Monday, February 25, 2008
I Am a Spoiled Brat!
So I whine and balk at the gross and ridiculous injustices in this country: it is illegal to buy a vibrator in Texas; porn actresses are legally forbidden to show their nipples at porn conventions in the United States. I am outraged and amazed and flabbergasted that such things could happen in this day and age. And then I hear the international news. Holy crap!
On January 13, 2008, four men in Cairo were convicted under Egyptian Article 9(c) of law 10/1961 of the “habitual practice of debauchery.” According to Amnesty International, this law exists to “penalize consensual homosexual conduct.”
These latest convictions are part of a larger Egyptian crackdown on men suspected of being HIV-positive. Over the course of the last five months, the Egyptian government has subjected some of its citizens to forced anal examinations to “prove” their homosexual behavior. Others were made to take HIV tests against their will and chained to hospital beds when their results came back positive. Some of the suspects (the men suspected of having the “wrong” kind of sex) were, according to their lawyers, beaten by police when they refused to sign statements the police had written for them. According to Amnesty International, a prosecutor told one of the men who had tested positive, “People like you should be burnt alive. You do not deserve to live.”
Is it still wrong that I can’t buy a Pearl Rabbit in Texas? Hell yes! That said, my relative sexual freedom, when juxtaposed with the gross injustices that human beings suffer in other parts of the world, makes my complaints seem like trifle. I am disgusted that what someone does in the privacy of his or her own home with a consenting partner (or two, or seventeen) can result in abuse by the government and time in jail. Although the men appealed, on February 2, 2008, the January 13, ruling was upheld. Four men who may have put their penises in a spot or two not approved by the government, are faced with year-long prison sentences. As if the sexual discrimination, forced HIV testing, and anal probes weren’t enough! Talk about the government being a pain the ass!
Source: Amnesty International, AustraliaLabels: human rights, rant
tidbit posted by Mosa @ 1:36 PM
