Box Turtle Bulletin

Nepal’s marriage equality delayed

Nepal’s new constitution was to have been implemented by last week, with clauses allowing for same-sex marriage. But political instability and strife has led to a delay. (The Hindu)

Nepal’s political deadlock continues even after three major political parties made an agreement on Friday night to move ahead with consensus, extending the tenure of the Constituent Assembly.
…
The three parties had made a last-minute agreement on Friday to save the Constituent Assembly, which was to expire that night.

The Constituent Assembly has now one more year to finish the task of writing the Constitution which could not be completed in the last two years.

Malawi Couple Released from Prison, Warned Against “Recommitting the Offense”

Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, whose 14-year jail terms for “gross indecency and unnatural acts” were overturned by a pardon from Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika, have been released from prison and were sent separately to their respective homes, the BBC reports. But a government minister warned that they could be re-arrested if they continued their relationship.

Patricia Kaliati, Malawi’s Minister of Gender and Children, said Monjeza and Chimbalanga’s release did not mean they could continue their relationship. “It doesn’t mean that now they are free people, they can keep doing whatever you keep doing,” she said.

Ms Kaliati said they could be rearrested if they “continue doing that”.

The couple’s lawyer, Mauya Msuks confirmed the threat:

“The pardon only applies to the offence under which they were convicted. If, for example, they go back and the state is of the view that they have recommited the offence, the pardon will not apply,” said Mauya Msuku.

President Mutharika pardoned the couple following a meeting with U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, who was in Malawi to speak before Parliament members in their brand new Chinese-built Parliament building. During his address to Parliament, Ban commended Mutharika’s actions as “courageous” and called on Parliament to rescind the country’s anti-homosexuality laws:

“It is unfortunate that laws that criminalize people on the basis of their sexual orientation exist in some countries. They should be reformed,” he underlined.

He expressed the hope that Parliament “will take appropriate steps to update laws discriminating based on sexual orientation in line with international standards.”

The couple’s release was hailed by international human rights advocates and by the goverments of the United States and Britain. But reaction inside Malawi was decidedly more mixed. A Nyasa Times editorial today said that in the end, Steven and Tiwonge still be judged harshly. Citing President Mutharika’s statement that “I have done this on humanitarian grounds but this does not mean that I support this,” the editors write:

We at the Nyasa Times are happy because his statement resonates very well with respected thinker Friedrich Nietzsche who once observed that “If there is something to pardon in everything, there is also something to condemn.” In essence what the president has said is that he has forgiven the gay couple but he will not forget their legal wrongs.

…With the moneyed people in this globe we live in, they have their way; and we have our way, but somehow somewhere money talks. Sadly, as for the right way, the correct way and the only way, it does not exist. Pressure or not under pressure, the President has done the right thing to pardon the gay couple.

After all, if Malawi is a God-fearing nation, then it subscribes to the teachings of the Bible which contends that the two will have to give their account to their Creator on why they behaved they way they have on the Day of Reckoning. It is not for us to Judge.

“It is not for us to judge” was, in a nutshell, Pontius Pilate’s lame excuse. And so it has been true ever since: whenever you hear someone say “it is not for us to judge,” you can count on their already having judged and condemned, and are now just trying to wash their hands of it.

Moscow Pride Elude Police, Pride March Goes Ahead Undisturbed

In defiance of yet another ban against holding a Gay Pride march by Moscow city authorities, and in yet another display of LGBT activists’ incredible organizing abilities, a march by LGBT advocates and allies took place this afternoon on Moscow’s main Leningradsky Avenue undisturbed. Pride organizer Nikolai Alexeyev pulled off this feat after luring hundreds of riot police and undercover officers to a different location:

“We want to show that the peaceful march of gays and lesbians in this city is possible,” Alexeyev told AFP after the protest. “You saw we didn’t disrupt any traffic, we didn’t disrupt any rights of other citizens.”

“Unfortunately we are obliged to do some kind of military operation to make sure that this event takes place.”

A single police car arrived ten minutes after the protest ended and no-one was arrested.

Organisers had changed the location at the last minute and bussed reporters on a twisting two-hour route to evade a heavy police presence in central Moscow.

In a diversion tactic, Alexeyev on Wednesday told journalists the protest would be held outside the European Commission’s office in central Moscow. Police and riot police gathered at the announced location, organisers said.

Malawi Frees Couple Imprisoned for Sodomy

Steven Monjeza (foreground) and Tiwonge Chimbalanga being led away following their sentencing to 14 years at hard labor

Following a visit from U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika announced the pardon of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga. He has ordered the immediate release of the couple, according to Malawi-based Nyasa Times:

“I have decided that with effect from today, they are pardoned and they will be released,” President Mutharika told a battery of reporters after meeting UN boss.

…”These boys committed a crime against our culture, our religion and our laws,” said the Malawi President. “However, as the head of state I hereby pardon them and therefore ask for their immediate release with no conditions.”

He added: “I have done this on humanitarian grounds but this does not mean that I support this.”

According to the BBC, Mr. Ban hailed the move as “courageous.” “This outdated penal code should be reformed wherever it may exist,” he said.

The U.N. General Secretary is in Malawi to speak before Malawi’s Parliament as part of celebrations over the opening of the nation’s new Chinese-built Parliament Building in the recently-designated capital of Lilongwe. The BBC and the Guardian (UK) report that Mr. Ban is expected to call on Parliament to rescind its anti-sodomy laws.

Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, who identifies as a woman, were given the maximum sentence of fourteen years at hard labor last week on charges of “gross indecency” and “unnatural acts,” following a traditional engagement ceremony the couple held last December.

It is unclear when Steven and Tiwonge will actually be released, and it is more uncertain as to where they would go. Their case has gained worldwide attention and their photos are well-known throughout Malawi.

Their release is marks an important development in gay rights on the African continent. Throughout 2009 and 2010, virulent anti-gay campaigns had broken out in several African countries, with Uganda threatening to hang gay people who were HIV-positive and jail everyone else who had anything to do with them. Ugandan leaders bragged that their proposal was a demonstration of “leadership to the world” against LGBT people, but international pressure has led to multiple news reports hinting that the bill may die a quiet death. If Malawi’s conviction and imprisoning of Steven and Tiwonge was left to stand, it was feared that other nations on the continent may be encourage to initiate or revive their own anti-gay campaigns.

House passes Defense Authorization Bill

The House of Representatives has passed the Defense Authorization Bill including the compromise (delayed) repeal of the anti-gay Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell provisions. If the Senate companion bill passes, they will be reconciled and then go to the President who, it seems, may veto it and throw everything back into question.

Translating Rush Limbaugh

Even on those times that I agree with Rush Limbaugh on an issue, I can hardly stand to hear the man. He’s boorish, rude, arrogant, and childish. He’s much more inclined to attack the messenger than debate the message and, far more frequently than I can stomach, the topic of his monologue is himself and how wonderful he is.

If you like a daily dose of how stupid, foolish, unpatriotic, and hateful towards our nation are Democrats in general and President Obama specifically, Limbaugh is your man. If you like nudge nudge, wink wink humor, spiteful parodies, and coy race-based ‘comedy’, Rush is there to provide. And he’s made a fortune doing it.

Say what you will about him, Limbaugh is no fool. He’s stayed prominent in the business when many many others with similar viewpoints and similar methods have come and gone. And one way he’s survived is to be as careful about what he doesn’t say as he is about what he does say.

And I’ve noticed, over the years, that Limbaugh is cautious around gay issues.

Yes, I know that our community sees him as Satan incarnate, but if we look at his most objectionable anti-gay comments, they tend towards mocking, school-yard humor and tend not to be based in opposition to specific gay issues.

In fact, over the past few days while our legislature has been taking steps to reverse DADT, Rush has had a lot of opinions about the administration’s response to the oil spill, Obama’s socialist agenda, illegal immigration, and the usual rabble-rousing, but missing from his broadcasts seems to be any fiery denunciations of the terrible effect that allowing gay soldiers would have on our military.

So I was not particularly surprised to read that Limbaugh’s personal beliefs and positions are not radically different from that of many of our supporters. A new biography of Limbaugh (promoted on his website) states that Rush does not buy into the ideology of many of his followers.

