THEY WILL NOT BULLY US ANY MORE
WILL NOT BEAT US WITH THEIR MACHO MANIA
WE QUEERS DEMAND RESPECT FOR OUR EXISTENCE
OR THE WORLD WILL MEET OUR RESISTANCE
This is what we are up against…
“Anti LGBT+ protesters descended on a hotel yesterday (April 11) in Kiev, Ukraine where the European Lesbian Conference (ELC) was due to kick off…. Dozens of protesters blocked the entrance to the hotel and held signs that said “homosexuality is a disease” and “go back to hell sodomites,” according to the Thomas Reuters Foundation…
“A number of protesters also allegedly tried to break into the hotel to throw tear gas canisters but were prevented by police, according to Olena Shevchenko of LGBT+ group Insight.”
“Leaflets attacking LGBT-inclusive education have been distributed outside a Birmingham primary school.”
The rugby star, who is Christian, posted messages on Instagram and Twitter on Wednesday (April 10) telling “drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters” that “hell awaits” unless they “repent.”
“A controversial new penal code in Brunei that punishes homosexuality with death has come into effect…. Despite facing international outcry, the Southeast Asian country’s new Sharia law-based penal code, which makes gay sex an offence punishable by stoning to death, comes into effect on Wednesday (April 3)…. The harsh new penal code requires death by stoning for gay sex or adultery, while lesbian sex is punished by 100 lashes with a whip.”
PINKNEWS REPORT 12/4/2019
“Reported hate crimes against LGBT+ people in the West Midlands rose by more than half in the last year, outstripping the rest of England and Wales…. There were 591 reported incidents of homophobic crimes in 2018 compared to 386 in 2017. In January and February 2019 some 86 crimes were committed—a 26 percent increase on the first two months of the previous year.
“The rise is significantly higher than that experienced by England and Wales as a whole, which saw a 27 per cent spike in hate crimes where sexual orientation was a factor in 2017/18. Crimes against transgender people, which are recorded separately, rose by 32 percent.”
WHO OR WHAT IS TO BLAME FOR THIS WORSENING SITUATION?
RELIGION, GOVERNMENT, ACADEMIA
Religions continue to offer justification to homophobic bigots
Governments could do so much more to ensure our rights and safety
The education system continues to produce homophobes and transphobes
THE SHIFT THAT IS NEEDED
To understand the roots of religious homophobia lie in the efforts of patriarchal faiths to eradicate pagan goddess worship, queerness was associated with the erotic energy of ancient temples and rituals.
70 countries still criminalise homosexuality, but the change of law in India recently hopefully opens the way for a domino effect for us to gain respect the world over.
The people of the world need to get that all consensual, adult forms of sexuality are entirely natural, that transsexuality has an ancient, honourable and holy history, that their phobic attitudes were placed into their subconscious, they are not natural!
WHAT CAN WE DO?
“We need to be outside and not to keep our sexuality and genders hidden at home under the sheets.” European Lesbian Conference chair Silvia Casalino
We can stick to the mantra that PRIDE IS A PROTEST and use our summer festivals as an opportunity to express our ANGER, our SOLIDARITY, our DETERMINATION to liberate queerkind across the planet
At QUEER SPIRIT FESTIVAL in the UK, August 14-18 2019, 500+ queers from a vast range of spiritual and magical backgrounds gather to change the story of being queer. Defining us by our sexuality or gender identity does not reveal who we are – to others or to ourselves. In some parts of the world we have achieved a great deal of political, legal and social liberation over the last 5 decades, but in others we are still feared and persecuted. Even in the liberal west, as some of the above reports make clear, the journey isn’t over. Join us in Northamptonshire for a festival dedicated to the emergence of our global healing queer spirit. www.queerspirit.net
rainbow messenger 