THE SADISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS LEGACY OF ARCHBISHOP DREXEL GOMEZ: LGBTI bloodrenched Jamaica/Anglican Province of the West Indies goes ignored by many bigotted Anglican bishops and corrupt public officials!

Homophobic Anglican Archbishop Drexel Gomez, not-retired-enough,  remains chairperson of the ¨punitive¨ Anglican Covenant ¨design group¨  HERE

The LGBTI Bloodrenched Flag of Jamaica

Kingston, Jamaica ---July 7, 2011

More than fifty men and women who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual have faced various human rights violations between January and June 2011.

¨Jamaicans continue to experience human rights violations at the hands of their family, friends, neighbours, landlord, police or mobs because of their sexual orientation. Since January 2011, fifty-one incidents, including mob attacks, physical abuse, home evictions, and discrimination were reported with forty-seven of these meted out to males. Similar to national statistics on crime and violence, young people, 18 to 29 years, continue to be the main victims of violence based on sexual orientation. Young people made more than 30 of the 51 reports.

JFLAG says homophobic violence is on the increase across Jamaica. More than 50 cases reported

“On average, J-FLAG has documented between 30 and 40 cases annually over the past three years, but we have seen an increase in the number of reports which shows that homophobia based harassment and discrimination continues because of the lack of protection of the human rights of homosexuals living in Jamaica by the state,” says Dane Lewis, Executive Director at J-FLAG...¨  please read it all,
HERE

·  Thanks to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Jamaica, sidebar   HERE

THE GREAT AMERICAN RELIGIOUS FRAUDSTERS: ¨...wrap themselves in the flag, but when push comes to shove, their religious values, theocratic values, they are not talking about the same America the rest of us are looking at...¨

Michele Bachmann is a Minnesota Congresswoman and the sweetheart of the Tea Party. She has ignorantly riled up thousands of people with barrels of lies and propaganda against Obama and the Democratic party. Her actions have been at best irresponsible and at worst, criminal. All the while, she has smiled and made some of the most hysterical comments ever made in a political arena HERE

Governor Rick Perry of Texas

¨....any guy that starts a national run by calling a prayer meeting and mixing the issues of church and state as he has in Texas is someone who has his eye on this little group. But I say one more time just before we go. It's total hypocrisy because these people know that group helps them win the primary but when the Republicans get into office it's about serving corporate Wall Street interests.

It has nothing to do with the social agenda they get elected on so it's a scam, but it's a scam that keeps working. Forty years of Republican domination of the American political process based on abortion, gay rights, these other things they wave around, but actually it's really about corporate America.¨  By Frank Schaeffer, HERE

Congresswoman Bachmann comes from the ¨literal understanding of the Bible¨ evangelical movement

Her own anti-gay views have been well-documented and her allies in the fight against us are some of the most violently homophobic people we have seen in this decade. The Reverend Bradlee Dean/pictured (who has defended the execution of gay people) is her pal. HERE

¨...It will be a liability with the general public when they learn how radical she is.
She comes from a wing of the evangelical movement where takes the Bible literally, and that includes the old testament that has passages about stoning gay people to death and all the rest of it...

Half-term Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin is a member of the far ¨religious right¨

...And, of course, Michele Bachmann, like Sarah Palin and others on the far religious right is too politically savvy to express clearly what she believes...

Husband Marcus Bachmann’s Ex-Gay Problem is part of Michele Bachmann´s secret hypocrisy, HERE

...But the fact of the matter is, the part of Christianity she comes from is radical even for evangelical Bible believers. And so I think- I think gradually, it will become apparent to American voters that she could not win the general election. And Republicans are going to have to make a choice to either be a normal political party or, really, theocracy in waiting with people like Michele Bachmann, who in the best of all possible worlds, as far as she would see it, would produce a theocracy in the country where the Bible would be paramount and no longer the Constitution or the Bill of Rights...¨ By Frank Schaeffer, HERE

Former ALASKAN Governor Sarah Palin and Todd Palin are linked to ¨secessionists¨

¨...Well, you know when you mentioned her husband talking about gay people being barbarians and if you look, for instance at Sarah Palin's family, they've had a lot to do with the secessionist movement in Alaska. You're not part of a movement that says it wants to secede from the union in the United States if you like this country...¨ By Frank Schaeffer, HERE

