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Ramzan Kadyrov - The Dictator of Chechnya

Ramzan Kadyrov is the dictator of the republic of Chechnya, which is a federal subject republic of Russia.

As you can see from the picture below, Ramzan really, really, really - and I mean really - likes Vladimir "Little Father" Putin, the president of the Russian Federation.

Ramzan's cuddling up to Vlad has very good reasons. Firstly, it was Putin who put Ramzan in power after the previous dictator of Chechnya was (who was little Ramzan's father) killed. Putin also funnels over a whole lot of money (some say 80% of Chechnya's budget) to keep Ramzan in power with the main objective to keep the Islamic separatists in check and the country calm.

Despite his cuddling up with Putin, Ramzan really, really, really - and I mean really - doesn't like homosexuals. In fact he emphatically denies there are any Chechen homosexuals, and if there are he recently said that he would bugger them for badmouthing him and his wonderful republic with spreading rumors about state orchestrated persecution, torture and murder.

Putin, and his regime, just smile and deny any atrocities.

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.

A Social Experiment

(via J.M.G.)

In a social experiment two guys pretend to be homosexuals in Russia and walk the streets of Moscow holding hands.

The reactions are scary and shows how successful the President of Russia, Vladimir "Little Father" Putin, and his cohorts have been in their "Gay Propaganda"-efforts at focusing the Russian society on homophobia instead of their real problems, such as lack of democracy and criminal activities by the ruling nomenclatura.

After reading some of the violently hateful responses to the video on YouTube, I believe there is valid reason to fear for the two guys safety.

#DoTheRightThingforAvacar

Yesterday I was contacted by Rico Bluestar, who wanted to know how the situation concerning the transfer of Southern Charm sim had been solved when my husband Ars Northmead passed away on March 12, 2010. Ars was in first life also known as Joseph Douglas "Doug" Wilson Jr.

Although Linden Lab were compassionate and as helpful as they reasonably could be throughout the process, I could only tell him that I was fortunate that Doug' first life family were understanding and loving enough to help me in that situation.

Doug's father, who was the executor of Doug's estate, presented the proper documentation to Linden Lab showing his status as father and executor, and also wrote a letter to Linden Lab in which he asked them to transfer Southern Charm to me. That saved the situation for me.

I am forever grateful to the Wilson family, and especially Mr. Wilson himself, for the love, support and assistance they showed me - a complete stranger (although Doug had mentioned me to them several times it seems) - in this difficult situation.

---

Rico Bluestar was the partner of Avacar Bluestar for close to three year up until Avacar passed away on November 14, 2014. Together the two owned, operated and worked hard to build Gay Fun World (GFW) as a place for gay residents to go to for fun and shopping.

Rico is not as fortunate as I was. It seems that Avacar's first life family are Southern Baptist and all of them - with the exception of a one of Avacar's sisters - absolutely abhor and detest Avacar's "lifestyle choice" (i.e. that he was gay and admitted it). They want all evidence of Avacar's homosexuality obliterated and disolved and will therefor not cooperate to have the sims transferred to Rico Bluestar.

I think that is wrong, it is in fact an outrage!

I would like all of my family and friends - straight or gay - to join me in telling Ebbe Altberg, the CEO of Linden Lab, and Linden Lab itself that it is time for them to take a stand against homophobia, to make an exception and to transfer the GFW sims to Rico.

If you have a Twitter account please retweet my tweet and ask your friends to do so too. If you don't have a Twitter account, get one and do the same thing. Gawd this is the 21st century people, get with the program!

@ebbealtberg & @LindenLab, #DoTheRightThingforAvacar and put an end to #homophobia. Transfer the GFW sims to Rico! pic.twitter.com/WYipgApNVq
— Bock McMillan (@BockMcMillan) January 15, 2015

"I'm Sorry..."

To the guy who punched me tonight for kissing my boyfriend pic.twitter.com/SMVmTpDCdL
— Cole Ledford (@ColeLedford11) November 7, 2014

This news reaches me via Wicked Gay Blog and Gay Star News:

"A US student, who was beaten up for being gay, tweeted a defiant message to his attacker and instantly became a viral sensation.

