OFFICER ¨X¨ TELLS ALL: Sharing first hand experiences while waiting for the impending repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law.

Time magazine has added a surprising new blogger to its website: an anonymous gay soldier.

¨I have been given the opportunity to share my firsthand experiences from the inside as I watch the fall of a policy that is undeniably discriminatory. By "not asking" and "not telling," the people repressed by this policy have been robbed of their voice to speak out. As a result, the impact of such a policy doesn't hit close to home for enough families, friends, or coworkers. By blogging here, it is my goal to share the excitement felt by every gay and lesbian service member as this burden of lies, cover stories, and double lives is lifted...¨ HERE

FROM THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER

“As a young, gay officer who is currently serving on active duty, I have been waiting years for the day when I can show up to work and not have to lie about what I did on the weekend or the gay circle of friends I spend much of my free time with. As you can undoubtedly imagine, I was anxious to hear what my superiors had to say on the subject of the post-repeal military…¨ please read it all,   HERE

· Thanks to Fishbowl IDC
· Thanks to Time
· Thanks to The Huffington Post, sidebar
· Thanks to The Gay Agenda, sidebar
· Thanks to The Unknown Blogger
·

MORE GOOD NEWS THATS FIT TO PRINT: Mr. Frank Bruni becomes the first gay op-ed columnist in The Times 160-year history!

Frank Bruni to Be First Gay NYT Op-Ed Columnist in Paper's History

“This column, which will be a new anchor feature of the section, will be a sharp, opinionated look at a big event of the last week, from a different or unexpected angle, or a small event that was really important but everyone seems to have missed, or something entirely different,” [Andrew M. Rosenthal, editor of the Opinion Pages] said. “It will fast become a destination for our readers with Frank at the keyboard.”

He added that Mr. Bruni would also write a column one other day of the week, most likely Thursday.
Mr. Bruni, 46, is the first gay op-ed columnist in The Times’s 160-year history. He said he would take on a wide variety of subjects in his writing.

Bruni has covered presidential campaigns for the paper and served as food columnist for five years. HERE


·  Thanks to The New York Times, sidebar
·  Thanks to Mr. Frank Bruni
·  Thanks to Towleroad, sidebar

Encyclopedia of American Loons #209: ¨Michele Bachman's chief competition for the title of most idiotic Representative in Congress...¨



Diagnosis: Pathologically ignorant moron. And people keep electing him. Amazing.

Meet #209: Steve King

¨Steven Arnold “Steve” King is the U.S. Representative (Republican) for Iowa's 5th congressional district. He is Michele Bachman's chief competition for the title of most idiotic Representative in Congress (they make an apt pair, though). Among his more recent not particularly intelligent assertions is his claim that if the estate tax was allowed to increase, rich people would kill themselves on Dec. 31 in order to avoid having to pay it after they're dead.

King is, predictably, not in favor of gay marriage, arguing that “I think that if we can't defend marriage, that it becomes very hard to defend life.” Now, you may wonder what that means and how he arrived at the conclusion, and it is not entirely clear (you can read it in context here). It seems that the conclusion is arrived at through the infamous inference rule “word-salad introduction” (related to Arthur Prior’s “tonk”-operator but more obfuscatory). A similar (I think) argument is this one. He is on more familiar (but hardly more intelligent) grounds with his standard slippery slope argument that recognizing homosexuality entails recognizing pedophilia...¨ HERE

·  Thanks to Encyclopedia of American Loons sidebar

God Smites Alert: I´m whining as loud as I can, but evildoers won´t leave me/us alone yet!

Prickly

What?

You mean ¨my case¨ ¨my situation¨ ¨my life experience¨ isn´t more important, more victimized, more ¨worthy¨ of kind consideration, justice, change and a well earned option to enjoy
REAL Righteousness?   Damn, I´ve worked sooo hard!  Do you know who I am?

