In the end only kindness matters...

On Saturday I was invited to attend a read through of a play entitled "The River and the Mountain." The play itself is nothing remarkable, but its theme is worthy of discussion and very important to me. The story focuses on a gay Ugandan male trying to live in an extremely homophobic country. At one point, the Ugandan Parliament even heard arguments in support of a bill suggesting that all gays be executed. It became known in global legal circles as the "Kill the Gays" bill. The bill still has not passed and is ongoing revisions, with legal rights advocates demanding that the death penalty component be removed. In real life, the main character of the play was beaten to death.

I'm not a human rights lawyer, but I work with numerous charitable organizations to provide free legal assistance to asylum applicants persecuted in their home countries on the basis of sexual orientation or gender. In my mind there is no question that consenting adults should be free to love whom they choose. And how can "love" be defined or regulated? Yet every country, including America, tries to do so. Perhaps you've heard in the news that the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments this week in two monumental cases concerning gay rights. I took a quick trip to the Court yesterday to check out the scene.( Read more... )