UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND PRESIDENT: “Non-discrimination is at the heart of what UNCF has always stood for. Our policy prohibits discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status and disability.”

Ugandan Ambassador to The United States of America, Perezi K. Kamunanwire, ¨abruptly withdrew¨ as Martin Luther King Day speaker 

¨Uganda’s ambassador to the United States abruptly withdrew on Friday as the keynote speaker for a Jan. 16 Martin Luther King Day event sponsored by the United Negro College Fund in Greenbelt, Md.

The withdrawal by Ambassador Perezi K. Kamunanwire came one day after United Negro College Fund President and CEO Michael L. Lomax sent him a letter saying UNCF supporters had expressed concern over an anti-homosexuality bill recently introduced in the Uganda Parliament. The letter was triggered by an inquiry from the Blade.

“Yesterday I was asked for comment by the Washington Blade, the oldest and second-largest circulation LGBT newspaper in the country,” Lomax told Kamunanwire in his letter.

“UNCF’s history and mission make us especially alert to violations of human rights, wherever they occur,” Lomax said in his letter. “So while we recognize that these issues are matters of internal Ugandan policy, we are dismayed at present polices in Uganda (and in many other African countries) criminalizing sexual orientation, and we view with alarm the draconian penalties, including the death penalty that the Ugandan anti-homosexuality bill would impose if passed....¨  please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to The Washington Blade, sidebar
·  Thanks to Michael L. Lomax
·  Thanks to The United Negro College Fund
·  Thanks to By Lou Chibbaro Jr

PLEASE MEET THE REVEREND MARK KIYIMBA: A ¨consistent voice for LGBT equality in Uganda¨

Ugandan Pastor, Mark Kiyimba

Ugandan Pro-Gay Pastor To Speak: Washington, D.C. Rev. Mark Kiyimba, pastor of the New Life Kampala Unitarian Universalist Church, has been a consistent voice for LGBT equality in Uganda in the face of proposed draconian legislation designed to criminalize gay people and their supporters out of existence. Rev. Kiyimba is currently in the U.S. for a speaking tour, and for the next several days, he will be speaking at several locations in the Washington, D.C. area...¨ HERE

·  Thanks to Jim Burroway
·  Thanks to Box Turtle Bulletin, sidebar
·  Thanks to The Reverend Mark Kiyimba, Uganda

PLEASE MEET SUSAN ALLEN: Native American lesbian elected to Minnesota House

State Legislator-elect, Susan Allen, Minnesota

¨Last night Victory Fund-endorsed candidate Susan Allen won a special election for a seat in the Minnesota State House, making her the first openly lesbian Native American to be elected to a state legislature.

Allen will represent District 61B in south central Minneapolis, where almost half the children live in poverty. ”It reminds me of a lot of the places I grew up. It’s 62 percent minority,” Allen told Minnesota Public Radio.

Allen’s opponent in the special election, Nathan Blumenshine, lauded her in conceding defeat. ”Her personal story is a powerful one, and I can’t think of a stronger leader to serve as the voice of this community,” Blumenshine said...¨  please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to Gay Politics, sidebar
·  Thanks to Nathan Blumenshine (a great sport)
·  Thanks to The People of Minneapolis, 61B

REALITY JUST TAKES SOME GETTING USED TO: Still, gays need to get over 'being gay'. We need to just be ourselves, and we don't need a label for that.

¨Playing darts at a local bar in South Florida, I overheard a common lamentation from a self-hating homosexual, and I hate self-hating homosexuals.¨

¨Do you think I would ever choose this lifestyle - exposing myself to ridicule, exclusion and hurt all these years? I would much rather be a happily married heterosexual with children," he said, moments before consuming his fifth glass of Heineken in less than an hour. HERE

·  Thanks to Squalls & Sunsets: Have the Strength of a Penguin
·  Thanks to The Bilerico Project, sidebar
·  Thanks to  Norm Kent

MEET MARK GLAZE: Gay man heads mayors group on curbing gun crimes

Mark Glaze, The Raben Group

¨When Raben client Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns began the search for a new director, Glaze was a natural choice, having worked extensively on the group’s issues as a strategist. With a young son in D.C. and a just-purchased townhouse under renovation, Glaze agreed to take on the New York-based position but split his time between New York and Raben’s Washington offices...¨

 ¨Out leaders aren’t just working on LGBT issues.  They’re involved at every level of government and in numerous advocacy organizations dedicated to important public policy challenges of all stripes.  Today marks the first in a new series of posts highlighting the contributions and careers of these openly LGBT leaders – out men and women who are leading policy initiatives that touch the lives of nearly all Americans...¨

Mark Glaze is a Colorado native who came to Washington, D.C., in the mid-1990s. After working as a staffer on Capitol Hill, Glaze attended law school at George Washington University on a prestigious Truman Scholarship, and then set sail for New York after graduating. But a love of policy and politics eventually pulled him back to D.C. and public interest work. Glaze ran his own communications consultancy before joining the plugged-in Democratic strategy firm  The Raben Group and HERE

·  Thanks to Gay Politics, sidebar
·  Thanks to Denis Dison
·  Thanks to  Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns

BISHOPS JOHN SAXBEE AND PETER SELBY: ¨ We believe that the Covenant [the Anglican Covenant] is to be resisted.¨

Lack of diocesean [Church of England] debate on the Anglican Covenant are grounds for real concern

A SNIPPET From the Rt Revd Dr John Saxbee and the Rt Revd Dr Peter Selby letter to Church Times:

¨Sir, — Whichever side of the argument you are on there are grounds for real concern about the way the debate about it is progressing. It cannot be good to learn, as we do, that many bishops who are against the Anglican Covenant don’t want to say for fear of seeming disloyal, that diocesan synods are “debating” the issue without hearing both sides of the argument equally presented, and that there is so much boredom and weariness about the whole issue.

