www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/11/1770480/who-has-the-right-to-judge.html


One of my teachers gave me a post-it today with this author's name on it.  She told me that his writings about social boundaries were life-changing, and that if he doesn't change your life, you are unable to be changed.  

Wow.

So, why DO we judge people?  We all have our biases, but what makes my bias more important than yours?  What makes your opinion more valid than mine?

Saying that a judge, who may or may not be gay, cannot rule on a case of same-sex marriage is indeed as horrid as mentioned by Pitts Jr.  It makes about as much sense as a can of tomatoes being put in the middle of a watermelon.

That's right.  Nonsense.

Basically, we have now been told being human means you can't rule on something dealing with other people's freedoms.

A woman, father, sister, or brother can't rule on anything to do with abortion, then.  As a matter of fact, none of us could considering we were all cells inside of a man and woman at some point.

Do you know a 38 year old man?  Sorry, you can't be a juror in this murder case.

I'm sorry your honor, we must ask you to recuse yourself because you have the same hair color as the plantiff.

Oh, you're black, you can't vote for Barack Obama.

Oh, you're white, you can't vote for John McCain.

Oh, you're from Georgia?  Then we're sorry, your bias for your state keeps you from voting for this presidential candidate.

Where, and when, does it end?  Are we really such a closed-minded country that a POSSIBLE bias is grounds for keeping the freedoms of a group of people revoked?

Land of the free, home of the biased.

(Zaina Niangoma, who was raped along with her 15-year-old daughter (not pictured) by three members of the Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda. Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

Rape is being used as a weapon of war in Eastern Congo, and the international community is doing next to nothing to stop it.

Yesterday, the United Nations Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping, Atul Khare, admitted that the UN's peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (currently the largest UN peacekeeping deployment in the world) had failed to stop recent attacks on Congolese villagers, in which over 500 people — ranging from a month-old boy to a 110-year-old woman — were raped.

According to the The Guardian, the UN mission has also been "accused of ignoring warnings from community leaders days before [my emphasis] Rwandan and Congolese rebels began [the] spree of raping and looting 20 miles from a UN base."

Khare said:

"While the primary responsibility for protection of civilians lies with the state, its national army and police force, clearly we have also failed. Our actions were not adequate, resulting in unacceptable brutalization of the population of the villages in the area. We must do better."

There are so many holes in the UN's current strategy in Eastern Congo. Without adequate equipment and nimble rapid response capabilities, there is no chance that the DRC peacekeeping mission can establish security and intervene against a wide spectrum of belligerents. And just as important, without full-throated, full-press diplomacy from some major players — namely the United States — the UN cannot help promote a realistic and sustainable peace in Congo. Because while there are rebel leaders that need to be sanctioned immediately and brought to justice for engaging in systematic rape, there just doesn't seem to be the political will right now in the halls of the UN to take these and other necessary steps.

What can the Obama administration do? During a press conference yesterday, U.S. UN Ambassador Susan Rice promised that the U.S. would "take up the mantle of leadership...on ensuring that the perpetrators of the violence are held accountable, including through our efforts in the [UN Security Council] Sanctions Committee to add them to the lists that exist and to ensure that they are sanctioned."

Rice's statement is welcome, but it needs to be supplemented by aggressive and thoughtful peacemaking at the highest levels — actions which would effectively signal to the rest of the world that the U.S. is committed to ending the atrocities in Eastern Congo. What if President Obama sent Vice President Biden (a vocal Africa advocate during his time on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) or Secretary of State Clinton to the DRC right now in order to show our country's resolve against these latest human rights abuses?

Or what if the President sent himself? Since its start, the Obama administration has dispatched its best and brightest to Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, East Asia, and other places on short notice in order to deal with various humanitarian and political emergencies. Is the relentless rape of Congo's people too little of an emergency for them?

More info: The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Telegraph.

After years of supressing who I am, I'm finally starting to tell my friends I'm a lesbian. But that's all I can do right now. I don't know where to go or who to talk to about this. I just want to go out and meet new people, but I have no idea where. I just feel so lost. I don't think I can ever tell my parents and I don't even know how to tell my therapist because this is something I've hid from everyone.

I just don't know what to do anymore.

“Black holes are places where ordinary gravity has become so extreme that it overwhelms all other forces in the Universe. Once inside, nothing can escape a black hole's gravity — not even light.”

The situation Pakistan finds itself in currently could be rendered akin to being sucked into a supermassive black hole. And I’m not just being dramatic here. The fact that we face a myriad of problems on a multitude of fronts is hardly open to argument: a brutal tribal insurgency, endemic corruption and economic instability all compound the gravitational forces that are pulling us closer and closer to the event horizon —the dreaded point of no return.

With issues of such existential proportions playing out in the foreground it is only natural that problems with apparently less severe implications on our nationhood –such as human rights issues –are dismissed as mere background noise. However, such issues have the potential to manifest into problems with nation-wide implications, provided the requisite space to do so. As such, due to a combination of many factors adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) issues have been ignored for too long; and compounded by the fact that Pakistan is currently housing the largest youth cohort (ages 10 – 24) in its history (estimated at 54.2 million), have wrought a situation with severe implications.

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Each week, I’ll be posting a list of the most news-worthy and/or inspirational, informative, well-written, thought-provoking, and/or unique posts of the week. While every post and every contributor is valuable to our community, these are the blogs that I feel are must-reads.
 
August 29- September 4

Stats for this week: 21 posts by 19 writers

NPR: Author of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill wants to “kill every last gay person”-by AFY_Nikki
 
Why I chose this post:

We cannot think about this bill in an abstract way. This is literally life and death. And even though we have stalled it, it hasn’t gone away. Quoting journalist Jeff Sharlet:

“It was a very chilling moment, because I’m sitting here with this man who’s talking about his plans for genocide…”

This is far from over. 

Afghanistan’s dirty little secret- by lexitexas

Why I chose this post:

In Afghanistan, where views on sexuality are so warped that women are viewed as “unclean,” in has become a cultural norm for men to gain sexual pleasure from raping young boys. Lexitexas shares more details. 

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Red.

You made me red with passion, blush with the hot crush of shyness. You made me red with frustration. You were Monica, the first woman I ever felt like this for. I was sixteen and so in love with you. You made me feel red like the blood running in my veins, you had my red heart in your palm.

Orange.

You made me happy. You made me carefree, nourished by the sun and, once I was ripened to perfection, you plucked me at my peak and made me yours forever. You peeled my walls down and saw the delicate inner workings, my pain, my fear, my hope, my love. You left me, orange, changed from who I was and unsure of who I would become.

Yellow.

You, a different woman entirely, you made me free. You made me light enough to dance across the rays of the sun, clear enough to be seen for who I am and not my skin and bones. You turned me into something beautiful. You made me shine, you made me smile. You made me yellow.

Green.

You watched me grow, watched my stems become more confident, stronger, honest. You were envious, an ugly emerald shade that you covered with hair gel and aeropostale clothing. You made me feel at home in the garden that was your family but were too jealous and possessive to let me bloom.

Blue.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. They were guessing, and lying to them made me sad and cold. My mother's voice on the other end of the phone, my breath hanging in the air and my lips turning blue in the frost of the word GAY filling my mouth. Love, I told her. She said nothing. I was sad, paralyzed and freezing beneath the frigid burden I'd lifted to my shoulders.

Indigo.

I became depressed. Past blue and into a deeper state of forgotten and alone. I loved you, I hated who you'd become. I hated my mother for who she wanted me to be. I lashed out and felt the ink running from my fingers as I tried to put it into words. I was drowning. Sinking as you shoved me under. I made a tough decision; swim on my own or sink with you? I chose, and I am still begging for shore.

Violet.

It's getting better. I am still dark, still afraid, still stung by harsh comments and lonelier than ever have I been in my life, but I am getting better. You hate me, hate me with a black hate that you share only with my mother's views on my "decisions," as if I chose this to pierce her with spite. I'm living the best I can, feeling like one purple grape on a bunch of green ones, everyone staring and wondering how I came to be. Remember as you talk, you're staring at ME.



Each color means something different to me. There are the bright colors with better emotions and the dark ones which cripple me. Seeing those all put together, the good and the gruesome under one spectrum and peered at from a distance, however, I guess they don't look so bad.

The President of the Montana Big Sky Tea Party, Tim Ravndall, thinks it's funny to joke about murdering gays.

A Facebook exchange:

 Dennis Scranton: "I think fruits are decorative. Hang up where they can be seen and appreciated. Call Wyoming for display instructions."

Tim Ravndal: "@Kieth, OOPS I forgot this aint(sic) America no more! @ Dennis, Where can I get that Wyoming printed instruction manual?"

(A reference to the torture and murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming  in 1998). Randval has apologized.  But the organization has not yet met demands to remove himl from office.

What's it going to be, Tea Party and sympathizers?  Are you going to have the guy who thinks murdering gays is hilarious as your president?  Any official denunciation of violence coming our way anytime soon? 

I was in college and had just come out when Matthew Shepard was murdered.    His death was such a horrifying and unexpected tragedy that it left its mark on everyone I knew, even though none of us had ever met him.  To read the exchange between Scranton and Ravndal makes me wince as if from a physical blow.

Matthew was my age - he'd be almost 34 now.  Is the world now, no better than the world that he left?  Is this truly where Tea Party and other anti-gay types want us to be? Because this is where the road of homophobia and discrimination against GLBTQ people ends. This is where the fractured discourse, alarmist propaganda, and fearmongering ends.  In violence and death.  

It's not funny to me.  Is it funny to you, Tea Party?

Contrary to common belief ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand when faced with apparent danger. According to experts at the San Diego Zoo when faced with an unavoidable threat an ostrich, "...flops to the ground and remains still, with its head and neck flat on the ground in front of it." The point here is not to discuss the unique behavior patterns of ostriches, but to establish that there is an element of pragmatism inherent in the way these over-sized birds deal with danger.

Sadly, however, we Pakistani’s have a decidedly different and less practical way of addressing the many problems our nation is currently suffering from. Rather than tackle a particular issue head on and delve into its context, we prefer to run around in circles, indulging in unproductive debates around the merits of an issue, never realizing that this approach serves to only aggravate the problem at hand. This tendency is apparent in the prevalence of conspiracy theories throughout Pakistan regarding the causes of religious extremism that have, to a great extent, prevented society at large from recognizing terrorism as domestic problem with primarily localized solutions.

This tendency is also responsible for the ignorant way in which our society and government have responded to the burgeoning sexual health problems of the population which have been brought into focus by a "population explosion" that has added to the strain on our already out-stretched state structures. This sexual health crisis—after years of being ignored on a social and institutional level—has attained critical mass, so to speak. It has severely impacted the lives of a majority of the population—especially women, children and adolescents—and cannot be ignored any longer, especially in light of international recognition of the link between promotion sexual health and reduction of poverty in developing countries.

In terms of exposure to sexual health risks, the state of affairs of women in Pakistan is by far the worst and is caused by the pervasion of discriminatory gender norms that perpetuate gender inequality in society. Gender Inequity, which is defined by the Sloan Work and Family Research Network, of Boston College, as a, "A social order in which women and men share the same opportunities and the same constraints on full participation in both the economic and the domestic realm", is reflected in Pakistan by the fact that only 33% of women (10 years and older) have completed primary education and the total number of employed women is nearly four times less than that of men. Discriminatory gender norms —which restrict mobility, societal representation, and access to health and education services for women—have the combined effect of objectifying women (as means of reproduction, housework and sexual gratification) and institutionalizing gender inequity in Pakistan.

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September brings about the start of the 2010/2011 school year, and in North Carolina sexual health advocates are celebrating. The Healthy Youth Act (HB 88) goes into effect this year, effectively ending North Carolina’s decade long policy of abstinence-only sex education. This bill replaces abstinence-only sex education with a more comprehensive reproductive health and safety program that promotes abstinence as the best method for avoiding pregnancy and STI’s, but also teaches about contraception, safe sex, and healthy relationships. State Senator Ellie Kinnaird, one of the bills supporters, commented saying:

I am pleased that the NC Legislature was able to pass the Healthy Youth Act last session. However, it was not without great difficulty. Several religious groups and some Republican Senators objected to broadening the information available to students. But on the other side, we had many allies who worked the halls just as hard to make sure that students have accurate, complete information about sexual health. I believe that this information now available to students will show up in statistics down the road with fewer pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Having accurate, complete information will help others to make better decisions to protect themselves and avoid a direction that could have penalties for years to come.

Each NC school district is responsible for adopting a policy that includes information about both abstinence and contraception, but in some areas the process of implementing the new learning standards has been rocky. While an overwhelming 91.8% of North Carolina parents want the more detailed education, school systems seem to operate in fear of a very vocal minority that opposes effective sexuality education. Talking about contraceptives — just the very basics of what they are, how they work and how effective they are — is proving to be the most controversial aspect of the law. This is frustrating beyond belief for advocates like myself who understand that educating teens about how to protect themselves is a critical step in addressing our teen pregnancy crisis.

The same people who worked incredibly hard to stop the bill from passing are working to make sure the bill is not implemented. In some cases, they urge school administrators to do the bare minimum — like talking about all FDA approved contraceptives (as required) but only talking about their failure rates. The opposition even met with program staff in the state Department of Public Instruction to try to water down the Healthy Youth Act through bureaucratic means. In other cases, school administrators assume opposition is out there and are only tiptoeing toward compliance.

When legislators passed the Healthy Youth Act — and when we advocated for it — the goal was to make certain that every teenager had the basic knowledge and skills necessary to avoid pregnancy and STDs. The law itself finally provides North Carolina educators the chance to use effective sexuality education to address the state’s disturbingly high teen pregnancy rate.

But simply passing a law wasn’t good enough. That’s why I’m working along with fellow youth activists in NC to find out who’s doing what, which school systems are refusing to follow the law, and how we can support school systems who honestly want to provide an effective education for students. The devil is in the details here, but with teens more than 19,000 teens becoming pregnant every year in NC, we young people deserve EVERY school in North Carolina teaching accurate and complete information about sexuality and sexual health.

For more information on our efforts to implement this new curriculum, you can follow the Teen Health Now youth activism council, a group of young people dedicated to promoting sexual health in North Carolina. We have a Facebook Page and are on Twitter — please reach out to us if you have any questions, ideas, or stories.

Congratulations to our partners at the Texas Freedom Network! The readers of The Austin Chronicle have just named TFN the "Best Activist Organization" in Austin.

Here's what The Chronicle had to say:

Christian conservatives seem committed to rewriting the Constitution, so the need for the Texas Freedom Network to keep distinct the line between church and state has never been greater. Texans both secular and religious come together to keep the faith when it comes to the First Amendment.

In addition to the work cited above, TFN is also a frontline leader in advocating for comprehensive sex education across Texas. Needless to say, this honor is very well-deserved. Kudos and congrats!