Gay Loggers for Jesus, Tea Partiers rally in Bozeman Montana
One freedom not taken for granted in Bozeman this Independence Day weekend is freedom of expression. Two very different groups held morning parades down Main Street, beginning with the Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus. Organizers say the group celebrates what’s right about America. Brian Leland, president of the group, said, :”We’re asking folks, shop on your way down Main Street, we have an entire hour to get from here to the courthouse. If you want to stop, get a cup of coffee, please do so.” One logger said, “I think it’s awesome that people could come out here and raise protests and speak their mind and show their affiliation for whatever particular cause they belive in. Another logger noted, “I think the 4th of July is a great day to come out and support the President of the United States, I can’t think of anything more patriotic.” The second parade, the Bozeman Tea Party, brought in a larger crowd and a message far more critical of the status quo.
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Africa: Gay and lesbian voices in African blogosphere
Homosexuality is perceived as a new phenomenon in Africa and a taboo. It is outlawed in many African countries. Many African leaders have condemned homosexuality as being un-African. The Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe once described gays as worse than dogs and pigs. Former Namibia’s President, Sam Nujoma, once stated that “Homosexuals must be condemned and rejected in our society.”
Nigeria introduced a bill in 2007 banning same sex marriage. According to Rod 2.0 the bill is the most comprehensive homophobic legislation ever proposed in the world. Early this year homosexuals in Nigeria stormed the National Assembly seeking for legislation that will guarantee the protection.
Lifestyle, culture and religion have become the invisible fence to many homosexuals in Africa barring them from their freedom of sexual expression. A Kenyan blogger, Wilde Yearnings, was quite optimistic after US President Barack Obama officially declared June being a gay pride month and decriminalizing of homosexuality all over the world earlier this month. He posted Obama’s speech on his blog:
My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world…NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.
Naughy Feeling commented on the post:
It is great our comrades in America are getting recognition. In our dear country we can’t stick our necks in the sand and tell ourselves all will be well. The gigantous task ahead demands of us that we kid not ourselves of the responsibility ahead of us. It may require sacrifices but all for the greater good. May God bless LGBT kenya n give us strength for what is ahead. But hey, look on the bright side, we can still have fun at it.
But will culture, religion and lifestyle factors derail the decriminalisation of homosexuality in most African countries or will it be as Wilde Yearnings described “meanwhile in Kenya… The struggle continues…”?
It has been said that homosexuality is a lifestyle adapted by Africans from the West, SebaSpace a Ugandan blogger tries to points out that his “sexuality” and “him ” are one, that homosexuality cannot be a lifestyle because for him to be involved with someone it has to be sexually, emotionally and spiritually bringing the fact that homosexuality is a physiological function too.
SebaSpace has been on a constant war with an anti-gay blogger also from Uganda and the war is always revolving around religion, culture and lifestyle. This created a stir in the LGBT blogosphere and another gay Kenyan blogger wrotes a post to answer the three questions The Red Pepper had asked. The questions were:
1. If you try to drink water through the ear, you naturally spoil it because it was created by God to do the hearing function. That’s physical harm.
2. when they discovered you were gay. You know very well how we love having grandchildren in Africa. Imagine what goes on in your parents’ minds to know that you will never give them grandchildren (I am assuming that you a die-hard gay man but if you are bi, please forgive me). So that is emotional harm.
3. Spiritual harm. You tamper with God’s plan of procreation. Understand that the main reason of creating the sexual organs was procreation purposes. For you in an attempt to be very creative, you put your organs at the disposal of pleasure only (I hope it is fun).If you have radical parents, they can start questioning God as to why he gave them such a child. I know parents of a gay boy who visited scores of witchdoctors thinking that their child had been bewitched. I can give you as many reasons as possible. I hope you are an objective gentleman who looks at things objectively.With so much hate from all sides, will the African Leaders put their priorities in order from all the pressure by the UN, IMF and World Bank and speak out for the sexual minorities or will still hold them in this invisible cage?
