Bi The Way

Well we are two weeks into the Lambeth conference and the bishops in attendance finally have the opportunity to debate the burning issue of the day, namely the Church’s stance on homosexuality. The Lambeth conference, held once every 10 years, gathers the bishops of the Anglican Communion around the world. However, notable in his absence is the openly Gay bishop of New Hampshire Gene Robinson who was ordained in the Episcopal Church 5 years ago. He wasn’t invited to the conference, yet has been present in the public galleries and been running his own ‘fringe’ events.

Meanwhile the traditionalists, not satisfied with Gene Robinson’s exclusion from the conference, have this time boycotted the Lambeth conference because the Bishop’s who ordained Gene Robinson, were invited. Instead they held a rival conference in Jerusalem called GAFCON, or as I like to call it “Gaff-Con”.

The head of the Anglican Communion the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has been desperately trying to hold the Anglican Church together over this divisive issue. He known to be fairly ambivalent towards homosexuality but has been unwilling to exclude traditionalists, by coming out on the side of the liberals. In effect he’s doing the annoying job of walking a tight-rope and pleasing no-one. He’s keen to get Anglican’s to recognise that the values they share outweighs their differences of opinion on homosexuality.

However, the conservatives are angry that the bible’s very specific ban on homosexuality is been ignored, and to a point I can understand why. Christianity as a religion, survives based on the teaching of the bible and the gospels, once you choose to disregard one passage of the bible, you throw the rest of it into question. The bible holds no authority as we are allowed to “cherry pick” our beliefs.

What traditionalists fail to realise is that most Christians already do just this, as contrary to the directions of the Old Testament, we no longer put children to death for cursing their parents, stone adulterers or execute homosexuals as is mandated by the Book of Leviticus. (We leave that to hard-line Islamists in Saudi Arabia and Iran.)

The Conservatives within the Anglican Communion singularly fail to realise that they have already lost the argument. To prove this lets examine the logic of the debate:

The biblical prohibition of homosexuality is immediately followed by the penalty for homosexual acts.

“If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.”

Leviticus 20:13 (New King James Version)

Now if the Conservatives within the Anglican Church are advocating a return to more literal biblical teachings then I suggest we lock them up quick, as such a view would constitute a hate-crime! However, when mentioning the bible’s prohibition of homosexuality, they rather conveniently ignore any mention of the penalty. Hmm, well either they are trying to  disguise their ill intentions towards homosexuals or it means they have already abandoned biblical literalism themselves.

You’ve got to admit, its hypocritical of conservative Christians to say liberals are abandoning the original teachings of the bible, unless the conservatives are prepared to be literal themselves. So I’d say liberal Anglicans have already won the argument, wouldn’t you?

In a speech on the 7th of July, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg called on schools to recognise their “unique role” in tackling homophobia and called for better monitoring of homophobic incidents in schools. The fully story is here: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-8260.html

What is probably unique about this speech is that its the first by a mainstream political leader to include even the remote mention of bisexuals. Nick Clegg’s frequent references to ‘LGB’ rather than the ubiquitous ‘Lesbian and Gay’ can only be hailed as progress for bisexual recognition. Whilst we are still relegated to a single letter of an acronym, unlike recent Stonewall reports we are at least acknowledged.

It was a good speech, recognising that a minority of homophobic parents still poison their children’s thinking and that schools have a role in educating children against homophobia, something that presently they regularly fail to do.

As Nick Clegg rightly points out LGB pupils have higher levels of truancy, drop-out, mental health problems, panic attacks and eating disorders than straight students and more than half of LGB adults who were bullied at school contemplated self-harm or suicide. And four in ten had attempted it at least once.

Speaking as a bisexual guy who has previously self-harmed and attempted suicide, If this isn’t reason to be concerned about homophobic bullying then I don’t know what is. Bisexuals are more likely to be closet than their lesbian and gay counterparts, and whilst as a result, our outwardly homosexual cousins are more likely to bear the brunt of homophobic bullying, ’straight acting’ bisexuals cannot feel any more comfortable ‘being themselves’ in a virulently homophobic environment than lesbians or gays. Unlike our friends in pink, bisexuals have no political movement speaking out for them, no real separate identity, and bisexual teenagers must feel terribly isolated and alone. No wonder that so many of us first ‘pick a side’ before ‘broadening our horizons’.

