Punk Smurf pens a bilingual blog

Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Community Churches rile bigots with billboards that say Jesus loved gays. Church website.

As read on Towleroad.com:

A memo detailing recommendations from the Council of State of The Netherlands was leaked to Christian newspaper Nederlands Dagblad this week suggesting that schools there can ban gay teachers. The memo is the result of a study undertaken following the firing of a gay schoolteacher in the central Netherlands village of Emst.

NRC Handelsblad reports: “The Council of State, the highest advisory body to the Dutch government, says religious schools can exclude gay teachers if they behave in ways that go against what the institution stands for, even if it’s outside the classroom. According to the advisory paper, schools are not allowed to discriminate, but they do have a right to make specific demands of their staff. European guidelines entitle schools to ‘demand explicit loyalty from their staff’ to pass on their values, the council says. Those demands have to be directly related to the foundations of the school or other religious institutions. The current anti-discrimination law in the Netherlands states that even religious schools are not allowed to let the “single fact” of someone’s sexual preference, race or gender be a factor in the hiring or firing process. But the law leaves room for so-called “additional behaviour” to be factored in. A teacher could be dismissed for “a certain lifestyle” that goes against what the institution stands for; a relationship with someone of the same sex could be qualified as such.”

The Telegraph reports that Taliban gunmen killed Sitara Achakzai, a women’s rights activist, outside of her home in the city of Kandahar in broad daylight. Police chief Matiullah Khan Qateh said four men drove up on two motorcycles and shot Sitara Achakzai as she was getting out of her car. As Women on the Web reports, the Taliban have been after Achakzai ever since she returned from Germany after the war to work for women’s rights in Afghanistan:

“This isn’t the first time Achakzai found herself in extremists’ cross-hairs. She was injured in a suicide attack at a Kandahar government building two weeks ago. She had just returned from the hospital when the assassination occurred. Her friends urged her to leave the country, but Ms. Achakzai insisted on staying in Afghanistan.”

Achakzai helped organize a nationwide sit-in during which women thousands of Afghan women prayed for peace to mark International Women’s Day.

The Taliban quickly took credit for the assassination. Achakzai’s assassination occurs only a few days after the Afgahnistan government was forced into reconsidering its infamous family law that legalized rape of wives by their husbands. Wenny Kusmuma, the Director of the United Nations Development fund for Women in Afghanistan said:

“This cold-blooded assassination puts in question the direction that Afghanistan is heading. There is no respect for the rule of law.”

Thanks to my friend Michael who pointed out the article to me. And the following case is a clear example of how bullying has gotten out of hand. Very unfortunate:

The Advocate talks to Sirdeaner Walker, the mother of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, the 11-year-old student who killed himself last week following relentless bullying at school:

“On April 6, Sirdeaner Walker came home, walked up the stairs to the second floor of her home, and saw her son suspended from a support beam in the stairwell, swaying slightly in the air, an extension cord wrapped around his neck, according to police. He apologized in a suicide note, told his mother that he loved her, and left his video games to his brother.

Walker said her son had been the victim of bullying since the beginning of the school year, and that she had been calling the school since September, complaining that her son was mercilessly teased. He played football, baseball, and was a boy scout, but a group of classmates called him gay and teased him about the way he dressed. They ridiculed him for going to church with his mother and for volunteering locally.

“It’s not just a gay issue,” Walker said. “It’s bigger. He was 11 years old, and he wasn’t aware of his sexuality. These homophobic people attach derogatory terms to a child who’s 11 years old, who goes to church, school, and the library, and he becomes confused. He thinks, Maybe I’m like this. Maybe I’m not. What do I do?“

Walker is demanding action from the school. At this point it’s what she has left.

School Yard Bully [the advocate]

An employment tribunal has heard that an airline refused to hire male stewards because it would be assumed they were gay.

Alexandria Proud, a cabin crew manager is claiming unfair constructive dismissal against charter aircraft company Gama Aviation, based in Farnborough in Hampshire.

She claims she was forced to discriminate when hiring cabin crew staff due to employment regulations which dictated all employees must be young, female, physically attractive, aged 18 to 30, single and no larger than a size 12.

Ms Proud also said she was banned from hiring male air stewards because of the stereotype of them being gay.

“I was also specifically informed that if there was a male flight attendant it would be thought that he was gay and the owner would not tolerate such an individual on the aircraft.”

She told the tribunal that one owner, Alireza Ittehedeh, insisted on physically inspecting the candidates himself. She also claims that she was verbally abused by the owners of the airline and was not supported by her employers.

Ms Proud was signed off work with a stress-related illness last August. The tribunal continues.

And to finish this post with something upbeat: a gay friendly MTA quote

A nice message from the not-always progressively minded New York City Mass Transit Authority. It’s a quote from influential Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant.