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Homophobe of the Week - ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil is well known for its very poor environmental record. It is ranked in the top 10 on the Toxic 100 list of US corporate air polluters by Political Economy Research Institute (PERI). Exxon is probably best known for The March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill which resulted in the discharge of approximately 11 million gallons of oil (240,000 barrels) into Prince William Sound, and widely considered the number one spill worldwide in terms of damage to the environment.

ExxonMobil has drawn criticism as a major funder of organizations campaigning against the scientific opinion that climate change is caused by the burning of fossil fuels, and against the Kyoto Protocol. According to The Guardian, ExxonMobil has funded, among other groups skeptical of global warming, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, George C. Marshall Institute, Heartland Institute, Congress on Racial Equality, TechCentralStation.com, and International Policy Network. ExxonMobil’s support for these organizations has drawn condemnation from the Royal Society, the academy of sciences of the United Kingdom.

The company is behind video clips promoting the advantages of carbon dioxide and those that lampoon Al Gore. You can view a couple here:

But, THAT’S NOT ALL!!! ExxonMobil has illegally engaged in trade with Sudan, bribed Kazakhstan President to get a share of the country’s oil fields, and knowingly assisted human rights violations in Indonesia, including torture, murder and rape, by employing and providing material support to Indonesian military forces.

And finally (there’s so much more about them, but we need to end this soon!), the company has a horrible reputation of being anti-gay. When Exxon Corporation merged with Mobil Corporation in 1999, the newly-merged company ended enrollment in Mobil Corporation’s domestic partner benefits for same-sex partners of employees, and it rescinded formal prohibitions against discrimination based on sexual orientation by removing it from the company’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy.

The combined company still does not provide domestic partnership benefits. And just today (May 28, 2008), ExxonMobil shareholders voted down a resolution to add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to Exxon’s non-discrimination statement. Approximately 40% of Exxon’s outstanding shares voted in favor of the clause, but it was not enough to send the issue to the oil company’s board of directors.

The shareholder resolution has come up every year since 2000, when it got 8.2% approval among shareholders. The percentage that voted in favor of the resolution has grown every year since then. Human Rights Campaign–the LGBT rights lobbying organization–said ExxonMobil is the only company they’ve had to use shareholder activism as a method to get “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” added to a company’s non-discrimination clause. ExxonMobil scored a 0 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index 2006 for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

Exxon is simply Destroyer of the Week.

Sources: Wikipedia, FoxBusiness, PERI

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Homophobe of the Week - ExxonMobil

By Eli • May 28th, 2008 • Category: Home, Homophobe of the Week, Opinion

Rick Santorum Poops on Philly Inquirer’s Readers with Gay Hate

(Rick Santorum)

Rick Santorum, the ex-Senator from Pennsylvania, known for his vitriolic hate of the gays, his blaming Katrina victims for their situations, and for a fine mixture of poop and lube (thanks Dan Savage), has penned a response to California’s ruling last week to allow same sex marriage. Here are some excerpts:

“Bigot! Hate-monger! Homophobe! Those were just a few of the terms hurled my way in 2003 when I said that the Supreme Court’s Texas sodomy decision opened the door to the redefinition of marriage.

“When I wasn’t ducking the epithets, I was being laughed at, mocked, and given the crazy-uncle-at-the-holidays treatment by the media. 

“I’m saddened that time has proved right those of us who worried about the future of marriage as the union of husband and wife, deeply rooted not only in our traditions, our faiths, but in the facts of human nature…”

In response to the California Court’s ruling:

“You might ask: Don’t we have more to worry about than some court redefining marriage? After all, gas prices are soaring, health-care costs are rising, and our nation is at war. Why should we care what a few activist judges in California say?

“Look at Norway. It began allowing same-sex marriage in the 1990s. In just the last decade, its heterosexual-marriage rates have nose-dived and its out-of-wedlock birthrate skyrocketed to 80 percent for firstborn children. Too bad for those kids who probably won’t have a dad around, but we can’t let the welfare of children stand in the way of social affirmation, can we?

“But what about love? Is anyone saying same-sex couples can’t love each other? I love my children. I love my friends, my brother. Heck, I even love my mother-in-law. Should we call these relationships marriage, too? Marriage is and always has been more than the acknowledgment of the love between two people.

