Nigeria's Gay Church Is Reborn amid a Climate of FearTHE GUARDIAN: House of Rainbow church offers underground prayer and preaching to Christians ostracised by rampant homophobiaWhen Ade's aunt learned he was gay, the then 16-year-old Nigerian was made to go through an exorcism to expel "the demon of homosexuality"."The priest came to the house with candles, holy water and anointing oils. I had to

Some people are gay. Get over it!

No, Princess Diana was not a closet lesbian - but that doesn't disqualify her from being a gay icon.

LONDON, UK - At the National Portrait Gallery in London, 10 famous homosexuals were each asked to choose 6 ‘Gay Icons’ who were inspirational to them in their struggle for dignity, respect, and equal rights regardless of their sexual orientation.

The result?



Some of what you would expect. Homosexual icons: Ian Roberts, a professional Australian rugby player; W.H. Auden, the British poet; Harvey Milk, the assassinated San Francisco mayor; and Virginia Woolf, who is known to have had a lesbian lover despite being married.

One man, Peter Tatchell, is depicted with his mug shot from a police station, underneath which the police officers in charge have stuck on the label “QUEER TERRORIST,” in big white letters, as part of Tatchell's criminal description. He was arrested for holding up a banner that said, “Charles can marry twice! Gays can’t marry once,” at the wedding procession in Windsor, England for the newlyweds, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker.

Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer of the United States army, a Vietnam war-veteran and a Bronze Star recipient, is one of the less well-known yet highly respectable and indisputably heroic gay icons in the exhibition. After being discharged from the army for admitting she was a lesbian, she filed a lawsuit in a civil court, which ruled both her discharge and the ban on homosexuals unconstitutional. The colonel then returned to the National Guard until her retirement in 1997. She was one of the only accepted openly homosexual officials in the United States army, before the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

But other ‘Gay Icons’ include straight people: CNN reporter, Christiane Amanpour; South- African president, Nelson Mandela; English rose, Princess Diana; and renowned Pulitzer Prize winning author, Maya Angelou.

You don’t have to be gay to be a gay icon. In the fight for LGBT rights, two groups have lost the dignity that makes one human: the homosexuals because of their sexual orientation, and the heterosexuals who have allowed their fellow man to be judged so arbitrarily – not by the content of his character, but by the gender of his partner. The ‘Gay Icon’ exhibition highlights the “human” in human rights: the fight for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights (LGBT) does not only concern the LGBT community itself, but also those who are not judged by their sexuality and discriminated against accordingly – those with the most power to change the status quo.

Click here to visit the website for the exhibition 'Gay Icons.' The exhibition is on at the National Portrait Gallery in London until October 18, with reduced admission for students.

One Step at A Time

By Ashley Gutierrez

"The social stigma will remain. It is [still] a long struggle. But the ruling will help in HIV prevention. Gay men can now visit doctors and talk about their problems. It will help in preventing harassment at police stations." - Ashok Row Kavi, leading gay rights activist

Today, a 148-year-old colonial law in India was overturned: homosexual intercourse is no longer a criminal act. What used to be punishable by a ten year prison sentence is now legal, after Delhi's High Court deemed that criminalizing gay sex is a "violation of fundamental rights."

What a huge step for such a conservative country.

Here in Accra, where the HIV prevalence rate is 3.0%, homosexuality is unthinkable. One of the Yalies here in Ghana with me interns as a research biologist in a laboratory at the country's best university. She shared a story with me yesterday about a discussion she had with the scientists she worked with. They asked her, cautiously (as it is taboo to even speak of it here), what she thought about homosexuality. My friend respectfully replied that she saw no problem with it, that many think it has a genetic cause. The scientists were horrified. None could comprehend the possibility of such a claim; some were offended, others amused at her view.

Indeed, as Kavi notes above, it is still a long struggle. But India has taken its first step. We can only wish Ghana and many other countries will wait less than 148 years to take theirs.