HAPPINESS ALERT: We´re back! Safe at home and securely tucked-away under our very own active volcano! UPDATED!

Get on your mark, get set, ready...it was a go!

Jenn and John hosted our first on-the-road meal/picnic...delicious chicken sandwiches served al fresco on the lawn of the historic Castillo San Felipe, Rio Dulce

Bungalows Neptune (pictured), Forest/Bosque and Saturno...Finca Isobel...amongst the best fun/food and frolicing at the Peten.

A REAL Stallion named Casanova...he gives meaner looks, snorts, jeers and generates more terror than Petey Akinola preaching a Mynnwritten roundup against the LGBT heathens/hooligans and aledged ¨unholy.¨ (reminder to +Uganda and +Nigeria: there are no free rides and you can´t make a champion race horse out of a Old Gray Mare or a Ass).

Juan Carlos and the Cacao Fruit Tree (inside of the fruit are the seeds for chocolate)

Wild Turkeys and Chachalacas can fly high at the Rain Forest...but we knew that already, verdad?

The Swimming Hole, swimmerless but not motionless...they must be kidding if they thought anybody sane/sober was going to jump right in.

Ellen enters the Dining Room at Finca Isobel. Ellen and her identical twin sister Irene repeatedly and enthusiastically entered the dining room during our two day visit to the finca. The food was great!

Downtown Pre-Classical Period...Architecture (includes Art), Astrology, Priesthood (don´t ask/don´t tell and tallest feathers count!)

Central Park, Tikal, Irene and Leonardo, not Pre-Classical in personal age but we´re hanging out on the edges of *it*.

Exposing my ¨dark side¨ late in the afternoon, Tikal, pre-classical.

View of the past, pre-classical.

Amongst the earliest ancient temples of the first people (the first group were of Mongolian heritage) used by priests to determine rainfall (Tikal is a Rain Forest not a jungle).

A Royal rebuilding project, pre-classical. New temples were built upon older existing, standing sacred building sites.

In the beginning, one of the foundations of Mesoamerica...before the era of the ¨Warrior King¨ games.

Monkeys abounding...Mama and Baby seen here (constantly avoiding hungry Jaguars).

A visitor at our Bungalow at El Remante, Peten.

Everyone loves Juan Carlos. Even the 8 Peacocks at Hotel La Mansion del Pajaro Serpiente.

If you got it, flaunt it at El Remante!

Yikes, there goes the neighborhood...a family of Iguanas moved right in!

The contents of Vanna White (except for Juan Carlos who took the picture) lunching at the island of Flores, Peten!

Vanna White goes on a short cruise accross the river.

UPDATE/TRAVEL NOTE: Quite often one reads about the horrible banditos (or worse) in Guatemala, Mexico and Central America. It has been my experience, including the above one week road trip (traveling mostly during daylight hours), that ALL the people, including the police (we were stopped for ´speeding´ yet went on with a warning and without a ticket being issued), were helpful, polite and WILLING to be of service (my car brokedown once in the mountains outside of Coban and we found a fabulous magical mechanic who fixed it for around $6.00 U.S. and repaired a huge, sixinchish gash in the water hose)...I DO PAY attention to the price of things, I ask in advance and I ¨bargain¨ when possible...it´s cultural and it´s easy to be less cautious with money because most everyone is extra friendly and polite in the cities or in the campo and prices seem very low when compared to stateside...also, a note about food. The Fruits and vegetables are outstanding and abundant/inexpensive...restaurants at/around tourist hotels were considerably more expensive than more modest/clean restaurants along the way...one meal in the rural mountains nearing Coban offered large platters of Grilled Chicken Breast and/or Beef Filet (also offered a animal you´ve never heard of but one of our group ate it and loved it)...the price was less than $5.00 U.S. (including natural rice, mixed fresh veggies and toasted rolls or tortillas) each. Purified water and every well-known soft drink brand are available at tiny little stores even in rural or remote areas...bags of snacks are plentiful and pineapples, coconuts (juice and meat), melons, bananas/other are sold along the roadside, on makeshift tables (or in heaps) almost anywhere they grow.

