Gay Pride in Cuba

Cuban Government Backs Calls to Combat Homophobia

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer
Associated Press
May 17, 2008

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/05/17/international/i140951D78.DTL

HAVANA

Cuba's gay community celebrated unprecedented openness
- and high-ranking political alliances - with a
government-backed campaign against homophobia on
Saturday.

The meeting at a convention center in Havana's Vedado
district may have been the largest gathering of openly
gay activists ever on the communist-run island.
President Raul Castro's daughter Mariela, who has
promoted the rights of sexual minorities, presided.

"This is a very important moment for us, the men and
women of Cuba, because for the first time we can gather
in this way and speak profoundly and with scientific
basis about these topics," said Castro, director of
Cuba's Center for Sexual Education.

Mariela Castro joined government leaders and hundreds
of activists at the one-day conference for the
International Day Against Homophobia that featured
shows, lectures, panel discussions and book
presentations. A station also offered blood-tests for
sexually transmitted diseases.

Cuban state television gave prime-time play Friday to
the U.S. film "Brokeback Mountain," which tells the
story of two cowboys who conceal their homosexual
affair.

Prejudice against homosexuals remains deeply rooted in
Cuban society, but the government has steadily moved
away from the Puritanism of the 1960s and 1970s, when
homosexuals hid their sexuality for fear of being
ridiculed, fired from work or even imprisoned.

Now Cuba's parliament is studying proposals to legalize
same-sex unions and give gay couples the benefits that
people in traditional marriages enjoy.

Parliament head Ricardo Alarcon said the government
needs to do more to promote gay rights, but said many
Cubans still need to be convinced.

Things "are advancing, but must continue advancing, and
I think we should do that in a coherent, appropriate
and precise way because these are topics that have been
taboo and continue to be for many," Alarcon told
reporters.

Some at the conference spoke of streaming out into the
streets for a spontaneous gay-pride parade, but others
urged caution.

The gay rights movement should be careful not to
"flood" Cuban society with a message that many are not
ready to hear, physician and gay activist Alberto Roque
cautioned.

And Mariela Castro said gay activists should opt for
more subtle ways to chip away at deep-seated homophobic
attitudes.

Defending equal rights for Cubans, of all sexual
orientations, is a key principal of the Cuban
revolution led by her uncle Fidel Castro, who overthrew
dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, she said.

"The freedom of sexual choice and gender identity (are)
exercises in equality and social justice," she said.

_____________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest
to people on the left that will help them to
interpret the world and to change it.

Ben Jealous Elected to Head NAACP

I am encouraged. Especially so, since he is favored by Julian Bond--a man with real integrity. I definitely want to see what Mr. Jealous does during his tenure with the NAACP.

God keep Edward Kennedy.

Memories

When I was a teenager, wjenever I would visit my Uncle Lawrence's house, he would always send me home with a big box full of the most wonderful books.

Free Your Mind-En Vogue

Free Your Mind

En Vogue

I wear tight clothing and high heel shoes it doesnt make me a prostitute
I like rap music wear hip-hop clothes
That doesnt mean that Im sellin dope
Oh my please forgive me for having
Straight hair
It doesnt mean theres another blood in
My heirs
I might date another race or color
Doesnt mean I dont like my strong
Black brothers

Chorus:free your mind and the rest will follow, be colorblind, dont be so shallow(before you read me you gotta learn how to see me)

So Im a sista
Buy things with cash
That really doesnt mean that all my
Credit is bad,
So why dispute me and waste my time,
Because you think that the price is too
High for me
I cant look without being watched
You rang my buy before I made up my,
Mind
Oh now attitude why even bother
I cant change your mind you cant
Change my color

Repeat chorus two times

Gay Marriage in California

I want to issue a word of caution to all of those rejoicing over California's repeal of its gay marriage ban: everyone that smiles at you isn't your friend. Conservatives are probably sitting on that court and did that to have a base issue to drive republicans to the polls in November. This country is soooo much bullshit.

Tony Parker is soo hot.

God bless the Palestinian people.

George Bush

For those who didn't know it, George Bush is an idiot.

The Ten Books That Have Influenced Me The Most(Updated)

In no particular order**

Assata Shakur: The Autobiography

I read this book in college. I remember we were on a tournament and staying in a hotel. My friend Wanda had given me this and Elaine Brown's book. I cried after having read them both. This book is a powerful accounting by Twentieth-Century escaped slave, Assata Shakur of the events that led up to her being handcuffed to her hospital bed and placed under arrest while unconscious, her body ridden with bullets, for the death of a New Jersey police officer in an attempt to intimidate and destory the BLA and the Black Panther Party on the part of the FBI and other agencies. In the book, she also offers up details of her life from her childhood and early college years up until the point of her escape from prison and eventual exile in Cuba. Assata is a brilliant poet and she incorporates some of her poetry into the book. I think everyone should read this book.

Angela Davis:The Autobiography

It must have been my freshman or sophomore year of college when I read this book. I have always been in awe of Angela Davis and I completely devoured the book. It was quite profound. Very carefully constructed by Angela, the book sheds light on her life up to the point of her involvement with the Soledad Brothers movement and her friendships with George and Jonathan Jackson. From her early years in Birmingham, Alabama, her foundation in activism from her parents, who were involved with the Scottsboro Trial,to her time in New York at The Little Red School and her graduate study at the Sorbonne and the University of Frankfort, the book builds up to the point of her accepting a teaching position in the University of California system and the unfolding of events that led to her going underground, the worldwide FBI hunt that ensued, and the eventual trial that held the attention of the world.


A Taste of Power- Elaine Brown’s Autobiography

Elaine Brown was very much unknown to me before I read this book my sophomore or junior year of college. This book, along with the others on this list, added something to my makeup and to my understanding and grasp of the world as I understand it today. Elaine Brown truly is an inspiration. In this book, Elaine details the events in her life that led her to join the Black Panther Party and which eventually catapulted her into the position of Chairwoman of the Party. The book is eye-opening in that she gives a first hand account of the deeply rooted misogyny that was present in the Black Power Movement and even more widely on the left as a whole in the 1960s. She gives a vivid account of the threat on her life placed by Eldridge Cleaver as well as the abuses she experienced at the hands of Huey P. Newton and other men within the party. She gives a terrifying account of a brutal beating she received at the hands of a party member and discusses beatings that were delved out to other party members as well.

A frank and honest account of the accomplishments and shortcomings of the Black Panther Party, this book is a wonderful accounting of her life from her early days in Philadelphia to her rise to lead one of the most progressive, revolutionary organizations in modern history.

Possessing the Secret of Joy—Alice Walker

My favorite book. Enough said.

Giovanni’s Room- James Baldwin

I first read Giovanni's Room at the end of my junior year of college. It was the first book I had ever read that explored the issue of homosexuality, especially sexual relations between men( I may have read Zami before Giovanni's Room). I adore and very much love Jimmy Baldwin and this book definitely imprinted itself upon my consciousness. James Baldwin is a God.

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name- Audre Lorde

I read this book in the same period in which I read Giovanni's room. Audre Lorde is a Goddess/Mother of the earth. This book completely shook my foundation to the core and made me much more completely whole. Delivering what she calls an autobiomythography, Audre Lorde embraces her self, her queerness, and in the process queers the entire world with the love that she gives through this book. Accounting for her life from her early childhood in New York City, the daughter of immigrants to her coming into her womanhood as a lesbian, as a woman of color, this book is perhaps the most valuable piece of queer/othered fiction ever written. One thing that stuck out to me from this book is her frankness in describing the lesbian scene of the 1950s and 60s and the amount of racism and lack of solidarity that existed (and still exists) among gays and lesbians. Audre Lorde is, as I said, a Goddess/Mother and her voice will always be treasured.

The Glory and the Dream- William Manchester

I read this book the summer after my sophomore year of High School for the A.P. American History course I took my junior year. It was quite profound and really made history a living entity for me, perhaps for the first time, with its vivid depictions of the depression, the Vietnam War,and American culture of the 1930s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. Some of the things that stuck out to me from this book were Curious Yellow (which I eventually found and saw: what a film) and the trial of Richard Whitney for fraud on the stock exchange. I really appreciated the montage pages which were included at the end of every chapter, which were pages that listed some of the vernacular of the particular era and were mini-shots of the culture of the time--with movie posters, political slogans, and other cultural regalia.