Surely, I´m much more entitled to all-around pride, peace, well being and personal
integrity than you!  After all I´ve been through?  How dare YOU! I´m nice too!

Do you mean to tell me (or even just think) that radical inclusivity would cover all human beings (as in human rights)? All of God´s children under the sun and moon make the cut to stop being abused, tortured, discriminated against, persecuted, enslaved and  humiliated? Where do I sign?  Has our time come?

When?

Please spare me the ¨patience is a virtue¨ suggestion!  I want/deserve guarantees! Immediately!

Where?

Do you (you know who you are) intend to come here and tell me that I´m to shut the hell up, take my turn, do my best to be the best that God has created/gifted me to be?  Humbly ¨be¨ equal?  Learn how to be equal instead of trying so hard to be better than some of you?

Why?

Are you saying that it´s ok when I don´t succeed, or when I´m overwhelmed or simply powerless or plain screwed up, or miss Gods ¨point¨ entirely, to keep staying and praying as hard as I can to find my way out from under the everday stress and give my demands a rest?

I don´t have to keep steamrolling my way through this?  Must I give the dilletante in me a rest? No huffing or puffing or trying to knock the evildoers down?  Surrender myself to ¨Father/Mother knows best?¨  God only knows?

Do you mean to tell me the authentic in me is not more deserving than the authentic YOU? Who are you to say such a thing to me?

Heck, I´m a persecuted Homosexual and you´re ¨Straight¨ or ¨Cuter¨ or ¨Smarter¨ or more ¨Savvy¨ or maybe even a happy Lesbian and/or a well-adjusted Transgender or even, just possibly, a double featured ¨wealthier¨  Bi sexualist!

Who?

I´m exhausted from thinking that you ought think I am different than I really am.
I´ll give up.  I´m not as strong or as smart or as talented or heroic as I thought I was. I´ll just be slightly pissed off and go back to being the regular, everyday, me (and watch my back).

Rightsized at last-- who would have guessed that I´m much like the rest of YOU?  Not me (are we/you certain about that?).

Amazing when you get down to it-- radical inclusivity is pretty darn radical and it has very little to do with me thinking that I´m more deserving because of what I´ve been through (let the high-pitched self-pity-whining begin) than the YOU sitting next to me. I´d appreciate it if you´d stop squirming...I will if you will and please don´t leave teeth marks on my neck anymore and please try to leave all the beloved alone...stop being mean, God smites the mean (I know, I´ve been smacked a couple of times before).

Lord hear my prayer

THE DEPARTMENT OF ´SAY WHAT´? President Museveni/Uganda welcomes ¨Chinese Leader¨ Anglican Bishop John Chew/Singapore (not China) and praises him and Mao tse Tung for contributions ¨against Imperialists¨

Chineese ¨leader¨ Chairman Mao tse Tung

¨PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has hailed the Chinese people under the leadership of Mao tse Tung for their contribution to Africa’s independence struggle.¨

President Museveni, Uganda

¨In a meeting with a delegation of Chinese religious leaders that met him at State House, Entebbe early this week, Museveni said the Chinese government provided material assistance to Africans who were fighting against imperialists.

The Peoples Republic of China (China)

He commended the Chinese people for championing African development efforts in the 1960s and paid special tribute to Mao tse Tung.

QUESTION: Is President Museveni pandering to mainland Chinese leaders (none present) by honoring Mao tse Tung while accompanied by the vistors from Singapore?  Meanwhile, is President Museveni trying to introduce and validate Anglican/GAFCON Archbishop Chew/Singapore (not China)  as a China/Africa insider/friend for possible future anti-LGBT Evangelizing in China (The Anglican Province of Hong Kong would seem the spiritually healthier, emotionally better balanced, less extremist and a more natural growth choice when expanding Anglicanism into the Chinese mainland)?  Leonardo Ricardo

Museveni said Mao tse Tung was not a Christian, but loved humanity and moral virtues.

