Shameless plug for The Pink Humanist

I’ve been somewhat remiss in pointing you all towards the June issue of The Pink Humanist, probably because I’m a guest contributor. I am a good friend of the TPH crew, so was happy to give them some on-the-spot reportage on ‘the Ramsey lesbians and the landlord from hell’.

This was not so much to stir up more trouble as to set the record straight. The Isle of Man may be a lot of quirky things, but is no longer the centre of the flat earth world, and Ramsey folk – by and large – are OK. In fact, if we could just fill up a leaky fishing vessel with the town’s evangelical preachers, a few of the crankier Commissioners and maybe the management of the worst finance sector firms, then set it off into the Irish Sea with the rudder set for hell most of our troubles would be over.

I was also glad to do it for other reasons. One is, simply, that TPH runs articles on humanism and current affairs that no other publication can match, and just having my name as a contributor alongside Peter Tatchell, the incredibly brave and intelligent Nigerian campaigner Leo Igwe and other such figures is a boost to my ego.

Take a look and see what I mean. Astonishingly good stuff – every issue a groundbreaker.

Help confine Westminster effluent to the sewers

You may want to sign up to a petition asking 17 Westminster MPs not to accept interns from CARE, a notorious faith-based 'educational charity' whose activities include sponsoring aversion therapy for gays, 'advising' civil registrars on how to avoid conducting civil partnership ceremonies and many other acts of spiteful petty ignorance.
CARE uses the Westminster internship program as a means of encouraging future politicians and civil servants towards their rather nasty view of humanity. In addition to spawning a new generation of career bigots, one Westminster lobbyist from a somewhat saner pressure group told me, they have open access to the most loathsome Tory big names, in return for providing them with the ‘research’ which tries to qualify their sickest policies.
CARE's best known Manx acolyte is David Anderson. Even sadder, when a few years back they were pitching some absolutely skin-crawling ideas to their Westminster allies one intern running around the corridors of power over there was his daughter.
On the Isle of Man CARE does note operate so openly, though their pig-ignorant tone runs through Tynwald disgraces ranging from a failed attempt to retain Section 38 of the Sexual Offences Act (prohibiting Manx schoolkids from learning that homosexuality is actually quite normal, not a disease or criminal subculture) through to current attempts to foist pro-life extremism on the terminally ill rather than offering choice and dignity (never mind actually listening to the poor sods). A few years back they did offer a rather odd ‘workshop’ to help local fundamentalists brand their businesses and pseudo-charities with ‘a Christian ethos’, but most of the fee-earning work is franchised to one of their puppet ‘charities’, Care For The Family, whose only open link to CARE is a trustee they share in common.
Do I need to explain any more?
For anyone interested in confining effluent to the Westminster sewers, rather than the Lower and Upper Houses, the petition is at http://www.change.org/petitions/mps-should-sever-links-with-the-christian-charity-care-which-co-sponsored-gay-cure-event .

Christian politician turns down free lunch shock

I haven’t seen this in the rest of the press yet, but Pink News has a story on the world’s only openly gay prime minister and her partner being snubbed by Christian politicos.
The snub happened while Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was visiting the Faroes, where, Pink News tells us:
“The prime minister of the Faroe Islands, Kaj Leo Johannesen, invited all seven of the Faroe Island's party leaders to dine with Ms Sigurðardóttir and her wife, Jonina Leonsdottir. However, Jenis av Rana MP, leader of The Centre Party, a Christianity-based conservative party, declined the invitation, reportedly saying it was against his religion and that he wouldn't "dream of attending such a banquet".”
See the full thing at http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/09/07/faroe-islands-mp-refuses-to-dine-with-icelands-gay-prime-minister-and-her-partner/
Stupid, of course, but at least it could never happen in the Isle of Man.
No Manx politician in living memory has ever turned down a free lunch, and neither have many of our clerics - espcially when the taxpayer is footing the bill.
(hat tip Mike Tidmus)

Anglican Mainstream or Anglican Millwall?

If you need evidence that ordinary Christians aren’t as dim or bigoted as that faith’s most belligerent ‘spokesmen’, try this. Advance ticket sales for Greenbelt have gone up 15%, and the surge came after Anglican Mainstream urged people to boycott it for being too gay-friendly.
For those unfamiliar with the factions within Anglicanism, Greenbelt is a sort of Christian Glastonbury – or maybe think WOMAD with prayers thrown in. Anglican Mainstream is, frankly, a ragbag collection of swivel-eyed Christofascist throwbacks who’d like to lead that church, led by failed candidates for senior church positions (with dodgy far right friends) and former senior clerics who had to be chosen by politicians, as even their own peers don’t take them seriously. Far from being the ‘mainstream’ of the Anglican family they’re more like the mad relatives no-one talks about who you’d find locked in an attic in some Victorian melodrama.
Last year ‘AM’ kicked off because Greenbelt invited Gene Robinson, the openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire, as a speaker in a workshop event. This year Peter Tatchell is speaking, which has made them even more annoyed.
You can find a report from Ekklesia, the ever reasonable voice of Christianity, at http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/12138 .
But if you want a cheap laugh at the expense of some sad-acts with delusions of sanity (and, some days, we need one), just have a giggle at http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/2010/05/06/call-to-boycott-greenbelt-over-tatchell-invitation/ .

Let Constance take her girlfriend to the Prom

Take a couple of minutes to visit http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45065875259#!/pages/Let-Constance-Take-Her-Girlfriend-to-Prom/357686784817?ref=nf and send a message of support to an American teenager standing up to a homophobic school board.
Constance McMillen, an 18 year-old student at Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Mississippi, approached her school’s administration because she wanted to attend the Senior Prom with her girlfriend and knew that same-sex dates had been banned in the past. After meeting with school officials, she was told that she and her girlfriend would not be allowed to attend together.
The ACLU then sent a demand letter to the school on her behalf, pointing put that school officials violated Constance’s First Amendment rights to freedom of expression.
Instead of responding like adults with civic responsibilities, the school chose to cancel the event entirely — rather than let Constance attend with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.
Sad or what?