Homophobia is the sports world's new bigotry! How About That?

When idiots of yore tossed slurs and epithets at sporting events, they had the sorry excuse of living in an America where segregation not only was common but also legislated.

Impolite folks too ignorant to know better and too lazy to learn routinely wrapped themselves in bigotry, sparing no one, as was discovered by Jewish slugger Hank Greenberg and black pioneer Jackie Robinson.

That was the 1930s and '40s and '50s, when many were denied civil rights and voting rights and the system was contaminated with the poisons of prejudice.

What's the excuse now that we're supposed to be so much more evolved?

Hatred within the sports community isn't gone; it simply has a popular new target. Instead of ethnicity, it's sexuality. With the K-word extinct and the N-word rarely uttered with malice, the new undisputed champion of epithets is the F-word.

Not the four-letter bomb but the homophobic insult comprising six letters.

Pro athletes, many of them among our biggest stars, are in the midst of a staggering run of name-calling, dropping F-words as casually as if ordering a burger and fries. Less than three weeks into July, at least three jocks are vying for Sports Jackass of the Month.

Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end James Harrison, a hair-trigger shotgun of a man interviewed for a magazine article, included the F-word in his verbal evisceration of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

in Arizona while recovering from an arm injury, tweeted the F-word presumably describing some, but not all, male students at Arizona State University.

White Sox second baseman Gordon Beckham is a distant third in this race because he avoided the F-word. He merely scribbled in the infield dirt "Getz is gay! GB" and left it to be discovered by Royals second baseman Chris Getz.

Insofar as Beckham and Getz are friends, there is no reason to presume malicious intent. No, it was just a tasteless "joke." All three have since offered apologies. That, however, misses the point. Each evidently failed to understand -- or simply didn't care about -- the impact of his words and actions.

When Kobe Bryant slapped a referee with the F-word in April, the NBA slapped back, fining the Lakers star $100,000. When Bulls center Joakim Noah slung the F-word at a heckling fan, the league tossed a $50,000 fine into his lap.

And we didn't forget Philadelphia Eagles star DeSean Jackson, who spent two seasons at Cal. Ticked off by a tacky question from a caller into a radio show June 30, Jackson reacted with, yes, the F-word.

Jackson, too, apologized. How could he not regret the hypocrisy of his words? He is personally engaged in a national anti-bullying campaign, and no group is bullied more than young gay individuals.

Pejoratives have been around from the instant man noticed differences in the way people look, think, behave, walk and talk. It appears we have stumbled onto a trend, public displays of hatred expressed by casual usage of the F-word.

There also are differences, too, in the way people view sexuality. There are those who actually believe Gov. Jerry Brown, by signing Senate Bill 48 -- essentially prohibiting discrimination in education -- is promoting the teaching of "gay history." This ignores the fundamental truth, that gays, like everyone else, are intertwined with history because they, like everyone else, have been present throughout history.

But with public racism driven underground and the N-word reduced to a whisper or dialogue among bigots, homophobia has become the new racism. Contempt once reserved for ethnic minorities and Jews has descended on homosexuality, and the subject ignites overheated debate in the political arena, the church and the locker room.

And we like to think of sports as an island of tolerance. Greenberg and Robinson eventually were accepted. The majority of our sports come in wide variety of ethnic backgrounds and colors.

That's why sports should, once again, take the lead in pulling society's foot-draggers toward greater tolerance.

The Giants last month took a leap, being the first American professional sports team to embrace the "It Gets Better" project, a national anti-homophobia campaign. Pitchers Barry Zito, Matt Cain and Sergio Romo, outfielder Andres Torres and hitting coach Hensley Meulens participated in a video presentation.

Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin took an even bolder step, appearing on the cover of "Out" magazine, designed for a gay audience. Irvin discusses his gay brother, who died of cancer in 2006, the gap that exists between straights and gays, and the belief that his former Dallas Cowboys teammates would have accepted a gay member.

Moreover, Irvin conceded he is a reformed homophobe now committed to fighting such behavior. My guess, and hope, is in the 21st century he'll have plenty of company.

