George Broadhead casts a global eye
over the world’s news.
Milk of human
kindness
The governor of
California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has
created a day to recognise the gay atheist
activist Harvey Milk, who was assassinated
in 1978 by Dan White, a Roman Catholic and former city
supervisor.
Harvey Bernard Milk was
born in May 1930, and was the first openly
gay man to be elected to public office in
California, when he became a member of the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
He had a short career in
politics, but became something of a gay icon
in San Francisco, and a martyr to gay
rights.
Now, Schwarzenegger has
signed bills to introduce Harvey Milk Day in
the state and to recognise gay marriages
performed in states in which they are legal
(same-sex marriage is not permitted in
California state law, although it had been
legal for a few short months before a
measure called Proposition Eight made it
illegal).
“The governor had 700
bills to sign or veto by midnight on Sunday
[11 October],’ Pink News told us.
“Gay rights activists feared he would veto
all in a row over water supplies for the
state.”
Presidential
Medal of Freedom
The Pink News
account continues, “Harvey Milk Day will be
a special commemorative day to encourage
schools to recognise the activist’s work.
Nearly 40,000 California residents signed
the petition for the commemorative day. It
will not be an official holiday, but will
encourage schools to remember Milk’s
actions.”
In August this year,
President Barack Obama awarded Milk the
Presidential Medal of Freedom for his
contribution to the gay civil-rights
movement; it was accepted by his nephew,
Stuart Milk.
Also in that month, it
was announced that Milk was to be one of the
13 California Hall of Fame inductees at the
California Museum.
Schwarzenegger’s wife
Maria Shriver founded the Hall of Fame at
the Museum in 2006. She says, “Now more than
ever, I see how the perseverance and passion
of one person can have a lasting impact in
the lives of people, not only in their
community but across the world.
“Biggest hearts”
“When talent and a
relentless drive are matched, the efforts of
a single individual can create a legacy of
change, hope and empowerment. Every
individual inducted into the California Hall
of Fame symbolises the biggest hearts, the
greatest drive and the deepest inspiration.
It’s an honour to induct these extraordinary
individuals who have each made their own
unique mark in history.”
The 2009 California Hall
of Fame induction ceremony will take place
at the California Museum, Sacramento, on 1
December.
State Senator Mark Leno,
who represents San Francisco, welcomed
Harvey Milk’s induction. Leno is the first
openly gay man to sit in the Senate and is
the author of a Bill that would create the
Harvey Milk Day in California. “Today’s
announcement by First Lady Maria Shriver
recognises the important leadership role
Harvey Milk played in our state and nation
and further illustrates the historic and
international nature of his legacy,” he
said.
Sean Penn
played
Harvey Milk in the film Milk.
“I appreciate the First
Lady’s support and admiration for Harvey’s
work to further equal civil rights for all
people. He gave his life for what he
believed in, and in doing so gave hope to
generations of LGBT Californians who
continue to struggle for full equality.”
Presumably,
Schwarzenegger has had a change of heart:
last year, he vetoed a bill that would have
made Milk’s birthday a day of “special
significance” in California public schools.
Meanwhile, as you might
expect, members of the religious Right are
angry at Schwarzenegger’s decision – and
this is
reflected
in the respected blog Holy Bullies and
Headless Monsters, where writer Black
Tsunami quotes Randy Thomasson, from an
organisation called Save California, as
saying:
“Harvey Milk Day” teaches
children as young as five years old to
admire the life and values of the notorious
homosexual activist Harvey Milk. The
“suitable commemorative exercises” that are
part of “Harvey Milk Day” can easily result
in cross-dressing exercises, “LGBT pride”
parades and mock gay weddings on school
campuses – everything Harvey Milk supported.
Black Tsunami’s response
to this is:
So
honoring Harvey Milk will cause children to
come to school “crossdressed” as members of
the opposite sex?
Who
knew. Someone should tell Thomasson that
this already happens via powder puff
football games and spirit week activities.
Now as
for that other stuff – lgbt
pride parades and mock gay weddings – there
is nothing wrong with a school having
events, i.e. parades and the like, just like
there is nothing wrong with a school
commemorating Black History Month or Women’s
History Month.
No
doubt Thomasson is conjuring up images of
school children in leather chaps and
carrying whips or dressed as colorful drag
queens.
And
Harvey Milk was supposed to be the pervert?
In all
seriousness, Thomasson is sounding the
hysterical alarm. And rather badly too.
Earlier this year,
Milk, a film of his life starring Sean
Penn, won two Oscars, including Best Actor
for Penn.
Stephen Gately
The Boyzone singer Stephen Gately died of
natural causes on 10 October 2009.
