Not all old customs are outdated and should be shunned!!!

In recent times, in Canada and in the US there has been incidences of kids coming to school with writings on their shirts that has offended others. Some were homophobic and offended the LGBT community and some were pro-gay and offended the bigotted, religious, hateful group.

When I was a school going kid, till high school, we had uniforms; whether it was government or private. In India, even today it has not changed. Could this problem be avoided if all schools here had the same rule?

Kids should be treated equally, irrespective of their sexual orientation, religious belief, family structure or heritage. School is not a platform for kids to advertise their own or their family beliefs…whether pro or anti gay. Religion is more touchy a subject than any other. In countries like India, Canada, US where every school has students of different nationality, culture, religious background, a uniformity is essential. Under the roof of an educational institution, every kid’s identity should be one..student. Nothing else.

I have realized, the education system in India is way more balanced than that in the western world as far as catering to a diverse group is concerned. We had Hindu, Christian, Muslim teachers in school. Our course over the school years taught in equal balance about Islam, Christianity Hinduism, Buddhism. And it was taught under history, where these were bound to come up. And they were unbiased, and did exactly what they were supposed to do. Educate us about the different religions, cultures and people who live beyond the four walls of the school, or the bounderies of the city, state or country. Nothing more, nothing less.

Kids from different financial background come to school. Uniforms make sure, the affluent don’t go around in designer clothes while their class-mates wear hand-me-downs, that way, lessens the chance of less priviledged kids devaloping infiriority complex.

We see a very good example of this in the Harry Potter series (yah I know, I had to bring that up). The Malfoys and the Weasleys. The affluent Malfoys and not so priviledged Weasley family. Inspite of having a uniform, Ron has been mercilessly taunted and rediculed by Draco and his father Lucius for his second hand books, hand-me-down robes. Can you imagine, if there were no uniform, what would have been the plight of Ron?

On a slightly different issue…we have catholic schools in India. My sister used to attend one. Yes, they used to have prayers everyday at the beggining of school. Being a catholic school, obviously the prayers were excerpts from The Bible and about Jesus. Honestly, we never had any problem with them. The school was in our neighbourhood. So we could hear the kids singing every day before class commenced, and it was very very normal. Maybe thats what taught us from childhood to be open and accepting of different kind of people with their different backgrounds.

So, I think, maybe its time to bring back uniforms in schools and let the kids be just just students again.

A candid interview of a gay Indian “happily” married to a woman

A different culture, a different social set-up, but similar social expectations… and a gay man caught in this web and making the best he could and in his own words…”HAPPY”. A logical, practical man, who found the perfect balance, at least for the time being.

A little background of the guy…

He got married due to social and parental obligations. Has a wonderful wife and a son. Making a lot of money by working in an MNC. Three of them are happily living as a unit. As far as I could gather, he is very happy and so is everyone around him.

He has an urge to be with a man every couple of months that he needs to fulfill.

Q1. Are you happy?

A. Happiness is a very subjective term. In Indian context we feel happy when we make someone happy. My mom, wife, son and relatives are happy. This makes me happy.

Q2. Why did you get married knowing you are gay?

A.  In India either you have to be extremely strong to remain single or emotionally unattached. I was neither. My mom was alone after my father and needed company. My small sacrifice balanced the equation.

Q3. Ain’t you cheating your wife?

A. If you consider my body I am cheating, but if you consider my soul, its hers. For a few years after marriage I felt incomplete and felt like I was cheating myself, cause I never used to go out. Now whenever I feel the urge I get hold of a guy like you and satisfy my physical needs.

Q4. How long will this continue?

A. Till I want my marriage to last. My physical satisfaction has lead to my completeness in my married life. At least I am not sharing my bed with another woman who can be a threat to my wife and son.

Q5. How did you train your mind…being a total bottom?

A. It was simple. I simply made my mind like my wife. I started feeling for her and the liking started.

Q6. Don’t you feel, by going out you are putting yourself and your wife in grave danger?

A. No, I am very careful in choosing people and I make sure I use protection. It is much better than the straight guys who go to other women every fortnight.

Q7. If your wife comes to know?

A. That’s a risk associated with every man who goes out.

Mumbai Court gives green light for sex reassignment surgery

Bombay High Court gave permission to 21 years old Bidhan Barua to go through sex reassignment surgery.

Mr. Barua always felt he was a woman trapped in a man’s body. Loved wearing female clothes when he was young and as a result got reprimanded, beaten up by his family. In grade 8, he learnt about sex reassignment surgery and how much it will cost. He started doing odd jobs after school to save money for the surgery.

