MY DREAM FESTIVAL CONTINUES: Last night my dream took me to the bottom of the Minnie Moore Mine (Bellevue, Idaho)

NOTE:  This photo is not my Uncle Dick, but it easily could have been

Down and down into the ground we went.  It was a weekend morning and my friend Tommy Erhmantraut and I were being treated to a very special childhood adventure. My Uncle, Richard Beardsley, was taking us down to the very bottom of the Minnie Moore silver mine where he worked.  I remember the day clearly even though I must have been around seven or eight years old.

Uncle Dick was a WWII decorated hero and a silver miner.  After he returned from the (sometimes hands on)  defeat of the Nazis in Germany, he resumed his everyday life amongst the rugged hunters, fisherman and all-around-out-doorsmen of Saw Tooth Mountain graced Southern Idaho. His grandparents, the Turners (legally changed from Jackson), my great-grandparents, had been amongst the early pioneers to the Wood River Valley, Blaine County and his father, my grandfather, Arch Beardsley, was a engineer in the mining industry (Gold in Utah and Silver in southern Idaho).  My Uncle Dick was a single man, a strong man, a carpenter, a horseman, a serious, yet friendly, silent type of fellow who promised himself he would never again leave Idaho after returning from the war in Europe.  He kept that promise.

Tommy and I dressed for the trip down into the depths of the Minnie Moore Mine by wearing helmets with lamps on them (see photo above).  No doubt our hats were a little large, but, I don't remember that part.  What I do remember most was that we were lowered down in a bucket, just like in the movies, miners descending into the ground with cables clanging...down, down, down, we went.  We were mostly looking up and seeing the sun lit hole in the Earth become smaller and smaller until we arrived at the first station underground...thud.  We three climbed out of the bucket and took a small railroad like train with cars with bins.  Bins that would later haul out the ore from the other end of the line...the far end of the transport line where the miners were currently digging the vein.  I remember being nervous and I whistled.  Uncle Dick quickly told me that ¨miners don´t whistle or sing¨ underground, it´s dangerous.  Dead quiet resumed as our tractor driven train moved along.  We traveled to end of the line where a bright focused light appeared and so did a handful of miners digging the ground.  Picks flailing, shovels digging, some water gushing and generator purring too -- we had arrived at the end of the line of the Minnie Moore Mine,  Bellevue, Idaho, United States of America.

Last night I dreamt it was time for me to become a miner.  It seemed, in my dream, to be a perfect time for exploration again (in the highlands of Guatemala)...vamos a ver.

Will the wonders of being a human being never cease?

Not until I reach the end of the line where, no doubt, there will be a new vein to explore.

Thanks be to God and to Uncle Dick Beardsley for giving/sharing life and for the many kindnesses freely gifted me.

Happy Thursday.

Leonardo Ricardo/Len
Sacatepequez, Guatemala

 

I HAD A DREAM LAST NIGHT: My dearest female friend (and running partner for decades) became a Nun!

Note:  Not ¨Dream Dotoy¨ (not even close) but, you get the idea!

I have a friend whom I will love forever.  She dropped into my world, almost literally, when I was in my late 20´s and changed/redecorated and immediately added hundreds of exciting adventures to my life from the first day.  She lived in the midwest, and does now, and I lived in Los Angeles at the time. We have spent a lifetime meeting up in exotic places (and also some less glamours bars and venues of adventure and no matter where/when/how we were together, it was always great fun).  Spontaneous combustion. 

My friend and I would often fly off to Mexico on the nightbird Mexicana Flight after having a few ¨cocktails¨ or even sometimes meet up in Paris, London, Madrid or flee and take a overnight train to Italy and then quickly book a overnight ferrieboat to Greece.  We gave Puerto Rico a run for it's money for years and are no strangers in Guatemala, Venezuela or other points south. She was/is my very best friend, my very favorite accomplice and she is also the person in this world who knows me best (and I think the insight is mutual).  Onward we go into our 70´s, undaunted.  HAPPY VALENTINES, together or in a crowd (sometimes with other friends and people we may have been dating at the time).  

