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Written by Gavin McGuren
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Thursday, 14 May 2009 15:39 |
 In the United States a woman citing her belief in the Bible has allegedly lost a beauty contest because she was honest about her views on “gay marriage”. She could have lied or talked around the question, but she stated honestly that she didn’t support same-sex marriage. The news has ignited a storm of controversy, the most ridiculous ruckus since Janet Jackson and the breast of mass destruction.
Miss USA doesn’t allow judges to officially reveal the score they give each contestant for the Q&A portion of the competition, but one judge, celebrity trash news blogger, Perez Hilton, made it abundantly clear that he gave Miss California a low ranking and that she "lost because of that question." What, are young airheads everywhere going to start slaughtering GLBT people because their role model doesn’t support same-sex marriage? Okay, it’s the US, where gun rampages are a growth industry, but still...
On a video blog, Hilton later said: “She lost not because she doesn’t believe in gay marriage, she lost because she's a dumb bitch!" Such a thoughtful, intelligent comment. The uncharitable might be tempted to say that Perez Hilton is an attention-seeking and childish screaming queen who would never get on to the D-list at a beauty pageant, but most mature adults know when to speak up and when to just roll their eyes and sigh deeply.
We don’t really know whether Carrie Prejean lost because of that answer, though it certainly sounds like you could have heard a pin drop after she spoke. But what does “gay marriage” have to do with a beauty contest? Had she said she hated gay and lesbian people and thought they should burn in Hell, Hilton would have had something real on which to pin his hissy fit. But she didn’t. Far from it. So much for the free speech enshrined in the United States’ constitution.
But never mind, free speech is so 20th Century anyway. If the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and its despotic supporters in the UN have their way, voicing opinions will be outlawed. While we’ve all been worrying, quite rightly, about our bank accounts, the OIC has been seeking to have “defamation of religions” declared an offence under international law, and they’ve succeeded in convincing a majority of the countries on the UN Human Rights Council to support them. And boy, do those guys have some proud human rights records between them: Russia, China, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria...
“Defamation of religions” seeks to put an end to any criticism of behaviours that result from religious beliefs. In this case defamation apparently equates to “hurt feelings”, as in please don’t upset me by telling the truth about barbaric activities carried out in the name of my religion. And that’s very bad news for women, for children, for religious and ethnic minorities, and especially for GLBT people currently living in Muslim-majority countries. Countries like Iraq.
Recent news of multiple gay murders in Iraq underscores the plight of GLBT folk in many if not most Muslim nations, which will only get worse as shariah law is imposed in more and more countries by growing bands of thuggish, mostly male fanatics. If the OIC has its way, you’ll be hurting the feelings of a Muslim somewhere by saying it’s wrong to bash, rape, castrate or murder GLBT people in the name of Islam, or to glue up their anuses as has been recently reported from Iraq, so they die unimaginably excruciating deaths.
We are living in a strange world today if intolerant religions can acquire human rights with the support of human rights abusers. While hysterics are kicking up a fuss over a plastic pageant in the US, real people are dying awful deaths and suffering inhuman indignities that we in the West can barely imagine. It’s a pity overinflated clowns like Perez Hilton don’t use their freedom of speech, while they still have it, for a cause that actually matters instead of getting their luxury-brand pink knickers in a knot over nothing of any real consequence.
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