A group of anti-circumcision activists has collected enough signatures to get a proposed ban on male circumcision on the ballot in November. The ban would make it illegal to circumcise any boy under the age of eighteen years. In my opinion, this is a violation of the American constitution and will only result in Jewish parents having to travel over the city border to have their sons circumcised.
If you have read Robert Graves’s superb novel I, Claudius, you might remember how the narcissists in Rome’s imperial family begged and demanded to be declared gods by vote in the Senate. It seems the Vatican is upholding that tradition. The late Pope John Paul II has been beatified in a ceremony today.
There is an interesting article in the New York Times suggesting gay rights are now on a tipping point. Educated people can’t stand homophobia any longer and refuse to support it even when there is money to be made. Good.
I just woke up to the great news of the death of terrorist leader and mass-murderer Osama bin Laden. In a press conference that ended only minutes ago, President Barack Obama said that bin Laden was killed by American forces in Pakistan. Good.
Update: There has been some criticism about liberals being happy about the death of Osama bin Laden. To be clear, I would have preferred that he was put on trail, but this was a war situation where the terrorist leader refused to surrender.
That’s the lesson we can learn from a number of uprisings. Today, David Boaz of the Britannica Blog writes about some of the most important struggles for civil rights and liberties.
In an article on the website of Swedish gay magazine QX, I urge the gay-rights movement to take a stand against criminalisation of male circumcision. One of my employers, the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights (RFSL), is a member of the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU). The latter has produced a folder that I consider biased against Judaism only a few weeks before its annual general meeting. It claims that no Jewish movements require male circumcision, which is untrue. In my opinion, criminalisation is xenophobic, harmful, and a violation of human rights.
An interesting article in the Japan Times on a little known activity in Euroland.
Time has put together an overview with videos. Enjoy.
Christer Sturmark, leader of the Swedish Humanist Association, an atheist organisation, has long argued in favour of criminalisation of religious customs. In an article published by opinion website Newsmill today, he takes another step and demand that Sweden makes it illegal to broadcast séances, which has become a popular feature on one commercial television channel. Considering the complete lack of respect for people’s religious freedom, I’m not surprised that he sees no value in free speech. Civil liberties mean nothing to this mad atheist preacher man. He is as bad as the religious fundamentalists he goes to war against.
On 19 April, I reported that favourite gay-news website Queerty had been folded. Now it’s back. Hurrah!
The latest news from the Middle East is that light fascism has merged with hard-core fascism. I guess the new Fatah-Hamas alliance could be called moderate fascism. Now as the lunatics are no longer fighting each other, I figure they’ll intensify their attacks on women, Jews, and gay people.
Remember Northern Ireland and the Englishmen who made it their home despite hostility from the Irish? Remember how the British government made a deal that allowed the province to stay in the kingdom? Now the British prime minister wants Israel to accept what Britain refused to even consider. He wants Israel to accept a two-state peace deal that would force half a million Jews to leave their homes in order for so-called Palestinians to create a second state (they already have Jordan). If Israel doesn’t do as Cameron says, Britain may endorse an unilateral declaration of independence by Mahmoud Abbas. If that would be the case, I suggest Israel formally recognise Northern Ireland a part of the Irish Republic.
Considering that many of us have many friends on Facebook, I think Joe Brown is addressing a real problem.
This story is fascinating in its absurdity. “Alumni from Wheaton College have formed an organisation to provide support for the gay community on the conservative Christian campus,” the Chicago Tribune reports. The college has an official position against “homosexual behaviour”, which is religious jargon for sanctioned hostility towards gay people. Philip Ryken, president of the college, illustrates this hostility with the usual mumbo-jumbo about hating the sin (love) but loving the sinner (the gay person). However, I think he expresses this in an unusually bizarre way. He says, “We stand with LGBTQ persons before God as persons created in God’s own image, and also as sinful persons in need of God’s forgiveness and love.” Get it? Gay people are created by God in God’s image but need God’s forgiveness for the way they are created.
“Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court on Thursday legally recognised homosexual partnerships in a landmark case for gay rights in a country with the world’s largest population of Roman Catholics,” the New York Times reports. And all justices voted in favour. Brilliant.
Following a Israeli High Court ruling that sex segregation must not be imposed on public transportation, a group of Progressive Jews decided to hand out leaflets explaining the ruling to ultra-Orthodox bus travellers.
“We had two goals,” says Moti Bavchuk of the Movement for Progressive Judaism. “The first, to clarify that the segregation is not voluntary. The harassment and violence against women are forbidden as far as the High Court is concerned, and could lead to criminal sanctions. And the second, to warn against a segregated state which is developing here, kind of like Tehran.”
I think this is a great initiative. Freedom of religion doesn’t allow anyone to force their will on others. If the ultra-Orthodox want gender segregation, they can apply these rules in their homes, synagogues, and other privately owned areas.
It took the Spanish island three centuries, but yesterday it condemned the killing of 37 Jews for practicing Judaism.
A new study suggests that having sex, drinking coffee, and getting angry might make the blood vessels in your brain to burst. It makes sense, but how is anyone supposed to avoid these things?
This makes me feel good. The sports world is finally breaking with its homophobic tradition. Progress is in the air.
Video below and here.
(Via Fredrik Westerlund’s Twitter feed.)
I like Jonathan Harris’s project. Makes me think of that fundamental duality of life: it’s both a meaningless chain of events and meaning itself. I also like his reflection on time and how we need privacy and contemplation.
The Swedish Salvation Army is criticised after a programme broadcast on television last night. In the programme, an undercover journalist recorded a leader of the Army saying that homosexuality is a sin. People were chocked, which seems strange to me who have discussed this issue with members of the Salvation Army for two decades. The Salvation Army is doing a lot of good, but it’s also one of the most homophobic organisations around. It has sponsored efforts to introduce the death penalty for gay people in a number of countries, and it has opposed every law recognizing gay people’s human rights and civil liberties. In short, Salvation Army hates gay people.
Read more about it at The Local. If you’re Swedish, watch the programme on TV4’s website.
Today, members of the European Union mark Europe Day, an annual celebration of peace and unity in Europe. There is a lot to be said about the EU, but Europe would be a very different place without it. Unfortunately, people tend to only focus on the bad parts and ignore the fact that the union has managed to liberate us all from centuries of closed borders and nationalistic protectionism.
“Pleased by an all-out White House push to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ gay donors have surprised campaign officials with the extent of their support,” Ben Smith and Maggie Haberman write at Politico. “And the campaign’s new fundraising apparatus appears designed to capitalise on their enthusiasm: Obama’s finance committee included one gay man in 2008; there are 15 this year, a source said.”
The Pink Triangle Trust, an atheist organisation in Britain, says Uganda might fast-track a parliamentary bill on death penalty for gay people and make it law within a few weeks.
Read more about it at Pink Paper.
Progress in America. The US Navy has decided to let gay couples get married in its chapels that are located on bases in states where same-sex marriage is legal.
“Ultra-Orthodox Hasidic newspaper Der Tzitung is trying to change history by removing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from the recent Situation Room photo showing Clinton alongside Obama and the rest of his staff watching the Osama bin Laden raid,” Ynetnews reports. The utral-Orthodox newspaper doesn’t allow publishing pictures of women as they could be considered “sexually suggestive”.
Virginia is one of a few American states where the homophobic lobby has succeeded in its efforts to write a ban on same-sex marriage into the constitution. The hate lobbyists don’t hide the fact that they want the state constitutions to discriminate against gay people because popular opinion is increasingly favourable to same-sex marriage and gay rights.
And they are right. Americans are losing faith in homophobia and discrimination. A recent survey shows that more Virginians are in favour of same-sex couples being allowed to legally marry. And the homophobes face a tough future as the survey shows that nearly three-quarters of those aged 18 to 29 say gays should be able to legally wed.
“A supplementary retirement pension paid to a partner in a civil partnership, which is lower than that granted in a marriage, may constitute discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation,” the ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union says. Good.
Read about it at EU Observer.
