Shanghai Journal

Gay Festival in China Pushes Official Boundaries

Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times

A performer on Saturday at Shanghai Pride week. Despite the careful planning, there was some pressure from authorities.

By ANDREW JACOBS

Published: June 14, 2009

SHANGHAI — It was shortly after the “hot body” contest and just before a painted procession of Chinese opera singers took the stage that the police threatened to shut down China’s first gay pride festival. The authorities had already forced the cancellation of a play, a film screening and a social mixer, so when an irritated plainclothes officer arrived at the Saturday afternoon gala and flashed his badge, organizers feared the worst.

After some fraught negotiations, Hannah Miller, an American teacher who helped put together the weeklong festival, agreed to limit the crowds, keep the noise down and, most important, “not let anything happen that might embarrass the government,” she explained after returning from the impromptu sidewalk meeting. “That was a close call,” she said.

Crisis averted, the party continued.

And so it went for Shanghai Pride week, a delicately orchestrated series of private events that revealed how far China’s gay community had come, and how much further it had to go. In the 12 years since homosexuality was decriminalized in China, there has been an unmistakable blossoming of gay life, even if largely underground. Most big cities have gay bars, and social networking sites ease the isolation of those living in China’s rural hinterland. Antigay violence is virtually unheard of.

But official tolerance has its limits. Gay publications and plays are banned, gay Web sites are occasionally blocked and those who try to advocate for greater legal protections for lesbians and gay men sometimes face harassment from the police. For years, movie buffs in Beijing have tried, and failed, to get permission for a gay film festival.

This month, public security officials forced Wan Yanhai, a prominent advocate on gay issues, including AIDS, to leave Beijing for a week because they feared he might cause trouble during the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

“Sometimes I feel like we are playing a complicated game with the government,” Mr. Wan said. “No one knows where the line is, but we just keep pushing.”

The government, of course, can push back much harder. Last month, China issued a directive requiring that all new computers include filtering software to block pornographic images as well as Web sites with words like gay, lesbian and homosexuality. Mr. Wan and others fear the new rules could effectively ban online information from AIDS organizations or groups that help young people grapple with their sexual orientation.

To further confuse matters, China Daily, the official English-language newspaper, splashed a story about Shanghai Pride on its front page and ran an editorial lauding the event as a welcome sign of China’s social reformation. The progress did not extend to the country’s Chinese press, however, which made no mention of the weeklong festival.

During three months of planning, organizers had a rough idea of the limitations: no Chinese-language advertisements, no banners, no parades. Ms. Miller, 30, who helped start Shanghai’s first gay Internet mailing list in 2006, explained why the event’s main organizers were almost entirely not Chinese. “As a foreign passport holder, I think we’re less easily intimidated,” she said.

Despite the careful planning, there were some disappointments. Last week, the authorities showed up at several sites and warned their owners that there would be “serious consequences” if they held scheduled events. A staging of “The Laramie Project,” a play about the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was canceled after the police interrupted a rehearsal to write down the names of the actors. As word of the crackdown spread, performers canceled their appearances and bar owners apologetically told Shanghai Pride to go elsewhere.

By Saturday, any lingering anxiety had seemingly evaporated as hundreds of people crammed into a bar to watch lip-synching divas and a silent auction to benefit AIDS orphans. At one table, a woman painted hearts and rainbows on the faces of Westerners and Chinese revelers.

The celebrants were self-assured, unapologetically gay and mostly under 30. There was Gu An, a 19-year-old economics student who shares a dorm room at Shanghai University with his high school sweetheart, and Wang Liang, a 27-year-old furniture designer who might have been the only person to bring his mother.

Jin Ying, 49, Mr. Wang’s mother, said she was a bit startled when he came out two years ago, but she was not entirely surprised. “I’m his mother, so I had my suspicions,” she said. “If he’s happy, I’m happy.”

But Mr. Wang’s mother was a rare exception. For most gay men and lesbians in China, revealing their sexuality to their families is unimaginable. Parents expect their sons and daughters to produce heirs, an obligation that has become even more intense in a society where single-child families are the standard.

Huang Jiankun’s joyous mood darkened when he recalled the pain his coming out brought to his parents. His father, a retired army officer, wept uncontrollably. His mother made him promise that he would stay away from men. Visits home during the Chinese New Year have become unbearable, especially when relatives pepper him with questions about why he is still unmarried at 30. “I can handle the pressure, but I can’t stand to see the pain on my parents’ faces,” said Mr. Huang, who works in public relations.

To assuage his parents, he orchestrated a fake wedding to a lesbian friend, but eventually the truth came out. “The problem is when you lie, it becomes connected to another lie and you can’t keep it up,” he said.

Just then, four couples took the stage, and an ordained minister pronounced them married, if only symbolically. “Being gay is great,” Mr. Huang said, his melancholy banished.

On the other side of town, as the young and the self-possessed celebrated their sexual orientation, a few hundred men, most in their 50s and 60s, packed into the Lai Lai, a grimy ballroom in one of Shanghai’s less glamorous neighborhoods. Three nights a week, the men slip away from their wives to dance with one another to the music of a warble-voiced singer.

As he led his clumsy partner across the dance floor, Zhou Aiwen, a 73-year-old retired cadre, spoke of a lifetime of unrequited desire but also of his commitment to Chinese tradition. “My son has a kid now, so I don’t have to worry about anything,” he said with satisfaction.

The subject of gay marriage came up, and Mr. Zhou laughed dismissively. “In China we need another 30 years before that can happen,” he said as the clock struck 9 and the dance hall abruptly emptied out.

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We do well to see the World is fastly changing to a place where Homosexuality is treated as Choice rather than Sin.

Soon even God will look down and look away, when He does, we go with Him.

Michael James Stone

Earth's Final Days~Ron Graham

Friday, July 10, 2009

Earth's Final Days

“Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Jude 1:7.

There is an aggressive world-wide push to replace natural societal behavior with that of a completely unnatural and throughly corrupt behavior. This push involves a tiny community of people so consumed with lust that they go so far as to flaunt their abhorrent behavior in the streets as they march in sanctioned parades in cities around the world. This is a satanic agenda of monumental proportions. As we watch Bible prophecies unfold before us, we who believe and accept this unfolding as proof that the end is very near know that many evils will become commonplace during the time leading up to the end. We might get a little dizzy in our heads at the sound of the approaching hoof beats and queasy in our stomachs as we see End Time prophecy come to life before our very eyes. But for now one thing is obvious; this world is turning homosexual.

The Bible tells us that there will be unusual worldwide events happen as the end days approach, as well as societies becoming thoroughly corrupt. India’s high court recently reversed a 150 year old law outlawing homosexual sex. Before the news even broke here in the US a brother e-mailed me from India very concerned about this decision. What do I say to this man? “Welcome to the 21st century”? Hardly. I encouraged him to look to the scriptures that show God’s sentiments on this hotly debated subject. Why? Because at the end of the day, it’s God’s word that stands strong and which believers are to look to as the only remaining truth.

This situation in India is certainly indicative of where the world is headed, and in many cases is already there. Most nations of this world harbor a very vocal, aggressive, well financed, well organized, and at times militant homosexual subculture. The homosexuals want to be recognized and legitimized as the mainstream culture. Their language leads one to believe that they are only interested in equal rights. This is a lie.

Lying in the underbelly of this monstrous, ungodly and very pervasive agenda is something else, something even more sinister. The homosexual community, which is made up of many zealots, is prepared to fight all the way to the highest courts in every country and province where they will push their agenda of legitimacy to the extreme, all in the name of equal rights? They have now become a force to be reckoned with. Not because they are some kind of enormous community that dwarfs all others on planet earth. No, what’s happening is what is normal, that is marriage between a man and a woman, is quickly becoming dismissed as intolerant and bigoted. What God tells us is normal for a society is now going the way of the dodo bird. Now these once normal civilized communities are accepting, even welcoming, this lifestyle which was once perceived as wicked. Homosexuals will soon control the media, our public and private schools, and every world government. The world is bending over backwards to comply with the homosexual agenda. Why is that? God tells us why in His word.

Homosexuals have now been given access to our children as young as kindergarten and preschool so that they may corrupt their very small impressionable minds. Through the public school system they are now teaching their way of life to these innocent children. Their way of life includes, for the most part, sex. That’s the driving force behind why they lead such evil and debase lives. They are fueled by what a normal human would consider as uncontrolled, lust-filled minds. Sex is the motivator and the sustainer of this lifestyle. If they were honest they would admit that fact.

Obama, the usurper of the Oval Office, wants to be the leader of the pack when it comes to homosexual rights. He’s used his newly acquired powers to ensure the homosexual is given the green light in society to do as they wish in public as well as in private. He wasn’t able to attend any National Day of Prayer meetings but he certainly never misses an opportunity to promote the homosexual agenda. He’s now designated June as national LGBT pride month. Obama made the following comments at a White House reception honoring "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month":

There are unjust laws to overturn and unfair practices to stop. And though we've made progress, there are still fellow citizens – perhaps neighbors or even family members and loved ones – who still hold fast to worn arguments and old attitudes, who fail to see your families like their families and who would deny you the rights that most Americans take for granted. And I know this is painful, and I know it can be heartbreaking.

– Barack Hussein Obama, June 29, 2009

When it comes to rights, homosexuals have all the same rights as heterosexuals except one. Marriage still eludes them, but it looks as though Obama will do his level best to insure they will win on that front also.

Homosexuals want one more right than that of the heterosexual world. They want to take away our right to verbally oppose them. They don’t want to be confronted with God’s view on their lifestyle ever again. It’s alright to speak out against other sins, but speak against the sin of homosexuality and there will be dire consequences.

Right now there are an alarming number of teenaged homosexuals committing suicide or who attempt suicide. If you read the homosexuals' response to this tragedy, they claim that when society puts their stamp of approval on the homosexual lifestyle this will all stop. Actually, society as a whole is becoming more and more tolerant of this abomination and yet the numbers of suicides are increasing, not decreasing. If you would like to do your own research on homosexual suicide statistics, just Google it.

"Gay Affirming Pastor" Jay Bakker feels God has now changed His mind about homosexuality “The more I follow grace, the more I'm drawn to him [God], the more I'm willing to stand up for people being persecuted," said Bakker. "It sounds so churchy, but I felt like God spoke to my heart and said '[homosexuality] is not a sin.”

From an article by Lighthouse Trails - http://www.lighthousetrails.com/

If God spoke to this man’s heart and told him homosexuality is not a sin then He just contradicted His very word and has now changed His mind as to what homosexuality really is. But we should all know, by what we are taught in God’s word, that that just isn’t possible. It wasn’t God speaking to this Gay affirming pastor’s heart. It was God’s adversary, Satan.

Of course, if you don’t believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God, then you will probably just write this commentary off as another homophobic spouting off. If, on the other hand, you do believe the Bible is the inspired and inerrant word of God, then keep reading. We’ll begin by taking a look at what the Bible tells us God did to Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities of the plains.

“And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?” Genesis 18:17, 18. Abraham was a man of God and God wasn’t inclined to keep what He was about to do from Abraham, even the destruction of these two cities. “And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;” Genesis 18:20. Just what was this grievous offense Sodom and Gomorrah had committed in God’s eyes?

“And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. ‘...the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.” Genesis 19:1-5. We’re told that all the men, young and old, from the city came and surrounded Lot ’s house demanding he bring his two visitors out. Why? Were they being hospitable? Were they just being good neighbors welcoming the strangers to their city? Hardly.

To fully understand what the men of Sodom had on their minds we must understand the following phrase “that we may know them”. Earlier in the book of Genesis we’re told Adam “knew” his wife and she bore more children. The Hebrew word is “yada” and one of the uses for this word is to know a person carnally. The men of Sodom wanted to have homosexual sex with these two strangers visiting Lot . These two cities and even the sounding plains were replete with homosexuality, to the point that God could no longer allow this all encompassing evil to continue.

Homosexuality is clearly connected to the men of Sodom . The Bible declares it to be sin. “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” Romans 1:26, 27.

Side Note:

The sin of the men of Sodom is plainly connected to their homosexuality. There is no doubt the Bible declares homosexual conduct is sin (Romans 1:26-28).

The Bible condemns homosexuality in the same context as it condemns incest and bestiality (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13). If we ignore the word of God at the point of homosexual conduct, then we have no standing to say any of the other three sins are sin.

Homosexual advocates have an interest in saying homosexuals are exactly like everyone else, except they love people of their own sex. But when the conduct of homosexuals is observed, this is not the case.

We can bring out statistics on the number of partners homosexuals have: 43% of homosexuals say they have had 500 or more sexual partners in their lifetime. Only 1% of homosexuals say they have had four or less sexual partners in their lifetime. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, 77% of homosexuals say they have met sexual partners in a city park, 62% in a homosexual bar, 61% in a theater, 31% in a public restroom. Only 28% of homosexuals said they had known their partners for at least a week before participating in homosexual sex.

Undoubtedly, one of the reasons why males pursue and give in to homosexual desires is because they want to immerse themselves in a lifestyle of dangerous sex with no inhibitions or obstacles, and sense that sex with other men is an easier path to this. No wonder Paul connects “burning lust” and a debased mind with male homosexuality in Romans 1:27-28.

Homosexuals also have an interest in saying that up to 10% of the population is homosexual. But the most reliable statistics show only 2.3% of men in their 20’s and 30’s report ever having had a homosexual experience. Only 1.1% reported being exclusively homosexual. These low figures agree with several other recent surveys and surveys done in Britain and France .

Homosexuals also have an interest in saying they were “born that way.” All attempts thus far to prove this have been based more on wishful thinking than solid biological research, but if it is found to be the case, so what? The Bible teaches we are all born with a predisposition to sin. It shouldn’t surprise us that some 2% of the population finds this predisposition expressed in homosexual desire.

Homosexuals also have an interest in defining themselves as “gay,” a word that used to mean “happy” or “carefree,” but it is a poor description of a lifestyle that has such a high rate of death, disease, and suicide.

David Guzik - http://www.enduringword.com/

Even though many won’t take the Bible seriously or literally, God does. Homosexuality is condemned by God. “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them,” Leviticus 18:22, 20:13. The scripture above is what Obama was talking about when he addressed those homosexuals gathered at the White House when he referred to those “who still hold fast to worn arguments and old attitudes.” That’s Obama’s attitude when it comes to the word of God, and he professes to be a Christian.

If the word of God is ignored by any nation, God will, at some point, remove his blessings from that land. The more homosexuality is condoned, the more the Bible is ignored. Ergo, there go God’s blessings.

Was all the above information necessary just to get to my point? I believe so. Jesus tells us that the society living in the last days just before His return will be as perverse as the societies that both Noah and Lot experienced.

Homosexuals will be and are being fully appeased and placated and earth will become much more frightening and nightmarish to all who oppose them. All civilizations on earth will ultimately accept the homosexual lifestyle as completely normal. Paul tells us in the book of Romans chapter 1 that God’s judgment is pronounced on all who practice what’s become commonly referred to in our day as the Gay and Lesbian lifestyle, as well as all those who condone it and embrace it as normal.

