Seeing into the gay future
“On a clear day you can see forever”, claim the lyrics of this iconic song from the musical, play and film that have haunted us since 1929 when the play by John Balderston appeared on Broadway. Roughly speaking, the story concerns a reincarnated woman with extrasensory perception; something that the leaders of this country require in great abundance if they wish to survive the maelstrom of problems that face us.
With no parliamentary shindigs we can relax for a bit and wonder whether the couple of honourables who really do not deserve the name will dream up some new distraction to flummox the Prime Minister and prove to us all that, indeed, revenge is a dish best eaten cold.
Our concerns were all about Malta resisting the proposed EU-wide suggestion that pensionable age should rise and with it our contributions to the revival of the eurozone that, in my humble opinion, looks rather like throwing our hard-earned money into the Black Hole of Calcutta.
Also, because of Gay Pride last Saturday, we had the Leader of the Opposition issue a hand on heart video about gender equality and how his government is not interested in poking its nose into people’s bedrooms while Chris Said, on the part of the government, presented the smokescreen cohabitation Bill to Parliament.
I do not need ESP to realise that the gay lobby can be determinant in a forthcoming election as, today, there is no stigma to being gay and the trend, quite rightly, is that gay people are and will forever remain an integral part of society. It has taken Maltese politicos long enough to realise the value of the Gay Euro!
There is no longer any need for a gay person to live in a furtive ghetto full of secrets and lies. Yes, the last frontier in social reform will, in fact, be the acceptance and integration of the gay world into the mainstream without fuss and bother and without religious maxims being shoved down our throat by people who have no clue what it is like to be born gay, live gay and have homophobia thrust upon them.
I maintain, as a believer, that if Man were made in the full image and likeness of the Creator then the perfection of the Deity fully embraces a state of being as one simply cannot call being gay a condition that has been part of humanity since Day One.
It may not be in everyone’s ESP to understand what the purpose of being gay is in some Divine Plan of their devising, however, we do know that there is a propensity for gay people to be more creative, more artistic, more literary, more poetic and more colourful than the straight drones in the hive.
Let this not be taken as a general rule but a perception for, as society’s attitude to being gay relaxes, more and more different gay types seem to emerge from the shadows of enforced obscurity into which they were made to hide in before.
Also, lest the “straight drone” image stick, let me say here and now that the term “metrosexual” was not coined for nothing as more and more heterosexuals feel that they can express their creativity without compromising their sexuality.
The divorce trauma we experienced last year has shown that, for starters, religious considerations have little or no influence on the way we think and that the world has galloped ahead immeasurably from the contradictory and obscure doctrines that were devised to keep the Church supreme for the last 2,000 years; a doctrine that, in the very words used by Joseph Muscat in his recent video, invaded the privacy of one’s bedroom!
When I say contradictory I mean it. Imagine being told by a priest who is unmarried, chaste and childless, that as a gay person one must live the same way simply because somewhere in one’s DNA the gay gene precluded attraction to the opposite sex!
Imagine being told that one is “intrinsically evil” when a plethora of members of the same Church, have, for centuries, been sexually abusing little boys!
This is why I tend to largely ignore the mutterings of the Catholic Church in this regard. Sadly, the concerted anti gay PR campaign that the Vatican devised worldwide to deflect the attention of the world from its galloping paedophilia backfired. Had it not, I would not be at all surprised if, today, the great and the good would have been literally or metaphorically burning people like me at the stake.
It was in fact the gift of ESP given to us by the late lamented Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and augmented by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, that enabled the civilised world to come to its own conclusions regarding the true nature of mankind and reject archaic pronouncements about gay people such as being dangerous pollutants in the rainforest and ask the Catholic Church to put its own house in order before casting the first stone.
I still wait for the day when I will see a notice affixed to the church door that will advertise Lenten Sermons for gay persons, single persons, widows, separated persons, divorced persons etc., identifying them as a valid part of society. My ESP tells me that in the not too distant future, I will.
Maybe I am the eternal optimist but we live in a time when information technology has changed our world so completely that we can, at the touch of a button, be gifted with being able to see forever on a clear day.
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Mr Joseph Carmel Chetcuti
Aug 2nd 2012, 03:05
You write "we do know that there is a propensity for gay people to be more creative, more artistic, more literary, more poetic and more colourful than the straight drones in the hive." Does this depiction of yours include lesbians? Kenneth, for goodness sake, stop stereotypying gay people. We are no more creative, no more artistic, no more poetic and no more colourful (the word 'colourful' in some English speaking country taken to mean 'of a criminal background'). These other types are all out for those who have eyes to see. And stop harping about the gay euro. You (I presume) and I are financially comfortable but there are many gay men in Malta who are poor. I met and I talked with many of them. Your view of the world is eurocentric. There are many, many gay men all over the world who are suffering and who are simply leading ordinary lives. Do not make them feel less than the rest of 'us' who may like to think of themselves as being creative, artistic, poetic and even colouful.
