HOMOVISION.TV » women

THOUSANDS OF AFGHAN BOYS FORCED INTO PROSTITUTION

HOMOVISION — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:30:24 +0000

Bacha Bazi, or “boy play” as it’s known (pronounced bah-cha bah-zee), is the underage sex trafficking phenomenon in Afghanistan. Young boys are kidnapped or sold by their poor families into sex slavery. The men involved in this trade will often insist these boys are merely dressing up in women’s clothing and dancing in front of groups of paying men. But these boys are forced to have sex with adult men.

Read more: http://www.queerty.com/thousands-of-afghan-boys-are-being-forced-into-child-prostitution-and-the-perpetrators-are-proud-20100422/#ixzz0mCkTPceK

GAY CONSCIOUSNESS NOW

Matthew-Joseph Beard — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:46:02 +0000

In 1967, at a meeting of the feminist group New York Radical Women Anne Forer asked the other women to share their experiences of their lives. She said she needed to hear it “to raise my own consciousness”. What started there was a movement that spread across America.

In New York, in Chicago, throughout all of the major cities, groups sprang up where women could talk about the oppression that they’d lived through. From rape, to domestic abuse, to housework, these women began to link even the smallest details of their personal lives to the political movement that was gathering pace. The Personal began to get Political.

Looking around at gay culture right now, it’s hard not to see its faults: a drug epidemic, the rise of unsafe sex and rising STD and HIV infection rates, the countless relationships with men treating you like shit. How often have we looked upon ourselves as isolated individuals? And these are just some of the problems for those of us that are out. There are few people that cannot remember the lonely pain of the closet felt as a child, as a teenager, as an adult in the workplace, even in a marriage.

But we’re not allowed to get political, its not fashionable – we have our Pride marches in every city in the country. Who cares about getting angry with the blood ban? Why should we get angry about getting called a faggot in the street? Why should we get angry that we can’t hold our lovers hand in public without the stares, without the eyes following us?

Until we recognise the political power of these small details, these small fears that we’re being watched, these small fears that we have to be careful in public, these small fears that we should stick with this boyfriend because we deserve to get treated this way – until we group together and raise each others’ consciousness we’ll stay alone, and we’ll stay oppressed.

Kathie Sarachild: “Our feelings are saying something political… In our groups, let’s share our feelings and pool them. Let’s let ourselves go and see where our feelings lead us. Our feelings will lead us to ideas and then to actions”

This post was submitted by Matthew-Joseph Beard.

HOMOVISION REHAB with THE SWARMITE: AGEING

Swarmite Parker — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:25:58 +0000

They used to sing ” Nobody loves a Fairy when she’s Forty ” back in the days of homo criminalisation but now the internet is awash with Daddies, Bears and Spanking GrandDads – thankfully nobody needs to look like Cher anymore to still be in the game. Can you imagine being rejected by a 22 year old because your not fat enough and TOO YOUNG when you’re past 50. It happens – trust me. A report came out this week about the upward trend of older users of recreational drugs suggesting on evidence that people over fifty just ain’t gonna give it up for health concerns or abstain which is why the government stance on harm reduction is the fashion. We also know that many gayers well over 40 sit at home on Gaydar or escort sites with tina or the like for companion. One wonders when Addison Lee will get a STONEWALL Award for services to the community, but the majority of older gayers just wanna have fun or the fun to continue sanely.

TERROR CAMPAIGN AGAINST LGBT IN IRAQ CONTINUES

HOMOVISION — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:40:13 +0000

The rise of fundamentalist groups in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. led invasion has proven deadly to LGBT Iraqis, who are now being forced to either hide or face the consequences.

Using the internet as a means to track down new victims, militia members are now employing computer analysts to monitor traffic on gay dating and networking websites in the region. They work with internet café owners to single out people who frequent these sites and set up fake profiles in the attempt to lure them out.

On the 28th of August, police raided the houses of Asad Galib and Faeq Ismail, both 24 years old, and took them into custody. They were held and questioned for about four hours, accused of viewing gay websites in an internet café on the 21st of July. Both men denied the accusations and explained that the websites had already been open when they had begun using the computers. They were later released and are now in contact with Iraqi LGBT, a London based organization working to support and protect LGBT individuals in Iraq.

Others who have been accused or are suspected of such activities have not been as lucky.

On the 2nd of September, the body of 21-year-old student Mizher Hussien was discovered in Al Najaf, a city south of Baghdad. His head and genitals had been severed, and he had the word “pervert” written in black across his chest. The details of his murder are unknown, and Iraqi police have refused to launch an investigation into the cause or motivation of the crime.