But that didn’t stop
the Daily Mail publishing an odious article
by Jan Moir the day before Gately’s funeral
in Ireland. She put the right-wing,
reactionary, bigoted cat among the gay
pigeons with her obnoxious suggestion that
there was something sleazy and unnatural
about his death.
Thanks to comments
made, separately, by Stephen Fry and Derren
Brown via Twitter, Moir’s comments provoked
a wave of anger on the Internet.
A record number of complaints (21,000 and
rising) have been lodged with the Press
Complaints Commission (PCC). I understand
that although not in its remit, the PCC
could investigate, especially if Gately’s
family lodge a complaint, the PCC may enter
the fray. Moir, has blamed an “orchestrated
campaign” for the backlash of complaints
against her.
Big brands, such as Marks & Spencer and
Nestlé, have asked for advertising to be
removed from the offending online page.
Nestlé said it did not share the views
expressed in the article. Meanwhile,
Gately’s record label, Sony, have lodged a
complaint.
Moir appeared to
suggest that the Boyzone singer died because
he was gay and said his “sleazy” death
struck “another blow to the happy-ever-after
myth of civil partnerships”.
Following the outrage that her article
provoked, Moir, in a statement, refused to
apologise and denied her article had been
homophobic.
Well, she would,
wouldn’t she?
Meanwhile, Father Declan Blake, the Catholic
priest who conducted Gately’s funeral at St
Lawrence O’Toole Church in Dublin, said that
the singer “held a deep connection with the
church. It was where he was baptised and
received Holy Communion.”
One wonders whether Gately was aware of the
hostile stance the Catholic Church
officially takes on gay sexual relationships
and legalised gay partnership. His gay
pop-star friend Elton John certainly showed
that he was when he publicly attacked Cardinal Winning,
then head of the Catholic Church of
Scotland, for his outspoken homophobia, and
said that religion ought to be banned.
Perhaps, like so many
gay Catholics, Gately turned a blind eye to
this.
On 20 October 2009,
Andrew Cowles, Gately’s husband, issued this
message of thanks through the Stephen Gately
Official Website:
Message from Andrew
I want to thank all of
Steo’s fans for the messages and kind
thoughts you have sent to his family,
friends and I over the past very difficult
days.
It’s hard for everyone
who knew Stephen in any way to come to terms
with the loss of someone so special at such
a young age. I know from the messages I have
received that he touched the lives of so
many people and it's comforting to know he
made such a positive impact on everyone he
met.
In time I hope we’ll
all be able to remember the happy times we
shared with him and the joy he brought to
our lives.
Thanks again
Andrew
Self-censorship in Germany
An example of how fear of
religious backlash has led to
self-censorship comes to us from Germany,
where a publisher, Droste, has pulled a
novel because of a reference to the Koran.
Many thanks to Rainer
Broemer for this translated extract from an
article
published in the German political magazine,
Der Spiegel.
For fear of Muslim
attacks, a Düsseldorf publisher, Droste,
pulled a detective novel due to be published
shortly. To Whom Honour is Due, by
Gabriele Brinkmann, writing under the pen
name of W W Domsky, had been examined by an
expert to identify passages potentially
endangering the safety of the publisher’s
staff or his family.
The author refused to
replace the passage, which said “shove your
Koran up your . . .” with “shove your
honour”; or “the green hell first” with “the
green kitsch”, so the publisher returned the
rights to her. “Since the [Danish] Mohammad
cartoon affair, we have known that phrases
or images defaming Islam cannot be published
without incurring a safety risk”, said
Droste.
As far as I know,
and Broemer agrees,
no
Muslim has complained about this novel, nor
have they in the case of the Yale University
Press book, The Cartoons that Shook the
World, which is about the affair of the
Danish Mohammed cartoons (the “Motoons”, as
they’ve become known in the blogosphere),
which is to be published without the
cartoons that are its subject! Nor have some
other instances where publishers or
producers have self-censored for fear of
violence. (See also “Related links”
at the bottom of this page.)
According to
Broemer, “There has been a historical
precedent, though, when Haidar Haidar’s 1983
novel Banquet for Seaweed was
reprinted in 2000. In this book, one of the
villains of the plot curses Islam and the
prophet, and, although the Syrian author
made it clear that he did not endorse these
‘blasphemic’ lines, the reprint was censored
in Egypt after violent protests by students
from the religious Azhar University.”
Transgendered teacher is
fired in Canada
A transgendered
substitute teacher who was fired by a Roman
Catholic school board in Canada has
filed a human-rights complaint demanding to
be reinstated.
Although Jan Buterman has
been praised in a dismissal letter for his
teaching abilities, he’s been told that his
gender change from woman to man doesn’t fit
with the teachings or values of the Catholic
Church. The letter says the teacher would
confuse students and their parents.
“I am horrified that this
would happen to anybody,” said 39-year-old
Buterman, who taught social studies, German
and French in the well-to-do bedroom
community of St Albert, near Edmonton.