Last night, my friend, whom I will call Dream Dotoy, came to me in a middle-of-the-night in a dream/vision.  There we were holding hands, walking along to some party and content and happy.  There was only one thing that had changed.  Dream Dotoy had become a nun and not only had a draped head but also had several religious badges pinned to the uppermost top part of her robe (gray, black and white combos).   Nothing had changed between us and off we went to investigate another wild adventure.  What could it mean when my lifelong partner in crime entered a nunnery?

I will send her a link to this blog entry and find out!

YIKES!

GAY UGANDANS MARRY IN SWEDEN: Demonizing, Outcasting and Mortal danger may await in vertically corrupt Uganda

Sweden's The Local reports:

A couple who claim to be the first Ugandan men to be legally married face an uncertain future after recently tying the knot in a Swedish church, with one facing possible deportation that the other fears could result in his husband's death. Last weekend, Lawrence Kaala and Jimmy Sserwadda were all smiles as they exchanged vows in a crowded church in the north Stockholm suburb of Järfälla. "It feels great," Sserwadda tells The Local after the wedding, which was attended by more than one hundred guests – including Sweden's EU Minister Birgitta Ohlsson. "We had been separated in such a hostile environment; we didn't know if we'd ever see each other again." read it all: 

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2013/01/gay-ugandans-marry-in-sweden.html

Thanks to Joe.My.God, sidebar
Thanks to Swedens ¨The Local¨

NOTE:  ¨God loves Uganda¨ (the most terrifying film of the year) http://leonardoricardosanto.blogspot.com/2013/01/god-loves-uganda-most-terrifying-film.html

CHIAPAS THOUGHTS: Little by little -- dot by dot --a painted bench emerges where there was none.

A work in progress:  It´s progressive 

Travel, great times and art work in progress at the foot of the volcano

Lifes design continues to emerge as I go along.   I've just returned from a trip to San Cristobal de las Casas in the State of Chiapas, United States of Mexico.  It was really fun.  The restaurants from modest-excellent to just plain fantastico and the many open markets, shops and informal vendors in the streets were delightful.  Folk art abundant, bright/somber colors weaving in and out creating high style...dazzling from every point of view, but mostly, exciting new interpretations of apparel and  home/fashion accessories, plus interludes with local cultural awareness and some basics in Maya ¨living¨ we quickly learned through...we were transposed into the passionate/determined understanding of the real history of Chiapas for four days/daze.

This is another church in Zincantan, Chiapas. Managed one photo without going to jail. The photo doesn't begin to do it justice. photo/Joan Fuetsch

I went with three friends and we drove directly to San Cristobal in one day (about 13 hours with a few delays like big trucks blocking the way and the reregistering our car when entering Mexico, the Mexicana way and a few military check points around la Comitan.
  

Maya impressions - a work in progress

We were tired when we arrived in San Cristobal but mostly from taking in the stunning mountain vistas and forest scenery along the way.  Up, up we drove through the northern most mountains of Guatemala, above the cities of San Francisco el Alto and  Hue Huetenango as we encountered dazzling, and sometimes breathtaking-away views that stretched beyond or straight down.  

Very other worldly church in San Juan Chamula, Chiapas. Interior photos forbidden, can go to jail or worse. Floor covered with pine needles, no pews, thousands of candles, the occasional squack of a chicken about to be sacrificed. photo/Joan Fuetsch

The roads were fine (mostly) and we pulled in after dark to a remote part of town (where we had mistakenly booked a hotel that we changed for one near the Central Park the next day)...tired, but ready to live life the Mexican way.  Onward we trudged, not missing a people, place or thing for the next four days. 

Another wonderful trip up Mexico way (btw, there was no violence, no civil unrest, no thieving and no upsetting moments in Chiapas) the whole State purred like a kitten and the prices were great.

HAPPY SECOND TERM, MR. PRESIDENT, HAPPY SECOND TERM TO YOU!

The President of The United States of America,  Barack Obama

The Lowest Form of Hatred - The Self-Righteousness of the Religious Mob

¨Christian opponents to same-sex marriage want the government to treat homosexuals as a special category of persons subject to discrimination, similar to the way that African-Americans and women were categorized in the past, cultural and economic critic Wendell Berry told Baptist ministers in Kentucky on January 11.¨

 ¨...Berry said he could recall only twice before when he commented publicly on the issue, in a single paragraph in a collection of essays published in 2005 and in an interview with the National Review in 2012.

