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Rex Wockner

International News
UK LORDS REFUSE TO BLOCK ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW In a 168-122 vote, the United Kingdom's House of Lords refused March 21 to block a new law that bans anti-Gay discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services. The legislation takes effect April 30 everywhere but in Northern Ireland, where it already has come into force. The Roman Catholic Church is upset over the measure and has threatened to close its seven adoption agencies rather than comply and place children with Gay couples. In response, the government granted the church 21 additional months to come into compliance with the law or transfer its knowledge and expertise to the secular sector and shut down its agencies. English church head Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has said it is "unreasonable, unnecessary and unjust discrimination against Catholics for the government to insist that if they wish to continue to work with local authorities, Catholic adoption agencies must act against the teaching of the church and their own consciences." EURO PARLIAMENT GAY GROUP DENOUNCES POLAND The European Parliament's Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights expressed alarm March 22 about government-sponsored legislation in Poland that would ban discussion of Gay topics in schools and punish teachers who violate the proposed law with firing and a fine or jail time. The intergroup said such a law would "ban LGBT people from working in education and ... flagrantly violate the principles of non-discrimination enshrined in Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union and would also go against the [EU's] Employment Framework Directive." Intergroup President Michael Cashman, a Parliament member representing Britain, said the group will push for European Commission "infringement proceedings" against Poland for "continually and repeatedly adopting decisions and considering actions which blatantly contravene existing EU laws." Polish Deputy Minister of Education Miroslaw Orzechowski said March 15 that under the proposal, teachers who come out at work or otherwise promote homosexuality "or other sexual deviance" will be fired and fined or jailed. "These kinds of people cannot work with children," he told local radio. "These activities need to be acted upon ... before it's too late to make a difference." The measure also targets principals, who would be fired if they allow members of Gay organizations to speak to students, the Polish Press Agency said. According to the German news service Deutsche Presse-Agentur, the legislation is the handiwork of Roman Giertych, who serves as both minister of education and deputy prime minister. At a recent meeting in Germany, Giertych told fellow European education ministers that "homosexual propaganda must ... be limited so children will have the correct view of the family. ... If we will not use all our power to strengthen the family, then as a continent there is no future for us. We will be a continent settled by representatives of the Islamic world who care for the family." Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski has called Gays "perverse" and his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, has warned that if homosexuality "were to be promoted on a grand scale, the human race would disappear." EURO PARLIAMENT, U.S. LEGISLATORS DENOUNCE NIGERIAN BILL The European Parliament has called on Nigeria's National Assembly not to pass an extreme anti-Gay bill that would outlaw Gay marriage, visiting a Gay Internet site, public or private gatherings of Gay people, and nearly everything else associated with being Gay. But the European Region of the International Lesbian and Gay Association says the parliament's March 16 move was not strong enough. "We believe a more targeted resolution on the specific situation of LGBT human rights defenders would have sent a stronger message to Nigeria," said Executive Director Patricia Prendiville. "We fear that the current outrageous bill outlawing any activities representing and protecting the human rights of LGBT people in Nigeria is not prominently dealt with by the Parliament, and this issue might lose its momentum by being shelved together with other ongoing human rights concerns in Nigeria." The bizarre bill states, in part: "Publicity, procession and public show of same-sex amorous relationship through the electronic or print media physically, directly, indirectly or otherwise are prohibited in Nigeria. ... Any person who is involved in the registration of Gay clubs, societies and organizations, sustenance, procession or meetings, publicity and public show of same sex amorous relationship directly or indirectly in public and in private is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a term of 5 years imprisonment." In Washington on March 20, openly Lesbian U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and 31 of her colleagues sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging her to contact the government of Nigeria and voice opposition to the legislation. "The bill outlaws advocacy organizations or associations supporting the rights of Lesbian and Gay people, and prohibits public expressions of support for equal rights for Gay and Lesbian Nigerians," the House members said. "Not only would Lesbian and Gay Nigerians be treated as second-class citizens and constantly in fear of arrest and prosecution for