Clearly more needs to be done to raise awareness of bisexuality, particularly in schools and leaders like Nick Clegg have a role to play in that, for now its atleast good that we have been acknowledged by use of an acromym, next time it would be nice to be called by name.

I’ve previously commented on how children are often denied access to information about homosexuality and bisexuality. This is particularly true in the US and to a lesser extend in the UK where homophobic bullying still blights our schools.

Still I was informed that in Norway they have a more enlightened approach. Apparently, Skeiv Ungdom, a Norwegian gay and lesbian support group had a video produced to promote their telephone support line to gay and lesbian teenagers. A quick search for “Skeiv Ungdom” on YouTube and I found the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoSchpHLgvA

I think its a great video. I really think something like this ought to be aired in Britain. It really sends out a positive message about homosexuality and also emphasises that things aren’t always what they seem. Which will certainly speak to a lot of bisexuals.

I should also point out that the entire crew worked for free to produce this 60 second short, so good on them for showing support. Enjoy…

I’m amazed as just how often the words “homosexual” and “atheist” are used in the same sentence and how frequently homosexuals and atheists are presented as being one of the same. And what’s more apparently share a political agenda to run rough-shod over Christendom and traditional family values.

There are a plethora of socially-conservative organisations, such as Americans For Truth (about homosexuality), and Christian Voice (UK) who are keen to drum up anti-gay and anti-bisexual sentiments by stirring the faith pot and portraying all gays, lesbians and bisexuals as godless creatures out to do the devils work.

Now in truth many gay, lesbian and bisexual people are agnostics and atheists, this I cannot deny. But they are not gay/lesbian/bisexual because of their lack of faith. Lets face it, there are millions of straight atheists too. More to the point most LGBT people lose their faith because they realise there is no room for them in Christianity.

This was a point picked up on by the Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson in an interview with Gay Times.

“Encouraging gay and lesbian people to return the church is not unlike telling an abused wife to go back to her husband” - Bishop Gene Robinson, GT June 2008 Issue.

In short Christianity is creating atheists by being exclusionary towards homosexuality. Even straight parishioners are being turned off the church by its homophobic attitudes. Less than 7% of the British population attends church on Sundays. And according to the latest social attitudes survey less than 38% of people in Britain believe in God. Furthermore, as president of the National Secular Society, Terry Sanderson observes in the same issue of GT, a recent report on social evils actually cited religion itself as the pre-eminent social evil in society today.

Bizarrely, it would seem that the best recruiting banner for atheism is the Church’s continued bigoted objection to homosexuality. So groups like American’s for Truth and Christian Voice (UK) are complaining about atheists they created.

Who do you think is doing the devil’s work now?

Still, it can’t even be said that atheists, as a unified political movement, promote homosexuality. Even the National Secular Society does not campaign specifically for LGBT rights. The truth is, there is no real political link between atheism and homosexuality except that created by American’s for Truth and Christian Voice (UK) .

At the end of the Gay Rights lobby has only ever campaigned for equality, that is to say fairness and equal treatment. Yet if you listen to large sects of the Christian church you’d think LGBT activism was trying to push for preferential treatment. The reality is this isn’t true at all, its just right-wing spin. What they really object to is the loss of their perceived ‘right’ to discriminate against gays, lesbians and bisexuals. The agenda here belongs to these socially-conservative, religious-hate groups. They won’t be happy until they have the right to treat LGBT people as second class citizens.

MP’s begin debating the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill this week. This legislation which is designed to update the existing 1990 Act, covers a number of points regarding what can and can’t be done with embryos and foetuses. This is a pretty controversial piece of legislation and the Pro-Life, Christian lobby are out in full force against most of the more progressive parts of the bill.

