Stonewall Scotland releases posters: "Some People R Gay get over It"

Posters designed to tackle homosexual bullying in schools have been reprinted in Gaelic.

Stonewall Scotland said it was now offering its "straight-talking" poster campaign to Gaelic-speaking areas across the country.

The lesbian, gay and bisexual rights charity said English versions had already been well-received in schools.

The poster reads "Tha cuid de dhaoine gay. Gabh ris!", which is translated as "Some people are gay. Get over it!"

A YouGov poll for Stonewall found that 90% of secondary school teachers said children and young people - regardless of their sexual orientation - experienced homophobic bullying in school.

An English language version of the slogan already features on posters, postcards and stickers that have been distributed to every secondary school in Scotland.

A Stonewall Scotland spokesperson said: "It has been so well-received by pupils and teachers that the message has gone beyond the school gates to appear on billboards and bus stops."

Uganda : 'I Am Sorry. I Am really Gay' Says Ugandan Ex, Ex-Gay

in UGANDA,

Famous 'Ms. Georgina' regrets his previous actions and would like to be forgiven.

A man who in 2009 renounced homosexuality at a public forum in Kampala has now told Behind the Mask that he regrets his previous actions and would like to be forgiven by the LGBTI community.
Saying that he felt “there is a fire in the belly saying gay is really who you are,” Mr George Oundo, known amongst Uganda’s LGBTI community as “Ms Georgina,” said that although he had renounced homosexuality on national media, at an opportune time he would ask the Kuchu community (Ugandan slang for LGBTI) to take him back.
Speaking on Wednesday July 27, 2011 to Behind the Mask outside the magistrate’s court in Kampala where three Christian evangelist preachers have been charged with making homophobic smears against a rival preacher, the now former ex-gay Oundo said he once again believed, “being gay is natural and inborn.”
The accused preachers, their lawyers, Henry Ddungu and David Kaggwa, together with David Mukalazi and Deborah Kyomuhendo (agents of the accused) face charges of conspiring to injure Pastor Robert Kayanja’s reputation by claiming that Kayanja sodomised boys in his church. The two lawyers are charged with allegedly commissioning false affidavits.
In March 2009 Oundo spoke at a Christian seminar and said he previously supported homophobic preacher Martin Sempa and legislator Mr David Bahati in their claims that homosexuals recruit children in schools and deserve the death penalty.
Speaking on Wednesday however, the now former ex-gay man said that he regrets the comments.
Looking sad, Mr Oundo, who once helped to establish an LGBTI human rights advocacy group in Kampala, said that although the preachers had given him some money and built him a house in Muyenga-Bukasa, a posh suburb of Kampala, he still had gay feelings. “I have never even become born again. I just do not want to be born again.”
He said the born again Christian anti-gay preachers had dumped him. “Can you imagine I have not been to any of their churches in the last one year?” he said.
Asked whether an interview with Behind the Mask would not cause him to be seen in a bad light by the born again community, Mr Oundo said he did not care what they believed.
However, when asked why he had come to court and was showing solidarity with Sempa and the other accused preachers, Mr Oundo said he had to be there as he had promised the three that he would see them through the trial.
Asked whether he does not feel he betrayed the Ugandan LGBTI community by making false allegations that almost saw the anti homosexuality bill 2009 passed into law, Mr Oundo said he “would understand and respect” people calling him a traitor.
Mr Oundo claimed back in March 2009 that donors gave him and fellow homosexuals “much money” and training abroad and that he would target mostly the needy children who had problems of tuition and pocket money and “others who like outings.”
During that occasion Oundo warned parents to know their children’s friends. Homosexuals, he added, were targeting mostly children “because they are easy to initiate and they like easy things.”
Oundo claimed then, that he got seriously involved in “promoting homosexuality” in 2003. “I was taken to Nairobi for training,” he said. “I used to supply pornographic materials in form of books and compact discs showing homosexuality to young boys in many schools.”
The training, he said, was facilitated by the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya. “I also got the pupils’ telephone contacts. We used to meet with both girls and boys in schools during ceremonial parties,” he had claimed.
He claimed in 2009 that he only stopped his activities after becoming a born again Christian. On that occasion he was speaking to about 50 parents who had been attending a seminar at a Kampala hotel. The seminar had been organised by the Family Life Network, a local charity which promotes family values.

http://ilga.org

Ewok in Star Wars and Harry Potter goblin spared jail/indecently exposing himself

By CLAIRE ELLICOTT

Indecent: Nicholas Read arrives at Leicester Crown Court, where he was given a suspended 20-week jail term

A dwarf who appeared in the Harry Potter and Star Wars films has escaped a short jail spell for indecently exposing himself to a schoolgirl on a train.

Nicholas Read, who stands just 4ft 5in tall, sat next to the 17-year-old, blocking her exit, and performed an indecent act under a juggler's hat.

Paralysed by fear, the 17-year-old was unable to move, but managed to tell a police officer what the dwarf, who played an Ewok in Return of the Jedi, had done.

Yesterday, Read was handed a suspended 20-week jail term and told he would have to be supervised by the Probation Service and undertake a community sex offender group work programme.

Recorder Richard Bond took pity on the former pantomime star, despite his previous sexual offence convictions.

These included a previous conviction for indecent assault in 2004 when, after a New Year party with his Snow White pantomime cast, he drunkenly climbed into bed with the sleeping stage manager and his girlfriend. 

He then put the woman's hand on his genitals.

Leicester Crown Court also heard that Read, of Cheadle, north Staffordshire, had made a series of random and explicit phone calls to women from a hotel room as long ago as 1995.

Last month, Read was convicted of indecent exposure for the train incident, which took place last October.

Passing sentence, Mr Bond said: 'A relatively short sentence of imprisonment will not help you, and it certainly will not protect the public from your fantasies.

'I have had to ask myself this question: is this a case where not just you, but more importantly, the public would benefit from you receiving a short custodial sentence? The answer to that is no.'

He previously told the dwarf whilst considering his punishment: 'One of the questions I ask myself is whether if I send him to prison for a short sentence he'll be out in a flash.' 

Big screen roles: Read played a goblin in the film Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, starring Daniel Radcliffe, right (stock image)

Read, who must also pay £500 towards the cost of his prosecution, was arrested last October after 'trapping' his victim in a window seat on a train travelling between London and Leicester.

The dwarf, 40, who played an Ewok in the 1983 film Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and a Gringotts goblin in 2001's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, had drunk half a bottle of gin and was feeling 'merry'.

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Speaking from behind a screen, his female victim sobbed as she told the court: 'He placed his hat on his crotch. I saw a movement and I didn't know whether to believe it.

'I looked in the reflection of the window and saw his hand moving under the hat. He tried to catch my attention, tilting his hat up, looking at his crotch area and then looking at me a few times.'

Fall from grace: Read arriving at Leicester Crown Court, where he stood trial. He played an Ewok in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return Of The Jedi (stock image)

The behaviour continued for between 30 and 40 minutes of the 55-minute journey to Leicester.

When she got off the train, she told a British Transport Police officer who arranged for Read to be arrested when he left the train at Sheffield.

'It was obvious that she was extremely scared by what you did to her. She was so scared that she couldn't complain immediately for fear that you would touch her'

Recorder Richard Bond

Yesterday, dressed in a blue suit, white shirt and yellow tie, the actor attended court in the company of another dwarf and was told that the teenager had been a vulnerable victim.

Describing aspects of Read's latest offence as chilling, the judge told him: 'It was obvious that she was extremely scared by what you did to her.

'She was so scared that she couldn't complain immediately for fear that you would touch her.'

Offering mitigation on Read's behalf, defence barrister Nigel Hamilton said his client had been involved with pantomimes since the age of 16, earning a weekly wage of up to £800.

Mr Hamilton told the court: 'He will not be able to do that anymore - he has had cancellations left, right and centre.'

Drunk: Read (left) had drunk half a bottle of gin before boarding the train

It is understood that Read has recently been hiring himself out to stag parties, offering to be handcuffed to the stag while dressed as a diminutive fictional character such as a Smurf or Oompa-Loompa.

Although the nature of Read's current employment was not aired in open court, Mr Bond voiced sadness at the actor's current activities and expressed hope that he will be able to stick to 'normal' roles in future.

Inspector Mark Clements of British Transport Police said: 'Read's actions were deplorable. He targeted a young lone female, unable to move from her seat, too scared to speak and paralysed by fear from his actions, worried he may assault her too.

'Read's denial of committing this offence led to his victim having to relive the upsetting ordeal again in court.

'His behaviour was completely unacceptable but the victim reporting the incident straight away enabled police to make a swift arrest.'

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Indian lesbian Couple Get Police Protection Family wants to Kill them

by Jessica Geen 

A lesbian couple in India have been granted 24-hour police protection after family members allegedly threatened to kill them.