Thanks to Juan C. Fuentes/Photos
Thanks to Leonardo Ricardo/Photos
Thanks to John and Leonardo/Driving
Thanks to Jenn, Irene, Ellen/Great company
Thanks to Vanna White
Thanks to Finca Isobel
Thanks to Tikal Inn (and Roxanna, the very best guide in the entire WORLD)
Thanks to Hotel La Mansion del Pajaro Serpiente, El Remante, Peten
Thanks to Posada Coban, Coban, Alta Verapaz
Thanks to Irene and Ellen for adding a little white puppy dog (live and immediately named ¨Coban¨) during our travels in Alta Verapaz and thanks to John who gave him all the necessary inoculations immediately.

ONWARD and UPWARD: ¨Dark at the Top of the Stairs¨ and/or ¨Let the Sun Shine In¨

I´m off to climb one of the ¨stairways to the stars¨ (also the name of a LIVE television talent program of my youth where I failed to qualify while singing ¨This Is My Country¨ at the audition...I sat by the telephone for weeks, apparently I was no Kate Smith...so, now, and finally, I´ve gotten over *it* and the horrid rejection from ¨show biz¨ which made me Gay (It certainly couldn´t have been anything else as I come from a typically Betty Crocker illustrated household living environment complete with a white house/dark green trim, manicured gardens and lawn and equipped with a gorgeous Mom and handsome athletic Dad and mean older Sister and a Cocker Spaniel named Taffy)...besides, every Summer I went to Church Camp for a week!

I´ve decided to climb another type of staircase instead and abandon my earlier dream of notoriety and fame....a more famous staircase from Mesoamerica and not some silly kids television program in the Pacific Northwest starring ¨Blue Monday¨and ¨Gang¨..I´ll be climbing stairways to see the REAL STARS! Take that, World!

Dear Friends and Blogging Associates, Companions in the ¨Fellowship of the Spirit,¨ Episcopalians/Anglicans and Blog ¨Followers¨: I will be away for a week.

Por Favor God, keep your eye on our little group of travelers as we aspire to admire some of your all time greatest wonders/hits and please keep a eye on my Blogging belovedones too...as they know exactly what they do!

SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!

MISCHIEFMAKING MITRE ALERT!

PLEASE DON´T ALLOW OROMBI/AKINOLA OR VENABLES TO STEAL ANYTHING WHILE I´M OFF DUTY HERE AT THE FOOT OF THE VOLCANO! A INVENTORY HAS BEEN TAKEN and AUDITED!

Pray for our LGBT sisters and brothers and all other innocents who are persecuted, tormented, jailed, outcasted and murdered in Uganda, Nigeria, Sudan, Kenya, Iran and beyond.

REAL PEOPLE/REAL HEROS: The Religious Roots of HOMOPHOBIA: The Allure of Fundamentalism and "The Illusion of Certainty"

"Never let other people define your reality or put you into bondage to their ways of thinking."

The Reverend Dr. Jerry S. Maneker, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at California State University, Chico.

"A Church that doesn't provoke any crisis, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone's skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of society in which it is being proclaimed, what gospel is that?¨

Archbishop Oscar Romero (1917-1980)


By Dr. Jerry Maneker

¨It has always seemed remarkable to me how the Gospel of Jesus, the God Who preached and lived a life of unconditional love; Who told us that the only Commandments we were to live out are the love of God and the love of others, and we are to never judge or condemn anyone, could be perverted in such a way that many professing Christians see no contradiction between proclaiming themselves to be Christians on the one hand, and then advocating and preaching discrimination against Gay people, and historically other minority groups, on the other.


What could be the roots of this clear disconnect between the Gospel of grace and love on the one hand and the vituperation of many professing Christians directed against our LGBT sisters and brothers on the other hand? After wrestling with this problem for many years, I wrote an article entitled, "The Illusion of Certainty," which is an updated revision that is currently appearing in my weekly newspaper column entitled, "Christianity and Society," that appears in the newspaper, The Sacramento Valley Mirror.


Taken from ¨A Christian Voice For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights,¨ click here and read the entire updated revision.

¨...So, to those who lack sufficient emotional/sexual intactness, a gay male poses a threat to the definition of "manhood" as culturally defined; a lesbian poses a threat to the definition of "womanhood" as culturally defined, despite the fact that gay men can be "masculine" and lesbians can be "feminine" in regard to culturally approved gender performance, but not in the imaginations of homophobes (many, if not most, of whom are heteronormative and misogynistic) who need to see sexuality, gender performance, themselves, and most things that impact their lives in terms of dualities that are largely, if not solely, defined as being appropriate by the culture, and by religious sources that, unfortunately, all too often largely take their cues from the culture in which they are enmeshed, and which erroneously and tragically depart from the reality of human existence...¨


Read the entire ¨Illusion of Certainty¨ by The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker, click here.