“A small group of LGBT activists protested against the proposed Ugandan ‘Anti-Homosexuality’ bill in front of the Embassy of Uganda in D.C. on Tuesday,” the Washington Blade reports. Good for them. Uganda must know that if this bill is unacceptable and a violation of human rights.
Update: Foreign Secretary William Hague says Britain is lobbying Uganda over anti-gay bill. In America, top politicians want to cut the aid to Uganda if the bill is made into law. The Archbishop of Canterbury says in a statement that he is very concerned at the news that the proposed bill is once again under consideration by the Ugandan Parliament.
I think America’s right-wing broadcasters will have a field day over ACLU’s decision to challenge Oklahoma’s ban on sharia law. They already hate the ACLU for its support of gay rights, and now this. But it is absolutely right; sharia law is about more than those oppressive rules non-Muslims associate it with. To have a ban on sharia law is a violation of people’s religious freedom.
Read more about it at ACLU’s Blog of Rights.
According to a Christian radio network based in California, Judgment Day will arrive exactly 21 May 2011. So, relax, it will soon be over.
David Bahati, the parliamentarian who wrote the bill, said yesterday that he expects his bill to be debated and passed on tomorrow, Friday. If the bill becomes law, we can expect genocide in this highly homophobic country. The bill has been finically and morally supported by Christian organisations in the United States and Europe. I would suggest we hold these organisations accountable for any future violence against gay people in Uganda.
When not even the world’s top nuclear experts seem to know what’s what and lie to us about it, I don’t feel safe any more.
Uganda’s parliament adjourned today without voting on the anti-gay bill that would mandate the death sentence for homosexuality. Good.
An overwhelming majority of voters in Zurich, Switzerland, have rejected proposed bans on assisted suicide and so-called suicide tourism, BBC News reports. I realise it’s a sensitive subject to many, but people ought to have the right to decided for themselves if they want to end their lives to avoid pain and suffering.
“For many people traditional religion has been unmasked by science”, says Dutch religion scholar Koert van der Velde. “Often, however, you see those same people continuing to practice religion in one form or another—such as astrology, reincarnation-therapy, spiritual trainings in the business world, or the singing of the Matthew Passion. When asked, however, those engaging in such practices deny believing in the religious assumptions underpinning them.”
The most fascinating thing about this news story in Shanghai Daily is that it lets us know how much a male prostitute charges for his services in China. Apparently, you can get a decent man for about 50 dollars.
On 15 May, Palestinian politicians and their supporters marked Nakba Day in memory of the half a million Arabs who, in 1948, chose to leave their homes in Israel to allow an attack on the Jewish population. It’s a brilliant publicity stunt and a sob story Western media loves to portray. However, what few mention is that 800,000 Jews were forced to leave their homes in Arab counties.
ILGA has published its annual maps of the situation for gay people in the world. In Europe, the situation is particularly grim in Ukraine, Russia, and Turkey. Britain, Spain, and Sweden are the European countries where gay people come closest to equal rights.
There are still five countries in the world that punish gay people by death.
Israel Shamir has said it’s a duty for Christians and Muslims to deny the Holocaust. His work has appeared in numerous extreme-right publications and he is known for calling Jews monkeys. For people familiar with the Swedish language, there are plenty of anti-Semitic comments from this psychopath to be read online. However, in this two-part interview by Will Yakowicz, Shamir—or Adam Ermash, or Jöran Jermas—gets away easy. He is labelled “Holocaust-doubter” instead of the more appropriate “Holocaust-denying mythomaniac”.
Read the interview at Tablet Magazine: Part 1, Part 2.
(Photo by A. Savin.)
Update: Read more about Israel Shamir in Swedish here and here.
“A once unimaginable movement is emerging from within Israel’s insular Orthodox Jewish community: gays and lesbians demanding to be accepted and embraced,” 365 Gay reports in this interesting article. Personally, I’m convinced that Orthodox Judaism will follow its progressive siblings and eventually accept gay Jews as full members of the Jewish nation.
