Currently listening to Serena Ryder (album: Is it O.K.)
On Thursday I read that playwright William Gibson, whose “The Miracle Worker” has thrilled audiences for nearly a half-century with the true story of the deaf-blind Helen Keller’s rescue from a world of ignorance, has died. He was 94.
Keller was born in Alabama in 1880 and stricken deaf and blind at the age of 19 months. The events described in the play occurred in 1887, when Sullivan came to teach the 6-year-old, spelling into her hand until the mute, near-wild girl realized what language was. With Sullivan at her side for nearly a half-century, Keller grew into a world-famous author and humanitarian.
The play also is an annual event at Ivy Green, Keller’s birthplace in Tuscumbia, Ala., where it is staged on the grounds where Sullivan actually taught the girl more than a century ago.
If it wasn’t for my friend Krista, I wouldn’t have seen the play. I was blown away, thanks to a wonderful cast.
Early this month, when it looked like same-sex marriage was on the rocks in California, gay rights activists summed up their angst about the upcoming Proposition 8 vote with four wistful words: What would Harvey do?
Harvey was Harvey Milk, the late San Francisco supervisor and subject of “Milk,” the film that opened this week about the pioneering gay politician assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone 30 years ago Thursday.
There are parallels between the gay rights battle of Milk’s time and today. Defeating a ballot measure — a ban on openly gay teachers in public schools — was the apex of Milk’s short career. And now, with passage of California’s ban on gay marriage, activists re-examining Milk’s legacy are questioning whether an outsized political leader could have made the difference this time.
“Harvey Milk came from a politics of real discomfort. There was a righteous rage that was motivating him and the people he was working with,” said Rafael Mandelman, president of a local gay Democratic club renamed for Milk. “Maybe the community got too comfortable.”
Even in Milk’s day, California was the center of a national fight pitting gays seeking expanded rights against conservatives espousing traditional values. In both cases, proponents of the ballot measures warned that schoolchildren would be taught a gay “agenda” if the initiatives failed. The gay community corralled support from high-profile Democrats — President Jimmy Carter three decades ago and presidential candidate Barack Obama this year — and Republicans alike. In persuading Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to come out against Proposition 8, gay leaders reminded him that another actor-turned-politician, Ronald Reagan, opposed the gay teacher ban in 1978.
Milk’s contemporaries say the campaign against the marriage ban lacked a fiery figurehead to challenge gays to demand equality. When he was not debating state Sen. John Briggs, the Orange County lawmaker who sponsored the gay teacher ban, Milk rallied potential volunteers with a cry: “Come out, come out wherever you are!”
The Election Night triumph Milk celebrated 20 days before his death “shows you that an ideal — well-organized and well-articulated — can go a long, long way,” said Tory Hartmann, a Democratic activist in the 1970s. “It just takes one person.”
In contrast, some activists have criticized the No on 8 campaign for being too reactive, failing to mobilize ethnic and churchgoing Democratic voters, and keeping gay couples out of advertisements. David Mixner, who co-managed the campaign against the teachers ban, said same-sex couples might still have the right to wed in California if today’s leaders had been less polite.
“It wasn’t that Harvey was universally loved back then,” Mixner said. “He was a hard-core player and at times he was difficult to love, but … damn, did I respect him.”
A new generation of activists is using the film’s release as a rallying point. The organizers of the nationwide protests against Proposition 8’s passage held this month are calling on same-sex marriage supporters to fill movie theaters on Dec. 5 to show their financial clout.
Along with “Milk,” the story of the boyish gay martyr who is regarded as the Martin Luther King Jr. of the gay civil rights struggle has inspired documentaries, a Broadway play and namesakes as varied as a New York City high school for gay teenagers and a grove of trees in Israel.
Days before the Nov. 27, 1978, assassinations, county Supervisor Dan White had resigned from the board. He blamed Milk and Moscone when the mayor refused to reappoint him. White, a former police officer, sneaked through a window at City Hall to avoid a metal detector and shot both men. After a jury convicted White of manslaughter instead of murder, thousands rioted in protest. White served about three years in prison, was released, then committed suicide.
To this day, it remains a matter of dispute whether White targeted Milk because he was gay.
“This had nothing to do with sexual orientation. It had to do with getting back his position,” said U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who was president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978 and replaced Moscone as mayor. “Dan White was a troubled man under a lot of pressure.”
Feinstein found Milk’s body.
The memories are so raw that she is skipping the chance to see herself portrayed in the movie. Feinstein also declined to attend the dedication Tuesday of a job training center on an old Treasure Island military base renamed in Milk’s honor.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Mayor Willie Brown, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee and others unveiled a bronze sculpture of Milk outside the building, which is believed to be the first federal structure named for an openly gay person.
After an Army honor guard raised the American flag, Milk’s nephew, Stuart Milk, said the work that his uncle started was far from finished, noting that openly gay people still cannot serve in the military.
“We have rights,” he said. “We just don’t have equal rights.”
MILK is certainly a movie I’d like to see. Hey, Doug, whatcha think of the movie? Is it worth any Oscar nominations?
A Malaysian religious leader has spoken for the first time in detail about the ramifications of the fatwa passed last month that ruled against women indulging in activities deemed as ‘masculine,’ including lesbian sex and dressing like a man.
The fatwa is currently at the ‘muzakarah’ stage, which means it has the status of official advice to the Islamic community. But it could be implemented into the national Sharia law later on.
Malaysia is governed by two different kinds of court - Sharia courts to govern Muslim civil matters and the state’s secular courts, which apply to the 40% of Malaysians who are not Muslim.
Director-general of the National Fatwa Council, Datuk Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abd Aziz, explained the meaning of ‘pengkid,’ which has been translated as ‘tomboy’ by the English-speaking media, as “a married woman or maiden whose appearance or image is like that of a man.”
The fatwa ruling is directed specifically at the ‘pengkid’ woman.
Speaking to the New Straits Times he added that the manner of dress was only one aspect of ‘masculine’ behaviour by women the council sought to condemn.
“Although this also includes the dressing of the person and not just the way she behaves, the way of dressing is just one aspect of what makes a ‘pengkid’” he said.
When asked why the council went to such lengths as to rule on what women could wear, Mr Aziz identified seemingly innocuous actions such as dressing in a masculine way as something that could lead on to greater ‘crimes’ such as lesbianism.
“Not only is the act forbidden, but any act that may lead to the actual act is also forbidden,” he told the NST. “If we allow this practice (of pengkid) to continue to develop, it will become a tradition, and then a norm. When it becomes a norm, then people will think no longer think of it as a wrong. This is something we do not want to happen. Actually, we are trying to save these women (from becoming lesbians).”
Under Sharia law in Malaysia, engaging in lesbian activities can incur a fine of up to RM 5,000 (£898), imprisonment for up to three years, a whipping of up to six lashes, or a combination of any of these.
Mr Aziz described how the fatwa was part of a larger aim by the council to prevent the spread of homosexuality which he describes as a “contagious” disease brought into Malaysia from abroad. Referring to the current trend for more masculine dress among Malaysian youths he said, “I think we have become stuck in a western values trap that makes the dress code an excuse to denigrate our religion and values.”
When the fatwa was passed last month it was greeted with protests from two non-Muslim organisations in Malaysia, Katagender and Food-not-Bombs who wrote a petition to the council.
“The views expressed by the council reflect a deeper discrimination against anyone who does not conform with what is considered “mainstream” and also anyone who does not fit into a stereotypical heterosexual relationship. Everyone has the right to form loving relationships with the person of their choice, regardless of their sex and the sex of their partner,” it said.
Malaysian women’s group Sisters in Islam also criticised the council’s decision in a statement: “Many Malaysian women sport short hair, wear trousers, shirts and don’t wear make-up. It is culturally normal for Malaysian women to be body comfortable with each other. Many women hold hands, hug their friends or kiss their friends on the cheek. And how do the authorities define ‘manly’ behaviour? Not gentle and demure enough? Talking too loud? Who would and how could one define and determine whether a woman is a tomboy or a lesbian?”
This is insulting to tomboys and lesbians. And that is all I’m going to say on this matter. But here’s another great example (you hear the sarcasm?) of blatant ignorance and discrimination in another Asian country:
Legislators in Indonesia’s remote province of Papua have thrown their support behind a controversial bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips - part of extreme efforts to monitor the disease.
Health workers and rights activists sharply criticized the plan Monday. But legislator John Manangsang said by implanting small computer chips beneath the skin of “sexually aggressive” patients, authorities would be in a better position to identify, track and ultimately punish those who deliberately infect others with up to six months in jail or a $5,000 fine.
