Religion Dispatches
…nd insights probably tell us more about the power and place of religion in American society than any of these others. Second, American historians have written extensively about Du Bois but have basically ignored his interest in religion. I felt shocked to read book after book about The Souls of Black Folk that focused on the word “folk” in the title but not on “souls.” This struck me as a blind spot in the profession. And lastly, in 2002 I was a f…
Read More
…in their campaigns. Romania’s Coalition received legal assistance from the international chapters of several U.S.-based conservative Christian groups, including the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Liberty Counsel. In the U.S., both have been designated as anti-LGBTQ hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The international chapters of both organizations submitted pro-referendum legal opinions to Romania’s Constitutional Court while th…
Read More…: The Russian Orthodox Church has appealed to all Russian advocates of the American model of governance, asking them to think twice about the consequences of the United States’ decision to legalize same-sex “marriages”. “The people who are into ‘democracy the American way’ and trying to reconcile it with traditional values need to think hard after this decision,” the head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevol…
Read More
…e Western support does add “complications,” he says, for example, when the international community appears to express more outrage about anti-gay violence than about political violence or election rigging. Reid says “it can sometimes be the case that international voices speak out more vocally around LGBT issues than around other human rights abuses and that does create a very skewed perception … that [Western] countries are only outraged about vi…
Read More
…tural milestone, the New York Times reported on California-born Pakistanti-American Ali Mushtaq competing in the International Mr. Leather competition. The Times’ Erik Piepenburg called Mushtaq’s presence “a big leap out of the pitch-black closet for Muslim men who are not only gay but also into leather fetish.” Issa Arden, a member of the social media team for I.M.L., said that having Mr. Mushtaq compete this year could broaden the gay subculture…
Read More…hing his Muslim bonafides and justify the Gambia’s increasing status as an international pariah. Just weeks after Uganda’s Constitutional Court struck down the newly adopted Anti-Homosexuality Act in August 2014, the Gambia adopted a law closely modeled on Uganda’s which included a life sentence for “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as including cases like when someone repeatedly has same-sex intercourse, when the accused is HIV positive, or whe…
Read More
…20 million, where the Orthodox Church holds considerable sway. Indonesia: International organizations call for pressure to end anti-LGBT campaign Dozens of international organizations issued a public call to the people of Indonesia and the international community to support efforts to bring an end to the anti-LGBT campaign that has been waged by political, law enforcement, and religious leaders over the past 18 months. Cayman Islands: Activists h…
Read More
…is “family” audience, but he works vigorously within them. OutRight Action International published an interview with Sushant, a Californian who talks about the resistance he initially faced in bringing his male lover home to India to meet his parents. In spite of dire warnings from friends and family about his father, Sushant says his parents love his partner Parks. “Despite Paragraph 377, and the social stigma in India around homosexuality, we ki…
Read More
…nment officials. “That’s a driving force to the center and the left” among American Jews, he said. The polarization of American Jews, said Dov Waxman, Professor of Political Science, International Affairs, and Israel Studies at Northeastern University, has increased with each large-scale eruption of fighting between Israel and Palestinians. Since the Second Intifada, which started in 2000, he said, with each escalation—Operation Cast Lead in 2009,…
Read More
…closed down if he remained at the helm. Responses in the English-language international press to this American media event were quite predictable. The Jerusalem Post titled its article “Gandhi Resigns after Blasting Jews,” while the Tehran Times offered the headline “Gandhi Grandson Falls Victim to Zionist Lobby.” The press response in India, where each of the five Gandhi grandsons is a public figure, was more varied and complex. The Telegraph of…
Read More