Indian gay man overjoyed by court decision

I stumbled on an article today by Parvesh, a gay man living in India. He details his previous life under India law that punished him harshly - up to 10 years in prison - for being gay. His story is a vital one, showing how discrimination and social prejudice severely limit and harm gay people's lives.

Expanding the scope of an Indian citizen’s rights by equating “sexual orientation” with the constitutionally-protected identities of gender, caste, religion and race, the court has at last recognised our social and emotional needs. Article 14 of the Indian Constitution guarantees all citizens equality before the law while Article 21 guarantees protection of “personal liberty”. Thus Section 377 was violating our personal freedom on many counts.

"The court has at least recognized our social and emotional needs." This sentence sums it up for me, why gay people fight so hard every day for acceptance in their respective countries. This fight is intensely personal. Our wins change the course of our lives. Our losses further inhibit our freedoms and happiness.

I am now free to live with my “partner” and express my love for him. Nothing can stop us from living together now.

Poetry Slam

Do unto others,

As they would do unto you,

Isn't that simple?

India High Court decriminalizes gay sex

This from the BBC:

A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ruled that homosexual intercourse between consenting adults is not a criminal act.

The ruling overturns a 148-year-old colonial law which describes a same-sex relationship as an "unnatural offence".

Homosexual acts were punishable by a 10-year prison sentence.Many people in India regard same-sex relationships as illegitimate. Rights groups have long argued that the law contravened human rights.

This actually only comes several years after the U.S. Supreme Court in Lawrence vs. Texas threw out our remaining anti-sodomy laws as they're so crudely called. But progress is still progress, despite it's late date.

Lt. Dan Choi to be discharged from Army

... and here's how you can help. Please sign the petition asking Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to support legislation currently in Congress to repeal the abhorrent "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

To sign, click here.

This from Lt. Dan Choi via a Courage Campaign e-mail:

The board's decision to fire me is not the end. Now that this panel of four officers has recommended my discharge, it still must be approved by senior officials in the Army, a process that could take a few weeks to a year. Unless something unexpected happens, it may be just a matter of time before the Army officially fires me.

I will not give up, no matter the odds. Because I know that the only way we will win this fight to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is by facing it head on. And I need your help again to keep up the fight.

Gays seek expansion of Civil Rights Act

This from Newsday.com:

Advocates are pressing Congress to expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

They presented New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler with thousands of signatures from an online petition drive on Monday in Manhattan.

Currently the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion and sex.

Luckily, I work for a large corporation that recently scored a 100 with HRC's equality index. That's the good news. The bad news is many gay people throughout Arizona and the other states without sexual orientation and gender discrimination protections are at the mercy of their bosses. If a boss dislikes you for simply being gay or transgendered, out you go. Now, equally lucky is the voice of the Internet and the gay community making companies and their management less likely to appear so bigoted, but still, equality under the law is vital.

... expanding the act would allow gays and transgender people to file complaints with state courts and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett die today

What a sad day for celebrities and their loved ones ... My thoughts go out to their families and friends. Michael Jackson has apparently died from a heart attack. Farrah Fawcett succumbed to a long-term battle with cancer.

Gay meet Christian, Christian meet Gay

This from Box Turtle Bulletin:

Wendy Gritter of New Directions is seeking to increase communication and decrease hostility between the Christian community and the gay community. While I do not see these as necessarily exclusive communities, it is unquestionable that conservative Christians and gay people are to some extent at war with each other.

Towards the goal of healing, Wendy came up with the concept of a synchroblog, a time in which everyone would focus on their perspectives about such communication. She chose today, the Wednesday of Pride Week, for this effort. So today, a couple dozen bloggers with various Christian or gay perspectives will be participating in this joint conversation and Wendy invited me to join them.

I wholeheartedly applaud this move. I believe that if more gay people, gay Christians and conservative Christians spoke more often we'd begin to diffuse some of this built up hostility. I have to admit however when I think of all the amendments stuffed into state constitutions, the lies, the name calling ... I can't help but get puffed up with righteous anger. These conservative Christian groups really seek to limit our lives. But not all conservative Christians feel this way. So perhaps Timothy Kincaid is right ... the only way to move forward is to forgive and extend a hand.

Poetry Slam

The streets run with blood

Her head was held by freedom

She lived life bravely.

*This poem is dedicated to the women of Iran.

2010 US Census to count married gay couples

This from The New York Times:

Married same-sex couples will be counted as such in 2010, Census Bureau officials said, reversing a decision of the Bush administration.

Steve Jost, a spokesman for the Census Bureau, said same-sex couples would be counted, “and they ought to report the way they see themselves,” adding, “In the normal process of reports coming out after the census of 2010, I think the country will have a good data set on which to discuss this phenomenon that is evolving in this country.”

President Bush had previously refused to count same-sex couples, but President Obama, urged on my gay rights advocates and their supporters, has pushed for the change, stating counting same-sex couples does not violate the Defense of Marriage Act. I have to wonder that if Teacherman and I here in Arizona, who are married in our hearts but not able to marry legally, can place ourselves as married if interviewed for the census.

Maine prepares for marriage fight

Here we go again.

This from the Morning Sentinel:

Opponents and supporters of gay marriage are laying the groundwork for a tough summer political campaign that experts say will put Maine in the national spotlight.

Organizers of an effort to overturn a new law legalizing same-sex marriage in Maine have hired the California public relations firm that ran the successful Proposition 8 campaign that overturned same-sex marriage there.

And supporters of same-sex marriage, who oppose the people's veto effort, have hired a seasoned Maine political strategist who ran the successful Maine Won't Discriminate campaign in 2005. That campaign fought a people's veto of Maine's gay rights law.

Maine became the fifth state to legalize gay marriage in May, when the Legislature passed a bill and Gov. John Baldacci signed it into law. Opponents, led by the Catholic church and other clergy, immediately began the campaign for a people's veto, which would ask voters to overturn the law.

Organizers of the people's veto are attempting to collect 55,087 signatures of registered Maine voters to put the question on the ballot. The same-sex marriage law would take effect 90 days after the Legislature's June 13 adjournment. But if the veto effort collects enough signatures before then, the law's implementation would be stayed.

Another fight over marriage equality looms at the polls. The signatures required to place the question on the November ballot need to be collect by August 1st. If not collected until September 1st, the vote moves to May of 2010. It doesn't surprise me the National Organization for Marriage - a major string on the Carrie Prejean puppet - is the biggest donor so far for the opposition.