The technical and practical details still need to be hammered out, but the proposed legislation has received full backing from the provincial parliament and, if it gets a majority vote as expected, will be enacted next month, he and others said.
Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country and has one of Asia’s fastest growing HIV rates, with up to 290,000 infections out of 235 million people, fuelled mainly by intravenous drug users and prostitution. But Papua, the country’s easternmost and poorest province with a population of about two million, has been hardest hit. Its case rate of almost 61 per 100,000 is 15 times the national average, according to internationally-funded research, which blames lack of knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases.
“The health situation is extraordinary, so we have to take extraordinary action,” said another legislator, Weynand Watari, who envisions radio frequency identification tags like those used to track everything from cattle to luggage.
A committee would be created to decide who should be fitted with chips and to monitor patients’ behaviour, but it remains unclear who would be on it and how they would carry out their work, lawmakers said Monday.
Since the plan was initially proposed, the government has narrowed its scope, saying the chips would only be implanted in those who are “sexually aggressive,” but it has not said how it would determine who fits that group. It also was not clear how many people it might include.
Nancy Fee, the UNAIDS country co-ordinator, said the global body was not aware of any laws or initiatives elsewhere involving HIV/AIDS patients and microchips. Though she has yet to see a copy of the bill, she said she had “grave concerns” about the effect it would have on human rights and public health.
“No one should be subject to unlawful or unnecessary interference of privacy,” Fee said, adding that while other countries have been known to be oppressive in trying to tackle AIDS, such policies don’t work. They make people afraid and push the problem further underground, she said.
Local health workers and AIDS activists called the plan “abhorrent.”
“People with AIDS aren’t animals; we have to respect their rights,” said Tahi Ganyang Butarbutar, a prominent Papuan activist. He said the best way to tackle the epidemic was through increased spending on sexual education and condom use.
It’s World AIDS Day tomorrow, December 1st. MTV is going to celebrate its AIDS Awareness campaigns 10th birthday.
A pair of gay penguins has been stealing eggs from straight couples in an attempt to become ‘fathers’.
The three-year-old male penguins who are kept in Polar Land in Harbin, north-east China attempted to conceal their theft by placing stones at the feet of the parents before waddling away with their eggs. The deception however was noticed by the other penguins and the couple were soon ostracised from the group.
Keepers have decided to segregate the pair during hatching season to avoid disrupting the rest of the community.
Explaining the urge of the penguins to be fathers, a keeper from the zoo told the Austrian Times:
“One of the responsibilities of being a male adult is looking after the eggs. Despite this being a biological impossibility for this couple, the natural desire is still there. It’s not discrimination. We have to fence them separately, otherwise the whole group will be disturbed during hatching time.”
The children’s book And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, published in 2005, tells the true story of penguins Roy and Silo, who formed a couple in New York’s Central Park Zoo.
They attempted to hatch a rock, which was replaced by a rejected egg from a mixed gender couple by zoo keepers. They then adopted the baby penguin Tango as their own.
In the meantime:
Handlers of a popular polar bear, brought to mate with a female in a zoo in northern Japan, found their breeding plan was doomed when they noticed that he, in fact, was a she.
Tsuyoshi, a four-year-old, 200 kg (441 lb) cream-colored polar bear, had been living in harmony with a female polar bear since June, the two often playing together, Masako Inoue, a zookeeper at the Kushiro Municipal Zoo, said on Wednesday.
“We thought he was a male, so we never had any doubts as we took care of him,” she said. “But one day we realized that the two bears urinate in the same way, and we thought, is that how males do it? And once we started to look at things that way, we weren’t quite so sure.”
After two DNA examinations of Tsuyoshi’s hair and a manual exam, the Kushiro Municipal Zoo found Tsuyoshi to be a female.
“We do have mixed feelings,” said Inoue. “But because Tsuyoshi was supposed to be a male, she came here, and because she came here, we were able to take care of her since she was very small.”
It is not uncommon for the sex of polar bears to be misread, Inoue said, as their long hair makes it difficult to distinguish, especially when the bears are young. Tsuyoshi was pegged as a male three months after birth, Inoue said.
The Kushiro Municipal Zoo will talk with other zoos in the area to see what to do about their breeding plan, she added.
OOPS!
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