Article on homosexuality and the Islamic Nations and the war in iraq

April 1, 2003; 12:22 PM EST

The current issue of Foreign Policy has an article (The Sexual clash of civilizations, by Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, page 62, that discusses the reason why Western nations and the Middle Eastern (Islamic) nations will not be able to work together, an issue that affects the war in Iraq and an issue that no one has discussed, yet an issue that affects why some people support the war in spite of qualms about the reasons given by the Bush administration.

Basically the article, using information from a poll (World Values Survey) says that the problem the West faces in trying to work with the Islamic nations is not the usual reason given, their fear and hatred of Western democratic ideas and culture, but their lack of acceptance of sexuality as now practiced in the West. AND the main issue is homosexuality.

Homosexuals in the West have seen their lives improve with more civil/equal rights. This is not true of homosexual citizens in the islamic nations and the future does not seem to offer hope for such a change. Therefore, some people support the war in Iraq as the only possible way of forcing such change.

And the irony is that the very people who oppose equal/civil rights for homosexual citizens in America, are the very people (religious fanatics) who most vocally support the war in Iraq, not realizing that one of the unintended results will be a change in the attitude toward sexuality, and homosexuality, in Iraq and other Islamic nations.

This issue needs to be discussed in the "think tanks" of the homosexual civil rights movement.

Andrew Sullivan Article on the Sodomy Case in The New Republic

March 20, 2003


I have just glanced at an article by Andrew Sullivan, in the March 24th issue of The New Republic, Page 18, Unnatural Law,"We're all sodomists now"discussing the coming U S Supreme Court hearing and decision on the sodomy law casefromTexas (Lawrence v. Texas).

He goes into the philosophy of sodomy and the religious background and the distinction between homo and hetero sodomy. And he discusses briefly past court decisions and discussions, mentioning Murdoch/Price contribution, Courting Justice. I think the only possible "issue" Don Slater would have with the article is that even Sullivan seems to say that the court should handle it as a civil rights case for a class, and Don says, and rightly I think, that our only chance of success is if it is handled as a case of individual rights.