By Monte Poole

Bay Area News Group

http://www.mercurynews.com

J.Paul Oetken, First Openly Gay Man to Serve on Federal Bench

The Senate voted 80-13 late this afternoon to confirm attorney J. Paul Oetken, a former Clinton administration lawyer recommended to Obama by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), as a U.S. District judge for the Southern District of New York.
Said Schumer on the Senate floor:

“As the first openly gay man to be confirmed as a federal judge and to serve on the federal bench, he will be a symbol of how much we have achieved as a country in just the last few decades. And importantly, he will give hope to many talented young lawyers who, until now, thought their paths might be limited because of their sexual orientation. When Paul becomes Judge Oetken, he will be living proof to all those young lawyers that it really does get better.”

Oetken is the first openly gay man to be confirmed to the federal judiciary.
Oetken, senior vice president and associate general counsel of Cablevision, was also a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun and worked in the Justice Department.
MetroWeekly notes, of the vote: "Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), James Risch (R-Idaho), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) were the only no votes."
Chris Johnson at the Washington Blade writes:

Oetken is first openly gay male to be confirmed to the federal bench, but not the first openly LGBT person. U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts, an out lesbian who currently sits on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is considered the first openly LGBT person to sit on a federal court. She was appointed during the Clinton Administration.

    towleroad.com 

Croatia Not Ready For Prime Time (in EU) Pregnant Dutch Diplo Marches

■ Marije Cornelissen, MEP: “I never expected that it would go this wrong. The violence in Split shows that Croatia still has a lot to do to properly protect human rights.” photo courtesy Greens/EFA

  

 A pregnant Dutch MEP was among the estimated 300 participants in the first-ever Gay Pride to be staged in the southern Croatia post city of Split on Saturday.  The Pride parade came to an abrupt end when it was confronted by up to 10,000 protesters who threw missiles and tear gas at Pride participants.

Marije Cornelissen (Greens/EFA, Netherlands), faced hateful shouts such as “Kill the faggots”, and arrays of Nazi salutes.

She reported that the police failed to keep the protestors at a safe distance from marchers, and projectiles hit at least six people.  Initial reports point to police forces being unprepared, and implicitly helping protesters by purposely letting them close to participants.

The events on Saturday took place a day after José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, announced he would propose that the EU and Croatia conclude accession talks, with a view for the Western Balkan Republic to join the European Union by July 2013.

This accession requires that Croatia be declared level with EU standards in several areas, including fundamental rights and the protection of minorities.

“I never expected that it would go this wrong,” Marije Cornelissen MEP told UK Gay News this morning.  “The violence in Split shows that Croatia still has a lot to do to properly protect human rights.  I hope that the authorities realise that until they actually join in 2013, they must join forces with LGBT organisations to firmly combat homophobia in Croatia.”

Ulrike Lunacek, MEP (Greens/EFA, Austria) and co-president of the European Parliament’s all-party Intergroup on LGBT Rights added: “[The] outbreak of homophobic hatred and violence shows that European values – including freedom of assembly and the protection of all minorities – are not yet fully at home in a country two years away from joining the EU.

“Therefore, it will be necessary that before the end of negotiations, there is an agreement between government, parliament and civil society organisations over a concrete and transparent monitoring mechanism for the provision of justice and the protection of fundamental rights,” she added.

The Intergroup on LGBT Rights said that it will ask the European Commission how these events in Split on Saturday  reflect on current accession talks.

Report say that the police failed to adequately protect Split Pride  participants; at least six activists and journalists were taken to the hospital after stones, ashtrays and other hard projectiles were thrown at them.

Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor have both condemned the violence. Mr. Josipovic said incidents in Split were not the “real face” of Croatia and they show that there still exist some “non-European” parts of society, Radio Free Europe reported at the weekend.

And according to Balkan Insight, former Croatian Minister of Interior, Sime Lucin, said that police did not heed the warnings that abounded in the weeks leading up to the parade, such as anti-gay graffiti and hateful messages on the internet.

The Croatian news Website Daily T Portal reported today that the Dutch Ambassador to Croatia, Stella Ronner-Grubacic, had “labelled incidents at the [Gay Pride]parade as violations of fundamental human rights” and that “she would ask her government to recommend the monitoring of the reform processes in Croatia”.

