Does Madonna Know What’s Happening
to Gays in Malawi?

A young man was arrested in Malawi recently for distributing posters calling for gay rights. Peter Sawali was posting signs that read, “Gay Rights Are Human Rights” when he was arrested by police and charged with conduct likely to cause breach of peace. Read the full story

On the tails of the news that our fair city of Toronto has been named the host of World Pride 2014, terrible news began to spread through word of mouth and the internet. In the early hours of Sunday the 18th, Chris Skinner, a 20 something gay man was attacked and then run over by a group of men in a black SUV. He was taken to hospital and died of his injuries shortly there after. You can read all about the details here, including if you have any information which may help with the investigation. Toronto Police have said they do not feel the murder was motivated by homophobia, but there seems little reason otherwise. The Entertaintment District is well known for its less then open mindedness, and it hasn’t taken long for the conclusions to be drawn.

The bigger issue I want to make here, is that homophobia is terrorism. Attacks like this, or even much less violent more nuanced versions of homophobia act to terrorize queer people. They seek to make us afraid to be who we are. To be afraid to leave our neighborhood. To be afraid to walk home alone at night, lest we fall victim to an attack much like the one that befell Chris Skinner.

From outright hate crimes to systematic homophobia to Prop8, these seek to terrorize us. It is disgusting to think that the same city could be host to one of the worlds largest annual Pride parades,  I for one will not allow myself to be terrorized.

Recently, I posted a couple of pieces about death squads in Iraq hunting, torturing and killing gay men. This is not a new story it’s been going on since the invasion but has barely been noticed by the media. In both posts I included the email address for the PMO and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

I wanted to share with you the letter I received from The Honourable Lawrence Cannon last week in response to a letter I wrote to him about this horrible situation. This proves that our politicians are listening. Please take a moment to send your thoughts to Ottawa. We can help.

To wit: Read the full story

“We must not be free because we claim it but because we practice it.” William Faulkner

As Canadians prepare to gorge ourselves on turkey and carbs, your brothers and sisters to the south prepare for one of the biggest queer rights demonstrations in history. This weekend, LGBTQ activists will march on Washington as part of a demonstration demanding equal treatment under the law. Gay history is a long a complex one, but the most pertinent of it can be seen in the 20th and 21st century. Starting with Berlin, once a gay mecca, plagued by Nazi Germany’s extermination of homosexuals in addition to the Jews, and other “undesirables” who would lose their lives during the Holocaust. To the Stonewall Riots, the decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada, and the subsequent struggle for rights for all queer people.

Living in the city, we often forget how transgressive our everyday lives are. My average day involves countless things I would be unable to do had I never moved to Toronto. Ours all would. Our freedom is built on the backs of those who came before us. Were it not for Drag queens and dykes at Stonewall where would the revolution be? More conservative leaning gay people especially it seems in North America seem to not want Drag Queens, Leather people, or any open displays of blatant sexuality (ie topless dykes or gogo boys in underwear) to be part of Parades. But I am quick to remind people that our own Pride Parade (one of the world’s largest), was all the result of the police raids on bathhouses. What place is a more blatant symbol of our communities sexual freedom? Were it not for the sexually adventurous, what would Pride be like in Toronto? Would it even exist?

We must embrace our freedoms, and just as importantly ALL people in our communities. We should be grateful that we can even have a parade. That it is no longer called a march. We no longer have to climb the steps of Capital Hill demanding some of the most basic rights. So this thanksgiving, remember we all have something to be thankful for!

In a recent interview with Britain’s Attitude magazine, Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe went on a tirade about homophobia and homophobes. “I just loathe homophobia,” he told the magazine. “It’s just disgusting and animal and stupid.”

He’s really putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to his feelings about gay rights. Read the full story

Inevitably, when there is public discourse about gay rights the issue of – let’s say – gay marriage gets lumped into the same bin with abortion and abortionists (and from the more wildly right-wing fundamentalists, pedophilia and marrying one’s dog or most cherished pet pig).

I’ve often wondered why gay issues get thrown in with abortion (FYI: I support a woman’s right to choose, thankyouverymuch!) as two big lynchpin issues during an election, for example. We’ve all taken it for granted that that’s just what happens when left meets right and right meets wrong and then veers wildly off track. But I got thinking, “how is there even a remote relationship between the two issues?” I know to a certain segment of society, both are considered abhorrent, but that’s where the supposed comparison ends.

In my 45 years as a gay man, I’ve never become pregnant and had to face the choice of whether or not to have an abortion. I’ve also never impregnated anyone (most gay men haven’t – and this is not a piece about gay parenting, a totally separate issue). The closest I’ve gotten to the issue is to listen to women friends who have had an abortion share their stories. I bring this up because I was recently in a discussion around a table with a group of people and this very thing came up: gay rights and marriage and abortion.

What exactly does being gay have to do with abortion, anyway?

I finally challenged those in the discussion (who were not being rude or offensive) to explain why they think the two should be under the same umbrella. No one could, other than to say what I said a few paragraphs earlier, it’s something that a segment of the population finds abhorrent.

If we find ourselves in a public discourse and this comes up, it should be challenged. The people putting us in the same slot as those other issues should be challenged. We should make them come up with a cogent, reasonable and intelligent argument to support their statements. I mean, really, we aren’t baby killers, pedophiles or pig-fuckers; we’re just gay.

I received interesting feedback for a piece I wrote called “When the Right of Refusal is Just So Wrong!”  The piece talked about a marriage commissioner who has been refusing to wed gay couples. The Saskatchewan Party has even tabled legislation to protect his right do so. 