“What about the constitutional right to equal protection under the law? Marriage is not an inalienable right; it is a privilege, a license granted by government conferring certain governmental benefits.

“There is a constitutional right that is under threat: the free exercise of religion… Within 10 years, clergy will be sued or indicted for preaching on certain Bible passages dealing with homosexuality and churches, and church-related organizations will lose government contracts and even their tax-exempt status.

“The California court just declared that those of us who see marriage as the union of husband and wife are the legal equivalent of racists. And openly racist groups and individuals can be denied government benefits because of their views, including professional licenses (attorney, physicians, psychiatrists, marriage counselors), accredited schools, and tax-exempt status for charities.”

There’s no space and time to respond to each of Santorum’s points, but let me take a jab at a few. First, Santorum attacks Norway. Yet, Norway ranks third in the world as most peaceful (U.S. ranks 96th), second with highest GDP per capita (U.S. ranks 11th), and was ranked highest of all countries in human development from 2001 to 2006, and came second in 2007 (U.S. ranks 12th). The human development index is an index combining normalized measures of life expectancy, literacy, educational attainment, and GDP per capita for countries worldwide. Seems to me, Norway’s doing a lot better as a country and as a people than Santorum would like to believe or tell people. 

Next… Yes, homophobia is comparable to racism. Not much more to say about that, but that Santorum has probably never experienced being a minority of anything… though he probably would say as a religious man he’s a minority. But, when religious people and god-believers are actually outnumbered in society, then come talk to me about discrimination against religious foundations. Until then, people are simply defending themselves against his type of religious doctrine that is deeply embedded in some of our society’s traditions that often lead to keeping a handful of citizens second class ones.  

And finally, his argument that people will be suing religious organizations, or that religious organizations will be losing tax relief support for speaking against homosexuality. Tell me what church/synagogue/temple has ever been sued by another group for speaking against Jews, Blacks, Muslims, or any other group? Is Reverend Wright being sued by the collective White people of America? Or has his church lost its tax shelter? Has any church been sued and lost a court case? And if they have, they probably were spewing the type of hate Santorum spews about queer people.

Canada has had same sex marriage for 3 years - at the national level-, and the one case ever brought forward against an establishment that wanted to deny a lesbian couple from marrying there was thrown out of court, because our laws support both same sex marriage and the right of religious organizations to deny marriages in their spaces. 

Anyway, we all know this won’t mean anything to Santorum, since he and his supporters are hellbent on believing same sex marriage is apocalyptic. Oh well. 

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Rick Santorum Poops on Philly Inquirer’s Readers with Gay Hate

By Eli • May 22nd, 2008 • Category: Home, Opinion, Politics

Homophobe of the Week - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh


(Gambian President Yahya Jammeh)

The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia and commonly known as Gambia, is a country in Western Africa. It is the smallest country on the African continental mainland and is bordered to the north, east, and south by Senegal, and has a small coast on the Atlantic Ocean in the west. And, its leader, President Yayha Jammeh, is certainly a proud homophobe, and would likely be equally proud of winning this week’s title of blurbberry’s Homophobe of the Week. 

Jammeh is not unique as a leader thinking that there is no place in society for queer marriage. He has, like American President George Bush or Australian PM Kevin Rudd, employed religious doctrine to disqualify unions between same sex persons as equal to those of heterosexuals. “What Allah says in the Qur’an is very clear, which is man can marry woman, but not woman to a woman or man to man,” Jammeh recently said. 

In March, President Jammeh declared “zero tolerance” for either racism or gay-marriage. Speaking at the time at the opening of the National Assembly, he claimed Gambians are not hostile to anybody, “but there is one thing that we will not also accept and that is where a man marries a man. “Despite all democracies, that is a democracy that we will not accept in this country. A man marries a woman. That is what we know and that is what is in the Quran. If you don’t believe in that and you are in this country, you are in the wrong place,” he posited.

And let us tell you, he means it. According to the criminal code from 1965, Gambian laws declare homosexuality an “unnatural offence” and is considered illegal. According to Articles 145 and Article 147 states homosexual acts, even in privacy, are considered acts of gross indecency and can be punished with imprisonment for up to 7 years. In other words, no gay love in public or in private. 