·  Thanks to Frank Schaeffer*, sidebar
·  Thanks to Crooks and Liars, sidebar
·  Thanks to Video Cafe
·  Thanks to MSNBC's Richard Lui
·  Thanks to Box Turtle Bulletin, sidebar
·  Thanks to Jim Burroway
·  Thanks to City Pages, Minneapolis HERE
·  Thanks to Illustration by Robin Eley for City Pages
·  Thanks to G.R. Anderson Jr.
·  Thanks to Talk About Equality,  HERE
·  Thanks to Anna Grau, Nueva York    HERE

* For anyone not already familiar with Frank Schaeffer, I posted this interview back in 2009 just after Schaeffer came out with his book, Crazy for God -- Frank Schaeffer, Author of "Crazy for God" on What's Left of the GOP: Today the Republican Party is rooting for doom. Schaeffer has a new book out, this time focusing on his mother rather than his father as the previous book did and MSNBC's Richard Lui brought him on to discuss the current crop of GOP presidential candidates and whether Michele Bachmann or Rick Perry should he get in, would actually have a chance at winning the nomination.  Heather

¨GRACE and GOODWILL¨ at the ANGLICAN COMMUNION: Bishops John Saxbee, Peter Selby to be Patrons of No Anglican Covenant Coalition

The Right Reverend Dr John Saxbee

LONDON – The Right Reverend Dr John Saxbee and the Right Reverend Dr Peter Selby have been appointed Episcopal Patrons of the international No Anglican Covenant Coalition.

“The Anglican Communion doesn’t need a Covenant because Anglicanism is a Covenant, predicated on grace and goodwill,” Dr Saxbee said. “If there is grace and goodwill, a Covenant is unnecessary. If there is no grace or goodwill, a Covenant will be unavailing.” Dr Saxbee was Bishop of Lincoln from 2001 until his retirement in January of this year.

The Right Reverend Peter Selby

Dr Selby, Bishop of Worcester from 1997 to 2007, has been a supporter of the Coalition since its launch last November. “This proposed Covenant is not the solution to the tensions in the Anglican Communion,” he said. “It will inevitably create a litigious Communion where every serious disagreement will become a possible occasion to seek a province’s exclusion.”

“More and more questions are being raised about the potential pitfalls of the proposed Anglican Covenant,” said the Reverend Dr Lesley Fellows, Moderator of the No Anglican Covenant Coalition. “We have consistently seen that support for the Covenant tends to collapse in the face of full and fair discussion and analysis. We are very pleased to welcome Bishops Selby and Saxbee as our first Episcopal Patrons. They are well respected in the Church of England and throughout the Anglican Communion. We expect that their views on the Covenant will persuade many more people to take a harder look at the risks inherent in this radical proposal.”

HERE

PICK AND PACK: The Archbishops of The Church of England conspire to harm others and cover their own deceitfullness and disgrace!



The Archbishops of Canterbury and York continue to cower and cover-up as they scurry under their dark caper of delay!

Self-deceiving and the not-so-great-art of sloppy/mutual ¨postponement¨ regarding spiritual/sexual issues that are urgent and vital to the well-being of LGBTI Anglicans are unacceptable!

Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury is currently the ¨driving force¨ behind the ¨validation¨ of Anglican Covenant which is pending ratification before the Church of England.  Each diocese is ¨deciding¨ to endorse, or not, the Anglican Covenant and then the document will be returned to The Church of England Synod for final acceptance (no doubt accepted because Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury insists it be so and doesn´t allow ¨open¨ debate on the issue).  In other words, Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, is ramrodding through a YES vote that most would, and do, consider a FIXED ELECTION.

 Few in England realize the ¨relational consequences¨ for their very own province at the Anglican Communion are at stake...but Rowan does.  Should the Church of England elevate an openly Gay Bishop in the meantime or even after endorsing the so called ¨Covenant¨ the Church of England could be held accountable for being in violation of the punishing, Drexel Gomez authored The Punitive Anglican Covenant , but wait, but of course, the Church of England ALREADY has several/many Gay and Bisexual secretly serving Bishops amongst it´s collection of Episcopal stock and several are currently IN THE HOUSE OF BISHOPS the well-known Hypocrisy at the Church of Englands House of Bishops .  Is there no end to the political hypocrisy of Rowan Williams and his doubletalking accomplices?  Must the Archbishop of Canterbury AGAIN been called down to answer for his latest attack against the election of The Very Reverend Jeffery John (a celibate/partnered gay man) The Graceless Face of Dr. Rowan Williams
 as the ever faithful Archbishop of York serves as his validating accomplice and enforcer?  The deceitfilled games of these not-so-holy men is wearing very THIN at The Church of England and beyond.