Why I’m addressing this topic again is because of the very provocative feedback I received from one W. Moran. Here’s what this person had to say in response to the original piece:

“W. Moran Says: July 27, 2009

“You people demanded tolerance and acceptance for years. Now you have it – and refuse to return it to the very people who gave it to you.
I don’t happen to support gay marriage, although if you want a civil union, fine. Fill your boots. But at least permit a person their own rights, such as the right to their religious beliefs.
It’s not like MJ’s wish to be married wasn’t accommodated. And you know as well as I do, it was a setup to get Nichols, based on his public statements about gay marriage.
We gave you rights – now how about you return the favour and get off Nichols’ back?”

When I read this I became incensed. Not so much because this person didn’t agree with what I wrote, but the tone and position he or she took in the response. To wit: Opening the response with “You people” tells me Moran doesn’t hold gays in high regard. I can just see the smug look that accompanies those two words. But more importantly, to say that M.J. (the identity of the plaintiff in court documents) used this as a setup to “get” Nichols is a ridiculous statement. Could it be that M.J. was so incensed to be refused their rights that he complained to the authorities? Wouldn’t you?

But the capper for me is the last line: “We gave you rights – now how about you return the favour and get off Nichols’ back?”

Dear W. Moran, to be clear, YOU did not give us our rights. YOU clearly had nothing to do with it. Queer people started to get our rights in Canada when The Charter of Rights and Freedoms was written into Canada’s Constitution. It started when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau decriminalized homosexuality 40 years ago. We got our rights because individuals and groups filed challenges in provincial courts and the Supreme Court to have discriminatory laws and practices struck down. We got our rights because brave people with vision did the right thing. We got our rights because we live in a civil society. Do you see yourself anywhere in there, W. Moran?

As I said in the original piece, if Orville Nichols (who is a CIVIL marriage commissioner) does not want to perform services for same sex couples then he should find another way to be a civil servant that does not put him at odds with his religious beliefs. In his complaint to the Human Rights Commission he said the Charter of Rights and Freedoms should protect his religious beliefs. What he really wants is to have his bigotry protected by law.

W. Moran, how would you react if someone looked at you, made an assumption about you and refused you a job, a place to live, a service or any other basic right? What if you were told, “We don’t serve your kind here.”? I bet you’d be hurt, angered and offended. I bet you’d have something to say about it.

By the way, Nichols lost his appeal to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission last week. The Commission’s original findings from 2007 stand and so does the $2,500 in compensation he had to pay to the gay couple whom he refused to marry.

That, W. Moran, is justice.

He was one of the puppet masters of the Bush administration. He was one of the biggest proponents of waterboarding as a form of torture at his offshore prison camp, Guantanamo Bay and he beat the war drums ceaselessly for eight years, rattling the planet and fanning the flames of fear and xenophobia.

You can imagine my surprise – or should I say slack-jawed shock – when former American vice president Dick Cheney came out in support of same-sex marriage this week. Yep, he’s pro gay marriage.

Cheney was speaking at the National Press Club the other day when he made this stunning pronouncement that gay and lesbian people, “ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish.” He went on to say he believes the matter should be handled state-by-state and should not be made a Federal issue.

Now, at first glance this statement feels completely out-of-step with the man so intent on bombing the world into submission but there is a rationale behind his thinking: his lesbian daughter Mary. According to Cheney, Mary’s sexuality has greatly informed his attitude about gays and gay rights.

It’s just shocking to hear this kind of openness from a man most people relate to as a heartless warlord. Go figure. I am by no means becoming a fan of Dick Cheney but what strikes me is that someone with his political record and destructive policies and initiatives on a global scale has a soft spot – and its for gay people.

It underscores the importance
of gay people coming out!

I think it underscores the importance of gay people coming out and showing that we are indeed everywhere – even at the family dinner table of such a right-wing politician who seems to have so much contempt for human life. Who knows what his feelings about this issue would be if his daughter stayed in the closet?

What’s even more stunning is that Cheney has trumped President Obama on this issue. Obama supports civil unions for gays.

Ok, Mr. President, it’s time to step up. You don’t want to be outmaneuvered by a big Dick.

Why, in a civil society that supposedly values equality, liberty and freedom for all, would you allow the majority to vote for the rights of a minority?

Today, the California Supreme Court ruled to uphold Proposition 8. That means that the majority of Californians got to vote on the rights and freedoms of a minority. It staggers the mind if you really take some time to think about it. What if White America voted for the rights of African Americans back in the 50s and 60s? In an indirect way they did by voting for certain leaders, but it was never put to public vote. But I digress. California is a small part of a much bigger problem: the fact that in many places around the world, queers are considered “less than” or sub-human.

Look at the state-sponsored violence against gays and lesbians in places like Russia and Eastern Europe. South America has a terrible problem with systemic homophobia and gays are practically killed for sport in countries like Jamaica.

We are human beings, too.

While protests, civil disobedience and lobbying will continue to help change laws, I think the real challenge on a global scale is to make people understand that we are human beings and not all of the horrible labels that are attached to us by the ignorant, angry and scared.

Proposition 8 passed because voters gave into their lesser selves. They believed the lies told by their churches and synagogues and mosques. They succumbed to the poison of politicians who have forgotten what they pledged to protect. They gave in to the fear mongering of the ignorant and hate-filled.

Maybe someday we can help relieve them of the burden of homophobia and hatred they now carry and live knowing that we have reasonable expectation of safety, sanctity and respect in our world.

All of us, everywhere.