The Souls of Black Folk—W.E.B. DuBois

I got this book from my Uncle Lawrence's House when I was either thirteen or fourteen. DuBois was the first person I had ever read that profoundly shaped and influenced my intellect. Not only did Dubois' discussion of Afro-Americans make a profound impact on my psyche, but his exploration and study of peoples around the globe- from the Jews to the Japanese, really served as a stimulus in me and encouraged my own explorations of ethnicity.

My early intellectual pursuits led me to studying the Swedes in Minnesota and the settlements of Jews in the South, and really peaked my interests in the ethnic makeup of urban areas. From my keen interest io various peoples as a small child growing up in Chicago with access to different cultures, Dubois opened a new door into my world. Along with this, perhaps of more importance, Dubois led me to consider the concept of identity and how people and communities identify themselves.

I Wonder as I Wander by Langston Hughes

I recieved this book from my Uncle Donald when I was about thirteen or fourteen. Langston's account of his travels and his descriptions of people and places all over the world from China to Cuba to the USSR had a profound effect on me.I am a natural traveler and I loved his descriptions of the Chinese and watermelons floating down the Mekong River and Russian peasants in Tashkent sipping from a communal bowl of tea.....

Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America by Lerone Bennett Jr.

I also recieved this book from my Uncle Lawrence's house. Whenever I would visit him, he would send me off with a big box of books from his library. This was one of them. It is a great history text that really gives a vivid and accurate accounting of African civilizations before Europeans appeared as conquerors( before that they were there as either slaves or as equals: European monarchs sent their children to the Universities at Timbuktu and Songhay to be educated; they intermarried with African nobility. It was only the invention of the gun that gave the Europeans the chutzpah to try and conquer another civilization). As I read this book when I was about 12 or 13 or 14, I dare not do much detailing. It is a beautiful hardcover book and is an invaluable collection to anyone's library.

Also worthy of mention:

Sex and Race series by J.A. Rogers

Gore Vidal pt.4

Gore Vidal pt.3

Thanks to Ekhart Tolle's A New Earth, I know what peace is and I know the importance of peace.

Gore Vidal pt.2

Gore Vidal On Democracy Now

School Recruiting Could Violate International Protocol

By Jim Lobe IPS-Inter Press Service
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42354

WASHINGTON, May 13 (IPS) - Pressed by the demands of
the "global war on terrorism", the United States is
violating an international protocol that forbids the
recruitment of children under the age of 18 for
military service, according to a new report released
Tuesday by a major civil rights group that charged that
recruitment practices target children as young as 11
years old.

The 46-page report, "Soldiers of Misfortune", which was
prepared by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
for submission to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of
the Child, also found that the U.S. military
disproportionately targets poor and minority public
school students.

Military recruiters, according to the report, use
"exaggerated promises of financial rewards for
enlistment, [which] undermines the voluntariness of
their enlistment." In some cases documented by the
report, recruiters used coercion, deception, and even
sexual abuse in order to gain recruits. Perpetrators of
such practices are only very rarely punished, the
report found.

"The United States military's procedures for recruiting
students plainly violate internationally accepted
standards and fail to protect youth from abusive and
aggressive recruitment tactics," said Jennifer Turner
of the ACLU Human Rights Project.

The increased aggressiveness of military recruiters is
due in major part, according to the report, to the
increased pressure to meet enlistment quotas caused by
ongoing U.S. military operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan to which nearly 200,000 soldiers and
marines are currently deployed.

The pressure created by current military commitments
has not only translated into enhanced recruitment
efforts among children under 18. The armed forces have
also lowered their standards for minimum-intelligence
tests, made it easier to enlist individuals with
criminal records, and increased re-enlistment bonuses
for soldiers who might otherwise be tempted to leave
the service.

The report, which also detailed Washington's failure to
protect foreign child soldiers being held by U.S.
forces at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and
elsewhere around the world as part of its submission to
the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, assesses
Washington's compliance with the Optional Protocol on
the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.

The Protocol, which is attached to the Convention on
the Rights of the Child, is designed to protect the
rights of children under 18 who may be recruited by the
military and deployed to war.

Among other provisions, the Protocol sets an absolute
minimum age for recruitment of 16 and requires that all
recruitment activities directed at children under 18 be
carried out with the consent of the child's parents or
guardian, that any such recruitment be genuinely
volunteer, and the military fully inform the child of
the duties involved in military service and require
reliable proof of age before enlistment.

