I see that gay rights are gaining traction in Central America now. Yep, Mexico City has become the first city in Latin America to legalize gay marriage! Excellent job, guys! Now hopefully our capital, which has legalized it, will be allowed to keep it legal!

I always thought this a mildly dull flag, but I'll change my mind for now!

So the DC city council, by a vote of 11-2, which is astonishing even to me, has decided to allow gay marriage in the District!

This is nothing but a good thing, especially following recent setbacks in Maine and New York (though we also had a small triumph in Washington which is likely to result in a court ruling making gay marriage legal in that state as well). It’s also going to create a fascinating “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” thing with Congress.

See, legally DC is Congress’ bitch. Any laws they pass, Congress can override. This includes this fine little law allowing gay marriage.

So the choice our Democratic-controlled Congress faces is this: do they allow this law to go through and then have to explain to people in their home states why it’s ok for gays to get married in DC but not in whatever state they’re from (assuming they aren’t from one of the five that allow gay marriage), or do they override it and have to explain to people back home why they interfered with local politics and forced a discriminatory move on people who don’t want it?

Either way, expect this to add more fuel to the fight to make DC a state, especially if Congress blocks the law.

It’ll be interesting to see where this goes. It’s nice that, for a chance, people in the District will actually have more rights than those elsewhere in the country.

So props to Rick Warren, who is speaking out against the incredibly evil anti-gay legislation being proposed in that flower of African civilization, Uganda.

Warren, writer of such tripe as The Purpose Driven Life, a made-of-glurge, pro-God, self-help book that from all accounts gives the advice of “accept that you are God’s slave and all will be well”, had apparently inspired the legislation in Uganda. To his credit, he seemed somewhat aghast and moved quickly away from it, calling it, among other things, “un-Christian”.

Andrew Sullivan agrees with this and says:

It is absolutely and unequivocally unchristian to demonize a whole group of people and to threaten them with execution simply because of their sexual orientation and their need for love and sex and intimacy and companionship like every other human being. And for Warren to deploy Christian arguments in defense of the dignity of homosexual persons is a big step forward in this debate. I am grateful to him for staying true to the Gospels.

While I appreciate the sentiment and the constant efforts at being an apologist, Sullivan is completely off the mark here. Yes, under most mainstream modern Christian philosophy, homosexuality is not an evil that must be destroyed. But most modern Christian sects, including all the ones I can think of, continue to include Paul’s various works in their cannon.Paul had some very unkind things to say about homosexuals, and of course we can’t forget the loving joy that the Bible gives to the gays in Leviticus.

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. – Leviticus 18:22

I already had my say on that stupid little quote.

So Sullivan is correct: modern Christians don’t usually have any problems with homosexuality and those that do don’t usually want the gays murdered by the state (there are exceptions). But Christianity is quite anti-gay in its origins and certainly up until, oh, about 200 years ago, most mainstream Christians would have agreed with the idea of rounding up and imprisoning gays, if not just going ahead and killing them.

Apparently the Catholic Church is pissed at Washington, DC. Why? Well, it’s because of gay marriage, of course. How pissed are they? So pissed that they’re threatening to hold back charitable work in hopes of making DC do what they want them to.

Well, you know what? Fuck them and their church and the lies they rode in on. Saying that you won’t help out in a charitable fashion because the laws might force you to treat all people equally is a totally dick move and further proof, were any needed, of what I’ve said before about the church.

What an obnoxious pack of blackmailing bastards. Just how un-Christian is it, I wonder, to refuse to provide aid and comfort to those in need because you don’t like the law of the land?

So the great 2009 election chaos is over. Yes, for those who hadn’t noticed there were five important elections last night. These were governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia, Question One in Maine, a Congressional race in NY 23, and Referendum 71 in Washington State.

Now the two governor’s races and the Congressional race were about local issues so it was, of course, all about Obama. Well, at least according to the MSM and the GOP. I noticed the GOP crowing long and loud last night about their crowning achievement in unseating two incumbent governors who just happened to be Democrats. This is, to them, proof that the GOP is back and on the rise and about to destroy the hated, unpopular Obama, etc.