But, Jammeh has recently taken it one step further. Last Thursday, he issued a decree demanding  gay men and lesbians leave the country within 24 hours or face “serious consequences.” 

In a victory speech, President Jammeh warned homosexuals, drug dealers, thieves and other criminals, to leave Gambia or face serious consequences if caught. The President equally warned all those who harbour such individuals to kick them out of their compounds, noting that a mass patrol will be conducted on the instructions of the IGP and the director of the Gambia Immigration Department to weed bad elements in society.

“Any hotel, lodge or motel that lodges this kind of individuals will be closed down, because this act is unlawful.” he said. ”We are in a Muslim dominated country and I will not and shall never accept such individuals in this country.”

We weren’t kidding… President Jammeh is a proud homophobe. We have one question here at blurbberry… what’s with all these ex-British colonies? Why are they so homophobic? Is England to blame?

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Homophobe of the Week - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh

By Eli • May 20th, 2008 • Category: Home, Homophobe of the Week, Opinion

Homophobe of the Week - Worldwide Blood Collection Agencies

Around the world, there is a blood donation ban for gay and bisexual men, and all the other men who have ever had sex with men in their entire lives (i.e. suburban dads who frequent state highway bathrooms, those hanging out in the bushes in parks, those gay for pay strippers and porn actors). American Red Cross, Hema-Quebec, Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service are just a few of the organizations, across the globe, that restrict men who have sex with other men from donating blood during their entire lifetime. 

Decisions to restrict blood donation are embedded in the policies of government health agencies. For example, Health Canada, The Food and Drug Agency in the U.S., or Britain’s Health Protection Agency are the government bodies regulating or permitting the continued discrimination. These agencies responded to the HIV epidemic in the 80’s with sweeping, and - at the time - understandable bans.

It made good sense (kind of, not really), when these policies came about. In the 80’s, HIV-tainted blood and the ensuing scandals were all the rage. So, to limit HIV in donated blood (since screening for the virus was not yet created), the agencies set in motion regulations that barred people considered at increased risk of contracting and transmitting HIV from donating blood. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, are 7 times more likely to contract HIV than the rest of the population, and in the 80’s, that number was much much higher. 

In a recent article in Canada’s The Globe and Mail, Andre Pacard wrote, “Giving blood is not a right. The overriding responsibility of blood collection and distribution agencies is not to ensure all Canadians are allowed to join in this altruistic act, but to ensure the safety of blood and blood products for recipients.”

Yet, Pacard continues, “At the same time, these agencies must strive to ensure there is an adequate supply of blood, which saves the lives of thousands upon thousands of people each year. This is not an easy balancing act. Some donor exclusions are justifiable and necessary. Some are perhaps justifiable but are neither necessary nor useful. Regardless of exclusions, there is the additional safeguard of testing. Blood is consistently tested for HIV-AIDS, hepatitis C, hepatitis B and syphilis, and these tests are quite sensitive. 

“Th(e) approach (of denying gay men) was entirely appropriate when it was introduced in 1983. Today, the policy seems horribly outdated, based on current science. It makes little sense to defer a heterosexual man who has had unprotected sex with a female prostitute from blood donation for a single year, but to impose a lifetime ban on a homosexual man who has been celibate for many years. 

A recent study supports lifting the ban. In the study, it is estimated that lifting the lifetime ban would result in 136,000 more donations annually without compromising safety, and that the theoretical risk of contamination is one unit of blood every 18 years, a risk classified as “infinitesimally low.”

Also, most research looking at the risk of blood donations by gay men have focused on the high-risk population, those with multiple partners. But few studies have been done on those - the majority - in long-term, stable relationships. There is no reason to believe their risk profile differs from most heterosexuals.

International protests are rising, not just from the scientific world. Today, May 8, 2008, students from campuses throughout Northern Ireland are campaigning for the National Union of Students – Union of Students in Ireland Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (NUS-USI LGBT) day of action over the ‘gay blood donation ban’. Also, over the past couple of years, universities across the U.S. are banning blood drives on campuses, citing homophobic policies on the part of the collecting agencies as the reason. Similar protests and bans are occurring on campuses across Canada. 

