Deep Sorrow, Frustration & Anger

The horrible news from London yesterday fills me with deep sorrow, frustration and anger.

My thoughts go to the families of the innocent victims and their families. This was yet an outrageous attack on a western democratic state to create havoc and incite hatred.

Do not for a moment let yourself be lured into believing that this has anything whatsoever to do with religious beliefs or cultural norms. It has as little to do with Islam and Muslims as the Crusades once had to do with fighting for Christianity or Christians.

No, these horrendous and vile acts of terror are all orchestrated to intimidate and disrupt the people of the western democracies as a part of a struggle for power, influence and money. The puppeteers behind this unprovoked violence are more likely to be found in Moscow, Peking and Pyongyang than in Baghdad, Beirut or Tehran.

Garth Raleigh: Stop the Hate

I received this email from Garth Raleigh, former GA Lead (2011-2014), today and will share it with you all without comment.

My dear Bock,

As you well know, I have been actively trying to stay out of extended discussions revolving around events within the Gay Archipelago as most of it is merely gums flapping in the breeze.

However, after reading the post from Myles and now the post from Hiro, I am compelled to come forward thus toss my hat into the fray as it were.

Regarding our own estates decision to withdraw membership from the organization: 

This was a private, conscious decision made within our estate owner and managers group which involved deep discussion as to benefits and merits involved in continued membership. The unanimous decision to withdraw membership was reached, the GA Lead notified and fellow GA Owners notified. Simple.

I hardly think this is what one would term a 'hissy fit,' and it mystifies me as to why a group of adults making their own decisions and carrying them out would be seen or termed as such.

To the newly-appointed leadership team following this thread (waves):

I. There seems to be a LOT of public and 'behind closed doors' schoolyard name-calling, shaming and 'blame tossing' coming from within the GA leadership team. These actions are uncalled-for, undignified and unworthy of anyone who is supposed to be representing the GA or its membership in any capacity. Stop the hate.

II. From what I hear, the current state of the GA and any/all problems that exist or are imagined are being squarely laid at my feet. I understand how easy it must be to vilify someone who is not present and no longer a contributing member however, I must point out that there have been THREE GA Leads since my time in the office. One who is currently serving on the newly-appointed team as PR Lead.

Following that logic (if one can call it that) which, I assume, assigns responsibility for these 'problems' (real or imagined), I would call on these three men to also take their share of this 'blame.' Further, that line of 'logic' allows that net to be cast back even farther back in history to encompass multiple members of the GA Council structure and the various Leads involved during those years. Oh, and lets not forget to snare GA founder, Fabrice Snook, into that net as well.

I shall consider myself in good and intelligent company and point out that you have some excellent role-models to follow. Stop the hate.

III. I have heard none of the estates who have chosen to terminate membership with the GA, or ones who are considering doing such in the near future, publicly or privately express any degree of malice about or toward the GA.

This can only be some sort of self-defense mechanism generated by the newly-appointed team to perhaps bond and create a warm, fuzzy feeling internally. Decisions to terminate memberships and support do not equate imaginary 'political agendas' in any way. Stop the hate.

IV. While there are indeed some personalities in SL that are more in the forefront than others, anyone in SL that believes there is such a thing as 'power' in the virtual platform needs a RL reality check.

There is only 'do or do not.' Stop the hate.

V. As it has always been, members, estates and regions will come and go from any organization such as the GA. Being angry with people who do not share in your vision or believe your ideas are the best - will only serve to make you unhappy and further cement decisions to terminate membership as good ones, and quite possibly have a negative impact on decisions of those considering joining the organization in the future.

The estates and members who have chosen to leave the GA, and those who are to leave the GA for whatever reason, should be wished well and know that they would be welcomed back at a future date if circumstances dictate such.

Build a community, not an exclusive private boys club. Stop the hate.

VI. Bylaws, codes of conduct and other such rules and regulations are merely words on a dusty notecard in the end - only read and cared about by those who created them.

Lead by example first and foremost, then by notecards if needed. Stop the hate.

We've seen all this sort of thing before, Bock. Tiresome as it is, maybe it's just our innate nature that these situations happen or perhaps just one or two who thrive on dramas and fainting couches. As Hiro astutely pointed out, all this will pass.

I am blessed to have been one of the major builders of the Gay Archipelago and remain proud of the extraordinary achievements that were made for the LGBT community and for the Gay Archipelago, as well as the lasting true friendships I made during my long tenure as GA Lead.

Regards,

Garth Raleigh

GA Lead, 2011-2014

Nordic Wear Shows Blatant Homophobia

Qx.se, a Swedish LGBT News & Cruising website, today has the following report.

"The Swedish clothing chain Nordic Wear took a strong stance against LGBT people on Monday.

With a new campaign image on their Facebook page they showed how a family consisting of a mother, a father and two children protect themselves from a burst of rainbow colors with an umbrella. The subtitle reads: "Unfortunately, we do not sell umbrellas. But if we had, they would have worked like this!"

The reactions and the complaints about the campaign have been flooding in, and after one day Nordic Wear responded in the following way through their Facebook page: "Wow, what attention we received for our commitment to the nuclear family! Despite being reported almost 70 times for the image and several death threats we will of course not fold down for gay fascists, we believe in democracy and freedom."

Facebook has no plans to remove Nordic Wears picture. One of those who reported the picture for hate content received the following response: "We have examined the photo that you have reported for hate content or hateful symbols and have determined that it does not violate our community rules."

Nordic Wear was founded in 2013 and is a distributor of the German clothing brand Thor Steinar. Thor Steinar is primarily known for its association with right-wing movements in Germany."

---

When I checked an hour ago today the picture had, however, been removed with the following statement from the company: "As those of us who work at Nordic Wear have been receiving repeated death threats, we out of respect for our families choose  to take down the high-profile post. All threats and harassment against us will naturally be reported to the police."

No more pink dollars for Nordic Wear or Thor Steinar! If they don't like us, we should spare them the embarrassment of doing business with us.

Read more about the controversy surrounding Thor Steinar here: Wikipedia: Thor Steinar.

I would like to know in what way the LGBT-community poses a threat to the nuclear family.

No Hate Speech Movement

The Council of Europe is an international organisation in Strasbourg which comprises 47 countries of Europe. It was set up to promote democracy and protect human rights and the rule of law in Europe.

"Young People Combating Hate Speech Online is a project being run by the Council of Europe’s youth sector between 2012 and 2014. It aims to combat racism and discrimination, as expressed online as hate speech, by mobilizing young people and youth organisations to recognize and act against such human rights violations. The project is a tribute to youth participation and co-management. It was initiated by the youth representatives in the Joint Council on Youth, the committee which brings together youth leaders belonging of the Advisory Council on Youth and the governmental youth representatives of the European Steering Committee on Youth. The project is therefore being carried out by young people with the support of governmental youth institutions.

The campaign is not designed to limit freedom of expression online. Neither is it about everyone being nice to each other online. It is against hate speech online in all its forms, including those that most affect young people, such as cyber-bullying and cyber-hate. The campaign focuses on human rights education, youth participation and media literacy.

The goals of the campaign are:

• To raise awareness about hate speech online and the risks it poses for democracy and individual young people.

• To promote media and Internet literacy.

• To support young people in standing up for human rights, online and offline.

• To reduce the levels of acceptance of online hate speech.

• To mobilise, train and create a network of online youth activists to defend human rights.

• To map hate speech online and develop tools to combat it.

• To support and show solidarity to people and groups targeted by hate speech online.

• To advocate the development of and consensus on European policy instruments combating hate speech.

• To develop youth participation and citizenship online."

Read more about this campaign: http://www.nohatespeechmovement.org/

Tipped by the blog Vanadis ser på saken

Dedication

This is to all the hateful trolls in first life, in SecondLife, in all other virtual worlds and last but not least in the blogosphere, especially the one that lately - for unclear reasons - called me a misogynist.

I know I should not post two songs back-to-back but I stumbled across this and here you have it...

(I tried finding an uncensored version of this particular video but without success, if you know where I can find it please tell me!)

Say his name: MARK CARSON!

Mark Carson (32) did not hide that he was gay, and when he went out on the town he would often head to Greenwich Village, where years before he was born, much of the struggle for gay liberation unfolded. Yet late Friday night, just blocks from the Stonewall Inn, among the most important landmarks of that struggle, he was confronted with a man screaming anti-gay slurs, who then stalked him before pulling out a silver revolver and fatally shooting him, the police said.

“This clearly looks to be a hate crime,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said at a news conference on Saturday. A suspect, later identified as Elliot Morales, 33, was arrested.

Mr. Kelly described a chaotic scene that involved a man seemingly out looking for trouble when he crossed paths with Mr. Carson and ended up shooting him in the face. (The New York Times) 

Top Ten Things I Hate About Myself

10. My overuse of exclamation marks!

9. My habit of singing psalms when I shower 

8. My obsession for tidiness 

7. My need for principles 

6. My Stalinist view on history 

5. My compulsion of over-analyzing E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G

4. My missionary tendencies
3. My soapbox-mentality 

2. My big mouth and small ears
and most of all
1. My mushiness and sentimentality

Henk and Organized Religion

Henk Heithuis 

The picture above shows Henk Heithuis, a young Dutch man in his early twenties. Henk was born in 1936 and was as a child - for unknown reasons - left in the care of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands. While living in a boarding home run by the Church Henk was sexually abused by at least two priests. In 1956 Henk, then 20 years old, reported the molestation to the Dutch police and the priests were convicted for having abused him.

Unluckily for Henk though he would remain in the loving care of the Church until he reached the age of majority in the Netherlands, which at that time was 21. 

The Church sent him to a Catholic psychiatric hospital where he, as court documents confirm, later the same year was castrated “as a treatment for homosexuality and also as a punishment for those who accused clergy of sexual abuse,”

Henk Heithuis was later killed in a car accident in 1958 at the age of 22.

Joep Dohmen, the investigative journalist at the Dutch newspaper The NRC Handelsblad.who uncovered the case, also found evidence that at least nine more young men had been castrated. "These cases are anonymous and can no longer be traced," Dohmen said. "There will be many more. But the question is whether those boys, now old men, will want to tell their story."

Henk, second from left

When my buddy Apmel Goosson first directed my attention to this story (The Telegraph; Dutch Roman Catholic Church "castrated at least 10 boys") I was totally shocked and could not believe it was possible. I felt sick to my stomach by the brutality and the inhumane actions of something that should be - and asserts itself as being - a protection for the weak in a not always kind world. As I thought more about it I became more and more enraged about the profound stupidity, heteronormativity and systematic homophobia that these actions are a symptom of. 

However the Roman Catholic Church is not alone in the total misuse of the trust given to them, the same goes for almost any organized religion. The fault lies not with the original prophets (Jesus, Mohammed etc). but in the way their teachings have been abused by interpretation by their followers and the organizational builders.

In order to grow strong, powerful, influential and rich every religious organisation of any size has always teemed up with the civilian authority. They have become their willing mouthpieces and propaganda machines with a joint mission; To keep the people in line.

Organized religions have always lent themselves to be well organized hate groups working viciously with excluding, condemning, repressing, persecuting or keeping in check

• the heathens or non-believers (Jews, Christians/Muslims, or believers in any other faiths except "the one true faith") which could be slaughtered, slaved or used like cattle if they did not convert to "the one true faith"
• the savages or other cultures (Jews again of course, Romanies, Africans, Asians, Native people all over the world), see above
• the poor and disenfranchised, should know their place, shut up, work hard and breed many children - rewards for being good and faithful would be collected in the hereafter/heaven/paradise, "you will get pie in the sky when you die", "72 virgins in paradise"
• the women, "women are dirty when they menstruate and have given birth", "women are dumb and cannot think properly or be relied upon to take care of themselves, they must be taken care of by their fathers, husbands or brothers", "women cannot be clergy" etc. etc. see above 
• the sexual "deviants", i.e. non-heterosexual, "just don´t do it" or "you are better off dead"
• etc. etc.

---
Ugh, rereading what I have written so far I feel like a poorer variation of Karl Marx with his "Religion is the opium of the people". I will leave it anyway.

Believe me, I am not a communist and have nothing against religion in itself, just the hierarchical superstructure it gets when it gets organized and misinterpreted by the followers of the original prophets.

Organized religion - of any creed, although I am mainly thinking of Christianity and Islam - are the longest lasting, most widespread, most powerful and most vicious hate groups in our world.

Most mainstream Lutheran Churches seem to have backed off a little, but the Roman Catholic Church and the growing Pentecostal movement with its subsidiaries (among other Word of Life) seem to be still going strong in excluding anyone they do not consider worthy or wholesome or complying to their heteronormative belief system.

Henk to me represents one of the untold, unseen and unknown victims of the power mongering, money-grabbing and repressive forces that are unleashed by these organisations.

