England: The Pride London organisers have issued an apology over the discrimination meted out to a transwoman at the event last weekend, and also corrected certain details. They note that the stewards responsible were not employed by Pride London, and that [t]his incident has marred a very successful event and lessons have to be and must be learnt from it.
.
The full statement follows:
Continue reading "Pride ashamed."England: Stewards and police at the LGBT Pride march in London yesterday seemed unclear on the nature of the event. As Roz Kaveney reports:
Official stewards who were running the toilets at Trafalgar Square announced that I, and any other transgender or transsexual woman, had to use the disabled toilets and was not allowed to use the regular women's toilets. I pointed out to the stewards that I transitioned and had surgery before they were born; I was more polite than a polite thing. No dice.
I went and fetched a posse of transwomen and transmen and we made a collective fuss. Their response - and remember these were official stewards AT PRIDE - was to radio in 'we're being attacked by a mob of trannies! send backup'. They were joined by a policeman, who was a LGBT liaison officer, who claimed that we had to be able to show our Gender Recognition Certificates if we wanted to use the women's loos and got quite upset when I explained to him that I had been involved in drafting the Act and that it did not take away rights that existed before it. At one point he threatened to arrest us for demonstrating on private property - those loos belong to Westminster Council, so you are not allowed to make a fuss there.
Needless to say, a Facebook group—Stop Transphobia at Pride—has already been created.
As one commenter on LiveJournal put it:
WTF! LGBT Pride is worse than the other kind—Silence Exile and Crumpets, 6th July 2008. See also Transphobia at Pride.
United States: The American Family Association operates a 'news' outlet which, it has been recently discovered, alters stories to suit its agenda. The tinkering was noticed when they reported on the success of an American athlete:
Tyson Homosexual was a blur in blue, sprinting 100 meters faster than anyone ever has.
His time of 9.68 seconds at the U.S. Olympic trials Sunday doesn't count as a world record, because it was run with the help of a too-strong tailwind. Here's what does matter: Homosexual qualified for his first Summer Games team and served notice he's certainly someone to watch in Beijing.
It means a lot to me,the 25-year-old Homosexual said.I'm glad my body could do it, because now I know I have it in me.
The athlete's name is really Tyson Gay.
Christian Site's Ban on 'G' Word Sends Homosexual to Olympics—Washington Post Blogs, 1st July 2008.
Scotland: A Roman Catholic bishop has decreed that lesbians and gay men are the opposition
and form a huge and well-orchestrated conspiracy
against Christian values. Joseph Devine, Bishop of Motherwell, gives examples, of course, but not necessarily what you'd expect:
He singled out the actor Sir Ian McKellen, who was given a New Year honour for services to gay rights, pointing out that Oscar Wilde was locked up only a century ago for homosexual acts...
He went on:In this New Year's honours list, I saw actor Ian McKellen being honoured for his work on behalf of homosexuals, when a century ago Oscar Wilde was locked up and put in jail. It's a very small group of people, but very active and organised — and extremely indulgent. The opposition know exactly what they're doing. We don't.
He also complains that pooves remember the time when a country led by a communicant member of the Roman Catholic Church decided to kill off minority groups.
The homosexual lobby has been extremely effective in aligning itself with minority groups.
“It is ever-present at the service each year for the Holocaust memorial, as if to create for themselves the image of a group of people under persecution.
Perhaps they get that impression because people like the bishop say hateful things like that? Or maybe, as an editorial in The Scotsman points out Between 1933 and 1945, 100,000 gay men were imprisoned by the Nazis' regime and 9,000 died in concentration camps. That is justification enough for gays to remember the Holocaust.
Catholic bishop hits out at 'gay conspiracy' to destroy Christianity—The Scotsman, 13th March 2008; Bishop's unhelpful comments—The Scotsman, 13th March 2008. See also Fury at bishop's gay 'persecution' claim—The Herald, 13th March 2008.
Scotland: The organisation Catholic Truth is one of those one-person organisations, a bit like Christian Voice, which exists to get outraged at perceived slights to its imaginary friend. In the case of Patricia McKeever, what upsets her is pooves, and especially pooves in frocks. She's best known for her threat to blackmail and witch-hunt gay Roman Catholic clergy. Fortunately, the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland could see that she's a bampot, though not the MPD:
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Glasgow accused Ms McKeever of perpetrating amedieval witch-hunt. He said:Catholic Truth is a tiny group on the fringe of the Church, utterly unrepresentative of mainstream Catholicism. They are a self-appointed team of heresy hunters, who have made a habit of bombarding the Vatican with ludicrous letters.