Ohio student Cole Ledford, who tweets at @ColeLedford11, was beaten up for kissing his boyfriend, and was left with a painful black eye.

Yesterday (November 7), he tweeted a picture of himself and his injuries alongside a text with the words: ‘To the guy who punched me tonight for kissing my boyfriend.’

‘I'm sorry that you called me fag,’ wrote Ledford.

‘I'm sorry you hit me for no reason. I'm sorry that whatever insecurities you have don't allow you to accept others for who they are. I'm sorry that I threaten you.’

‘I'm NOT sorry I'm gay. I'm proud to be this way. I'm proud to be confident enough to love who I love and to love me. I'm proud to have friends and family that love me regardless of me. Honestly, I'm not sorry.’

Since posting the image, Ledford has become somewhat of an overnight star. His tweet was retweeted more than 23,000 times.

He later posted a cute photo of him and his boyfriend with the caption: ‘Boyfriend wanted to say hi and thanks for the support! Off to Cleveland to see the fam! #loveislove #youallrock.’

He also tweeted: ‘overwhelmed by all the support. I have a nasty black eye but other than that, I'm fine. Thank you all so much! Love > Hate.’

He’s also been encouraging his new-found followers to support equality charities if they want to help.

‘If what happened to me makes you want to make a difference please consider donating to the @HRC and help their fight,’ he tweeted."

---

Another everyday hero steps out of anonymity for a while to make us all proud. Proud to be humans, to be men and most of all to be gay men.

All Out 4 Uganda

If you think it could work, chip in any amount to get started: https://www.allout.org/All-Out-4-Uganda.

Is Facebook Homophobic?

Facebook, also lovingly known as F*c*book or FuckFace, is a social networking site located in the U.S.A. with 1.28 billion monthly active users worldwide (March 2014).

I have been using FuckFace on and off, both in my first and second lives, for the last four years or so. I have left Facebook voluntarily twice and I have had my account deactivated or disabled six-seven times (I lost count). Twice Facebook has given me a reason for deactivating/disabling my account ("reason to believe that I was not using real name"), but mostly it has been done without any justification given for their action.

During my time on FuckFace I have experienced several pogroms from the company directed against my LGBT friends, but no such actions have ever - to my knowledge - occurred against any of my straight friends. Neither have I ever heard or read of such concerted actions directed against straight SecondLife avatars on the site (with two individual exceptions, Barcelonamaria and Pieni).

If anyone of you reading this have such information, please do enlighten me as I realize that my knowledge is only empirical, limited and may be slanted ("With eyes sensitive to green", as a line in a Swedish song goes, ones perception of the color green is enhanced but other colors may be obscured.)

However, based on my experience, I am prepared to make the charge that FuckFace is homophobic - or at the very least - applying it's rules in a homophobic way. So my answer to the question I posed in the title of this post is: "Fuck yes, definitely!"

Moving on to another of my pet peeves concerning FuckFace, there is the issue of "real identities". The company seems to completely ignore that there many times are valid reasons for someone not to use the name on their drivers licences. These reasons can range from being a victim in an abusive relationship to actually being better known in different times or circles under a "nom de plume" (pen name), alias or artistic name.

During my online existence over the last twenty years I have, besides Bock McMillan, during periods been best known as Markus Bock, LundaMats, WWW, Lunds nästkåtaste karl or 70244 (among others).

I am Bock McMillan and Bock McMillan is I. We are one and inseparable, the only difference is that one is better known in one of my lives, while the other is better know in the other life. It should be my decision which of my names I use and when, not FuckFaces.

Cake In the Face

The temperature in the upcoming national election in Sweden in September, was raised several degrees yesterday when Göran Hägglund, Minister for Health and Social Affairs and leader of the Christian Democrats of Sweden, got a cake shoved into his face when he was in Gothenburg, Sweden, to give a campaign speech.

Photo: Pontus Lundahl/TT

The cake-attacker was a 20 y.o. spectator who was apprehended by the police immediately after the incident.

