Here are some more stories in recognition of the International Day Against Homophobia…
Over 1.6 million people signed a petition and the global outcry helped to defeat Uganda’s anti-gay bill which would have made homosexuality punishable by death. The petition is still going, so please take a moment to add your signature and let your voice be heard.
The NY Times has a story about Ben Cohen and Hudson Taylor, two straight athletes who have devoted their lives to eradicating bullying and homophobia in the sports world. In fact, Ben Cohen recently retired from rugby at the top of his career to launch his Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation to combat these issues. Ben was awarded an MBE by the Queen in 2003, which is also the year he won the Rugby World Cup with England. Having such a high profile athlete devoting himself to the cause is wonderful. Read more about Ben’s retirement/foundation on his website. You rock, Ben!
We missed the Football v. Homophobia Day this year (it was February 19th) but we’ll keep watching their site so we’re ready for next year!
If you have any other links or stories to share today, please let me know via email or leave them in the comments.
Of Headbands and Heartbreak
watishistacorrespondents
Of Headbands and Heartbreak... 
kudos to you for mentioning the petition to put an end to uganda’s proposed anti-homosexuality legislation – it’s absolutely draconian. there are already an unfathomable number of hate crimes that occur in there; bigots don’t need to be sanctioned by the law.
this is a rather landmark proposal, and could set a very nasty precedent. and to think, we live in an age when we’re all collectively supposed to be moving forward. i’m ashamed that the media hasn’t reported the shit out of this story.
i can provide suggestions for further reading on this topic if anyone’s interested.
I was Facebooking and Tweeting on multiple accounts during the lead up to the vote. It’s deeply disturbing that such a law could even be proposed in 2011.
Please do make some suggestions for further reading. That’s what today is all about. xoxo
not to be a pedant, but since you asked…
suggestions for further reading:
despite the fact that the bill has been tabled, and the death penalty clause removed, the sentiments it espouses are still alive and well:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/may/11/uganda-anti-gay-bill
david kato, ugandan gay rights activist, murdered earlier this year:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/world/africa/28uganda.html
(later, police said kato’s murder was not motivated by the man’s sexuality, but hate-filled disruptions erupted at kato’s funeral:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/02/us-uganda-murder-idUSTRE7116L020110202 )
and here’s what human rights watch has to say:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/05/16/usuganda-2011-candidates-homophobia-hall-shame
here’s an account of a photographer who photographs members of the LGBT community in Uganda – his work is part of a series commissioned by the Open Society Institute, and this is well worth the read:
http://www.daylightmagazine.org/blog/2011/4/29/1100
also, a few accounts of what it’s actually like to be gay in Uganda:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/world/africa/04gay.html
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1969667,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/22/being-gay-in-uganda?showallcomments=true#start-of-comments
Thank you so much for these! Anything with more than three links has to be manually approved and I was away from my computer for a bit.
sorry, my enthusiasm got a tad bit out of hand there, apparently. but you know how important both this region and this issue are to me, so i jump at any chance to spread the word.
Absolutely and it wasn’t out of hand. It’s going to be an eye opener for many people and I really hope they take the time to read the links you shared. As you know, my (gay) roomie works for an international non-profit and spends a great deal of time in Africa. I always hold my breath when he is traveling, particularly in Uganda. This is a huge issue for me too for many reasons.
Hey, I wanted to thank you for writing about Red Card Homophobia and having us on your “Sites We Love” list. We really appreciate it.
Cheers. (:
Yael
And I so appreciate the work that you do with Red Card Homophobia! Thank you so much for all your hard work. I’ve featured you guys quite a few times here and also the issue – if you do a search on ‘homophobia’ in the blog, you’ll see. We’ve only been around a few months, but it’s a cause that’s very close to my heart to I try to feature stories as much as possible. If you ever have anything you want to feature/promote, please get in contact with us.
Just so you know, we get a lot of people who visit our site from your site.
I’d like to cooperate with you one day, and also if you’d want to write a piece for RCH we’d love that.
I am so happy to hear that! I’d love to write a piece for you – right now it’s just finding time. I work full time and I’m in full time grad school year round right now. And then this blog. But I’ll definitely do something in the future. I’m thrilled to be asked.
No problem. This is our e-mail address: redcardhomophobia@gmail.com
Whenever you have time feel free to send a piece, or we can send you an article that you can write an op-ed about.
Cheers,
Yael. (: