LGBT Kenyan citizens gathered in Nairobi today to protest conditions in the nation for the their community. Courageously gathering despite a ban by the government, they were immediately limited by the police to the staging area in Freedom Corner of Uhuru Park. 'Out in Kenya" leader Julie Jules said, "Basically the police stopped the procession because we would be seen to be 'promoting homosexuality' ".
Justice and full equality continues to be a stranger to Texans.
In an astounding and shocking judicial decision, Republican Judge John Roach, Jr. demanded that a lesbian couple, Paige Price and Carolyn Compton separate in order to keep their kids. In a custody case involving Compton's previous husband, the Judge invoked a 'morality clause' and gave the couple thirty days for one of them to move out of the house. If they fail to comply, then they could lose custody of their children.
The clause was inserted into the divorce papers because the Judge didn't like Compton's 'lifestyle'.
The Dallas Voice reports:
“Our children are all happy and well adjusted. By his enforcement, being that we cannot marry in this state, I have been ordered to move out of my home,” Price wrote.
Price also mentions that Compton’s ex-husband rarely sees their two children and was once charged with stalking Compton. She said he also hired a private investigator in order to bring the case before the judge. Court records show the ex-husband, Joshua Compton, was charged with third-degree felony stalking in 2011 but pleaded to a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespassing.
Price declined an interview until her lawyers figure out the next step.
Compton was granted a divorce from her ex in 2011, according to court records. The case was reopened in April to dispute custody, which she shares with him.
Compton’s attorney, Barrett Stern, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment. Her ex-husband’s attorney, Paul Key, also didn’t return a phone call.
Ken Upton Jr., senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal’s Dallas office, said he is familiar with the case. He said morality clauses are rarely enforced and were historically used to prevent unmarried people from cohabitating with children present. Courts often include the clauses without people knowing, especially in conservative areas like Collin County, he said.
Gay couples are unfairly targeted under the clause because they can’t legally marry in Texas, Upton said.
So, an ex who is upset that his marriage ended because his wife was gay could use it against her later.
“What the clause has become is an extra burden on gay people because they’re no more likely to violate it than straight people,” he said. “It’s a problem that continues with homophobia.”
One of the nation's greatest voices, Marian Anderson, was denied the right to perform in the Daughters of the American Revolution Hall because she was African-American. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was enraged and insisted that Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes arrange for her to sing at the Lincoln Memorial. On April 9, 1939 (Easter Sunday), over 75,000 stood to listen to this great voice sing while millions more listen to it live over national radio.
This was one of the great moments in civil rights history.
Talk About Equality is reporting today that Roger Gorley was placed in handcuffs, arrested and lead from the hospital room of his ill partner.
The site reports:
This week, Roger Gorley was visiting his husband’s bedside at Research Medical Center in Kansas City. When the ill man’s family demanded Roger be ejected from the room, Roger refused. He and his husband took part in a civil union ceremony 5 years ago and they also holds Power of Attorney for one another.
When the nurse was informed of this, she didn’t even bother going to look for the paperwork, she merely called security and had Roger removed from his partner’s bedside in handcuffs. Furthermore, the hospital has now taken out a restraining order keeping him from visiting his husband in the hospital.
The hospital released a statement which insinuates Roger was somehow putting people in danger or perhaps even reacting violently to being asked to leave his husband’s room.
“We believe involving the family is an important part of the patient care process. And, the patient’s needs are always our first priority. When anyone becomes disruptive to providing the necessary patient care, we involve our security team to help calm the situation and to protect our patients and staff. If the situation continues to escalate, we have no choice but to request police assistance.”
In 2010 President Obama mandated that any hospital that receives federal funding such as Medicare or Medicaid must allow visitation privileges for same-sex partners.
Russian President Putin was greeted by thousand of demonstrators on his arrival in Amsterdam. The protest was because of his oppressive policies against LGBT Russians. A proposed new law would ban 'homosexual propaganda'. In addition, violence against the LGBT community in Russia has been widespread. Many cities in the former Soviet Union have banned LGBT Pride Marches.
Journalist Michael Krikorian of the LA Weekly has written an inspiring profile of an out gay man living in the Projects of Los Angeles. In 'A Gay Leader Emerges In The Hood', Deshawn Cole refuses to live in the closet and has become a community leader in a very tough neighborhood. Anyone would be lifted by the story of his courage and vision.
Here is an excerpt from this 'must read' article:
Asked if being poor, black and gay hurt him at the start of his career, author James Baldwin famously replied that his situation "was so outrageous ... you had to find a way to use it." Deshawn Cole knows outrageous and he, too, is trying to make the most of being a young, gay, black man — at Imperial Courts public housing project in Watts, where coming out has long been scorned as a manhood wasted.
"Early on I knew I was different," says Cole, 23, who lives at the project and works in its on-site recreation center for the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. "I was always a leader. ... When I saw someone who was outspoken or different, they had to be in my circle."
As a teen, Cole says, "I know I confused people — it was fun. It was, like, 'This guy is doing cheerleading — gay. But he's playing football and fighting — can't be gay.' "
Gallup poll data show that 3.6 percent of blacks identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, as do 3.5 percent of all Americans. But against the backdrop of the recent U.S. Supreme Court hearings on same-sex marriage, there's still a strong anti-gay taboo in many inner-city communities. Pew Research Center found that while Latino support for gay marriage has surged to 59 percent, the longtime low support by blacks for gay marriage has edged up to just 38 percent. In 2008, many Latinos and blacks voted in favor of Proposition 8 to ban same-sex marriage.
At Imperial Courts, which gained infamy as a violent bastion of the Project Watts Crips (PJs) gang, Cole, who supports gay marriage, is said by many to be the first boy to live openly as a homosexual. His mother, Cynthia Mendenhall, says, "Deshawn wasn't the first gay person in the Courts, but he was the first one to really be proud of it and come out" about a decade ago.
Cole sees attitudes — even among many PJs — finally changing. Subjected as a youth to countless sexual slurs — Cole estimates that "back in the day" he was called "faggot" several thousand times — he pushed back as a student at Ritter Elementary School and Markham Middle School, jumping into fistfights and finally revealing his sexuality to his disapproving father.
Cole has become a respected community figure whose principles have earned him an unusual form of street cred: tough, kind-hearted — and out.
Imperial Courts resident Ruben Quintana, 25, calls Cole "part of the reason things are changing around here." Quintana, who is straight, says, "In a way, he's like a leader in the gay rights movement the way people were leaders in the civil rights movement."
Mendenhall, known as "Sista," a former PJ Crip–turned–gang interventionist and member of the Watts Gang Task Force, explains, "He's been a mentor to a lot of young people, both straight and gay." When her son was small, "Lots of people told me he's just confused," she recalls. "They said it was a devil. They told me to pray our way out of this. They thought they meant well."
**********************************
Imperial Courts is seen by many as a gang-infested hellhole, a vast concrete corral one step up from homelessness for single mothers and unemployed men who hang out on corners to drink and sell drugs.
Some of that can be found at Imperial Courts. But what also is found there is a keen sense of community that's stronger than in the vast majority of L.A. neighborhoods.
One March evening, Deshawn Cole and Cynthia Mendenhall linger for more than an hour on a sidewalk in the heart of the project, saying, "Hi, baby" and "What up, boo" to about 60 neighbors who pass by.
Cole's mother explains, "It wasn't at all acceptable until Deshawn came out." But even as she speaks, several young people near the recreation center start yelling at an effeminate young man, shouting "Bitch!" and "You look like a girl!"
"Hear that?" Mendenhall asks. "That boy is gay, and he dresses and acts just like a woman. ... So they giving him a hard time. Deshawn tries to mentor him. Let him know he can't be too, what's the word — flamboyant — around here."
For all that's changing, she says, "What we need is a gay and lesbian center right here in Watts. ... People in Watts, South Central and Compton, they need somewhere to go if they need counseling. They shouldn't have to go all the way to Hollywood. Hollywood needs to come here."
This week in our nation's capital it is all about the courts. First there was the Proposition 8 case then come our moment with DOMA and today Dan Choi will have his day in court. Choi was arrested in November 2010 protesting the unjust policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell' He was dismissed from the military for being openly gay.
Along with other brave individuals, he chained himself to the White House fence in a dramatic expression of his opposition to the DADT policy. As with most cases from such an act of disobedience at the White House, his compatriots paid their bail/fine and that was the end of it.
Choi, in a brave act, refused to pay and insisted his actions were a legitimate expression against an immoral policy. For Choi to technically plea guilty was to show implicit agreement with that policy.
The former soldier has his day in court in Washington today.
Choi could face up to six months in jail if he is found guilty. There is no question that he broke the law. In civil disobedience, you can protest the morality of a policy or even the law but if found guilty you must with nobility be willing to pay the price of your actions.
Choi is representing himself in court today and I sincerely hope that is a wise decision. If he is found guilty, I hope the Judge uses wisdom and releases him back to a grateful community. Choi has shown bravery both in the military and out of the military. He does not belong in jail.
Edie and Thea
This past historic week has been filled with briefs, motions, opening arguments and crowds from all sides filling the streets and plazas of America. However, there was one moment when the noise died down and the all the hoopla around the Supreme Court became very human and very real.