Jan
Buterman:
determined to get his job back
“I don’t think that
someone’s medical condition is really fodder
for your employer. It should not be any of
their business. I respect people’s beliefs,
I do. That doesn’t mean they get to ignore
the laws we have around equality.”
The letter, from Steve
Bayus, deputy superintendent of schools,
tells him:
The reason for removing
you from the substitute teacher list follows
a conversation we shared in which you
indicated that you had been diagnosed with a
gender identity medical condition and that
you were undergoing physical gender changes
from the female gender to the male gender.
In discussions with the
Archbishop of the Edmonton Diocese, the
teaching of the Catholic church is that
persons cannot change their gender. One’s
gender is considered what God created it to
be.
The Alberta Teachers’
Association, which is backing the teacher’s
complaint, are dumbfounded by the issue.
Dennis Theobald, a
spokesman, said the union doesn’t believe a
person should be discriminated against on
the basis of gender or sexual orientation.
Buterman’s complaint contends that he was
discriminated against on the basis of his
gender identity and because he suffers from
a recognised medical condition known as
gender identity disorder, says Theobald.
Covered by law
Julie Lloyd, an Edmonton
lawyer and a human-rights activist, has said
that transgendered people are clearly
covered by the law. She’s mystified that a
government-funded school board that is open
to students of all faiths should have made
such a decision.
Buterman says he’s
determined to get his job back. “I would
really like to see this clarified. I think
it is important for me, and I also think it
is important for Canadians in general to
know about equality,” he said.
“I didn’t ask for this, I
assure you. I am a cancer survivor. I didn’t
ask for that either but it was a much
simpler process.”
Protest after Igwe attack
After the Nigerian
campaigner Leo Igwe was attacked this
summer, the president of the International
Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), Sonja
Eggerickx, has written to protest to the
Nigerian High Commission.
Igwe, executive secretary
of the Nigerian Humanist Movement and a
supporter of gay rights, is also employed by
IHEUas one of two
consultants in Africa with the task of
helping to promote humanism in the African
continent.
Leo Igwe: glasses
smashed
However, Igwe was set
upon by a mob in July.According to the IHEU website, “A
symposium organised mainly by the Nigerian
Humanist Movement on Child Rights and
Witchcraft Related Abuse has been attacked
by about 150 to 200 members of ‘Liberty
Gospel Church’ led by Helen Akpabio.
“They seriously disturbed
the symposium by exercising violence on
participants, in particular against Leo Igwe,
direct IHEU representative, taking away his
bag, camera and mobile phone and destroying
his glasses, in a determined attack lasting
for nearly an hour.”
Leo Igwe will be
providing an article for the next issue of
G&LH. Meanwhile, you can see some of
the incident we’ve been reporting on in this
video:
Floyd on Humanism
The life of the
British TV chef Keith Floyd, who died in
September at the age of 65, was marked by
family and friends at a Humanist funeral
service, which took place in Bristol, and
you can see a short video of it
here.
I was not a fan of Keith
Floyd, but was intrigued to learn that he
had a Humanist funeral ceremony.
Keith Floyd: cheers!
Other celebrities who
have had Humanist ceremonies include the
world-famous, award-winning gay ice-skater
John Curry (whose ceremony in Warwickshire I
arranged), comics Ronnie Barker and Bob
Monkhouse, pop star (and later actor) Adam
Faith, and jazz performers Humphrey
Lyttlelton and George Melly, who, until his
death, was a vice-president of both CHE
(Campaign for Homosexual Equality) and GALHA
(Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association).
POPE – People Opposing Papal Edicts
It won’t have escaped
your notice that the Pope, Joseph Ratzinger
– or Benedict XVI, as he prefers to be known
– is due to visit Britain next year, and, in
my capacity as secretary of the Pink
Triangle Trust, I’ve issued the following
news release calling for protests. It soon
began to appear in online LGBT outlets.
Gay
Humanists call for strong protest when Pope
visits UK
The gay Humanist charity
the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT) has called for
a strong protest to be made when Pope
Benedict XVI visits the UK early next year.
The PTT’s secretary
George Broadhead said: “This pope has shown
himself to be paranoid about homosexuality.
His opposition to LGBT rights knows no
bounds. In his Christmas message last year
he declared that saving humanity from
homosexual behaviour was as important as
saving the rainforest from destruction. This
must be the most outrageous and bizarre
claim yet made by someone who has already
got a well-deserved reputation as one of the
most viciously homophobic world leaders on a
par with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and
Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
“The Vatican reinforced
its anti-gay reputation by strongly opposing
a UN declaration calling for an end to
discrimination against gays and the Pope’s
Christmas message provided clear evidence of
an obsession about homosexuality which is
tantamount to paranoia.
