California Supremes uphold Prop 8

Even though our countries legal system was partly created to safeguard minorities against majority rule that is exactly what's taking place in California.

As we all know, if it was all about majority rule, Women and African Americans would not enjoy the rights they do today.

Sadly, the California Supreme Court has ruled the majority have the right to oppress a minority.

The only good news is the 18,000 or so existing same-sex marriages in California will still be valid.

Protests will begin tonight in many cities across the country. Visit http://www.dayofdecision.com for more information.

VIDEO: Gay Youth

Urgent petition to save the lives of 128 homosexuals sentenced to death in Iraq

SIGN THE PETITION NOW:

www.petitiononline.com/iraqgay

Petition 2009

Acceptance of Homosexuality

For centuries being a homosexual in Pakistan and India has been a taboo and considered a curse. For most men and women it can mean a lifetime of ridicule and persecution for showing even a slight interest in members of the same sex. With homosexuality classed as illegal under an outdated 141-year-old law that prohibits “unnatural” sexual acts, resulting in a punishable offence, it has become virtually impossible for most Pakistani and Indian homosexuals to be completely open about their sexuality.

At one end it makes you feel happy knowing that there are people who will leave no-stone unturned to achieve what they truly believe is their right, but then on the other hand it makes you miserable and angry on again realizing the fact that our lives revolves so much around the “do’s & don’ts” of the society. A society that will go to any extent to demoralize and ridicule people who do not live up to their society’s set of rules and demands.

Whenever, there is a talk of making a law of homosexual marriages, our society and all anti-gay organizations take the plea of our religions which prohibits such relations. One can invite a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and fine for themselves if they want to fight this matter. This they do with an intention to suspend the matter and have been very successful at it. If one believes that religion is a personal matter, then why can’t one’s sexuality be a personal matter as well? Yes, our religions don’t accept these kinds of relationships but one who does not practice religion will not care about it. It’s a personal choice of every human being to be whatever they want or whatever religion they want to practice, so let it be.

Gays. Lesbians. Bisexuals. Tans-gender individuals have no rights to marry, adopt children or even protest against discrimination at the workplace… in fact, no right to be recognized as normal human beings free to live life as billions of other do around the world. All because of sexual orientation. That is a fearful scepter indeed for our countries where more than 10 to 20 per cent of the population is comprised by Gay, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgenders. Should we continue to allow this inhuman reality?

I think it’s high time that the society starts concentrating its energies in the right direction; like tackling the ever-growing phenomenon of violence against women and children, create AIDS/HIV awareness, etc — and allow consenting adults to make their own choices about sexual behavior.

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Radio guest's views on gays deemed okay

Jacaranda FM did not contravene the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa's code of conduct when regular guest Michaela Rikinis referred to homosexuality in a disparaging way last October.

The BCCSA has found that while some of her comments were perhaps in "questionable taste", it did not constitute a contravention of the code of conduct.

Last year, Dr John Bell complained that Rikinis, who appeared on Clayton Robertse's show, had referred disapprovingly to homosexuality.

"During the show, she referred to homosexuality in the most disparaging way, repeatedly calling it a 'perversion' and 'not normal'. It left the listener in no doubt that 'these people' don't belong in mainstream society," Bell stated in his formal complaint.

The BCCSA has now found that although the words "perversion" and "abnormal" were used in connection with homosexuality, the words complained of, judged in context, did not constitute the advocacy of hatred or incitement to cause harm.

In her judgment, BCCSA commissioner Linda Venter stated that care should always be taken not to extract possible offensive parts from the overall context of a broadcast.

"The tribunal finds that the material broadcast in the programme, judged within context, does not exceed the respondent's right to the fundamental right to freedom of expression.

The remarks may have been offensive to sensitive listeners, but no contravention of the code of conduct can be found," she said.

full article

VIDEO: What’s Morally Wrong With Homosexuality?

Homosexuality and Islam

A controversial film breaks open the taboo topic of homosexuality and Islam
By Ethar El-Katatney

A controversial new documentary, A Jihad for Love, is shattering that taboo by interviewing homosexual Muslims, including an Egyptian gay man ‘outed’ by his arrest during the 2001 Queen Boat raid and an Egyptian lesbian still hiding her sexuality from society. Filmmaker Parvez Sharma had dual motivations: first, to challenge the mindset that Muslim and gay are mutually exclusive, and second, to challenge the Western world’s own Islamophobia.

As a Muslim and openly admitted homosexual, Sharma had to challenge himself to make the documentary in a way that would neither make Islam look bad nor be apologetic. “Sharing some of the stories of condemnation, isolation, [and] pain would make it easy to issue a blanket critique of Islam,” he explains, “[but] as a Muslim I could not allow myself to join the bandwagon of Islamophobes. I knew that I had to be a defender of the faith as a Muslim filmmaker and at the same time engage in a critique of what I knew was wrong in orthodox Islam’s condemnation of homosexuality.”

A Jihad for Love premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2007, where it received official screening honors. It has also been screened in major festivals including the Festival do Rio in Brazil, and the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in South Africa. Theatrical distribution deals, particularly in North America and Europe, are in the works. Audiences are raving; Sharma and his documentary have been featured in international newspapers The Guardian and The New York Times, Reuters newswire, as well as on the CBC, BBC and Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, just to name a few.

“The reaction has been really positive, to tell you the truth,” says Sharma, adding that Muslims who see the film discover it is “actually a defense of Islam and speaks very respectfully.

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Gay animals publicly exhibit sexual tendencies

In the first exhibit of it's kind, the University of Oslo's Natural History Museum presents 51 species of animals exhibiting homosexuality. The display is called "Against Nature?"

"Homosexuality has been observed in more than 1,500 species, and the phenomenon has been well described for 500 of them," said Petter Bockman, project coordinator of the exhibition.

MSNBC.com adequately points out that "homosexuality" and "heterosexuality" are terms defined by societal boundaries, invisible in the animal kingdom.

"I think to some extent people don't think it's important because we went through all this time period in sociobiology where everything had to be tied to reproduction and reproductive success," said Linda Wolfe, who heads the Department of Anthropology at East Carolina University. "If it doesn't have [something to do] with reproduction it's not important."

The argument that a homosexual way of living cannot be accepted because it is against the "laws of nature" can now be rejected scientifically, said Geir Soli, project leader for the exhibition.