That moment was when 83 year old Edie Windsor walked down the steps of the Supreme Court after the hearing and stood proud in front of a sea of microphones and cameras. Suddenly it wasn't about the lawyers, the Justices or briefs. Edie reminder a nation that this was about human beings who have been horribly wronged over the years. The day was about LGBT Americans who have suffered massive discrimination, beatings, economic injustice, lost families and even forced lobotomies
Edie in her eloquence and power also reminder America about the courage of LGBT Americans who learned to love and love passionately while a world demanded that they should not be allowed to do so.
Edie Windsor gave us all dignity on Thursday. LGBT Americans were no longer invisible in America because Edie's dignity was shared with the world. She reminded America that this case was much more than about taxes or briefs. It was about love.
Just listen to this remarkable woman:
She was engaged to her beloved Thea Spyer for forty years after proposing to her in 1967 when Thea got down on one knee and asked Edie to marry her. She gave Edie a diamond brooch because they were afraid that a ring would enrage co-workers. Edie wore that brooch yesterday to the United States Supreme Court.
They were married on May 22 in 2007 having to go to another country, Canada, to have a ceremony. They could wait no longer for justice in America because Thea was dying of multiple sclerosis. She passed away two years later in 2009.
An entire nation knows now that because of DOMA she was forced to pay over $300,000 in estate taxes that no straight couple would ever have had to pay. In essence, while denied full equality, Edie had to pay a tax for being a lesbian. Despite being married to her wife Thea, she was denied the same basic rights granted to millions of American married couples.
Edie Windsor became a symbol of everything that is right about our epic struggle for freedom and full equality. Yesterday she gave voice to each of us. Edie showed a nation her courage and quiet dignity.
Thank you Edie. Thank you from a grateful community and from millions of LGBT and straight Americans. You made us so proud - so very proud.
Pope Francis is well on his way to becoming the 'humble Pope' of the poor. This is a good thing. However, the evidence is mounting that the Pope was not only passive in face of the horror and supported the junta that sent tens of thousands of students, labor, intellectuals, artists to torture and their death.
Some of the arrested were tortured and then still alive loaded on planes that flew out over the Atlantic and were forced out of the planes into the ocean never to be heard from again.
This is not a minor matter that could be overlooked because the Pope is humble. It goes to the heart of the character of this Pope. ABC World News Reports:
"The photographs in the battered leather suitcase are all Estela del la Cuadra has left. Gingerly, she lifts them from the suitcase and lays them face-up like playing cards, atop a faded hand-written letter.
Stabbing a finger at pictures on her kitchen table she says, "The junta abducted seven of my family members, you see six pictures here, but my sister Elena was five months pregnant at the time. They came into the house, took all of my possessions, my washing machine, even my son's bike."
Beneath the pictures, the letter in faded blue ink, features the remarkably neat script of Pope Francis, then Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was head of the Jesuit order of Argentina.
The letter is one of several documents that de la Cuadra and other human rights activists say shows that Bergoglio, as head of the Jesuits, may have turned a blind eye to some atrocities, then later denied knowing about those atrocities despite his own testimony to the contrary and that ultimately as head of the catholic church in Argentina, he did little to open the church's archives to reveal the truth about its complicity."
The article continues:
The testimony of Argentine war criminals in tribunals showed that catholic priests and chaplains played a central role in the torture and murder of dissidents by blessing torture chambers and absolving troops of their sins after they had thrown dozens of bound and drugged dissidents from a plane into the 50-mile-wide Rio de la Plata.
De La Cuadra's family were among thousands that were wiped out. The military junta that ruled this country from 1976 to 1983 allegedly "disappeared" up to 30,000 accused leftist dissidents. Many were tortured and then dropped from airplanes into the Rio de la Plata.
Desperate, the de la Cuadras had been told that the Jesuit order's leader in Buenos Aires might help them. Estela's sister, Elena, was five months pregnant when she, along with her husband were abducted in 1976. The man they were told to see was Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
When Estela's father went to Bergoglio, the future pope allegedly told them all he could do was write a reference letter to anther priest: "Excuse the disturbance but I am writing to you because I would like to introduce Mr. Roberto Luis de la Cuadra, with whom I've had a conversation. ... He will explain to you what this is about. I appreciate anything you are able to do."
That priest was known to have close ties to the junta.
The article reports that even much later the Pope had the capacity to open up the files of the church so the truth could be known about that dark period. He refused to do so.
As late as 2010, in a case brought against the church, he was grilled by attorney Myriam Bregman about what he knew about the eradication of almost the entire de la Cuarda family, and baby Ana's unlawful adoption.
Another human-rights attorney, Luis Zamora, questioned then Cardinal Bergoglio about the existence of church records that among aspects could potentially help reunite missing children with their actual families.
