COMMONWEALTH, UNLESS YOU'RE GAY

I hear "genocide" and I hear "crisis" and "crimes against humanity".

But then I'm a whiny freak and will never play with the big boys, like The Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth held its annual meeting last week in the Caribbean with one major goal in mind: To reassert its influence on global politics and international law.  The Commonwealth, composed of nations of Britain's former colonial empire and representing more than a quarter of the world's countries, not only failed to achieve its goal but in fact confirmed its complete and utter irrelevance--at least within the quirky confines of my freaky world.

Having the opportunity to officially censor and even expel Uganda from this family of English-speaking "democracies" on the eve of Ugandan implementation of sexual orientation genocide policies, this once respected union stood silent--and that included the Commonwealth nations of Australia, Canada and Britain.  Sure, the Prime Ministers of Britain and Canada did make some noise, but it was just noise and then they went back to "work".

Reminiscent of Holocaust times, the gay friendly nations of the world (a group similar to the Jew-friendly nations of the early 20th Century) felt that a firm response to a nation set on homophobic laws and policies that would warm the cockles of every Nazi black heart was too much of distraction in the face of global warming issues and the economic woes of the day.

I suppose the good news is that tens of thousands of gay Ugandans will not live long enough to experience any of the benefits of Commonwealth influence on climate and economic policies.  Six million plus Jews were also thrown to the wolves because this very same group of nations was then preoccupied with the Great Depression.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Leaders of the 53-nation group, whose profile has waned in recent years, say they now have a chance to influence the global debate. "What we can do is to raise our voices politically," said Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago, who hosted the biennial meeting. "We feel can have some effect in influencing the discussions in Denmark."

Others apparently agreed. This year's meeting is drawing non-English-speaking  leaders from outside the Commonwealth such as Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and, most unusually, French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Commonwealth, established in 1949 and made up almost entirely of former British colonies, promotes democracy, good government and education. But the mission seems to be fading: A new report by the Royal Commonwealth Society, a non-governmental organization, said its polling found "members of the public are largely unaware of what the Commonwealth is or does" and called for a more aggressive role in international affairs.

But when the group was called upon to address the most pressing human rights issue of the day--a true human rights horror that is sweeping many of the Commonwealth member nations such as Jamaica, Nigeria and, of course, Uganda, a decision was made that gay genocide has nothing to do with the promotion of "democracy, good government and education."

Around 80 countries in the world still outlaw homosexuality, and more than half of those are former British colonies. Most are members of the Commonwealth.

Both Manning and Kamalesh Sharma, the secretary general of the Commonwealth, declined to condemn a proposed law in Uganda that imposes life imprisonment for homosexual acts and the death penalty for having homosexual sex while HIV positive. The law also sets prison terms for people who do not report known acts of homosexuality. Manning declined comment, saying it was an internal matter, while Sharma said he hoped the bill would be changed before the Ugandan parliament takes a final vote on it. "We must show our faith that this is a process which is going to deliver in the end the appropriate result," he said.

Once again, the gay-friendly nations of the world have reaffirmed the view that sexual orientation is not a universal human right.  Gay men and women remain expendable when it comes to things that "really matter".  As a Jew I get this.  As I gay man I wish we had our own nuclear nation so that like Israel we would be in a position to remind the world that we're not going to take this shit anymore.

Comments

[Rex]

The Byzantine Emperor Justinian gave us the first Roman laws condemning homosexual behavior and then forced the church to sign on to it. Then he declared everyone in the opposition party to be homosexuals or pedarists and had them slaughtered. This isn't even about us. Its about the unfettered power to control an entire nation through fear. As long as the collateral damage doesn't hit them the politicians don't really give a damn. We and anyone else who disagrees with them are expendable. Anyone remember the Bush administration?

[Alan down in Florida]

Silence = Death

How soon politicians forget.