Elvin Muscat
Jul 20th 2012, 16:15
There is nothing wrong with being what you feel, tolerance is necessary and I definitely condone violence and prejudice. But the Church must adhere to its beliefs, you cannot expect certain ideas to materialise without remorse. Yes, the Church must first seek to clean its own house and then talk and criticise the same sex ideals. The intolerance is reducing as people are more open minded, but there are its disadvantages as young children are sometimes thrown into a same sex marriage relationship sometimes confused who end up being ridiculed at school. But I suppose that happens in every circumstance with children, who must be brought up as children with proper ideals.
Whatever the gender or sex orientation or colour of skin, we are all equal, the rest is prejudice.
Joe Xuereb
Jul 5th 2012, 00:54
Sur Zammit Tabona, Chennetto, gays are artistic?! Some are and reflecting the times, always (when they are artistic, that is to say).
Years ago - artistically speaking things have moved on, and some would say backward. Not so. We always move forward because there is no other choice. At best we rehash but mostly we degrade. Welcome to the future!.
Years ago I read in a gay rag freebie - subsidised by adverts of all sorts and donations were requested when Mary Whitehouse used to take us to court and costs were hefty and funds low - I read (kemm ser indum ġej biha, but that's me!) that, had Michelangelo been gay he would have wall-papered the Sistina with black plastic bin-liners (there was a phase in London in them days when dreary bedsitters full of junk furniture were camouflaged in said bin-liners. This worked up to a point but the trouble was when one dropped one's sewing needle or one's key and could not be found in the dense gloom in spite of a visiting Rodolfo on all fours looking for the key or a needle in his knee, or a hundred imprecations to one Anthony, the saint allocated to the Lost Property Office at Baker Street. But who knew nothing, and cared less, about sinful sods persevering in their sinful ways.
As for seeing into the gay future - I'd rather not think about our World Gay Pride this Saturday coming up. Beyond that, things gay or things sad are in the lap of the gods. My costume is ready and that is all that matters. Easy in fact is my costume is carnival every day of the year. All ethnic like. As we say in England, if you can't beat them, join them. Vive la difference and allelulja l-varjeta`, il-ħajja mżewwqa ward u xewk.
Margaret Bianchi
Jul 4th 2012, 17:58
Can vision be so clouded? We have choices - and there are consequences. The total disregard of God will not bring peace or happiness but it will continue to bring division and bitterness.
Margaret Bianchi
Charles Grixti
Jul 5th 2012, 23:19
Being Gay is not a choice.
Can you chose to be black or white or a man or woman. NO. (although some do resort to surgery and drugs to alter both). Then since God created Gays, he must have made a mistake, right? Otherwise, if God cannot make a mistake, then Gays do not contradict God's will - he made them too.
Alex Ellul
Jul 4th 2012, 15:53
Besides the horrible Marc Dutroux case and the paedophiles hiding at high places of authority, should one want to know more about paedophilia and paedophile rings in high places of governments and authorities, may I recommend to start reading here:
http://www.rense.com/general81/rxk.htm
A quotaion from this report is pertinent:
Beautiful Vancouver B.C., site of the 2010 Winter Olympics, was described by the "Christian Science Monitor" in 1997 as "a pedophiles' paradise," a place known for its "notorious sex trade," with an international reputation "as a city where it is easy to find a child for sex." In 1999, UNESCO named Vancouver one of the world's top three centers for sex trafficking, child porn and pedophilia because of "suspected judicial protection for child sex offenders."
In 1994, Renate Andres-Auger, an aboriginal lawyer and single mother of six girls, found irregularities in a land claim case that were very damning to the judicial process. She also charged certain judges and lawyers with a criminal conspiracy to aid and protect pedophiles. She and her own lawyer Jack Cram presented evidence, including photographs and eye witness accounts that two Supreme Court judges were engaged in pedophilia and were using their office to protect other pedophiles. She named the prestigious "Vancouver Club" as a center of this pedophile ring. (Kevin Annett, "Hidden From History: The Canadian Holocaust," p. 147-150)
The Judge ordered Auger removed from the court. "The sheriffs dragged Andres-Auger out of the court and you could hear her thumping down the stairs behind the judge's bench." Then the Judge ordered the sheriffs to remove her lawyer Jack Cram. Police were called to clear the courtroom of about 80 supporters. According to a press release (http://sisis.nativeweb.org/clark/cram.html), this is what happened when Cram took the cause to the public:
"One night at about 11:30 p.m., after finishing a radio interview, Mr. Cram returned home, parked his car, and while walking to his apartment building five policemen emerged out of the bushes and leaped on him. He was put in an unmarked van and as soon as they got him in they "shot him full of something" and he was transported to the psychiatric ward of Vancouver General Hospital -- as a "no information" patient.