So, who to attack next? Why not the Order of Perpetual Indulgence? After all, they've only been active in Scotland since the early 1980s. So she fired off a series of missives to the contact address for the Sisters in her home city of Edinburgh. While all purporting to come from different people, the time-stamps show that it's unsophisticated spamming, with enough time between the messages to switch accounts. The messages were all written in the same voice too, and show plenty of evidence of her not having even looked at the site beyond the contact page. Fortunately for us, the Sister concerned has made use of the Forward
feature of her e-mail client.
United Kingdom: The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement has published a 10 page document criticizing the government's decision to appoint homophobic Christian activist Joel Edwards as an Equality Commissioner. Edwards has campaigned against equalities legistlation in the past, and the LGCM report uses his own words to demonstrate why Joel Edwards should not have been appointed to the Equality Commission and should resign
. The report summarises the case against Edwards on page 1:
- Joel Edwards aggressively lobbies against law reforms introducing gay equality
- Joel Edwards promotes groups seeking to
curegay people- Joel Edward’s organisation seeks exemptions from the very laws Equality Commissioners are charged with upholding
They note that the organisation he leads, the Evangelical Alliance, explicitly opposes any kind of fair treatment for lesbians and gay men.
a homosexual lifestyle is a choice and is not to be classified in terms akin to race or gender. [p.3]
Of course, Edwards regards such criticism as religious discrimination and whines I therefore find it a shame that the LGCM considers my belief system less equal than others and a barrier to my serving the British public
. Of course, as a religious lifestyle is a choice
, surely it's not deserving of any kind of protection anyway, at least not according to Edwards' reasoning.
Joel Edwards and The Evangelical Alliance: Opponents of human rights for lesbian and gay people [Word document]—Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, 21st January 2008; Gay Christian group criticises new equality commissioner—The Guardian, 21st January 2008.
There has been, as you might expect, some reaction from certain Christians concerning J.K. Rowling's revelation that one of her characters is gay. Not all the reaction is what you might expect though. John Mark Reynolds, a Creationistwho has weebled on about how delightfully Christian the Harry Potter books are
is really, really upset, and insists that Ms. Rowling does not know her figment of her own imagination as well as he does. No way can Dumbledore be gay, he proclaims, and if he is, why did she not mention it earlier?
She wrote about Christianity openly by Book Seven, but if Dumbledore was gay, she decided to hide it. She hid it so well that there is no evidence of it.
But was it that well-hidden? In a comment on Making Light, Rob Hansen recalls a conversation with a literary critic:
I remember Roz Kaveney telling me at the time the book appeared that she read the Grindelward/Dumbledore relationship that way and that she figured Rowling had been careful to write it the way she had to forestall the howls of outrage from the usual far-right/religious reich cretins.
Comments elsewhere have linked to where Kaveney put that thought into writing but, naturally, I can't find any of them now. Nor does Reynolds' argument, that Rowling is no longer the sole "owner" of her own intellectual property, that coherent either.
No offense to an excellent author, but Dumbledore no longer belongs only to Rowling. He also belongs to her readers who have been given a series of books in which Rowling was free to say what she wanted to say.
Alas, for this argument, we have fanfic, where the readers take other authors' characters and write their own stories about them. If the fanfic is anything to go by, then the readers have concluded, in a loud and unanimous voice, that not only is Dumbledore gay (and probably really, really kinky with it), but so are all the other characters. And they're all at it with one another!
(via Pharyngula)
Some stories I missed, or didn't get round to writing about:
Oh, my god, the fan fiction.)
England: A man so terrified of catching gay cooties that he refused to be served by a gay librarian has been held for a few hours by police. He claims his imaginary friend caused him to make offensive remarks to library staff. Joe Fairclough has now been banned from Leigh Library, near Wigan.
Man jailed in anti-gay row—Manchester Evening News, 16th October 2007.
Vatican City: The case of Monsignor Tommaso Stenico, suspended from his high ranking post after he appeared to come out in a TV interview has taken a new and interesting twist.
Monsignor Tommaso Stenico, a capo ufficio, or section head, at the Vatican ministry responsible for the clergy, insisted yesterday he was not gay. He said he had posed as a homosexual to research a plot by satanists.
Sex, lies and videotape: turmoil at the Vatican—The Guardian, 15th October 2007.
Scotland: A Motherwell couple are claiming that Strathclyde Police discriminated against them on religious grounds because the force's personnel files have a single field for Married/civil partnership
.
