Dreams Into Lightning 2

Gay Servicemembers Celebrate End of DADT

CNN: 'The Pentagon announced the repeal of the long-controversial ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military will happen on Tuesday.' According to the article, 'no plans for any Pentagon ceremonies or events regarding the repeal have been announced.'

That's not stopping Servicemembers United from announcing celebrations in various places.

One DLI alumni group announces a "Countdown to Repeal" party at the Cannery Row Brewing Company in Monterey.

At 12:01am on September 20th (basically midnight on September 19th), “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will be HISTORY! Just like the start of a new decade or the turn of the millennium, this precise moment will be historic. At midnight, an actual legal restriction will be officially lifted off the shoulders of gay, lesbian, and bisexual servicemembers. Don’t spend this milestone at home alone! Come out and join h...undreds, maybe even thousands, of other servicemembers, vets, and supporters around the country for: The “COUNTDOWN TO REPEAL” Party This is NOT a fundraiser, and there is NO “suggested donation.” This will be a once-in-a-lifetime moment for the gay military community, so come out and celebrate our historic victory with friends. There will be several special announcements from a former service member impacted by DADT about the repeal of DADT, special weekly Active Duty events and much more.

I'll be there in spirit.

Against Homophobia

Paul Burston at Time Out London:

Because, quite frankly, I'm sick of it. Sick of hearing that friends have been intimidated. Sick of being told that parts of London are a 'gay-free zone'. Sick of the right-wing columnists who fan the flames of homophobia. Sick of the left-wing apologists who make excuses on the basis of culture or religion.

In the last few years there have been more and more reports of homophobic incidents in Tower Hamlets, often involving attacks on gay men by gangs of young Bangladeshis. In one case, a gay man was stabbed seven times and is now paralysed. When his Bangladeshi attacker was jailed, a gang stormed the George and Dragon pub, a popular haunt for the gay community.

A few weeks ago, for the second time, stickers appeared close to the George and Dragon and other gay venues in the area, quoting passages from the Koran and declaring the borough a 'Gay-Free Zone'. The stickers bore no clue as to who might be behind them, but some people questioned the authenticity of the flyers, claiming they were the work of an extremist right-wing group and were designed to incite Islamophobia. What we do know is that people passing through Whitechapel High Street are often handed leaflets containing homophobic sentiments. The real question is why so few people seem willing to talk about it.

When the problem in east London first began making headlines, a Guardian columnist argued that 'It is time for gay people to begin engaging with the Bangladeshi community in Tower Hamlets and not simply to see them as the colourful backdrop to their multicultural existence.' Yes, you read that right. Gay people brought this on themselves. Similar sentiments were expressed last week on Facebook. One gay man warned that 'we will reap what we sow', as if the problem was created by gay people and not, say, by Islamist extremists. ...

Go read it all. Via a friend at LiveJournal.

DADT, ROTC, the Military, and the Media

Tuesday's Wall Street Journal carries an opinion piece by William McGurn raising the possibility that a post-DADT American military, where lesbians and gays can serve openly, may usher in the return of ROTC to ivy-league campuses - and, more broadly, greater mutual respect between the universities and the military. I certainly hope so.

As if picking up McGurn's thread, James Dao at the New York Times profiles Capt. Adrian Bonenberger of Alpha Company, First Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment. The "Yale graduate who protested the invasion of Iraq before he joined the Army" would become "only the second person from his Yale class to join the military, to his knowledge". Dao gives a detail-filled account of the harrowing decisions Bonenberger must make daily in "Life-and-death Decisions for a Junior Officer" (NYT print edition, 12/21).

I don't know if it's a coincidence, but the 12/20 issue of the Times carries, in the Arts section, Michael R. Gordon's profile of Lt. Col. David Richardson, a Marine officer who's also a painter. (" ... and he wants to make one thing perfectly clear: He is not a Marine who paints, but a painter who fights.")

I'm with McGurn in hoping that the repeal of DADT will "provide an opening to restore what was once a strong and vigorous relationship between some of our most elite universities and those who defend their freedoms in uniform." And I'd add, not just the universities, but the news media too.

Brownworth: The feminist revolution is just beginning.

Victoria Brownworth has a stand-out column in the April 2008 print edition of Curve. The article is not available online, so I'll just post a couple of brief excerpts here.

I am a feminist. Not apologetically, under my breath. I believe that the single most important civil rights movement of the 20th century was feminism. But then, I live in the United States, where women have a great deal of freedom. I never cease to be grateful for the fact that I was born here. Being born female in the majority of the world is a very, very bad thing. That is, if you get born at all. Sex-selection abortion, for example, is rampant throughout Asia and the Asian continent.

Brownworth goes on to recount her niece's description of her time in Cairo:

She is a formidable young woman, remarkably fearless, and wears the privilege that comes with being born female in the United States; she will not be made second-class.

But according to her firsthand reports, there was never a day in Cairo or its outskirts when she was not the victim of demeaning and damaging sexual predation. She was angered and repulsed by the constant assaults - verbal and physical - but in no way cowed by them. As she noted, a tone of surprising bitterness in her voice, "At least I always knew I was coming home."

In a very different, quiet voice, she added, "But as I traveled outside Cairo, it was so hard knowing that all around me were women who were victims of FGM [female genital mutilation]."

Brownworth, herself a rape survivior, then recalls an exchange with a woman in Libya; the two women had discussed the case of the Saudi rape victim who was sentenced to 90 lashes. (I posted on it here.) The woman's sentence was increased after she challenged the ruling; she was finally pardoned after international protest.

My friend in Libya was appalled by my "insensitivity and disrespect" for Islamic law. I told her I would be equally outraged had this occurred in a Christian theocracy - except there haven't been any for centuries.

She then told me that if the woman hadn't gotten into a car with a strange man, she wouldn't have been raped. So although the penalty seemed harsh from my "Western perspective", it was for the woman's own protection.

I am no longer friends with this woman. ...

It's worth your time to read the whole piece, and pass it on to a friend. It's in Curve 18 #4; you can purchase back issues at the link.

On a side note, Curve doesn't ignore lesbian conservatives. Go here and scroll down for a McCain endorsement:

I’m a rare out lesbian this campaign year because in the face of two Democratic candidates who are dividing almost the entire LGBT vote, I’m voting for the other guy: John McCain. Before you call me a traitorous wretch and lob verbal attacks about internalized homophobia, let me explain. I’ve been a Republican since Ronald Reagan was in the Oval Office, though I briefly fell off the wagon to support Clinton No. 1, which I regretted almost instantly.

To hear former President Bill Clinton tell it today, he and Hillary are the most gay-positive politicos out there. However, Clinton himself signed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”—which has ousted thousands of queer service members since it was enacted in 1993—as well as the Defense of Marriage Act.

John McCain supported it too, but he remained one of the few Republicans to rally against a federal anti-gay marriage amendment, calling it “antithetical in every way to the core philosophy of Republicans.” Like a true Republican, he’s repeatedly said that states should have the right to define their own policies. ...

Go to the link for the rest. When you're done, check out Tammy Bruce:

I’m a pro-choice lesbian feminist. I’m also an independent conservative and have grown increasingly frustrated with all the candidates for president. I have never voted for a candidate because of the letter after the name, and I still have not made a decision about whom I will vote for in November. For the first time in a presidential race I am not only not excited about a candidate, I am extremely concerned about all their agendas.

How I identify may sound like a contradiction, but it’s really not. I want government to be small and unobtrusive. Whenever government gets big, that means it’s interfering in our lives, and that’s never been a good thing for gays, whose freedom and independence rely in large part on the majority leaving us alone. A main problem is how conservatism is viewed—which is that it has been attached to religious politics for too long. ...

Well worth a read. Longtime readers of Dreams Into Lightning will recall that a piece in Curve prompted my 2004 post on women and power.

Bruce Bawer Blogs

Via Jeremayakovka, I'm pleased to announce Bruce Bawer's blog, Memo from Europe. Here's a quote from Bruce's latest (November 19) post:

Ideologues like this constantly insist that critics of Islamism are preoccupied with “us” and “them.” On the contrary, they're the ones who are obsessed with “us” and “them.” It’s “their business.” It’s “their country.” It’s “their decision.” If they want to execute their children for being gay, hey, that’s up to them.

Bingo. Go to Memo from Europe for actual examples of this leftist "thought" process in action.

"I support gay marriage and the War on Terror."

Roger L. Simon:

I support gay marriage and the War on Terror and I believe my views on both to be linked in a matter that is not tenuous. But I’ll get to that – first allow me to discuss marriage. I am not going to deal here with current legislation like DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act), nor with the “let’s leave it to the states” doctrine, which seems more like the premise for a sitcom given the millions of people commuting daily between places like New York and New Jersey. Nor will I get into my views on how gay marriage should be achieved – legislative versus judicial. Although I recognize valid arguments on both sides, I don’t feel qualified. I am going to express my gut on the matter.

For me gay marriage is a human rights issue. It is a natural development of the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties, part of extending to gay people what was extended to African-Americans at that time. Simple equality. To hold those beliefs, of course, you must believe that homosexuality is not an evil, but another part of nature. I see homosexuality that way for two reasons. One - personal: I have lived most of my life in New York and Los Angeles and known and worked with countless homosexuals, a number of them now with children. I found these people to be good and bad human beings, good and bad parents, to the same degree heterosexuals are – no difference. In other words, they are normal people. Two - scientific: It is becoming increasingly clear that sexual preference, although in part environmentally influenced, is largely fixed at birth chemically (fetal baths, etc.). It is also clear that it is virtually immutable. Attempts to change sexual preference have been utter failures. Meanwhile, homosexuality appears in animals with some frequency. It seems safe to conclude it is, in essence, part of nature. ...

Those of us concerned about human rights, about the separation of church and state, about gay rights and women’s rights, about democracy itself, have bigger fish to fry – the War on Terror. And here is the connection in my belief system.

Because I am such an adamant adherent of gay rights, women’s rights, human rights – the values that evolved out of the Enlightenment – I have to vote for the candidate I think will best carry forth that war (by whatever means appropriate at the moment) to defend those Enlightenment values. This means, unless I am very lucky, that I will not always love that person in all areas. Indeed, I may have to swallow some very bitter pills, but these are serious times, by far the most serious of my lifetime. And I was born at the end of World War II.

I never cease to be amazed – and perhaps it is my own myopia – that my former colleagues on the Left can be blind to this situation. ...

Read the whole thing at the link.

Wouldn't it be great?

What he said.

Gay Iranian Activist Mani Zaniar - "Out in Iran"

CBC spotlights Iranian gay activist:

He is followed by secret police. His friends are routinely whipped. Some are executed. His name is Mani Zaniar and he is the leader of Iran’s secret gay rights movement.

It is the most dangerous civil rights movement in the world. And for the first time ever, Mani, and many others, have risked their lives to come on camera and tell their story.

In this startling and unique documentary, Out in Iran, we go to Iran and get the world’s first look at life inside Iran’s persecuted gay community. We meet an astonishing group of courageous people with heartbreaking stories.

HT: Or Does It Explode

GWOT: The Gay War On Terror

Netherlands grants asylum to lesbian and gay Iranians. Via the LiveJournal postqueer community, Human Rights Watch reports:

In a major policy shift, the Dutch government’s recognition that lesbian and gay Iranians are a “special group” facing persecution at home and deserving protection in the Netherlands sets an example for other European states of their legal responsibility not to return people to the risk of torture, ill-treatment or execution, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch, which worked closely with the Dutch lesbian and gay organization COC on the issue, applauded this change in policy by the Dutch government.

“The Dutch government has affirmed its international legal obligations in asserting that it will not send gay and lesbian Iranian asylum seekers to a country where they face the risk of torture or execution,” said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “The priority now is to ensure that this policy is implemented fully and fairly, and that no one in the Netherlands is sent back to face torture.”

Last year, Dutch authorities imposed a moratorium on deportations of failed LGBT asylum seekers to Iran after reports of executions there for homosexual conduct. But in February, Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk first announced her intention to lift the moratorium, stating that, “It appears that there are no cases of an execution on the basis of the sole fact that someone is homosexual. ... For homosexual men and women it is not totally impossible to function in society, although they should be wary of coming out of the closet too openly.”

After strong protests from Dutch civil society and international human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch, however, Verdonk reinstated the ban for a further six months, pending a review of conditions in Iran. ...

Manchester, England, imam approves killing of gays. Bruce at Gay Patriot: 'I’m not shocked by this, but since some of you who think America is the enemy might be, I post this for your education. This comes courtesy of an email from a real gay civil rights group — Outrage – based in London.

Manchester’s leading Imam has confirmed that he thinks the execution of sexually active gay men is justified. Mr. Arshad Misbahi, who is based at the Manchester Central Mosque, confirmed his views in a conversation to Dr John Casson, a local psychotherapist.

Dr Casson said: “I asked him if the execution of gay Muslims in Iran and Iraq was an acceptable punishment in Sharia law, or the result of culture, not religion. He told me that in a true Islamic state, such punishments were part of Islam: if the person had had a trial, at which four witnesses testified that they had seen the actual homosexual acts.”

“I asked him what would be the British Muslim view? He repeated that in an Islamic state these punishments were justified. They might result in the deaths of thousands but if this deterred millions from having sex, and spreading disease, then it was worthwhile to protect the wider community.”'

Bruce adds: 'I don’t recall ever hearing a leading American Christian leader calling for gays to be executed. But let’s not let the facts get in the way of the blind rage of the American Left that would rather use the US Constitution as a “suicide pact” than stand up for and protect this nation.' Here's the link to OutRage!, founded by Peter Tatchell and others.

Commentary. The title of this post is slightly ironic: with a very few exceptions, there is, strictly speaking, no organized "gay war on terror". And that's sad.

Gay rights organizations in the West have been very effective in overturning discriminatory legislation and building a strong community - and that's all to the good.

But today's news items remind us - or should remind us - that a virulent and growing strain of homophobia is threatening us, and it's not on the radar of most Western gay groups. It should be.

In future posts I plan to talk about the nexus between gay rights and the war on terror. That's a theme that has always been implicit in the mission of Dreams Into Lightning; now I feel it's time to deal with it a little more directly.

One final comment. There are many different views of the concept of the "gay community". One recent message on a listserv I belong to read in part, 'Why the use of the words 'gay community' as a replacement for homosexual activity.' Another said, 'Even when I was younger and not fully self-identified as a Republican, I always thought it was a crock of s__t to base ones identity and life on such a trivial thing as sexual orientation.'

I think there's always the danger of over-identifying with any group, be it political, ethnic, gender, a sexual minority, or what have you. And people are different: a sense of group identity or "community" is going to be more important for some people than for others. I am not going to get into the meta-debate about the relative merits of individual versus group identity; that falls under the category of "side issues" which I won't pursue here.

I do think it's important to at least recognize the role that group membership and identification plays in our lives - whether it be liberal, conservative, gay, straight, man, woman, or whatever - because our membership in groups (conscious or not) reflects and amplifies our power as individuals and helps us to change the world.