In Your Face, Mr. President!

My hero of the day is Neal Gottlieb, ice-cream manufacturer and mountain climber who summited Uganda's highest mountain two days ago, placed a gay pride flag on it's peak and then wrote a message to the hateful homophobe and bigoted President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

April 22, 2014

Dear President Museveni of Uganda,

On April 16, 2014, after a 6-day climb, I summited your country’s tallest peak, Mount Stanley’s 16,753 foot tall Margherita Peak, and mounted a gay pride flag at its summit in protest of your country’s criminalization of homosexuality. Your country’s highest point is no longer its soil, its snow or a summit marker, but rather a gay pride flag waving brilliantly, shining down from above as a sign of protest and hope behalf of the many thousands of Ugandans that you seek to repress and the many more that understand the hideous nature of your repressive legislation.

The wiser of us understand that humans possess certain unalienable rights. These rights include freedom to express oneself, freedom to worship one’s god or none at all and freedom to live and love as one is born.

Despite this, you recently signed legislation into law that allows those born homosexual to be imprisoned for life. This is a disgusting, despicable act that threatens to ruin countless lives. If you had a son, daughter, niece or nephew that was homosexual, would you want her or him to be imprisoned for life? What if you have friends that are closeted homosexuals? Should they be locked up for the rest of their lives? If you were born gay, would you deserve to be imprisoned?

In a country that is dependent on the United States to fund the majority of its HIV/AIDS care, where less than 5% of those with cancer have access to treatment and where those with access to electricity is still a small minority of the populace, does it make any sense to devote precious and limited resources to imprison those who should be free? Does it make any sense that your administration never successfully prosecuted anybody from Amin’s reign of terror that resulted in over 100,000 murders, yet you wish to imprison for life those who have not committed atrocities but are simply born gay?

As the president of a nation you have the opportunity to be a great man and lead your country forward. Instead, you choose to hold your people back like the imperialists, the dictators and the warlords that have held Africa back generation after generation. The people that you wish to imprison are the same people who can help Uganda grow into a great nation.

When you choose to deny the people of Uganda their human rights, you are no better than Amin.

If you don’t like said flag on your highest peak, I urge you to climb up and take it down. However, you are an old man and surely the 6-day climb through the steep muddy bogs and up the mountain’s glaciers is well beyond your physical ability. Your days are more limited than most. Do you want your remaining days to be yet another blight on the history of your nation or will you find the strength to reverse your actions and allow all Ugandans to be free?

With all due respect,
Neal Gottlieb

P.S. This protest action is mine and mine alone. Neither my fellow climbers nor the Ugandan guides and porters had anything to do with it. The Ugandan guides present at the summit as the flag was mounted had absolutely no idea what the flag stands for, nor did they ask.

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And then I sent this tweet to the president who, as it happens, today joined Twitter!

In your face @KagutaMuseveni Man conquers Uganda’s highest mountain and claims it for the gays http://t.co/0DeFzdyuBo via @gaystarnews
— Bock McMillan (@BockMcMillan) April 25, 2014

Thank you @nealhgottlieb you are now officially my superhero! @MIA_UG
— Bock McMillan (@BockMcMillan) April 25, 2014

Picture of the Day - 61

"Whenever I'm alone with you" Photography by Kidman Latte

If you wish to see more of Kidman's photography, please visit her Flickr photostream here.

Flying On the Wings of Love...

There I was, 100-115 meters over the Blake Sea, feeling the wind in my blond locks and how it was pulling at my mesh clothing that showed off my extraordinarily beautiful calves. I was enjoying myself wholeheartedly. The view of the water and the sims far below us was breathtaking and I felt extremely safe with my Tomais piloting the aircraft.

The blueprints for Blériot XI
Source: Wikipedia

Tomais had offered to take me on a ride in his Blériot XI which had been built in SecondLife based on the original blueprints of the aircraft used by Louis Blériot, the French aviator and inventor, on 25 July 1909 to make the first flight across the English Channel made in a heavier-than-air aircraft. The English newspaper, The Daily Express, led its story of that flight with the headline, "Britain is no longer an Island". 

The Blériot XI was produced in both single and two-seat versions... As my luck would have it, Tomais only owns the original single seat version. 

You may at this time quiet rightfully ask yourself, "If the plane is a one-seat version and Tomais is the pilot, where the f*** is Bock sitting?" 

The love of my life and the apple of my eyes, had me placed precariously, but quite securely (or so he claimed), on the left wing of the airplane. 

It is true, I did not have a seat belt handy, nor anything else to hold on to, but he had lovingly provided me with a parachute... and he did keep on speaking to me soothingly throughout the trip. 

The air plane in SecondLife is built true to the original. The pilot was to start the engine by turning the propeller while first saying "Fuel on" and then, as he keeps on turning the propeller, "Contact". Once the engine is started the pilot runs around the airplane and gets into his seat, then the passenger can jump on to the wing.

I must add, that the flight was very smooth and both the takeoff and the landing were an exhibition of masterly aviation by my Tomais.

Picture of the Day - 60

"Rocca Sorrentina" Photography by Callipygian Christensen

If you wish to see more of Callipygian's photography, please visit her Flickr photostream here.

I & My Identical Twin

Sometimes we need to be in two places at the same time, but as we know that isn't possible in our first life. However in SecondLife it is. On Friday evening I realized I had promised to be at two separate places at 12 PM (noon) on Saturday.

First I had promised Tomais that I would be at the Wastelands sim for a photo shoot with him, Lee McKay and Ryder Yowman for the "And equality under the law for all" picture. So I needed to have my body there. The second place I needed to be was the Second Pride board meeting taking place at the exact same time. So I needed to have my mind there.

The problem is impossible to solve in first life, but a no-brainer in SecondLife. I logged in the lairds Secretary of State, my oldest and wisest alt Wild Zepp-McMillan to take care of my presence at the Second Pride meeting, while my body rested safely at the Wasteland sim under the protection of my lover.

Wild hasn't been online much and far less outside of the home sim since he was created, so first thing he needed was new clothes. (He only had system clothing and any McMillan would rather be seen naked.) He was sent off to a trip to The Men's Department with an allowance of L$2 000. After only spending about L$500 he was good to go and a pride to see.

I can understand if you have difficulty telling us apart, but left to right it is
Bock McMillan and Wild Zepp-McMillan

The experiment was a complete success, I am happy to say, and I was able to perform my obligations in both places, thanks to Wild and being in constant communications with Tomais on Skype.

The photo shoot turned out wonderfully and I am extremely proud to have been a part of it.

"And equality under the law for all" Photography by Tomais Ashdene
with (left to right) me, Ryder. Lee and Tomais

You can see more of Tomais photography on his his Flickr photostream here or his Tumblr PhotoMonkey SL (NSFW). However, all four of us were ejected from Wastelands and sent back to our respective homes when we tried to pull off the naked version of the picture.

The Second Pride meeting went well too, for the minutes please visit SP Board Meeting Minutes 4-19-14 and for the transcript please visit Transcript of SP meeting on 4-19-14.

As could be expected, the present Marketing Director World Undercroft and Event Director Merrick Genesis, were relieved of their duties for failure to attend three consecutive meetings in a row without permission from the Chair.

The meeting was informed that the key responsibilities of the Marketing Director would be performed jointly by Karl Kalchek and Baz Ceawlin. As the position of Events Director is crucial for the upcoming Festival, even I could see that the position would have to be filled with someone who had the skills for the office. I was therefore not at all surprised when level headed Marge Beaumont made a motion that the position, in accordance with the bylaws, should be filled immediately by Kharissa Indigo (a.k.a. the Relentless Khar).

Although I myself love Khar and could see that she had the required skills I was worried by this nomination both for Khar's own sake and for the sake of Second Pride as she has been a target of "some contention" (to put it mildly) within the community, so I gave voice to my concerns at the meeting.

After being assured by several members of the board that they would not allow Khar to stand alone as a target and that they had discussed policies to handle such a situation I was satisfied. The board then appointed Khar to the position of Events Director.

We were then introduced to The Sponsor and Vendor packages for the Festival, and the registration form for those who had purchased those packages.

Next meeting will be Sunday, May 4 at 12 PM (noon) SLT.

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P.S. I would like to clarify that Merrick Genesis absence is due to first life health issues, not through any desire to neglect his duties.

Picture of the Day - 59

"Siblings" Photography by Citta Wiskee

If you wish to see more of Citta's photography, please visit her Flickr photostream here.

SL Photography Monthly - May 2014 Issue Out

The May 2014 issue of the SecondLife Photography Monthly is out today. To view it please go here SL Photography Monthly - May 2014 Issue.

Should you wish to view back issues please visit here, SL Photography Monthly - All Issues.

Well, I might as well share the introduction I wrote for this issue, it is my blog after all.

"Images. They have followed humanity all throughout our evolution. We saw them in our dreams, then we manifested them in sketches on sand and dirt, over carvings on rock and stone to paintings deep inside the caves we dwelt in. Later still we committed them to paper and canvas. More recently, we developed cameras to take photographs, and now in modern times we can use digital technology to capture and create images in ways we've never been able to before. 

I don’t accept the anthropologists theories that our need to recreate, depict or share our visions was driven by religious needs or hunting purposes. I would rather believe that mankind has from the beginning felt the need, the urge even, to let those who came after them know, “I was here. See me. Remember me!” and also to share their visions with those who follow. “Here, right here, I and my friends killed the antelope” or “Jondalar and Ayla met here”.

Images always contain messages. The message can be one of mood, thought, or deed. Sometimes they are loud and in your face, while at other times they are subtle, veiled and discreet. We as viewers interpret, based on our own experiences and thought processes, what the artist put into their work, or we may use our prerogative to use their work as a starting point to create our own images, visions, and memories.

In this May 2014 issue of SL Photography there are 23 amazing photographers who have chosen to share some of their wonderful visions with you. Enjoy them and use them to your own benefit.

Bock McMillan

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I wish to thank the editors of SL Photography Monthly for thinking of me and awarding me this rare honor!