Rowan Williams archbishop of Canterbury prefers to live in a world of PRETEND and therefore saves his very own face when it comes to the REALITY of sexual orientation of those around him at The Church of England...those abounding around him both honest and not.   These vain, pridefilled, stubborn and demeaning and dishonest cowardly/self-preening men...ought resign immediately.  No more pretending right from wrong or up from down or truth from untruth. 

Addressing sexuality truthfully in the Church of England

¨...In recent months, there has been much publicity over leaks revealing that during a selection process for a bishop’s position, the archbishops were desperate to block an outstanding gay candidate, even though he obeyed the Church of England’s guidelines of celibacy for gay clergy. Legal opinion was sought on how to restrict further the possibility of someone openly gay being chosen as a bishop.

According to the Church of England bishops’ announcement, the wider review will take account of a motion of General Synod (the church’s parliament) commending “continuing efforts to prevent the diversity of opinion about human sexuality creating further division and impaired fellowship within the Church of England and the Anglican Communion.” It will “draw together material from the listening process which has been undertaken within the Church of England over the recent years in the light of the 1998 Lambeth Conference resolution”, which involved a commitment “to listen to the experience of homosexual persons “ while “rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture”.

At the same time, many in the Church of England are keen for greater inclusion. I, and numerous others, believe this more faithfully reflects God’s will for a church where all should be valued and encouraged to adopt the same standards of faithful and self-giving love whether in same-sex or opposite-sex relationships. It will also help the church to reach out to non-churchgoers who are drawn to Christ but morally offended by what they regard as unjust treatment of LGBT people. Many theologians, Anglican and from other denominations, have come to believe that same-sex partnerships should be accepted. LGBT people (clergy and lay) play a vital part in the life of the Church of England, but this often goes unacknowledged, leaving many feeling alienated.

How can the bishops – an all-male group in which gays are closeted, and under heavy political pressure not to offend those most passionately opposed to full inclusion – take this matter forward in a constructive way? In this context, what does it mean to “love one another as I have loved you” and be guided by the Spirit of truth (John 15.12, 26)? ...¨ HERE

·  Thanks to Thinking Anglicans, sidebar
·  Thanks to Changing Attitudes, U.K., sidebar
·  Thanks to Ekklesia, England, sidebar
·  Thanks to Savi Hensman

VIVA MEXICO! Just had a little visit Norte of the Border up Mexico Way! Ole´

Dear Friends,

We´ve been away.  We went on a little trip North to check on Mexico and to be certain they hadn´t lost their cooking skills-- they hadn´t and the Chicken con Mole was heaven (or very close to it and only upstaged slightly by the BIG shrimp in BIG shrimp cocktails that we ate doubles of everyday).

You were missed and our best thoughts and prayers are with you always.

Life is quite an amazing thing.  Upside down, rightside up, North, South, East and West, it´s always fascinating.

Tucked back under the volcano we remain,

Los Amigos de todo y  feliz dia del FOURTH OF JULY!

Leonardo y Juan Carlos

DOG HEAVEN: The Sequel, “Somos la voz de los sin voz!¨

Dog Karma: ¨Dogs hear when there is an opening at the homes of those who love dogs most¨ Kirkepiscatoid

We love dogs here at the Foot of The Volcano.   We love every dog that we have ever met.  Every one, no exceptions.  

As with many ¨difficult¨ everyday circumstances living in villages in Central America there are a large number of dogs who live, breed and feed on the street.   We love them too but their lives are often cut very short as they live from handouts from the kindness of strangers. Some of these ¨outdoor dogs¨ are happier than others (and better cared for too) and actually have families who feed them occassionally and even let them in the tiny houses/huts (mostly one or two rooms with tin roofs and dirt floors filled with big families) too.  But most ¨street dogs¨ are very underfed, hang out outside of little bakeries or Tortillarias and need medical attention (lots) and quite often simply fall through the cracks of their everyday existence and die flat out or get hit by cars.  These animals die because they have no home, no food and no care--they are everywhere to be seen on the dusty streets of most every town and they are a heartbreaking pack of stragglers who many of us dog lovers to meet and do small things to help out...what a challenge we see.

