Pink Sauce

On Thursday, Radio 4 came back to the subject of this scottish pressure group ( Christian Voice ) who forced a charity to to refuse "tainted money" for the Jerry Springer, the Opera show (See my previous post on this for details). They did a 2/3 minutes slot on the group claiming to wanting to find out more about them and there activity. A rather shoddy uninformative (and, coming from Radio 4, disappointing) piece of journalism to be honest. After a few meaningless words from their leader about " King Jesus ", we got an interview from a bishop opposing their views who had organised a charity concert in support of the tsunami victims in which members of the Opera's cast (described as good practicing christians) took part. Then the report turned to the subject of the group's membership, trying to find out how many members there are. The leader of the group refused to give a specific number only making some obscure biblical reference implying they had more tha...

Celebrating LGBT History Month I give you The tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep In 1964 in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, Egyptian archaeologist Ahmed Moussa discovered a series of tombs with rock-cut passages in the escarpment facing the causeway that leading to the pyramid of Unas. Soon after the Chief Inspector Mounir Basta, crawling in one of the tombs, came face to face with the unique scene of two men in intimate embrace, something he had never seen before in all the Saqqara tombs.

Celebrating LGBT History Month In this general climate of body fascism, I can't really start to imagine what it must be like to be disabled and homosexual. To be a minority within a minority. I have tried to find a few clues: DWP in house report no. 188 Blind and Gay A few links from the BBC disability website: Gay and disabled: hard times or rich rewards? by Philip Patston God bless text messages by DL Williams Lisa Egan's column Lisa also has a blog I googled for "gay disabled" in the UK and couldn't find much to be honest.

Rising Numbers by Terrance ... Anglicans split over gay row The division in the Anglican Communion over gay issues has appeared to grow deeper, with leaders demanding that the US and Canadian branches of the church temporarily withdraw from a church council. Move To End 'Don't Ask' As GAO Reveals Gay Ban Cost $200 Million (Washington) On the heels of a new report by the Government Accounting Office showing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has cost taxpayers more than $200 million since its inception in 1993 a group of congressmembers has announced plans to introduce legislation to end the ban on gays in the military. Map reading study laughed off by gay groups A study claiming to reveal that gay men and heterosexual women have poor map reading skills has been laughed off by gay groups. Impact of Navy's gay recruiting felt overseas The impact of the Royal Navy's decision to actively encourage lesbian and gay people to sign up is being felt across the globe...

I work for an ICT department in a local Council. This means that even though we do not any technical support (this is outsourced), we are the first contact of the users (lawyers, who are apparently notoriously IT phobics) when they have a problem with their PCs. A few month ago, they hired a new person. A guy who is probably about 150 years old by the looks of him. I am sure he is a perfectly good lawyer (I hope anyway), the proof being that they have just promoted him team leader. The problem is, this guy would not recognise a computer if it hit him in the face. Now don't get me wrong, I am not trying to say here that this has something to do with his age. My own mother, who is over 70 years old, has recently, gone to a few classes on how to use Word before boldly buying a computer and is now regularly sending me emails. She also does here genealogy things with the thing and is considering buying a digital camera. Of course she is not proficient but she is the proof that you can d...

An interesting postscript to this month's Stonewall 's newsletter by Ben Summerskill: "I couldn't help noticing a newspaper report the other day about the Greek Orthodox Church. The Church, which still furiously condemns homosexuality as an "abomination", is embroiled in a chain of embarrassments. One leading cleric has been arrested in an Athens nightclub on suspicion of drug dealing. The Archbishop's former private secretary has, apparently, been having gay sex with a bishop. Another bishop has been suspended after allegedly embezzling four million euros and yet another has been charged with antique smuggling. Meanwhile "rampant homosexuality" has been uncovered among priests." Here the Guardian's article Summerskill is presumably refering to. While browsing to find the above article, I came accross this very interesting link on Homosexuality and Religions summing up the position of 45 Christian Churches on the subject. Another lin...