simply exercising free speech if this legislation were to pass, but it would also greatly hamper the vital mission of human rights defenders in advocating for basic and equal human rights, as well as Nigeria's massive battle against HIV/AIDS." The legislators also urged the State Department to issue a public statement opposing the bill. PAPER: JAMAICA HAS LOTS OF GAY COPS There are a "large number" of Gay cops in Jamaica, the Jamaica Observer reported March 18. One policeman told the paper homosexuality is "rampant" in the Jamaica Constabulary Force. Inspector Gladys Brown-Campbell, a spokeswoman with the police legal affairs division, acknowledged: "We have quite a large number of them in the force but they are not openly acknowledged. They are still in the closet. "Those who we know are treated with a great level of respect as they themselves are respectful, refined and intelligent," she added. "Their level of intelligence far outshines persons considered to be normal. The force has quite a number of them, men and women." Gay sex is illegal in Jamaica and Superintendent Norman Heywood, chairman of the Police Officers Association, told the paper "the rule of law would be enforced if the offense of buggery was committed by any police officer." But other cops told the paper that sexually active Gay and Lesbian cops are usually simply transferred to a certain division, which they declined to name. In the Philippines, meanwhile, National Police spokesman Samuel Pagdilao issued a warning to Gay cops March 21 that they must not exhibit sexually suggestive behavior while on duty, such as swaying their hips. He told DZXL radio that hip-swaying or other lustful misbehavior is grounds for firing. LEADING SWEDISH CHURCH EMBRACES MARRIAGE FOR SAME-SEX COUPLES Sweden's dominant Lutheran Church will marry same-sex couples if the government legalizes same-sex marriage, the Swedish Church Assembly said March 16. Sweden has had a registered-partnership law that grants same-sex couples the rights of marriage since 1994, and is now planning to extend full marriage rights to Gays and Lesbians. A church spokesman said priests would be allowed to choose individually whether to marry Gay couples, and the church might call same-sex marriages something other than "marriages." About 78 percent of Swedes are Lutherans, though most don't go to church. The United Church of Canada is believed to be the only mainstream Christian church that performs same-sex marriages at present. Full same-sex marriage is legal in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain and Massachusetts.
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by Rex Wockner - SGN Contributing Writer "I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts. I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way. As an individual, I would not want [acceptance of Gay behavior] to be our policy, just like I would not want it to be our policy that if we were to find out that so-and-so was sleeping with somebody else's wife, that we would just look the other way, which we do not. We prosecute that kind of immoral behavior." --Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace speaking in support of the military's anti-Gay "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, to the Chicago Tribune, March 12. "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word faggot, so I'm ... kind of at an impasse -- can't really talk about Edwards." --Pundit Ann Coulter addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference, March 2. "C'mon, it was a joke. I would never insult Gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean." --Coulter in a March 3 e-mail to The New York Times. "I do want to point out one thing that has been driving me crazy with the media -- how they keep describing Mitt Romney's position as being pro-Gays, and that's going to upset the right-wingers. Well, you know, screw you! I'm not anti-Gay. We're against Gay marriage. I don't want Gays to be discriminated against. I don't know why all Gays aren't Republican. I think we have the pro-Gay positions, which is anti-crime and for tax cuts. Gays make a lot of money and they're victims of crime. No, they are! They should be with us." --Pundit Ann Coulter addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference, March 2. "I was kissing her because that's what you do, you kiss your loved one when you win an Oscar, that's what I grew up believing." --Singer Melissa Etheridge backstage at the Oscars Feb. 25 after she kissed wife Tammy Lynn Michaels before accepting the best-original-song trophy for "I Need to Wake Up" from Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. "This is the only naked man that will ever be in my bedroom." --Singer Melissa Etheridge holding her trophy backstage at the Oscars Feb. 25. She won the best-original-song statuette for "I Need to Wake Up" from Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. "Even today, when I write books that are not centrally involved with Gay life, these books are put into the Gay shelves of the bookstore. I don't like labels. I don't like being called a Gay writer. I'm Gay -- proudly so -- and I'm a writer, a writer who's amassed quite a body of work." --Author John Rechy to the Palm Springs Gay magazine The Bottom Line, Feb. 16. "That term sex addict really makes me laugh. Did I have abundant sex, oh yes ... my God yes, undeniably so. But being Gay allows us to experience an abundance of sexuality. ... I find that we should celebrate that