However, there is help growing...there is a solution to this very sad situation at least in one town so far as a group in Antigua started a ¨animal rescue¨ program several years ago...it is quite successful in finding proper medical care, then homes for animals who would otherwise be left to a fate of aimless wandering with little food, shelter, medical attention or love.  There is also a ¨finca¨ about a half hour away on the edge of  a town where an American Woman and her English husband run a huge kennel/hospital program that cares for, the housing and feeding of hundreds of dogs and cats--they have a pet cemetery too (Marcos and several others of my pets are buried there) but they always need financial resources and volunteer help and are almost way past their limit in the number of animals they can house and help HERE...their physical limits have been stretched way past their ability to deal with the enormous needs before them in all the villages of Scatapequez, Guatemala.

Last week I met up with an old friend, Linda G., who is a Canadian living in Guatemala.  She and some friends of hers have organized a NEW group to work with local animal  (dogs and cats) as ¨awareness¨ activists within small pueblos...their aim is to offer a regular ¨Veternarian Doctors without Borders¨  clinics on site in each village and also work with locals in each village to generate a better ability to control both disease and population of ¨orphan¨ dogs and cats...a temporary and permanent placement service is also part of the plan for each town.

Already the mayor of my town has expressed great interest in joining forces with Linda and her pals as it is now clear to all there are solutions for this otherwise mostly ignored and very sad reality for homeless animals...now there is a glimmer of hope where there was none before.

If any of you would like to contact Linda G. and/or the new ¨Aware¨  program directly please send me a note and I´ll connect you--Linda and her gang need all the help and support they can get...even modest donations of supplies or money will help.

Marcos went away today. Marcos went to rejoin Ruth and Walker today.

Marcos loved being picked up and petted but he would bite you if you put him down!

When I returned to Guatemala to retire five years ago I immediately went to visit my friend Ruth N.  Ruth was in her 70´s and was a retired Social Worker (MSW) from St. Louis, Missouri.  Ruth had spent her entire professional career working with Prostitutes (often drug or alcohol addicts)  and had decided to spend her final years working with kids in one of the small aldeas near Antigua.  Ruth, a widow and a Chrismatic Catholic,  had been married twice but never had kids and didn´t know anything about them she told me.  So, Ruth spent the next decade and a half being a strong influence for all things positive and possible in a community in Central America where few families could afford much more than tortillas and beans every day-- Ruth became a person who was a positive, yet modest, force in the lives of hundreds of children over the years she lived in Santa Inez...she was a good neighbor indeed and well loved. 
Shortly after I returned and renewed my friendship with Ruth she fell ill and after a few months died...her friends honored her with a funeral mass at la Merced and her neighbors shoulder carried her coffin through the cemetery and up to a fifth tier crypt in the Public Section of the Antigua Cemetery--exactly as she may have wished, she was well cared for right up through the end of her life. 

Marcos of Ruth

Ruth had two dogs.  One dog was the son of my brown and white Cocker Spaniel and his name was ¨Walker¨...Walker was a black and white beauty who also had gold eyebrows and was born when I had lived in Guatemala almost a decade earlier--a real dazzler and much loved by Ruth´s other dog,  a rescue animal, named Marcos.  Marcos was a Peekeneese/King Charles Spaniel mix and full of macho ¨attitude¨... what a pair made as they joined up with the other doggers at my house to romp on endlessly after Ruth´s death.   A couple of years after they came to live with us, Walker fell ill one night.  The next day I took him to the vet and he died on the examining table (later it was discovered he had a terrible malignant tumor).  So, onward we all continued to go and Marcos adjusted once again to another great loss in his life...first Ruth and then Walker...his best friends.