The women, named as Savita, 25, and Veena, 20, from Manesar, near New Delhi, married last week and went to a court to ask for protection.

They went to the court in Gurgaon, claiming that Veena had been forced into an arranged marriage with a man.

The court granted her a divorce and recognised the women as a married couple, albeit designating Savita as the husband and Veena as the wife. India does not recognise gay marriage.

They were also granted a safe house and full-time police protection, the Daily Telegraph quotes Deputy Police Commissioner Dr Abhe Singh as saying.

The court served notice on 14 of the couple’s relatives and neighbours.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk

Cuba is close to recognizing civil unions for same-sex couples.

Two men march along Prado Boulevard in Havana, on June 28, 2011, to celebrate the Gay Pride Day. (Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images)

Nick Miroff

HAVANA, Cuba — There was no mention of it in the pages of Granma, the Communist Party newspaper, but when word came that Cuban authorities were considering the legalization of same-sex civil unions, it was a cause for quiet celebration here.

The announcement was made by Mariela Castro, daughter of Raul Castro and the director of Cuba’s national sex education center, during an interview with Spanish broadcaster Cadena Ser earlier this month. Castro, the island’s leading gay rights advocate, said Cuban authorities are already studying the proposal in preparation for the upcoming Community Party conference on Jan. 28.

“This is a historic opportunity, and I think we’re close to having draft legislation,” said Castro, who also revealed in the interview that gay Cubans can serve in the military. “We’ve been working on this issue for a long time, with a lot of activism. We’re starting to see results and a political solution.”

Certainly the recognition of same-sex civil unions would be a landmark achievement — for Mariela Castro and the island’s gay rights activists. But it also prompts the question: Why has it taken Cuba so long?

After all, six other Latin American nations already recognize same-sex civil unions: Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico (in certain states). Why then is Cuba, a largely secular society where left-wing politics have dominated for 50 years, still slow to grant full legal equality for gays and lesbians? As Castro told the interviewer, “A socialist society can’t be a homophobic one.”

But it has been one in the past.

In the decades following Fidel Castro’s 1959 Cuban Revolution, gay Cubans endured various forms of harassment, and many in the late 1960s were sent to military labor camps to be “rehabilitated” by grueling agricultural work. The socialist “New Man” envisioned by Che Guevara was strong, self-sacrificing, masculine — and unambiguously heterosexual.

Several of Cuba’s leading artists and intellectuals at the time, including some of Castro’s fiercest critics, were gay, contributing to perceptions among some Party stalwarts that homosexuals were inherently “subversive” or “counter-revolutionary.” Acclaimed Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, who fled the island in the 1980 Mariel boatlift, was a case in point.

Much has changed since then. Cubans now march in government-sanctioned gay pride parades each year, and the state has even begun offering a limited number of sexual reassignment surgeries to transgender Cubans at no cost, in keeping with the spirit of the island’s socialist health care system.

Yet many gays here remain closeted about their sexuality. There are no designated gay bars, and a macho-male culture that either mocks or rejects homosexuality remains deeply engrained, just as it is in many parts of North America.

Gay rights activists, led by Mariela Castro (who is not gay herself), have made uneven progress, while continuing to face considerable push-back from a culture that has casual attitudes about sex, but not sexuality.

GlobalPost in Cuba: Condoms not just for sex in Cuba

And while Cuba’s Catholic Church is not as powerful as it is in other Latin American countries, it remains a formidable institution on the island and a moral authority for many. It has openly stated its opposition to any move to formally recognize homosexual relationships, even if its protests have been quieter in recent years.

When the Cuban government screened the film “Brokeback Mountain” on national television in 2008,church spokesman Orlando Marquez wrote “I respect homosexual individuals, but not the promotion of homosexuality. We’re going down a dangerous path when our own state institutions promote programs that undermine the foundations of our society.”

“While homosexual behavior isn’t new,” he wrote, “the international agenda that promotes homosexuality at all levels is.”

Marquez, who is also the editor of Palabra Nueva, the church’s magazine, declined to comment on Mariela Castro’s announcement, referring inquiries about the Church’s views to previously published statements opposing same-sex unions, includingdeclarations on the subject by the Vatican and Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega.

In Cuba’s gay community, the reaction to Mariela Castro’s announcement has been enthusiastic, but also mixed. Ailec Garcia, 32, said that while her partner of seven years was eager to formalize their relationship, it wasn’t a priority for her.

“It’s hard to get excited about it when you still live with your parents and can’t think about having a house of your own,” Garcia said, explaining how Cuba’s miserably low salaries and acute housing shortages make sobering realities of many couples’ domestic aspirations, whether they’re gay or straight.

Castro did not go into detail about what legal benefits the unions might bring. But Cuba is also a country where the practice of marriage has also been in dramatic decline and many heterosexual couples go unwed, even after they’ve had children, since they can’t afford to have a wedding and would derive few legal benefits.

Still, Garcia said, the legalization of same-sex civil unions would carry enormous symbolic importance for the country. “We still have a long way to go toward eliminating machista attitudes and taboos,” she said. “But it would be a huge step forward.” 

http://www.globalpost.com

Oslo: So Much to Remember...but is hard..too much Blood

I’ve been struggling to find a meaningful way to discuss the Oslo tragedy — and I’m at the point of simply admitting the sheer frustration I have with my abilities as a writer, as a therapist, as a commentator — and as a human being. Maybe you’re there, too.

I want to know things that may be impossible to know: What created Anders Behring Breivik? Or, at least, what caused him to turn an automatic rifle towards children — strangers, innocents — and begin firing? What can prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future?

It’s not easy, but to glean anything from the news reports and the writings of Breivik himself is to come up with large fistfuls of chaff and a few measly chunks of nutritive information.

The temptation to run with them is strong. The temptation to demonize right-wing extremists and to create parallels in the U.S.– where none may exist — is almost aching in its pull. The desire to condemn this violence as something entirely opposite from my particular political and social point of view is hard to ignore. And yet, for all these strong temptations, I can’t get past one thing.

What terrifies me most is that it happened in Norway.

“The country maintains a Nordic welfare model with universal health care, subsidized higher education, and a comprehensive social security system. From 2001 to 2007, and then again in 2009 and 2010, Norway had the highest human development index ranking in the world.”

This is not a country of people who are suffering from great numbers of the hungry, homeless, uneducated and uninsured. This is one of the most prosperous (human condition-wise) countries in the world. It has one of the strongest safety nets- if not the strongest- in the world for the protection of its citizens.

If such a tragedy could happen there — then what does that mean for the rest of the world?

I don’t know. And I’m not sure we’ll ever know.

I do know that all the laws in the world, all the tightening of regulations and of loopholes and sterner conviction and punishment policies won’t do one thing: they won’t mend the damage that has happened to people who now look at the stranger on the street with mistrust and fear.

What will?

Perhaps a reminder that this man became divorced from the human race in favor of an ideology. That he couldn’t see the suffering of fellow creatures as something relevant — because his beliefs and ideologies drowned them out — displacing compassion and even, I would argue, his humanity.

It’s what we’ve seen before, it’s what we see now — subtle sometimes, but definitely present: Ideology crowding out humanity.

We see it in political strategies and campaigns. It is visible in church policies, legal precedents, economics, social commentary- you name it, it’s probably there.

When ideology displaces humanity, our soul — our safety net- has departed.

I would suggest that the only way to get beyond this universal tragedy is to learn its lesson. And, it may be simpler than we think. To paraphrase Jesus of Nazareth, “People were not made for the law, but law is made for the good of the people.” All people. All human beings. Not just some. Not just one race, one gender, one sexuality, one religion, one political party, one country, etc.

The tragedy is in forgetting — forgetting that we’re all in this together. And arguably, every historical attempt to negate that simple statement has ended in tragedy. I will not bring in the dramatic historical examples you may be thinking of right now. That would be too easy. And this, for being such a simple concept, is obviously not so easy- or we wouldn’t be talking about it right now.

We only remember when horrifying tragedies like this make us stand up and take notice.

And that, I think, is the greatest tragedy of all.

D Gregory Smith, is a gay, HIV+ native Montanan, and Rome-educated former priest.

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/

The protestors are back in Tahrir Square,Gay and straight Tempers Flairs

CAIRO - The protestors are back in Tahrir Square, and as this city swelters in an Egyptian summer, tempers are short.

For three days running that we have gone into the cradle of this country's democracy movement, and we have witnessed fights. On one occasion our cameraman came briefly under attack.

Having quit the square several months ago, people reoccupied it on 8 July 2011.

Some claim that Egypt's revolution has stalled, others that it has come off the rails completely and a 'Second Revolution' is now under way.

The protestors have set up a tented encampment, with different pitches speaking for various campaigns.

There are some women arguing that civilians should not be tried in military courts, others who seek justice for those killed in January's revolution, or who plead for the rights of the Coptic Christian minority. There are also people there who are mentally ill, or from the margins of society.