Anglican Archbishop John Chew/Singapore (not China)

Archbishop John Chew of Singapore (not China) led the ¨Chinese Delegation¨

The Republic of Singapore (not China)

The Archbishop of Singapore, the Most Rev. John Chew who lead the visiting delegation, said his team was in Uganda to analyse the economic, social and spiritual welfare of the Church in Africa and the continent’s development in relation to the Chinese situation.

Bishop Orombi ¨accompanied¨ the not-China, ¨Chinese delegation¨

Anti-LGBT Anglican Archbishop Henry Orombi/Uganda ¨accompanied the delegation¨ to the State House.

The visitors were accompanied to State House by the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, the Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi. HERE

·  Thanks to New Vision Online, sidebar

¨If we are to defeat homophobia, we must try to understand why some are so keen to promote it...¨

Christianity and homophobia in Britain today
By Symon Hill

¨We begin with Jesus, who practised radical inclusivity, challenged the powerful and taught forgiveness, nonviolence and love for all people, including enemies. He proclaimed freedom - freedom from social, political, religious and emotional oppression. They killed Jesus because he was too free...¨

¨Many people identify Christianity with homophobia, misogyny, social control and sexual abuse. I can hardly blame them for doing so. All manner of evil has been justified in the name of Christianity. Much of the Church is, to one extent or another, homophobic. This homophobia is perpetuated by bigots who define their faith by their hatred of gay people and by liberals who fail to speak up for inclusion out of a misplaced desire for unity. The hypocrisy which often accompanies such prejudice has been exposed in its most sickening form in recent revelations about church-based child abuse.

But there are also many inclusive Christians. Quakers, Unitarians and the Metropolitan Community Church are ready to carry out same-sex marriages. Within larger denominations, such as the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church, there are individuals and groups who back inclusion. A number of queer Christians suggest that their queerness is not incidental to their Christianity but is inspired and affirmed by their understanding of Jesus' teachings.

And there are large numbers of Christians who have changed their minds, as well as those who have rejected same-sex relationships in the past but are now questioning their convictions and genuinely struggling with the issues...¨  please read it all,   HERE

· Thanks to Symon Hill
· Thanks to Ekklesia, sidebar
· Thanks to Thinking Anglicans, sidebar

STRIVING TO CONFORM TO HETEROSEXUAL NORMS: ¨I deeply feared belonging to a highly stigmatized group...I longed to belong, fit in and be accepted...

¨Beyond Ex-Gay¨ Kathryn´s personal narrative

¨From an early age, I knew that I was gay, but I could not reconcile this knowledge with my self-image as a good, obedient girl. How could I possibly be something that society rejected as 'dirty', 'evil', 'polluted' and completely outside of respectability? Gay people were foreign, dangerous outsiders —'out there'.

Raised saturated on a constant diet of heternormative imagery and assumptions at school, in the media and at home, I deeply feared belonging to a highly stigmatized group. Like most teenagers, I longed to belong, fit in, and be accepted. I therefore strove to conform to heterosexual norms as much as possible.

Ironically, although I formally came out to my parents at the age of seventeen, I remained spiritually, socially and emotionally deeply closeted.

Although I did not actively seek to change my sexual orientation, I did seek to actively repress it. I used my studies (at this time I was a university student) to completely avoid and deny my sexuality. Books were my closest and most trustworthy friends. I hid from others and from myself.

When boys asked me out, I felt obliged to say yes — having learned early on from 'compulsory heterosexuality' to read boy's interest in me as a sign of my value and worth as a human being. Not one friend knew that I was gay during this time, leading to friendships that could never deepen beyond a certain level. So great was my oppression, I did not permit myself to admire women — I sought refuge in a numbing, constant asexual academic routine that left no room for other activities, creativity- or of course, dating...¨ please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to Kathryn
·  Thanks to Beyond ExGay, sidebar HERE

POST-HORRIFIC TREATMENT: ¨Most of LGBT people's psychic energy is geared toward seeking some level of peace in a world that treats them as second-class citizens...¨

SOME CONSEQUENCES OF INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA

¨All too often, many if not most LGBT people are either uncaring about gaining full and equal civil and sacramental rights or allegedly seek to gain those rights by tactics designed to stick a finger in the eye of potential Straight allies.

