Homosexuality // Current

Boulder's Sacred Heart of Jesus School denies enrollment of lesbians' child

My wife, who is a teacher in a public school in Colorado, recently came home and told... more

curtisreed
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That's Gay: Johnny Weir

The most controversial figure skater ever is a threat to the gayest sport ever.... more

bryan_safi
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110 comments

MOVE OVER CARRIE PREJEAN Miss 'Beverly Hills' 2010: Bible Is 'Black And White' About Killing Homosexuals

Lauren Ashley, self-proclaimed Miss Beverly Hill 2010, is picking up where Carrie... more

atomiclegion
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Anti-Christian Obama Advisor Harry Knox: Pope Benedict is “hurting people in the name of Jesus”

Man Who Attacks Pope as “Hurting People in the Name of Jesus” Gets... more

ctpatriot1970
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Beijing, the gay contest cancelled by police

Mr. Gay election (that should have been today in China) was a very important sign for... more

bibabiba
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Prey - Promo Trailer (2008)

NakedBunnyProductions
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2 months ago
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SCOTUS Upholds Television Ban on Prop 8 Trial

You probably won't hear about it, but homosexuality in America is on trial now.... more

Peachox
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2 months ago
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Prop. 8 Federal Lawsuit Begins; Cue Right-Wing Media Hysteria

http://mediamatters.org/columns/201001110033 This week in a San Francisco Federal... more

karlfrisch
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2 months ago
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Pope slams gay marriage as 'attack' on creation

Pope Benedict XVI has called laws ignoring the difference between the sexes an... more

spacemikey [removed]
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2 months ago
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Campaign Ad Outs Rival Candidate As a Homosexual

How do you win a senate election when you're behind in polls? Ask Republican U.S.... more

Blackgossbo
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Europe's Gay Leaders: Out at The Top

When Iceland installed Johanna Sigurdardottir as Prime Minister last February, newspapers around the globe printed variations of the same headline: ICELAND APPOINTS WORLD'S FIRST GAY LEADER. Everywhere, that is, except Iceland. The Icelandic media didn't mention Sigurdardottir's sexuality for days, and only then to point out that the foreign press had taken an interest in their new head of state — a 67-year-old former flight attendant turned politician whom voters had consistently rated Iceland's most trustworthy politician. Sure, she was gay and had entered a civil partnership with another woman in 2002. But Icelanders hardly seemed to notice. "The media silence echoed the sentiment of the public. Nobody cared about her sexual orientation," says Margret Bjornsdottir, the director of the Institute for Public Administration and Politics at the University of Iceland. "Being gay is a nonissue here. It's considered unremarkable."

Buoyed by liberal attitudes such as those, politicians across Western Europe are stepping out of the closet and into their country's highest political offices. Eleven openly gay men and women now serve in the British Parliament, including two in the Cabinet. Last June, Nicolas Sarkozy appointed Frédéric Mitterrand, a gay television presenter, to the post of Minister of Culture. Paris' Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, tipped by some to contest the 2012 presidential race, is gay. And Guido Westerwelle, chairman of Germany's Free Democratic Party, has just become his country's Foreign Minister, joining a gay élite that includes the mayors of Berlin and Hamburg, Germany's two largest cities. Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's mayor, says coming out ahead of the 2001 mayoral race while under pressure from tabloids strengthened his campaign. "My confession might have contributed to my popularity," he says. "Many people appreciate honesty."

That's a far cry from the climate in most of the U.S., where — despite the recent election of Annise Parker, a gay woman, as mayor of Houston, America's fourth largest city — honesty can still end a gay politician's career. Openly gay politicians such as San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk began winning seats in U.S. cities with large gay populations in the 1970s. Progress has since slowed, says David Rayside, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto. He believes that the relative strength of incumbency in the U.S. creates a barrier to the corridors of power, as does "the strength of religious conservatives." Of the 511,000 elected offices in the U.S. — from local school boards way up to President — openly gay men and women occupy just 450 of them, according to the U.S.-based Victory Fund, an organization that offers financial support to gay political candidates. No openly gay person has ever sat in the Senate, and only three hold seats in the House of Representatives.