And Daljie, reporting on an anti-gay group on the social network site Facebook, said that members were “low life”.  The Website quoted a handful of the Facebook comments, in graphic detail.

http://ukgaynews.org.uk

Traitor or Whistleblower? The Life of Bradley Manning

 

By Marcel Rosenbach

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Activists hold signs in support of U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning.

Chat transcripts by Bradley Manning, the alleged source of secret US government documents for WikiLeaks, will be used as evidence in his military trial. They reveal a conflicted and lonely young soldier who felt strongly about revealing "almost criminal" behavior. He's spent 14 months in jail, but there is still no date for his trial.

As far as his commander in chief is concerned, the verdict on Pfc. Bradley Manning is already in. Following a fundraiser held in San Francisco in April, US President Barack Obama said that Manning "broke the law."

A small group of Manning supporters had interrupted the president's speech before a well-heeled audience and held up signs saying "Free Bradley Manning!" The protesters then broke into a song lamenting the treatment of the 23-year-old US Army intelligence analyst whom the US Department of Defense has accused of passing on an untold amount of confidential and secret material to the WikiLeaks website.

Even US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seems to have formed a clear opinion on Manning. She recently told the American magazine Vanity Fair that she cannot fathom how a soldier with psychological problems and a "drag queen" for a boyfriend could embarrass the United States in this way.

These premature judgments at the highest level are as unusual as they are questionable. The presumption of innocence is normally respected even in the United States. But there's hardly anything normal about this case.

'Aiding the Enemy'

For the last 14 months, Manning has been jailed awaiting trial. But no trial date has been set for what will be a military tribunal, which are usually much briefer than trials in civilian courts. The most serious charge against Manning is of "aiding the enemy" by allegedly leaking military secrets, including American war logs from Afghanistan and Iraq as well as diplomatic dispatches. If found guilty, Manning could face the death penalty at worst and decades in prison at best.

Though senior officials apparently passed judgment on Manning long ago, new transcripts of some of Manning's online chat sessions are now being published that throw fresh light on the suspected informant. In the chats, Manning grapples with the issue of being a homosexual in the US Army and comes across as having sophisticated political thoughts. If authentic, the chats provide a striking repudiation of the widely held view of Manning as an unscrupulous traitor. Indeed, with the moral justifications he submits in defense of his actions, Manning meets the key requirements for being categorized a whistleblower.

In previously released passages of an online exchange he had with Adrian Lamo, a former hacker, Manning provides political reasons for his decision to leak classified material. Discussing the diplomatic cables released late in 2010, for example, Manning expresses a desire to trigger debate on what he sees as the "almost criminal political back dealings" of American officials.

In the now-public chat from 2009 that Manning held with Zack Antolak, a 19-year-old activist at the time, the young soldier also expresses his thoughts on the Guantanamo military prison camp. He says he agrees with Obama's efforts to close the prison. Though he acknowledges that some individuals held there are dangerous, he also believes that some of them have only become dangerous because of their time in the camp.

Writing as "bradass87," Manning also explains why a homosexual, free-spirited man like himself would enlist in the US Army, where provincial and homophobic feelings set the tone. He says the motivation was money for college, where he hoped to study physics and maybe even earn a doctorate if he is "smart" enough to do so.

Other passages in his online exchanges seem to shore up speculation that Manning was giving serious thought to a sex change. For example, in one exchange he tells Lamo that he was willing to go by the name "Breanna." He also writes about "three breakdowns" and excruciating loneliness in Iraq.

Chasing Assange

These transcripts of Manning's online conversations might not just play a role in his own military trial: For months, a grand jury has been meeting in Virginia to consider whether charges should be brought against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. One person summoned for the grand jury claims it will be tasked with finding whether there is sufficient evidence to prove a link between Manning and Assange.

In his chats, Manning speaks in detail about his contact with WikiLeaks and the "crazy white-haired Aussie" who reportedly even offered him a job at WikiLeaks. As "bradass87," Manning also describes having poked around in the online archives of the US government and military for a year.

However, the exchanges do not provide any hard evidence that Manning had entered into a conspiracy with Assange. In fact, most evidence points the other way. For example, Manning writes Lamo that Assange knows "very little" about him and that "he takes source protection extremely seriously." He also writes that Assange had just asked him to make some things up about himself, adding: "He won't work with you if you divulge too much about yourself."

