Hey there blog-munchers! How are we doing? Fabulous.
This is part 2 of my gay marriage matters entries, if you were unfortunate enough to have missed out on part 1 then please follow this link to a full explanation of how to put down classic anti-gay marriage arguments. Now this blog will be my attempt to explain why it’s important that you care about the gay marriage debate. If you’re from my native United Kingdom then I imagine this will be a particularly strange issue to wrap your head around. The debate has been resolved hasn’t it? There were some odd protests by strange hypocritical scotsmen in funny clothes but Dave Cameron basically sorted it all out with no alarms. There have been no riots, no extreme right-wing reactions and not a single orgy is in sight. On the one hand you’re quite right, it has been sorted and this country is elegantly mincing down the yellow brick road to equality city.
However, as we put our feet up in Britain we are at risk of voluntarily turning a blind eye to the devastating effect of bigotry against this minority. It’s one of the most depressing facts that more countries criminalise homosexuality than condone legal unions between homosexuals. Our international blindness has led us to a feeling of national contentment and the assumption that things are basically alright with the world. Readers may even feel ever so slightly smug that in the place they call home homosexuality has been legal for their entire lives. However, a cursory glance over the history of gay rights will tell you that the chances are your country has only had these rights for less than a century – most likely a couple of decades.
As an aside – it is worthy of note that an even stranger quirk of the world I live in is that in more than a handful of countries it is actually legal to be a lesbian but not to be a male homosexual. I can practically hear your jeers but please contain yourselves as I review the sexuality ethical standards of the leading developed nations.
United Kingdom:
Legal since 1967 (England & Wales) 1981 (Scotland) 1982 (Northern Ireland)
Civil Partnerships created 2005
Gay Marriage legalised 2013
Gender Recognition Act protects LGBT 2004
Not too bad all in all! But the horrendous torture we subjected Oscar Wilde, Alan Turing and countless anonymous others to in the early 20th century will hang over us forever. For these poor people the order of the day used to be rehabilitation, chemical castration and electro-shock therapy to cure their ‘illness’.
USA:
Legal since 2003
Gay Marriage/Adoption/LGBT rights varies by state
Allowed to serve openly in the military since 2011
Things are definitely improving in the US and it’s refreshing to see that they have a serving government that federally recognises the legality of gay marriage but it is disheartening to note how tragically recent the flood of progression has been. They all need to watch the film Milk.
China:
Legal since 1997
No legal recognition whatsoever
It’s hard not to feel that homosexuals are sub-citizen in the most populous country in the world.
Australia:
Legal since 1994
Gay marriage banned federally under the Marriage Amendment Act 2004 (though there was an attempt made this year to legalise it but at least one house of parliament in each state voted against).
Rather surprising to me that there is a fairly strong anti-gay marriage sentiment in the outback but the signs are that this will change
Russia:
Legal since 1993
No legal recognition whatsoever
Cannot serve in the military
Enforced ban on homosexual ‘propaganda’ that may influence children
Homophobia: An International Commitment
So far I’ve only laid out intolerably broad analyses of the ways homosexuals are treated internationally but now I’ll take us a little further into the waters of specificity. Below I will list news stories that caught my eye over the past year and a half regarding gay rights around the world. I implore that you dig up the most empathy you can possibly feel and imagine what it must be like to exist in a state that deplores your existence.
N.B. As a favour to you I thought I should point out that it’s not essential that you should read anything but the headline from these news stories.
Returning briefly to Russia I want to attempt to emphasise the full importance of what Putin and the duma have done. They are a country that will have the privilege of hosting the World Cup and Winter Olympics within the next 5 years, and as willing visitors we become complicit in accepting their degradation of homosexuals within their own country. I don’t expect to inspire a boycott but I do encourage you to spare a thought for the persecuted away from the glamour of the international sport on show. You might be interested to know that Putin compared homosexuality to paedophilia when speaking on the issue. Think of THAT meme lovers when you poke your sharp critical satire up American Republican noses then admire Putin for his hard-nosed ex-KGB inspired thuggery i.e. all the manly stuff he gets up to (usually topless).
This is the equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears and although this show of petulance doesn’t bring bloodshed it is barbaric nonetheless to tacitly wish for the declining health of the sexual minority.
This is just bizarre!
It’s stunning to me that one of the first countries to remove any sanctions against homosexuality from their constitution should be so opposed to equal rights for homosexuals.
The proposal for the infamous ‘kill the gays’ law rolled out this year and was promised as a christmas present to voters. Fortunately, this bill has been revamped to not include the death penalty for homosexuality but merely a hefty prison sentence due to international criticism. Though it is a little disconcerting that we don’t exactly know what’s going on with the bill now as the Ugandan government have opted to discuss the bill in secret so that international critics won’t lambast their views.
We think we’re sitting pretty here in Britain but it would be a myopic mistake for us to forget that we are (regrettably) a member of a commonwealth that largely acts against the interests of gay people.
It may surprise you to learn that this story isn’t focused on the condemnation of yet another republican. But in fact the attempts of organisations like the American Center for Law and Justice to export their homophobic prejudices to other countries through offshoots such as the East African Centre for Law and Justice that attempt to lobby against foreign governments (in this case Zimbabwe) that support LGBT rights. The moral of the story is that we shouldn’t be afraid to export our own pro-LGBT views because these people certainly don’t hesitate.
It may be amazing to people to discover that this popular holiday destination is the home of religious barbarism, which has manifested itself this year in the violent death of the country’s first gay and secular blogger.
“Homosexuality is anti-god, anti-human, and anti-civilization. Homosexuals are not welcome in the Gambia. If we catch you, you will regret why you are born. I have buffalos from South Africa and Brazil and they never date each other. We are ready to eat grass but we will not compromise on this. Allowing homosexuality means allowing satanic rights. We will not allow gays here.”
Religion: The True Abomination
It’s no secret that the trends reveal that the more religious a society is, the less likely it is that there will be sexual equality.
This occasionally manifests itself in the most outrageous OTT expressions of contempt. This past year we have heard the most strange things from the holy elite; notably Cardinal Keith O’Brien over here in Britain who declared it an “abberation” before gratifyingly being outed as a slave to his own homosexual urges.
For a list of other famous anti-gay advocates that got outed: http://www.ranker.com/list/top-10-anti-gay-activists-caught-being-gay/joanne?format=SLIDESHOW&page=1
Keeping up the traditions established by the late morally bankrupt Pope John Paul II, we find Pope Benedict suggesting he supports the previously mentioned ‘kill the gays’ law in Uganda by blessing the proposer of the hideous bill. While not as bad as his predecessor who condemned millions of africans to an unpleasant death at the hands of AIDS when he decreed that condom use was the world’s greatest evil, he certainly had a good stab at the title. More eagle-eyed followers may have noticed that his Christmas speech a few years back focused rather unnecessarily on the depravity of homosexuality.
Pope Francis: Saviour of the LGBT. This man has been heralded as a new hope for new age liberalism; seemingly invoking the crusty old men of the cloth to accept the movements of the society around them with his sporadic, subtle comments that imply his support of gay marriage. However, actions speak louder than words and this priest claims to have been excommunicated by Pope Francis because he supported women’s ordination and LGBT rights.
Maybe the Australian Priest is talking bollocks, the Church never officially explained why he was excommunicated so his summations could just be a load of rubbish. However, Pope Francis’ words of wisdom to Hollande are more damning. Actions speak louder than words…though in this case it’s mainly his words.
Pew conducted a survey using over 38,000 Muslims across 39 countries and the results revealed that 75% reject homosexuality and favour the implementation of Sharia punishments.
Many people tell me that their religion has nothing to do with it, that Muslim views are based on the political and historical context of their countries. However, I think this story from Norway suggests that the faith itself has a lot to do with influencing people across borders.
Again, the religious bodies aren’t afraid to export their views and attempt to influence the minds of our children. It is important that we are courageous enough to do the same. You will notice that the common theme through all of these stories is that governments and religious institutions find homosexuality morally and spiritually bankrupt. Well I ask you now, which side of the moral fence do you want to be on? Because it seems to me that the age-old keepers of morality know nothing about it.
The Cherry Picked
The final place to run for anyone that disbelieves the seriousness of the issue is to assert that I am cherry picking and while I cannot claim that this list of stories is comprehensive, I do claim that cherry-picking does nothing to distort the severity of the issue. I have picked out this last group of stories because they represent the news items that you will have forgotten, that you will have glazed over as they only tell us about a couple of people dying at the hands of bigotry. But I really want you to think about how many of these one-offs you’ve seen, I am certain that if you spent a couple of hours looking up what happens to gay people around the world then you would find a higher number of dead bodies than people you know. After a while the deaths stop feeling like unimportant isolated cases.
The final image depicts the whole crux of the issue for me, we may be over gay rights in this country and that’s fantastic. Gay Pride is something that we enjoy as a nation and I even know many heterosexual people that go to enjoy the celebration. But it is so important for us not to become complacent, we must remember that few in the world are so lucky. Please do enjoy Gay Pride but never lose sight of the fact that while you sing and dance the people you celebrate across the world do not have that opportunity for fear of exclusion, abuse, torture, imprisonment and death.
That is why the bill that our little country passed this summer was so important, it says to the world that this is the direction that civilised society is going and you must all follow.
psychopolemic 