His answers:
The Ugandan rag called Red Pepper has been engaging Afro gay, a fellow Gay blogger from Uganda in arguments regarding the situation on Homosexuality in Uganda. Follow this link to see the full post. Recently, the editor of red pepper wrote to Afro arguing that he (Afro) was causing Physical, emotional and Spiritual harm to his family by being gay.
I promised Afro that I will write my responses to the Editor on my blog and link back with him. I have taken their questions, edited without altering the message and I have responded to each question.
I tend to disagree with you when you say that homos have never done anybody physical, emotional or spiritual harm.
Without any prejudice I want to tell you that they are guilty of all the three accounts.
Count 1. If you try to drink water through the ear, you naturally spoil it because it was created by God to do the hearing function. That’s physical harm.
Red pepper has made three elementary mistakes (assumptions) 1) The common one that homosexuality is equal to sodomy (their shallow analogy of the ear above) 2) Following number 1 above that sodomy is practiced only by homosexuals and 3) That all homosexuals engage in anal sex.
I will deal with the last one first. Is the paper saying they are ok with someone with homosexual orientation as long as they don’t engage in sex? Have they ever heard of celibate gay people and gay people who don’t engage in anal sex? Well, I have and know both types.
It’s worth noting, that from the very beginning sodomy and homosexuality were two categorically separate things. The correct definition of sodomy–then and now–is simply non-procreative sex, whether practiced by heterosexuals or homosexuals. It includes oral sex, masturbation, mutual masturbation, contraceptive sex, coitus interruptus, and anal sex–any sex in which semen does not find its way into a uterus.
The anal sex thing is one elephant in the room, but it’s not an inherent part of being gay, it isn’t an activity engaged in exclusively by gay people.
SebaSpace refused to answer the questions from Red Pepper. He gives reasons for his refusal: @ Africa: Gay and lesbian voices in African blogosphere
Global Voices Kenya
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Do Obama and Miss California Have the Same Position on Gay Marriage? Sort of.
By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I was at a, err, opposite-sex wedding
over the weekend when one of the guests asked me, presumably as the member of the MSM on hand, why Carrie Prejean, Miss California, gets lambasted for being anti-gay marriage, while Barack Obama
The answer lies in tone and nuance.
It is true that Obama’s position is that marriage is “between a man and a woman” and that he is “not in favor of gay marriage.” That said, he articulately advocates for the rights of gay couples on things like hospital visitation. See here, for example, starting at about 1:06: “When I sit down and read scripture and I think how would Jesus feel about somebody not being able to visit someone they love when they’re sick, I conclude that that is something that’s important.”
And it is possible that some portion of people suspect that Obama would favor gay marriage were it a politically viable position: He’s secretly with us, not like that nasty Miss California. And even if that’s not the case, he’s good on enough other stuff that he can get a pass on this.
Then there’s Miss California, whose now-famous answer to the question seems like instant, inadvertent beauty pageant satire. See Do Obama and Miss California Have the Same Position on Gay …
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/do-obama-and-…
Washington is ready for 44
(Washington) At 11:30, Barrack Obama becomes the 44th President of the United States in a ceremony dating back to George Washington, who took the oath of office in New York, then the capital of a new nation.
Obama comes to office with the highest approval ratings of any President in history. …
Analysis: Obama’s comprehensive support for gay equality
What can lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans Americans expect from the new President of the United States?
Barack Obama, who will take the oath of office tomorrow afternoon at noon (5pm GMT), is the most gay-friendly politician to lead America.
During his campaign for the White House, the former Senator from Illinois spoke about his personal friendship with gay people.
“Michelle and I have been blessed with many openly gay and lesbian friends and colleagues whom we have been close to for many years,” he revealed in a series of written answers to a gay newspaper.
“While that fact has made the issue facing the LGBT community more personal, the fundamental reasons I have for supporting equality are greater than any individual.
See Analysis: Obama’s comprehensive support for gay equality PinkNews.co.uk
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/01/analysis-obam…