The gap between the U.S. and Europe doesn't just exist at the top: 49% of Americans polled by the Pew Research Center in 2007 believed that society should "accept" homosexuality. Contrast that with attitudes in Europe where more than 80% of French, Germans and Spaniards had such a view. Only Catholic and conservative Poles felt as uncomfortable with the idea as Americans. Denis Dison, a spokesman for the Victory Fund, says those attitudes can make it difficult for gay people to campaign — let alone obtain office. "In places where the climate isn't friendly, it's hard for them to even go into a town hall meeting or public forum because they get such nasty questions."

The European Difference
Europe's political landscape has not always been so welcoming. Thirty years ago, as Sigurdardottir began her political career, "Iceland was extremely homophobic," says Baldur Thorhallsson, a political scientist at the University of Iceland. Education changed that. Over the last 30 years Samtokin '78, a Reykjavik-based gay-rights organization, worked with the national media to produce news programs that gave gay men and women a human face, and acquainted the public with the prejudice gays encounter. Activists visited high schools to create gay role models and counter stereotypes. By 1996 the country had legalized gay civil unions, and Sigurdardottir had served as a Cabinet minister. Today, only 6% of Icelandic clergymen say they would refuse to perform a gay marriage. "We're a small country of 300,000 people, so news spreads quickly," Thorhallsson says. "If you get on the main news program, your message will reach everybody."

In larger countries like Britain, with relatively deeper pockets of conservatism, progress has come more slowly. In 1988, Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government passed a Local Government Act, Section 28 of which barred the "promotion of homosexuality" in schools and defined gay partnerships as "pretended family relationships." Such homophobia emboldened both gay-rights advocates and future politicians. "People came out who otherwise wouldn't have, and it woke up our heterosexual friends and family," says Michael Cashman, now a Labour Member of the European Parliament. In 1989, Cashman and actor Ian McKellen co-founded campaign group Stonewall. Around the same time, Cashman played the role of a kindhearted gay man on popular BBC soap opera EastEnders. As Cashman says: "We moved on and politics eventually followed."

By 1997, when Tony Blair's Labour government came to power, the ground was shifting. Chris Smith, the only out MP for 14 years, was named Minister of Culture. "The really astonishing thing was that no one pointed out a gay man had been appointed to the Cabinet," he says from Britain's Environment Agency, which he now runs. The same year in Exeter, a constituency in southwestern England, Conservative party candidate Adrian Rogers attacked his openly gay opponent Ben Bradshaw by describing homosexuality as "a sterile, disease-ridden and godforsaken occupation." Voters awarded Bradshaw the seat, in one of the biggest swings away from the Conservatives in the country that year. "He tried to use my sexuality as a political weapon and that blew up in his face," says Bradshaw, now the U.K.'s Minister of Culture. "That election was a huge sea change in our politics. Since then we've been in a new world."

Gay-baiting has proved equally ineffective in Germany. Andreas Heilmann, a social scientist at Berlin's Humboldt University, believes that a politician who discloses his sexual orientation is insulated from criticism. "They embody a certain authenticity and credibility because they're open," he says. By contrast, opponents who make sexuality an issue are typically viewed as mean-spirited and politically incompetent. When Hamburg's former vice mayor Ronald Schill outed the city's Mayor Ole von Beust at a press conference in 2003, Germans mocked Schill, and Von Beust went on to win the 2004 elections in a landslide.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1952221,00.html
Image source: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2009/6/10/1244623578720/Ben-Bradshaw-culture-secr-002.jpgWhen Iceland installed Johanna Sigurdardottir as Prime Minister last February,... more

xiola
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2 months ago
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Religious writer claims Golden Girls causes homosexuality

The guarantee of free speech in the USA doesn't guarantee intelligent speech.... more

poolparty_com
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3 months ago
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70 comments

Taboos Silence Opponents Of Uganda Anti-Gay Bill

In Uganda, a bill designed to eradicate homosexuality has strong support in the... more

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3 months ago
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Mom's Coming Out Day

Mom's Coming Out Day... more

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White House issues statement ‘strongly’ condemning Ugandan Anti-Gays Bill

the White House issued a statement to the Advocate, condemning the Anti-Homosexuality... more

Future_America
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3 months ago
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Chuck Grassley Finally Condemns Ugandan Anti-Gays Bill

On Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) refused to condemn the Anti-Homosexuality... more

Future_America
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Rick Warren Finally Issues Statement Condemning Ugandan Anti-Gays Bill

For weeks, Pastor Rick Warren has been under fire for refusing to condemn the Anti-Homosexuality Bill going through the Ugandan parliament, which would make certain homosexual acts punishable by death. Last month, he told Newsweek that it wasn’t his “personal calling” to “comment or interfere in the political process of other nations.”

After facing intense criticism over his statement, Warren then went on Twitter and wondered why there was so much fuss over the rights of gay men and women:

“Globally last yr 146,000 Christians were put to death because of their faith. No one, except Christians, said anything.”

But dozens of Christian leaders disagreed with Warren’s cowardice and forcefully spoke out against the legislation. From a Dec. 7 letter they signed:

"As Americans, some may wonder why we are raising our voices to oppose a measure proposed in a nation so far away from home. We do so to bear witness to our Christian values, and to express our condemnation of an injustice in which groups and leaders within the American Christian community are being implicated. We appeal to all Christian leaders in our own country to speak out against this unjust legislation."

Even world leaders like UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper condemned the bill. Sweden development assistance minister said that the country planned to cut aid to Uganda over the “appalling” legislation.

Warren finally came out with a message for his “fellow pastors in Uganda” saying that he is against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, has been smeared by the media, and still thinks being gay is a sin.

Better late than never.

The White House also issued a statement condemning this bill
http://current.com/items/91676962_white-house-issues-statement-strongly-condemning-ugandan-anti-gays-bill.htm

Iowa's Senator Chuck Grassley, who has a relationship with the The Family, an international Christian organization that has pushed extreme right-wing policies in Africa, also finally issue a statement condemning this bill.
http://current.com/items/91670899_grassley-finally-condemns-ugandan-anti-gays-bill.htmFor weeks, Pastor Rick Warren has been under fire for refusing to condemn the... more

Future_America
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3 months ago
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1 comment

Going Undercover in the Crazy, Tragic World of Christian Gay-Conversion Therapy

http://www.alternet.org/sex/144390/going_undercover_in_the_crazy%2C_tragic_world_of_chr... more

Vierotchka
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3 months ago
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4 comments

First vote to legalize same-sex marriage passes in DC Council

The D.C. Council gave tentative approval Tuesday to a bill that would allow same-sex... more

cccocanicola
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4 months ago
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0 comments

The Golden Girls: How One TV Show Turned A Generation Of American Boys Into Homosexuals

The Golden Girls television program was never much to look at. A foursome of Florida... more

J_Jammer [removed]
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4 months ago
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TAGS

tagged w/ Homosexuality

Boulder's Sacred Heart of Jesus School denies enrollment of lesbians' child

That's Gay: Johnny Weir

MOVE OVER CARRIE PREJEAN Miss 'Beverly Hills' 2010: Bible Is 'Black And White' About Killing Homosexuals

Anti-Christian Obama Advisor Harry Knox: Pope Benedict is “hurting people in the name of Jesus”

Beijing, the gay contest cancelled by police

Prey - Promo Trailer (2008)

SCOTUS Upholds Television Ban on Prop 8 Trial

Prop. 8 Federal Lawsuit Begins; Cue Right-Wing Media Hysteria

Pope slams gay marriage as 'attack' on creation

Campaign Ad Outs Rival Candidate As a Homosexual

Europe's Gay Leaders: Out at The Top

Religious writer claims Golden Girls causes homosexuality

Taboos Silence Opponents Of Uganda Anti-Gay Bill

Mom's Coming Out Day

White House issues statement ‘strongly’ condemning Ugandan Anti-Gays Bill

Chuck Grassley Finally Condemns Ugandan Anti-Gays Bill

Rick Warren Finally Issues Statement Condemning Ugandan Anti-Gays Bill

Going Undercover in the Crazy, Tragic World of Christian Gay-Conversion Therapy

First vote to legalize same-sex marriage passes in DC Council

The Golden Girls: How One TV Show Turned A Generation Of American Boys Into Homosexuals

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