With Portugal on the way to allowing gay marriage and a number of European countries already providing forms of civil unions/partnership rights for same sex couples, "Old Europe" is moving to the future while the backward thinking, religiously bigoted USA slides more and more into the past socially. Besides fighting for legal discrimination against LGBT citizens, the other frightening aspect of the strong Christianist movement is that it is so strongly anti-knowledge. One need only look at the lunatic Creation Museum that has humans and dinosaurs interacting to release that the Christianist want the equivalent of a national lobotomy so that nothing challenges their increasing fragile and non-reality world view. These forces are truly just as anti-knowledge and anti-modernity as the Islamic extremists of the Middle East. It baffles me at times that more people can't see the exact parallel. Time has an article that looks at Europe's movement towards the social future while the USA lags behind. Here are some highlights:*
When Iceland installed Johanna Sigurdardottir as Prime Minister last February, newspapers around the globe printed variations of the same headline: ICELAND APPOINTS WORLD'S FIRST GAY LEADER. Everywhere, that is, except Iceland. The Icelandic media didn't mention Sigurdardottir's sexuality for days, and only then to point out that the foreign press had taken an interest in their new head of state — a 67-year-old former flight attendant turned politician whom voters had consistently rated Iceland's most trustworthy politician. Sure, she was gay and had entered a civil partnership with another woman in 2002. But Icelanders hardly seemed to notice. . . . "Being gay is a nonissue here. It's considered unremarkable."
*
Buoyed by liberal attitudes such as those, politicians across Western Europe are stepping out of the closet and into their country's highest political offices. Eleven openly gay men and women now serve in the British Parliament, including two in the Cabinet. Last June, Nicolas Sarkozy appointed Frédéric Mitterrand, a gay television presenter, to the post of Minister of Culture. Paris' Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, tipped by some to contest the 2012 presidential race, is gay. And Guido Westerwelle, chairman of Germany's Free Democratic Party, has just become his country's Foreign Minister, joining a gay élite that includes the mayors of Berlin and Hamburg, Germany's two largest cities. That's a far cry from the climate in most of the U.S., where — despite the recent election of Annise Parker, a gay woman, as mayor of Houston, America's fourth largest city — honesty can still end a gay politician's career.
*
David Rayside, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto. He believes that the relative strength of incumbency in the U.S. creates a barrier to the corridors of power, as does "the strength of religious conservatives." Of the 511,000 elected offices in the U.S. — from local school boards way up to President — openly gay men and women occupy just 450 of them
*
The gap between the U.S. and Europe doesn't just exist at the top: 49% of Americans polled by the Pew Research Center in 2007 believed that society should "accept" homosexuality. Contrast that with attitudes in Europe where more than 80% of French, Germans and Spaniards had such a view. Only Catholic and conservative Poles felt as uncomfortable with the idea as Americans.
*
The same year [1007] in Exeter, a constituency in southwestern England, Conservative party candidate Adrian Rogers attacked his openly gay opponent Ben Bradshaw by describing homosexuality as "a sterile, disease-ridden and godforsaken occupation." Voters awarded Bradshaw the seat, in one of the biggest swings away from the Conservatives in the country that year. "He tried to use my sexuality as a political weapon and that blew up in his face," says Bradshaw, now the U.K.'s Minister of Culture. "That election was a huge sea change in our politics. Since then we've been in a new world."
*
Gay-baiting has proved equally ineffective in Germany. Andreas Heilmann, a social scientist at Berlin's Humboldt University, believes that a politician who discloses his sexual orientation is insulated from criticism. "They embody a certain authenticity and credibility because they're open," he says. By contrast, opponents who make sexuality an issue are typically viewed as mean-spirited and politically incompetent.
*
It helps that Europe's liberal laws — 18 European countries allow gay marriage or same-sex civil unions, and gay couples in nine countries can adopt children — have largely normalized perceptions of gays. Christophe Girard, the deputy mayor of Paris, believes the legal framework for gay partnerships has "forced respect."
*
For a group fighting for the right to marry and serve in the military while openly gay, success in politics is about more than pride. "We need to have people at the table of power when decisions are being made about our lives," says Dison of the Victory Fund. "Our straight allies and nonallies get to know us as human beings, and that tends to affect hearts and minds."
*
It goes without saying that the goal of the Christianists is to continue to depict gays as sub-human, thus making it easier for anti-gay bigotry. Meanwhile, study after study shows that talent and creativity is drawn to areas with tolerance and diversity. Mush of the USA is sending a message for talent to stay away or leave. Not a wise trend in my opinion.
When Iceland installed Johanna Sigurdardottir as Prime Minister last February, newspapers around the globe printed variations of the same headline: ICELAND APPOINTS WORLD'S FIRST GAY LEADER. Everywhere, that is, except Iceland. The Icelandic media didn't mention Sigurdardottir's sexuality for days, and only then to point out that the foreign press had taken an interest in their new head of state — a 67-year-old former flight attendant turned politician whom voters had consistently rated Iceland's most trustworthy politician. Sure, she was gay and had entered a civil partnership with another woman in 2002. But Icelanders hardly seemed to notice. . . . "Being gay is a nonissue here. It's considered unremarkable."
*
Buoyed by liberal attitudes such as those, politicians across Western Europe are stepping out of the closet and into their country's highest political offices. Eleven openly gay men and women now serve in the British Parliament, including two in the Cabinet. Last June, Nicolas Sarkozy appointed Frédéric Mitterrand, a gay television presenter, to the post of Minister of Culture. Paris' Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, tipped by some to contest the 2012 presidential race, is gay. And Guido Westerwelle, chairman of Germany's Free Democratic Party, has just become his country's Foreign Minister, joining a gay élite that includes the mayors of Berlin and Hamburg, Germany's two largest cities. That's a far cry from the climate in most of the U.S., where — despite the recent election of Annise Parker, a gay woman, as mayor of Houston, America's fourth largest city — honesty can still end a gay politician's career.
*
David Rayside, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto. He believes that the relative strength of incumbency in the U.S. creates a barrier to the corridors of power, as does "the strength of religious conservatives." Of the 511,000 elected offices in the U.S. — from local school boards way up to President — openly gay men and women occupy just 450 of them
*
The gap between the U.S. and Europe doesn't just exist at the top: 49% of Americans polled by the Pew Research Center in 2007 believed that society should "accept" homosexuality. Contrast that with attitudes in Europe where more than 80% of French, Germans and Spaniards had such a view. Only Catholic and conservative Poles felt as uncomfortable with the idea as Americans.
*
The same year [1007] in Exeter, a constituency in southwestern England, Conservative party candidate Adrian Rogers attacked his openly gay opponent Ben Bradshaw by describing homosexuality as "a sterile, disease-ridden and godforsaken occupation." Voters awarded Bradshaw the seat, in one of the biggest swings away from the Conservatives in the country that year. "He tried to use my sexuality as a political weapon and that blew up in his face," says Bradshaw, now the U.K.'s Minister of Culture. "That election was a huge sea change in our politics. Since then we've been in a new world."
*
Gay-baiting has proved equally ineffective in Germany. Andreas Heilmann, a social scientist at Berlin's Humboldt University, believes that a politician who discloses his sexual orientation is insulated from criticism. "They embody a certain authenticity and credibility because they're open," he says. By contrast, opponents who make sexuality an issue are typically viewed as mean-spirited and politically incompetent.
*
It helps that Europe's liberal laws — 18 European countries allow gay marriage or same-sex civil unions, and gay couples in nine countries can adopt children — have largely normalized perceptions of gays. Christophe Girard, the deputy mayor of Paris, believes the legal framework for gay partnerships has "forced respect."
*
For a group fighting for the right to marry and serve in the military while openly gay, success in politics is about more than pride. "We need to have people at the table of power when decisions are being made about our lives," says Dison of the Victory Fund. "Our straight allies and nonallies get to know us as human beings, and that tends to affect hearts and minds."
*
It goes without saying that the goal of the Christianists is to continue to depict gays as sub-human, thus making it easier for anti-gay bigotry. Meanwhile, study after study shows that talent and creativity is drawn to areas with tolerance and diversity. Mush of the USA is sending a message for talent to stay away or leave. Not a wise trend in my opinion.
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