The Fag Army insignia

Today a group called Fag Army (who have a presence on F*c*book) accepted responsibility for the cake-attack, saying they are a group of men who identify as LGBTQ and that they are tired of homophobia and the liberal mass-hysteria "that too often hijacks our struggle against it".

In it's statement on F*c*book, the group also stated that the group "caked" Mr. Hägglund as he represents a homophobic and transphobic party which over the years has done everything it could to thwart  the rights of LGBTQ people and that the Christian Democrats is the party in the present government that represent and normalize "the oppression that stalks, abuses and kills (LGBTQ people)" 

The statement ends with a laconic postscript that says, "Given what religious extremists have done to us LGBTQ people throughout history, isn't a cake in the face quite innocent?"
---

Although I do agree with Fag Army that a cake in the face is quite innocent and that the Christian Democrats of Sweden is a party for organized homophobia and transphobia, I believe that there are better ways to handle our opponents. This, however, doesn't mean that I don't think this was a hilarious action and that it probably helped to put focus on the Christian Democratic parties deplorable stance on LGBTQ issues.

Kiss-In Against Putin in Argentina

Putin is visiting Argentina this week. LGBT rights orgs are staging a kiss-in tomorrow outside the Russian embassy… pic.twitter.com/jtWmjfS7AW
— Andrés Duque (@Blabbeando) July 10, 2014

(via J.M.G.)

"Little Father" is visiting Argentina and will be met by men kissing men and women kissing women outside the Russian embassy.

"Oh my!", as George Takei would say.

#GAYSAREHERE

(via J.M.G.)

I couldn't have said it better myself!

...And The Winners Will Be...

It's the annual high point in many gay European men's year tonight, the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. I'm staying away from those parties because I don't like the music one bit and everything gets a bit over-the-top and "gala" for me to feel happy and comfortable.

If there was any justice whatsoever in the world this song would be allowed to compete again this year and would win this time around (mostly because of the song but a little because of the cute guitarist and, to be quite honest, the singer/composer too).


...but as I am not expecting miracles in this unfair and unjust world, my second favorite for winning tonight is this one.

I want the Russians and the other homophobes and transphobes out there to get a wake-up call and have their bigotry rubbed in their faces, so I will vote for it ten times although I don't like the song that much.

Fred Phelps is Dead

Fred Phelps, the founder and head of the Westboro Baptist Church until his excommunication in 2013, died shortly after midnight today.

Fred and his church are mostly known for hating "fags" and picketing funerals of soldiers and LGBT men and women. They first rose to notoriety for picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young American man who was tortured and murdered in October 1998, simply for being gay.

I will neither grieve this vicious and hateful man's death, nor will I picket his funeral. Fred will very soon be forgotten while the memory of Matthew will shine on.

The Best Gay Possible

(via J.M.G.)

Irishman Rory O'Neill is a drag queen and gay rights activist. His drag persona Panti Bliss is an institution in Ireland.

In January 2014 O'Neill appeared on an Irish television program where homophobia was being discussed. O'Neill alleged that some individuals involved in Irish journalism were homophobic. The persons mentioned by O'Neill were the journalists John Waters and Breda O'Brien of the Irish Times, David Quinn, head of the Iona Institute, and three other members of that same institute. The homophobes later threatened the television company and O'Neill with legal action.

The television company gave in to the pressure and forthwith removed that section of the interview from their online archive and issued a public apology to the homophobes. The company also paid a hefty settlement of €85,000 to the six homophobes.

On February 1, 2014, O'Neill (as Panti) gave a speech at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in response to the events surrounding the controversy. This speech has now been set to music by the Pet Shop Boys.

Stop Telling Women To Smile

It's International Women's Day again and time to honor women's advancement and reminding us all of the continued vigilance and action required to ensure that women's equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of life.

As a gay man I may sometimes encounter homophobia and oppression in my life, but that is next to nothing compared to what women in our societies have to go through. 

The structural indoctrination and prevailing views teach us all from an early age - whether we are men or women, gay or straight - that women are worth less and less important than men. That a woman's place is to please, aid and support men everywhere and all the time. This gender discrimination leads to women being bought and sold like cattle, treated worse than animals, being underpaid, exploited, used and abused, maimed and killed at an incredible rate worldwide. 

We should use this day - atleast - to reflect upon this phenomenon and to consider how we as individuals, and as part of the societies we live in, can modify our ways of thinking and acting to change this horrific situation. One first step could be to do what the American artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh suggests, to stop telling women to smile.

"Stop Telling Women to Smile" is an art series by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh that started in Brooklyn in the fall of 2012. It is an ongoing, traveling series that will gradually include many cities and many women.

To find out more about the project and how you can get involved with it, have a look at the website. 

When the Games End

The 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, are coming to an end tomorrow. I am proud to say that I have been able to avoid it almost completely, the exception being listening to my co-workers discussions at lunches.

The reason for my personal boycott of these games are the state sanctioned heinous treatment of the LGBT community in Russia and the homophobic so called "Gay Propaganda" laws that the country has adopted with the full support of President Vladimir "Little Father" Putin.

"Stop the Hate" Photography by Tomais Ashdene

The eyes of the world have been focused on Russia during the months leading up to and during the games, which may very well have put a lid on some of the violence and outrages that would otherwise have occurred. Once the games have ended things may very well change to the worse. I am extremely worried for my LGBT brothers and sisters in Russia and for what may come in the near future.

Russia has a sad tradition of state sanctioned persecution against marginalized groups throughout it's history with pogroms, bullying and violence against Jews, Cossacks, Chechens to mention a few. Now the LGBT community is being used in the same way, to deflect anger and unrest in the population from rising against the regime and instead supplying the malcontents with an easy scapegoat to persecute without legal sanctions.

Of course I am aware that Russia is by no means the worst of the countries that are persecuting it's LGBT citizens, but I (wrongly) had higher expectations of Russia than for Uganda, Saudi Arabia and some other nations.

Word!

(via J.M.G.)

Ms. Panti Bliss on homophobia, please visit J.M.G.; IRELAND: Drag Queen Slams Homophobia From Stage Of National Theater for the background story.

The Newest Olympic Sport

(via J.M.G.)

#liveandletlove

(via J.M.G.)

About the clip

2,000 people of the city of Stockholm gathered at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium to show their support to the LGBT people of Russia and to sing the most beautiful national anthem in the world.

You can do the same, make your own rainbow version of the song and upload under the hashtag #liveandletlove. You'll find sheet music and lyrics on www.liveandletlove.se.
...

Watch, like on YouTube and share! Show Little Father Putin, the Olympic Committee that we will not forget their homophobia and the Russian LGBT community that we support them in their struggles against the horrendous and discriminating "Gay Propaganda" laws. Gay Rights are Human Rights!

The Olympic Games, Russia & Putin

I was tipped about this post by John Aravosis on the AMERICAblog by the longtime Bock in SecondLife reader, my dear brother, Dejerrity Mycron.

Despite Dej's present sufferings in an old Manhattan building with a malfunctioning boiler and a worthless managing company in the midst of the coldest winter in New York for ages, my lovely and loving brother takes the time and makes the effort to send me tips. Isn't it clear from that fact alone, that the man is completely loveable?

Oh guys, he is single too at the moment so if you would want to meet this gruff diamond in disguise just drop a notecard on my profile and I may set you up for an introduction.

Send your notecards to The McMillan Matchmaking Agency (a part of the BMcM Corporation), c/o Bock McMillan.

If you pass my scrutiny, I may introduce you! First come, first served! 
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The AMERICAblog; "How Vladimir Putin sent 'Brand Russia'  into the toilet". The post starts like this:

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has done more to harm the image of Russia internationally than anyone in a generation.

Putin’s baby, the 2014 Winter Olympics being held in Sochi, Russia in just under two weeks, was meant to demonstrate to the world that Russia had entered the modern age.

Then a funny thing happened. The world actually paid attention to Russia, and found it to be a third-world cesspool run by a despot.

If Brand Russia had already been bruised by Putin’s reign, in the past 12 months it’s been utterly destroyed."

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I hope "Little Father" Putin reads it and takes notice, but that may be a vain wish.