Thanks to The Sacramento Valley Mirror
Thanks to A Christian Voice For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights (at the side bar)
Thanks to Dr. Jerry Maneker
Thanks to Flickr Photosharing

Lost Job? Something helped me: Getting resized and rightsized...back to basics!

As I was reading my favorite blogs (found at the right side bar) this morning, I came to ¨EpiScope¨ which is a newsy sort of blog produced by The Episcopal Church.
Today they had a story by Terry Pluto, a Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper columnist, that I found interesting at the ¨Faith and You¨ section which is entitled: ¨Let laid-off colleagues know they're not forgotten.¨

In the body of the article was this suggestion:

¨...Some experts advise not to compare their situation to yours. But if you really did lose a job and found something that helped, you can share that...¨

Things that have helped me:

I´ve been living in Latin America for over two decades (mostly) and currently I´m retired and living on my U.S. Social Security check at a small town in Central America.

At the village where I live it is populated by very low paid farm workers and their very large families...many Coffee Plantations and Flower Growing enterprises (for domestic and export) are the major employers to the community...in other words, my everyday living circumstances/surroundings have been far scaled back from more opulent living days when I once thought I must have all sorts of ¨extravagant things+¨ in my life...I was wrong, modest living is best (even if I fudge on comfort and decor, afterall, I´m a artist).

Living practical, back to basics+ and sometimes even getting forced to get ¨resized¨ and ¨rightsized¨ has improved the quality of my everyday life (a doctor visit here is around $6.00+ and medicines are a fraction of the cost that one pays in the U.S.).

Many years ago I lived in Puerto Rico and had a small chain of stores in Puerto Rico (and one in Laguna Beach, California). I designed and had made ¨off shore¨ all of the merchandise for my stores. They thrived and I thrived in the creative product development and retail environment...it was my ¨dream¨ after working for major department stores and then later importers in the fashion business.
I was so busy building my colorful retail concept that I of course hired many people to help me. The financial person I hired turned out to be a very clever thief. My life´s dream ended after he fled never again to be seen. I was devastated after spending six intense months trying to discover and ¨fix¨ the depth of the fraud committed that I had to file for the liquidation of my successful, yet ill-managed, stores...I´m getting to the point.

The morning after I filed, turned in the keys to the Bankruptcy Lawer, I returned back to my home. I was a nervous wreck, felt lost, betrayed, exhausted and very sorry for myself. I sat on the sofa in my living room and tried to read a novel. It didn´t work. I was not distracted from my emotional and spiritual upset...I didn´t know what to do as my ¨financial expert¨ had emptied my personal banking accounts too (a whole different never to be resolved matter, forgery).

I decided to get outside of myself and do ¨something/anything¨ about my looming financial problem.

I went out immediately and got a job making $3.35 dollars a hour (after decades of success and prestige in the retail and wholesale industries where I made big money) at a Gift Shop that specialized in souvenirs for tourists. Shortly afterward, and while continuing to work at the ¨souvenir¨ store, I started noticing that there were many things that would sell to tourists easily. Small things I could make easily with readily available materials. There simply was not a great variety of merchandise to sell to tourists so I started making ¨giftwares¨ and some ¨apparel¨ for my new employer. We did a great business and my income rapidly grew and I actually produced the merchandise and sold it (while being paid to be the comissioned salesperson).

Back to my point: If you need a job or extra income try to find the something(s) that you ¨do¨ very well (could be cooking, sewing, cleaning, painting, designing, building, repairing, styling) and there may be a NEED FOR! Become your own marketing/product development person, manufacturer and salesperson. No need to start big. Start small. One customer at a time equals extra income.

It worked for me and often you can help others generate income by becoming a customer of theirs too! Pay people to help you (especially if you see they could use the extra bucks).

Plain Dealer Columnist
Wednesday February 11, 2009

by Terry Pluto

¨Ken called just as I was starting this column about what to say to a friend who has been laid off. He was returning my call from a few days earlier. I mentioned the story I was writing.