“It is imperative that
the strongest possible protest be made when
he visits the UK next year,” continued Mr
Broadhead. “This is not without precedent.
During the last papal visit to the UK by
John Paul II in 1982, a protest called POPE
(People Opposing Papal Edicts) was
instigated by the Gay Humanist Group, of
which I was a founder member.
“It had the support of
other gay and secular organisations,
including the Campaign for Homosexual
Equality and the National Secular Society.
On the occasion of the next papal visit, we
must pull out all the stops to demonstrate
our opposition.”
Demonic nutcase:
Joseph Ratzinger whose opposition to LGBT
rights knows
no bounds.
Also of interest: my
article “The Paranoid Pope
in a recent Gay & Lesbian Humanist
magazine, where we discuss Pope Benedict’s
condemnation of gays; and our “Out of print”
article (taken from an earlier print edition
of the magazine), “Enter the Enforcer”
by Matthew Thompson.
Meanwhile, see
here,
where members of the Gay and Lesbian
Humanist Association (GALHA) and others
gathered outside the Labour Party Conference
in Brighton on 30 September to protest
against Gordon Brown’s invitation to the
Pope to carry out a state visit to Britain.
Gays are not acceptable,
says UN assembly chief
The Muslim president of
the General Assembly of the United
Nations, the Libyan Ali Abdussalam Treki,
thinks homosexuality isn’t acceptable for
most of the world.
He made the comment when
he was opening an assembly session.
He was asked by some
journalists what he thought of the
“Declaration for the Universal
Decriminalisation of Homosexuality”. It
seemed that he didn’t think much of it,
because his reply was, “It is a very thorny
argument. As a Muslim, I do not agree with
it. I believe it is not acceptable for most
of the world, and it is totally unacceptable
for our tradition and religion.”
Duty-bound
I believe this is
outrageous (and said so in a news release on
behalf of the PTT at the time) – but the
personal views he expressed are hardly
surprising, really, given the intrinsic
homophobia of the religion he adheres to.
However, like other
members of the General Assembly, he is
duty-bound to represent the principles and
the aims of the United Nations, according to
the Charter adopted on 26 June 1945, with
its respect for human rights and fundamental
freedom for all human beings. Instead, he
has implicitly endorsed the barbaric
treatment of thousands of gay people
throughout the world. He should be asked to
resign or removed from office.
Roy Brown of
the International
Humanist and Ethical Union
I’ve received a comment
from Roy Brown, the International Humanist
and Ethical Union’s main representative at
the UN, who told me, “Of course, Mr Ali
Abdussalam Trekki is entirely right in
saying, as a Muslim, that homosexuality ‘is
not acceptable by our religion, our
tradition’.
“What is deeply worrying
is his clear but unspoken belief that
Muslims’ primitive religious taboos should
therefore trump human rights – a view that,
sadly, is becoming increasingly common among
Muslim delegations throughout the United
Nations system.”
(Incidentally, Roy Brown
will be writing an article on this subject
in the next issue of G&LH.)
ILGA, too
The International Lesbian
and Gay Association (ILGA) has also shown
its concern about the remarks. It says in a
news release that it “is deeply worried and
outraged”.
The ILGA news release
goes on:
In an interview prior to
his first address to the UN Assembly in his
new role, Mr Treki declared himself to be
not in favour at all with reference to the
statement in favour of the decriminalisation
of homosexuality signed by 66 countries and
read by the Argentinian representative last
December at the General Assembly in New
York.
Furthermore, Mr Treki
said that the matter referred to by the
statement, i.e. decriminalisation, was not
acceptable in the majority of the world and
that there are some countries that allow
[homosexuality], thinking it is a kind of
democracy.
Considering that the
statement called for the universal
decriminalisation of homosexuality, one
cannot but conclude that the new president
of the UN Assembly is . . . in favour of
criminalising lesbians and gay men,
bisexual, trans and intersex people. The
worrying and serious implications of this
attitude, coming from the new head of an
institution which is supposed to regard
human rights all human rights as the most
sacred value, cannot be overstated.
We appeal to the
representatives of the States which signed
the statement against criminalisation of
homosexuality, but also voted for the
election of Mr Treki in his new position, to
demand an explanation to the UN Assembly
president for his words and react
consequently.
Brüno banned
More assaults on freedom
of expression come predominantly from Muslim
Malaysia, where Sacha Baron Cohen’s film
Brüno, which is about a gay fashion
journalist, has been banned for its gay sex
scenes and depiction of gay life.
The movie’s already been
banned in Ukraine for the same reason.
A spokeswoman for
Malaysia’s film censorship board has told
the Press Association, “It’s banned because
the story is based on gay life [. . .] There
are a lot of sex scenes. It’s contrary to
our culture.”
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