Oddly I notice that they’re ignoring NY 23 where, at least in part due to the GOP turning on its own, the conservative candidate lost. Clearly that was a referendum on the GOP’s policies and, obviously, it means that the GOP is on the decline and the Democrats are about to destroy them, etc.

The lesson here is that all three of those elections were local elections about local issues and have no real national significance.

Meantime, a little bit of bad and a little bit of good for gay rights issues. The voters in Maine choose to outlaw gay marriage after their legislature and government passed it and this despite my personal plea for them not to be a state of dicks. I am very disappointed in you, Maine! I expected better than for you to prove that direct democracy is a bad idea.

Over in Washington state we see how wonderful direct democracy is as a gay rights bill there pass, showing public support for civil unions. Knowing what I know about Washington and how the courts have ruled, I’m guessing that within two years we’ll have a court ruling there saying that giving all the rights of marriage but calling it a “civil union” is discrimination illegal.

So five races. Two went the way I wanted. Three didn’t. I don’t view any of these as having any real national significance beyond, say, next week. By this time in 2010 we’ll have all forgotten about them.

To all my readers in Maine: please get out there and vote against Question One. This odious little bit of attempted legislation would remove the right of same-sex couples to marry in your state. You don’t want to follow in the footsteps of California and remove people’s right to marry, do you? I certainly hope not! Fivethirtyeight.com shows that probably the ballot measure will be defeated, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need all the help we can get! Please vote. Thank you!

So I can’t get the video to embed, but click on the title of it and you’ll see something pretty damned entertaining!

* unless you do, in which case, damn! Sorry.

Uganda has never been known as a great bastion of human rights and economic development. The country’s reputation wasn’t ever wonderful and, let’s face it, Idi Amin didn’t help matters (though his reign of evil made for a great movie). So, yeah, life sucks in Uganda, but it really sucks if you’re gay. But for some people it doesn’t suck enough, and they want to make it far, far worse.

Let me introduce you to the 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill. This bill would do a number of unpleasant things, such as this list which I lifted from Box Turtle Bulliten’s article on the subject.

■Reaffirm the lifetime sentence currently provided upon conviction of homosexuality, and extends the definition from sexual activity to merely “touch[ing] another person with the intention of committing the act of homosexuality.”
■Create a new category of “aggravated homosexuality” which provides for the death penalty for “repeat offenders” and for cases where the individual is HIV-positive.
■Criminalizes all speech and peaceful assembly for those who advocate on behalf of LGBT citizens in Uganda with fines and imprisonment of between five and seven years.
■Criminalizes the act of obtaining a same-sex marriage abroad with lifetime imprisonment.
■Adds a clause which forces friends or family members to report LGBT persons to police within 24-hours of learning about that individual’s homosexuality or face fines or imprisonment of up to three years.
■Adds an extra-territorial and extradition provisions, allowing Uganda to prosecute LGBT Ugandans living abroad.

Well, how fun.

To my gay friends in Uganda, as well as to anyone there who values freedom and justice, I say fight this bill, and fight it hard! Don’t make your country worse!

And to those who support it, I say fuck you. Go die in a fire.

Guam, America’s overseas territory that most people don’t know exists, is debating Bill 185, which would extend domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples. Naturally the Catholic Church, you know, the greatest force of evil in the world, feels the need to intrude their nose into this.

Sadly, it turns out that the major sponsor of this bill, BJ Cruz, who is openly gay, was himself molested at the age of thirteen by a priest. I really wish that surprised me more.

Even better is the stance of the Archdiocese who felt the need to put out a letter on the subject. Read it closely, especially the part where they talk in admiration about Islamic funamentalists executing people for being gay. Fun times!

The Catholic Church needs to shut the fuck up and stay out of politics! Good luck, everyone in Guam! Make it happen!

President Obama addressed one of the largest gay rights groups earlier today. It was an uninspiring address that basically went over all the usual boilerplate and said nothing new, nothing substantive and nothing interesting.

I’m not quite as cynical about this as Andrew Sullivan, but I’m still skeptical and unimpressed by the whole thing. If the President wants to make life easier for gays, let him actually do it, and then I’ll be pleased.