Non-Stick Surface
Like their straight Republican comrades, Log Cabin Republicans seem to think if you throw enough doo-doo against the wall, it’ll stick and people will believe anything you tell them. Take Matthew Veristas Tsiens’ letter in the Feb. 23 Bay Times for example (“GOP Must Include and Defend Gays.”)
Tsien goes to real lengths to lionize the late President Reagan. He refers to Reagan as a “great conservative icon” and a man who probably “freed” a lot of gay people. Well, Dutch freed a lot of gay people from breathing, we must give him credit for that.

Anyone familiar with the early days of AIDS knows Reagan showed the same kind of compassion toward us that Hitler had Europe’s Jews. An article in a June, 1981 New York Times told us of a “strange disease” striking homosexuals in New York and San Francisco. Yet, not only did Reagan avoid saying the word “AIDS” for what seemed like a lifetime, but his first AIDS commission wasn’t formed until 1987.

One of the first members of his first commission was Richard DeVos, chairman and CEO of Amway. DeVos, a devout Calvinist, used his hometown paper, The Grand Rapids Press, to pronounce Fundamentalist condemnations on the LGBT community. My sister alerted me to this when I was an assistant editor for the Bay Area Reporter. Not only did DeVos confirm those condemnations to me in an interview, but Gary Bauer—who recruited Reagan’s first commission members—defended the fact that there were no doctors or scientists on that commission. “We’re not trying to solve this disease,” said a flippant Bauer, “we’re just trying to see how many beds we need.”

Er, Matthew, those were Dutch boys. I am alive today because Bill Clinton speeded drugs through the FDA. If Reagan had jumped on this disease in 1981 instead of six years later, many of my friends—who are now gone—would be alive.

No matter how hard you try, Matthew, the doo-doo would still not stick.

Will Snyder
San Francisco

An Urgent Appeal for Simple Humanity
Saba Rawi is a gay Iranian now facing imminent deportation back to the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Netherlands.

Saba, who lived in the northern Iranian city of Rashd, was arrested for kissing his boyfriend on the street; the boyfriend was able to flee arrest. Saba was tortured by the police and raped by a police officer, who, using the threat of a prison term, blackmailed Saba into signing a letter saying he was not harmed by the police and that his rape was at the hands of others. Saba signed the letter under this horrific pressure—and then managed to flee Iran.

Saba eventually arrived in the Netherlands. That was some four and a half years ago. Since then, Saba has been serving as the Dutch representative of the Persian Gay and Liberation Organization, the largest Iranian gay group.

After the worldwide protests against the hanging of two gay Iranian teenagers in Mashad last July, the Netherlands was one of several countries to have temporarily suspended deportations of gay Iranians who had not been granted asylum. But that Dutch suspension has now ended, and Saba—who inexplicably had his request for asylum refused, and his deportation ordered—now will find himself in a Dutch court once again, on March 8, to present his final appeal against deportation back into Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s fiery furnace for gay Iranians.

If the Dutch government sends Saba back to Iran, he will face arrest, prison, and perhaps even execution, a fate that has befallen so many other victims of Iran’s lethal anti-gay pogrom.
The Netherlands has an international reputation as a defender of human rights but this new threat to deport Saba and other gay Iranians is a shameful blot on that reputation. Yet our U.S. national gay organizations-including the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force-have maintained a discreet silence on the crisis facing Iranian gays, and none has raised its voice in public on behalf of Saba.

We demand a halt to deportations of gay Iranians by ALL countries, including the Netherlands.

And we ask that deportation proceedings against Saba Rawi be halted immediately, and that he be granted permanent asylum by the Dutch government. This we ask in the name of our simple, shared humanity. Stop the deportation of Saba Rawi!

We also ask our readers to take five minutes to phone, fax, e-mail, or write immediately on Saba’s behalf to:

H.E. Boudewijn J. van Eenennaam,
Ambassador of the Kingdom of the
 Netherlands
The Royal Netherlands Embassy
4200 Linnean Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20008
Phone: 202-244-5300
Fax: 202-362-3430
www.netherlands-embassy.org/

Doug Ireland
Gay City News
Washington, DC

Selective Killings
The frenzy for executions is very pathetic. We revive nearly death prisoners so we can kill them. Now we are trying to kill someone without causing pain. How sick is that!
Since we are a supposedly Christian-Judaic nation, why don’t we just follow the dictates of the Commandment that wisely urges us not to kill? It is time to stop this barbaric killing spree.
Denise D’Anne
San Francisco

Executions
So the judge in issuing a death sentence for a rapist who beat his victim 20 some times with a hammer to the head, strangled her, and stabbed her in the heart four times, was so concerned that the criminal should be guaranteed to feel no pain that he issued an order that two licensed physicians supervise the completion of the sentence in violation of their oath and the licensing board, thus risking the loss of their license.

Wouldn’t that be encouraging serious violations of conscience, oath, and state licensing procedures? Are judges supposed to do that? And why was this guilty man allowed to live at the taxpayers’ expense for 20 years before being brought to justice? Justice delayed is justice denied!