He laughed, because it beat crying over his own lost job...¨

and

¨...Some experts advise not to compare their situation to yours. But if you really did lose a job and found something that helped, you can share that...¨

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, read the whole story, click here:

EpiScope, read it all, click here:

Thanks to The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Thanks to EpiScope (at the right sidebar)
Thanks to The Episcopal Church
Thanks to Flickr Photosharing

REAL PEOPLE/REAL HEROS: ¨We are campaigning for the very existence of the Anglican Church¨ The Reverend Trevor Donnelly, Church of England

Gaining Perspective:

¨I have been wearing my Inclusive Church badge for a few months now
(details on how to buy yours in this issue). At various times and in
various places people have asked me “What’s that all about?” I dutifully
explained what Inclusive Church stands for, and found I got a very different
response depending on whether I was talking to Church-goers or not. Usually
Church-goers would say (when I reached the bit about LGBT) something like
“You’re fighting a loosing battle there!” (to be fair my diocese is Rochester, not one renowned for inclusive practice). By
contrast, if I was speaking to a nonChurchgoer
they would almost invariably say “surely that’s just a matter of time now?”
It is easy for those of us who are deeply immersed in the life of the Church of
England to forget just how far out of step the Church has become with progress
made in secular society. Those who would condemn people because of their sexuality
are the extremists, those who would deny the ’top jobs’ to women are the extremists.
We are not just campaigning for justice in the C. of E. – we are campaigning for the
very existence of the Anglican Church, because if we fail then the Church will be
so far behind secular morality that it will be viewed as something between the “Flat
Earth Society” and the B.N.P. Join the campaign for a more just church, a
more inclusive church, for the very future of the Church!¨

Trevor Donnelly+

Inclusive Church Newsletter, February 2009, read it all, click here

Thanks to Inclusive Church
Thanks to The Reverend Giles Goddard
Thanks to The Reverend Trevor Donnelly
Thanks to Flickr Photosharing

Making ¨nice nice¨ with the Devil and his pals: UPDATED, February 8th, SUNDAY! Do we support bigotry with bailout funds?

It´s late afternoon, Latin America. The Birds are chirping loudly and the flowers are blooming loud colors. The Sun is streaming down...it´s the kind of day when accepting REAL life, no playing pretend, no thinking in denial, no ¨only if¨ passes my way...the train has left the station and there is no going back...all seems well yet there is more work to do, more people to serve and save from preventable disease and death and more humanity to embrace...more neighbors to love.


In the last weeks time there have been many things that have made me glad (and a few things that make me sad). The clear victory of decency and good-will toward all women and men happened in the United States Capitol of Washington D.C....President Barack Obama is a REAL reason for a sigh of relief and a huge THANK YOU GOD, Amen! AMEN! The World, and everyone of us in it, have been given another breather, another chance at peace, prosperity and a better understanding of one another, again...intellect and skill, as well as grace and basic manners and kindness have come to The White House.

Whew. It seems that a negative and obsessive national burden has begun to be lifted again. A immoral burden, a social injustice burden, a climb out from under pending doom and worldwide economic disaster burden.

Sorry, there is more to do, the Devil and his buddies are running out of control. Again. Still. Some of the work is urgent. People are dying, many are suffering in places like Sudan, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Uganda and many are already dead.

Robert Mugabe, despot and self-selected President of Zimbabwe, tyrant, master scapegoater of others and murderer.

Never in my lifetime have I seen such outward expressions of everyday, FEAR displayed in public as the past eight years both in the United States and abroad...manmade acts in those years that seemed to encourage and celebrate war (I was a child, unaware of the acts of vileness during WWII), murder, torture, insult, rudeness, thievery, exploitation, resentment, punishment and plain old HATE. Never have I seen so many people give themselves permission to hate others, harm others, pontificate zealously, segregate other citizens, demonize and isolate *different* human beings while loathing others as they damn one another to Hell. All done, Proudly, Intentionally, Boldy. No humility, no shame..it´s been a eight+ year long WORLDWIDE, accross the board, SMEAR and terror CAMPAIGN! A political and religious hate campaign ending with great loss of integrity for everyone everywhere.


Never have I seen/heard so much degrading fantasy, and lies spewed out and about against LGBT people, and other minorities. Preached by religious and political leaders who don´t lead. Instead, these boys (and they mostly are bullies and immature, damaged, feardriven old men) plant poisoness and contaminated seeds of acting out against others as they preach/speak about the abominated lives of you, me and the all the other aledged ¨heathens¨...you know, the marginalized, the demeaned, the damned, the despised...we are to be found in the last and furthermost corner of everyday life where there is still universal ignorance and feardriven hate.

James Dobson, Focus on the Family, a breeder of dissension within families.

The NETWORK behind ANTI-GAY funding, read it all, click here

As if any of fear and hatemongering religious/political activists knew me or my character, sins or not, or yours, or my Heterosexual, Bi, Gay or Transgender friends down the street...these are hate and fear-mongers, everyday citizens, brothers, sisters, lovedones and friends are being persecuted by spiritually disturbed/twisted zealots.

Howard F. Ahmanson Jr, IRD Fundamentalist ¨Christian¨ moneyman, Savings and Loaner (inherited wealth), recluse and major contributor for YES on Prop 8, California.

BREAKING UPDATE ON Howard AHMANSON Jr. and others Follow the anti-LGBT BIG Money, do we indirectly help fund BIGOTRY with U.S. taxpayer bail out money? Read it all, click here:

QUESTION: Ought LGBT citizens, our families, our friends and lovedones and co-workers be using the Howard Ahmanson Jr, Savings and Loan related services and those of his bigoted buddies? Are we paying into the very financial firms that use their profits and payrolls, bonuses and/or other ¨perks¨ to slander, harm and exclude us?

Read more about the background and current antics of Howard Ahmanson Jr., Savings and Loaner, click here:

Faux ¨religious¨ mudslingers turned gunslingers know nothing about the inside of me, my actual character, or yours and/or our relationships with other human beings and with God. These fundamentalists assume ugliness about you and me, they spread fear and hate, they sometimes encourage massacre and war and they ALWAYS demand we adhere to whatever it is that they insist upon is their correct, flawless and exclusive version of Truth and Light!

Bishops Minns and Akinola of the Akinolan/Anglican Church cult of Nigeria...their CANA cult, Nigerian Anglican Church U.S. branch is currently in court for attempting to poach on many properties of The Episcopal Church in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The case has now gone to the Commonwealth Supreme Court (and may be headed for the U.S. Supreme Court).

Archbishop Akinola, who compares gay people to dogs, and calls their children bastard hooligans read all about Bishop Akinola and his deadly, and various, fear/hate-mongering inspirational messages, click here:

Never have I felt and seen the results of such strident defaming of others that has often resulted in outcasting, jailing, tormenting, murder and the instigating of crime and laws of hate as in places like Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya the West Indies and Iran...all done in the name of a God who needs no defense and furthermore COMMANDS us to Love God and to Love Our Neighbors/One Another as Self.

Bishop Henri Orombi of the Anglican Church of Uganda thinks Homosexuality was ¨imported¨ to Uganda so he is currently backing a ¨witch hunt¨ at all levels of everyday life in Uganda to cleanse Uganda of LGBT sinners of all religious stripe. Bishop, like Colonial Era blamer Mugabe, Orombi has also initiated and conspired for ¨takeovers¨ of various Episcopal Church properties at the Diocese of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A....the California Supreme Court just said NO to him with his takeover attempt and said NO to his bigoted accomplices too..Thou Shalt Not Steal. Got it, Henri? Are you ¨listening¨ or are you once more going to appeal for your right to demonize, demoralize, and exclude other human beings at all levels of Churchlife?

SELECTIVELY quoted Scripture...is ESPECIALLY NASTY when the Scripture is mistranslated or simply misunderstood/ignorantly preached, and/or intentionally rewritten to intentionally harm or control other human beings as The Reverend Göran Koch-Swahne will help you see more clearly. click here to read it all and scroll down for the English, also available at the right sidebar: all done, once again, continously, to cover the vile actions of religiously ¨righteous¨ folks, or to ¨cover¨ exploitive activities of those who attempt to GET, GET, GET no matter the cost to humanity.

UPDATE by The Reverend Göran Koch-Swahne read it all, in English, at the right side bar or click here:

They insist and demand that we understand the God of their grasping, clutching, feardriven and angry puritan religious ¨man made¨ cultism.

It won´t work. It´s never worked out well at the end for terrorfied, and insecure, liars and thieves who cover their actions with selfrighteousness at Church. That´s part of what we´ve been faithfully been helped to come to see/believe. It´s just not going to happen. The anger, the hate, the thieving can´t be sustained...and now, it seems, to me, there is a clear opening in the heavens to let GOD shine down on us again. Yet another chance at everyday decency! Again and again we´ve been given the opportunity to Love God, to Love Oneanother and to face REALITY...it looks like RIGHT NOW we have another opportunity to make ¨nice nice¨ or simply say NO to those who lack personal, and collective, integrity at the expense of our Brothers, Sisters, Mothers and Fathers at The Body of Christ and beyond.

It´s time to let fear drop away. It´s time to GROW UP EMOTIONALLY and SPIRITUALLY and to face God and REALITY and say no to pompus liars and thieves and to challenge the devil as he and his pals instigate/preach hate against humanity!

Thanks be to God that we can finally SEE before those holes in holiness tear the WHOLE fabric of humanity to shreads.

The Liars Club, Bob Duncan/Pitts (center right/blue), designated North American Arch Grandiose Wizard.

DEATH and/or prison for ALL LGBT PEOPLE in GAMBIA...President Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Azziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh struts his stuff.
President Jammeh´s Miracle’ concoction of green paste, bitter drink and bananas to cure AIDS raises alarm. Read it all, click here;

Fear! Gotcha? Who sent ya?

Thanks to Göran Koch-Swahne (at the right sidebar)
Thanks to End Bigotry In Venango County (at the right sidebar)
Thanks to Thinking Anglicans
Thanks to MSNBC
Thanks to Gay 365
Thanks to Wikipedia
Thanks to Flickr Photosharing

Misogyny and Gay Rights: ¨Part of the resistance to gay equal rights is ultimately about the beginning of the end of patriarchy¨ Bishop V.G. Robinson

Bishop V. Gene Robinson, Out/Partnered Gay Bishop, The Episcopal Church, Diocese of New Hampshire, U.S.A.

Gay Religion Blogspot Editor's note: The following article originally ran in The Blade's Nov. 14, 2007, issue. We are reprinting it here as part of our Jan. 23 Politics & Religion special issue. Robinson recently gave one of the invocations at the opening celebration of President Obama's inauguration. read it all, click here:

Middle Collegiate Church's annual Pride and Passion conference explored the volatile intersection of homosexuality and theology. The East Village church's two-day event, which included workshops and lectures, couldn't have been more timely. The same week in November, thousands of New Yorkers protested a local Mormon church and rallied against California's gay marriage ban Proposition 8.

As the first openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church, New Hampshire's V. Gene Robinson knows first-hand the religious wrath often directed at the LGBT community. His 2003 election has split the national church.

"Even nonreligious people have to deal with religion on the issue of LGBTI rights [the 'I' stands for 'intersex']," he said. "In no other civil rights movement that I know of has scripture played such a roll. We ignore that at our own peril."

Middle Collegiate Church—part of the Reformed Church of America—has long embraced its LGBTI congregants. "We also have classes about human sexuality," said the Rev. Jacqui Lewis, the church's senior minister. "We talk about faith and sexuality because we think it's a gift from God."

At Middle Collegiate Church, Robinson delivered a talk titled "Dancing in the Temple: Why Religion Matters in Our Fight for Equality," and he engaged in an hour-long Q&A session and also spoke with The Blade. The following excerpts—in his words—are highlighted topics from the bishop's exchanges.

Misogyny and Gay Rights. Part of the resistance to gay equal rights is ultimately about the beginning of the end of patriarchy. The connections between misogyny and heterosexism are astounding. The classic defense against gay bashing is, "He made a pass at me." Can you imagine if we locked up every man who ever made a pass at a woman? But if you treat another man as a woman, well, we take a baseball bat to your head.

A very common thing in the ancient world when one army conquered another was raping and pillaging. But the raping was of another man—one of the most degrading things you could do to a man was treat him like a woman.

In the Leviticus passage [thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind], the sin seems to be for the man to allow himself to be treated as a woman. There seems to be evidence that the insertive partner did not receive the same punishment.

Homophobia vs. Heterosexism. I almost never use the term homophobia. Most people understand phobias as fears. And a lot of people say they don't fear us at all—they just hate us. What we are really talking about is heterosexism. Let's review what an "–ism" is: prejudice plus power. Racism is when white people set the system up to benefit themselves at the expense of others. What I like about using the word heterosexism is that it puts responsibility where it belongs.

The Opposite of Love. One of the principles I operate on is that the opposite of love is not hate, it's fear. I try to remember that [anti-gay people] are coming from a place of fear. The more hateful they sound, the more fearful they are. What I try to do with detractors is figure out what it is they're afraid of.¨

Thanks to Gay Religious Blog (at the right sidebar)
Thanks to The New York Blade
Thanks to Flickr Photosharing