PayPal Update - Drops 4 Hate Groups

Many SecondLife residents use the excellent services of PayPal to securely transfer money in to or out of SecondLife. 

In a post a few days ago I urged you to join in a petition to ask PayPal to stop serving ten anti-LGBT hate groups; Tell PayPal: Stop supporting hate groups.

PayPal has now stopped it´s service to four of the ten groups, but let´s keep up the pressure until they drop all ten. 

If you haven't done so earlier please go to the post I link to above for all the necessary information and the link to the site with the petition.

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Ten Extremist Sites Served by PayPal

Abiding Truth Ministries (International) Extremist group that makes the outrageous claim that “the Nazi Party was entirely controlled by militaristic homosexuals.”

New Generation Ministries (Latvia/International) Extremist church based in Latvia with branches in 15 different countries. The church's members have been tied to the homophobic murder of Satendar Singh. In one video, at an anti-LGBT rally, church leader Alexy Ledyaev says, “homosexuals are not happy or spiritual people, because they were molested and abused in their childhoods, but that does not give them the right to abuse and rape others!”

Noua Dreaptă (Romania/Balkans) Ultra-nationalist group that has been linked to organizing demonstrations and planning violent attacks on Pride celebrations in Romania and Moldova. 

Truth in Action Ministries (formally Coral Ridge) (United States) Extremist church that spreads anti-LGBT lies such as “bible-believing Christians would quickly find themselves unwelcome in Barney Frank’s new pansexual, cross-dressing military.” 

Dove World Outreach Ministries (United States) Infamous "Burn the Quran" hate church whose pastor preaches that “homosexuality makes God throw up.” 

Julio Severo's Last Days Watchman Site (US/Brazil) Brazilian anti-LGBT leader and writer/ideologue who fled Brazil after LGBT activists brought a lawsuit against him for incitement of hatred. Julio regularly repeats the lie that 10% of gay people are pedophiles, and goes further to say that most gay men “drink urine, swallow feces and experience rectal traumas on a regular basis”, while they are “drunk, stoned or in orgies.” 

Faithful Word Baptist Church (United States) This church's Pastor Steven L. Anderson has described gays as “sodomites” who “recruit through rape” and “recruit through molestation.”

Family Research Institute (United States) Known for saying that gay people are predatory and diseased perverts who victimize children.

Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (United States) This group claims homosexuality is a “lethal behavior addiction,” a “dangerous” practice that is “neither normal nor benign.”

American Society for the Defense of Tradition Family and Property (International) International Catholic extremist group originating in Brazil and with active branches in Argentina and the United States. They are known for organizing homophobic rallies all over the United States and buying advertising asking people to “join the Crusade” of “conscientious resistance” to “the homosexual ‘moral revolution.’”

Tell PayPal: Stop Supporting Hate Groups!

PayPal officially states that its users “may not use the PayPal service for activities that [...] promote hate, violence, racial intolerance” but PayPal has become a favorite payment service for anti-LGBT extremists all over the world.

Thanks to PayPal, it's easier than ever to send and receive money across currencies and continents - but it is also PayPal's responsibility to make sure this technology doesn't fall in the wrong hands. Anti-LGBT extremists all over the world are currently using PayPal to fund raise for their dangerous cause.

Not only is it against PayPal's rules to promote promote "hate, violence, [and] racial intolerance," hate groups also damage PayPal's brand and credibility.

We ask that PayPal join the fight against online hate and immediately shut down the accounts of anti-LGBT extremist groups using the service. PayPal must act immediately to shut down their accounts and ban all sites that promote anti-LGBT hate.

I would like to encourage all LGBT people, and all our heterosexually challenged friends, to sign the petition against the hate trade here PayPal, End the Online Hate Trade. You also have the possibility to tell PayPal why you are taking this action.

"Hatred" revisited and concluded

On September 1st, 2011, I wrote a post named "Hatred". In that post I philosophize about different aspects of hatred that we encounter in real life and in SecondLife.

Afterwards I have been told that some people found my post objectionable because they read it as if I regarded the hate they had demonstrated in a certain instance as equivalent or similar to the hate shown by the Norwegian mass murderer A.B.B. According to their opinion I had not only done so against the people who had been active in the chat I had witnessed and referred to in my post, but to all members of that particular group, whether or not they had taken part in the chat or even if they were logged in to SecondLife at that time or not.

