An Indian court has ruled for the first time that consensual gay sex is not a crime, signalling an historic breakthrough for the country’s largely closet homosexual community, as well as anti-HIV/Aids campaigners.
Under a British colonial law, introduced by Lord Macaulay in 1860, homosexual intercourse is ranked alongside paedophilia and bestiality as “sex against nature” and punishable by up to ten years in prison.
India is one of the few democracies in the world to still have such a law.
But the Delhi High Court ruled today that applying the law - known as Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code - to consenting adults violated the Constitution and international human rights conventions.
“Consensual sex amongst adults is legal which includes even gay sex and sex among the same sexes,” a two-judge bench said after considering a petition against the law for more than eight years.
The ruling is non-binding outside Delhi, and can be appealed at the Supreme Court, but is being hailed nonetheless as a landmark in an increasingly vocal campaign to have Section 377 repealed.
I came across this video just a few days ago, and had to share it with you! I won't say anything about why it's so very special - just please watch it all the way through, and experience sheer JOY!
Came across this news item a few moments ago, and it shocked me: Humans will need 2 planets' worth of resources in order to support our current levels of consumption, by the year 2050. For many of us, this is within our own lifetimes.
You wonder why or how Some people grow so mean They hurt defenceless souls Their hearts are cold, oh Mercy
You were young and sweet A tender gentle friend Easy to defeat Oh Mercy...
All the lost and found On the rainbow bridge Spare their tears of pain Heal their suffering Light the troubled way Keep their memory safe For the rainbow's end Is a brighter day...
I see your trusting face No man should ever harm Rest in peace my dear Oh Mercy You're in a better place Held soft by angels arms Sleep now precious one Oh Mercy
All the lost and found On the rainbow bridge Spare their tears of pain Heal their suffering Light the troubled way Keep their memory safe For the rainbow's end Is a brighter day...
"DALLAS -- A 21-year-old is in jail Thursday morning charged in the torture death of the 10-month-old puppy, Mercy, who was stabbed, doused with gasoline and set on fire and died Sunday after several surgeries. DeShawn Brown was arrested shortly after midnight in Corinth, nearly two weeks after Mercy's tortured body was found in a wooded area April 14. Brown is accused of stabbing the 10-month-old pit bull mix, dousing her with gasoline and setting her body on fire. He is accused of animal cruelty, a felony that could carry a sentence of up to 10 years. Mercy was taken to Carrollton animal shelter Operation Kindness for emergency surgery. Despite numerous emergency surgeries, she died days later. "I think all personnel in this are quite relieved to have a man in custody due to the cruelty of this crime," Sgt. Roger Patterson said. "It's cruel and it's evil, and it takes an evil person to do that ... and there's no reason for them to do that,' Rock Creek pet owner Lachelle Duvall said.
Please sign the petition, asking for the maximum possible sentence:
Notes for a potential
sermon/essay by David
Holdsworth (feel free to
share with others and add
your input on the
comments board - also
excuse spelling as these
are simply notes for a
work in progress).
Kingdoms/Empires of men.
(Ceasars who are
delude...
URGENT APPEAL. Please
sign, copy and paste the
letter below and email to
the listed addresses.
Please share far and
wide. Also if you can
think of other agencies
or people who might be
able to give assistance
with this URGENT
CAMPAIGN, please list
th...
Please sign/note/forward
for AnimalsSign the
Universal Declaration of
Animal Rights
Animals
(tags:
AnimalRights,
AnimalWelfare,
AnimalCruelty,
animalcruelty,
animalrights,
animalw...
URGENT APPEAL. Please
sign, copy and paste the
letter below and email to
the listed addresses.
Please share far and
wide. Also if you can
think of other agencies
or people who might be
able to give assistance
with this URGENT
CAMPAIGN, please list
th...
Remember me this time of
year!( A Christmas Plea
from the dogs in UK
pounds )Remember me this
time of yearIn this pound
with death so nearNot in
a home where I should
beLoving others who love
me I am so sorry to beg
and pleadTo make you
aware of...
Today Mark called and was
talking about studying
systematic theology being
like wading through
prodige. Without thinking
I made a Davidism and
said systematic pordige
can be interesting
though. :D
I recently started to
re-read Harper Lee's
amazing novel, To Kill A
Mockingbird. This story
is about racism in the
deep south (USA) of the
1930s. In the story
Atticus (named no doubt
after the Greek
philosopher) uses a
lovely phrase about how
we can...
Today someone told me
that the best way to
prove that a pacifist
person is wrong is for a
pro-war person to keep
punching them until they
fight back, thus making
the pro- war person win
the moral argument.
Aside from the term moral
argument being use...
Source:
http://www.paxchristi.org
.uk/Documents/PeacEd/sada
ko-pack.pdf
Sadako helped her little
brother with his shoe
laces.
âSit
still
Eiji,â
she told him,
âor I
wonât
be able to...