From the BBC:

Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga were sentenced to 14 years’ hard labour in May, then freed following international condemnation.

But Monjeza told Malawi’s Nation newspaper that he had been coerced into the gay relationship, and was now with a woman named Dorothy Gulo.

When freed last month, they were taken separately to their home villages.

The pair were warned they faced re-arrest if they continued their relationship.

Ms Gulo was also interviewed by the newspaper and said: “I’d heard about men getting involved in a sexual relationship. I was curious so I accepted him.”

Asked about Monjeza’s former partner, she told the Nation: “I’m scared he is going to beat me up.”

Human rights advocate Peter Tatchell, who campaigned for Chimbalanga and Monjeza’s release, said anti-gay pressure had split the “star-crossed lovers”.

“It is a tragedy that homophobic threats and abuse have forced this couple apart,” he said. “They were deeply in love. The pressure has got to Steven.”

(Weekly Column)

Picture: Me lifting my own luggage at Miami International Airport

It was once a speculative clich?© to say that rabidly anti-gay individuals were actually closeted, self-loathing homosexuals. But thanks to an avalanche of hypocrites, the notion is quickly becoming a truism.

Last month, the nation alternately cackled and cringed when virulently homophobic “researcher” George Rekers was photographed at Miami International Airport with an attractive hustler he met on RentBoy.com. The good doctor, who had testified in court against LGBT people adopting children, said he only hired the young escort to “lift his luggage”.

Before the laughter over the Rekers ruckus subsided, another anti-gay phony was unmasked for his baloney. Activist Mike Rogers outed Congressman Mark Kirk, (R-Il) after the closet case voted against the repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. According to Rogers:

“Kirk voted against repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, despite his being a closeted gay man in the military. As a Commander in the Navy Reserves, Kirk has voted to keep a policy that if he were investigated under he would be tossed.”

Prior to his unconscionable vote, Kirk (pictured)had a relatively respectable record on LGBT issues. However, in his bid for the U.S. Senate, Kirk veered to the right, which included posing as a homophobe. Now that he has been exposed as a fraud, one wonders if the Tea baggers will still consider him their cup of tea.

Another maxim that appears to be accurate is the one that says, “those who have genuine family values never utter the words “family values.”

Seriously, how bored with your spouse, dissatisfied with your life, and spiritually empty do you have to be to unctuously parade your family as a prop on the public stage?

The most recent lowlife squirming under the family values banner is Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) who announced that he would resign from Congress because he had an affair with a woman on his staff. He follows in the footsteps of Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.). When will voters finally wise up to these religious racketeers who sell a morality mirage?

Just as gay-obsessed anti-gay activists are often gay, and holier-than-thou politicians are likely to be having sex with everyone but their spouses, one should also be leery of nations prone to attacking their LGBT citizens. While these countries pose as beacons of the biblical banner, their professions of piousness often mask moral mayhem. It seems that almost every anti-gay nation is an authoritarian, cesspool of corruption.

Jamaica, for example has been called one of the most homophobic lands on earth. The island’ Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, said he would not have an openly gay person in his cabinet. Yet, it appears he, and nearly every other politician in Jamaica, is in cahoots with local mafia dons who deal in death and drugs.

A story in Tuesday’ New York Times discusses this unseemly “arrangement”:

In fact, money has flowed into those communities for decades, thanks to an arrangement in Jamaica in which politicians and dons share power. Through extortion and the drug trade, the dons provide security, and by steering contracts and other pork to the neighborhoods, the politicians count on the continued loyalty of voters.

Where are all the outspoken fundamentalists who ferociously condemn gays and make a big show about Jamaica’ values? We keep hearing how this island is a pristine “Christian Nation”, but where are the Christians when you need them to stand up to endemic corruption?

It seems these self-righteous cowards attack defenseless sexual minorities, while turning a blind eye to the most sordid transgressions of scripture. While the epidemics of murder and theft genuinely affect their families — gay people do not. Yet, the misled masses in Jamaica choose to focus on a non-issue like homosexuality, while disregarding factors that have kept their children mired in poverty and pain.

Jamaica is not alone in using LGBT people as scapegoats to distract the public from naked political power grabs. Zimbabwe’ brutal dictator, Robert Mugabe, (pictured) practically wrote the playbook on using gays as political pawns when he once said they were worse than pigs and dogs. Uganda’ president Yoweri Musevini has clung to power for twenty-four years and uses gay people to sidetrack citizens who might otherwise be upset that he has squelched democratic reform. In Northern Ireland, anti-gay conservative parliament member, and the 58-year-old wife of the Prime Minister, Iris Robinson, had an affair with a 19-year-old male lover.

While being gay is normal and natural, homophobia is not. It is often a sickness or a deliberate distraction designed to deceive the na?Øve. And, nations with leaders that are homophobic often scream “perversion” as a smoke and mirrors diversion. It is time people woke up and realized that when someone is rabidly anti-gay they usually want you to look the other way.

So, we have seen a Hispanic People Magazine cover with Ricky Martin and his children. And, a French McDonald’s commercial. The tag line for the television spot is: “Come as you are, just leave a little fatter.”

Okay, I added the last part.

How about a little love here in the good ole’ USof A? It is amazing how our religious right has, in many ways, relegated our country to the cultural backwaters.

Memo to the American Family Association: It is fair to say that your 2008 McDonald’s boycott has officially failed.

The Associated Press reports that Malawi’s president has pardoned a same-sex couple who had been sentenced to 14 years in prison. However, President Bingu wa Mutharika’s announcement was far from encouraging for the broader picture of LGBT equality in a region that has fallen woefully behind the rest of the world.

“These boys committed a crime against our culture, against our religion, and against our laws,” President Mutharika said. “However, as head of state, I hereby pardon them and therefore order their immediate release without any conditions….We don’t condone marriages of this nature. It’s unheard of in Malawi and it’s illegal.”

Malawi had faced international condemnation for the conviction and harsh sentencing of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, who were arrested in December, a day after celebrating their engagement. After the pardon, activists were searching for a safe house for the couple, fearing they could be attacked upon release.

This horrific treatment of LGBT people in much of Africa must end. While anti-gay hatred is constantly portrayed as an African value, many African leaders are really upholding homophobic colonial traditions. Worse, the tense atmosphere is exacerbated by American “Colonial Christians” who poison Africa with noxious forms of religious views.

While there is much to be done worldwide for LGBT equality, at lease one couple caught a break and can hopefully resume their lives — although they seem to be potentially in harms way. As for Malawi, it was a very wise move by Mutharika. Had this couple remained in prison, it would have put a searing spotlight on this otherwise invisible nation. This would have harmed Malawi’s reputation, undermined its economy and retarded growth.

Weekly Column

The war over gay rights in America and other modern nations has been largely won. Too many people have come out of the closet and will never go back in for the clock to be turned back. Most of these out individuals have loyal friends and family members who offer unequivocal love and unqualified support. We have reached a tipping point where LGBT people are even coming out in traditionally conservative bastions where the issue has long been seen as taboo.

For example, in England, 6’3″, 225-pound rugby star Gareth Thomas recently came out. He was featured in a major Sports Illustrated spread detailing his life as the first openly gay male athlete in team sports. While no comparable male star has come out in America, Thomas’ brave journey sets the stage for this breakthrough to occur.

Gospel singers Ray Boltz and Tonex have acknowledged their sexual orientation, blazing a trail in a very homophobic environment. Country music crooner Chely Wright (pictured), who will be working with the LGBT organization Faith in America to combat religion-based bigotry, courageously came out this month.

While Ricky Martin’ announcement that he is gay did not seem to shock many people, it still had a significant impact in the Hispanic community and reverberated across Latin America. And, the recent support of marriage equality by Cindy McCain and Laura Bush gave fair-minded Republican women across this nation a green light to openly embrace their gay friends.

Daily advances suggest that the LGBT community is about fifteen years away from full equality. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday indicates that 78 percent of the public supports allowing openly gay people to serve in the military, with only one in five opposed.

“Support is widespread, even among Republicans. Nearly six in ten Republicans favor allowing openly gay individuals to serve in the military,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “There is a gender gap, with 85 percent of women and 71 percent of men favoring the change, but support remains high among both groups.”

A new Gallup poll released Monday showed that while the number of Americans opposed to marriage equality continues to outnumber those in support of it, the number opposed has dropped to tie Gallup’ all-time low for the number. According to the poll, 53% of Americans oppose marriage equality compared to 44% who support it. The 53% number is tied with 2007′ 53% for the lowest opposition to gay marriage among Americans that Gallup has recorded.

In the next decade or so, a more supportive demographic will fully come of age and replace voters who hail from more conservative generations. During this period, we will witness an increasingly bitter and divisive culture war, as opponents sense defeat and grow desperate. There is no alternative to fighting these battles if we expect to win.

Often, I am asked the question: Why do you spend so much time focusing on religious extremists?

I spotlight these zealots because the only way we can now lose is if America is overthrown by a theo-fascist regime that obliterates the separation of church and state. Let me state clearly that it is highly unlikely that such a takeover will occur.

However, such a nightmare can only take place if we do not pay attention to our opponents. There is no shortage of Americans who desire an intolerant “Christian Nation” that excludes non-fundamentalists from first-class citizenship. I have traveled to rabidly right wing conferences, witnessed their radical vision for America and have seen the determination in their eyes. We should never underestimate their will or doubt their commitment to turn this country into the Christian version of Iran.

The one genuine concern I have is the enthusiastic embrace of fringe anti-gay activists by respectable members of the Republican Party. Strong ideological divisions combined with a weak economy and high unemployment could place in power Republicans beholden to fanatical elements. This could potentially create a dire situation where our opponents have the raw power to reverse the LGBT community’ notable gains.

If you don’t think they can do it, consider that the extreme right took over the Texas School Board and rewrote the history books. These same people would have no qualms about writing LGBT people out of America’ future.

Minnesota is a troubling example of GOP leaders in bed with extremists. According to the Minnesota Monitor, a radical anti-gay ministry, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (YCR), has solidified ties to the Republican Party of this state. The group is linked to Rep. Michele Bachmann and gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer.

YCR recently said on its radio show that Muslim countries that use the death penalty for gays and lesbians are “more moral than even the American Christians”. While this has caused Emmer to tiptoe away from YCR, the question remains, why is the GOP cavorting with crazies?

As we approach the finish line for equality, we must always keep one eye on the prize and the other on the awful surprise our theocratic foes desperately want to inflict on America. If they win, we lose. That is a lesson we don’t have the luxury of forgetting.

(Example in video of the crazy people we must face) 

The separation of Church and State is a fundamental tenet of the U.S. Constitution. Increasingly policies that funnel taxpayer dollars into faith-based organizations challenge this important principle. This month on our June Pride episode, IN THE LIFE follows the money to expose some faith-based initiatives that sanction homophobia here and abroad.

DEMOCRACY OR THEOCRACY?

The first amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects religion from governmental interference, at the same time it ensures government is protected from religious influence. But faith leaders with close ties to Capitol Hill, target the LGBT community by using religion as a basis to deny our equality and blur the line distinguishing our democracy from a theocracy.

EXPORTING HATE

In 2009, the Ugandan Parliamentary proposed an anti-homosexuality bill that would impose the death penalty on serial offenders of homosexual acts. Inciting fear and sanctioning homophobia, the bill has caused LGBT Ugandans to be hunted in their communities and forced into exile. IN THE LIFE focuses on the man behind the bill and his supporters, and exposes the political and financial influence used by powerful conservatives in the U.S. to export their anti-gay agenda overseas.

Intersections of Church and State will begin airing June 1st. To find out when it airs in your local area, to stream or download it, go to the IN THE LIFE website: www.inthelifetv.org.

Watch a preview now

Scott Lively is the holocaust revisionist who was instrumental in fanning the flames of bigotry in Uganda that led to the notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill. He is a monster whose pathological obsession with homosexuality has reached dangerous levels.

Today, he announced — despite the overwhelming evidence — that he was going to defend himself and fight accusations that he is a barbaric tyrant. Dr. Warren Throckmorton has a letter from Lively and his emerging strategy on his website:

Friends:

I’m looking for a good Christian media source to interview me on film on the Uganda issue for posting online. I intend to get off defense and counter-attack the false witnesses with hard facts about Uganda and the dishonest way the media has addressed the story. Please forward this to any pro-family journalists you know and ask them to contact me at sdllaw@gmail.com.

Please feel free to write this theo-fascist and let him know that he will be held accountable if sexual minorities are jailed, harmed or executed in Uganda.

Most people in the United States had not heard of Malawi until last week when a judge sentenced a couple to the maximum 14 years in prison with hard labor under Malawi’ anti-gay legislation, and crowds jeered the two men as they were driven from the court house to jail Thursday.

Nice.

The harsh sentence for “unnatural acts” and “gross indecency” had been expected after the same judge convicted Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza earlier this week under laws dating from the colonial era.

Chimbalanga, a 20-year-old hotel janitor, and his unemployed partner were arrested Dec. 27, the day after they celebrated their engagement with a party at the hotel where Chimbalanga worked—an apparent first in Malawi.

Now, we have all heard of Malawi. Congratulations to this nation for getting put on the mental map.

Unfortunately, it is viewed as a backwards and brutal land that is stuck in a time warp. The locals mistakenly believe they are protecting morals. However, they aren’t protecting anything but archaic beliefs, mindless mysticism and superstition disguised as spirituality.

One feels horrible for the poor couple who was caught up in such barbarism. They appear to be good people born in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But, one also must feel bad for a nation trapped in the past that clearly has no future. The saddest part, is to witness the appalling and astounding ignorance. The leaders of this nation think they are acting on behalf of African values. In reality, they are carrying the water for America’s fundamentalists. It is amazing that they have not noticed that the law speaks of “buggery”, clearly not an African word.

It’s all quite tragic, really. Whatever pain this couple suffers in prison will pale in comparison to the suffering of the population of a country governed by such anachronistic laws.

(Weekly Column)

Sure, its scandalous when an anti-gay charlatan employs a male escort to lift his sack and rub his back. But the larger story is that Florida’s Attorney General, Bill McCollum, hired now disgraced professor George Rekers for $120,000 to testify as an “expert” witness in favor of the state’s ban on allowing gay people to adopt. He did so knowing that Rekers testimony had already been debunked and lacked credibility. While the handsome Jo-Vanni Roman was a bargain for Rekers at $75 per night, “Big Spending Bill” bilked taxpayers for a handsome sum of money to defend his bible-based bigotry. As the rent boy hoopla begins to subside, people should begin to focus on the far more dangerous rent-a-quack industry, where puritanical politicians funnel public money to fellow fundamentalists who twists facts in the name of faith.

“Rekers is part of a small cadre of homophobes-for-hire that charge top dollar for their bogus’expert’ witness testimony despite the fact that they’ve been discredited over and over again,” Nadine Smith, Executive Executive Director of Equality Florida, told me during an interview. “McCollum knew this guy was a fraud but he paid him anyway to burnish his conservative credentials. While thousands of children languish in the foster care system and hundreds age out of the system never having been adopted, Rekers is an ideological hired gun who will distort the truth for pay in defense of this law that dehumanizes gay people and denies children in need the stability and permanency that only adoption can bring.”

Rekers was paid a $60,900 retainer in Florida. He also received a $59,793 payment for hourly billing, according to the Department of Children and Families, for 402 hours at about $150 per hour. The payments were made by the office of the Florida attorney general, Bill McCollum, which was defending the DCF’s policy in court.

Rekers, an officer of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, testified in 2008 that LGBT people have a higher likelihood of depression, drug addiction and failed relationships. He claimed these ailments made them unfit parents who could not provide stable homes for children. Of course now we all know that Rekers thinks its okay to rent boys, not raise them.

What McCollum got for the loot was pure lies at the expense of tax payers. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman found that Rekers testimony was “motivated by his strong ideological and theological convictions that are not consistent with the science. Based on his testimony and demeanor at trial, the court can not consider his testimony to be credible nor worthy of forming the basis of public policy.”

Of course, McCollum, a Republican who is now running for Florida governor as a “fiscal conservative” had to have known that he was wasting public money. Rekers had already testified in Arizona against gay foster parents. But the judge called his testimony “extremely suspect and of little, if any, assistance to the court.”

Rekers also testified on behalf of the state of Arkansas. A two-year legal battle followed after Rekers billed the state for $165,000, more than the state wanted to pay. The case concluded with Rekers receiving a $60,000 settlement, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

In an Orlando Sentinel article, “Big Spending Bill” admitted that he hired Rekers because he could not find a credible mental health expert to testify in favor of the ban.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of choice,” said McCollum.

Well, there was a choice. McCollum could have decided to save the peoples’ money and not place a disreputable witness on the stand that he knew was pushing junk science. That is what a man of good character and strong morality would have done. Clearly, McCollum has no problem abandoning the facts in the service of justifying his faith.

McCollum’s actions were a clear violation of the public trust and he has a duty to return the money to the state he was elected to represent. It would be nothing less than disgraceful if he did not pay restitution for the political prostitution that happened on his watch.

As for George Rekers, he should return the dough he has not yet squandered on rent boys to Florida, Arizona and Arkansas. He bamboozled taxpayers and should not get away with it. Of course, now we all know why he needed a strapping young man to lift his baggage. They could possibly have been filled with dirty money from his anti-gay money-grab in Florida.

It seems that Jo-Vanni Roman’sbiggest mistake was that he was in the wrong business. The quickest way to make a buck is to buck reality and provide propaganda for ambitiouss politicians such as Bill McCollum.