Equality Network - MSPs' motions on the Bishop's comments

 

Dear friends,

There have been lots of letters about Bishop Devine’s comments, in the Scotsman and Herald – see links below. If you wrote, thank you!

Three MSPs have submitted motions in the Scottish Parliament about the Bishop’s comments: Patrick Harvie, George Foulkes and Iain Smith. You can read the motions at the end of this email.

It is important that as many MSPs as possible support these motions. Would you please consider taking a few minutes to contact your MSPs?

We need to let MSPs know that the majority in Scotland disagree with the Bishop!

Everyone in Scotland has one constituency MSP and seven regional MSPs. Please consider emailing your MSPs to ask them to support one or more of the three motions – motion 1563, 1565 or 1572.

You can find out who your MSPs are by entering your postcode here:

www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/membersPages/msplocator.htm

By clicking on each MSP’s name, you can then click on ‘Contact details’.

You can use the supplied email address to email in the normal way, or fill in the direct email form provided (which is slow!). In either case, you need to give your address and postcode, so that the MSP knows that you live in their constituency/region.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this!

Here are the letters in the Herald and Scotsman:

http://tinyurl.com/3d3o2a

http://tinyurl.com/39xpoq

http://tinyurl.com/2vuv7a

http://tinyurl.com/3chzgd

Yours for equality,

Tim Hopkins

Equality Network, 30 Bernard St, Edinburgh, EH6 6PR

www.equality-network.org

Email sent to: zowie.davy@ntlworld.com

The three Parliamentary motions are:

S3M-1563 Patrick Harvie: Homophobia Has No Place in Scottish Society - That the Parliament notes with weary dismay the most recent remarks made by Bishop Joseph Devine which suggest that LGBT communities should not be present at Holocaust memorial events; recognises in particular that many thousands of gay men were arrested, imprisoned and killed by the Nazi regime and that many of these were later rounded up and re-imprisoned by the allies, being seen at the time as "legitimate" targets; welcomes the significant progress which has since been made across Europe toward recognising the equal dignity and worth of all people regardless of sexual orientation or transgender identity; is concerned at further remarks by the Bishop which appear to encourage parents not to tolerate their gay, lesbian or bisexual children; believes that such remarks are homophobic and deeply harmful to society and to young LGBT people who are contemplating coming out to their families, and commits itself to continuing to work toward a society in which prejudice and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and transgender identity are a thing of the past.

Supported by: Ian McKee, Marlyn Glen, Shirley-Anne Somerville, Elaine Smith, George Foulkes, Bashir Ahmad

S3M-1565 George Foulkes: Un-Christian Remarks of Bishop Devine - That the Parliament expresses concern at the hurt which will be caused to gay people, and gay Catholics in particular, by the unfortunate, outdated and un-Christian remarks of Bishop Devine; believes that all enlightened Catholics reject all forms of prejudice including racism, sectarianism and homophobia, and acknowledges that we must all remember and learn from the past in order to equip ourselves with the tools to tackle prejudice in all its forms which includes acknowledging the rights of the LGBT community to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

Supported by: Marlyn Glen, Margaret Smith, Patrick Harvie, Rhona Brankin, Iain Gray, Elaine Murray, Mr Frank McAveety

S3M-1572 Iain Smith: Dignity and Integrity for All - That the Parliament notes the lecture given by the Rt Rev Joseph Devine, Bishop of Motherwell, at St Aloysius’ College on Tuesday 11 March 2008; condemns his claim that homosexuals were not persecuted during the holocaust and his suggestion that the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde and other homosexuals was appropriate; observes that according to figures of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100,000 men were arrested as homosexuals by the Third Reich between 1933 and 1945 and that it is estimated that over 10,000 homosexuals died as a result of the Holocaust; further notes that in many countries homosexuality is today punishable by death or imprisonment, and urges all churches to defend the dignity and integrity of every individual regardless of sexual orientation.

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The well reknowned queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick came to York. Her talk covered a multitude of autobiographical, art, Buddhistic and physics topics, which at first seemed a little incoherent, however, after reflection the elements began to become fused into a mantra of connectivity. A move away from poststructuralist deconstruction, she introduced David Bohm's ideas of the of hidden orders of patterns or enfolded order much like those you capture when ink is on water and when you place a sheet of paper or cloth upon the pattern (like in the base of the picture on the left) and capture the unfolding of the waves. While this touch upon physics did not go as far as I would have liked, I sensed this connectivity because I was reading the The Holographic Universe By Michael Talbot, where I had just been reading about Bohm's contribution to the theory of the enfolded and unfolded (dis)order of the universe. Although a mind-boggling set of ideas for me I will try and explain what I think I understand and put it forth for discussion. Everything in the cosmos is connected and is part of the same unfolding and enfolding 'order(s)' of the fabric of the universe, much like viewing the different patterns in an ornate carpet as part of the whole. The threads of the carpet may 'come loose' and and someone may wish to reform the fabric, the pattern may not be the same but it is still part of the same carpet. This allows us to contend the basic tenets of enlightenment thinking about scrutinising each part in their separateness, like such things as size, rate, or other 'respective' part. This way of looking at 'things' can in fact misguide our judgment of the whole. This is not to say that these things are not 'visible', 'audible', or anything like that, but 'they' are only abstractions in order to allow them to stand out in our perceptions. Bohm prefers to call these respective parts "relatively independent subtotalities."

i could not resist putting Mariza on. The Portugese singer with a voice that brings shivers to the spine and a pounding in your heart ENJOY

Image from: http://lgbthmuk.blogspot.com/search/label/Exhibition

What Makes a Picture Queer, the Subject, the Artist, the Scene?

I have been thinking recently about the Trans social movement, if there is such a thing, in the UK. While there are organisations that can conceivably come under the banner of Trans-Social Movement, we must ask, are they fighting, or indeed do they have to fight, for the same things for it to be classed as a Social Movement? From what i understand, there are 4 organisational typologies that can be found as part of the Movement. (1) Organisations that purport the Biological/Intersexual paradigm. (2) The inclusive 'Social' model groups that is undergirded by human rights and "equal but diverse" motto. (3) The local self-help groups, that i suppose create a more localised rationale and are dependent on the cohort within, as to the directions they will sway. (4) The queerer radical/anarchistic Trans groups who want to aesthetically re-orientate the political praxis through more visible and visual/sensual/artistic actions. With an array of multi-dimensional views, boundaries and potential political actors and actions how can we conceive of these groups under one particular movement? How do the wider community choose to act on one or more "call to arms" from different contradictory groupings? Are we then talking about affiliations to a Political Movement or leanings toward certain political actions that are of most importance to the individual actor? Can i call myself a part of a movement if i do not agree with all the tenets of the organisations involved under the wider social movement umbrella? These are just some thoughts i would like to put out there and discuss.

Get-Bent Interview 2007 with Eliza Steinbock

Watch This Video!
Eliza Steinbock from the University of Amsterdam gives an interview about her presentation at Get-Bent Manchester 2007, on Trans Erotixxxx. She asks: Does Trans pornography have a unique space within the spectrum of pornography?