The couple, who have been wed 26 years, told a Glasgow employment tribunal they had deeply held religious beliefs as Christians as to the sanctity of marriage and found the description as married/civil partners offensive causing injury to their feelings as married persons.
Strathclyde Police urged a preliminary tribunal hearing to throw out their claims on the grounds of religion and sex because they had no reasonable prospect of success, or, alternatively, to order Mr and Mrs McQuade to pay a deposit of £500 each as a condition of the case proceeding further.
As well as keeping the database simple, the police point out the single field ensures that people are not discriminated against and prevents personal information being given out by accident. No disadvantage was suffered by the couple as a result of their being treated the same as everyone else.
Catholic man and wife sue cops over file—Glasgow Evening Times, 5th October 2007.
Poland: It seems that Jerry Falwell is not dead after all—he just moved to Europe and had a sex-change.
A senior Polish official has ordered psychologists to investigate whether the popular BBC TV show Teletubbies promotes a homosexual lifestyle.
The spokesperson for children's rights in Poland, Ewa Sowinska, singled out Tinky Winky, the purple character with a triangular aerial on his head.
I noticed he was carrying a woman's handbag,she told a magazine.At first, I didn't realise he was a boy.
According to the BBC, most Poles are joking about her comments. One radio station even had a phone-in to determine the most suspicious
children's characters.
Poland targets 'gay' Teletubbies—BBC News, 28th May 2007.
United States: It seems that, at some point, Jerry Falwell managed to accidentally preach a message that bore some resemblance to the recorded teachings of Jesus Christ, and that has annoyed Fred Phelps.
WBC will preach at the memorial service of the corpulent false prophet Jerry Falwell, who spent his entire life prophesying lies and false doctrines likeGod loves everyone.
Naturally, he concludes that Falwell must be in a well known Norwegian town, and gives his reasons. Two of them are worth repeating, the first being a bit of tedious theological hair-splitting which means nothing to the sensible.
Falwell bitterly and viciously attacked WBC because of WBC's faithful Bible preaching -- thereby committing the unpardonable sin -- otherwise known as the sin against the Holy Ghost.
Hang on, I thought that sin was specifically denying the Holy Spirit (which does not exist, by the way), not having boring arguments?
Falwell warmly praised Christ-rejecting Jews, pedophile-condoning Catholics, money-grubbing compromisers, practicing fags like Mel White, and backsliders like Billy Graham and Robert Schuler, etc. All for lucre -- making him guilty of their sins.
Ah yes, pooves. We knew they'd be mentioned soon enough. Of course, because Falwell was not fond of pooves (though he did, towards the end of his life, make the outrageous suggestion that they be treated like human beings), it makes him a hard target for Phelp's obsession with hot man-on-man sex, so the rest of his announcement makes no mention of Falwell whatsoever, just pooves. The announcement is on the home page, and will no doubt change as soon as Phelps thinks about pooves again, so here's a screenshot of the entire page (PNG, 540Kb).
WBC will Preach at Jerry Falwell's Funeral!!—God Hates America, 15th May 2007 (probably).
United States: More and more conspiracy theorists have been hard at work coming up with their interpretation of the Virginia Tech shootings. After all, mentally ill person goes over the edge
is far too simple to be the Truth. Salvador Astucia even manages to link it in with dead Wiccan soldiers being allowed to have a symbol of their religion on their gravestones.
There appears to be a great deal of occult activity in the Roanoke/Blacksburg area of Virginia... Have the police investigated the possibility that the slayings may have been ritualistic killings associated with satanic cults? Were any of the victims or their friends followers of Wicca, which is another term for witchcraft?...
Why did the Bush Administration endorse witchcraft within the military shortly after the slayings? Unbelievable as it sounds, the Bush Administration suddenly recognized Wicca (witchcraft) as a religion within the military less than one week after the Virginia Tech slayings... How is it possible that a conservative Republican and born-again Christian like George W. Bush would suddenly allow witchcraft to be a bona fide religion within the U.S. military? This happened just a few days after Bush spoke to students, faculty members, friends and relatives of shooting victims at Virginia Tech. If the situation weren't so tragic, it would make a funny comedy sketch on Saturday Night Live. I can just picture a Bush imitator saying,You young people have endured a great tragedy, and in times like this, we need to look to the Lord for guidance. And if that doesn't work, try witchcraft!This is unreal. Is it possible the Bush Administration's capitulation on Wiccans in the military was a quid pro quo of some sort–a payment to the true killers?
Of course, this particular hypothesis ignores the fact that there have been Wiccan (and, gasp, even Satanist) military chaplains in the US forces for about 20 years now.
