Much has been made of the apparent fact that a sizable majority of African Americans in California voted Yes on Prop 8. The issue is a complex one with many grey areas. Blame can also go in both directions, and ultimately serves little purpose. The Prop 8 exit polls may make for interesting reading, but we should remember that exit polls are ( Read more... )

The last time I had to vote on a "yes" or "no" issue was 1992, back in South Africa. The question asked was, "Do you support continuation of the reform process which the State President began on February 2, 1990, and which is aimed at a new constitution through negotiation?" In other words, the question was, "Do you support the end of Apartheid?" ( Read more... )

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Yesterday in the news the BBC had the following news article:
Gay outrage over penguin sex test

This is the gist of the story:Gay rights activists have protested at a north German zoo's plans to test the sexual orientation of six male penguins which have displayed homosexual traits. Bremerhaven's Zoo am Meer said it would introduce four extra ( Read more... )

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At long last. A major group of Islamic scholars have finally made a call to end female mutilation (called female circumcision) in the Islamic world.Typically female circumcision involves surgically removing the clitoris of young girls. Fortunately, although the practice is widespread in parts of Africa and the Middle East, it is unknown elsewhere ( Read more... )

A news article today comes as a reminder of how terrible life remains for gays in South Africa, despite the law allowing gay marriage being passed. I'm glad we have a progressive national constitution, but I wish we had a progressive people. We so badly need better education. Adequate education would be a good start. Here's the news article:

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Okay, the other day I mentioned how a South African parliamentary committee recommended that gay marriage be legalized. At that time they said parliament were almost certain to approve it, and today they did indeed approve it by a 230 to 41 margin. The law is flawed and may be improved, but right now South African gays can get married, and they ( Read more... )

South African panel OKs gay marriage. It can be argued that South Africa was the spark that triggered many of the pro-gay international laws in recent years. It's almost as if a few liberal nations suddenly realized that they did not want to be pipped to the post on this issue by an African nation. When we recognized gay rights in our first post ( Read more... )