That’s how it was all over the planet in Noah’s day which is why God sent the flood. Their sin was so heinous that God had no choice but to eliminate all who had corrupted themselves with this immorality. Only Noah’s genes remained untainted by this corruption, thus God spared him and his family as He saw them safely through the flood. Many have come to believe that through all the begats in the Bible and the longevity experienced by the folks before the flood that there were as many people on earth in Noah’s day as what we see currently on earth. God protected Noah and his family as He flooded the earth and eliminated a mass of fully corrupted individuals.

God’s will is that everyone would repent and turn from their evil ways, but not everyone will comply with His will. A huge portion of society will continue in their rebellion against Him. That rebellion will be their undoing, and it will be their choice.

God hates all sin, but clearly His wrath has been revealed against the sin of homosexuality most intensely in that He flooded the earth to completely eliminate it from planet earth and at another point He wiped out a whole region of earth that was consumed with it. In God’s eyes it’s a very grievous sin indeed. God tells us in His word that there is going to come a time when He will lose His patience (longsuffering) with the rebellious, but before He does He’ll remove those who belong to Him. In Lot’s case, for example, two angels came and removed Lot and his family just before God in His wrath destroyed the evil presence in that region.

In the case of the Church, Jesus Himself will remove all those who belong to Him. That time is almost upon us. Then God’s wrath will once again be manifest on earth. In the meantime, as the Church sits back on its haunches and refuses to get involved in this political correctness gone completely amuck mindset, any and all evil will prevail. As we sit around wondering just how much persecution the Church will be forced to endure before Christ returns for His own, keep in mind we did little to stop it.

God bless you all,

Ron Graham
twotug@embarqmail.com
All scripture is from the KJV

India legalizes Homosexuality...

Evangelical Group ‘Shocked’ Over Legalisation of Homosexuality‎

By Dibin Samuel

Christian Today Reporter

Sat, Jul. 04 2009 10:03 AM EDT

The Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) today expressed shock and sadness over the legalizing of homosexuality by the Delhi High Court in India on Thursday.

Calling it an “extraordinary verdict,” the evangelical body said it was “shocked and saddened by the judgment” that has struck down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that made homosexuality “illegal” since 1860.

”In a secular state a distinction is made between God's unchanging moral laws and man's legislated social laws - civil and criminal. Decriminalization of homosexuality in no way changes the moral order. It is common sense to recognize that homosexual practice is a violation of the natural order,” Rev. Dr Richard Howell, general secretary of EFI, said in a statement.

”While all sin is sin, all homosexual activity is essentially sinful, whether it is done by singles or by gays or lesbians involved in committed relationships,” he added.

Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code is a 1860s-era British Empire statute that forbids "carnal intercourse against the order of nature." Under the law, sex between homosexuals may be punishable up to 10 years of imprisonment.

The path-breaking ruling was made by a bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Murlidhar who consented that the 149-year-old law is “violative of fundamental rights and hence must not be punishable.”

Rev. Howell says it is not the High Court judgment what worries Indian religious communities, but more is the “potential Pandora's box it opens as has been the experience in the West.”

To substantiate his argument, he refers to the ‘compromised’ culture in West, where homosexuals face no discrimination "in housing and jobs". But he asks, what happens if a religious community, housing society or school wants to keep out homosexuals?

He also points to another acceptable ‘alternative lifestyle’ - same-sex unions and marriages. He warned it was against the tenets of Bible and “sanctity of the God-ordained initiation of marriage between one man and one woman.”

The evangelical leader exhorted the Church to “speak up and speak out the truth in love.” But he also instructs that it should condemn the sin and not the sinner. “Though we condemn the sin we are called to love the homosexual sinner as much as the heterosexual sinner, as the thief and murderer.”

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After BollyWood and Hollywood sucess of Slum Dog Millionaire, India seeemed to be on it's way of favored status as it already has a Tech Industry to rival America's. Sadly like most Insdustrialized Nations, the next step is not closer to God but farther away.

What Price Do Other Pay for Westernization? The same one we pay, the decline of morality and absence of God in court matters.

Michael James Stone