"Zamoro; Does any archive exist in the CEA (Episcopal Conference of Argentina) Bergoglio: I suppose yes, but I don't know Zamoro: is that archive under your jurisdiction Bergoglio: The Central Archive of the CEA is under the jurisdiction of the CEA Zamoro: And who presides over the CEA? Bergoglio: I do"
Bergoglio said he would possibly look into the records, but the Catholic Church has yet to hand over any documents about their role in the Dirty War.
In his testimony, later posted on an Argentine human rights website, Bergoglio said that when he learned of the kidnappings he "acted immediately," contacting the police and the armed forces in an effort to help the two priests. It was, he said, "a moment of desperation."
Thirty-five years later, de la Cuadra is asked whether she is angry at the new pope?
"Angry? I am indignant!" she said.
She said her family only wanted the truth and that because of the Church's complicity, Argentines deserve the truth. She has demanded that Bergoglio open the church archives. She says that as the most powerful catholic in the land, he had the authority and the power to do so. But Bergoglio has said he would not open the archives.
Having told her story, Estela de la Cuadra seemed exhausted. The past two days had taken a toll. Her parents, who had championed the family's cause, had died years ago. She was tired, dark circles ringing her eyes. The family tragedy belonged to her alone now.
She began to carefully pack the documents and mementos back into that battered leather suitcase. We accompanied De La Cuadra, to a press conference in Buenos Aires, where she would tell her story yet again, hoping it would lead to the truth."
There was no way that any Pope would have emerged from the Papal Conclave who was in favor of equality and freedom for the world's LGBT citizens. The best we can hope for is that Pope Francis I will focus on issues of poverty more than Pope Benedict XVI obsession with marriage equality. So it was impossible to be disappointed with Pope Francis I long opposition to full equality for LGBT citizens.
However every human being has their moment when their character is tested and they put their future and even their lives on the line. In El Salvador, Archbishop Romero was assassinated by the military for his opposition to the brutal dictatorship. Also in that war, four nuns were killed by the military and left by the roadside for helping the poor fight for freedom.
Unfortunately, when it came time for Pope Francis I character to be tested he failed miserably.
What is shocking to me about this new Pope is his silence or even support doing the horrible Argentina 'Dirty War'. Somewhere between 15,000 to 30,000 artists, writers, students, intellectuals, trade unionists and even priest were brutally killed, often tortured and their bodies thrown out of airplanes over the ocean.
The Catholic Church at the best was silent about the 'missing' and supported the military junta when it was in power and conducting the mass killings from 1976 to 1983. In fact, the church handed over two priests who refused to adhere to the church's support for the military's dirty war and they became among the missing.
What we do know with certainty from that period is that the new Pope remained silent about the killing, torture and dumping. We know that he never joined the brave 'mothers' who stood in silence in town squares demanding to know the fate of their children - many who had been dumped into the ocean. We do know that the church destroyed most of the documents from that period. We do know that the church supported the Military Junta saying they were 'patriots'.
The Guardian reports:
The Catholic church and Pope Francis have been accused of a complicit silence and worse during the "dirty war" of murders and abductions carried out by the junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983.
The evidence is sketchy and contested. Documents have been destroyed and many of those who were victims or perpetrators have died in the years that followed. The moral argument is clear, but the reality of life at that time put many people in a grey position. It was dangerous at that time to speak out and risk being labelled a subversive. But many, including priests and bishops, did so and subsequently disappeared. Those who stayed silent have subsequently had to live with their consciences — and sometimes the risk of a trial.
Its behaviour during that dark period in Argentine history was so unsaintly that in 2000 the Argentine Catholic church itself made a public apology for its failure to take a stand against the generals. "We want to confess before God everything we have done badly," Argentina's Episcopal Conference said at that time.
In February, a court noted during the sentencing of three former military men to life imprisonment for the killings of two priests that the church hierarchy had "closed its eyes" to the killing of progressive priests.
As head of the Jesuit order from 1973 to 1979, Jorge Bergoglio – as the new pope was known until yesterday – was a member of the hierarachy during the period when the wider Catholic church backed the military government and called for their followers to be patriotic.
Bergoglio twice refused to testify in court about his role as head of the Jesuit order. When he eventually appeared in front of a judge in 2010, he was accused by lawyers of being evasive.
The main charge against Bergoglio involves the kidnapping of two Jesuit priests, Orland Yorio and Francisco Jalics, who were taken by Navy officers in May 1976 and held under inhumane conditions for the missionary work they conducted in the country's slums, a politically risky activity at the time.
His chief accuser is journalist Horacio Verbitsky, the author of a book on the church called "El Silencio" ("The Silence"), which claims that Bergoglio withdrew his order's protection from the two priests, effectively giving the military a green light for their abduction.
The claims are based on conversations with Jalics, who was released after his ordeal and later moved to a German monastery.
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