homophobia

Loading mentions Retweet

Comment (0) »

23narchy says...

Sep 17, 2009

How Islamist gangs use internet to track, torture and kill Iraq's gays | The Observer

The bodies of gays on the streets of Iraq. Photograph: Bilal Hussein/AP

Sitting on the floor, wearing traditional Islamic clothes and holding an old notebook, Abu Hamizi, 22, spends at least six hours a day searching internet chatrooms linked to gay websites. He is not looking for new friends, but for victims.
"It is the easiest way to find those people who are destroying Islam and who want to dirty the reputation we took centuries to build up," he said. When he finds them, Hamizi arranges for them to be attacked and sometimes killed.
Hamizi, a computer science graduate, is at the cutting edge of a new wave of violence against gay men in Iraq. Made up of hardline extremists, Hamizi's group and others like it are believed to be responsible for the deaths of more than 130 gay Iraqi men since the beginning of the year alone.
The deputy leader of the group, which is based in Baghdad, explained its campaign using a stream of homophobic invective. "Animals deserve more pity than the dirty people who practise such sexual depraved acts," he told the Observer. "We make sure they know why they are being held and give them the chance to ask God's forgiveness before they are killed."
The violence against Iraqi gays is a key test of the government's ability to protect vulnerable minority groups after the Americans have gone.
Dr Toby Dodge, of London University's Queen Mary College, believes that the violence may be a consequence of the success of the government of Nouri al-Maliki. "Militia groups whose raison d'être was security in their communities are seeing that function now fulfilled by the police. So their focus has shifted to the moral and cultural sphere, reverting to classic Islamist tactics of policing moral boundaries," Dodge said.
Homosexuality was not criminalised under Saddam Hussein – indeed Iraq in the 1960s and 1970s was known for its relatively liberated gay scene. Violence against gays started in the aftermath of the invasion in 2003. Since 2004, according to Ali Hali, chairman of the Iraqi LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) group, a London-based human-rights group, a total of 680 have died in Iraq, with at least 70 of those in the past five months. The group believes the figures may be higher, as most cases involving married men are not reported. Seven victims were women. According to Hali, Iraq has become "the worst place for homosexuals on Earth".
The killings are brutal, with victims ritually tortured. Azhar al-Saeed's son was one. "He didn't follow what Islamic doctrine tells but he was a good son," she said. "Three days after his kidnapping, I found a note on my door with blood spread over it and a message saying it was my son's purified blood and telling me where to find his body."
She went with police to find her son's remains. "We found his body with signs of torture, his anus filled with glue and without his genitals," she said. "I will carry this image with me until my dying day."
Police officers interviewed by the Observer said the killings were not aimed at gays but were isolated remnants of the sectarian violence that racked the country between 2005 and 2006. Hamizi's group, however, boasts that two people a day are chosen to be "investigated" in Baghdad. The group claims that local tribes are involved in homophobic attacks, choosing members to hunt down the victims. In some areas, a list of names is posted at restaurants and food shops.
The roommate of Haydar, 26, was kidnapped and killed three months ago in Baghdad. After Haydar contacted the last person his friend had been chatting with on the net, he found a letter on his front door alerting him "about the dangers of behaving against Islamic rules". Haydar plans to flee to Amman, the Jordanian capital. "I have… to run away before I suffer the same fate," he said.
According to Human Rights Watch, the Shia militia known as the Mahdi army may be among the militants implicated in the violence, particularly in the northern part of Baghdad known as Sadr City. There are reports that Mahdi army militias are harassing young men simply for wearing "western fashions".
A Ministry of Interior spokesperson, Abdul-Karim Khalaf, denied allegations of police collaboration. "The Iraqi police exists to protect all Iraqis, whatever their sexual persuasion," he said.
Hashim, another victim of violence by extremists, was attacked on Abu Nawas Street. Famous for its restaurants and bars, the street has become a symbol of the relative progress made in Baghdad. But it was where Hashim was set on by four men, had a finger cut off and was badly beaten. His assailants left a note warning that he had one month to marry and have "a traditional life" or die.
"Since that day I have not left my home. I'm too scared and don't have money to run away," Hashim said.

via guardian.co.uk

Filed under: homophobia

Loading mentions Retweet

Comment (0) »

Deanna says...

Sep 11, 2009

ACLU, School District Settle Harassment Suit

ACLU, school district settle harassment suit

FROM: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/09/09/state/n124736D22.DTL

By AMY TAXIN, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

(09-09) 13:53 PDT Orange, Calif. (AP) --

An Orange County school district accused of allowing sexist and homophobic harassment has settled a lawsuit filed by one of its students and a gay rights group, officials said Wednesday.

The settlement reached with the American Civil Liberties Union provides mandatory training for administrators at the Newport-Mesa Unified School District and teachers and students at Corona Del Mar High School over the current school year.

"If you look at it, we're completely inoculating this school against homophobia and sexism," Hector Villagra, director of the ACLU of Southern California's Orange County office, told reporters at a news conference.

Villagra said the settlement was submitted to Orange County Superior Court Wednesday and with a request that the lawsuit be dismissed.

The ACLU sued the district and school officials earlier this year on behalf of a female student at Corona Del Mar High School and the Orange County Equality Coalition. The lawsuit claimed the female student was threatened in a video featuring three male students that was posted on a Facebook profile.

The suit alleged the male students discussed sexually assaulting and killing the female student, used homophobic language and "outed" another student. The district is accused of not responding adequately and condoning sexist and homophobic behavior.

Laura Boss, the district's communications director, said the training will focus on what constitutes bias, how it affects students and how to address harassment and discrimination. She said the district believes the training will raise awareness for staff and students at the school.

According to a copy of the settlement, the district has also agreed to write an apology to the female student and survey Corona Del Mar students on the culture of sexism and homophobia at the school. The eight hours of training for administrators and four hours of training for teachers and students will be overseen by the Anti-Defamation League.

The parents of the female student, who is now in college, said they were pleased with the settlement and only wish it could have happened while their daughter and the male students were still at the school.

After the incident, their daughter changed her schedule to take only two classes at Corona Del Mar and the rest on an independent study basis. Now 17-years old, she said she hopes the settlement will prevent others from going through what she experienced.

"I hope that other students at CDM will learn from my experiences that it is possible to stand up for what is right and to prevail," she wrote in a statement read aloud by her father, Mike Wiggins.

Her parents said they reported the threat to the police and school officials. They said they were not told whether the male students were disciplined but their daughter continued to see them when she was at school and was continually harassed by them.

Villagra said the district issued stay-away letters to the male students but only after the lawsuit was filed.

The lawsuit also noted that the high school caused an uproar when officials canceled a production of the musical "Rent." The production was later reinstated. The cancellation allegedly stemmed from the inclusion of homosexuality in the hit musical's story line.

Filed under: Homophobia

Loading mentions Retweet

Comment (0) »

jbrotherlove says...

Sep 08, 2009