Catholic Britain

By: Craig Rigby
It is almost here! The Pope is coming! On Saturday the 18th of September he will be here, in all his splendour. It will be the first time since the 80's since a Pope has been to the UK. It will be the first state visit and only the second visit overall for hundreds of years. I, and several thousand other people, fully intend to remind the catholic church why they stopped coming.

There are two reasons I, and many other people, intend to protest his visit. Firstly this is a state visit. That means we, the British taxpayers, have to pay for the whole silly affair. Now, as a citizen of Europe and the leader of a large religion the Pope should, of course be free to tour our country. But why the hell should we pay for the privilege?

Secondly while the Pope should be free to come here, he needs to realise that this is a free country and that many people are unhappy with his views. To me, many of these are vile, repugnant and evil. I think he needs to be confronted with this.

DADT...Stepping Up The Pressure

Nothing breaks President Obama's facade of diplomatic neutrality...nothing. That man could outstare an iceberg and stay cooler longer. That fact has been true about our President in the face of some very vitriolic attacks over the course of the last year. He has been heckled on the senate floor, faced down teabaggers, and swam in  the shark tank of wall street without so much as wrinkling his lapel. So then, it came as a great suprise to see the Presidents air of nonchalance slip a notch when Get Equal protesters shouted out during a fundraising speach for Barbara Boxer in Los Angeles. Video after the jump.

Standing Up For What you Believe In.

More often than I care to these days , while  musing about the status of the struggle for gay rights I ask myself..."Whats Next if it all goes south?" What happens when ballot initiatives ban our ability to marry the ones we love in all but a couple of states? What happens if the Federal Supreme Court rules that upholding those bans is constitutional? What happens if we never see an employment protection act or a "Don't Ask Don't Tell" repeal? What do we do if it all goes to hell in a handbasket and LGBT citizens become official second class citizens with our status as such codified by law?

If you listen to the rumblings of teabaggers (who's name always makes me snicker) then you would be lead to believe that the people of America are headed for eminent revolution. But how real is their saber rattling?...Who knows...but  That brings us the essence of this thread. How far is too far to be pushed? And what will we do if we get to that point? Is it when we are forced to come to the realization that lawmakers are never going to fight for us out of their own good will ...or that theoretical day when police are again regularly raiding gay bars, Handcuffing  us to telephone polls, and printing our pictures in the paper to shame us?

Well...GLBT students at John Carrol University, in Cleveland found their line in the sand. Angered over the schools intentional decision to omit LGBT people from its anti-discrimination policies they decided it was their time to take action:

Londoners Rally against Hate Crimes

Londoners gather in the thousands last night for a candle light vigil and to protest the rise in hate crimes against GLBTQ people in recent weeks as well as to honor the lives of Ian Baynham and James Parkes. Parkes, a police Trainee was nearly beaten to death and Baynham was beaten to death after exiting a London bus bound for a night on the town. Both incidents were driven by hommophobia and only the most recent examples attacks of this kind.

Please join in the moment of silence and the reading of the fallen:



I dare you not to get goose bumps during the reading of these names. As they were read off I could not help but think...this is not the end of that list...we could easily add those from America...And those from Iraq who are being slaughtered by the handfull even right now.

It was fantastic to see so many turn out in support of ending violence against gays. I do wonder though how British television spun it.

One really poignent moment in the video is during the silence when the sirens began to wail....it seemed to an apropriate statement on the state of safety for GLBTQ people.

We send our heartfelt sympathy to the families of the fallen and we stand with you in the hopes that vigils like these never have to be held again.