I was also told that I had no basis for my conclusions concerning what I had witnessed because I did not refer to what may or may not have happened in that particular group chat the day before or two hours earlier (when I had not been in-world) or what happened in it after I had logged out of SecondLife. I should have investigated more, they have told me.

The topic has also been elaborated on in some of the Scandinavian SecondLife blogs with the same objections aired.

---

I have reread my original post several times and have been contemplating the objections I have received. After due thought and consideration I have reached the following conclusions.

To me hate is hate is hate is hate and will never be anything else but hate. 

Hate is usually defined as an intense dislike of something or some individual or group of people. In my assessment hate makes you blind to any redeeming qualities, it is relentless and poisons your soul and your outlook on the world around you. 

Of course there are different degrees of hating and the damages caused are of different magnitude. I have never said - and have never intended to say - that the haters in SecondLife are anywhere like A.B.B., except possibly by the fact that they allow hate to influence and guide their lives and actions. 

I take full responsibility for my words and actions. I see no need to retract anything whatsoever in the post I wrote. I cannot take away the experiences or hurt feelings that some people claim they have had, but I cannot be held accountable for the hurt feelings of those who deliberately misinterpret or distort my words to suit their own objectives or views.

Finally I would like to emphasize that I have never claimed to be an investigator or a reporter. What I write in this blog is my truth as I experience it and as I witness it. 

I have always chosen to write only about what I witness myself and have never ever relied on what others say has happened before or after or during. This blog is an account of my own experiences, actions and reactions and not a megaphone for anyone else.

Now I intend to go on with my lives without letting the haters affect or influence me anymore.

Hatred

Only a few weeks ago many of us stood together remembering and honoring the people killed by the the Norwegian mass murderer A.B.B. (whom I never again intend to waist time on by spelling out his full name). This man hates many things; Islam, Muslims, foreigners, Norwegian Social Democrats and Swedish Social Democrats, Socialists, Communists, welfare receivers of any nationality etc. etc. The list could be made much longer but I think you get the drift.

I visited Stavkirken in Second Norway many times during that period, for my own sanity and to be close to others who cared, we sat together in silence and thought of the crimes that had been committed by one hating man against so many people. Again - a few weeks later - we stood all together outside the church remembering the killed at a ceremony in Second Norway and told each other this is what hate leads to, death and destruction and mass murder.

I remember telling myself during this period that hatred is a powerful force that eats at your soul, your mind and your feelings. It changes your outlook at the world and the other people in it. I promised myself to do anything from hating my fellow sisters and brothers again, either by word or by deed.

Yesterday I was minding my own business, looking over my sim, reading note cards that had been sent to me and answering them, chatting a little with my friend Zigadena Gabardini, discussing how our summers had been and her joy at having her Em from the Netherlands come visit for a couple of weeks and the plans they were making for meeting again in November.

I feel very close to Zigadena, ever since Ars first broke his leg and then again through his fatal illness. She has been there giving me emotional support, medical advice and helped me understand and come to grips with the medical procedures that my darling was subjected to.

However back now to the story I was trying to tell! After I had finished my conversation with Zigadena I went back to my meandering thoughts again while checking stuff on the sim when suddenly one of the groups erupted. It was one of the Swedish groups for a radio-channel. There is hardly ever any chat going on in this group apart from the announcements of upcoming shows.

Now the group suddenly filled with people who hated a common individual. Apparently there had been some blogging about something this person was supposed to have done the day before, I seemed to have missed that completely... or maybe it was so subtle that I missed what was being said behind the words written. Anyway they all were there spewing their common hatred on the "culprit" who wasn't there, or at least did not take part in the altercation while I still remained there. Actually some people I have liked dearly for a long time took part, although I don´t suspect they have liked me back as much since my position in this has been quite clear from the start, and of course there were others to whom I do have a distant or noncommittal relationship with.

The incident made me so upset that I immediately wanted to leave the group, but didn't know how to do it as I am new to the Firestorm viewer, so I logged out instead. I didn't want to get infected by more hate or be subjected to more hate speech.

When will we ever learn that there is no real difference between our own hate and the hate shown by the mass murderer A.B.B.? Hate never ever leads to any good, it only destroys.

Now back to bed, this post woke me up aching to get written. I am sad and tired now, sleep will be good for me!