So hard to read another sad story out there in the New York Times, but I couldn’t help but be moved. I can’t imagine being transgendered even if it were in the middle of downtown Manhattan or London? Berlin? Or what about Mexico City? Tokyo? But jeeeeeeez! Malawi?
Read this story about a truly transgendered person who comes from a rural area of Malawi.
“It began cheerfully enough. But later, gawkers pushed their way inside, some shouting taunts, others just staring through despising eyes. Then the electricity failed. The band stopped playing, and the bride collapsed in tears.
Someone had tipped off a newspaper, The Nation, for this betrothal was extraordinary in a conservative African nation. The resulting front-page story began with the phrase “gay lovebirds,” adding that the chinkhoswe was “the first recorded public activity for homosexuals in the country.” Readers were reminded that homosexuality carried a sentence of 5 to 14 years in prison.
Two days later, on Dec. 28, the couple was arrested on charges of unnatural acts and gross indecency, and they have been in jail since, denied bail ostensibly to keep them safe.
Much of Malawi is riveted by the case…”
From NYT, “The clergy, especially, has accused foreigners of infecting Malawi with sexual Satanism. The Rev. Zacc Kawalala, the leader of the Word Alive Ministry and a member of the national human rights commission, said: ‘The West has its gay agenda. It wants to look at Africa and say, ‘If you don’t accept homosexuality, you are primitive.’ But we’re not as wicked as the West.”
The Berlinale opened tonight with Wang Quan’an’s “Apart Together,” and the crowd headed over for the after-party at Cafe Moscow in the heart of East Berlin near Alexander Platz (24 Karl Marx Alle). It’s a great venue, and it once was a terrific gay club on Sunday nights that Berlinale attendees who were so inclined used to go to for a bit of a late night blow out. But, it’s latest manifestation was opening night. On our way in, the Photogs went nuts for this good looking couple. We weren’t sure who they were, so if anyone can enlighten us, much appreciated.
Sticking to tradition, the Berlinale opening offered food from various Berlin restaurants. Cafe Moscow had three levels, including a disco in the basement (well remembered btw) and the two main levels had food for the taking. This particular round of food was right out of my great grandmother’s kitchen (she was born and grew up here) and I so remembered it from growing up. Red cabbage and roast beef. I don’t usually eat roast beef, but I just had to have a taste to throw it back to the past.
In this segment of his 700 Club, Pat Robertson says Haiti is cursed by God because of their “Pact with the Devil…”
Shame on Pat Robertson to manipulate this terrible crisis being faced by some of the poorest people on earth for his own ego and fundraising. It’s shamful!
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