Not so much a conspiracy theory, and more like hate speech aimed at an already demonised minority group, one of the American tabloids has decided that Cho did it because he was a poof. Of course, it makes complete sense! Pooves always go around stalking and harassing women to have sex with them.
Tobago: Church leaders have failed in their efforts to have Elton John banned from the island. They were afraid that his appearance at a jazz festival would pass gay cooties onto young people.
Some Christian leaders on the Caribbean island said that the singer should be banned from performing at the festival in Tobago because his homosexuality could influence young people...
We feel it can have a negative social impact. There are some who may not be sure of their sexuality and one has to be careful about how this can create impressions on impressionable minds,pastor Terrance Baynes told Reuters on Monday.
The story also made reference to a famous Christian who said something I missed last year.
...evangelical Christian pop icon Sir Cliff Richard ... said last year that the churches should stop being obsessed with gays and show a bit more love.
Which is obviously far too Christian a sentiment for many church leaders.
Churches fail to ban Elton John from Tobago—Ekklesia, 27th March 2007.
United Kingdom: A correspondent writes to the Prattle:
I think you missed the best part of the story. As per the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6293115.stm... the little bully-mob of Archbishops claims that:
rights of conscience cannot be made subject to legislation, however well-meaning
In other words, they are claiming that if they want to do something (or perhaps that their Invisible Friend wants them to do something) then the government should not be allowed to tell them otherwise.
Anything.
They are, in fact, demanding the right to be above the law in all cases, should they choose to exercise that right.
Hmm.
Hmm indeed. Our attention is also drawn to a petition on the government website, supporting the law. The end date has been extended, so we are asked to ignore the 17th January bit.
But here at Prattle Towers (Northern Hemisphere) we have our own modest proposal, and have our very own petition: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to allow religious organisations to discriminate against lesbians and gay men, on condition that they accept discrimination against themselves.
You know it makes sense!
Another interesting petition request the extension of the law to cover trans-people: to prohibit discrimination in the provision of goods, services and facilities, includng health care,on the grounds of transsexual or transgender status
United Kingdom: It came as no surprise that, while the Prattle was down, a number of interesting news stories would come to light, and that others would run and run. In particular, some religious organisations continue to be upset that same-sex couples have the right to be considered as adoptive parents, and will soon have to receive equal treatment in the provision of goods and services.
One church, in particular, is desperate for the right to be bigoted, even though their own members, and people perceived to be descended from members of that church, have been, and still are, on the receiving end of discrimination. Needless to say, the church which pretends to be so concerned about children is the same one that has a long-standing problem with pædophile clergy, and a history of covering up the child abuse committed by their priests (Prattles passim, ad nauseam).
So, what honourable tactics are being used by the men of God?
Continue reading "WWJD?: Lies and Blackmail!"United Kingdom: Jesus had quite a lot to say about the way his followers should deal with the people around them. Matthew 5:43-47, for example, is the bit where Jesus insists that you should love your enemies, and do good things for people, even if they hate you. Then there's Luke 10: 29-37, otherwise known as the parable of the Good Samaritan. And what does the Bible record of Jesus' words on homosexuality?
Which is why Christian organisations are at the forefront of protests against new anti-discrimination legislation in England and Wales, which insists that sexuality not be an issue when it comes to the provision of goods and services. And to prove their point, the alleged Christians have chosen to further ignore the words of their deity when he emphasised the importance of the Ten Commandments in Matthew 19:18, Mark 10:19 and Luke 18:20. Three out of the four gospels say that Jesus had a downer on telling porkies, so guess what the fundies have chosen to do? Let Polly Toynbee explain:
They claim the law willforce all schools to actively promote homosexual civil partnerships to children (from primary-school age) to the same degree that they teach the importance of marriage. No it won't: the curriculum does notactively promotehomosexuality, nor even make sex education compulsory. They claim the law willforce a printing shop run by a Christian to print fliers promoting gay sex. No it won't, unless the same printers promote heterosexual porn too. Or how about this one?Force a family-run B&B to let out a double room to a transsexual couple, even if the family think it in the best interests of their children to refuse to allow such a situation in their home.Oh no it won't: it doesn't even cover transsexuals - and what a daft scenario anyway. The National Secular Society has complained to the Advertising Standards Authority. But on and on go the prurient situations the religious homophobes dream up.
It's not just barking mad fundies who want the right to ignore Jesus. The more mainstream churches have got in on the act and demonstrated the degree to which they are devoid of compassion and driven by hatred:
Lord Ferrers in the last debate said hospitals should be allowed to discriminate if they had a Christian ethos. Does that mean they do now? Are they turning away gay Aids patients? He said a pro-life Catholic hospital should be allowed to turn away a lesbian for fertility treatment. (Though any non-Catholic turning to Catholics for fertility treatment needs their head examined.) The Catholic adoption society said it will shut up shop if it has to allow gay couples to apply. Churches say they will never let out a hall to a gay organisation. Christians running soup kitchens say they want to refuse gays shelter and soup. (Soup!) The Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool threatens to withdraw all cooperation over schools and charity programmes if the law goes through. The Bishop of Rochester says it will damage church work in inner cities. (Only if his church shuts down services.) The C of E pretends that the law would force it to bless civil unions (it won't).
Still, if this means that priests have access to fewer vulnerable children, this can only be a good thing.
As Toynbee notes, many of the services provided by churches are funded by the taxpayer (and recent legislation means they can get access to more of our money). Yet they want the right to use government money to discriminate and promote hatred.
Homophobia, not injustice, is what really fires the faiths—The Guardian, 9th January 2007.
The Vatican/France: When the Roman Catholic Church published a policy on homosexual seminarians last year, Monseigneur Tony Anatrella wrote an op-ed piece for L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. He had quite a bit to say about pooves:
Saying thathomosexuality results as a lack of plenitude and an immaturity of human sexuality,Anatrella went on to opine on the difficulty of thehomosexual person to incarnate effectively this symbolic reality of spousal tie and spiritual paternityand that gay priestswill need a special care, and regular interventions on part of the authority, and a life set in a constant medical and psychotherapeutic cure.
Well, according to Rocco Palmo, Anatrella is under investigation by the French authorities after allegations from a male patient:
According to the complaint, filed on 30 October in Paris, a French ex-seminarian named Daniel Lamarca said that, while being treated by Anatrella in 1987, he had sexual relations with the cleric, who Lamarca went to in the hope ofcuringhim of his homosexuality. The patient was 23 at the time and spoke ofbodily worktherapy sessions with Anatrella that, according to the accuser, would progress into sex.
Palmo writes for The Tablet, a Roman Catholic newspaper.
Homosems, A Year On—Whispers in the Loggia, 8th November 2006 (thanks, Pastor Best).
United States: A religious organisation which makes the ridiculous claim that it is possible to convert from homosexuality to heterosexuality is upset that people naturally take the piss out of them. So terrified were Exodus International that the Liberty Counsel sent blogger Justin Watt a cease-and-desist letter asking him to remove an image parodying the organisation's snake oil advertisements.
Fortunately, the ACLU is on Watt's side, along with their lawyers, who argue that the parody image is constitutionally-protected free speech, and fair use.
The moment I saw the billboards last September, I was deeply offended. The inspiration for the parody I created came to me instantly. How would straight people feel if their very being, their sense of self was being so overtly disparaged?said Justin Watt, a blogger from Santa Rosa, California.Their response was to try to intimidate me into taking the image down. It’s troubling that an organization as big as Exodus would go to such great lengths to silence its critics.
The billboard, sponsored byex-gayministry Exodus International, read,Gay? Unhappy? www.exodus.to.After seeing a photo of the billboards online, Watt posted an altered version reading,Straight? Unhappy? www.gay.comon his website, Justinsomnia.org. Liberty Counsel, an anti-gay legal group representing Exodus, sent Watt a cease-and-desist letter earlier this month claiming the parody violated Exodus’s intellectual property rights and threatening legal action if the parodies were not removed. In a response sent today to Liberty Counsel, the ACLU’s cooperating attorney, Laurence Pulgram of Fenwick & West, LLP, called upon Exodus to drop its attempts to censor Watt, pointing to case law holding parodies to be Constitutionally protected speech.
Parodies like Justin’s are protected by the First Amendment as a form of political commentary. His point was to make a comment on a very important issue he has strongly held beliefs about: that Exodus’s tactics are wrong, that there’s nothing wrong with being gay, and that being gay doesn’t make you unhappy,said Ann Brick, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California.Just as a group like Exodus has a Constitutionally protected right to say whatever it wants to about gay people, even when that view has been roundly condemned by every major psychological and medical organization, Justin has a right to use parody to voice his opposition.
ACLU Defends Blogger's Right to Parody "Ex-Gay" Group—ACLU Press Release, 22nd March 2006.
Israel: A rabbi has declared that an outbreak of bird flu in Israel is the work of God. According to Rabbi David Basri, God is angry with some of the more left-leaning political parties.
The bird flu outbreak stemmed from far-left political partiesstrengthening and encouraging homosexuality,Rabbi Basri's son quoted him as saying.
One of the parties aired an election commercial depicting two brides kissing. Some campaign advertisements also called for homosexual marriages to be legalized in Israel
Meanwhile, the same rabbi and his son are being investigated by police on suspicion that they are racist as well as homophobic.
According to suspicions, the Batzris allegedly made the racist comments at the conference which was held to rally support against the establishment of a bilingual school for Jewish and Arab students in the heart of the Pat neighborhood.
Rabbi David Batzri said,the establishment of such a school is a despicable and sinful act. An Arab cannot contaminate what is pure. It is forbidden to blend darkness and light. The nation of Israel is pure and the Arabs are a nation of donkeys. They are an evil disaster, an evil devil, and a nasty affliction.
Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri said,The Arabs are donkeys and beasts. They want to take our girls. They are endowed with true filthiness. There is pure and there is impure and they are impure.
Wrath of God behind Israel bird flu?—Reuters, 21st March 2006; Mystical sage, son to be probed for suspected racist incitement—Ha'aretz, 21st March 2006
England: Renowned artists Gilbert and George's new exhibition has upset one or two philistines, even though it hasn't opened yet. The exhibition uses imagery from a range of religious traditions, both formal and popular.
Even before going on display today at London's White Cube gallery, the 21 new artworks - collectively titled Sonofagod Pictures: Was Jesus Heterosexual? - have aroused the fury of the Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, who has called themblasphemous in the extreme, as [Gilbert and George] will find out when finally they stand before the Son of God
In contrast, some religious people are more appreciative:
But the Bishop of Stepney, according to George, has beenvery polite and very nice, and requested a studio visit.
The artists told The Guardian that the work was inoffensive compared to Christianity itself:
Gilbert:Artists arouse MP's fury—The Guardian, 20th January 2005.Christians are abusive to humans - to women, to queers. They threaten us with hell.George:That's offensive, not us.
Poland: Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people have been suffering increasing official harassment and police violence, and religion is being used as an excuse. A May 2005 protest supporting equal treatment was banned by the Mayor of Warsaw, now Poland's president, on the grounds that it was sexually obscene
and offensive to other people's religious feelings.
The improvised parade still took place on 10 June, gathering more than 2,500 participants. Less than a week after that, the mayor authorized the so-callednormalityparade, during which members of the All Polish Youth reportedly demonstrated on the streets of Warsaw and shouted slogans inciting intolerance and homophobia...
During the year other political figures were also reported to have made openly homophobic statements, including that that if a homosexualtries to infect others with their homosexuality, then the state must intervene in this violation of freedom, calling forno tolerance for homosexuals and deviantsand:Let's not mistake the brutal propaganda of homosexual attitudes for calls for tolerance. For them our rule will indeed mean a dark night.
Prime Minister Kasimierz Marcinkiewicz, an extremist Roman Catholic, is responsible for some of these statements.
More recently, a march for Equality in Posnań was disrupted by police who assaulted and arrested over 60 peaceful demonstrators. A counter-demonstration was ignored.
They were reportedly harassed and intimidated by members of a right-wing grouping known as All Polish Youth (Młodzież Wszechpolska), who allegedly shoutedLet's gas the fagsandWe'll do to you what Hitler did with Jews.
All of this is illegal under international law. Poland is a signatory to two treaties which guarantee that all individuals enjoy human rights without discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
. The European Commission has already written a strongly-worded letter criticising the Polish government, and noting that under the Treaty of Nice, the country could lose its voting rights in the European Union. Nothing has been done since October though, and the violations have continued. So, Lisette, a voluntary LGBT activist
, has set up a pledge at Pledgebank.
I will send a protest statement to the European Commission to protest against discrimination of LGBT people in Poland and demand that the Commission pays more attention to these issues. but only if 100 other people will do the same and sign their name here after sending the protest mail to: cab-archive-barrot@cec.eu.int.
I have done so, and the news links below provide a lot more information about sepcific examples upon which you might wish to comment. Citizens of the United States might like to note that the US State Department has had preceisely nothing to say about Poland's violations of international law, and has taken no action whatsoever.
I will send a protest statement to the European Commission...—Pledgebank pledge, expires 31st December 2005; Polish Gays Fighting Back—Gay City News, 1st-7th December 2005; Poland: LGBT rights under attack—Amnesty International, 25th November 2005; EU Warns Poland On Gays—365Gay.com, 26th October 2005.
United States: We were running a sweep here at Prattle Towers, to guess how long it would be before some superstitious idiot blamed their imaginary psychopath in the sky for Hurricane Katrina. Well, whoever put the shortest time won the pot.
An organisation of Christian fundamentalists claims the destruction brought on by Hurricane Katrina is God's judgment against New Orleans for holding festivals like the annual gay Southern Decadence party.
Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city,said Repent America director Michael Marcavage on the organisation's Web site...
...Repent America's Web site noted New Orleans' past three mayors issued official proclamations welcoming visitors to Southern Decadence. The Web site also noted theNew Orleans City Council made other proclamations recognising the annual homosexual celebration.
May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits, and bring us trembling before the throne of Almighty God,Marcavage concluded, adding a biblical citation from Matthew 5:45:[God] sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
As is traditional, that particular Biblical quotation has a considerably different meaning when you read it in context. Other Christian groups have been quick to condemn Repent America's abuse of scripture, and are instead busying themselves with the relief efforts.
Religious groups: Hurricane punishment for gay event—Gay.com News, 1st September 2005.
United Kingdom: Since the London bombings in July, politicians have wasted no time in deciding what to do about religious bampots. British Home Secretary Charles Clarke recently announced plans to crack down on what he describes as preachers of intolerance and hatred
. He declaimed:
We must protect the traditions of tolerance that we have established in this country through centuries of struggle and that means cracking down on those who preach intolerance and abuse free speech to justify terrorism, advocate violence or foster hatred.
Spain, Italy and France had already introduced measures to facilitate the expulsion of such preachers after the bombs in Madrid, and Denmark has acted against both Islamist extremists and those who use them as an excuse to whip up hatred against Islam.
So, presumably a few of the Prattle's favourite loony Christian preachers will find themselves unable to enter European countries from now on?
Pat Robertson is surely guilty of advocating violence when he called for the murder of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez?
Mr Robertson, 75, said on Monday's edition of the 700 Club:You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.
Yet have we have yet to hear a word from the Home Secretary about what action he plans to take against The God Channel, which broadcasts The 700 Club in the UK. Surely the best way to not drive young Muslims into extremism is for the government to demonstrate that it will apply the proposed lesgislation against all those who preach hate, not just the Muslim ones?
Fred Phelps would be another candidate for persona non grata status. He's just decided that he and 20 of his congregation are going to make a trip to Sweden next month to hunt down
the Swedish king.
We'll hunt down your king,he said ominously to Expressen.It doesn't make any difference where he tries to hide.
Phelps' hatred of the royal family and all things Swedish is linked directly to his equally virulent hatred of homosexuals. He praises homophobic crimes, including murder. When controversial Swedish minister, Åke Green, was convicted of inciting hatred of homosexuals following an anti-gay sermon, Phelps saw red and turned his attention to Sweden.
You're doomed to spend eternity in hell,he continued.All you Swedes and your Swedish king and his family.
But Phelps doesn't seem to have any faith that his god will actually do any such thing.
The minister and twenty members of his congregation from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, are planning to come to Sweden at the beginning of September. They are bringing plenty of placards in order to spread their message that Sweden is the cradle of all evil and that the king rules a nation of sodomites.
King Carl Gustaf is their primary target.
Your king represents your doomed country and we'll find him wherever he may be.
Security around the royal family has been stepped up, though presumably Phelps and his cronies are unlikely to be allowed to enter Sweden after such a rant. And obviously, as he's the sort of preacher Clarke wants rid of, should he come via Heathrow, we will see him packed straight onto the first plane home. Won't we?
Clarke to launch hatred crackdown—BBC News, 22nd August 2005;Europe moves against radical imams—BBC News, 6th May 2004; Denmark targets extremist media—BBC News, 17th August 2005; TV host urges US to kill Chavez—BBC News, 23rd August 2005; Minister of hate to hunt down
Swedish king—The Local, 25th August 2005.
United States: Sometimes I hear about stories from other people, and these stories occasionally come not via a blog, but through some obscure mailing list. And they retell the tale so brilliantly, that there's no way I can get even close, but the thing isn't even linkable. The rest of this article is such a post, by Alex Elliott, reprinted with permission.
So here's the latest painfully earnest alarum from our friends at Focus on the HomosFamily:
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0037164.cfm
Johnson & Johnson will be advertising its brand, Tylenol PM, in the July 19 issue of The Advocate, a leading gay magazine.
The ad shows two shirtless men in bed side by side. The text over one reads: 'His backache is keeping him up.' Over the other: 'His boyfriend's backache is keeping him up.'