Then there's Hollywood:
Recent Charges of Sexual Abuse of Children in Hollywood Just Tip of Iceberg, Experts Say
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/12/05/recent-charges-sexual-abuse-children-in-hollywood-just-tip-iceberg-experts-say/#ixzz1ze4T30gw
quote:
Feldman, 40, himself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, unflinchingly warned of the world of pedophiles who are drawn to the entertainment industry last August. "I can tell you that the No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always will be pedophilia,” Feldman told ABC’s Nightline. “That's the biggest problem for children in this industry... It's the big secret.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/12/05/recent-charges-sexual-abuse-children-in-hollywood-just-tip-iceberg-experts-say/#ixzz1ze4ym4sr
But the mainstream media just mentions the few hundred criminal priest s who had joined the priesthood specifically to abuse of their position. The MSM just fails miserably in telling us the truth about the paedophiles hiding in high places all over the place.
Terry COURTNADGE
Jul 3rd 2012, 22:12
Please, dear Malta, friend - I implore you, don't get bogged down in any pro v. anti gay debates. In the UK it is debated/discussed on an almost daily basis especially by a well-known national media network and gets nowhere. I am fed up of hearing about it! Personally, I believe in live and let live and even several years ago when 'gay' people were described with or given quite astonishing verbal abuse, I felt sickened by the insults. It's best to let people live their lifestyle their way and accept that somebody is the way nature made them.
Carmel Vella
Jul 3rd 2012, 17:40
If the rest of the world composed of the normal, heterosexuals,. created the same amount of fuss about our sexuality as the gays and lesbians do, there would be no one left working.
Julien Catania
Jul 3rd 2012, 20:39
Normal? Please define what this is? I am gay, I am also 'normal' and lead a life which is good, contribute to society in a positive way, and oh, I also work. It also strikes me that you are creating a lot of (unnecessary) fuss- get on with your life and I'll get on with mine. It had taken me many years to accept who I was and believe me it's only when you are at the top do you realise how bad being at the bottom was. Gays and lesbians will create a 'fuss' until equal rights are given- I should be no more disadvantaged than you are.
Charles Grixti
Jul 5th 2012, 07:37
I agree Carmel Vella. While I fully agree that gays should have full and equal civil rights, I find that they are too introspective for my liking. Once they have exhausted the right to same-sex marriage and campaigning for HIV cures, they care not one iota except to party, party party. There are so many issues, environmental, poverty, injustice, torture, animal rights, etc. this brushes past them like water on a duck. Too self-centred. And to define one's whole existence by your sexual orientation is pretty pathetic too.
Alex Ellul
Jul 3rd 2012, 16:56
It is quite normal for commentors to gravitate to the Catholic Church's child-abuse cases which makes us all Catholics feel ashamed. But the scope of certain writers is not to speak the truth but to abuse of the truth. The Catolic church has purged itself from the pedophile priests but society has not made one sinlge step forward to clean itself from pedophile rings that dominate the globe. Pedophilia has invaded all strata of society and the Marc Dutoux case, that case that our mainstream media has managed to make us forget, had this very ad story: (source: wikipedea)
Allegations of massive cover-up
There was widespread anger and frustration among Belgians due to police errors and the general slowness of the investigation. This anger culminated when the popular investigative judge in charge of the case was dismissed after having participated in a fund-raising dinner by the girls' parents. His dismissal resulted in a massive protest march (the "White March") of 300,000 people on the capital, Brussels, in October 1996, two months after Dutroux's arrest, in which demands were made for reforms of Belgium's police and justice system.
On the witness stand, Jean-Marc Connerotte, the original judge of the case, broke down in tears when he described "the bullet-proof vehicles and armed guards needed to protect him against the shadowy figures determined to stop the full truth coming out. Never before in Belgium has an investigating judge at the service of the king been subjected to such pressure. We were told by police that [murder] contracts had been taken out against the magistrates." Connerotte testified that the investigation was seriously hampered by protection of suspects by people in the government. "Rarely has so much energy been spent opposing an inquiry," he said. He believed that the Mafia had taken control of the case.[2]
GL Calleja
Jul 3rd 2012, 14:59
Both the Catholic Church and the Government in Malta have to understand that " GAY IS HERE TO STAY ". No ifs or buts, right or wrong, gays or lesbians are the sons and daughters and brothers and sisters and they are part of a family. One must respect that fact, and do not be surprised if one of these days your son or your daughter will come up to you and say: Mum, Dad I am gay. These are your children and gay or not they need your love and support like any other child. I do want to bring this up but there is a time and a place for everything, in other words always use common sense and always show respect for others..
