Why LGBTI Christians should give thanks for Desmond Tutu this Easter

Last summer I visited my friend Bishop Gene Robinson in Washington. He told me he had recently visited the makeshift memorial set up in a street in Ferguson, Missouri, for Michael Brown, a young, unarmed black man killed by a policeman.

As he stood reflecting on events he saw a cardboard box standing like a pillar. It had been painted black and written in gold letters were the words:‘They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds’.

Gene was moved by the resiliency of these words. He told me as a gay person most of what he knows and understands about his own community’s fight for equality comes from what he has learned from the black civil rights movement even though he is fully aware that his ‘white privilege’ works to protect him from the full knowledge of the extent to which he is rewarded for the color of his skin.

He researched the origin of the words on the cardboard box and discovered they come from Dinos Christianopolous, a living Greek poet, who had been marginalized by the Greek literary community throughout his life because of his sexuality. He had written way back in the 1970’s: ‘You did anything to bury me. But you forgot I was a seed.’

Source: – Gay Star News

Desmond Tutu and Nobel winners back gays in Uganda and globally

Archbishop Tutu and others make joint statement in response to Uganda’s ban on gay organizations and threats of new death penalty law

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has backed gay, bi and trans rights around the world.

Four Nobel Laureates – including Archbishop Desmond Tutu – have called on people all over the world to respect gay rights.

The statement issued by the Robert F Kennedy Center (correct) for Justice Human Rights and Human Rights was released in conjunction with Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) in response to that country’s government restricting the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.

Desmond Tutu, Professor Jody Williams, Dr Shirin Ebadi and Professor Muhammad Yunus say: ‘As a global community of individuals dedicated to a more peaceful and just world, we wish to express our grave concern as to how our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) brothers and sisters are being treated across the globe.

‘Collectively we represent a diverse array of countries and cultures. Today more than ever, we wish to express that the same cultural values, which have fostered and supported our lifelong quests for peace, also command us to speak out against the violence and discrimination our fellow human beings are enduring every day solely because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex.

‘By expressing our solidarity with LGBTI people around the world, we recognize the inherent dignity and human rights of all individuals, without prejudice or intolerance, and we take an important step forward in our collective journey toward peace.’

– full report at Gay Star News

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