While the United States is one of only two countries --
the other being Somalia -- to have never ratified the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, the U.S. Senate
ratified the Protocol in 2002, making it binding under
U.S., as well as international, law. Unlike most other
industrialised countries that set their minimum
recruitment age at 18, the Senate decided on 17 as the
absolute minimum for the United States.

According to the ACLU report, however, the U.S. armed
services "regularly target children under 17 for
military recruitment, heavily recruiting on high school
campuses, in school lunchrooms, and in classes."

The army's own Recruiting Programme Handbook, for
example, instructs its more than 10,600 recruiters to
approach high school students as early as possible, and
explicitly before their senior year, which, for most
students, starts at age 17. "Remember, first to
contact, first to contract...that doesn't just mean
seniors or grads...," according to an excerpt quoted in
the report. "If you wait until they're seniors, it's
probably too late."

Once recruiters are inside their assigned high schools,
the Army's Recruiting Command instructs them to
"effectively penetrate the school market" and "(b)e so
helpful and so much a part of the school scene that you
are in constant demand", with the goal of "school
ownership that can only lead to a greater number of
Army enlistments." That includes volunteering to serve
as coaches for high school sports teams, involvement
with the local Boy Scouts, attending as many all school
functions and assemblies, and even "eating lunch in the
school cafeteria several times each month".

The report documents a number of specific cases, mostly
in New York and California -- the two most populous
states with the largest number of minority high school
students -- in which recruiters clearly followed these
instructions. In a survey of nearly 1,000 children,
aged 14 to 17, enrolled in New York City high schools,
the ACLU New York affiliate found that more than one
five respondents -- equally distributed among the
different grades -- reported the use of class time by
military recruiters, and 35 percent said military
recruiters had access to multiple locations in their
schools where they could meet students.

The report also noted that the Pentagon's central
recruitment database systematically collected
information on 16-year-olds and, in some cases even 15-
year-olds, including their name, home address and
telephones, email addresses, grade point averages,
height and weight information, and racial and ethnic
data obtained from a variety of public and private
sources. The explicit purpose of the database is to
assist the military in its "direct marketing recruiting
efforts". As the result of a 2006 ACLU lawsuit, the
Pentagon agreed to stop collecting data about students
younger than 16.

But recruitment efforts even dip below 15-year-olds,
according to the report, which found that the
Pentagon's Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC),
which operate at more than 3,000 junior high schools,
middle schools, and high schools across the country,
target children as young as 14 for recruitment. The
report cited recent studies that found that enrollment
in some JROTC programmes was involuntary.

JROTC "cadets", of whom there were nearly 300,000 in
2005, receive military uniforms and conduct military
drills and marches, handle real and wooden rifles, and
learn military history, according to the report, which
noted that the programme is explicitly designed to
"enhance recruiting efforts". African American and
Latin students make up 54 percent of JROTC programmes.

JROTC also oversees the Middle School Cadet Corps
(MSCC), in which children ages 11 to 14 can
participate, according to the report. Florida, Texas,
and Chicago schools offer military-run after-school
MSCC programmes in which children take part in drills
with wooden rifles and military chants, learn first-
aid, civics, military history and, in some cases, wear
uniforms to school for inspection once a week.

The Army also uses an online video game, called
"America's Army", to attract potential recruits as
young as 13, train them to use weapons, and engage in
virtual combat and other military missions. Launched in
2002, the video game had attracted 7.5 million
registered users by September 2006.

"Military recruitment tools aimed at youth under 18,
including Pentagon-produced video games, military
training, corps, and databases of students' personal
information, have no place in America's schools," said
Turner.

"What do those of us who aren't tall, flawlessly sculpted adolescents do? Answer: Console ourselves with how relative beauty can be... Thank heavens for the arousing qualities of zest, intelligence, wit, curiosity, sweetness, passion, talent and grace." -- Diane Ackerman
********************************

Those in the know say that the Bush administration is looking for war with Iran.

I had a magnificent breakfast last night. I took some left over mixed vegetables from dinner and a piece of grilled chicken, shredded it and made an omelet. I then made cheese toast. It was fabulous!