As reported by the wacky anti-gay “news” site, World Net Daily

Limbaugh is also in favor of homosexual civil unions, according to Chafets.

“He regards homosexuality as, most probably, biologically determined, and while he opposes gay marriage as culturally subversive, he has no problem with gay civil unions – which is the stance of President Obama and Hillary Clinton,” the author explains.

That may, however, come as a surprise to many in the gay community. Having felt the sting of his “humor” many times, having heard the jokes at Barney Frank’s expense, it feels strange to hear that he is in favor of civil unions. It is easier to imagine that Limbaugh is right there with Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber.

But I think Rush is too smart for that.

Some may say that Limbaugh really does agree with the extremists but only has put out a more moderate message for public consumption. And that may be true, we have no way to know.

But even if so, what Limbaugh’s position clarification reveals is that he knows that anti-gay extremism has no future. Even conservatives who delight in a daily dose of hate-on-Obama are tired of blame-the-gays and embarrassed by wacky Nazi claims and frothing homophobia.

Stories From the Frontlines: A Love Letter to a G.I.

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) kicked off its “Stories From the Frontline” series as part of a campaign specifically targeted toward adding the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Authorization Bill, which the SLDN saw as the best opportunity to repeal the ban on gays in the military. With yesterday’s votes in the Senate Armed Services Committee and in the full House of Representatives, that strategy has come to fruition.

And so it is fitting that on the day before Memorial Day weekend, the SLDN’s final letter is in the form of a love letter written during World War II, on the occasion of their anniversary. The letter was originally published in the September 1961 issue of ONE Magazine. (You can read about ONE Magazine and the amazing contribution it made to furthering freedom of speech for LGBT people here.)

The letter, as published in the September 1961 issue of ONE Magazine. (Click to enlarge)

Dear Dave,

This is in memory of an anniversary – the anniversary of October 27th, 1943, when I first heard you singing in North Africa. That song brings memories of the happiest times I’ve ever known. Memories of a GI show troop – curtains made from barrage balloons – spotlights made from cocoa cans – rehearsals that ran late into the evenings – and a handsome boy with a wonderful tenor voice. Opening night at a theatre in Canastel – perhaps a bit too much muscatel, and someone who understood. Exciting days playing in the beautiful and stately Municipal Opera House in Oran – a misunderstanding – an understanding in the wings just before opening chorus.

Drinks at “Coq d’or” – dinner at the “Auberge” – a ring and promise given. The show 1st Armoured – muscatel, scotch, wine – someone who had to be carried from the truck and put to bed in his tent. A night of pouring rain and two very soaked GIs beneath a solitary tree on an African plain. A borrowed French convertible – a warm sulphur spring, the cool Mediterranean, and a picnic of “rations” and hot cokes. Two lieutenants who were smart enough to know the score, but not smart enough to realize that we wanted to be alone. A screwball piano player – competition – miserable days and lonely nights. The cold, windy night we crawled through the window of a GI theatre and fell asleep on a cot backstage, locked in each other’s arms – the shock when we awoke and realized that miraculously we hadn’t been discovered. A fast drive to a cliff above the sea – pictures taken, and a stop amid the purple grapes and cool leaves of a vineyard.

The happiness when told we were going home – and the misery when we learned that we would not be going together. Fond goodbyes on a secluded beach beneath the star-studded velvet of an African night, and the tears that would not be stopped as I stood atop the sea-wall and watched your convoy disappear over the horizon.

We vowed we’d be together again “back home,” but fate knew better – you never got there. And so, Dave, I hope that where ever you are these memories are as precious to you as they are to me.

Goodnight, sleep well my love.

Brian Keith

(Reprinted with permission of ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, www.onearchives.org, ONE Magazine, September 1961)

Earth Times: Uganda to Drop Anti-Gay Bill

That’s according to this Earth Times article, which is the only outlet I’ve been able to find carrying this report.

Uganda has reassured Germany it does not support a bid by one parliamentarian to outlaw homosexual acts, in order to win an extension of existing aid payments, German officials said Friday.

The German development aid ministry said in Berlin it had cleared pledges totalling 120 million euros (148 million dollars) to Uganda over the next three years. That aid would be conditional on Uganda not passing any legislation imposing new penalties on homosexual acts.

Foreign Minister Kutesa hinted last December that the bill might not go forward. This latest report adds further momentum to earlier reports suggesting that the bill would be dropped.

With Earth Times being the only news outlet carrying this report that I’ve been able to find, it’s hard to know the report’s origin. Earth Times generally covers environmental issues, although it also describes itself as “a forum from ‘voices from the field or street’ – everyday men and women who are active agents of change and whose points of view are seldom heard in the mainstream media.”

[Hat tip: Warren Throckmorton]

House Approves DADT Repeal

Following an earlier vote in the Senate Armed Services Committee, the House of Representatives approved an amendment to the House’s version of the Defense Authorization Bill that paves the way toward the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The vote was 234-194. Five Republicans broke ranks to vote for the measure. They were Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL), Charles Djou (HI), Judy Biggert (IL), Joseph Cao (LA), and Ron Paul (TX).

Update: Twenty-six Democrats voted against the amendment. They were Bobby Bright (AL), Marion Berry (AR), Mike Ross (AR), Sanford Bishop (GA), Daniel Lipinski (IL), Joe Donnelly (IN), Travis Childers (MS), Gene Taylor (MS), Ike Skelton (MO), Bob Etheridge (NC), Mike McIntyre (NC), Heath Shuler (NC), Earl Pomeroy (ND), Mark Critz (PA), John M. Spratt, Jr. (SC), Lincoln Davis (TN), John Tanner (TN), Chet Edwards (TX), Gene Green (TX), Solomon Ortiz (TX), Rick Boucher (VA), Nick Rahall (WV).

A contrast in debate

I just watched the floor debate in the House of Representatives over the compromise amendment to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and it could not have been a greater contrast.

Those who seek to keep discrimination in place were angry, blustering, and while they pretended to be supporting the servicemembers, it was clear that their objection was to ending the ban. And it was clear that they wanted to rant, repeatedly requesting more time to express their anger.

On the side in favor of the amendment were military veterans and civil rights leaders speaking about tolerance and the intergrity of the Military and the nation. They provided succint, personal, and heartfelt endorsements.

The House voted to pass the amendment on a mostly party-line vote: 230 – 194.

Only five Republicans voted for the compromise amendment. Twenty-six Democrats voted in opposition. Ten members did not vote (6 Democrats and 4 Republicans).

No doubt some will claim that they voted “no” not out of support for discrimination but because they don’t like the timing, passing the bill before the report is in. Frankly, I think that is weasel-talk.

It is unlikely that Republicans will fillibuster the Defence Authorization Bill, regardless of Sen. McCain’s blustering, and if they do, it is likely that there are sufficient votes to end debate.

This is very tenuous legislation with many caveats, milestones and other things that can go wrong. However, I think that it is not overstating to say that today was the death of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell as the policy for our Military.

Senate Armed Service Committee passes compromise DADT language

From the NY Times

The Senate Armed Services Committee voted in a closed session, after about an hour of heated debate.

The tally was 16 to 12. Senator Susan Collins of Maine said she was the only Republican to vote in favor of a repeal. She called the debate “vigorous.”

Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the committee, said he believed the full Senate would support the repeal.

Senate Armed Services Committee Approves DADT Repeal

Moments ago, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill that paves the way toward repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The vote in favor of the amendment was 16-12. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has already said he will try to mount a filibuster on the defense funding bill once it reaches the floor of the Senate.

Click here to see how the Senators voted.

Zimbabwe LGBT Activists Freed on Bail, Allege Police Torture

According to multiple news reports, the two Zimbabwean LGBT activists who were arrested following a police raid on the headquarters of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) were released on bail today after having been held and tortured for six days on charges of possessing “pornographic material” and “insulting the office of the President.”

SW Radio Africa, an Zimbabwean exile shortwave station broadcasting from London, reports that GALZ administrator Ellen Chademana and accountant Ignatius Muhambi were tortured while in police custody:

David Hofisi told SW Radio Africa: “Our clients have complained of beatings and torture yesterday. They were beaten on the knees using coca cola bottles and forced into sitting positions without chairs.”

The lawyer said the police were trying to extract information from them relating to the membership of the gay rights group; “They also wanted to know where these members live and to know their partners.”

Hofisi also told SW Radio Africa, “We are working with our clients so that they can be medically examined so that we can pursue an action against the people who were responsible for the beatings and torture.”

Hofisi said that the police wanted to charge them with “possessing dangerous drugs,” but that charge was dropped for lack of evidence.

Radio VOP, another Zimbabwean exile shortwave station broadcasting from Madagascar, reports that Chademana and Muhambi were ordered to surrender their passports, and were prohibited from traveling for more than 40 kilometres outside Harare.

Meanwhile, SW Radio Africa also reports that police Wednesday raided the home of GALZ director Chesterfield Samba. Samba was not at home, but police confiscated his “birth certificate, passport, magazines and business cards.” This development appears to signal a widening police sweep of the country’s LGBT advocates. Sodomy is illegal in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe denounced gays as “worse than dogs and pigs.”

Chademana and Muhambi were released on US$200 bail and will go on trial on June 10. It’s unclear what penalties they will face with these charges.

The Closet Is the Enemy

California State Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) was outed earlier this year following his DUI arrest after leaving a Sacramento gay bar. At that time, he was a reliable vote against pro-gay causes. Now that he’s out of the closet, his voting record is starting to change accordingly:

Ashburn was the only Republican senator to vote in support of allowing openly gay people to serve in the military, but he also voted against a bill that could remove a political obstacle to proposals to legalize same-sex marriage.

Ashburn then took the unusual step of publicly explaining his votes on the Senate floor.

“I would not have been speaking on a measure dealing with sexual orientation ever prior to the events that have transpired in my life over the last three months,” Ashburn told his colleagues. “However, I am no longer willing or able to remain silent on issues that affect sexual orientation and the rights of individuals. And so I am doing something that is quite different and foreign to me, and it’s highly emotional.”

The bill Ashburn opposed, SB 906, passed the state Senate and clarifies that clergy members would not be required to perform a civil marriage that was contrary to his or her faith. This removes one objection by marriage equality opponents who (Wrongly) claimed that clergy would be forced to perform same-sex marriages. Ashburn’s objections was essentially over a technicality:

But he said it was “troublesome” that the bill also described marriages as “civil” unions. Proposition 8, approved by voters, gave a definition of marriage, and Ashburn worried the new definition in the bill could muddy the water and lead to new lawsuits on the issue.

Scott Lively Struggles With Uganda’s Death Penalty

Current TV’s Vanguard reporter Mariana van Zeller has posted some outtakes from her outstanding documentary “Missionaries of Hate“. Already, we saw a six-minute interview with Ugandan MP David Bahati, who introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into Parliament in October 2009. What follows is an extended clip of her interview with Scott Lively, the American holocaust revisionist who delivered his infamous “Nuclear Bomb” at the March 2009 conference in Kampala that set the stage for the bill.

Lively leads off with the boast that he was “one of the people that helped to start the pro-family movement there. … This was all new to them.” And so they asked him to speak. It’s an interesting boast.  Lively claims credit for parachuting into this lost country and setting up a “pro-family” movement. Those poor Ugandan’s couldn’t have done it without him. But criticizing him for firming up the conditions that facilitated the Ugandans who put forth and supported the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, well, that’s racist to suggest Ugandans weren’t capable of doing this all on their own. (Of course, nobody has suggested such a thing. We’ve only noted his active participation in the process.) Yet there’s not even the slightest hint that this glaring contradiction has ever crossed his mind.

This clip also provides clearer context to Lively’s statement in the documentary where he calls the bill the “lesser of two evils,” the two evils being the bill itself or allowing the so-called “gay agenda” to take over Uganda. In the documentary, it wasn’t entirely clear whether the form of the bill he was endorsing as the “lesser of two evils” included or excluded the death penalty. In this clip, he’s more clearly against the death penalty, but he really has to struggle with it for quite a while before he gets there. After mulling over a few possibilities for its inclusion, he finally says, “I don’t believe that it’s… that I could support it that way.” Even still, it looked to me as though he was reluctant to say even this much against the bill. He looks as if he still needs some convincing.

Watch:

Click here to read a rush transcript of the interview.