Marcos was quite popular amongst friends and guests at our house throughout the remainder of his life but he clearly was slowing down in the last two years...his strut and tail wagging faded and his attention became directed into a world of his own understanding-- Marcos was becoming senile.  So it was that Marcos lived in his own world for the last year of his life--always a good eater even though he became a very good sleeper also and there were many times that I thought he had slipped away from us--but no, up until yesterday Marcos was very much alive until he simply couldn´t get up anymore...he cried, and cried with great pain all through last night and this morning Dr. Hugo his longtime physician took the pain away to stay...we were there, we saw Marcos go away today...Marcos doesn´t live here anymore as he´s gone to rejoin Ruth and Walker again...he did it with his eyes wide open and didn´t even tremble or cry.

Lord hear my prayer for Marcos, Walker and Ruth and their happy reunion today.

DAVID KISULE KATO, THE BIOGRAPHY: There is a ¨call for materials¨ regarding the real life work and legacy of LGBTI African Anglican/Activist David Kato, R.I.P.

Anglican, Integrity Uganda Member, David Kisule Kato, R.I.P.

Submissions on the life and times of Ugandan activist David Kisule Kato

¨This is a call for materials for a biographical book on the life, work and legacy of David Kisule Kato – the deceased Ugandan human rights defender for sexual (and other) minorities. The biography is being developed and written by researchers in the Law, Gender and Sexuality Research Project of the Faculty of Law at Makerere University – Kampala.

We are interested in a range of materials including essays, fiction, poetry, web blogs, art, crafts, photographs, film, documentaries, speeches, diaries, letters and other correspondence, music, academic publications, etc. that reflect any aspect of the life and work of David Kato. We invite materials from family, friends, lovers, partners, colleagues, allies, students, other human rights defenders and advocates, social justice activists, sexual minorities, academics, clerics, parliamentarians, journalists and anyone else with something (whether positive or negative) to say about David Kato’s life, work and legacy. Materials about the different commemoration activities and memorial events held after David’s death are also welcome.

The materials will be collected alongside interviews and focus group discussions conducted in rural and urban Uganda among those who knew David Kato. Although the main language of the biography will be English, relevant materials written in Luganda, Kiswahili, French, Portugese, Spanish and any other African tongue will be translated for inclusion. The deadline for submission is 16th December 2011. All received materials will be duly acknowledged.¨  HERE

David Belongs to All of Us Now:  African Activist  HERE

Please send material to:

Stella Nyanzi
Law, Gender and Sexuality Research Project,
Faculty of Law,
P. O. Box 7062, Kampala – Uganda.
Email:
snyanzi@law.mak.ac.ug
 or
stellanyanzibah@googlemail.com

·  Thanks to Stella Nyanzi, Kampala
·  Thanks to Law, Gender and Sexuality Research Project, Uganda
·  Thanks to Gay Kenya, Denis Nzioka, sidebar
·  Thanks to African Activist, sidebar

JUST LIKE YOU: We LGBTI People are blessed by being the authentic human beings that God created us to be!

JUST LIKE YOU: We LGBTI People are blessed with being the authentic human beings that God created us to be.

JUST LIKE YOU:  Pride becomes a Reality too!

·   Thanks to Gay City News,  HERE

GAY PRIDE: ONE DAY AT A TIME, MOMENT BY MOMENT, BREATH BY BREATH, TRUTH BY TRUTH, SIDE BY SIDE WITH EVERYONE ELSE!

Openly gay New York Times op-Ed columnist Frank Bruni writes about what he believes is one of the biggest reasons marriage equality finally made it's way to New York state: those who once opposed same-sex marriage had their minds changed by the gays and lesbians in their lives

New York Times op-Ed columnist Frank Bruni

"Why such widespread backing, from such surprising quarters? One major reason is that the wish and push to be married cast gay men and lesbians in the most benign, conservative light imaginable, not as enemies of tradition but as aspirants to it. In the quest for integration and validation, saying 'I do' to 'I do' is much more effective — not to mention more reflective of the way most gay people live — than strutting in leather on a parade float. We’re not trying to undermine the institution of marriage, a task ably handled by the likes of Tiger Woods, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Edwards and too many other onetime role models to mention. We’re paying it an enormous compliment..¨ HERE

·  Thanks to Mr. Frank Bruni
·  Thanks to The New York Times
·  Thanks to The Daily News, New York
·  Thanks to The FAMILY, FRIENDS, COWORKERS and LOVED ONES of LGBTI PEOPLE!