On the 18th of September in Al Shatra Amara, two bodies were found exhibiting signs of torture. They had both been decapitated and left with a paper stating, “This is the end of all pervert homosexuals”.

Iraqi LGBT has been working since 2003 to raise awareness of the abuses being committed against LGBT people in Iraq, as well as provide protection to those who have been targeted. The organization currently funds a number of safe houses in the region, with nearly 100 individuals in Iraq directly benefitting from their work. In addition, Iraqi LGBT has been involved in securing asylum for Iraqi refugees who have been forced to flee the country.

Unfortunately, Iraqi LGBT has not been able to help everyone. The organization estimates that over 720 LGBT men and women have been murdered by these extremist militias in the last six years. The Iraqi government has largely been absent in pursuing the roaming death squads who carry out these acts, likely due to the influence of extremist Shia religious parties that are calling for a moral cleansing of Iraq.

With extremist militias threatening all those known to support LGBT rights, including the 2006 raid of an Iraqi LGBT planning meeting in which five activists were arrested, there is little hope for Iraqis suffering under the new socio-political climate. Once the most liberal and secular of the Arab nations, nowadays a religious extremism has taken hold of the country to the detriment of its people.

Iraqi LGBT calls for immediate international action to prevent the further torture and execution of LGBT people in Iraq. More information and details on making donations to the safe houses effort can be found at the Iraqi LGBT blog http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com.

Ali Hili is chair of Iraqi LGBT.

RESCUE PACKAGE PROPOSED FOR BRIGHTON PRIDE

HOMOVISION — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:06:46 +0000

Wilde Ones, Pride in Brighton and Hove’s production company for the last ten years, is proposing a rescue package for Brighton Pride.

The proposal aims to keep the same style of event that was produced in 2009, but with additional enhancements, and with all profits going to local voluntary sector and HIV organisations.

Brighton Pride announced recently dramatic changes to future events - such as the removal of the dance tents – due to funding deficits.

Wilde Ones say they disagree with the board of Pride’s assessment of its current financial problems, and its subsequent solutions. They also question Brighton Pride for not giving any grants to the community this year, not engaging with the LGBT community and state that the organisation’s poor management is damaging future sponsorship and delivery of future Prides.

The business/community partnership proposal includes the fencing of Preston Park with the aim of collecting donations on entry to the park, restrict the activities of illegal sellers of alcohol, dissuade homophobic attendees and prevent illegal traders taking money away from the event.

All 2009’s attractions will be present, including the Calabash Tent, the Women’s Tent, the Line Dancing Tent, the Dance Big Top, the Girls’ Dance Tent, the Bears’ Tent, the Indie Tent, the Cabaret Big Top and the funfair.

The proposal also includes the rebranding of the event as “Gay Pride – a celeration of LGBT lives”.

You can download the full proposal here: Wilde Ones Rescue Package

TATCHELL: “HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IGNORED FOR FEAR OF RACISM”

HOMOVISION — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:08:35 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

Below is a short excerpt from a speech Peter Tatchell delivered in defence of universal human rights at the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, 28 October 2009.

Tatchell believes that in large parts of the world, including many western nations, the principle of universal human rights is under attack. “It is under direct attack by tyrants and war-mongers. It is under de facto attack by the exponents of cultural relativism and by those who ignore human rights violations by non-white dictators because they fear being branded racist, imperialist or Islamophobic,” he says.

Tatchell feels that some sections of liberal and left opinion have abandoned their commitment to the idea that every person on this planet is entitled to the same human rights.

“My speech was a strong defence of multiculturalism and the right to be different. But it also warned that respect for different values and cultures should never lapse into collusion with the violation of human rights,” he adds.

Here’s part of the speech:

“A good, beneficial multicultural society is one in which everyone has the freedom to pursue their own different ethics and lifestyles, while in the public sphere all citizens are treated as equals and are bound together by a shared commitment to universal human rights, regardless of the differences in their personal morality and private lives.

“I do not, for example, insist that people of faith approve of homosexuality, but I do expect them to not discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation.

“Where some strands of multiculturalism have gone off the rails is in their institutionalisation of difference through initiatives like the state funding of faith schools, which factionalises pupils along religious lines.

“Another big error by some multiculturalists has been to bow to demands for cultural sensitivity by tacitly accepting that some peoples and communities can be exempt from the norms of universal human rights when it comes to issues like women’s rights and incitements to homophobic violence.

“Moral and cultural relativism have gained ground. We are told every community is different, with different values and different ways of dealing with issues. All these differences are equally valid and must be respected. To question them, we are admonished, is to impose our way of life on others – a form of cultural imperialism.

“It is true there is no one-size-fits-all blue-print for all societies and communities. But are there no universal humanitarian values that should be defended in all cultures at all times? Is everything relative? Should we accept practices in other communities that we would never accept in our own?

“Allowing people in developing countries to suffer indignities that we would never tolerate in our society is a shameless double standard. It smacks of racism.

“All peoples possess a culture, but this does not mean all cultures are equally valid and commendable. Some values and ideas are better than others. The Enlightenment was better than the Dark Ages. Freedom is better than slavery. Democracy is better than fascism. Scientific knowledge is better than superstition.

“While all human beings deserve human rights, not everyone’s beliefs and traditions deserve respect. Political and religious ideas based on racism, patriarchy and homophobia are unworthy of respect. They need to be challenged, not tolerated.”

COMMENT: FROM JAMAICA, WITH HATE

Christopher Brocklebank — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:55:15 +0000

Last year, Bounty Killer – one of the hearty proponents of Jamaican Murder Music – performed some of his homicidal hoedowns at the Stratford Rex, with the full blessing of the London Met Police Force. This July, Buju Banton (he of ‘Boom Bye Bye’ fame) did the same at the Hammersmith Apollo. His management have been issuing hasty statements for nigh on five years now that he doesn’t include these songs in his set anymore, despite there being recorded evidence that he has. He also issued an ‘apology’ at one point which he later retracted, and his current US tour is going, shall we say, not quite so well, given that most major venues have cancelled his gigs (huzzah!)

Banton apparently met with a San Francisco gay group last week, a gathering described by one of the attending city supervisors as ‘cathartic’. The promoter of Banton’s Frisco show said that the singer had listened to the concerns but made no promises. He also added that he thought the singer was being unfairly targeted. Well excuse me while I stitch my sides back together…

Naturally, few promoters (those with a conscience anyway) would have extended this kind of warm-wine-in-placcy-cups welcome to, say, a white nationalist band, of which there are plenty. But if not, why not? It’s firmly acknowledged that it’s a bad thing to give a platform to performers bent on sharing their sheer irrational hatred of their fellow man and women simply because they’re a different colour to them, so why is it taking so long to sink in that it’s equally heinous to extend that same hatred towards gay men and lesbians?

Weirdly enough, those of an (allegedly) liberal position have proven to be our enemies in this nasty little battle. Of course, there are sensible liberals who oppose this shameful idiocy, but you wouldn’t be too hard pressed to find those who consider themselves left-leaning and yet attempt to defend the freedom granted to virulently homophobic Jamaican Dancehall singers such as Banton and Bounty Killer (and Beenie Man, Sizzla, Vybz Kartel, Capleton, T.O.K, and Elephant Man).

‘Censorship!’ they cry, like smart-alec twelve-year-olds whose parents have switched off the telly because SAW is on. But what’s liberalism without empathy? Surely being liberal means having the ability to feel empathy for your fellow men and women: to put yourself in their shoes? Well, put yourself in the shoes of Steve Harvey, a gay rights activist who was kidnapped from his home in Kingston and shot dead, execution style. Or Nokia Cowen, who drowned in Kingston harbour after trying to escape a mob of vicious homophobes who chanted ‘Boom Bye Bye’ as they chased him through the city. Or Jamaica’s Trade Ambassador, Peter King, whose throat was slashed. Or the lesbian couple, who were murdered, mutilated, and had their bodies dumped in a septic pit behind the home they shared. Or John Terry, the British Consul, who was murdered in his own house this summer by some feeble excuse for a human being who left a note behind calling Terry a ‘Batty Boy’. Or the tragic man last year who was beaten in the street on suspicion of his being gay, only for the locals to film it on their camera phones rather than rush to his aid. Now do you think we should ‘defend’ these ‘artists’, whose music and lyrics both encourage and confirm the hatred of gay people in Jamaica? Grant them the free speech that they so deserve? Thought not.