In November, San Francisco will vote on a ban of male circumcision. If the ban passes, Jews will be deprived their constitutional religious freedom. The prohibitionists claim Jews are mutilated and have no right to practice their culture and religion in America.
Read more about it at 365 Gay.
“Two thirds of Israeli Arabs say they are opposed to Israel’s continued existence as a Jewish and Zionist state, a special poll commissioned by Haifa University released this week said,” Israpundit reports. “The poll also shows, among other things, that nearly 30% would like to see Israel disappear altogether, and that 38% do not believe that there was a Holocaust.”
In a speech yesterday, President Barack Obama made clear that America now favours an ethnically cleansed Judea and Samaria (West Bank). The speech also contains some mumbo-jumbo about the already overly militarised Palestinians being allowed to create a “non-militarised” state. It’s absurd. Hamas has on its agenda to kill Jews everywhere, and they will never give up their guns and rockets. Surrender Judea and Samaria will only enable the terrorists to kill more Jews.
I think a final peace deal must be a sort of two-nation-one-country federation. Jews and Arabs simply must learn to share the land. Those who cannot accept this have to stay behind separation walls that lessen their threat to Jewish people.
It looks like an American trend. In San Francisco, moralists convinced of their own righteousness want to ban a Jewish religious ritual, and in Tennessee moralists equally convinced of their righteousness want to ban teachers from mention the fact that some people are gay. Both groups of moralists claim the children’s best interests motivate them in their fight against civil liberties.
If Harold Camping is right, the Apocalypse will happen in a few hours.
From Reuters:
Fifty-three percent of Americans support making gay marriage legal, a Gallup poll showed on Friday, a marked reversal from just a year ago when an equal majority opposed same-sex matrimony.
The latest Gallup findings are in line with two earlier national polls this spring that show support for legally recognised gay marriage has, in recent months, gained a newfound majority among Americans.
Good news. Problem is that the homophobic lobby has managed to write in discrimination into several state constitutions, which will make marriage equality difficult to achieve.
Harold Camping was wrong. “Reports of the end of the world appeared to have been exaggerated today,” Daily Telegraph reports. Bummer.
“According to a report in the Arabic-language London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Israel has agreed to release 20 Palestinian murderers with blood on their hands as part of a prisoner exchange for the captive soldier,” Jerusalem Post reports. “As part of the potential agreement, the released prisoners would not be allowed to remain in the Palestinian territories after their release.”
Palestinian terrorist organisation Hamas kidnapped Gilad Schalit in 2006 and has since then used him in its propaganda videos. Now it seems the Israelis surrender and give Hamas what it wants. Personally, I would have preferred a military attack on Gaza to finish off the kidnappers.
“The Minnesota House signed off on a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage late Saturday, clearing the way for voters to decide the issue in 2012,” Chicago Tribune reports. Another sign of the anti-civil-liberties trend I wrote about yesterday. I find it disturbing that so many think it’s acceptable to vote away minority rights.
As we all know by now, the world didn’t end yesterday as Harold Camping predicted. Now, what happens to a failed prophet the day after his predicted Apocalypse? The Observer has an article about Camping’s lack of a “Plan B”.
New Scientist has an interesting article about what happens in the brain when we experience an orgasm. Apparently, the scientific community doesn’t know that much about it.
Yesterday, President Barack Obama addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In his speech, he made clear that he doesn’t expect Israel to accept the border that existed on 4 June 1967. To everyone concerned with Israeli security, this was a welcome clarification from the American president. To relocate nearly a million people by force from Judea and Samaria (West Bank) is simply not realistic. Furthermore, in an ideal peace deal, both Jews and Arabs must be allowed to remain where they live. The whole idea of basing a lasting peace deal on ethnically cleansed land with no-go areas for Jews disgusts me.
On 3 May, Swedish gay magazine QX published an article by me where I urge Sweden’s gay-rights movement (RFSL) to oppose a ban on male circumcision at the annual general meeting of the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU), of which RFSL is a member organisation. Yesterday, the meeting had a vote and turned down the motions calling for RFSU to work for a ban. Good.
I realise that many people don’t like circumcision and would like the practice to go away, but I consider it a very important Jewish tradition that cannot be banned if we are serious about human rights, civil liberties, and freedom of religion.
The Apocalypse was supposed to have happened this past weekend. It didn’t. But the man behind the prophecy refuses to give up. “Harold Camping says his prophecy that the world would end was off by five months, and the Rapture will actually take place on 21 October,” the Guardian reports. Will the man never give up! Can’t he take God’s hint?
Ha ha! A witty T-shirt that will make heads turn. (Via Queerty.)
I agree with Jeremy Hooper, I think future generations will consider Mark Dayton a hero. From the Star Tribune:
In a symbolic act, welcomed by gay rights advocates, Gov. Mark Dayton Wednesday vetoed the Legislature’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as only a union between one man and one woman.
Constitutional amendments do not require a governor’s signature, so the veto has no power. But since the amendment came to him as a bill, he felt the need to make his strong condemnation known.
“I do not have the power to prevent this divisive and destructive constitutional amendment from appearing on the ballot, in November 2012, the Legislature sent it to me in the form of a bill,” he wrote in a letter to legislative leaders. “Thus, symbolic as it my be, I am exercising my legal responsibility to either sign or veto it.”
Symbolic acts matter. After all, much of politics is theatre.
Unlike to overly heated—and often outright xenophobic—debate on the ethics of male circumcision one finds on blogs nowadays, Eugene Volokh’s legal discussion on the issue is truly interesting. What will the American courts say if San Francisco’s voters decide to ban Jewish circumcision? I’m no expert on the US constitution, but I agree with the commenters who say that the Supreme Court would, somehow, protect the right of religious Jews to circumcise their sons. I can’t imagine that such an important religious tradition be banned in America.
Read Eugene Volokh’s article and the discussion in the comments following it.
Roddy MacRae, a Church of Scotland minister, has become the first to announce he is to leave the Kirk after it voted to accept openly gay ministers. He says he fears being marginalised and treated as a disease within the Church. This is ironic considering that this is the treatment he wishes on gay people.
Read more about it at the Scotsman.
Dead terrorist’s ex-girlfriend battles with rap star on Twitter! Oh, I just have to link to this story at Gizmodo.
Circumcision has become a regular topic in this journal. I never intended for it to be that way, but since it has become one of those things where strong moral feelings threaten civil liberties, I feel obligated to defend the legality of this practice on behalf of Jews and Muslims whose religious tradition requires them to circumcise their sons. However, as the debate is so often fuelled by these strong moral feelings, people tend to lose focus on civil liberties and the rational reasons behind religious freedom. To people who are either Christians themselves our secularists brought up in a culturally Christian family, religious freedom is simply a matter of what goes on in people’s heads. That’s what Christianity is about—thought, faith, and belief. But to Jews in particular, it’s very different. The Jewish religion is about law and conduct. So, to a Christian person, banning a certain practice is no threat to religious freedom. But to a Jewish person, banning a required practice is to ban the religion.
When confronted with this fact, Christian opponents to male circumcision often argue that a ban is not about being anti-Jewish; it’s a religion-neutral ban affecting everyone equally. In all respect, this is bullshit. Chris Travers uses satire to illustrate this in a comment on the Volokh Conspiracy:
Now, it’s too bad that Jews and Muslims will be badly impacted this [a ban on male circumcision] but what I am really concerned about are the Vegetarians. The fact is, eating meat is good and especially necessary for young children who are growing quickly, and furthermore that bacon and ham have special places in our culture. So I propose we treat as child neglect:
I mean, these children are being deprived adequate nutrition, and those who aren’t given pork are being deprived an important cultural experience leading to greater acceptance and appreciation for great American food, ranging from the BLT to breakfast sausage.
- Failure to feed one’s children meat at least once a week
- Failure to feed one’s children either bacon or ham made from pork at least once a month
Now, I’d love to put in a religious exemption in because I really feel for the Jews and Muslims here, but the fact is, if we do that, all the vegans out there are going to claim some hippie-dippie airy-fairy mother-earth-gives-us-veggies religion and hence this will go nowhere. So I regret that we will indeed have meat and pork consumption mandates on all families with dependent children.
It’s not about religion. After all, my sense is that the Jews and Muslims are very tiny minorities out there on this issue. It’s about the vegetarians. It’s about culture and nutrition.
Brilliant!
PS! I took the liberty to fix some spelling in Travers’s comment.
It’s my birthday today. I’m getting older every day, but on this day it’s more obvious than on other days. Since I’m cursed with a mind obsessed by analysis, I’m reflecting on my life and what to do with it. Then, suddenly, when I begin to fall into that bottomless hole that is melancholia, I hear the penguin in Chuck Palahniuk’s fictional cave saying, “Slide!” And I do. I slide.
Gay people have no civil rights in Russia. Earlier today, when Christian homophobes and neo-Nazis attacked a peaceful march for gay rights, the police arrested and detained the peaceful marchers. Unfortunately, this is not surprise. Gay people are brutally discriminated in Russia, and attitudes that would be considered fascist in Europe and America are mainstream.
Read more about it at the Moscow News.
Now all the non-Orthodox movements in contemporary Judaism ordain openly gay rabbis. Sweet progress.
The circumcision debate in San Francisco is turning into a farce with prohibitionists publishing a comic book series called Foreskin Man that, according to the Chronicle, “follows the adventures of a fictional intactivist superhero”. As you can see in the picture, it’s all about saving the Jews from Judaism. It’s both funny and disturbingly xenophobic.
In case you didn’t get it, “intactivist” is the term the prohibitionists have given themselves. In their terminology, circumcised men are mutilated whereas uncircumcised men are “intact”.
Yeah, it’s all about bullying. It goes back centuries. Sigmund Freud wrote about this Christian need to humiliate Jews in Little Hans (1909), “The castration complex is the deepest unconscious root of anti-Semitism; for even in the nursery little boys hear that a Jew has something cut off his penis and this gives them a right to despise Jews.”
That’s good, but John Aravosis is not satisfied.
According to English-language version of Russian newspaper Pravda, the Moscow leadership argues that the International Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms allows it to ban peaceful meetings to “prevent massive riots and to protect health, morality, rights and freedoms of other people”. The newspaper argues that religious people have a right not so see or hear about gay people. From the article:
It is the public propaganda of homosexuality in Russia that evokes so much protest and anger with other people. It is not about the cultural and historical attitude to homosexuality in the country. It is about the acceptability of public propaganda of various sexualities in general. In the long run, are there many of those who seem to care about what kind of love two people practice at home together? But if they try to advertise their sexual preferences for everyone, it shall be considered as a violation of other people’s rights.
This attitude it upsetting, but very common. In Europe, Islamophobes want to ban Muslim clothing, and organised atheists want to ban the public display of any religious symbols—and they all say that religion should be hidden away in the privacy of people’s home. Attitudes to gay people have traditionally been very similar to the Russian, and it’s not uncommon to hear people talk of homosexuality as something private that better not be discussed at all. But this attitude is unacceptable. People have no obligation to hide themselves because bigots are morally upset by religion or same-sex relationships.
Read the article in Pravda here.
Everyone familiar with Fox News knows it’s all about selling fear, but it still comes as a surprise that the person at the top is this hooked on his own product:
Murdoch installed ailes in the corner office on Fox’s second floor at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan. The location made Ailes queasy: It was close to the street, and he lived in fear that gay activists would try to attack him in retaliation over his hostility to gay rights. (In 1989, Ailes had broken up a protest of a Rudy Giuliani speech by gay activists, grabbing demonstrator by the throat and shoving him out the door.) Barricading himself behind a massive mahogany desk, Ailes insisted on having “bombproof glass” installed in the windows – even going so far as to personally inspect samples of high-tech plexiglass, as though he were picking out new carpet. Looking down on the street below, he expressed his fears to Cooper, the editor he had tasked with up-armoring his office. “They’ll be down there protesting,” Ailes said. “Those gays.”
Poor man and his phobia.