The horrific treatment of Gay people by many others, not the least of whom are "Christian" clergy, has created a mind-set among many Gay people that reflects the internalization of those hateful messages, resulting in terribly damaged psyches that don't have the time or even the inclination to fight for equality.

Most of LGBT people's psychic energy is geared toward seeking some level of peace in a world that treats them as second-class citizens; engaging in diversionary behaviors, such as preoccupation with socializing, that helps foster needed in-group feelings on the one hand, and also helps take their minds off of the fact that they are treated as second-class citizens in a country that prides itself on its Constitutional mandate for there to be equality under the law on the other hand.

There must be a transformation of consciousness, not only of most Straight people, but of LGBT people themselves, for there to be meaningful activism that assures the goal of LGBT equality for those of us who give a damn about equal rights for everybody...¨  please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to The Reverend Doctor Jerry Maneker
·  Thanks to A Christian Voice For Gay, Lesbian, Bi and Transexual Rights, sidebar

ATTN PRESIDENT MUSEVENI & THE 9th PARLIAMENT OF UGANDA: It´s not about blaming shady politicos nor shaming homosexuals, it´s about Out-of-Control Inflation (but you knew that already)

Inflation in UGANDA

Deadly post-election protests in Uganda
¨Walk to Work¨ protest photos HERE

·  Thanks to Wild Thoughts From Uganda, sidebar
·  Thanks to Mark D. Jordahl
·  Thanks to Global Voices Online, HERE

Meet Deputy Speaker Candidate-9th Parliament Odongo Otto: ¨You thought Ugandan lawmaker David Bahati, sponsor of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, was a demon?

Then you haven't met MP David Bahati´s colleague MP Odonga Otto, who says he'd kill his own son if he found out he was A Gay

MP Odongo Otto, Uganda, “young boy making noise in parliament” MP Ruth Nankabiirwa

¨...Makau Mutua, chairman of Kenya's Human Rights Commission, denounced Odonga's remarks. "I am baffled by the kind of hatred you spew against gay people, including your desire to be a hangman. Would you apply to be a hangman if the person to be hanged were your son?"

Odonga nodded. Which is also what you should expect him to do if the Kill The Gays bill comes up for a vote. HERE

Two members of the 9th parliament are in the race for Deputy Speakership. MPs Jacob Oulanyah and Odongo Otto are in this race. HERE

HOMOPHOBIA ALERT/UGANDA

Anglican MP David ¨Kill all the Gays¨* Bahati

Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” Bill Returns: Kampala. According to a BBC Africa Network Report, today’s opening of Uganda’s 9th Parliament has brought with it the revival of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. There had been talk of a procedure by which the new Parliament may take up unfinished business from the old Parliament. If this report is correct, then it appears that this procedure has been invoked. Stay tuned. HERE 

UPDATE: Uganda Parliament Spokesperson: Anti-Gay Bill Has Not Been Revived  HERE

ODONGA OTTO´S FAILED BID:  MP Jacob Oulanya was voted as deputy speaker of parliament by 299 votes. Opposition MP Odonga Otto (Aruu county) got the same number votes as those of Nandala Mafabi contested for the Speaker of parliament seat -- 57 votes. HERE

*Jeff Sharlet interview HERE

·  Thanks to The Daily Monitor, Uganda
·  Thanks to MP Ruth Nankabiirwa, Uganda
·  Thanks to Makau Mutua, Kenya
·  Thanks to Box Turtle Bulletin, sidebar
·  Thanks to Jim Burroway
·  Thanks to Warren Throckmorton, sidebar
·  Thanks to Ronald Kabuubi, AP/Bahati photo