'Rising tensions'

Many different voices can be heard, and of course people often disagree. It might be compared to a kind of Arab speaker's corner, except that there are certainly some views that would be beyond the pale here, and that the disagreements between speakers can turn violent.

When we tried to speak to Khalid, a young activist who was among more than 100 people wounded on Saturday night when protestors marching towards the military headquarters were set upon by knife-wielding attackers wearing civilian clothes, things soon got heated.

Shouting men dragged him away, saying that we journalists were only there to cast the protestors in a bad light and with tensions rising, we left.

The following day we managed to interview Khalid, and the mood was much more benign. He spoke about infiltration in the square by thieves and agents provocateurs. Khalid insisted that state TV had misrepresented him and his fellow protestors as, "crooks and gays".

From the way he referred to homosexuals, it was evident that he regarded this as a slur. So it is clear that there are some limits to free speech in the square - solidarity missions from the people of Israel or the gay liberation movement would, to put it mildly, be running great risks if they attempted to pitch tents here.

'Fissures opening'

Fellow journalists reported tensions even during the early days of the revolution. But one gets the sense talking to people around the city that the decision to reoccupy the square has undermined the original coalition of groups that brought down President Hosni Mubarak.

The Muslim Brotherhood reversed a decision to rejoin the protest and has now gone. As some of the more radical pro-democracy groups have adopted slogans urging the military to give up power immediately, transferring it to a civilian transitional authority, other fissures have opened with parties or groups who believe the army is still the best qualified institution to run the country until elections are held.

Of course, the emergence of these differences needs to be kept in perspective. Several Egyptians have told me that the process of change underway here compares very favourably with what has happened in Syria, Libya, and Yemen.

Outside the world of the square and political activism there are many who despair at the sight of the renewed protests. They believe that unrest is killing the economy. The plight of poverty stricken Egyptians was an important factor in fuelling the revolution, yet growth has now dwindled from 5% to 1%.

Where do these increasingly ill tempered differences leave the revolution and transition to democracy? That is a subject that we will be exploring in a forthcoming Newsnight report (to be broadcast next week) that we are now compiling.

It is clear though that reality is biting, views diverging without a presidential bogeyman in power, and even the renewal of a permanent protest in Tahrir Square has become controversial.

http://www.bbc.co.uk

Ways Rupert Murdoch's Media Empire Has Made the World Much Worse

WhoWhatWhy.com / By Russ Baker

Rupert Murdoch has done a whole lot more damage over his career than what is being revealed in the hacking scandal.

 Rupert Murdoch has had a profound influence on the state of journalism today. It’s a kind of tribute, in some sense, that the general coverage of his current troubles has reflected the detrimental effect of his influence over the years.  Right now, the media, by and large, are focusing on tawdry “police blotter” acts of the very sort that have historically informed Murdoch’s own tabloid sensibility, while the bigger picture gets short shrift.

To be sure, the activities and actions of Murdoch’s that dominate the public conversation at the moment are deeply troubling, leaving aside their alleged criminality.  Still, what is really pernicious about Murdoch is not his subordinates’ reported hacking of phones, payments of hush money, etc., or the possibility that Murdoch may have known about, tolerated, enabled, or even encouraged such acts.

It is, instead, the very essence of the man and his empire, and their long-term impact on our world and our lives. (For a detailed look at his practices, see for example this, thisand this.)

Here are twelve “take-away” points that are being obscured in the daily rush of revelations, and the related specialized coverage (his wife’s wardrobe and demeanor, the effect on his company’s stock price, etc.):

He has transformed world politics for the worse: It was George W. Bush’s first cousin(John Ellis), working as head of Murdoch’s Fox News election night “decision desk,” who, during the Florida voting uncertainties, called the election for Bush and set off a chain reaction from other media. The eight Bush years that followed, and all that came with them, can in this respect be laid at Murdoch’s feet. Once Bush was finally out of power, it was two of Murdoch’s most powerful entities (Fox News Channel and theWall Street Journal) that provided a regular editorial slot for Bush’s “architect” Karl Rove to attack Bush’s successor.  Murdoch’s role on the state and local level has been no less significant—in New York, for example, he has used his pulpit (including the New York Post) to advance the careers of sympathetic politicians (see the mayoral election of Ed Koch for example) as well as to relentlessly promote local, state and national scandals (Lewinsky, et al) that wounded or destroyed pols and candidates not in his corner. He has similarly influenced and shaped governments in the UK, Australia, and elsewhere for decades.