Why is this relevant to bisexuals? Well one of the aspects of the existing legislation requires that IVF clinics consider the welfare of the child being created, in particular, the need for a father. This means that many women including lesbians, bisexuals and evens single women have been refused IVF treatment. The new bill is set to scrap the requirement for IVF Clinics to consider the absence of a father and instead to simply ensure the child will have ’supportive parenting’.

This a crucial change as far as gay, lesbian and bisexual rights are concerned, particularly as it is set to declare that gay, lesbian and bisexual couples (or even single mom’s) can be as a good at parenting as straight couples. And about time too! It seems insane to me that you could be judged a more fit parent just because of your sexuality rather than your parenting skills.

Young people have a tough time these days, the media portrays them as yobs, hooligans and gang members. But the media isn’t anywhere near as hard on kids as they are on each other, especially when concerning lesbian, gay or bisexual issues.

Coming out as gay or bisexual or been “outed” by your peers can be very difficult for young people, especially for those still in school. The playground taunts can be brutal, they can ruin lives and make it very difficult for the victims to concentrate on their studies. Worse still there seems to be a culture of homophobia bread in the playground, “gay” has now replaced “lame” as the preferred casual slur for anything uncool or undesirable. EG: “X-factor is Gay” - “Those trainers are Gay”. Now whilst this remains a throwaway comment for most kids with no homophobia intended to be attached, it makes for a very daunting environment for lesbian, gay or bisexual teenagers to come out into.

It also makes you wonder how long before the taunt turns away from TV programs, pop bands and inanimate objects to become: “Chris is Gay,” or “Marie is a lesbo.”

Three things have to change if we are going to tackle homophobic bullying in schools:

1. Homophobic taunts and name calling in schools should be challenged immediately by staff.
2. All schools’ anti-bullying policies should be required to include measures specifically to deal with homophobic bullying.
3. At least one teacher in every school should undergo training which includes how to tackle homophobic bullying.

The Liberal Democrats have launched a campaign to end homophobic bullying in schools with these three points in mind. Even if you are not a Lib Dem supporter, I’d urge you to sign this petition and help put an end to anti-gay taunts in the playground.

DELGA Lib Dems - Stop Homophobic Bullying Campaign

I just found out that men who have sex with other men, even if they they only ever have ’safe sex’ are excluded from being blood donors. Yet a woman who has unprotected sex with hundreds of different men is allowed to give blood!

Crazy, but its true. Due to the “risk” of HIV transmission, the National Blood Service has a ban on gay and bisexual men, and their female partners, donating blood. The ban - a hangover from the 1980’s when HIV transmission was not well understood - is based on who you have sex with not how you have sex. This is in spite of the fact that the rate of heterosexually acquired HIV infections diagnosed in the UK overtook the rate of homosexually acquired HIV infections in 1999. [Source]

Just to give you an example of how perverse this ban is, a gay or bisexual man, or his female partner could supply a recent HIV test proving they are HIV negative yet would still be refused the opportunity to give blood. Whilst the straight guy or girl who has had unprotected sex with dozens of partners and no recent HIV test would be instantly accepted onto the blood donor register.

This ban has got to end, as its motivated by and outdated understanding of the facts, re-enforced with an unhealthy dose of homophobia and biphobia and not by medical science. Especially considering there is a national shortage of blood donors and modern screening tests which make the ban redundant.

There has already been major support for an end to the ban. The Lib Dem Welsh spring conference voted to end the blood ban. And there is a very active, independent petition which you can sign to help end this travesty. In the meantime, if you are not currently excluded, the UK is very low on blood stocks. Please make an appointment at your local blood donor clinic and give blood. Irrespective of the politics, Britain urgently needs blood donors you can help even if others currently can’t.

Resources:

• Give Blood - The National Blood Service
• Sign the Petition to End the Blood Ban - BloodBan.co.uk
• DELGA on the blood ban - Lib Dem LGBT Group
• UK HIV Statistics - Avert