The incidence that solidified his resolve to go through it, is the psychiatric test that he took in Guwahati to access whether he was fit to go through the surgery and he passed.  After that he ran away from home and came to Mumbai and started living with his cousin.

He was initially supposed to get the surgery on the 17th of April but found his bank account blocked by his parents who even threatened the doctors if they went ahead with it. He had left his job in preparation for the surgery and now his bank account being blocked he was almost broke. He informed the judge that due to this he has no money to pay for a lawyer. The judge told him that if needed, the court will appoint an amicus curie to help him out.

In his petition, Bidhan ( who likes to go by the female name Swati) informed the Chief Justice of India, Chief Justice of Bombay High Court and National Human Rights Commission urging them to step in and give a ruling in his favour or he will commit suicide. Further in his letters he wrote, “For the last two weeks, I am running from door to door seeking justice but the court does not have time to hear me. I do not have any money for my food, lodging. So I am finally requesting the court to pass an immediate order against my family or grant me an order for an authorised suicide.”

“I will kill myself if I do not get an order for my surgery by this evening. For my suicide, the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court will be responsible”, and he signed it.

This decision comes soon after the court last Thursday warned Bidhan from using pressure tactics and threatening to commit suicide to push his case swiftly through the court system.

NC pastor Sean Harris urges parents to punch and beat up their kids at the first sign of gay mannerisms

Sean Harris, the Senior Pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, N.C., during his “Marriage Sunday” service ( a campaign to urge people to vote for Amendment 1, which will bring a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage ) was heard urging fathers to crack the limp wrists of their boys the moment they start showing any signs of being homosexual.

In his exact words, “Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give him a good punch. Ok?” said Harris, adding, “And when your daughter starts acting too butch, you reign her in.”

How sad and pathetic is the fact that Harris is a christian or a follower of Christ who himself was love and compassion personified, the biggest example for self sacrifice for people in general, not specially for heterosexuals.

The issue goes in front of the North Carolina voters on May 8.

Brian Brown on MSNBC this morning confident that Same-Sex Marriage would be a thing of past in New Hampshire

Brian Brown, President of National Organization for Marriage came on MSNBC this morning to talk about same-sex marriage in New Hampshire being set to be repealed. He is joined by Craig Stowell, co-chair of Stand Up For New Hampshire Families.

Brian is 100% confident about the outcome and says, “I expect we are going to have a majority here. It would be historic to have a state vote and have a majority vote to say ‘this was wrong, we made a tragic mistake 2 years ago and we are gonna right that wrong and I expect to see a victory today.”

But what really happened in the House Of Representatives… we all know now.  The Bill was defeated and same-sex marriage remains legal in the Granite State. The Republican dominated house rubbed Brian’s face raw against the granite of the Granite State.

Two HUGE victory for the LGBT community and Two HUGE defeats for NOM

Its been a great day for the LGBT community today. We had two victories in one day and when the victories are against National Organization for Marriage (NOM), it tastes even more sweet.

No. 1 and the most important: BILL HB437 which was introduced in New Hampshire to repeal the Same-Sex Marriage law was killed by the republican lead House of Representatives by a whopping 211-116 votes. This is a huge blow for NOM and an incredible but a shocking victory for us considering the House of Representatives in NH is totally GOP dominated.

The 2nd defeat for National Organization for Marriage was when the Director of corporate Fairness Project for NOM Mr. Jonathan Baker asked the CEO of STARBUCKS Mr. Howard Shultz about their declaration to support Same-Sex Marriage.  Mr. Shultz’s response?

“Any decision of this type or magnitude has to be made with great thoughtfulness and I would assure you that a senior team at Starbucks discussed this.  To be very candid with you, this was not something that was a difficult decision for us and we did share this with the board as well…. We made that decision, in our view, through the lens of humanity and being the kind of company that embraces diversity.”  And the auditorium full of stock holders burst into a deafening applause.

Needless to say… NOM is not happy with this answer and has already started to plan its attack against STARBUCKS by designing a “Boycott Starbucks” website which will be launched soon asking people to pledge to boycott the company.

http://www.dumpstarbucks.com

I am not a fan of STARBUCKS coffee, but I pledge to buy atleast 1 coffee every week from them from now on.

 

The Ad MSNBC won’t air about Tony Perkins

MSNBC rejected an ad about Tony Perkins, which shows how vile, hateful he and his Family Research Council is. Incidentally Tony had been invited 23 times on MSNBC just in the past year. Worth mentioning Family Research Council  has been labled by Southern Poverty Law Centre as a hate group.

But here is what I figure why MSNBC refused to air the ad. The ad along with denouncing the bigoted and false claims of Perkins also criticizes MSNBC for giving him so much air-time. Which company in their right mind would publish something that paints them in a bad light?

If the organization had thought it out a little bit, they would have done the ad differently, by focusing and talking about just FRC and Perkins and not mention MSNBC (if their aim was to see that it airs on that perticular channel). Its like someone giving me a certificate which says I am a disgusting man and threat to the society and wants me to frame it and hang it in my living room.

Related articles

• MSNBC Rejects Ad Critical Of Family Research Council’s Head Nutbag, Tony Perkins (queerty.com)
• MSNBC Rejects Christian Group’s Ad Questioning Network’s Relationship with Hate Group Leader Tony Perkins: VIDEO (towleroad.com)
• The Ad MSNBC Doesn’t Want You to See (bilerico.com)

Kirk Cameron on CNN goes blah! blah! blah!

Kirk Cameron came on CNN at Piers Morgan Tonight and blah’ed about his view of same-sex marriage.

Those who didn’t know who he is, or had forgotten about him, he was the teen actor in ‘Growing Pains‘ and now a self proclaimed born again Christian. Surprise! Surprise!

By the way…when I hear about ‘born again Christians’, I feel the church is recycling their old patrons as no new ones are coming through their doors.

So this refurbished Christian tells Piers Morgan that ‘marriage is defined by God‘ ( I wish I had the hotline no. so that I could talk to HIM too) and the usual that homosexuality is’ unnatural’ and ’destructive’ to mankind.

In his words on same-sex marriage, “Marriage is almost as old as dirt, and it was defined in the garden between Adam and Eve. One man, one woman for life till death do you part. So I would never attempt to try to redefine marriage. And I don’t think anyone else should either. So do I support the idea of gay marriage? No, I don’t.”

When Piers asked what he will do if one of his 6 kids comes up to him and says that he is gay, Cameron said he will not tell him that its ok with him as long as he is happy but will have a heart to heart talk and try to explain to him how wrong it is. But I am personally more curious what he will do AFTER the heart to heart talk doesn’t acquire the desired result? Exorcism? Ex-gay therapy? Or disowning? Paving the path of another suicide or giving the society another mentally disturbed, self hating young adult?

His general take on homosexuality, “I think that it’s – it’s – it’s unnatural. I think that it’s – it’s detrimental, and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization.”

Why is this twat still on tv?

I had forgotten how annoying Michele Bachmann‘s voice was. Everytime I see her, she makes my skin crawl.

But gotta admit, Piers Morgan brings back these assholes and rips them apart. Love him for that.

Guess we have come a full circle bypassing the end of the world

History in Grade 3 was about the medieval era. The world had emerged from the dark ages and were just stabilizing as a civilization. This was the early middle ages that gave us the societal pyramidal structure where the priests occupied the apex. The public, who were essentially an illiterate mass were controlled by the religious bodies. Any natural calamity (from floods, to famine) on which the humans had no control were stamped as God‘s wrath and sacrifices were demanded to appease HIM. Ofcourse in that era, sacrifices were in kind.

All these ‘sacrifices’ ensured a constant flow of daily needs into the temples and these messengers of God lived a comfortable life without really working for it and enjoyed the power over the mass.

Over the centuries, people became smarter, realized their folly in putting their faith and trust on these opportunists and there was a drastic shift in the structure of the society. The top position which was for all these years was occupied by the messengers of God were taken over by kings and the power changed hands. This was the foundation of the modern world as we know today.

In the modern world, for the longest time, America was hailed as THE country. The rest of the world looked up to it, partly in fear and party in awe. And today, in that same America, which is now just a shimmering shadow of its once glorious past, I hear/read of messengers of God talking about His wrath and how we need to appease Him ( Westboro Baptist Church ), Michele Bachmann ( who said God wanted her to run for presidency ); a quote now taken by Rick Santorum ( either they misinterpreted His orders or God is really getting old and has amnesia, so forgot He had already asked Bachmann to run for president and now asking Santorum ). National Organization for Marriage ( NOM ) asking for donations..( read as sacrifices ) to restore marriage as GOD wanted it to be. The latest being Pat Robertson who claimed the tornadoes to hit Indiana could have been avoided with prayers.

So it looks like we have (or atleast America has ) gone back to the middle ages and the pyramidal structure is once again changing where the apex is in the verge of getting reclaimed by the men of God. I always thought this was bound to happen once this world is destroyed at the end of this year and we start all over again with the dawn of civilization.

But by the looks of it, America has bypassed the destruction of the world bit and the stone age and directly jumped to the medieval era. And that makes me think, maybe that’s what Mayan calendar meant when it predicted that 2012 is going to be the end of the world ( or the world as we know it now). It has all of a sudden started to make sense.