Did someone tilt the universe a little more when I wasn't looking?First came the news that Albania - ALBANIA, of all places! - has made a move toward marriage equality.
Albania - one of the most conservative countries in Europe and where homosexuality was illegal until 1995.
Prime Minister Berisha Sali Berisha has announced his party will propose a law legalising same-sex marriage. He acknowledged the proposed law might provoke debate but maintained that discrimination in modern Albania had to end.
Here's a quote from the article:
In a predominantly Muslim country with almost no open homosexual community, the announcement by a conservative PM has taken people by surprise.
Goran Miletic, a Belgrade-based human rights lawyer, working partly on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues said it was an important step forward for the country.
"(It is) encouraging for the LGBT community in Albania, bearing in mind that they are not visible comparing to some other Balkan states like Serbia, like Macedonia or Croatia."
But he said he did not think the law would be passed easily in the face of immediate opposition from religious communities
The reaction by Islamic and Catholic leaders has been vehement.
Vehement reaction? From Islamic and Catholic leaders? No! Get out.
But wait! There's more!
This headline just in from this morning's New York Times:
Beirut, the Provincetown of the Middle East
Yes, way!
Beirut, Lebanon. You know. In the middle of the Middle East. Where there's war.
Oh, that sound? The one that sounds like breaking glass?
That would be the sound of Patriarchy continuing to crumble.
Yes, yes, children, we still have a long, long way to go.
We're not out of the woods yet, but we're on the path.
It's a great time to be an LGBT person. Never has there been so much hope for change - for full inclusion of the diversity which God has created.
It's a brave new world out there, kids. Then again, it always has been.
No matter where you are, the sun is shinning. If you look carefully, even through the rain, you can see a rainbow in the sky.
You just gotta tilt your head a little.
Now if only we can get the word out to Church House. Oh, never mind. I will now return to the straight corner of the crucified place.
ReplyDeleteFWIW
jimB
Beirut has a cosmopolitan history and has been called the Paris of the East, so it is less surprising than Albania. Albania?!!!!!! I am amazed.
ReplyDeleteYou see, what we have done in TEC IS having world-wide effect. La Lucha continua.
ReplyDeleteOh, dear sister, rejoice we will, but I hate to post a negative... in Tel Aviv a gunman walked in to a gay teen center and opened fire, killing two and wounding eight or ten....
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8180069.stm
sigh...... we still got a long fight ahead of us....
Meanwhile in gay Sydney
ReplyDelete"Government won't budge on civil unions"
http://www.smh.com.au/national/government-wont-budge-on-civil-unions-20090801-e4sk.html
Sigh.