Australia has recently changed its rules. It now refuses blood donations from gay men who have had “man-to-man sex” in the past 12 months (which is still homophobic, but whatever). Italy, for its part, asks donors if they have had a new sexual partner or unprotected sex during the past year. Other agencies are also considering lifting the ban, such as Canada Blood Service, and the Scottish and British Parliaments have committees investigating the ban and the new science discrediting the need for the continued ban. 

Until these bans are reversed, these international blood agencies deserve the title of Homophobe of the Week for May 5th to 12th, 2008, here at blurbberry. 

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Homophobe of the Week - Worldwide Blood Collection Agencies

By Eli • May 9th, 2008 • Category: Home, Homophobe of the Week, Opinion

Homophobe of the Week - Jamaica

Click on image to view gallery (4 photos).

Last week, we were sitting around, discussing the next Homophobe of the Week. As a young queer magazine (two weeks old, exactly), there are so many choices. So far, we’ve only covered two (Michael Corin from The National Post, and the Pope). At that moment, we got our reliable Google Alert, that tells us somewhere, out there, in cyber-land, someone typed and published the word gay, lesbian, queer, or transgender (and other selected words), and that we need to pay attention.

And it came as a letter to the editor, in the Jamaica Gleaner, titled, “Standing firm vs gay pressure.” In it, one Elaine M. says, ”Some parents have themselves to blame, boys should look like boys and girls look like girls. I once saw a mother with her son at a very young age playing with a doll; she thought it was ok for him to have a doll to play with…. The children should know that they are different, so they should look different… Multiply and replenish was a command given by God and since, like most Jamaicans, I believe that the principles laid down by God are right, I certainly hope that the Government does not buckle under the pressure of foreign governments and change the law of the country. God has never made a mistake but men always do.” 

Sadly, a thorough search through the Jamaica Gleaner reveals many more articles such as Elaine M.’s, compared to articles supporting queer people. There were, of course, numerous articles supporting gay people, and even an interview with a gay man.

We considered Jamaica as Homophobe of the Week. 

The next day, we got another Google Alert, this time alerting us to a column in the Canadian queer magazine, Xtra. In the most recent issue, they discuss a Canadian call for a boycott of Jamaica and the ongoing attempts to ban homophobic dancehall music. Stop Murder Music Canada (SMMC) — a coalition that includes Egale Canada and the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto — is calling for a boycott of Jamaica if the country’s government does not take action on homophobic violence by Mon, May 12.You’ve probably heard about the controversy surrounding some dancehall and reggae music and the blatantly homophobic lyrics that support hurting and killing queer people. Across the world, Jamaican singers have been banned from entering countries and spouting their anti-queer hatred. Buju Banton and Elephant Man are considered two of the worst perpetrators of such vitriolic language. Elephant Man declares in one song, “When you hear a lesbian getting raped/ It’s not our fault … Two women in bed/ That’s two Sodomites who should be dead.”

We were certain Jamaica was the Homophobe of the Week.

We’re not alone in considering this issue. In 2006, Time Magazine reported in “The Most Homophobic Place on Earth?” that, in the previous two years, “two of the island’s most prominent gay activists, Brian Williamson and Steve Harvey, have been murdered — and a crowd even celebrated over Williamson’s mutilated body.”    

You can find many stories on the Internet, all of which include angry mobs of men and women, and boys and girls, attacking queer men and women, beating them, and putting them in hospital and possibly killing them (see photo gallery). A recent article from February, 2008, in Bet.com, mentions three such stories, with ears ripped off, arms broken, people running themselves off cliffs and dying to avoid mobs. 

What are the reasons for such hate? In the British newspaper, The Guardian, Decca Aitkenhead wrote, ”Many Jamaicans are not homophobic, but the prevailing attitude to gays is ignorant and sometimes violent. But the fact remains that of all Jamaica’s injustices and deprivations, homophobia cannot be singled out as uniquely intolerable. Although activists are right to campaign about it, it’s wrong for public opinion to seize on the issue with no thought for political context.

“A better emotion would be culpability. Every ingredient of Jamaica’s homophobia implicates Britain, whose role has maintained the conditions conducive to homophobia, from slavery through to the debt that makes education unaffordable. For us to vilify Jamaicans for an attitude of which we were the architects is shameful. To do so in the name of liberal values is meaningless,” wrote Aitkenhead.