Two passages in these exchanges might also cause the Obama administration some discomfort. In them, Manning reveals his own political sympathies. At one point, he proudly recounts having gone to a fundraising gala held for Gavin Newsom, the Democratic former mayor of San Francisco and current lieutenant governor of California. Later on, he even sends Lamo an autographed photo of himself with Newsom.

At another point, he also claims to have a contact in the White House named Shin Inouye. This man really exists, and he happens to be a member of the White House Office of Communications responsible for handling equality issues for President Barack Obama, Manning's commander in chief.

ukgaynews.org.uk/latest

In World Conflicts Men Also Get Rape

Sexual violence is one of the most horrific weapons of war, an instrument of terror used against women. Yet huge numbers of men are also victims. In this harrowing report, Will Storr travels to Uganda to meet traumatised survivors, and reveals how male rape is endemic in many of the world's conflicts.

Of all the secrets of war, there is one that is so well kept that it exists mostly as a rumour. It is usually denied by the perpetrator and his victim. Governments, aid agencies and human rights defenders at the UN barely acknowledge its possibility. Yet every now and then someone gathers the courage to tell of it. This is just what happened on an ordinary afternoon in the office of a kind and careful counsellor in Kampala, Uganda. For four years Eunice Owiny had been employed by Makerere University's Refugee Law Project (RLP) to help displaced people from all over Africa work through their traumas. This particular case, though, was a puzzle. A female client was having marital difficulties. "My husband can't have sex," she complained. "He feels very bad about this. I'm sure there's something he's keeping from me."

Owiny invited the husband in. For a while they got nowhere. Then Owiny asked the wife to leave. The man then murmured cryptically: "It happened to me." Owiny frowned. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an old sanitary pad. "Mama Eunice," he said. "I am in pain. I have to use this."

Laying the pus-covered pad on the desk in front of him, he gave up his secret. During his escape from the civil war in neighbouring Congo, he had been separated from his wife and taken by rebels. His captors raped him, three times a day, every day for three years. And he wasn't the only one. He watched as man after man was taken and raped. The wounds of one were so grievous that he died in the cell in front of him.

"That was hard for me to take," Owiny tells me today. "There are certain things you just don't believe can happen to a man, you get me? But I know now that sexual violence against men is a huge problem. Everybody has heard the women's stories. But nobody has heard the men's."

It's not just in East Africa that these stories remain unheard. One of the few academics to have looked into the issue in any detail is Lara Stemple, of the University of California's Health and Human Rights Law Project. Her study Male Rape and Human Rights notes incidents of male sexual violence as a weapon of wartime or political aggression in countries such as Chile, Greece, Croatia, Iran, Kuwait, the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia. Twenty-one per cent of Sri Lankan males who were seen at a London torture treatment centre reported sexual abuse while in detention. In El Salvador, 76% of male political prisoners surveyed in the 1980s described at least one incidence of sexual torture. A study of 6,000 concentration-camp inmates in Sarajevo found that 80% of men reported having been raped.

I've come to Kampala to hear the stories of the few brave men who have agreed to speak to me: a rare opportunity to find out about a controversial and deeply taboo issue. In Uganda, survivors are at risk of arrest by police, as they are likely to assume that they're gay – a crime in this country and in 38 of the 53 African nations. They will probably be ostracised by friends, rejected by family and turned away by the UN and the myriad international NGOs that are equipped, trained and ready to help women. They are wounded, isolated and in danger. In the words of Owiny: "They are despised."

But they are willing to talk, thanks largely to the RLP's British director, Dr Chris Dolan. Dolan first heard of wartime sexual violence against men in the late 1990s while researching his PhD in northern Uganda, and he sensed that the problem might be dramatically underestimated. Keen to gain a fuller grasp of its depth and nature, he put up posters throughout Kampala in June 2009 announcing a "workshop" on the issue in a local school. On the day, 150 men arrived. In a burst of candour, one attendee admitted: "It's happened to all of us here." It soon became known among Uganda's 200,000-strong refugee population that the RLP were helping men who had been raped during conflict. Slowly, more victims began to come forward.