Surreally, this ‘free speech’ viewpoint was openly embraced by some gayers at one point. Some moronic DJ, whose name escapes me, oddly enough, said that it was his ‘revenge’ to play ‘Boom Bye Bye’. Gay rapper Q Boy said that he didn’t believe we should ban this circle-jerk of ‘musicans’ from performing because ‘artists should never be censored’. Maybe, if you’re the rubbish sort of liberal, you even think it’s ‘racist’ to criticise and muffle these morons. It’s certainly a favourite catcall for the anti-Tatchell mob. ‘He’s a racist, that Tatchell! A Nazi infact!’ Of course he is, what with all the anti-apartheid work he did in the ‘80s, all the anti-racism causes he’s supported, and the way he stands side by side with the non-white gay men and lesbians suffering in silence in the West Indies, Africa, and the Middle East. Total racist.

It’s also a case of political correctness – generally a good thing – being hijacked by kneejerk liberals and twisted and mangled until it’s drained of all meaning, e.g. any attempt to muffle the practices of the non-white is racist, is imperialism, is imposing the majority opinion etc etc etc. It isn’t rocket science: a civilised society should not allow a singer or a group who preaches hate and incitement to murder – that’s MURDER – perform in public. And no, that wouldn’t mean that PC Plod would then be in charge of your iPod, as some people have tried to suggest – the records of Beenie Man et al are not banned and can be purchased in independent record shops. The singers are not forbidden to enter the country either, unlike Louis Farrakhan of Nation of Islam fame, who despite his heinous views, has never suggested anyone go out and kill. This is what they call Pretzel Logic.

And then there are those at MOBO who, along with other voices in the music industry have suggested Tatchell’s righteous ire was in some way stamping on the opportunities of black youth, music being one of the few routes out of poverty and dead-end lives for them, along with sport. What, so only the dreams and opportunities of black heterosexual youth matter do they? What about black gay youth? Or do they not deserve the same opportunities? Sure they do, and one of those opportunities may well be the chance of having their black elders not supporting music which condemns them.

I’m actually a fan of Jamaican music – old Jamaican music. And much like gangsta rap has, in my opinion, robbed black American music of its magic, aggressive, homophobic, sexist and violent Dancehall has done the same for Jamaican music – no more the exuberance of Ska, the solid skank of Rocksteady, the sexiness of dub, or the swooning of Lovers’ Rock.

Just the clanging sound of hate, drowning out the screams.

BROWN RECOMMENDS CIVIL CEREMONIES IN PARLIAMENT

Christopher Brocklebank — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:01:48 +0000

Yesterday, Gordon Brown made the recommendation that civil partnership ceremonies for gay MPs and Peers should be allowed to take place in the Palace of Westminster in a drive to flag up parliament’s commitment to gay rights and equality.

He made the recommendation in his 20-minute speech at the Speaker’s Conference, which seeks to examine how best to attract greater numbers of women and minorities into parliament in order to make it more representative. Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, also gave evidence in separate speeches on the subject of diversity. A summer report from the Speaker’s Conference said that parliament was far from representative in terms of women and of minority groups in the UK. Parliament’s official estimate of the LGBT population in the UK is that it sits at around 6-9%. For parliament to reflect this, a spokesman for the Labour Party said they would have to have roughly 40 gay and lesbian MPs.

Gay couples have been able to enter into civil partnerships since 2005, and the rules on which venues are eligible for the ceremonies remain fuzzy. Everywhere from hotels, to beaches, museums and even mountaintops can stand as ceremonial ‘venues’, provided they are registered by the local council. Various heterosexual MPs including William Hague and Charles Kennedy chose to marry in the Commons crypt and as non-religious civil ceremonies can be held in sanctified spaces, gay MPs may soon be able to follow suit. However, the ceremonies cannot be held in St Mary’s Chapel in Westminster, as the Church of England does not recognise civil partnership as as marriage.

This issue could also create parallel concerns about elitism, potentially raising the question of why only MPs and Peers, both gay and straight, are allowed to marry or enter into civil ceremonies in the chapels of Westminster.

HOMOVISION REHAB with THE SWARMITE: FREEDOM

Swarmite Parker — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:19:47 +0000

In some quarters to admit “being in therapy” is as shaming as owning membership to the Jan Moir Fan Club, so you may wonder why people seek it, pay for it and continue the process of on-going examination. However, coming out as “being in therapy” is the new celebrity ring-a-ding these days, going into REHAB is so over it seems, unless your recording contract insists on it. Look at Amy – now what WAS that rider? :- I won’t go to REHAB unless it’s in St Lucia, I insist on working with the producer that worked on Back to Black to create my next album (that is 3 years late), I can drink beer every night and not eat anything. Alright then, I’ll go.

In order to experience freedom we need to sacrifice something including the freedom to be reckless in our lives. You may think that having a freedom flag mouse mat (very Nineties!) to cruise on while you lose 6 hours on Gaydar, is the freedom to be who you are but REAL freedom comes from inside – not from a flag. To find that freedom, a sense of balance and a guilt free wake up call is the reason many smart gayers choose therapy of any kind as a route to change. In decades gone past it was all about “accepting yourself as a homo”, now it’s about “accepting yourself as a crack addict”, a serial debtor, a codependent, a boozer or someone who just CAN’T find a relationship to keep. I blame Thatcher.

Until Thatcher brought in Clause 28 and Capital Gay Newspaper (with REAL NEWS in, not half dressed shots of twinks drinking tequila we see today) – said “unless you get out on the street, Thatcher will close the Gay Bars). It was the month of Mad March 1988. Until that time I had never seen 36,000 gayers and their str8 friends in one place, but I remember looking back on the march when we reached Piccadilly Circus, all I could see as far as the eye could see was US. Now that’s REAL freedom, and instead of controlling gays Thatcher was actually responsible for the 60,000 people who turned out for the 1988 Summer Gay Pride March that same year. Yes we marched then, not celebrated, for many HOMOVISION readers may not know that battles have been fought on their behalf.

In the late eighties and just after, you only “had therapy” if you were close to someone with AIDS, had AIDS or had received an HIV+ diagnosis and told you were about to die. Until this time we were affected by no other diseases aside from the dis-ease of being a gayer, the need to listen to torch singers and watch Streisand films. We had no other mental health issues. In 1998, a decade on, I was invited by EUROPRIDE (that year in Stockholm, Sweden) to present my own series of seminars I started in London in 1994 called QUEER LOVE QUEST, to be the first Gay Personal Development Programme ever to be part of the official festival itinerary. The tide had turned and other gay issues like homophobia, aging and addictions were being addresed. Thatcher had long gone, Nu Labour was the flavour, combos had arrived and our freedoms began, but without the attack by Thatcher, we would still be simpering and apologising for having a decent haircut.

Many forms of therapy exist, but the purpose is the same, FREEDOM from the past and present habits, resentments, toxic shame and guilt. Watching ITV’s Loose Women the other day I was shocked that half the panel saw therapy as “self -indulgent “. Codependency has often been described as a pattern of behaviour where you lose your own sense of self while caring for, parenting, worrying, rescuing or taking too much responsibility for others. Along the way we have been told that others come first, so I can see that within this context caring for yourself would be “self-indulgent”. Prompted by certain gay activists we have been told for so long that we are just like straights now and should not have “gay issues” anymore, we are just humans not defined by sexuality. Unfortunately the “issue” is still that you can’t walk down an average street holding your partners hand like straights do in complete freedom. Until we can do this with ease we have no cause to wave a flag. Until we can safely get off a bus and not hear homophobic abuse from feral youth or be beaten to death for standing our own ground we will not feel free. Yet in order to handle these outside interferences therapy can teach you to feel free from attack, free from the judge and jury in your head and free to live in the world of extras. I call it this because when you reduce a habit, or change an unhealthy routine you find extra time, extra interests and extra pride in yourself.

REHAB is seen in much the same way that many witness a gastric band. A last resort. Celebrity Rehab is now all about nervous exhaustion, pill addiction and can’t cope, no one goes in for booze anymore, except The Hoff. Fashions change. Some progress there I guess but until we get a grip of the journey we take to get to Rehab we will always need a rock bottom to wake up. Harm reduction is the new mantra, therapy is a speed-bump to harm reduction, not a self-indulgent exercise. Self indulgence is lost weekends in a K hole, half the night on Gaydar, losing your phone and buying another on a CC without knowing or caring what you owe. Self indulgence is not just a gayers charter but we have more loose change in our pocket with less responsibilities and a lifestyle that insists – not that it’s party as if it’s 1999 – but to party till we are 99.

So while you fiddle with your mouse mat consider where you feel FREE today – are you going to sit back in 10 days time while a silent vigil takes place in Trafalgar Square, to fight against energies that hate your very existence? Are you going to stand in a bar or make a stand in a square? While you ponder that, consider the 36,000 that marched that winters day in 1988 for the right for you to feel free. Take ACTION, the most powerful drug available to man.

If you need a life clear-out, chem free weekdays and higher esteem check out http://www.theswarmite or http://www.twitter.com/mygaytherapist or the new HOMO REHAB Fan Page on Facebook. It would be rude not to.

IRISH HURLING STAR REVEALS HE’S GAY

HOMOVISION — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:02:40 +0000

Irish hurling star Donal Og Cusack has revealed he’s gay in his new auto-biography, Come What May due out this month.

The star tells how he slept with both women and men before accepting his sexuality as a gay man. He reveals how he tried to date women as a young man even though he knew from the age of 13 or 14 “that I was a bit different”.

He says: “I tried to go out with women to make sure, to see what kind of feeling it gave me. I went out with nice women and good women, but sure, I still knew. I wanted something else. I get more out of men. I just do. Always have. I know I am different but just in this way. Whatever you may feel about me or who I am, I’ve always been at peace with it.”

He also admits that coming out to his family was one of the hardest things he’s ever done, especially when telling his father: “There was confusion in every line of his face. He said he was a man of the world, and that he had lived and worked in London for 10 years but he thought, well, if he had a son like this, he would dress differently and behave differently, “ said Donal.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.S COLLEGE BANS CROSS DRESSING

Ismail Ahmed — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:26:17 +0000

A dress code banning cross-dressing has been introduced at a college in America which human rights activist Martin Luther King Jr attended. It calls for “no wearing of clothing associated with women’s garb (dresses, tops, tunics, purses, pumps, etc.) on the Morehouse campus or at college-sponsored events.”

Students who refuse to comply with this “Appropriate Attire Policy” will be denied admission into class and various functions and services of the college. Repeat offenders are subject to suspension.

Morehouse College, an Atlanta, Georgia-based all-male educational institution catering historically for African Americans counts Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., actor Samuel Jackson and filmmaker Spike Lee as part of its alumni.

Also forbidden are the wearing sunglasses in class, caps, do-rags or hoods in indoor venues, and the wearing of one’s trousers or shorts low enough to reveal undergarments. Vice president of student services Dr. William Bynum said of students he “expects you to attire yourself in a professional manner and to represent you and the university in a very positive manner”.

The policy has received mixed responses from Morehouse’s students. Davaugn Watson feels parts of the policy “infringes on the student’s freedom of expression” whereas Cameron Thomas-Shah suggests “if anyone sees this policy as something that is restrictive then maybe Morehouse is not the place for you.”

Daniel Edwards, co-president of the campus’ gay organization Morehouse Safe Space admits he’s heard from students both opposing and in agreement of the policy, but argues the restriction of women’s clothing is discriminatory. He said, “Some believe that this restriction is what the entire policy is correlated around”.

The vice president announced, “We are talking about five students who are living a gay lifestyle that is leading them to dress a way we do not expect in Morehouse men” adding that prior to the passing of the policy he met with Morehouse Safe Space. He said a discussion preceding a vote was carried out where “Of the 27 people in the room, only three were against it”.

The Facebook SafeSpace page concurs the majority of people in the room were for the policy. However its administrator continued, “…we have had numerous meetings since then where people have expressed their discontent with the policy. So as of right now, the organisation represents both perspectives equally”.

WHITE HOUSE MARCH TO END “DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL”

HOMOVISION — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:19:25 +0000

Thousands of people have marched outside the White House today demanding the President Obama honours his promise to end the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” and allow openly gay servicemen and women to serve in the Army.

At the Human Right’s Dinner on Saturday night, Obama said he would end the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” rule – the policy that allows gay men and women to serve in the Army as long as they keep their sexuality hidden. Here’s the speech:

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said the military may now be ready for change. March organizer Cleve Jones said he had organised the rally because he and others had begun to worry that Obama was backing away from his campaign promises.

Meanwhile in the UK, human rights activist Peter Tatchell has criticised Obama’s lack of real action on the issue: “What’s holding back Obama? More than two-thirds of the American people want it lifted, according to a Gallup poll in May. Is the president afraid that straight soldiers will resign if the restrictions on gay service are repealed? That’s what some British top brass feared when the UK allowed gay soldiers, but the resignations never happened.”

He adds: “One of the few things the US has in common with the Iranian theocracy is its ban on openly gay people serving in the armed forces. Even Uruguay, formerly a military dictatorship, this summer lifted its prohibition on gay forces personnel.

“Obama’s failure to honour his pre-election pledge to end ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is symptomatic of his broader failure to remedy homophobic discrimination on a whole range of issues. In his bid to not alienate religious and republican right-wingers, the Oval Office has put gay rights on the back-burner.”

HOMOVISION.TV » women

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