“My argument, much abbreviated both times, was the sexual practices of consenting adults ought not to be subjected to the government’s approval or disapproval, and that domestic partnerships in which people who live together and devote their lives to one another ought to receive the spousal rights, protections and privileges the government allows to heterosexual couples,” Berry said.

Berry said liberals and conservatives have invented “a politics of sexuality” that establishes marriage as a “right” to be granted or withheld by whichever side prevails. He said both viewpoints contravene principles of democracy that rights are self-evident and inalienable and not determined and granted or withheld by the government.

“Christians of a certain disposition have found several ways to categorize homosexuals as different as themselves, who are in the category of heterosexual and therefore normal and therefore good,” Berry said. What is unclear, he said, is why they single out homosexuality as a perversion.

“The Bible, as I pointed out to the writers of National Review, has a lot more to say against fornication and adultery than against homosexuality,” he said. “If one accepts the 24th and 104th Psalms as scriptural norms, then surface mining and other forms of earth destruction are perversions. If we take the Gospels seriously, how can we not see industrial warfare -- with its inevitable massacre of innocents -- as a most shocking perversion? By the standard of all scriptures, neglect of the poor, of widows and orphans, of the sick, the homeless, the insane, is an abominable perversion.”

“Jesus talked of hating your neighbor as tantamount to hating God, and yet some Christians hate their neighbors by policy and are busy hunting biblical justifications for doing so,” he said. “Are they not perverts in the fullest and fairest sense of that term? And yet none of these offenses -- not all of them together -- has made as much political/religious noise as homosexual marriage.”

Another argument used, Berry said, is that homosexuality is “unnatural.”

“If it can be argued that homosexual marriage is not reproductive and is therefore unnatural and should be forbidden on that account, must we not argue that childless marriages are unnatural and should be annulled?” he asked.

“One may find the sexual practices of homosexuals to be unattractive or displeasing and therefore unnatural, but anything that can be done in that line by homosexuals can be done and is done by heterosexuals,” Berry continued. “Do we need a legal remedy for this? Would conservative Christians like a small government bureau to inspect, approve and certify their sexual behavior? Would they like a colorful tattoo verifying government approval on the rumps of lawfully copulating parties? We have the technology, after all, to monitor everybody’s sexual behavior, but so far as I can see so eager an interest in other people’s private intimacy is either prurient or totalitarian or both.”

“The oddest of the strategies to condemn and isolate homosexuals is to propose that homosexual marriage is opposed to and a threat to heterosexual marriage, as if the marriage market is about to be cornered and monopolized by homosexuals,” Berry said. “If this is not industrial capitalist paranoia, it at least follows the pattern of industrial capitalist competitiveness. We must destroy the competition. If somebody else wants what you’ve got, from money to marriage, you must not hesitate to use the government – small of course – to keep them from getting it.”

Berry said “so-called traditional marriage” is “for sure suffering a statistical failure, but this is not the result of a homosexual plot.”

“Heterosexual marriage does not need defending,” Berry said. “It only needs to be practiced, which is pretty hard to do just now.” please read it all, HERE

Thanks to End Bigotry in Venango Country, sidebar

Thanks to Wendell Berry

Thanks to Bob Allen, ABP News

GOD LOVES UGANDA: ¨ The most terrifying film of the year.¨

¨Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams's newest documentary, God Loves Uganda, premieres today at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival--and it has already been called "the most terrifying film of the year."

The documentary explores the exportation of American evangelical values to Africa, through missionaries who work to teach Ugandans to fight against "sexual immorality" and to believe in and practice Biblical law. The culture of America's Christian right, however, has often translated into disastrous anti-gay laws in Uganda that call for the deaths of gays and lesbians. “In the well-known trope about Africa, a white man journeys into the heart of darkness and finds the mystery of Africa and its unknowable otherness. I, a black man, made that journey and found – America,” Ross Williams has said. “I hope God Loves Uganda helps accelerate the good work of organizations like All Out by helping American Evangelicals understand the negative consequences of some of the deadly lessons imported to Africa by some people of faith. We should be terrified by the results of these actions.” ...read it all, HERE

Thanks to The Daily Beast, sidebar
Thanks to Sundance Film Festival

¨WHILE OTHER BOYS WERE ATHLETIC, I WAS ARTISTIC¨: Please meet Sandy, he ¨knew he was different¨

 ¨I was born in the mid nineteen fifties, so my story is very common for gays and lesbians of my generation. My father was Jewish and my mother was Catholic. They believed in God, but were not religious zealots.

