Gay humanists rubbish attack on same-sex marriage

Britain’s only independent gay humanist organisation, the charity the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT) – owner of this blog – has rubbished the latest attack on same-sex marriage by the Church of England in its submission to the government’s consultation on this issue.

Commenting on this, PTT secretary George Broadhead said: “This is part and parcel of the Church’s long-standing Bible-based hostility to gay rights. It is fatuous to claim that the Church or its places of worship will be badly affected by this progressive legislation since it concerns only civil marriages in register offices. Moreover, as the courts are well aware of the distinction between civil and religious institutions, it is equally fatuous to claim that these marriages will result in legal challenges that will force any church to marry same-sex couples.

“As usual, the Church is out of touch with public opinion which, as polls show, is overwhelmingly in favour of same-sex marriage. No wonder the Church’s members are deserting the pews in droves.”

I think I agree, mostly, with George. However, there may, just may, be a successful challenge in the European courts, but that would just put the Church where other employers are at the moment, and we know that, for instance, a registrar lost her case, as did a marriage-guidance counsellor, because each refused to treat gay people the same as heterosexuals. One has to ask: why won’t it be the same with a minister of religion, carrying out part of the duties for which he receives a stipend and for which he is, in this case, licensed by the state to carry out marriage, as is a registrar?

So I can see that the Church may be worried, although I suspect much of its “concern” is born out of bigotry. If you want to win an argument, you reach for all kinds of things to bolster it.

If it does go to a European court, it will be an interesting case to follow.

And one of the issues the Church has raised is consummation of a marriage. On the BBC News website, the Beeb’s religion guy, Robert Pigott, writes: “For the Church, a marriage – with its focus on procreation and the need to be consummated – is something that is simply not available to gay couples. By creating different understandings of marriage, it insists, the whole institution will be weakened – something the nation should not be allowed to sleep-walk towards.

Er, how does an opposite-sex relationship differ from a same-sex one in this respect? My Concise Oxford defines consummation simply as “make (a marriage or relationship) complete by having sexual intercourse”. Don’t gays do nookie? Sorry, I thought they did. I must be missing something.

As for the focus on procreation, well clearly the Church doesn’t say a marriage is null and void if procreation doesn’t happen, because there are all kinds of reasons why it might not: family planning, a woman’s infertility, husband firing blanks. But the Church presumably doesn’t believe that childless marriage has any less worth than one that irresponsibly produces six or seven sprogs.

And, unlike the Catholic Church, the C of E doesn’t get uppity about people who want to use condoms and other forms of contraception, so, by implication, it’s cool about people who actually choose not to have kids.

So, as usual, the argument of the religionists doesn’t stack up.

Out of Africa: homophobia – and religion is behind it

Leo Igwe gets everywhere – and deserves to do so. Fresh from a long article in the new Pink Humanist, he has now appeared in Digital Journal, the Toronto-based online news source.

He’s a brave campaigner indeed, and he’s convinced – according to this article – that religion is behind most of the hatred of gays that comes out of Africa.

“I would say religion is behind most, not all of the homophobia coming out of Africa,” he says “Religion permeates all aspects of mainstream social, moral and cultural thought.

“Most homophobes use religion as a basis, as a justification of their hatred and antagonism. I have also encountered non religious Africans who are homophobic and they base their homophobia on what they claim to be the unnaturality of homosexuality.”

Humanists speak out against anti-gay legislation in Nigeria

Leo Igwe

The UK gay Humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust has warmly welcomed the reaction of the Nigerian Humanist Movement to that country’s move to criminalise same-sex marriage.

The Bill for an Act to Prohibit Marriage Between Persons of Same Sex, Solemnization of Same and for Other Matters Related Therewith, sponsored by Senator Domingo Obende, has gone through the second reading and has been referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Human Rights for further legislative work.

The NHM’s executive director, Leo Igwe, said: “We in the Nigerian Humanist Movement are deeply concerned by yet another move by the Nigerian Parliament to criminalise same-sex marriage in the country. This bill is a big distraction and a waste of Nigeria's limited legislative resources.

“It will worsen Nigeria's human rights records and undermine the efforts by Nigerians to foster true democracy, national dialogue and tolerant pluralism. Similar bills considered by the Parliament in 2006 and 2008, were never passed into law. Nigerian Humanists are wondering why the current members of the parliament deemed it necessary to bring up this bill again at a time the nation is facing clear and urgent threats and challenges of insecurity, crime and conflict, religious fundamentalism and terrorism, poverty and social unrest.

“It is difficult to comprehend why the Nigerian Parliament wants to set the country on a path against the global trend of abolishing homophobia and ending all forms of discrimination against persons on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Nigerian Humanists hereby urge the lawmakers to shelve this bill and instead to consider decriminalising homosexuality and taking other legislative measures to promote, protect, uphold and enforce the full human rights of all persons whatever their race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief.”

Commenting on this, the PTT’s secretary, George Broadhead, said: “We warmly welcome this reaction and the support the NHM has given to LGBT rights over many years. Since its founding in 1996, the NHM has taken part in campaigns against antipersonnel landmines, child labour, female genital mutilation, ritual killing, witchcraft, caste discrimination, sharia law and homophobia.

“Whilst the various religious institutions are in the main overtly hostile to LGBT relationships and their rights, the Humanist movement worldwide can be relied upon to champion them.”

Ratzo and Mugabe – perfect bedfellows

The gay Humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust (owner of this blog) has noted without surprise that the president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has attended the beatification of John Paul II, which was held in the Vatican on 1 May.

An EU travel ban forbids Mugabe from visiting member states, but the Vatican is a sovereign state and not in the EU. The ban was imposed in 2002 on account of Mugabe’s gross human-rights abuses but Italy, a founder EU member, granted Mugabe an exemption to transit through the country. A Vatican spokesman said Mugabe had not been personally invited but as the head of a state with which the Vatican has relations he was entitled to attend.

Commenting on behalf of the Pink Triangle Trust, secretary George Broadhead said: “Mugabe’s attendance at the ceremony comes as no great surprise. As a fellow Roman Catholic, he shares at least one trait in common with both the late beatified pope and the present one – an entrenched homophobia.

“He is viciously hostile to homosexuality, declaring on one occasion: ‘I find it extremely outrageous and repugnant to my human conscience that such immoral and repulsive organisations, like those of homosexuals, who offend both against the law of nature and the morals of religious beliefs espoused by our society, should have any advocates in our midst and elsewhere in the world’; and on another occasion: ‘It [homosexuality] degrades human dignity. It’s unnatural, and there is no question ever of allowing these people to behave worse than dogs and pigs. If dogs and pigs do not do it, why must human beings? We have our own culture, and we must re-dedicate ourselves to our traditional values that make us human beings . . . What we are being persuaded to accept is sub-animal behaviour and we will never allow it here. If you see people parading themselves as lesbians and gays, arrest them and hand them over to the police.’

“Only last month at the funeral of his deputy intelligence chief,” Broadhead continued, “Mugabe described Britain’s tolerance of gay rights ‘unnatural’ and ‘filth’.

“Though rather more restrained in his choice of words, the present pope has shown himself to be equally homophobic, so Mugabe will have found himself in good company. It seems that the Vatican has chosen to ignore Mugabe’s gross human-rights abuses, just as it ignored those of the Roman Catholic fascist dictators Adolf Hitler, with whom Mugabe has compared himself, Francisco Franco and Augusto Pinochet. By granting an exemption to the travel ban it seems that Italy has also chosen to ignore the human-rights abuses.”

More harassment for Leo Igwe

Leo Igwe, contributor to Gay & Lesbian Humanist magazine, member of our Gaytheist discussion group (see sidebar for both) and director of the Centre for Inquiry in Nigeria, has just had this piece of disturbing news to report:

Around midnight of Wednesday August 4 2010, two gunmen invaded my family house in Mbaise in Imo state in Southern Nigeria. They shot twice in the air and my other fainted. They later descended on my aging father and started beating him. They blindfolded him with a piece of cloth and hit him several times with stones.

He later fainted and the hoodlums ransacked the whole house and made away with whatever they found valuable. My father bled from the right eye, nose and mouth. He had bruises on his head, hands, legs and chest. After the attack, some neighbours came and rushed him to a nearby hospital. From there, I moved him to an eye hospital in Lagos where the doctor confirmed that he had extensive injuries in the right eye and recommended that it be removed. Yesterday, August 11, 2010, he underwent a surgery and the right eye was removed. He is currently recuperating at the hospital. I called the police to inform them. And they said I should send a formal petition .

This attack is the latest in the vicious campaign of harassment and intimidation of me and my family members by state and non-state actors for our efforts to bring to justice a 50-year-old man, Edward Uwa, who raped a 10-year-old girl, Daberechi, in my community. Since 2007, Edward and his associate, Ethelbert Ugwu, have brought several police and court actions against me, my family members and our witnesses including Daberechi’s father. They have brought many fictitious allegations against us. In January, they brought police officers and soldiers and arrested me and my father for murder. In 2008 Ethelbert Ugwu brought some soldiers, who arrested brutalized and detained my two brother at a local police in Ahiazu.

