Two years or so ago, I picked up a leaflet from New Zealand’s self-proclaimed [fundamentalist] Christian (sic) lifestyle channel, Shine Television, from Storehouse Christian Books on Wellington’s Willis Street.
Much to my amusement, Jeremy Wells saw fit to include a segment from Shine that depicted a bilious, green-tinged Pat Robertson from the US 700 Club, which […]

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If you’re the daughter or son of an LGBT parent, then sometimes, it’s difficult to know what resources are available, other than from PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).
In the United States, COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) was established in 1989 (and it should be noted that it includes a site […]

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War-torn, wretched Burundi has just criminalised male homosexuality. Is this action a diversion from its other, manifold sorrows?
Like its neighbours, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Burundi has known little peace since it became independent from Belgium, its European colonial overlord, in 1962. Like Rwanda, Burundi has been bitterly divided between antagonistic Hutu and […]

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In the United Kingdom, Sky Television screened the assisted suicide of Craig Ewert, a former medical practitioner, who had travelled from Great Britain, where voluntatry euthanasia and physician assisted suicide are illegal, to Switzerland, where it is. 
His widow said that her late husband intended to show others that voluntary euthanasia could be a dignified passage from […]

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In Britain and Canada alike, Christian Right lone strangers are screeching and hooting at displays of LGBT culture. It will come as no surprise to readers of this blog that the primary culprits of this malfeasance are Fred Phelps and his miserable clan, and Stephen Green of “Christian Voice.”
In Uxbridge, Ontario, the vile ambulatory Phelpses […]

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Michael Ignatieff was elected unopposed as Canada’s new Leader of the Opposition. If the current anti-Harper coalition remains in place until the Tory Budget on January 25th next year, which will surely be defeated in a vote of no confidence, then he may become Canada’s next Prime Minister.
Who is Michael Ignatieff? He’s a leading international […]

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Botox Boy and his cronies have instituted a vile piece of anti-worker legislation under urgency, which means that it will be devoid of public consultation, public scrutiny and select committee analysis. Even if my political sympathies weren’t solidly centre-left, I would still oppose this ninety day provisional employment law.
(And while I’m here, I applaud the […]

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Generally, I find it difficult to get overly excited about the prospect of an eventual New Zealand Republic. It’ll probably happen eventually, but it’s not as essential to our collective wellbeing as a written constitution is. However, I do support the idea.
Betty Windsor is a charming elderly woman who has been formal head of state of the […]

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Turkmenistan has a population of five million. Saparmurat Niyazov, its President for Life (1991-2006) was a bizarre personality cultist who made North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il look shy and reticent by comparison.
Under his rule, few Turkmens had access to the Internet after 2001. Outside Ashgabat, the capital, all hospitals were closed after February 2005. One third […]

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Courtesy of Australia’s DNA newsblog, and originally from the International Herald Tribune, come some intriguing facts and figures about Proposition 8, which wrote a state ban against same-sex marriage into that state’s constitution.
Who voted for it? It turns out that the old cafard about conservative ethnic minorities is misguided. As one might guess, religious beliefs […]

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