The Largest Minority

May 15th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Following lawsuits from several gay and lesbian couples as well as the city of San Francisco and gay rights groups, the California Supreme Court has struck down a ban on same-sex marriage today as unconstitutional. The 120-page ruling stated, “There can be no doubt that extending the designation of marriage to same-sex couples, rather than denying it to all couples, is the equal protection remedy that is most consistent with our state’s general legislative policy and preference.”

After Massachusetts, California has now become the second state to allow same-sex marriage. The following 7 international jurisdictions have also legalized same-sex marriage: Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, South Africa, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec.

In 2004, the same year Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage, San Francisco officials also allowed same-sex couples to wed. However, the state had banned same-sex marriages in 2000 with the “Defense of Marriage Act”. Justices had to decide whether San Francisco’s laws carried legal weight on the grounds that the 2000 ban was unconstitutional. Now that the ban has been struck down, an appeal is expected to be made by anti-gay-rights groups to the US Supreme Court, which has never addressed same-sex marriage.

source

March 26th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

March 22nd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

h/t Brasscheck TV

March 19th, 2008 by peacelf

I am never so amazed as when so-called news journalists/reporters point out violence among males as “youth violence” or violence in general. However, when a female commits an act of violence, it’s reported as “female violence.” If a male commits an act of violence, it is rendered neutral by labeling it only “violence.”

This case came home to me this morning when my news station of choice, NPR, perpetuated the tradition of sexism by reporting that a terrorist attack in Iraq was committed by a female terrorist. Again, the overall reporting of terrorism is about male suspects, but to point out that a terrorist is female rather than just a terrorist is patriarchal society at it’s worst. The bulk of violence in the world is perpetrated by males. Ninety eight percent of domestic violence cases in the US are males harming females. The same can be said of violence in the world, yet to report that a terrorist was female is more than reporting the facts; it’s revealing something about our culture, our values as citizens in a partiarchal empire.

Some may take my statements as support for Hillary Clinton because she is a woman. Nothing can be further from the truth. Hillary is part of the Club; just as I would say Obama is part of the Club. The recent speech by Obama on race showed conclusively that Obama understands the issues, but refuses to make an issue of the issues of race. Then again, he’s said nothing about gender. Even as race and gender are important issues, the class warfare fought against poor and working americans ultimately engender sexism and racism, since it is fierce competition among a people that sets one against the other. When all things are equal, that is when all people no longer have to worry about their healthcare, a decent wage and benefits; when all people have opportunities to support a family, send their children to college to give them a better life; when the civil rights of GLBT are respected, then we can put aside our differences and work together toward a better, more just world. peace

March 12th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer knows that pimpin’ ain’t easy, but it sure as hell beats hoing. In this clip, Stephen may have just insulted prostitutes everywhere by associating them with the Clintons.

Read the rest of this entry »

February 22nd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Israeli Member of Parliament Shlomo Benizri has blamed sodomy for recent tremors. While addressing a committee of the Israeli parliament about the country’s readiness for earthquakes, Benizri told fellow lawmakers to stop “passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the state of Israel, which anyway brings about earthquakes”.

Israel decriminalized homosexuality in 1988. In recent years, Israeli court rulings have granted inheritance rights to gay couples, recognized same-sex marriages performed abroad, and allowed gay couples to adopt.

h/t Truthdig
source

February 19th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Well, it seems Huckabee’s suggestion to quarantine AIDS patients is being somewhat enacted in Egypt. While not specifically referred to in Egypt’s legal code, homosexual acts can be punished under laws covering obscenity, prostitution, and habitual debauchery. With this authority, Egyptian police are targeting suspected homosexuals in a campaign to crack down on HIV.

The crackdown all started when two men were arrested in October of 2007 for being involved in a scuffle. One man confessed to being HIV-positive so the two were taken to the “public morality” police branch where they were beaten for refusing to sign statements and subjected to anal examinations to “prove” that they had engaged in homosexual conduct. Police found the numbers and photos of two more men in the suspects’ wallets and arrested them as well. All four men remain in custody. Further actions have brought the total amount of HIV suspect arrests to 12.

Gasser Abdel-Razek of Human Rights Watch said, “These cases show Egyptian police acting on the dangerous belief that HIV is not a condition to be treated but a crime to be punished.” According to Human Rights Watch, HIV-positive Egyptian males are detained, interrogated about other suspects, undergo physical abuse, chained to hospital beds, and forced to undergo virus related tests. Two of the four newest detainees have tested positive for HIV.

In a joint press release, Amnesty International and HRW warned that Egypt’s actions could do more harm than good if the intention is in fact to prevent the spread of the disease. Rebecca Schleifer of HRW said, “This not only violates the most basic rights of people living with HIV. It also threatens public health, by making it dangerous for anyone to seek information about HIV prevention or treatment.”

source

February 9th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

As if there was any doubt that things in Iraq were better under Saddam, a reader named Nee-Nee sent me this story. Amnesty International has reported that abductions, rapes, and honor killings towards women have been on the rise in Iraq. Perhaps the families of these women would like to weigh in on whether “the surge is working”.

The images in the Basra police file are nauseating: Page after page of women killed in brutal fashion — some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture.

The women are killed, police say, because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other “rules” that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce.

“Fear, fear is always there,” says 30-year-old Safana, an artist and university professor. “We don’t know who to be afraid of. Maybe it’s a friend or a student you teach. There is no break, no security. I don’t know who to be afraid of.”

Her fear is justified. Iraq’s second-largest city, Basra, is a stronghold of conservative Shia groups. As many as 133 women were killed in Basra last year — 79 for violation of “Islamic teachings” and 47 for so-called honor killings, according to IRIN, the news branch of the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs…

… After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Sawsan says, the situation was “the best.” But now, she says, it’s “the worst.”

“We thought there would be freedom and democracy and women would have their rights. But all the things we were promised have not come true. There is only fear and horror.”

read more…

Christian Neocons (along with fascist atheists like Christopher Hitchens) often point to Islam as the cause of such extremism, rather than the horrible economic conditions and desperation which they’ve created with their war. In extremely chaotic situations an equally extreme doctrine will develop to bring some semblance of order. It’s dishonest and cowardly to blame your victim for the problems you’ve created for them while claiming a position of moral superiority. There is obviously no justification for these crimes, but the true source of it must be recognized if we ever hope to end the violence rather than move the blame around.