From my earliest childhood memory, I knew I was different. I didn’t have a label for it until I reached grade school. The playground was always a terrifying place for me, because I feared that someone would find out that I was a “homo”. Wanting the acceptance of my parents and peers, I did my best to fit in. While other boys were athletic, I was artistic. It didn’t take long for the other kids to notice that I was different, so it wasn’t long before I was taunted, teased and tortured. In middle school I felt alone, desperate and afraid.

My art talent caught the attention of the art teacher and soon we were sexually involved. I dated girls all through school, trying to find my straight self. In my late teens I became involved with a Christian youth group, and soon after gave my life to Christ. We were taught that God would change us, and I began daily prayers to be straight. At twenty I fell in love, and married a wonderful Christian girl. After twenty five years of marriage and three Children, I found myself still struggling with being gay.

I had managed to keep my marital vows of fidelity, but continued to hunger for the love of a man.
Out of the blue I met a young Christian man who was struggling with the same issues and fell in love. Determined not to ruin my life or his I ended things before they even began. I soon realized that I could not pretend to be straight any longer and sought counseling. Within weeks I found the courage to tell my wife, and to my surprise she took the news well. She was convinced that God would heal me, and soon she was researching conversion organizations. Having confronted the sexual orientation issues at last, I slowly began to find comfort with myself, and decided to tell my three daughters. To my surprise, all of the girls were supportive, but expressed concern for the future of our family.

In my heart I knew that divorce was imminent, but agreed to seek marital counseling. Marriage counseling helped me realize that I could never be free to be myself as long as I continued to play it straight. With new found courage I decided to seek a divorce and live openly as a gay man. I called and told my mother I was gay, and she claimed that she had always known. My boss and coworkers took the news well, and surrounded with me support. While going through the separation and divorce process, I met a wonderful man. With all that was going on in my life, the last thing I thought I needed was to get involved with someone. I tried my best to fight it, as did he, but eventually we came together...¨ Sandy's personal story, HERE

Thanks to Beyond ex-Gay, sidebar

ANGLICAN BISHOP RENNIS PONNIAH -- SINGAPORE -- ARE YOU LISTENING? Interpersonal contact with gay people increases acceptance

 

 

Interpersonal contact with gay people increases acceptance: Singapore study

by News Editor Fridae, Asia

¨Personally knowing gay men and lesbians – more than seeing gay characters in films and TV shows – has shown to increase positive attitudes and affect acceptance of gay men and lesbians. The results also show a small but significant trend toward greater tolerance of homosexuals in Singapore...¨

Religion

¨As was the case in 2005, the 2010 study found that religion is significantly related to attitudes and acceptance. Among the religious groups, freethinkers were the most positive in their attitudes – significantly higher than Christians, Buddhists and Muslims. Irrespective of specific religion, people who are more intrinsically religious – i.e. people who say that religion is integral to their lives – are more likely to have negative attitudes towards homosexuals and are less accepting of them.

Interestingly while Christians had the second lowest ATLG (attitudes) scores, they were more accepting of gay men and lesbians than Buddhists and Muslims.

The study noted that it is possible for people to hold negative attitudes towards homosexuals but accept gay men and lesbians on a more personal level, whether as co-workers or friends, regardless of whether they perceive homosexuality to be a choice. The researchers suggested that the precise reasons for this could be the subject of future research...¨

Please, read it all: http://www.fridae.asia/newsfeatures/2013/01/10/12177.interpersonal-contact-with-gay-people-increases-acceptance-singapore-study?n=sec

Thanks to Fridae, Asia

Leviticus Lie Detector Tests Required: The Most Sacred Primates and Overtly Curious Order of GAFCON demand human sexuality *assurances*

No Problema!  Let ALL Anglicans agree the very best solution to the deeply important question of trusting one another on the matter of who has sex with whom at the Anglican Communion be resolved by the GAFCON World Coordinating Office in London. 

I hearby request that the Rt. Reverend Martyn Minns (irregular ordination by Church of Nigeria -- Anglican Communion -- Anglican border crossing opportunists for Christ)* install a ¨Leviticus Lie Down With Others¨  truth detecting machine.  This handy, and reassuring trust building device, must be used on ALL Bishops on a monthly basis like a drug test. 

The sexual ¨abomination detecting machine¨ will also be used on ALL clergy (and later lay people) -- heterosexual, bisexual,
gay, transexual or lesbian included  (celibate or not, ready or not, drunks, addicts, sexslave dealers, wet dreamers, thieves at church, peeping psychopaths, whoremongers, twitching predators, rapists and swappers. Communion wine/sneaker-tipplers, spouse abusers and adulters are included). 

There will be Leviticus Lie Detector observers representing Anglican Mainstream, Integridad de Michocan, Gay Christian Nudist Dudes of Singapore and Lesbians from Downunder, present at all times to help grow trust through brutal and verifiable honesty. Leonardo Ricardo (note to self: cc the pope)

Let the Most Holy Primates and bishops of the Global South go first:

A statement has been issued from the Primates of the Global South of the Anglican Communion:

We, Primates of the Global South of the Anglican Communion, are deeply concerned and worried by the recent decision of the Church of England’s House of Bishops which approves that clergy livingin civil partnerships can be candidates to the episcopate.There is already an ambiguity regarding civil partnerships per se. We learnt that most civil partnerships, according to the Office for National Statistics in the UK, take place among the most sexually active age group. In addition dissolutions of civil partnerships are now increasing especially in the last few years. This puts into question the motives behind this civil partnership and adds to our confusion in the Global South.

When the Church of England allowed civil partnerships in 2005, they said that “The House of Bishops does not regard entering into a civil partnership as intrinsically incompatible with holy orders, provided the person concerned is willing to give assurances to his or her bishop that therelationship is consistent with the standards for the clergy set out in Issues in Human Sexuality.” Now, with allowing candidates for episcopacy to do the same, to whom should they give assurances?

Clarification on this point is needed.¨  (ain´t that the truth)

*GAFCON Global Coordination office would be established in London under the direction of the Rt. Rev’d Martyn Minns, Missionary Bishop of the Church of Nigeria, serving as Deputy Secretary and Executive Director.
HERE

ALSO READ:  http://leonardoricardosanto.blogspot.com/2013/01/unenforceable-bedchecks-for-gay-bishops.html

¨UNENFORCEABLE¨ bedchecks for Gay bishops: Archbishop Okoh, of corrupt/religious war plagued Nigeria, frets openly about the questionable honorability of celibate priests and bishops in the U.K.

 

Archbishop Nicolas Okoh/Nigeria, Anglican province crossing/double talking Anglican Communion non-healer, common/grandstanding big mouth and irresponsible chronic troublemaker, can´t trust Gay Bishops to keep their celibate hands above the bedcovers at the Church of England. Okoh says it is  ¨unenforceable¨ when checking to see who is having sex with whom (or some´thun like that)!

Leonardo Ricardo 

"The supposed assurances of celibacy, while perhaps well intentioned, are both unworkable and unenforceable,"  Archbishop Okoh,  Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)

(Reuters) - Senior African Anglican leaders have lined up to denounce the Church of England's decision to allow celibate gay bishops, warning it would only widen the divisions within the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Archbishop Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria, effectively the largest province in the Communion, said such reforms "could very well shatter whatever hopes we had for healing and reconciliation within our beloved Communion."

His comments on Wednesday followed similar denunciations on Monday by Ugandan Archbishop Stanley Ntagali and Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya, who is also head of the Gafcon group of traditionalist Anglican primates opposed to gay clergy...¨  don´t miss a word, HERE

Nigeria: Gay Bishop - Anglican Church in Nigeria Threatens to Breakaway

From Nigeria-

The Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion has threatened to breakaway from the Church of England over the decision of the later to drop opposition to gay bishops in civil partnerships. HERE

Thanks to Reuters
Thanks to Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
Thanks to Three Rivers Episcopal, sidebar

GREETINGS filled with LOVE, TRUTH and JOY TO THE WORLD: Washington National Cathedral to allow same-sex wedding ceremonies

The Washington National Cathedral, one of the nation’s most prominent churches, will be among the first Episcopal congregations to allow marriage ceremonies for LGBT members, the church has announced.