It would seem that the perpetrator defined for himself what he should be willing to accept as punishment when he committed this crime. Instead of worrying about the pain of lethal injection, perhaps society should bring him into a fuller realization of the enormity of his crime and dispatch him in the same way he killed this innocent young girl—raped, beaten on the head 20 some times with a hammer, strangled, and stabbed in the heart four times.

James Keefer
San Francisco

Note to Mr. Kahn
A special note to your VERY frequent letter writer Mr. Khan, who seems to feel that Arabs can do no wrong, while Jews can do no right.

In Moscow, Muslim religious leaders have called for violence against the LGBT community. Why? Because Russian LGBTs are coming out in droves and want to hold a Pride parade.
Is there a corner of the world where Muslims DON’T act & react with violence? No.

Is there a corner of the world where beating women and killing LGBT’S isn’t part of Muslim religious culture? No.
Doesn’t Israel have a national gay rights law, and full equality for women? Yes.

Any LGBT person who stands “in solidarity” with the sickness that is Islam should be ashamed of themselves.

David Alexander
San Francisco

Oxymoron: Academic Freedom at Notre Dame?
I am the Executive Producer of Saint of 9/11, a documentary about Father Mychal Judge, Chaplain, FDNY. Saint of 9/11 will have its world premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. Father Judge was a gay priest.

Saint of 9/11 was to be screened at the Notre Dame gay and lesbian film festival. But instead of the documentary being promoted as part of the festival as represented, Saint of 9/11 was repositioned to screen prior to the start of the festival for film students, faculty and their friends.

Flyers for Saint of 9/11 posted on campus were promptly removed. Scant notice was provided to film students. Ten people attended the screening. Most stated that Saint of 9/11 should have been the centerpiece of the festival.

In a major address to the campus community last month, Notre Dame’s new President Father John Jenkins questioned whether staging The Vagina Monologues and holding a gay and lesbian film festival implied endorsements of values that conflict with Catholic teaching. Father Jenkins likened the film festival to endorsing an anti-Semitic passion play, infanticide, euthanasia and nuclear holocaust. Father Jenkins will make a decision this spring about future productions of the play and the film festival.

In February 2005, Bishop John D’Arcy of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend wrote a letter to the South Bend Tribune in which he called the Queer Film Festival an “abuse of academic freedom.” Despite that criticism, former University President Father Edward Malloy did not interfere with either the Queer Film Festival or The Vagina Monologues.
In fall 2005, the new administration mandated organizers of the Queer Film Festival to change its name to “Gay and Lesbian Film: Filmmakers, Narratives, Spectatorships” and required The Vagina Monologues, which had previously been produced in a Notre Dame theater, to be presented in a classroom. The production was not allowed to sell tickets to raise funds for a women’s group.

In early February 2006, Father Jenkins and Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees visited the Vatican, where Father Jenkins met with Pope Benedict XVI. According to the official Notre Dame newspaper, “the event marks Jenkins’ first big trip as University President and a new era in Notre Dame-Vatican relations.”

Academic independence for Catholic universities was bolstered over 30 years ago by Pope Paul VI. That Pontiff called on then Notre Dame President Father Theodore Hesburgh to protect academic freedom. With Papal support, Father Hesburgh and others rewrote the constitution of the International Federation of Catholic Universities to make Catholic universities more independent.

This relationship between the Vatican and Catholic universities continued under Pope John Paul II. The prior Holy Father believed that Catholic universities served as an intermediary to sometimes opposing voices and a primary place for mutually beneficial conversation. Pope John Paul II recognized Catholic universities as an important facilitator of dialogue between the Church and culture by which both were enriched.

Last week, 42 Notre Dame faculty wrote Father Jenkins about their concern that his address contributed to a climate of hostility to gays and lesbians. The 42 faculty members including three Department Chairs, 20 Professors and two Professors Emeritus called on President Jenkins for a public apology.

While academic freedom in Catholic universities is at stake, so are the best interests of the Roman Catholic Church. Catholic universities nourish the Church by providing open discourse and cultural engagement. To bridle academic freedom or foster the chilling effect of that perception diminishes Notre Dame’s stature and undermines the university’s contribution to the Church.
In the Feb.18, 2006 edition of The New York Times, Father Hesburgh noted that a modern university had to face the crucial issues of the times. The former Notre Dame President stated, “You want to get students’ minds working. You don’t want mindless Catholics. You want intelligent, successful Catholics.”
I am certain that Father Mychal Judge would concur.
Malcolm Lazin
Executive Director
Equality Forum

Peter Berlin Redux
Dear de Bay Times,
Here are Peter Berlin’s guests Rumi Missabu (left) and Bill Bowers at the opening of That Man: Peter Berlin at the Castro Feb. 17.
Rumi was one of the original Cockettes, best known as Maxine in 1972’s Elevator Girls in Bondage. Feb. 26
Rumi had a salon for Cockettes artwork and memorabilia. I especially liked this photo of Mrs. Vera by Bill Bowers.
Rumi’s art site is at www.geocities.com/camraderieartsalon (but with no hyphens!).
Beep beep!
Love,
Strange de Jim