Canadian Lawmakers Swamped With Anti-Gay Mail From US (Washington) Bob MacCready's already written to Canadian Liberal MPs who support allowing gays to marry, telling them he thinks it's against God's own law and everything that's decent. Swiss Gay Partner Breakups Mirror Those For Straights (Geneva) About seven percent of the same-sex couples who registered as domestic partners in Geneva have "divorced" about the same percentage as the number of straight couples who registered, officials said Tuesday. Gay Marriage 'Insidious' Pope Declares (Vatican City) Pope John Paul, in a new book, calls same-sex marriage part of "a new ideology of evil" that is threatening society. And an interesting and rather sensitive (more than what the pope can claim to) reaction to this. Look here too or here . Gay groups complains over tabloid response to History Month The organisers of the country's first ever LGBT History Month have made an official comp...

I was quietly ironing a shirt this morning, getting ready to go to work and listening to the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 as I do every morning when the presenter introduced this subject . In an ongoing campaign against the show Jerry Springer, the Opera, a bunch of Scottish bible wielders have threatened Maggie’s Centres , a cancer charity, of reprisals if the said charity gave up on £10,000 (note that the Christian group at the origin of this only mention £3,000), the producers of the show were going to donate them. And the charity actually stupidly caved in!!!! This is outrageous!!!! I can not find words to say how pissed off I am with this. *camera pans on to me shouting at my radio and fuming, on my own, in my bathrobe a hot iron in the hand* Radio 4 had invited someone from Christian Voice , the group responsible for this and David Soul (who plays Jerry Springer in the show), who, unfortunately, let's face it, is not very good at delivering his own lines (he is not very a...

Civil Partnerships "by Christmas" The first Civil Partnerships will take place before Christmas 2005, can reveal, with the government announcing an official implementation date of December 5th. Anglican meeting slammed by gay Christians A meeting of Anglican leaders intending to discuss the issue of gay bishops has been slammed by the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) as unlikely to yield results. Gay powerlifter sees more success Chris Morgan, the hotly tipped gay powerlifter, has qualified for his third British Championship Final. The Simpsons finally come out of the closet After intense speculation from fans and the viewing public, The Simpsons has finally aired its now infamous 'gay wedding' episode, revealing Patty Bouvier to be the gay character. Anti-Gay Group Sets Sights On Shrek Shrek 2 is the latest animated film title to be ``outed'' by Christian fundamentalists. Royal Navy reforms; recruits gay staff The Royal Navy has announced a new drive...

Celebrating LGBT History Month In September last year I finally got rid of my enormous old clanger of a PC (the beast was at least 5 years old) and bought a nicely compact laptop perfectly suited to my tiny room. It's got loads of memory (much more than said old clanger) and when recently I was introduced to I-Tunes , I decided to "rip" my CDs (ie copy them to the computer) and turn my laptop into a jukebox (albeit an expensive one). As I was going through the process I came across a couple of old tapes by a Spanish pop band called Mecano . They used to be very big in Spain (I think they have slip now). I had not listen to those for about ten years. I downloaded the track off the net and listen to the whole thing. To my surprised I still remembered most of them (and that includes the lyrics). From 1989, I believe, I started to learn a third language at school. After English and German, I went for Spanish. Our teacher, otherwise a nice enough woman, had domestic problems...

Celebrating LGBT History Month Today I am feeling lazy, so I have decided to post a famous extract of possibly one of the earliest "gay book" ever written: Plato wrote his Symposium in 360 BC. The book describes a banquet Agathon had at his home where he invited some of his friends (amongst whom is Socrates). I found the online version of the text at the Internet Classics Archive . It is a lovely book. Enjoy. "Aristophanes professed to open another vein of discourse; he had a mind to praise Love in another way, unlike that either of Pausanias or Eryximachus. Mankind; he said, judging by their neglect of him, have never, as I think, at all understood the power of Love. For if they had understood him they would surely have built noble temples and altars, and offered solemn sacrifices in his honour; but this is not done, and most certainly ought to be done: since of all the gods he is the best friend of men, the helper and the healer of the ills which are the great impedim...

While googling the links for the previous post, I have found Salam Pax's new blog . I haven't had time to have a read yet but as you can see it has already been added to my blogroll and I intend to have a look very soon. Hopefully (and I can't see why not), this will be just as good as the previous one. ----------------------------------------------- Addendum et Erratum - 11:55pm Looks like I was a litte kick in rejoicing. Salam does not seem to have posted there since October last year... I have to say I am not sure what the idea is behind his having several blogs and abandoning all of them but hey, who am I?! I'll keep looking though for something more recent... There might be a clue here . Diane was (is?) a close virtual friend of Salam...