Unfortunately, the authorities in Nigeria are not helping matters. They have refused taking appropriate actions against Edward and Ethelbert. The police and judicial systems are corrupt, inept and ineffective. Police officers are only interested in making money from petitions, not in fighting or preventing crimes. And the court system is slow and expensive. So in Nigeria police and court actions are used by criminally minded people to harass and intimidate others, and block access to justice particularly for the poor and less privileged.

The local police stations in Ahiazu and Umuahia have refused arraigning Edward and Ethelbert for misinforming the police. The police in Zone 9 have yet to publish the outcome of the investigation of the murder charge brought by Ethelbert Ugwu and Edward Uwa for which they arrested me in January. Right now the prosecution of Edward for indecent assault is stalled because the Assistant Inspector General of Police in Umuahia, Abubakar Ringim has refused releasing the case file to Imo state prosecutor despite several applications to that respect.

The state prosecutor decided to take over the prosecution after Ethelbert Ugwu got a fraudulent fiat through a local lawyer to take over the case. The police prosecutor is no longer coming to the court and the local magistrate has threatened to strike out the case in October. Ethelbert and Edward have filed five civil suits against me, my family members and witnesses. In March, the court ruled against us in one of the suits brought by Edward for police harassment because the police did not appear in court. We are currently appealing the ruling. Since 2007 members of my family and other innocent people in my community have suffered and endured attacks, harassment and intimidation by Edward, Ethelbert and their police, soldiers and thugs.

And the state authorities have done little or nothing to address the situation.

WHAT WE CAN DO

These issues must be raised with the Nigerian authorities at the highest level. They should be kept on the front burner of international relations and human rights advocacy until the Nigerian authorities take appropriate actions. The Nigerian government must be made to understand that the international community is aware of the facts of this case. And that the world is outraged at the way they are handling it. The human rights community should join hands with the IHEU [International Humanist and Ethical Union] in bringing this disturbing trend to the attention of the world.

You can go to this page and copy a URL to paste into anything you might post to other discussion groups, and try to get the word around.
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Related links:
PTT speaks out on Igwe Arrest
More concern for Igwe

Keep Iran out, say campaigners

The president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), Sonja Eggerickx, has launched an international appeal to keep Iran out of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

And our parent organisation, the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT), has added its voice to the calls to keep Iran out.

“Iran has one of the worst human rights records on earth,” said Eggerickx, “yet it has had the audacity to announce its candidacy for membership of the UN Human Rights Council. The international community must not let this happen. We are calling upon the world’s non-governmental organisations to join us in our appeal to keep Iran out.” IHEU has started a petition on its website (it’s for organisations only, so, if you represent one, sign it) and is seeking signatures from other organisations.

IHEU says:

More than six decades after the United Nations proclaimed a set of universal human rights, respect for these fundamental freedoms remain “the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”.

Yet, even within the organs of the United Nations, it has required constant vigilance and striving for these global standards to survive and strengthen. In 2005, then UN secretary general Kofi Annan called for the replacement of the UN Commission for Human Rights before it brought “the entire UN system into disrepute”.

In establishing the Human Rights Council to replace the discredited Commission, the UN General Assembly decided “that members elected to the Council shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights.”

Now, just four years later, the UN is being asked to elect one of the world’s worst human rights abusers to that very Human Rights Council.

The PTT’s secretary and veteran gay activist George Broadhead said today, “When the Human Rights Council was established, the UN General Assembly decided ‘that members elected to the Council shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights’. Now, just four years later, the UN is being asked to elect one of the world’s worst human-rights abusers to that very Council.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the world’s most blatant violators of human rights. This alone should disqualify it from membership of the Human Rights Council, because the UN General Assembly required that ‘when electing members of the Council, member states shall take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights and their voluntary pledges and commitments made thereto’.

“Iran has an appalling record of persecuting LGBT people, denying freedom of conscience and freedom of speech, and violently suppressing democratic voices.

“The punishment meted out to gays by this Islamic theocracy, which includes floggings and executions, are reminiscent of the Middle Ages. In 2005 Iran sparked international outrage when it publicly hanged two gay teenage boys Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni.

“It is quite intolerable that such a murderous homophobic state should be considered for membership of the UN’s Human Rights Council,” Broadhead concluded.