Although Gay Marriage Bill Is Approved In France Homophobia Still A Serious Problem.
I am not surprised that some French people are against gay marriage. Although France is a secular country, there are some conservative elements to French society. I am glad the same sex marriage bill was approved and that marriage equality now exists in France for gay couples. Some of the arguments of conservatives are that the French family is going to decay and breakdown.
However, in Canada almost a decade ago prior to gay marriage becoming law there were similar arguments. Now almost eight years since same sex marriage became legal in Canada it isn’t a big deal anymore. Even the conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, recognizes that same sex marriage is just a part of what makes Canada a great nation. Canada was the first country in the western hemisphere to legalize gay marriage.
I think in a generation from now in France people won’t make a big deal about same sex marriage they won’t be upset about it. Consenting adults should be allowed to marry whomever a person of the same sex. Why should gay people in France be denied gay marriage when they pay taxes just like the heterosexuals? It is nice to see France moving forward and progressing towards modernity.
Traditional Gay African Wedding In South Africa.
Wow, this video brings tears to my eyes, it is so wonderful to see a young gay black couple in love! This wedding is going to open the minds of people across the globe. I also believe this wedding will hopefully start a dialogue in the black community about homosexuality. Gay marriage is legal in South Africa and I think this wedding is symbolic to show South Africa is progressing. Yes, gays and lesbians in South Africa still encounter discrimination, but this wedding illustrates more African people are accepting homosexuality.
Is Time Magazine Cover About Gay Marriage Really Progressive Or Reinforcing Stereotypes?
Time Magazine’s cover with two gay and lesbian couples kissing might appear progressive but is it really? Unfortunately, Time Magazine is still engendering the myopic image that to be gay or lesbian still means to be white. Why didn’t Time Magazine consider having an African American gay couple, or an Asian American lesbian couple or an interracial homosexual couple on the cover?
I believe a Time Magazine cover with gay people of colour would be more powerful because it would symbolize that gay marriage rights in America isn’t just a white gay issue.
This image is just the status quo, it doesn’t challenge anything it simply reinforces the white gay and lesbian image. Why would communities of colour care about gay rights or same sex marriage when the representation of homosexuality in the public sphere is always about white homosexuals?
I notice, there isn’t anyone with a disability on the cover? Are all gay and lesbian people able bodied?
Another thing, I noticed is why are the gay and lesbian couples on the cover young people? So only younger people under forty can be gay? Wouldn’t it be more interesting if a senior citizen gay or lesbian couple was on the cover? This cover is very disappointing because it treats gay rights as a young white person’s issue. The image of homosexuality in pop culture is very myopic and it excludes so many people.
Out Magazine Interview: NFL Stud Chris Kluwe Talks Same Sex Marriage, Gay Rights, & Football Career.
Chris Kluwe: Kick Ass
10.2.2012
BY CYD ZEIGLER
Photography by David Bowman
“Your insults can’t be the standard fuck, shit, bitch — it has to be something that sticks in people’s minds,” says Chris Kluwe, the Minnesota Vikings punter, explaining how to craft a devastating letter to someone whose views you hold reprehensible. “Generally the way you do that is to take a swear word—usually a part of someone’s anatomy — and attach it to something else that it normally wouldn’t go with. When you come up with a good one, you’ll know you have it because you’ll just start giggling to yourself.”
For example, “lustful cockmonster.”
On September 7, you could sense the howls of laughter reverberating across the Internet after Kluwe’sexcoriating letter to Maryland state delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr. was published on the sports fansite Deadspin and quickly went viral. A week earlier, in a letter brimming with self-importance, Burns had told the Baltimore Ravens to “order” linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo to cease advocating for same-sex marriage. Kluwe’s response was a master class in how to take down a pompous and wrong-headed ass.
“I find it inconceivable that you are an elected official of Maryland’s state government,” Kluwe’s letter started, reasonably enough. “Your vitriolic hatred and bigotry make me ashamed and disgusted to think that you are in any way responsible for shaping policy at any level.” Kluwe then went on to dismantle Burns’s position, point by point, culminating in a crescendo of wit and impishness — and that now-fabled coinage. It’s worth running the penultimate paragraph in full, if only because it does such a good job of clarifying the issues:
“I can assure you that gay people getting married will have zero effect on your life. They won’t come into your house and steal your children. They won’t magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster. They won’t even overthrow the government in an orgy of hedonistic debauchery because all of a sudden they have the same legal rights as the other 90 percent of our population — rights like Social Security benefits, child care tax credits, Family and Medical Leave to take care of loved ones, and COBRA healthcare for spouses and children. You know what having these rights will make gays? Full-fledged American citizens just like everyone else, with the freedom to pursue happiness and all that entails. Do the civil-rights struggles of the past 200 years mean absolutely nothing to you?”
Oh, he also called Burns a “narcissistic fromunda stain” — which is just showing off.
With all the attention on Kluwe’s letter, it’s easy to forget that he was, in turn, inspired by another football player, the Ravens’s Ayanbadejo, busy fighting his own corner in Baltimore. In November, voters in both Minnesota and Maryland will be faced with marriage-equality ballot initiatives, so the high-profile stance of Kluwe and Ayanbadejo could have real and profound consequences. The positions of both men not only reflect how quickly opinion is shifting, but also spotlight the need to check our own preconceptions of the sports world as inherently intolerant and homophobic.
“I’ve always relished breaking that stereotype of the dumb jock athlete because while I enjoyed athletics growing up, I also enjoyed reading and video games, and athletic sport is not what defines me as a person,” says Kluwe. “I think as more and more generations start rising through the NFL, a lot of these kids see that it’s OK to be something other than an athlete.”
ESPN radio sportscaster, Jared Max, who came out in 2011, agrees, pointing out that the lifespan of an NFL player is much shorter than most other sports, generating faster turnover. “I strongly believe that goodness is contagious and that others will jump on board as the younger generation begins to populate the NFL,” he says, with some justification given a recent poll by Outsports.com, which identified 28 current NFL players who’ve expressed support for gay rights. For Max, players like Kluwe and Ayanbadejo deserve comparison to earlier taboo-busters like Branch Rickey, who broke through Major League Baseball’s color barrier by signing Jackie Robinson to the Dodgers in 1945.
But for Kluwe, taking a stand on gay rights is as instinctual as planting his foot into a ball. “It’s all about the Golden Rule,” he says. “Treat other people as you want to be treated. It’s that simple. It’s something that needs to be spoken about, and it’s something I can do while fulfilling my job as a football player.”
Growing up in Los Alamitos, Calif., 20 miles south of Los Angeles, Kluwe’s parents preached to their son a mantra of tolerance with a profanity-free lexicon. Neither stuck at the time. As a tween, gay slurs peppered his speech with the same heedlessness as his peers. “Unfortunately, as kids, sometimes you don’t understand what your words can mean because you’re not emotionally mature enough yet,” he says. “As you grow up and start learning about the world, you realize, Hey, some of this stuff is hurtful; I would not want to be treated that way. That’s part of maturing.”
Kluwe’s voracious appetite for reading was also instrumental. He displays an old-fashioned ability to quote Voltaire or Ralph Waldo Emerson and reads so much sci-fi and fantasy that he jokes that Barnes & Noble can’t keep up. On his active Twitter account, he’ll solicit suggestions for his book list. A recent post reads, “This Vonnegut guy, I like the cut of his jib.” A few hours later, he’d already updated it: “Damn. Slaughterhouse 5 makes me want to simultaneously punch and hug the entire human race. The same stupid cycle over and over.”
It’s easy to trace Kluwe, the outspoken gay rights advocate, through his childhood obsessions with gaming and sci-fi. The thrust and parry of video-game discussion boards, he says, helped to hone his debating skills; his love of books expanded his vocabulary. At the same time, his immersion into the worlds of Terry Pratchett and Iain M. Banks — two of his favorite writers — has merely served to accentuate the flaws and injustices of the real world.
“It’s definitely influenced the way I think,” he admits. “You look at all the sci-fi utopias, and, pretty much in every single one, the basic underlying philosophy is that people treat each other the way they want to be treated and there’s freedom to be who you are. What brings these utopias crashing down is the fact that one group tries to take control of another, and I think that’s very applicable to any sort of human or civil rights campaign.”
It’s no surprise that Kluwe is an avid fan of the role-playing game World of Warcraft (his avatar is a troll called Loate), so much so that his Twitter handle is @ChrisWarcraft. Among the things he loves most about such games are the parallels they offer to our culture’s battle over freedom. In World of Warcraft, he becomes a champion against evil oppressive forces. Losing isn’t an option.
While World of Warcraft forums don’t allow much space for dissecting Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Kluwe carved a space for himself by learning how to push the right buttons to get into other gamers’ heads. “I’ve found one of the most devastating ways to get a point across was to mix factual information with clever insults,” he says. “I’ve had a lot of training on how to get people riled up.”
BBC News: France Enters The Twenty First Century Will Allow Homosexuals Same Sex Marriage & Adoption In 2013!!!
At present, only married couples and not civil union partners can adopt in FranceGay couples in France will be allowed to get married and to adopt children as of 2013, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has announced in parliament.
The announcement was part of a keynote speech outlining the new Socialist government’s five-year plan.
It confirms an election pledge made by President Francois Hollande.
A number of European nations including Germany, Sweden and Britain already allow gay adoption.
“Start Quote
Our society is evolving, lifestyles and mentalities are changing”
Jean-Marc AyraultFrench prime minister
At present only married couples – not civil union partners – can adopt in France.
“In the first half of 2013, the right to marriage and adoption will be open to all couples, without discrimination,” Mr Ayrault told parliament.
“Our society is evolving, lifestyles and mentalities are changing. The government will respond to that.”
He announced the news during a keynote speech outlining the government’s budget and political agenda.
Symbolic gesture
Gays in France make up 6.5% of the electorate, compared with practising Catholics at 4.5%, according to figures released by pollster Ifop.
A survey carried out at the beginning of the year showed 63% of French people are in favour of gay marriage while 56% support gay adoption.
The confirmation of the new law came only days after Paris held its annual Gay Pride parade, which this year was buoyed by the new goverment’s promise to legalise gay marriage and adoption rights.
In a symbolic gesture, French Minister for Families Dominique Bertinotti turned out to see the parade floats set off.
European nations allowing gay adoption include Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Britain.
Gayblackcanada 