I meet Jean Paul on the hot, dusty roof of the RLP's HQ in Old Kampala. He wears a scarlet high-buttoned shirt and holds himself with his neck lowered, his eyes cast towards the ground, as if in apology for his impressive height. He has a prominent upper lip that shakes continually – a nervous condition that makes him appear as if he's on the verge of tears.

Jean Paul was at university in Congo, studying electronic engineering, when his father – a wealthy businessman – was accused by the army of aiding the enemy and shot dead. Jean Paul fled in January 2009, only to be abducted by rebels. Along with six other men and six women he was marched to a forest in the Virunga National Park.

Later that day, the rebels and their prisoners met up with their cohorts who were camped out in the woods. Small camp fires could be seen here and there between the shadowy ranks of trees. While the women were sent off to prepare food and coffee, 12 armed fighters surrounded the men. From his place on the ground, Jean Paul looked up to see the commander leaning over them. In his 50s, he was bald, fat and in military uniform. He wore a red bandana around his neck and had strings of leaves tied around his elbows.

"You are all spies," the commander said. "I will show you how we punish spies." He pointed to Jean Paul. "Remove your clothes and take a position like a Muslim man."

Jean Paul thought he was joking. He shook his head and said: "I cannot do these things."

The commander called a rebel over. Jean Paul could see that he was only about nine years old. He was told, "Beat this man and remove this clothes." The boy attacked him with his gun butt. Eventually, Jean Paul begged: "Okay, okay. I will take off my clothes." Once naked, two rebels held him in a kneeling position with his head pushed towards the earth.

At this point, Jean Paul breaks off. The shaking in his lip more pronounced than ever, he lowers his head a little further and says: "I am sorry for the things I am going to say now." The commander put his left hand on the back of his skull and used his right to beat him on the backside "like a horse". Singing a witch doctor song, and with everybody watching, the commander then began. The moment he started, Jean Paul vomited.

Eleven rebels waited in a queue and raped Jean Paul in turn. When he was too exhausted to hold himself up, the next attacker would wrap his arm under Jean Paul's hips and lift him by the stomach. He bled freely: "Many, many, many bleeding," he says, "I could feel it like water." Each of the male prisoners was raped 11 times that night and every night that followed.

On the ninth day, they were looking for firewood when Jean Paul spotted a huge tree with roots that formed a small grotto of shadows. Seizing his moment, he crawled in and watched, trembling, as the rebel guards searched for him. After five hours of watching their feet as they hunted for him, he listened as they came up with a plan: they would let off a round of gunfire and tell the commander that Jean Paul had been killed. Eventually he emerged, weak from his ordeal and his diet of only two bananas per day during his captivity. Dressed only in his underpants, he crawled through the undergrowth "slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, like a snake" back into town.

Today, despite his hospital treatment, Jean Paul still bleeds when he walks. Like many victims, the wounds are such that he's supposed to restrict his diet to soft foods such as bananas, which are expensive, and Jean Paul can only afford maize and millet. His brother keeps asking what's wrong with him. "I don't want to tell him," says Jean Paul. "I fear he will say: 'Now, my brother is not a man.'"

It is for this reason that both perpetrator and victim enter a conspiracy of silence and why male survivors often find, once their story is discovered, that they lose the support and comfort of those around them. In the patriarchal societies found in many developing countries, gender roles are strictly defined.

"In Africa no man is allowed to be vulnerable," says RLP's gender officer Salome Atim. "You have to be masculine, strong. You should never break down or cry. A man must be a leader and provide for the whole family. When he fails to reach that set standard, society perceives that there is something wrong."

Often, she says, wives who discover their husbands have been raped decide to leave them. "They ask me: 'So now how am I going to live with him? As what? Is this still a husband? Is it a wife?' They ask, 'If he can be raped, who is protecting me?' There's one family I have been working closely with in which the husband has been raped twice. When his wife discovered this, she went home, packed her belongings, picked up their child and left. Of course that brought down this man's heart."

Back at RLP I'm told about the other ways in which their clients have been made to suffer. Men aren't simply raped, they are forced to penetrate holes in banana trees that run with acidic sap, to sit with their genitals over a fire, to drag rocks tied to their penis, to give oral sex to queues of soldiers, to be penetrated with screwdrivers and sticks. Atim has now seen so many male survivors that, frequently, she can spot them the moment they sit down. "They tend to lean forward and will often sit on one buttock," she tells me. "When they cough, they grab their lower regions. At times, they will stand up and there's blood on the chair. And they often have some kind of smell."

Because there has been so little research into the rape of men during war, it's not possible to say with any certainty why it happens or even how common it is – although a rare 2010 survey, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that 22% of men and 30% of women in Eastern Congo reported conflict-related sexual violence. As for Atim, she says: "Our staff are overwhelmed by the cases we've got, but in terms of actual numbers? This is the tip of the iceberg."

Later on I speak with Dr Angella Ntinda, who treats referrals from the RLP. She tells me: "Eight out of 10 patients from RLP will be talking about some sort of sexual abuse."

"Eight out of 10 men?" I clarify.

"No. Men and women," she says.

"What about men?"

"I think all the men."

I am aghast.

"All of them?" I say.

"Yes," she says. "All the men."

The research by Lara Stemple at the University of California doesn't only show that male sexual violence is a component of wars all over the world, it also suggests that international aid organisations are failing male victims. Her study cites a review of 4,076 NGOs that have addressed wartime sexual violence. Only 3% of them mentioned the experience of men in their literature. "Typically," Stemple says, "as a passing reference."

On my last night I arrive at the house of Chris Dolan. We're high on a hill, watching the sun go down over the neighbourhoods of Salama Road and Luwafu, with Lake Victoria in the far distance. As the air turns from blue to mauve to black, a muddled galaxy of white, green and orange bulbs flickers on; a pointillist accident spilled over distant valleys and hills. A magnificent hubbub rises from it all. Babies screaming, children playing, cicadas, chickens, songbirds, cows, televisions and, floating above it all, the call to prayer at a distant mosque.

Stemple's findings on the failure of aid agencies is no surprise to Dolan. "The organisations working on sexual and gender-based violence don't talk about it," he says. "It's systematically silenced. If you're very, very lucky they'll give it a tangential mention at the end of a report. You might get five seconds of: 'Oh and men can also be the victims of sexual violence.' But there's no data, no discussion."

As part of an attempt to correct this, the RLP produced a documentary in 2010 called Gender Against Men. When it was screened, Dolan says that attempts were made to stop him. "Were these attempts by people in well-known, international aid agencies?" I ask.

"Yes," he replies. "There's a fear among them that this is a zero-sum game; that there's a pre-defined cake and if you start talking about men, you're going to somehow eat a chunk of this cake that's taken them a long time to bake." Dolan points to a November 2006 UN report that followed an international conference on sexual violence in this area of East Africa.

"I know for a fact that the people behind the report insisted the definition of rape be restricted to women," he says, adding that one of the RLP's donors, Dutch Oxfam, refused to provide any more funding unless he'd promise that 70% of his client base was female. He also recalls a man whose case was "particularly bad" and was referred to the UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR. "They told him: 'We have a programme for vulnerable women, but not men.'"

It reminds me of a scene described by Eunice Owiny: "There is a married couple," she said. "The man has been raped, the woman has been raped. Disclosure is easy for the woman. She gets the medical treatment, she gets the attention, she's supported by so many organisations. But the man is inside, dying."

"In a nutshell, that's exactly what happens," Dolan agrees. "Part of the activism around women's rights is: 'Let's prove that women are as good as men.' But the other side is you should look at the fact that men can be weak and vulnerable."

Margot Wallström, the UN special representative of the secretary-general for sexual violence in conflict, insists in a statement that the UNHCR extends its services to refugees of both genders. But she concedes that the "great stigma" men face suggests that the real number of survivors is higher than that reported. Wallström says the focus remains on women because they are "overwhelmingly" the victims. Nevertheless, she adds, "we do know of many cases of men and boys being raped."

But when I contact Stemple by email, she describes a "constant drum beat that women are the rape victims" and a milieu in which men are treated as a "monolithic perpetrator class".

"International human rights law leaves out men in nearly all instruments designed to address sexual violence," she continues. "The UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000 treats wartime sexual violence as something that only impacts on women and girls… Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced $44m to implement this resolution. Because of its entirely exclusive focus on female victims, it seems unlikely that any of these new funds will reach the thousands of men and boys who suffer from this kind of abuse. Ignoring male rape not only neglects men, it also harms women by reinforcing a viewpoint that equates 'female' with 'victim', thus hampering our ability to see women as strong and empowered. In the same way, silence about male victims reinforces unhealthy expectations about men and their supposed invulnerability."

