On Homosexuality
(the irrational fears)
Booting up the Dell this morning as I do most mornings, I go to the news. I use MSNBC as I like there site. There in the upper right corner of the main page was an article "African gays are abused even in death" with a byline "A wave of homophobia washes across the continent." Even in death..? My curiosity is piqued and I click on the story. It's difficult for me to believe how stupid people can get.(the irrational fears)
What drives anyone to dig up a body of a man who had been buried for only a few hours and do what they reportedly did? Sure, it's anger. We all get angry at times in our lives. But this degree of anger is curious, besides being foul and ridiculous... what degree of anger must people reach to dig up the dead, spit on their lifeless body and drag it away from the cemetery to this dead person's parents who are elderly and had to have been heartbroken to begin with from burying their son only hours before?Madieye Diallo's body had only been in the ground for a few hours when the mob descended on the weedy cemetery with shovels. They yanked out the corpse, spit on its torso, dragged it away and dumped it in front of the home of his elderly parents.
The scene of May 2, 2009 was filmed on a cell phone and the video sold at the market. It passed from phone to phone, sowing panic among gay men who say they now feel like hunted animals.
full article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36376840/ns ... ws-africa/
"Intense homophobia" sounds like an understatement given what was done to this dead man. By outlawing consensual behavior between persons of legal age shows how out of control countries can get when they look for something to blame for their ills and dis-eases. When people become angry with their lives and how things are going with them certainly increases the anger levels. But putting blame on a faction of society that has always been amongst us... stupidity.A wave of intense homophobia is washing across Africa, where homosexuality is already illegal in at least 37 countries.
There is more to this backlash in Senegal than 'the visibility of gays' which is revealed as the article continues -Even though homosexuality is illegal in Senegal, colonial documents indicate the country has long had a clandestine gay community. In many towns, they were tacitly accepted, says Cheikh Ibrahima Niang, a professor of social anthropology at Senegal's largest university. In fact, the visibility of gays in Senegal may have helped to prompt the backlash against them.
Note the keywords "un-Islamic," "spiraling food prices," "people are poor" and it shows how hu'man behavior has grabbed anything to remove some 'curse' they feel has been put on their lives that has caused these things to happen to them. Doing things against religious beliefs causes food prices to climb and make people poorer than they were. If they remove homosexuality that will be a great step forward to making Islam more powerful for the people, lower food prices and increase their personal wealth.In March 2008, Senegal hosted an international summit of Muslim nations, which prompted a nationwide crackdown on behaviors deemed un-Islamic, including homosexuality.
The crackdown also coincided with spiraling food prices. Niang says political and religious leaders saw an easy way to reach constituents through the inflammatory topic of homosexuality.
"They found a way to explain the difficulties people are facing as a deviation from religious life," says Niang. "So if people are poor — it's because there are prostitutes in the street. If they don't have enough to eat, it's because there are homosexuals."
Of course, most of us know how foolish this sort of belief really is. It is using a poor and uneducated people to advance the gains of a religious belief. All religious beliefs utilize books that offer proof that their religions are worthy paths to follow. How could their founding leader be wrong if they said these words that show this leader was in touch with God? Even though Godallah made all things and created man in His image, homosexuality is abhorrent behavior that needs to be not only condemned but assaulted in the most un-Godly of methods. That will make Godallah very happy and everyone will have food and become rich. It works every time as history can prove. (pardon the sarcasm...)
The endless persecution towards the homosexuals amongst us may never be completely eliminated... hu'man emotions being as they are. But when the reaction reaches the levels they apparently have in many countries in Africa, one can only hope that level of intolerance stays in Africa for the sake of peace and acceptance of our own kind. It's becoming more and more apparent as our world becomes smaller and smaller, communications becomes more transparent and accessible, that our hu'manity lives lives of secrecy and lies. The more those lies and deceptions come to the forefront, the more we will have our faults and our fears to face. But fighting our own fears with violence and stupidity will do little to advance hu'manity.
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On 03 Aug 2003 I wrote this Stream : "How old were you when you chose your sexual preference?"
America is now debating the pro's and con's of the homosexuality issue when it comes to whether gay folks can be married. An absurd debate that has no basis in any form of reality.
We are all - straight, gay, lesbian,, raised by one or more parents that may or may not have been married and may or may not have been gay, but homophobia persists. I know this is not something that can be eradicated overnight, but it certainly is something that should be brought up and confronted with understanding.
I am a straight man than has been propositioned by individual gay men more than once in my life... and I have had and do have friends that were gay/lesbian, people that are wonderful spirits, that have a great sense of humor and a joy for life... harmless, peace-loving people that intend no harm towards anyone.
Throughout my own life, I have learned that being gay was never a choice, just as my own sexual preference was never decided but just accepted. It's amazing to me that priests, politicians and homophobes expect the homosexual to change their attractions. It is also amazing to me that these same priests and politicians are made up collectively of both straight and homosexual people... the same people that condemn the lifestyle in the open, but sneak around in the shadows of their own alternative sexual preferences.
True, throughout the years the gays have come out of their closets and defied the prejudices... but the real problem is amongst the straight community and their double speak.
When a gay man hears a couple of straight men talking of having sex with some woman, they intrinsically shy away from the conversation because they do not have the same attraction ... and alternatively a conversation between two gays about another man will find the straight man at unease... that is normal within itself.
I have often thought that the extreme homophobe is more than likely a gay person himself, so much into the cover-up that it causes this violent behavior towards one that is at ease with their sexuality, a perverted envy so to speak, that lashes out against his own truth about himself that may have been conditioned thru his life by parental/relative upbringing along with peer pressures.
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There is no doubt that our sexuality is the most powerful drive we have, and yet we challenge and deny our very own desires... fight with our passions and use our minds to define what is right and what is wrong when it comes to sex.Truth is that there is nothing wrong with any sexual behavior as long as the act is consensual with people of age-understanding. Given that level of sexual freedom, we have the ability to become more fully developed individuals that have a wider outlook of the world and a greater joy to live our lives according to our potential.
___________
Sex is the energy of Existence
that permeates all that we do.
Sex is the glue that binds us
into the community of Mankind.
Sex is the Gift of Life
when treated with Love
transforms us.
Sex is the Union of Species
of which Man stumbles
thru the darkness of unknowing
linked to the Mind as if it
were a choice of good or bad.
We will grow up or we will perish
in the Hell of our Ignorance.
___________
Sex is the energy of Existence
that permeates all that we do.
Sex is the glue that binds us
into the community of Mankind.
Sex is the Gift of Life
when treated with Love
transforms us.
Sex is the Union of Species
of which Man stumbles
thru the darkness of unknowing
linked to the Mind as if it
were a choice of good or bad.
We will grow up or we will perish
in the Hell of our Ignorance.
___________
Cecil
11 April 2010