I have been blogging for about 4 months now and I thought it was time for me to stop and take stock. As stated in my first posts on here, I was given the inspiration to blog by Salam Pax ( Where is Raed? ). Unfortunately, Salam seems to have disappeared from the blogosphere to spread his wings in the real world (From what I here, a documentary, he filmed has recently been released ). I have now written thousands of words (unfortunately, the stats facility has been "temporarily" disabled so I can not tell exactly how many) but it seems that this blog has taken a life of its own. Ok, I was never exactly clued at to what I would be talking about here but it appears the blog has taken the decision for itself. Amongst the blogs I regularly read (see the blogroll on the right hand side), there are personal accounts, musings, fiction, news. People tell about their lives, others comment on that of their country. As usual I seem to be sitting on the fence; both talking about my exper...

Italy's Communists Call For Gay Marriage (Rome) The Italian Communist Party on Wednesday called for the legalization of same-sex marriage. The party is a member of the center-left Union, the opposition in Italy's parliament. Councillor sparks row over gay propaganda claims A councillor has sparked accusations of homophobia, after he tabled a bizarre set of questions on whether Worcester County Council should offer funding to pro-gay groups. Anti-Gay Sandwiches Banned (New Brunswick, New Jersey) Rutgers University has banned the "Fat Dyke" and the "Fat Bitch". Gay Marriage Is An Issue Of Basic Human Rights Canadian PM Tells Parliament (Ottawa) Saying "Separate is not equal," Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin Wednesday opened debate on the government's bill to legalize same-sex marriage across the country. Irish government slammed for "disgraceful" attack on Civil Partnerships The Irish government has been accused of "stalling...

We had heard of bloggers bearing witness in war zones (see Where is Read? in my blogroll), of blogs used after the tsunami last year to help the survivors. The lastest avatar of blogs in mainstream news, takes the shape of the fall of Eason Jordan, a CNN executive, who made controvertial comments in Davos, which then found themselves blogged and disiminated on the Blogosphere. The coverage is still quite limited in the traditional media. The Washington Post aluded to it an article and the story just go a slot on BBC radio4's PM programme. It seems to be more or less it. See the story as told by The Australian .

Have look at this and... well... laugh: Americablog Anti-Gay License Plates Die (Richmond, Virginia) Legislation has been withdrawn that would have seen cars in Virginia bearing license plates promoting heterosexual marriage. Russia High Court: Niet To Gay Marriage (Moscow) The Russian Supreme Court has refused to recognize same-sex marriage. EastEnders Hunk: I'm Gay EastEnders hunk Jake Maskall has just disappointed his female fans by revealing that he's gay. Right wingers slam "disgusting" teen gay novel Right wing Christian groups have attacked the publication of gay teen novel Boy Meets Boy, slamming its depiction of gay romance at high school. Man in court over gay MP attacks A man has appeared in court charged with abusing gay Labour MP Chris Bryant and threatening to "hound him out" of the region he represents. Translated from Têtu : Opening of a home for young homosexual Muslims. A home intended for the young homosexual Muslims in trouble opened ...

According to the 2004 Demographic Report (English version) by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies ( Insee ), the number of marriages in France continued to fall as people turned increasingly to civil partnership registrations (PACS). Marriages (with 266,000 civil marriages taking place in 2004) decreased by 5.9%, continuing a trend started in 2000. For the first 9 months of 2004, 27,000 PACS were signed (22,000 in the previous year). Insee notes that there is a slight slowing down in the increase of registrations (25% increase in 2002 and 2003 as opposed to over 29% between 2001 et 2002). At its creation in 1999, Jacques Chirac described PACS as " not adapted to the needs of families ". Out of the 130,000 signed so far, only one PACS in 10 has been disolved. In 2004, PACS was described in a report to the Garde des Sceaux (Lord Chancellor) as " a new way of conjugality, answering many needs and inscribed in continuity " (don't worry it does...