Considering Dolan's finding that "female rape is significantly underreported and male rape almost never", I ask Stemple if, following her research, she believes it might be a hitherto unimagined part of all wars. "No one knows, but I do think it's safe to say that it's likely that it's been a part of many wars throughout history and that taboo has played a part in the silence."

As I leave Uganda, there's a detail of a story that I can't forget. Before receiving help from the RLP, one man went to see his local doctor. He told him he had been raped four times, that he was injured and depressed and his wife had threatened to leave him. The doctor gave him a Panadol.

Survivors' names have been changed and identities hidden for their protection. The Refugee Law Project is a partner organisation of Christian Aid (christianaid.org.uk)

Will Storr
The Guardian...

http://www.actup.org/

Precinct Commander Regrets Eagle Raid

 

BY DUNCAN OSBORNE  http://www.gaycitynews.com/

The commanding officer of Chelsea’s 10th Precinct is expressing regret that she scheduled a West 28th Street gay bar for an inspection on the last weekend in June, when New York City’s Gay Pride festivities were reaching a crescendo.

“Due to the sensitivity, in hindsight, I probably would not have put that on the list,” Deputy Inspector Elisa Cokkinos, commander of the 10th Precinct, told Gay City News regarding an inspection that turned clientele of the Eagle out into the streets two evenings before the LGBT Pride March.

In April, police headquarters told her that a multi-agency response to club hazards (MARCH) team would inspect clubs and bars in her precinct on June 24. Cokkinos had to select the establishments to be inspected.

MARCH teams typically include inspectors from the city’s police, fire, health, buildings, and consumer affairs departments, and sometimes the State Liquor Authority, as well. The teams effectively take control of the premises, and the inspections are often done when the businesses are busy.

Some owners see the inspections as excessive and as a kind of extra-judicial penalty, in that the businesses lose revenues during the inspections but may not be guilty of any violations.

Cokkinos said she put the Eagle on her list for that date after receiving reports of lost property at the Eagle on June 3 and 4, a robbery at gunpoint outside the bar on June 10, and two reports of grand larceny, one on June 12 and the other on June 13, inside the bar.

“We were scheduled on that date to do the operation back in April because that’s the way it’s done,” Cokkinos said. “In June, June 15, I actually submitted my list of locations... Just because that trend was there, I said let’s put the Eagle as one of the locations that we visit.”

As it happened, New York’s State Senate voted to enact same-sex marriage that night as well, something Cokkinos could not have known would happen. The apparent bar crackdown during an evening of exuberant celebration fueled the anger some in the lesbian and gay community felt over the inspection.

Cokkinos said she was aware of the Gay Pride festivities, but had overlooked the specific dates.

“I had not put the two together at that point,” she said. “I was not thinking Gay Pride and MARCH operation... I absolutely wish I had. Unfortunately, it was an oversight on my part that it was Gay Pride weekend.”

The Fire Department reported transporting a man who was apparently having a heart attack from the Eagle to Bellevue Hospital on November 4 of last year, and a man who appeared to be having a drug overdose to Bellevue from the Eagle on October 15 of last year. Cokkinos said those incidents played no role in her decision.

The city’s Department of Buildings cited the Eagle for no running water last October, and for no certificate of occupancy during the June 24 inspection.

In 2009, the city cited drug sales and closed two Manhattan nightclubs on Pride weekend that were scheduled to hold gay parties. Separately, a MARCH team inspected 11 bars or clubs that last weekend of June 2009, including Splash on West 17th Street, the only business among the 11 known to serve a gay clientele. Those actions drew condemnation from the community.

Cokkinos did not participate in those 2009 actions.

The Eagle did not respond to an email and a phone message seeking comment.

Mouth to Beak Saves Bold Eagle

A Bend, Ore., veterinarian has performed life-saving CPR on an injured bald eagle that was under anesthesia during physical therapy.

KTVZ-TV reports Jeff Cooney performed the therapy, during which the bald eagle nicknamed "Patriot" stopped breathing. Cooney's "mouth to beak" resuscitation got the eagle breathing again.