difference in our lives from that of heterosexuals, I think we are different people -- that's a very good thing. I don't like what I call heterosexual imitation, because our lives are very, very rich and I don't want to see that gone. As far as sexual addiction, I would just call it bountiful sex." --Author John Rechy to the Palm Springs Gay magazine The Bottom Line, Feb. 16. "I'll try anything once and if I like it I'll go back! Even at my age, I still consider myself sexual, but I don't consider myself Bisexual or homosexual or heterosexual. I think that those are trapping words. They paint sex as some sort of philosophical thing. We spend more time going to the john than having sex -- I would hate to be identified by how I go to the john!" --Poet Rod McKuen to the Palm Springs Gay magazine The Bottom Line, Feb. 16. "It definitely is the Gayest show on TV: We have a kid who's into musical theater; Marc, who is totally Gay; and Daniel's brother who is a transsexual." --Ugly Betty actor Michael Urie, who plays Wilhelmina Slater's assistant, Marc, to the Dallas Voice, Feb. 23. "We don't know how many citizens ... have this unusual sexual orientation, but the Gay clubs are free to carry out their sexual activity. What we say is that we are against propagating, we are against promoting. Like any other society, we want to protect ourselves from the promotion of alcohol and tobacco. When we promote smoking, it's bad, it's wrong. [T]hrough the Gay parade you promote some uncertain people and it becomes an invitation to acquire this quality of the sexual minorities. [It is saying that] this is OK, that's normal, this is useful. Our view is that it is wrong and unusual. Let the Gay people do what they do, but they shouldn't involve other citizens of our country. ... I am not going to allow the Gay parade." --Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov during a press conference in London with the pro-Gay mayor of London and the openly Gay mayors of Berlin and Paris, Feb. 28. The four had just finished their annual summit, which also was attended this year by the mayor of Beijing. "Yuri! You do not become homosexual, there is no risk of propaganda. This is not a disease you catch at some point. It is somehow part of our identity. Some of us have brown skin, some of us have fair skin, some of us have brown eyes, some of us have blue eyes. We are born heterosexual or homosexual. And that's it." --Openly Gay Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë to Mayor Luzhkov at the same press conference. "Abortion must be banned immediately. Homosexual propaganda must also be limited so children will have the correct view of the family. ... The propaganda of homosexuality is reaching ever younger children. In some countries it is even forbidden for children in hospital to talk or read about Mommy and Daddy, because this allegedly violates minority rights. Let's free ourselves of this unwise political correctness. If we will not use all our power to strengthen the family, then as a continent there is no future for us. We will be a continent settled by representatives of the Islamic world who care for the family." --Polish Deputy Prime Minister Roman Giertych, March 2. "I don't want to keep on lying and lie to myself because of fear. [The photos of my Canadian same-sex marriage published by a gossip Web site] show a part of me, a part that I was not prepared to speak of in fear of rejection, of criticism, but especially for my family and its consequences. ... I believe love is the purest feeling that exists and in this career filled with loneliness, having the opportunity to share those moments with someone, that when you look into their eyes, you forget all the negative things, it's a gift of life, that I cherish more than fame. ... I don't think this is a defect, I won't deny it. Although I'm scared and filled with uncertainty I know that I can rely on the support of my fans, their love is bigger than all of this. I ask them from the bottom of my heart, not to judge me for being honest and to feel proud of who they are and never make the same mistake I did." --Mexican pop star Christián Chávez of the group RBD, writing on the group's Web site, March 2. RBD is popular throughout much of Latin America and among Latinos in the U.S. "I came out when I was 27 and I couldn't stop talking about it actually. My friends thought it was a career death wish. But I have always been really grateful that I wasn't in the closet, and I didn't have to spend so much energy concealing, because it really does change the integrity of your work. And when you see somebody perform and then they come out, you just see a freedom, you know, like Rosie. There's a certain freedom and power in regaining your authentic self." --Comedian Kate Clinton to the Palm Springs Gay magazine The Bottom Line, March 2. "[It's] a corporation designed to milk the Gay market for money to hire more fundraisers and marketers to milk more Gay pockets. It's a racket with a plush new multi-million dollar headquarters and salaries that would make corporate America blush. Have they actually done anything for Gay rights? After a couple of decades observing them, my own view is: nada. ... They get tens of millions of dollars a year from well-intentioned Gay men and Lesbians. They've been doing it for years. And what have we got? Nothing. Wake up, guys. Give your money to people who actually fight for Gay equality." --Writer Andrew Sullivan on the Human Rights Campaign, on his blog, March 7.