Tate Modern Launches Multimedia Tour Tate Modern has launched a multimedia tour of the collection displays, the first of its kind in a UK museum. After three years of trials the Bafta award-winning product is now complete. AMA Head Likens Gays To Coca Cola Or Rape (White Plains, New York) The president of the American Medical Association has come to the defense of New York Medical College under attack for banning a gay students group from campus. Czechs reject gay union bill The Czech Republic's parliament has voted to reject a bill offering same-sex ... have allowed same-sex couples the right to officially register their partnership. ... Is Bush Press Aide Gay? (Washington) An online investigative journalism site Monday suggested that White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan is gay and was a regular at gay bars in Texas. Canadian Opposition Leader Trying To Keep Lid On Party Extremists (Ottawa) Debate on legislation to legalize same-sex marriage across Canada will begin Wednesd...

Celebrating LGBT History Month 27 January, in most of Europe was Holocaust Memorial Day, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps. A special ceremony took place at Auschwitz , attended by all sorts of political leaders. In London, a much lower key ceremony took place at City Hall on the Tuesday before HMD. In the welcome speech, we were reminded that whoever knew and remembered the atrocities committed in the camp could not even consider wearing a Nazi uniform for fun; this thought was made even more potent when a survivor of the camps, Trude Levi , read out some of her story; also pleading for tolerance and making references to our current tendencies to reject asylum seekers. Rabbi Barry Marcus said a few words and sang a very moving prayer in Hebrew. The intonations of the singing and the word "Shalom" together with a list of concentration camp (the only words I could understand) made it all the more poignant. The Rwandan Ambassador to ...

I just saw this on Green Fairy Dot Com . A clip of an unknown Fox News presenter commenting on the results of the Hutton Inquiry on the death of Dr David Kelly and the subsequent resignation of Greg Dyke in a slot called My Word in January 2004. Here is a transcript of the broadcast: My Word. Well today the British Broadcasting Corporation was forced to pay up for its blatant anti-americanism before and during the Irak war; a frothing at the mouth anti-americanism that was obsessive, irrational and dishonest. The BBC, the Beeb, was one of the worst offenders in the British press because it felt entitled to not only pillory America, Americans and George W Bush but felt entitled to lie, and when caught lying felt entitled to defend its lying reporters and executives. The incident involved the reporter Andrew Gilligan who made a fool of himself in Baghdad when the American invasion actually arrived in the Iraky capital. Gilligan, pro-Iraky and anti-American, insisted on the air that t...

Lynne Cheney Gets Snappish In Gay Amendment Interview (Washington) Lynne Cheney, wife of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, opposes the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage that President George W. Bush repeatedly has called for. MP: "Tolerating gays is not enough in bullying fight" Schools minister Stephen Twigg MP has told schools that promoting tolerance towards sexual diversity is "not enough" at a conference on tackling homophobic bullying, calling for more action on discrimination and prejudice. Mystery Anti-Gay 'Journalist' Goes Underground (Washington) A man accredited by the White House as a journalist has gone underground after being exposed as a fake, a possible a shill for the president, and perhaps a spy for the Pentagon trying to out gays in the military. More on this story on AMERICAblog From Têtu 's headlines. Têtu is the French equivalent of Attitude or Gay Times . The article is in French but I have translated it below. ESPA...

Celebrating LGBT History Month As you may recall, last week, I was at the preview for the Churchill Museum . And on Monday evening (07/02/05), I made my first ever entrance in the Houses of Parliament in style. Not with an ermine cape and a crown (that is for the other queen) but as a proud gay man. To quote the mail out sent afterwards by the organisers of History Month: "Angela Eagle, labour and lesbian MP for Wallasey hosted a reception to welcome the LGBT History Month initiative, with guest speaker Stephen Twigg, Minister for schools." Sounds rather grand does it not? I can see you imagining the flowing dresses, the tiaras... and the lesbians in tuxedo. The champagne flowing and the canapés doing whatever canapés do.... (being gobbled, I suppose). Well get over it, right now! The event was rather well attended as far as those sort of events go, but then again, the appeal of the venue and the way the event had been sold probably did help. About 30 people were there. We a...