Boycotts are not the answer. They simply make the public poorer, hungrier, more desperate, and then angrier, and possibly more homophobic. 

There was hope in 2006 that the nation’s first female Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, a progressive would eventually move to decriminalize homosexuality. But, it hasn’t happened yet. And she has been replaced by Bruce Golding, who unequivocally said in the last week that there will be no loosening of the laws against queer sex. Jamaica remains a country with numerous queer-related murders each year, and continued arrests and imprisonment of queers.

Of course, not all Jamaicans are homophobic, and of course, homophobia exists everywhere. There are many supporters of queer folk in Jamaica. Many Jamaicans rally behind their queer family members and friends, horrified by the anger and violence.

At present, there is only one human rights/queer group in Jamaica, called Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG). J-FLAG has recently called on Stop Murder Music Canada to remove their call for a Jamaica ban. J-FLAG’s website is www.jflag.org. If you are looking to support Jamaican queers, you can learn about donating here… www.jflag.org/misc/donate.htm. 

Jamaica remains Homophobe of the Week, for now, and we will hopefully and gladly, some day, call it Homophile of the Week. 

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Homophobe of the Week - Jamaica

By admin • Apr 28th, 2008 • Category: Home, Homophobe of the Week, Opinion

AIDS Vaccine Controversy on the Rise


(source)

According to a recent Reuters report, researchers are increasingly discouraged by the lack of progress in finding an AIDS vaccine, to the point some are calling for abandoning its pursuit. Reports in The Independent, The L.A. Times, and The Washington Post, all point to a chasm in the AIDS research community. These articles are being picked up internationally, with an increasing worry that no AIDS vaccine will ever be found or pursued. Yet, according to Science Magazine, the reality is that the pursuit of a vaccine is not being abandoned at all. Simply, efforts and money are shifting from testing vaccines, to a phase of renewed vigor to learn about the virus. 

A recent poll of leading AIDS scientists in the U.S. and England, conducted by Britain’s Independent newspaper, found that only four out of 35 scientists were more optimistic today about finding a vaccine than they were five years ago. Worse yet, nearly two thirds believed that an HIV vaccine will not be developed within the next 10 years. According to the Independent, ”A mood of deep pessimism has spread among the international community of AIDS scientists. There have been 25 years of setbacks in the struggle to find a vaccine for the virus, which infected 2.5 million people in 2007.”

In another column in the Independent, Steve Connor writes that the time has not come yet to abandon the search for a vaccine, even though the vaccine is as far away as ever. He explains that major advances in what we know about the AIDS vaccine have been made recently that can some day be employed in vaccines. 

And, writes The Washington Post, it’s important to put these setbacks into perspective. ”What might look like a devastating failure to the public could be a steppingstone to advanced medications and an eventual cure.” The Post goes further and suggests that failures are common when searching for vaccines. For example, it took nearly 50 years for vaccines against measles and polio to be developed. 

But, many believe too much money has been spent to find a vaccine, when the money could be better spent on drugs, getting the drugs to poorer countries, and lowering the costs for those that can’t afford them. 

“It is simply unconscionable for the U.S. government to continue such wasteful funding while millions worldwide die for want of access to the AIDS research breakthrough that occurred more than 10 years ago - life-saving antiretroviral treatment,” Michael Weinstein, head of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a medical care and advocacy organisation, writes in the LA Times

Weinstein concludes that: “To continue to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a government-funded search for an AIDS vaccine in the vain hope of success someday while millions worldwide suffer and die is simply unacceptable when other currently available strategies offer practical - and effective - alternatives.”

Why is this happening now? Science Magazine, the leading international magazine reporting on scientific advances, recently reported that in September, the international research community was devastated when an international trial of a Merck AIDS vaccine was suspended. Merck suspended the trial because not only did it fail to protect against HIV infection, it may even have made some people more susceptible. 

In January, 14 researchers wrote National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci, urging him to decrease funding for testing.  There have been claims that NIAID has lost its way.

All this controversy led NIAID to call a one day meeting in Maryland last month. According to Science, Fauci agreed that researchers should “increase the share of vaccine research that goes for “discovery,” or basic research (now 47%), and spend less on testing candidate vaccines in the lab and in clinical trials.” Participants at the day-long meeting, specified a few areas worthy of pursuit, including finding antibodies that thwart HIV; investigating the mucosal immune system, where the virus usually gets a foothold; studying African monkey species that carry simianlike HIV but don’t get sick, as well as rare people who become infected with HIV but stay healthy without drugs; and developing an adequate animal model to study. 

In other words, the AIDS vaccine is not being abandoned all together. Simply, efforts and money are shifting from testing vaccines, to a renewed vigor in studying the virus.

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AIDS Vaccine Controversy on the Rise

By Eli • Apr 26th, 2008 • Category: Home, News, Opinion, World

Bill O’Reilly’s Homophobia

Bill O’Reilly wearing a lot of makeup

Just in case there were any doubts that Bill O’Reilly has some negative views of “homosexuals”…

Created by www.mediamatters.org

 

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Bill O’Reilly’s Homophobia

By Dave Shortt • Apr 21st, 2008 • Category: Home, Homophobe of the Week, Opinion

Homophobe of the Week - The Pope

Pope Homophobe

Well, we haven’t been able to escape the pope this week. He’s been all over the news, of course, what with his visit to the U.S. He received a 21 gun salute this week at the White House, has been to every major city, provided communions at many masses, and has undoubtedly spread his love of god to all his peeps. He spoke at the United Nation’s General Assembly this week as well. He told The Assembly that authentic human rights are rooted in the dignity of the human person made in God’s image, and thus cannot be limited by any state, religion or majority rule. He emphasized the obligation of the international community to intervene to protect fundamental rights. “It is evident, though, that the rights recognized and expounded in the declaration apply to everyone by virtue of the common origin of the person, who remains the high-point of God’s creative design for the world and for history,” he said.  ”They are based on the natural law inscribed on human hearts and present in different cultures and civilizations. Removing human rights from this context would mean restricting their range and yielding to a relativistic conception, according to which the meaning and interpretation of rights could vary and their universality would be denied in the name of different cultural, political, social and even religious outlooks.” 

What is fascinating, and thus making him the Homophobe of the Week here at blurbberry, is the complete disconnect between this supposed fundamental right for everyone to live humanely and freely and his disregard and outright disgust for queers around the world. He has said, ”Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder. Pastoral attention should be directed toward those who have this condition, lest they be led to believe that the living-out of this orientation in homosexual activity is a morally acceptable option. It is not.” 

Not surprising, then, he has strongly opposed queer rights, not just in Italy, but around the world. He has scolded every country, region, city, and so forth for putting forward any type of domestic partnership, civil union, or marriage bill. He recently went as far as to warn Columbia that if they moved forward with their plan to grant queer couples some basic cohabiting rights, that the Church will not offer communions anymore to members of the Colombian government.

Of course, Pope Benedict has every right to attempt to interfere. But, really, don’t come to the U.N., and say things like, “It is evident, though, that the rights recognized and expounded in the (U.N.) declaration apply to everyone by virtue of the common origin of the person, who remains the high-point of God’s creative design for the world and for history.” Don’t suggest that authentic human rights are rooted in the dignity of the human person made in God’s image, and thus cannot be limited by any state, religion or majority rule. It’s just wrong, and hypocritical. 

I’m not alone with this thinking, of course. Others believe similarly. IPSNews reported, “Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the New Ways Ministry, said that the fact that gays and lesbians are ostracised from the Catholic Church is a clear violation of their human rights. (Said DeBernardo) ”This Pope has had a terrible record of making harmful statements against gay and lesbian people. We think he should have offered a gesture and met with ministries of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered] Catholics… He should come and listen to perspectives that differ from his own.” 

To his benefit, though, his recent remarks finally disconnected pedophilia from homosexuality: “I would not speak at this moment about homosexuality, but paedophilia which is another thing.” But, he still thinks both are evil. Oh well. 

You can read more about the Pope at Religious Left Us here

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Homophobe of the Week - The Pope

By Eli • Apr 20th, 2008 • Category: Home, Homophobe of the Week, Opinion

Michael Coren, Homophobe of the Week

 

Michael CorenMichael Coren is our first entry star as Homophobe of the Week. Congratulations Michael! Michael is a contributor to the National Post and a Canadian writer and broadcaster. We think though, that he’s also a man of hate pretending to have some ‘wisdom’. In this week’s National Post Blog he states that legalizing same-sex marriage was a huge Canadian mistake. He deflects the obvious conclusion that he’s a homophobe by preemptively stating, ‘although this is a valid and vital debate about social policy, anyone critiquing the status quo is likely to be marginalized as hateful, extreme or simply mad. Social conservatives aren’t just wrong, they’re evil.’  He says it is valid to argue such social policy, which is true, but over 60% of Canadians support this social policy, and, worldwide, countries are trending towards the same conclusion as Canadian judges and lawmakers did.

Michael Coren, in his National Post essay, speaks like a sore loser, with such statements, as “the discussion, we are told, is over. Which is what triumphalist bullies have said for centuries after they win a battle. In this case, the intention is to marginalize anyone who dares to still speak out. In other words, to silence them.” He therefore refers to the majority of smart-thinking Canadians, to a majority of legislators in Canada’s Parliament (over two different votes), to judges across the country, as triumphant bullies, when really, he’s simply a SORE LOSER. Face it Michael, you lose, we win.

Three years later, Michael is still stomping his feet, yelling, no, but what about this argument, and that argument… when really, all these arguments have been made for decades, and in the end they proved to hold no water. His continued discussion is not hateful, it’s worse. It’s stupid, juvenile, irrelevant and tiresome. I would argue each piece of what he said, but 12 Canadian courts listened to his arguments, two Canadian Parliamentary sittings listened to his arguments, and 60% of Canadians listened to his arguments and decided his thinking process was erroneous. So, I figure why should I bother. He likes hating fags and pretending it’s for the sanctity of marriage. 

 

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Michael Coren, Homophobe of the Week

By Eli • Apr 16th, 2008 • Category: Articles, Home, Homophobe of the Week, Opinion

Beginning BlurbBerry with the End… of the World

It’s a fact. Humans are fucked. It’s not a question of if, it’s more, when and how! Whether it’s environmental destruction, nuclear holocaust, alien invasion, or, my personal favourite, God’s wrath, the end is near.

Ecological Disaster
Don’t say we haven’t been warned. It all comes down to Global Warming. Environmentalists have been warning us for decades of the devastating repercussions we face if humanity does not clean up its fucking act and go GREEN. Try digesting that while slurping on your latte, you bitches. It’s shoved down our throats (yum) for the past few decades and still nobody gives a shit.   We all know the dish, right? For those of you who have selectively forgotten: Global Warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans. Translation, the earth is burning into a crispy critter. What wonderful things are coming of this: Glaciers are melting, oceans rising, forests declining. But don’t worry, we always have the moon to colonize.

Nuclear Holocaust
Here is another fun way to go -and efficient, too.
With one push of a button, the whole world could be blown into smithereens. With the onset of nuclear destruction, humankind could be eradicated, and all or most of the Earth could be burnt and destroyed. If we’re lucky, we may even get three headed babies and 10 legged cats before Earth finally decided to melt into radiated mush. Fashion designs will have to change so shirts fit three headed babies and two headed Mamas. When in Rome…

Alien Invasion
An Alien Invasion would be the coolest way to get wiped out. Can you image the headlines on CNN “Green Blobs Take Over the World?” As we speak, the Aliens are sitting back and watching Earth, patiently, biding their time. They’re watching the biggest reality T.V. show in the galaxy. It’s only logical that our green brothers and sisters would finally get fed up with us. Some people (also known as freaks) have claimed that they have already been approached by our green siblings. Apparently they are looking to inbreed with humans that have below average IQs, to create human/alien babies that verge on retarded to form… a perfect race for earth?!?!

God’s Wrath
Last but certainly not least, most of us will be eradicated by the wrath of God. We are all so fucked on this one. Sodomites. Whores. Those who have had multiple abortions and multiple orgasms. Who have stolen. Said the lord’s name in vain. And hedonists alike… You are all so fucking fucked. I hope you like heat and don’t forget your sunblock. Hell is well… hell. 

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Beginning BlurbBerry with the End… of the World

By Angelina Christopher • Apr 11th, 2008 • Category: Articles, Home, Opinion, Politics, Queerish