The decision marks the Episcopal Church’s hopes of embracing inclusivity “that reflects the diversity of God’s world,” according to cathedral dean Reverend Gary Hall. “I read the Bible as seriously as fundamentalists do,” he told the Associated Press.


The announcement carries with it significant
symbolism — the 106-year-old cathedral has long been a spiritual center for the nation, hosting presidential inaugural services and funerals for Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his last sermon there in 1968, and the cathedral draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

The announcement follows the recent legalizing of same-sex marriage in the adjoining state of Maryland; same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia has been legal since March 2010.
The change is allowed under a “local option” granted at the denomination’s 77th General Convention in Indianapolis in July 2012, which approved a measure to allow the blessing of same-sex unions

Each priest in the diocese has the discretion on whether to perform same-sex unions...¨  don´t miss a word:

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2013/01/washington-national-cathedral-to-allow-same-sex-wedding-ceremonies/

PUERTORICANS ARE PROUD AND ACCEPTING OF GAY PEOPLE -- Orlando Cruz

Puerto Rican boxer Orlando Cruz has called the popularly held assumption that Puerto Rican culture is anti-gay a myth.

 

Last October, the 31-year-old Cruz became the first boxer to come out during his career, saying in a statement that he's “a proud gay man.”

 

In a cover interview with gay glossyThe Advocate, Cruz said that he has been “overwhelmed by the support” he's received from such celebrities as Ricky Martin and Miguel Cotto. At his first bout after coming out held in Florida, a crowd of supporters waved Puerto Rican flags.

Cruz disputed the popularly held belief that Puerto Rican culture is anti-gay, saying it's a “myth.”

“I've had overwhelming support from the Puerto Rican people,” he said. “We're very proud people, and they have been so accepting of me.”

When asked about his love life, Cruz answered: “No comment.”   HERE

 

GANG RAPES/BLACKMAILS LGBT CHRISTIANS IN KENYA: Meanwhile, Archbishop ¨feckless¨ Wabukula ¨slanders¨ celibate Gay Bishops in England as he loses public support at home!

´
¨Police in Kenya are investigating reports of a gang accused of blackmailing – and in some cases even raping gay men in the African nation.

Identity Kenya reports the gang, made up of around five men and a police officer, has been targeting men who are not open about their sexuality.

The gang operates by luring men to houses in Nairobi, where they are then robbed and in some cases sexually assaulted.

One victim, who is married with a wife, told the paper that the gang demanded money and threatened to release naked photos of him to his wife and colleagues, unless he paid a ransom.
According to the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK), extortion is one of the biggest problems facing the country’s LGBT community...¨ please read it all, HERE



Demonizing/Excluding, Global South/Gafcon pandering, anti-LGBTI Anglican Archbishop Wabukala of Kenya:  

¨The Anglican Church of Kenya has denounced a decision by the Church of England's House of Bishops to allow gay priests to become bishops.

Archbishop Eliud Wabukala yesterday wrote to the Bishops of England saying their move would create further confusion about Anglican moral teachings and make restoring unity to the communion an even greater challenge.
Wabukala sent the letter in his capacity as the chairman of the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon). Gafcon was formed in 2008 as a response to the West's church leadership led by the Archbishop of Canterbury who had invited the Episcopal Church of the USA to attend the Lambeth Conference that year...¨  HERE

Attention: Anglican Archbishop Wabukala of KENYA-- Christians ¨losing trust¨ in religious leaders and politicians in Kenya results show three in every 10 Catholics claim not to trust church leaders at all, with the figure being higher among Protestants, at 40 per cent. HERE

¨...I cannot think of a bigger social stigma issue and one that automatically qualifies one for social exclusion in Kenya than being a member of the LGBTI community, and if I can do it so can everybody else.¨  Gay Kenyan candidate for the Senate, David Kuria, HERE

Nairobi — Anglican Church leaders, just like politicians, have lost the trust of Kenyans, a new survey has said.

·Anglican bishops led by Archbishop Eliud Wabukala (seated,2nd left) at the All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi.

·According to the Synovate post-referendum poll, only 19 per cent of those interviewed said they fully trusted Church leaders, compared to 17 per cent who said they fully trusted politicians.

·And it gets worse -- 38 per cent said they don't trust Church leaders at all, a bigger number than the 22 per cent who said they don't trust politicians at all. HERE

Thanks to Pink News, United Kingdom
Thanks to Scott Roberts
Thanks to Three Rivers Episcopal, sidebar

ATTN DREXEL GOMEZ -- EXCLUDER of GAY CHRISTIANS at the ANGLICAN COMMUNION: ¨LGBT rights are human rights and part of Jamaica's heritage¨

 

The Most Reverend Drexel Gomez, Archbishop of Jamaica and the West Indies, emeritus, hatemonger, fabricator of anti-Gay junktalk at Church, cochairman of the Anglican Covenant ¨excluding of LGBT¨ people punitive document and GAFCON panderer.

HERE

 

¨During his World Human Rights Day speech on December 10, 2012 marking the launch of another human rights watch dog in Jamaica, the country’s Justice Minister, the Honorable Mark Golding claimed that recognizing the human rights of LGBT is a Western concept which Jamaica may be forced to accept or face financial sanction.¨

¨While this statement is great politics, it is, of course patently false.

First, homosexuality has been identified in over 1500 animal species, however in no other species besides humans are gay members attacked. Even so, few human societies mirror the level of savagery that Jamaicans meet out to members of the LGBT community, as exemplified in the recent barbaric attack of a student on a Jamaican university campus.

Even without reference to international standards it would seem logical that human rights of Jamaican homosexuals should extend to protection from these kinds of inhuman assaults.
Second, many African societies, from which the majority of Jamaicans descended, have a tradition of homosexuality, including same-gender marriages.

The Supreme Court of Kenya recently affirmed the validity of such a marriage between 2 women.
Similarly, a large number of Jamaicans are descended from Indians and in that culture transgender individuals, called Hijra, have long been viewed as semi-divine and essential guests at special events in order to guarantee good fortune.

This is mirrored in Native American societies where transgendered individuals, termed Two-Spirited, were always honored and served as judges because of their perceived ability to understand both the male and female perspectives.

While the only remainders of Jamaica’s indigenous population are the figures adorning the country’s coat of arms, it is quite likely that homosexuality existed in that culture similar to the Native Americans.

It was western imported Victorian morality which sought to destroy these long traditions of tolerance for sexual diversity found in the civilizations from which most Jamaicans are descended.
 
King Henry VIII of England introduced the first anti-gay legislation during his split with the Roman Catholic Church as a way of gaining revenge on the church and its notoriously gay priests.

Through various iterations, this anti-gay/anti-Catholic legislation was finally exported to Jamaica in the form of our 1864 anti-sodomy law.

By respecting the human rights of homosexuals, Jamaicans will therefore simply be honoring our ancestral acknowledgment of the natural diversity in the human family, as well as upholding our modern national motto of ‘Out of Many, One People’.

Finally, none of Jamaica’s traditional development aid partners have even hinted that the country stands to face any financial repercussions for the continued violation of the rights of LGBT citizens.
That disingenuous suggestion by the Minister was meant, no doubt, to gain sympathy for the beleaguered government from an increasingly disgruntled electorate.

Subsequent to the Minister’s inflammatory statement, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published its latest report on the human rights situation in Jamaica.
In this report, released on January 3, 2013 the IACHR was understandably critical of the country’s treatment of its LGBT population.

Citing rampant abuse of LGBT by state and non-state actors, the report made numerous recommendations to the Jamaican state.

Some of these recommendations are aimed at immediately ending the crushing stigma and discrimination that LGBT Jamaicans face, and also to give effect to the international human rights obligations the country voluntarily undertook as a signatory to the American Convention on Human Rights.