Yankee Go Home Gay Canadians Tell Same-Sex Marriage Foes (Ottawa) Supporters of same-sex marriage legislation in Canada are telling conservative Christians from south of the border to keep their noses out of Canadian affairs. Gay MP to talk on school bullying Schools minister Stephen Twigg MP will advise schools on how best to tackle homophobic bullying today, at a special conference in Lincoln. 'Homophobic' B & B owner to become MP? Tom Forrest has been short listed as a candidate for the Operation Christian Vote party, a recently launched political party that runs with the tag line "waking the sleeping giant". Woman jailed for testicle attack. A woman who ripped off her ex-boyfriend's testicle with her bare hands has been sent to prison.

Zoo Uses Aversion Therapy 'To Cure' Gay Penguins (Bremen, Germany) A German zoo is trying "to cure" three gay penguin couples using a form of aversion therapy. The Day of Silence takes place April 13, 2005 The Day of Silence, a project of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in collaboration with the United States Student Association (USSA), is a student-led day of action where those who support making anti-LGBT bias unacceptable in schools take a day-long vow of silence to recognize and protest the discrimination and harassment -- in effect, the silencing -- experienced by LGBT students and their allies.

Democrats Openly Courting Anti-Gay Religious Right (Washington) The religious right in the United States is getting proof of their political influence from a surprising source, Hillary Clinton Will UN Recognize 'Gay Kingdom'? (Sydney, Australia) Its a tiny coral island off the coast of Australia but it could become the center of a major battle at the United Nations. Tatchell: My life of civil war On the occasion of his addition to the new edition of Who's Who, campaigner Peter Tatchell has spoken of how his fight against injustice has resulted in him becoming a target of attacks and abuse, and how he has been forced to modify his home into a fortress against "violent opponents". Murder music campaign suspended as truce offered to gay activists The campaign against music that incites violence towards lesbian and gay people could be on the verge of halting today, after organisers agreed to a new partnership with representatives of the reggae indus...

Celebrating LGBT History Month A friend of mine who works for the Welsh government sent me this recently: " this was on one of the notice boards today.... is there a native French speaker out there who can answer this question for me please. La Cage Aux Folles (the film) is known in English as The Birdcage, but (as best as I can work out) the literal translation is more like 'the cage of fools'. Is this an idiom for a birdcage? or is it a euphemism for an asylum or something? or is it just an unknown phase invented for the film title? And what is the real French word for birdcage? I've found variously 'voliere' and 'panier', what (if anything) is the difference in meaning of the two? And what about the word 'gonze' is that a bird of the feathered variety? or is it something to do with another meaning of 'bird'? " An interesting request to find on government notice board I thought. Here is my reply: La Cage aux Folles , directed by E...

"Tonight I met the PM". This is how I had planned to start this post until things started to unravel slightly. A friend of mine (and let's face it, I only have one close one, so it is the same that appeared on these "pages" earlier), had invited me to tag along to a preview of the new Churchill Museum soon to be opened at the Cabinet War Rooms. He had misleadingly (it appeared) sold it to me by telling me that Blair might make an appearance. To be honest I would have gone anyway: can't really resist the appeal of free canapés sprinkled with a bit of culture. And I had never been to the War Rooms before so it was a good opportunity. OK the PM wasn't there but I almost met him once before already (back in the days when I worked for the National Army Museum ); so who cares...? After going down to what if effectively a basement, we were ushered into a large empty room where the Vice President and Chairman of the Imperial War Museum, Admiral Sir Jock Slater...

This would be funny if it wasn't so sad! "Parents at a Catholic school in Orange County, Calif., are challenging a gay couple that has put their adopted twin sons into a Catholic kindergarten. The parents are concerned that the children may be part of a broader strategy to create greater tolerance for homosexuality within the church." From NPR , thanks to SistersTalk .

Celebrating LGBT History Month LGBT History Month in the press FURY AT KIDS GAY-LEVELS and another smaller piece in the same vein: HIS OR HERS-TORY More seriously: Gay history month to 'out' Newton and Nightingale Why they all focus on Nightinghale and Shakespeare is something I don't quite understand. There so many other people to talk about....

February 2005 is the frist ever LGBT History Month in the UK. This is still a small event but hopefully it will end up being as successful as Black History Month. To find out more about the month, what events are taking place and to get some useful resources please go to the LGBT History Month's website . During the month I intend to try and regularly post on this blog about LGBT History. Probably in the form of links to interesting websites.

So much for the "love the sinner, hate the sin" doctrine. "Hate the fuckers" is just so much easier! Nun's Gay Outreach Angers Church