The injured eagle was found by two La Pine women near Crane Prairie Reservoir in June. The eagle had suffered, among other injuries, a dislocated shoulder and paralyzed right leg.

Cooney says it's uncertain whether he will be able to return the bird to the wild. If the bird's foot doesn't improve in the next three weeks, Cooney says he could be forced to euthanize him.

  www.ktvz.com/

Homophobia in sports is no longer considered cool

Jul 14th, 2011 

by Jim Buzinski.  outsports.com/jocktalkblog

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker says he meant no offense when he called NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a “faggot” (among other things), saying it was a “careless use of a slang word.”

I also need to make clear that the comment about Roger Goodell was not intended to be derogatory against gay people in any way. It was careless use of a slang word and I apologize to all who were offended by the remark. I am not a homophobic bigot, and I would never advocate intolerance of gay people.

Harrison is in hot water for an interview he gave to “Men’s Journal,” where he not only ripped Goodell, but also teammates Ben Roethlisberger and Rashard Mendenhall. Since his remarks became public, he has tried to backtrack, saying he was misquoted and taken out of context. On Thursday, he issued an apology (complete text here).

I am not sure what a “careful” use of the “slang” word faggot would be in Harrison’s world and his apology rings hollow. This is par for the course, but it continues to show that homophobia in sports is no longer considered cool and anyone using slurs will be called on it, even a guy who poses shirtless with two guns.

Michelle Bachmann's Anti Gay Civil Rights Stance On Center Stage

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.'s position on gay rights is playing an increasingly central role in her campaign, with Politico reporting that gay rights activists are focusing their energy on Bachmann as a foil for the gay rights movement.

Bachmann has built her campaign so far around her image as the heir to the Tea Party's doctrines of limited government and fiscal austerity, but her long record of vociferous opposition to gay rights and same-sex marriage has continued to resurface. As New York's legalization of same-sex marriage brings the issue back into the national conversation, gay rights groups plan to keep Bachmann on the defensive.

"Michele Bachmann is the very definition of a target-rich environment, and given her husband's positions and things she's said in past she's going to have a really hard time appearing as a reasonable mainstream candidate," Michael Cole-Schwartz, the communications director for the group Human Rights Campaign, told Politico. "We're going to be looking or opportunities to get her record and her rhetoric out there."

Bachmann recently endured a barrage of criticism after she signed a socially conservative organization's pro-marriage pledge suggesting that African-American families were more stable when slavery was legal. She was one of only two GOP candidates to sign the pledge, re-enforcing her status as the leading Republican candidate on socially conservative issues.

Her husband Marcus' Christian counseling center has also come under scrutiny for allegedely promoting "reparative therapy," a form of counseling that seeks to make gay people renounce their sexuality. Bachmann's husband has parried criticisms, maintaining that "we don't have an agenda or a philosophy of trying to change someone" and saying a previous comment comparing gay people to  "barbarians [that] need to be educated" had been taken out of context.

"The idea of some sort of a therapy to make us straight -- it's bizarre and nuts," David Mixner, a top gay Democratic fundraiser, told Politico. "For those who are somewhat disenchanted on some issues with Obama, this will enable them to get over whatever reservations they may have."

Bachmann also has a history of issuing controversial statements about homosexuality -- she once compared it to "personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement" -- and her opposition to same-sex marriage was a powerful motivating force in her early career as a Minnesota state senator. Her politics are also deeply intertwined with her Christian faith. That combination of religion and staunch conservatism on social issues gives her strong appeal for the large blocs of evangelical voters in Iowa, particularly if they feel Bachmann is being unfairly vilifed on the left.

"The more that they attack Michele Bachmann on these grounds, the better her chances of winning the Iowa caucuses are," said Maggie Gallagher, the president of the National Organization for Marriage. "The Iowa base is extremely upset about same-sex marriage and I don't think they're going to look kindly on these attacks."

But beyond Iowa, a focus on divisive social issues would alienate moderate voters who are more concerned with a sputtering U.S. economic recovery than with gay people getting married. That could prove a problem if Bachmann has to spend too much time defending her views on gay rights to an already wary public.

http://www.ibtimes.com

pc; adamfoxie*

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