This is a major proposal with potentially serious consequences for this and future generations of Anglican Christians, and for those ecumenical partners with whom we are in conversation. Nothing will be worse than for the Covenant to be yawned through at a July Synod preoccupied with debating the ordination of women as bishops, passed and then put in a drawer — only for us to discover that those who now brand it “toothless” then use it and propel the Communion into a litigious and factious future.

The Archbishop of Canterbury made it clear in his Advent letter that such is not his purpose. But the proposed Covenant cannot now escape the identity it has acquired as an instrument of exclusion...¨ please read it all, by subscription, HERE

·  Thanks to the Rt Revd Dr John Saxbee and the Rt Revd Dr Peter Selby
·  Thanks to CHURCH TIMES, HERE

BASIC DECENCY REQUEST -- ATTENTION -- Anglican Bishop Thomas Elango Dibo: Seven jailed gay men in Cameroon have issued a New Year's message thanking all those who have supported them.

Prisoner Jean Claude Roger Mbede with Lawyer and Activist Alice N'kom
¨Happy New Year¨
2012

"Although you’ve accompanied us with a lot of sadness, you’ve especially shown us a lot of kindness, love and determination throughout this year. We exhort you to never give up in to the discouragement and to never weaken in your mobilization for us and for the LGBT cause. Because your support represents for LGBT in Cameroon in general and specially for us who are in prison… the HOPE. The HOPE to be one day, released from the PRISON in which we’ve been thrown, but also the HOPE that one day, LGBT people can walk quite freely in Cameroon, without any humiliation.

We wish you, from the bottom of our heart, to be of happy, healthy and that the coming year be full of promises and success.¨ HERE

•Jean Claude Roger Mbede
•Singha Jonas,
•Ndome Ndome Frankie,
•Ombwa Joseph Magloire,
•Tiomela Lontsie Emma,
•Ntamack Nicolas,
•Ntsama Séraphin.

·  Thanks to LGBT Asylum News, sidebar
·  Thanks to Paul Canning
·  Thanks to Alice N'kom

A ¨Qualified¨ APOLOGY: Chicagos Cardinal George Apologizes to LGBT Community



 Cardinal Francis George

PERHAPS ONLY SOME GAYS AND LESBIANS ARE MEMBERS OF THE KLAN?  A WHIFF OF HUMILITY.

"During a recent TV interview, speaking about this year's Gay Pride Parade, I used an analogy that is inflammatory. I am personally distressed that what I said has been taken to mean that I believe all gays and lesbians are like members of the Klan. I do not believe that; it is obviously not true. Many people have friends and family members who are gay or lesbian, as have I. We love them; they are part of our lives, part of who we are.

"I am deeply sorry for the hurt that my remarks have brought to the hearts of gays and lesbians and their families. I can only say that my remarks were motivated by fear for the Church's liberty. This is a larger topic that cannot be explored in this expression of personal sorrow and sympathy for those who were wounded by what I said..." HERE

·  Thanks to Truth Wins Out, sidebar
·  Thanks to Joe.My.God., sidebar

THE FABRIC OF AMERICA: Why should LGBTQ people care about immigration reform?

¨The answer is simple: because lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people are part of the fabric of every American demographic and, therefore, are subject to all aspects of injustice. We are black, Asian, Latino, white, poor, rich, differently-abled and, yes, undocumented. It would be foolish not to support the best and the brightest undocumented youth in our country. And it would be inhumane to look the other way while a corporation continues its anti-LGBTQ, anti-environment, anti-woman, anti-minority and – as the Occupiers would say – anti-99% crusade...¨  please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to Get Equal, sidebar
·  Thanks to Tiffani Bishop, Issac Brown, Iana DiBona, and Michael Diviesti

ATTN ANGLICAN CHURCH OF WEST INDIES: Anti-homophobia candidate to become prime minister of Jamaica!

Elected with a landslide victory, Portia Simpson Miller becomes Prime Minister of LGBT bloodsoaked Jamaica

“Our administration believes in protecting the human rights of all Jamaicans,” Simpson Miller responded. “No one should be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. Government should provide the protection.”

Speaking out against discrimination, bigotry and hate in Jamaica

¨Portia Simpson Miller’s People’s National Party won a landslide victory in Parliament over the ruling Labor Party in Jamaica yesterday, giving her a second run at her previous role as first female Prime Minister of that Caribbean nation.

Homophobe ¨chairman¨ of the punative Anglican Covenant design team, Archbishop, retired and waiting to inflict more pain, Drexel Gomez, Anglican Church of the Jamaica and the West Indies
HERE

¨Jamaica is well known for its severe homophobia around the world, and in the past decade, many instances of serious anti-gay violence in Jamaica have caught the attention of the international media. In addition disgraced former Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, had vowed to keep gays out of his Cabinet, a policy supported by Simpson Miller’s opponent, and outgoing Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, who stepped in to take Golding’s place upon his resignation two months ago....¨ HERE

http://blog.noanglicancovenant.org/

·  Thanks to The Washington Blade, sidebar
·  Thanks to Portia Simpson Miller
·  Thanks to The Parliament of Jamaica
·  Thanks to The No Anglican Covenant Blog, sidebar