irene hurricane: March 2008

Monday, March 31, 2008

A second American political strategist has been appointed to Brian Paddick’s campaign to become the first Lib Dem Mayor of London.

Nominations for Mayor close today and the election will be held on May 1st.

Jerome Armstrong, sometimes called the Blogfather, will be the campaign’s web strategist. He was instrumental in US Presidential hopeful Howard Dean’s grassroots campaign in 2004, regarded as the first major campaign to effectively use the internet to fundraise and win support.
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A member of the House of Lords who used his Roman Catholic faith to frustrate his own party’s gay rights legislation has died.

Lord Stallard of St Pancras was 86. He was known throughout his career as Jock, a reference to his upbringing in Lanarkshire, Scotland.

A left-wing presence on the Labour benches, he was first elected to represent St Pancras North at the 1970 general election.

Just four years, when the party returned to government, Albert Stallard became a PPS to a minister of state at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and was quickly promoted to minister for housing and construction. He also served as a whip.

After being passed over for selection for a re-drawn seat of Holborn and St Pancras in 1983 in favour of younger Labour candidate Frank Dobson, Stallard was appointed to the House of Lords.

There he opposed compulsory sex education in schools, the 1990 Embryology bill and along with many peers of his generation, felt homophobia was not just acceptable but the teachings of his religion.

A devout Roman Catholic, during debates in the Lords on the equalisation of the age of consent in 2000 he compared homosexuality to child abuse and attacked the Blair government for threatening to impose the will of the Commons on the Lords by way of the Parliament Act.

“The one thing I cannot come to terms with is the concept that homosexuality must be equated with heterosexuality and that homosexual couples must be equated with married couples,” he said.

“That is not the case and … the heterosexual relationship must be emphasised.

“That is the basis of the society that I know and the basis of the society that I espouse and one that I shall continue to espouse.”

He also admitted during the same debate:

“I have to accept that I come from a different world, background, education, environment and beliefs from some of my younger friends.

“Now there is a much wider gap between the generations than was ever the case in the past.

“Those of us who still hold firm to Christian morals and beliefs find it difficult suddenly to overthrow them and become so lackadaisical of anything that is decent.

“That seems to be the conduct of the new generation–the “www dot com” thing.”

Lord Stallard is survived by his wife Sheila and two children.
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This is quite enlightening. David and I went to see East West last night at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. I was really pleased to see that the London Fire Brigade are proud to be a sponsor of this year’s festival. The film was a bit depressing, covering the struggle to hold a Pride march in Moscow. Last year’s Pride march in Moscow ending up with severe beatings for the demonstrators (including local Peter Tachell).

The London Fire Brigade are now 13th in Stonewalls list of top employers! Here are the ten top-scoring companies on the Work Equality Index:

1 IBM 95%

2 Staffordshire Police 94%

3 Greater London Authority 93%

3 Manchester City Council 93%

5 Nacro 92%

6 Lloyds TSB 91%

7 Brighton & Hove City Council 90%

8 Goldman Sachs 89%

8 KPMG 89%

8 Transport for London 89%

11 Hampshire Constabulary 88%

11 Sheffield City Council 88%

13 BT 87%

13 Greater Manchester Police 87%

15 West Midlands Police 86%

16 Barclays 85%

16 Home Office 85%

18 Citigroup 84%

19 Accenture 82%

19 JPMorgan 82%
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Friday, March 14, 2008

The UK granted a temporary reprieve from deportation to a gay Iranian teen, while they review his previously rejected asylum application. Mehdi Kazemigot, claims he will be executed upon return to Iran. While in England studying English, Mehdi got the word that his boyfriend had been hanged back home on account of his homosexuality. Before being executed, his boyfriend named Mehdi as his partner.

Since 1979, 4,000 gay and lesbian Iranians have been executed. Last year, while speaking at Columbia University, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked laughter, and outrage, when he pronounced that Iran does not have the homosexual “phenomenon.”

Today’s “cooked” elections, which excluded all reform candidates, will yield little change in Iran. Do you think countries like England have an obligation to act as a safe haven for people like Mehdi?
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Thursday, March 13, 2008

A Scottish Bishop has attacked the “gay lobby” for what he percieves as their attack on Christian values.

The Right Rev Joseph Devine, the Bishop of Motherwell, told a Glasgow audience that the gay lobby presented “an image of a group of people under persecution”.

In the fourth of the Gonzaga Lectures held at the city’s St Aloysius’ College, Bishop Devine also spoke about sectarianism, praising joint-campus schools and noting the significant rise of Polish Catholics in Scotland.

He vowed to “fight on against the forces of secularism” saying this was “more dangerous as a threat because it is much more insidious”.He said: “The homosexual lobby has been extremely effective in aligning itself with minority groups. It is ever present at the service each year for the Holocaust memorial.

“We neglect the gay movement at our peril.

“I want to ask you if you are able to see the giant conspiracy that’s taking place before our eyes?”

He said: “It’s a very small group of people, but very active and organised, and extremely indulgent. The opposition know exactly what they’re doing. We don’t.”

What outrageous paranoia! How can an intelligent man come out with such crap.

And as for the quote that Gay people are ever present at the Holocaust memorial - sadly, another example of ignorance and the ignoring of Gypsies and Gays who were victims of the Holocaust.
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