One obvious and expected recommendation was a repeal of the country’s antediluvian legislation which criminalizes male private consenting same-gender intimacy. This was cited as a clear example of discrimination in violation of the American Convention...¨ please read it all, by  Maurice Tomlinson :

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/lgbt-rights-are-human-rights-and-are-part-jamaicas-heritage060113

Thanks to GAYSTARNEWS

TRUTH (or legal consequences?): Church of England rules gay men in civil partnerships can become bishops

¨Gay clergy in civil partnerships will be allowed to become bishops if they are sexually abstinent, according to new policy¨

¨...The change was welcomed by Jeffrey John, dean of St Albans, whose decision to stand down from his appointment as bishop of Reading in July 2003 amid an outcry from church conservatives sparked a near decade of frenzied debate. John is in a long-term relationship with another clergyman, which he has affirmed is celibate. The pair had a civil ceremony in 2006.
John said: "If it is genuinely true that all levels of ordained ministry are now more open to gay people than they were before, then this is a very good thing."

Shortly after John stepped down as bishop of Reading, the issue became still more contentious after the US Episcopal Church approved the appointment of the openly gay Gene Robinson as a bishop.

There has been speculation that bishops eventually felt under pressure to move owing to the possibility of John taking legal action on equalities grounds after he was passed over to become bishop of Southwark in 2010...¨ please read it all, HERE

Thanks to Three Rivers Episcopal, sidebar
Thanks to The Guardian, United Kingdom
Thanks to The Very Reverend Jeffrey John

U.S. SENATOR and LGBTI HEROINE TAMMY BALDWIN: She has exhibited heroic and noble conduct as a candidate while fulfilling a high standard of moral purpose

“From day one, I have always been open about my sexual orientation,” Baldwin said. “I think that integrity is something that is important to voters.”

More than bravo, more than brave, more than another American Hero moving through unspeakable prejudice and hate...mil gracias SENATOR BALDWIN for being the authentic you!

Leonardo Ricardo/Leonard Clark Beardsley

Tammy Baldwin sworn in as first openly gay United States Senator
 

Thanks to Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, sidebar
HERE

THE BRAVE KUCHU ACTIVISTS of UGANDA -- FULLY PRESENT: Despite potential passage of the Kill The Gays bill and a hostile environment stoked to an ideological inferno by American Evangelicals proselytizing in Eastern Africa -- UPDATED: False Alarm -- the Rt. Rev. Godfrey Makumbi, Anglican Bishop of West Buganda reports there are NO GAYS in Uganda (so there)!

¨We Are Here: LGBTI in Uganda¨

American-born gay photographer D. David Robinson collected portraits and first-person accounts from lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersex Ugandans, then turned to The Advocate to offer these brave activists a forum to elevate their stories in their own words...
HERE

¨American-born photographer D. David Robinson first traveled to Uganda in 2008 and, while living and working in Uganda for the past year, Robinson found himself welcomed into the small but vibrant LGBTI community. Robinson’s new friends repeatedly told him their experiences were unheard in media commentary, even within Uganda. Together they decided to document their lives through photos and first-person stories, shared with the world in order to elevate the voices of these oft-silenced people — a brave and dangerous move in a country where coming out could soon get you a death sentence. ¨

STOP the persecution of LGBTI citizens in Uganda

UPDATE! FALSE ALARM? 

There are no gay people in Uganda, and more on homosexuality and the African church

One of the more inventive analysis of Uganda's dreadful anti-gay legislation, which the country's parliament seems to dangle over the heads of the international community to watch that community jump, comes from the Rt. Rev. Godfrey Makumbi, Anglican Bishop of West Buganda. He doesn't see a need for the law because he doesn't believe there are any gay people in Uganda.

“I also don’t condone it, but sincerely it is overshadowing other problems,” he said, according to the Ugandan Observer. “Our prime problems are on everyone’s fingertips; corruption, dishonesty, impudence and impunity, human [child] sacrifice, poor service delivery and absolute poverty.”It seemed that at last there was a voice of reason in the conversation about homosexuality in Uganda — that someone with real influence was pointing out that the law is absurd and at best a waste of time and resources¨
HERE

 

Thanks to The Advocate, sidebar
Thanks to D. David Robinson
Thanks to Sunnivie Brydum
Thanks to The Lead, sidebar