Kurt Waschnig
Jul 3rd 2012, 14:50
I am full of joy that gays and lesbians held a parade last Saturday in Sliema.
The Malta Gay Rights Movement has achieved a lot and the members of that movement can be proud.
Up to now they have gone a long way and fought peacefully and creatively for civil rights.
It is true the Malta Gay Rights Movement still has to fight for rights that other people take for granted like safe streets and school, acceptance from parents, being treated equally in employment, recognition of relationships and families.
Minorities are protected in a constitutional state.
Nowadays there is no stigma of being gay and the trend quite rightly, is that gay people are and will forever remain an integral part of society.
Even 30 years ago it would have been unimaginable to live as a gay in the public. Meanwhile gay people do not need to live in a furtive ghetto full of secrets and lies.
The divorce referendum last year was a success for democracy in Malta. The result showed that Malta is getting more and more secular and it showed : “religious considerations have little or no influence on the way we think and that the world has galloped ahead immeasurably from the contradictory and obscure doctrines that were devised to keep the Church supreme for the last 2,000 years; a doctrine that, in the very words used by Joseph Muscat in his recent video, invaded the privacy of one’s bedroom!”
It is not important if one believes in God or not, most important is that human beings are equal and enjoy the same rights, that human beings are treated with dignity and respect and that every style of life including being gay or lesbian is accepted and respected.
Tolerance and mutual understanding are decisive tenets of democracy and respect and acceptance.
A liberal and open society must embrace different customs and values if that happens democracy is full alive.
Gay people and migrants enrich an open society, that keeps a society liberal and promotes and strengthens democratic structures.
And it is very important that the impact of the Catholic Church on the Maltese has decreased tremendously.
Gay people fall in love like all others. They can live together and it is wonderful they can marry already in some European countries.
In these countries gay people enjoy the same civil rights and that should go without saying.
Gay people are accepted and respected and lead a life happily in the public. Indeed this is democracy and we have to defend civil rights and a liberal constitution.
The Catholic Church has covered up clerical child abuse in Malta for a very long time and Catholic priests have abused children all over the world for decades.
Clerical child abuse and cover up of clerical child abuse by the Catholic Church are monstrous crimes.
Gay people were persecuted and tortured but those time are gone in Europe. One day gay people will enjoy the same civil rights all over Europe.
Best regards
Kurt Waschnig Oldenburg Germany
e-mail: oldenburg1952@yahoo.de
Mr Joseph Carmel Chetcuti
Jul 3rd 2012, 13:45
I take issue with Kenneth Zammit Tabona on several fronts. The 'gay dollar' whatever that is should not be the impetus for parliamentary reform. Gay men and lesbians deserve equality because that is the moral and ethical thing to do. The myth of the gay dollar overlooks the fact that many gay men are living either below or just on the poverty line. I have seen and know many gay men in Malta who can hardly afford the basic necessities of life. Such blinkered vision of gay men does the movement no good. Likewise many lesbians generally earn far less money than gay men. Nor am I convinced that gay people (lesbians are generally ignored in this regard) are any more creative than straight men. There is absolutely nothing in the makeup of gay men that makes us more creative. Even if that were the case, that would not be a sufficient reason to attain equality. We must fight for equality on one ground and only one ground - it is the ethical and moral thing to do. We have had enough stereotypes thrown at us without the need of us pandering to such stereotypes.
Mr Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Jul 3rd 2012, 15:40
why do you speed read????
Jonathan McBee
Jul 3rd 2012, 18:14
From http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/glossary/g/metaphor.htm :
"Definition: A metaphor is a comparison of two things that does not use "like" or "as." Like similes, metaphors are a type of figurative language. Used well, metaphors are an efficient way of conveying an image or idea to your reader.
Examples:
For examples of metaphor, we can turn to a master, picking up Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye. On the first page, we find: "...his hair was bone white."
In this case, the color of the hair is being compared to the color of bone. Because neither "like" nor "as" is used, it's a metaphor rather than a simile. Continue to more examples of metaphor, practice creating your own metaphors, or test your knowledge with a figurative language quiz."
Shall I explain the true meaning of the gay Euro as well? Or perhaps the feminist Euro? The religious, the social, the educational Euro?
Charles Grixti
Jul 5th 2012, 07:44
But he might have a point about the gay euro. In richer countries, Toronto Canada for example, the yearly Gay Pride Parade attracts thousands from all over the world and it is advertised as family entertainment - which I can assure you it is not. Yet the city advertises and promotes it because it brings in millions of dollars and the hotels and gay clubs are full and there are parties of all sorts happening for the whole week.
Please choose the reason of your report below: