International Gay Rights
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European Homosexuals are Recruiting in Africa?
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The Future of Gay Marriage in Latin America Begins in Argentina
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Argentina's Quest for Marriage Equality
The World's First Lesbian Bishop
Published November 10, 2009 @ 12:11PM PT
Eva Brunne is 55 years old, the mother of a three-year-old, and armed with a pastoral smile that could probably melt that hardest of hearts. Oh, and she's got one other title she can now hang under her hat: she's the world's first openly lesbian bishop.
Bishop Brunne became, well, "Bishop" Brunne this past weekend during a ceremony in Sweden. Her consecration as Bishop comes just two weeks after the Lutheran Church of Sweden, of which Brunne is a member, said that they would approve recognizing same-sex marriages.
Even more significant? Brunne is part of a Communion of Lutherans that spans 6.9 million members worldwide, making it the largest Lutheran Church in the world.
Nepal Wants a Lot of Gay People to Come Visit
Published October 23, 2009 @ 07:50AM PT
What's the best way to recover after a Maoist insurgency leaves your economy in shambles? For Nepal, one way is to completely open the country up as a tourist destination for LGBT people throughout the world. The goal is to bring a million foreign tourists to the region over the next two years, and the hope is to have many of those tourists be sexual minorities -- members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender population.
Nepal has become one of the more progressive countries in the world toward LGBT rights. Nearly a year ago, the country's Supreme Court ruled that all people in Nepal, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to have the right to get married. They ordered the government to come up with a commission to study same-sex marriage laws around the world, with the intent that based on this research, Nepal would draft its own marriage equality law. That process is churning at a snail's pace, making rush hour traffic on the Los Angeles Freeway seem like a piece of cake. But finally, after several months delay, the government enacted a commission to look at worldwide marriage equality laws earlier this summer.
How American Evangelicals are Killing Gay People in Africa
Published October 21, 2009 @ 08:19PM PT
Hate never made for a good export. But that hasn't stopped a prominent group of American evangelicals from trying to ship their anti-LGBT principles abroad. One glaring example of right-wing theology run amuck across the globe is fresh out of Uganda, where legislative efforts to attack Ugandan LGBT people reached fever pitch this week.
Uganda is an interesting example of how the radical religious right in the United States has sought to take their battle against all things related to homosexuality to a global level. Earlier this year, a prominent group of evangelicals -- among them representatives from Exodus International and Defend the Family International -- attended a conference in Uganda aimed at discussing ways to fight homosexuality. The goal of the conference was to brainstorm ways that the government, schools and churches in Uganda could "wipe out" homosexuality from the country.
From American religious leaders to participate in something like this shows some pretty gross disrespect for human rights. What's worse, their support has lent credence to a bill introduced in Uganda's parliament this week that will imprison people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, and will imprison straight people who support gay rights. Oh, and let's not forget that the bill also calls for HIV-positive gay people to be put to death.
All of that and a bag of chips, and it's all courtesy of American evangelicals.
"Anti-gay groups have long viewed Uganda as a laboratory to experiment with Christian theocracy," writes Besen. "These American 'ex-gay' activists clearly left their stamp on this evil legislation, giving Ugandan officials a way to justify the abuse because they can claim that 'sinful' gays can choose to change."
And the proof is in the pudding -- or in this case, the actual text of the legislation, which reads like it could be lifted straight off the hate-filled pages of Exodus International's Web site. Here's a juicy nugget from the bill:
This legislation further recognizes the fact that same sex attraction is not an innate and immutable characteristic and that people who experience this mental disorder can and have changed to a heterosexual orientation.
It also recognizes that because homosexuals are not born that way, but develop this disorder based on experiences and environmental conditions, it is preventable, especially among young people who are most vulnerable to recruitment into the homosexual lifestyle.
Homosexuality is a mental disorder. Homosexuality can be cured. Homosexuality can be prevented. Did somebody put some crazy in the Ugandan Parliament's water?
Nope, far from it. Instead, American conservative religious leaders have been feeding Ugandan politicians this type of rhetoric for quite some time. According to Besen, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has been embraced by American fundamentalists as "the key man" in Africa to helping spread conservative Christianity. This homophobic bill is really just the latest in a history of efforts by U.S. religious groups to spur anti-gay sentiment in Uganda, and the entire African continent.
It's worth sending a message to officials in Uganda that this type of legislation is a clear violation of human rights. Uganda now has a choice: Do they want to be a country with one of the most vile human rights reputations in the world, or do they want to show that they can be responsible actors in the world community and respect the rights of all of their citizens?
This, to me, is by far the clearest example of how these 'ex-gay' ministries are not only damaging to LGBT people; they're damaging to international human rights. People will be murdered and imprisoned because of the work of organizations like Exodus International and Defend the Family International.
(Photo courtesy of Stig Nygaard's photostream on Flickr, used under creative commons license.)
Pope Benedict XVI Would Like to Welcome the Tired, Hungry, Anti-Gay Huddled Masses
Published October 20, 2009 @ 05:58AM PT
If you're an Anglican and you don't like women priests, gay bishops, or same-sex couples infiltrating your church, Pope Benedict XVI has a message for you: try becoming Catholic! Hey, it comes with free wine once a week, and support for all the anti-gay ballot measures you can muster.
The Catholic Church has announced a new theological structure that allows Anglicans who are sick and tired of the social justice leanings of their church to "reunite" with the Catholic Church. An Apostolic Constitution has been signed by Pope Benedict XVI that allows disaffected Anglicans to quit their church, and discreetly enter the Catholic Church.
Huh, I always thought the Catholic Church had a thing against discreet penetration.
But I digress. According to Scott Richert's Catholicism blog on About.com, this new Catholic structure will be open to all in the Anglican Communion (currently 77 million strong), including the Episcopal Church in the United States. And the biggest reason the Catholic Church is doing this? Because they want to tap into the anti-gay wing of the worldwide Anglican community.
"Some within the worldwide Anglican communion have become disillusioned by the election of openly gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions. And there has also been discord in recent years over the ordination of women," reports the BBC.
These folks can find a new home in the Catholic Church if they'd like, which has never been wishy-washy in its support for discrimination against gays and lesbians, or its refusal to recognize women as equal partners in the faith.
Do you hear that sliding noise? It's the Catholic Church, stepping on rather slippery ground toward irrelevancy. Will there really be another generation that grows up thinking it's OK to exclude women from the priesthood, or OK to hate on the love shared between same-sex couples?
Uganda Wants to Kill and Imprison Gay People
Published October 19, 2009 @ 06:19PM PT
Someone might want to tell Uganda that when it comes to homosexuality, pursuing the death penalty is not only reminiscent of the middle ages, it's also a violation of basically every international human rights standard.
The country is currently debating a bill in Parliament that would essentially create death panels for LGBT people in the country. But don't let the Sarah Palin reference fool you -- this isn't something to take lightly.
If this bill passes Parliament, here's what life will look like for LGBT people in Uganda:
- If you promote homosexuality in any form -- whether it's allowing LGBT people to meet in your space, if you give an LGBT person $2.00 for lunch, or you print a pamphlet that depicts LGBT people in a positive light -- you could get up to seven years in prison;
- If someone fails to report the "promotion of homosexuality" within a 24-hour window, that person could be subject to up to three years in prison;
- If you are HIV-positive and you have sex with someone of the same gender, you will be sentenced to death and killed;
- If you decide to hold an LGBT rights rally or publicly speak in any capacity on behalf of LGBT rights, you could be thrown in jail for up to five years;
- Allows Uganda to go after people living abroad who are LGBT or who support LGBT rights.
If your mouth hasn't fallen to the floor yet, perhaps it's also worth noting that American anti-gay religious groups like Exodus International, Abiding Truth Ministry, and the International Healing Foundation are a big reason that this law is moving forward. They held an "ex-gay" conference in Kampala, Uganda earlier this year where authorities said they would go so far as to "wipe out" homosexuals from the country through whatever means necessary.
It looks like they've found the means to do just this, and it's through this gross legislation in Uganda's Parliament. These supposed Christian ministries should condemn this law -- if not because of its disastrous implications for public health and HIV prevention, then for the fact that IT WILL RESULT IN VIOLENCE toward LGBT people. LGBT people will be murdered and imprisoned because of this law. No ministry should be in the business of supporting murder with impunity or unjust imprisonment.
Amnesty International's expert on sexual rights, Katie Sheill, said it best when she said that provisions in this bill are not only illegal, they're immoral.
"They criminalize a sector of society for being who they are, when what the government should be doing instead is protecting them from discrimination and abuse," Sheill writes.
This legislation needs to be stopped. Here at change.org, we have an action petition that allows you to send a letter to Uganda's Ambassador to the U.S., Uganda's Deputy Chief for their Embassy in the U.S., and Uganda's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. These folks need to see that the international community not only disagrees with this legislation, but that if this legislation is passed, Uganda will cement itself as one of the worst human rights violators in the world.
Please consider signing, and sending a loud and clear message in opposition to this horrific bill.
Hey Pope Benedict XVI: Fight Climate Change, Not LGBT People
Published October 15, 2009 @ 12:07PM PT
During an annual end-of-year message last year, Pope Benedict XVI made a very un-peaceful move in comparing the threat of climate change to homosexuality and gender identity. The Pope, usually not one to miss a beat when it comes to calling LGBT people sinful, said that homosexuality was about as much of a threat to the human race as climate change.
Clearly this Pope has never visited the Maldives, or he might come to think that an entire nation being swallowed up by a rising ocean might be significantly worse than two women sleeping together.
The Pope's address was a veiled attempt to say that gender theory -- the type of thinking about human sexuality that promotes tolerance and acceptance of LGBT people, and views sexual orientation as a much more complex issue than the church's black-and-white thinking -- would dismantle humankind. Gay rights groups justifiably blew a gasket.
Today, on Blog Action Day (http://www.blogactionday.org/), it seems critical to think back about Pope Benedict XVI's unfortunate comparison, and challenge the Pope not to fall into the same sort of destructive thinking. If this is a planet worth saving, it's going to take all walks of life -- from queer people to the most devout Catholics.
It's a good thing that Pope Benedict XVI sees climate change as a threat to humanity. The Catholic Church has some muscle, given that it's one of the largest religious denominations in the entire world, and it should be treating the issue of climate change as if it were a threat to humankind. It is. But to say that gay people are as much a threat to the world as climate change isn't productive. It's hurtful.
Two months from now, when the Pope gives another annual message, here's hoping he touches on climate change. And here's hoping he leaves the gay-bashing out.
How Pink Power Can Help Fight Climate Change
Published October 15, 2009 @ 06:28AM PT
Today is Blog Action Day (http://www.blogactionday.org/), the annual day in which bloggers from around the world unite to write about the same topic on the same day. This year's topic is climate change, and if you think the topic has little to do with LGBT rights, think again.
LGBT rights activist Peter Tatchell, one of the most vocal champions for equality in the United Kingdom if not the globe, spoke about the importance of LGBT folks getting behind the campaign to fight climate change. Last month, Tatchell put it pretty bluntly: "There is not much point campaigning for LGBT human rights unless we have a habitable planet on which to enjoy these rights."
Or, in other words, the two movements aren't mutually exclusive.
Tatchell's comments came as he joined several other prominent UK activists to launch the 10:10 campaign, which called on folks in the UK to cut their emissions by 10% in 2010. And if the LGBT population were to sacrifice their carbon footprints for this campaign, we'd be making a monumental difference in the fight to save the planet.
"Queers make up one in ten of the population. By reducing our energy consumption by a tenth, ‘pink power’ can help save the planet,” said Tatchell.
And hey, wouldn't it drive the anti-LGBT crowd nuts to know that 'pink power' helped save the planet?