Johnson & Johnson has been advertising in gay media since 1996. Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, said people need to take notice.
'A lot of corporate America has bought into the idea that they can secretly promote homosexuality without their consumers noticing out there,' he said.
Personally, I would think that this ad promotes the purchase and consumption of Tylenol PM, not homosexuality. And it's in a gay magazine - read almost exclusively by people who are already pretty much sold on the whole homosexuality thing (plus the Good and Vigilant people at FotF, of course, who seem unable to tear their eyes away from such filth).
I guess we're supposed to imagine that little Jimmy Towhead will innocently pick this magazine up off the newsstand, skip over the numerous articles about homosexuality and photographs of dozens and dozens of actual homosexuals with no ill effect, see this ad,
and say, Gosh - homosexuals get backaches. I want to be homosexual so I can get backaches too!
and bam! he's caught The Gay.
That's not the funniest part though. This is the funniest part:
Mike Haley, director of the gender issues department at Focus on the Family, said the gay and lesbian community has a lot of expendable income, so they are targeting big corporations who are caving to their pressure.
Apparently the FotF people live in some fantasy world where the Johnson & Johnson executives are all like, We don't want to make any profit if it comes from homosexuals,
and the Evil Gay Millionaires are all like, No, you must advertise to us! Cave to our pressure!
and the J&J execs are totally like, No! Gay profit bad! Money bad!
and the EGMs are like, Bwahahah! You must sell us Tylenol PM or we will destroy you in some mysterious way unspecified by Focus on the Family!!
and the execs are all, Oh no, we submit! We are forced to make money and delight our shareholders against our will! Woe is us!!
Or something like that. Morons.
Alex.
P.S. He said Johnson
. Heh-heh.
United States: A man has been convicted of beating his 3-year-old son to death. Ronnie Paris Jr. was conviced his son would become gay if he did not 'toughen him up'.
He beat the boy so badly he became lethargic, stopped eating and began wetting himself. On Jan. 22, the skinny, underdeveloped 3-year-old went to sleep on a neighbor's deep-red couch while his parents studied Bible verses with friends from Deeper Life Ministries...
...Nysheerah Paris told the court her husband had beaten the boy in the head several times and slammed his body against a kitchen wall in the month before the boy's death on Jan. 28. The woman, who is charged with child neglect and could face 15 years in prison if convicted, told the court her husband was jealous of the baby, complained about not having enough sex and told her not to hug her son because he thought it might make the boy grow up to be homosexual.
Such ideas about masculinity and sexuality are a fundamental part of religious programmes which aim to 'treat' homosexuality. Obviously no-one told them about Bears.
Jury Finds Father Guilty In Death Of Little Boy—Tampa Tribune, 15th July 2005.
New Zealand: Red Wolf might be convinced all the loons are in Australia, but it seems that the neighbours have religious bampots too. Take 'Bishop' Brian Tamaki of Destiny Church, for example. It seems, as it typical of his type, the presence of out pooves makes him uneasy:
Helen Clark's government bore much of the responsibility for the decline in the nation's moral values, he told the crowd - particularly since the introduction of the Civil Union bill, now the Civil Union Act.
Sodomy had a 10-year prison sentence [in New Zealand] once upon a time.
You thought it was just so a few people in a corner could practise their homosexuality . . . we knew the deeper agenda.
They ordered it law so they could get your child and your grandchild.
I never knew that Christians married children.
After plenty of ranting along this line, and getting upset about the existence of a Muslim MP, he whined that the media were allowed to get away with portraying us as Nazis and haters and a cult.
Perhaps his hate speech might have something to do with this?
Homosexual agenda blasted by Tamaki - Rotorua Daily Post, 23rd June 2005; see also The Homosexual Agenda.
United States: Neal Horsley the kind of bloke that gives other Christians the sudden urge to convert to another religion.
He doesn't like women. He doesn't like homosexuals. He happily proclaims that murdering doctors who perform abortions is a fine thing and he has one of the world's ugliest web sites filled with the insane rantings of your typical ignorant bigot to prove it. This is the warm and fuzzy chap who not only fills his site with hate speech, but posts the names and addresses of doctors who, in his opinion, perform abortions and incites people to kill them. One of his idiot followers took Horsley's advice, killed two people and injured a further 150. Horsley was so proud.
But there is one thing that Neal Horsley does like, aside from insane murderers, that is.
In a recent F
![[Straight? Unhappy? www.gay.com]](http://www.prattle.net/prattlepix/straight_unhappy.jpg)
