Just a quick update tonight. It's been 37oC all day.
At least there are a few things to celebrate this week. The chickens are doing well, Amazon has withdrawn it's whale meat offerings from its Japanese website and there have been a couple of wins for gay people. It would be nice if we could now extend a little of that sympathy to sharks and stop shark finning. Sharks are not cuddly and not a few people wish they would stay away from our beaches, but sea life is under threat everywhere and not even they deserve to be treated like this.Watch the video and you will see what I mean. Eating shark fin strikes me as another frivolous food fetish which causes unnecessary suffering, in much the same way as paté fois production does, not to mention the criminal waste involved. That is, it would not be so bad if the sharks were being used for food, but the fins are just cut off living creatures which are then left to drown, rot or be eaten by predators.
With respect to the civil rights of gay people, Uganda's Death Penalty Bill for HIV positive homosexuals has been averted and Swedish transgendered people who wish to be recorded as having a different gender, must no longer undergo forcible sterilisation, a curious throwback to eugenics thinking in an otherwise enlightened nation, but there is still some way to go. Still on the table are an urgent petition in St. Petersburg, to stop anti -gay censorship, and several others in the USA. In New Hampshire Gay Marriage Rights may be revoked. Meanwhile, same sex civil unions have just been vetoed again in New Jersey while in Maryland they just may get under way, making it the eighth US state to OK them. It could happen in Queensland, Australia, too but only IF Queensland ONLY voters sign the petition now.
Not being gay or lesbian, same sex marriage is not a pressing issue to me personally, so why bother? Why get involved in things which do not concern me directly, especially those involving other countries? The reason is that people who are being persecuted are often powerless themselves. By way of example, were it not for the intervention by other people and other countries in World War II, Europe would look very different today. In fact, reading about the issues in Sweden and what was happening in Uganda made me think a lot about what happened in Germany during the war. I thought we had all moved on from there too. So long as what people are doing or believe does not harm others, we should defend their right to do so, if we are lucky enough to be living in a place that allows us to do so. Today it's them, tomorrow it may be us. Let's hope they will stand up for us too. The letters of gratitude from the the gay community in Uganda says it all.
"Brave Ugandan LGBT activists and millions of people around the world have stood together and faced down this horrendous anti-homosexuality bill. The support from the Avaaz global community has tipped the scales to prevent this Bill going forward. Global solidarity has made a huge difference"Here's a little postcard with an antt- anti gay message to send to Russian Airline Aeroflot on their birthday. I hope it says end the discrimination against gay employees, the censorship and the criminalisation of homosexuality:
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs' Office also wrote to Avaaz:
"Many thanks. As you know, thanks to a very large extent to the intensive lobbying and combined effort of you, other civil society representatives, EU and other governments, plus our delegation and embassies on the ground the Bill was not presented to the Parliament this morning."
The victory there echoes across many other places where hope is desperately needed, showing that kindness, love, tolerance and respect can defeat hatred and ignorance. Again, a huge thanks to all who made it happen."
Send Aeroflot and Sky Team a birthday postcard. Below you'll see two postcards (in English and Russian) that Russian activists are encouraging folks to send to Aeroflot and Sky Team. You can post on their Facebook pages (Aeroflot here, Sky Team here), or send an email to presscentr@aeroflot.ru, openline@aeroflot.ru, and media@skyteam.com. (For full size versions of these cards, click here for Russian and here for English.)
You can also sign their petition here:
This is from MoveOn: In Which States Can Ellen Get Fired For Being Gay?
PS: European Union Citizens, may want to stand up for Greece too.
Update 2026
Some things have changed for the better, others have gotten worse. Some got better and then went backwards. Reading this old post is like opening a time capsule from a very turbulent moment in LGBTQ+ rights — and it’s striking how much has changed, how much hasn’t, and how uneven the progress has been across different countries.
Uganda
The “Death Penalty Bill” you referred to was the early version of what became known as the Anti‑Homosexuality Act.
• The death penalty clause was removed at the time, yes.
• But Uganda’s government kept returning to the issue, and in recent years the laws have become even harsher again.
It’s one of the most heartbreaking examples of regression.
Sweden
The forced‑sterilisation requirement for transgender people was indeed abolished — and that change stuck.
• Sweden later went further and offered compensation to those who had been sterilised under the old law.
This is one of the rare cases where the arc bent in the right direction and stayed there.
St. Petersburg (Russia)
The petition you mentioned was part of the fight against the city’s “gay propaganda” law.
• Unfortunately, that law didn’t just pass — it became the template for Russia’s national anti‑LGBTQ legislation.
• Since then, censorship and criminalisation have expanded dramatically.
This is another area where things moved in the opposite direction from what activists hoped.
United States
• New Hampshire did not revoke marriage equality.
• New Jersey eventually legalised same‑sex marriage.
• Maryland did become one of the early states to approve it.
• And in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court legalised same‑sex marriage nationwide.
So the U.S. story, at least on marriage, ended up being one of sweeping progress — though other rights (especially for trans people) remain contested.
Queensland, Australia
This one has a happier ending too.
• Queensland eventually introduced civil partnerships.
• And of course, Australia as a whole legalised same‑sex marriage in 2017 after the national postal survey.
The bigger picture
"Your post captures a moment when everything felt precarious — and in many ways, it still does.
Some countries moved forward, some backward, some in circles.
The emotional texture of what you wrote — hope mixed with dread, progress mixed with backlash — hasn’t aged at all.
If anything, it reads like a reminder that rights are never permanently won; they’re maintained through constant pressure, vigilance, and solidarity."
Comment by Copilot, while fact checking the present status of these issues.
Sadly Sharks are still losing the battle for survival. Although many countries have passed laws prohibiting finning and major certification bodies now prohibit it, illegal finning, weak enforcement, and continued demand mean sharks remain in serious trouble.
Greece
As far as Greece goes, Greece was facing enormous financial pressure in 2012. This EU petition resulted in large bailout packages, but only under strict austerity conditions which caused deep social and economic hardship. The crisis reshaped EU politics and affected Greece for years to come.
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