He has ridiculed and raised doubts about global catastrophes, and about science itself, while elevating absurd theories and hyping minor matters. For example, his outlets have played a leading role in dismissing and deriding scientific consensus on climate change, while creating hysteria about false issues like President Obama’s place of birth.

He has undermined liberty: His outlets led the drumbeat for restriction or elimination of certain fundamental rights, including those under the US Fourth Amendment, while at the same time supporting unrestrained wiretapping, the  harsh treatment of suspects who may have done nothing wrong, and fueling panic justifying the build-up of the national surveillance state.

He has turned the public against the press. By the generally inferior product produced, with a few exceptions, by the majority of the news outlets he controls and the tawdry methods sponsored by many of them, he has eroded the public’s confidence in media in general, tarnishing its belief even in those outfits whose work deserves to be taken seriously. He has also used his outlets to convince the public that other, more conscientious news organizations are ideologically suspect and biased.

He has simultaneously propagandized for “the law” and compromised it. Murdoch properties are the leading hagiographers of law enforcement and the military—while at the same time routinely assailing the patriotism of those who advocate for civil and privacy rights, who question wars, and so forth. Meanwhile, as shown by the unfolding UK drama, Murdoch himself stands accused of compromising the law enforcement establishment—and not just in that country. (See his relationship with former NY police commissioner Kerik, who is now in prison, for example.)

He has undermined essential rules about propriety in the news business, degrading ethical walls put in place through long tradition. He has used his properties to advance his personal interests, and made cross-promotion his trademark.

He has propagandized for many of society’s worst instincts. Whether it involves advancing subtle racism or stoking greed, Murdoch and his minions have been out front. Fox News and the New York Post are best known for this in the US, but examples of various magnitudes may be found in almost all of his properties.

He has until now effectively neutralized many would-be critics in journalism. As the news profession shrinks, his control over an increasing percentage of the paying positions makes journalists reticent to risk their jobs—or the prospects of future employment–by speaking out about his practices. The current flurry of revelations are only possible because of the sheer force of cascading events.

He has relentlessly applied a double standard: Long a vilifier of others as communist sympathizers, he has created a pragmatic, but cynical partnership with the Chinese communist party dictators that has benefited him financially without helping ( in fact, in some ways hindering) the prospects of democracy and freedom in that country.

He has dumbed down the news business and hence the public. His tabloidization of the world has now come back to haunt him with a made-for-Murdoch style story of an ogre-like entity hacking the phone of a murdered 13 year old girl. This kind of story makes it impossible for him to defend himself on more nuanced, big-picture grounds. Nevertheless, where Murdoch and News Corp are concerned, the broader activities hardly look any better.

He has used his wealth regularly to stave off businesses and individuals that his company has illegally damaged. Multi-million dollar payoffs have led plaintiffs and would-be plaintiffs to withdraw their lawsuits and agree to silence.

His campaign contributions and the public support of his media organizations have persuaded politicians to override laws against media monopolies. And with each successive step, his growing dominance made the following step in building an empire easier to achieve.

Russ Baker is editor of WhoWhatWhy.com and author of "Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America’s Invisible Government and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years."

In The Philippines Gays, lesbians blame Aquino for woes

Filipino gays and lesbians said they will join a simultaneous rally across the Philippines to dramatize their protest against President Benigno Aquno’s so-called neoliberal economic and social policies which they claimed worsened their situation.

The rallies will coincide with Aquino’s second State of the Nation Address.

The Lesbians for National Democracy (LESBOND) and Progressive Organization of Gays (ProGay Philippines) listed a litany of woes they attributed to “continued neoliberal policies of Arroyo and past administrations that continue to destroy the jobs, livelihoods and financial security of our families and communities.”

Goya Candelario, spokesperson of the militant ProGay group, said instead of building strong national industries that create jobs, Aquino keeps peddling his pet projects such as the Public-Private Partnerships and business outsourcing.

“They are merely repackaged Arroyo regime programs that do not provide permanent solutions to the jobs disappearing overseas,” Candelario said.

Both groups blamed Aquino for the rise in prices of basic commodities, wage cuts and school fees and for “sweeping millions of gays and lesbians out of schools and the workplace, and into the streets where the only jobs to be had are freelance sex work, pornography, and other hazardous jobs that expose them to sexual violence and HIV/AIDS.”

Mindanao Examiner
http://www.actup.org