Earlier today, India restored a ban on gay sex that had been in place — with the exception of a four year period during which it was unconstitutional — since 1861, when it was a colony of ye goode olde England. Like the child of a broken home, India was left with the psychological scars of British colonial rule, namely its outmoded buggery laws, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. But India is just one of many countries still haunted by the spectre of Section 377, as the UK effectively exported homophobia to the rest of the world with its ruthless imperialism.
So here’s a quick history of how the United Kingdom ruined gay sex for the entire world.
The UK
The Buggery Act 1533, fancily known as “An Acte for the punysshement of the vice of Buggerie,” was passed by that pillar of moral rectitude, King Henry VIII — during one of his six marriages — and was England’s first civil sodomy law. The Act was repealed by Queen Mary in 1853, only to be restored 10 years later by Queen Elizabeth I.
The Act was again repealed and replaced in 1828, with buggery remaining a capital offense in England and Wales until 1861. Homosexuality was still criminalized, however, to which noted wit and sodomite Oscar Wilde can attest; his life and reputation were famously ruined for committing acts of “gross indecency” in 1895. UK Parliament finally repealed all buggery laws in 1967, though that didn’t stop Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher from pushing for the passage of Section 28 in 1988, prohibiting the “promotion” of homosexuality.
That was finally repealed in 2003. Then earlier this year, Her Royal BIC Queen Elizabeth II made an historic statement supporting LGBT rights, as part of a campaign to finally address civil rights abuses in former colonies. And it only took 500 years.
South Asia, the Pacific & the Middle East
According to a 66-page report on the origins of sodomy laws in British colonialism from Human Rights Watch, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was “the first colonial ‘sodomy law’ integrated into a penal code and it became a model anti-sodomy law for countries…stretched across Asia, the Pacific islands, and Africa almost everywhere the British imperial flag flew.” And that was a lot of places:
In Asia and the Pacific, colonies and countries that inherited versions of that British law were: Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Kiribati, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Myanmar (Burma), Nauru, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Western Samoa.
Of these 21 territories, only New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, and Fiji have fully decriminalized sodomy, with New Zealand and Australia, in particular, embracing equal rights.
UPDATE: Okay, maybe not so much Australia.
Meanwhile, many are quick to blame Islam/Sharia law on homophobia in the Middle East, but the British certainly didn’t help matters by introducing Section 377 to Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates, among other areas in the region.
Africa
The continent of Africa has been systematically raped and pillaged by numerous Europe powers over the centuries, though the UK exerted the most influence. Of the some 55 countries in Africa, 38 outlaw homosexuality or homosexual acts. Of those 38, approximately 18 are former British colonies: Burundi, Sudan, Lesotho, Botswana, Kenya, Somalia, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Gambia, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Tanzania and, sadly, even Cameroooooooooon.
I know, Bebe, I find it shocking too. South Africa, also a former British colony, is the only country in Africa to to provide full equal rights to LGBT people, thanks in part to the late Nelson Mandela; yet other countries seem determined to harshen their anti-gay laws, including Uganda and Nigeria.
The West Indies
In the West, the most glaring examples of the impact of British colonial buggery laws exist in the Caribbean, especially Jamaica — infamously dubbed by Time magazine as the “most homophobic place on Earth” in 2006. Jamaica is one of 11 Caribbean nations — eight of which are former British colonies — where homosexual acts remain illegal and LGBT people there live in fear of homophobic and transphobic violence. This, however, totally fine:
Though technically part of South America, Guyana, a British colony for over 200 years until 1966, prescribes life imprisonment for buggery.
The U.S.
While still a British colony, what became known as America sentenced its first man to death for sodomy in 1625. Sea captain Richard Cornish was tried and hanged in Virginia after he was accused of “forcibly sodomizing” a teenaged cabin boy. Two oustpoken critics of Cornish’s trial received their own harsh punishments, including the loss of their ears.
And in Massachusetts in 1629, five ”beastly Sodomiticall boys” were sent back to England for execution. Founding father Thomas Jefferson suggested a more lenient punishment for sodomy in 1778 — castration — but the Virginia Legislature wasn’t having any of that liberal hippie talk and retained the death penalty. Sodomy laws thus remained on the books in 14 states until the landmark Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas in 2003.
So there we have it — across six centuries and six continents, the United Kingdom managed to ruin gay sex for everyone nearly everywhere by making private affairs a public matter. India is only the latest country to grapple with this complicated and complex history, trying to reconcile its past as a British colony with the present in a very modern and much more tolerant world. Well, there’s always the next 500 years to get it right.
avesraggiana
While it’s a given that the vast majority of Americans born and raised in America are preternaturally, geographically-challenged and therefore don’t know where these countries are, and don’t’ care, sadly even today’s British subjects are less and less likely to be aware that at one time, their country literally ruled the world.
simonreg
I say, I’m frightfully sorry about all of that, old chaps, but at least we will be able to get married, as from 29 March 2014. Tally-ho!
mgmchicago
“The Act was repealed by Queen Mary [1] in 1853…”
I believe that you mean 1553?
RRT
“We” are not amused.
Jamal
Why can’t they just leave us gays alone and let us do our thing, I’ll never see what’s the big deal.
2eo
@simonreg: Tip of the bowler good sir, it really is a sticky wicket to see the colonies acting up again. I understand the alsorans get a tad rambunctious at times.
Mind you America is a country that thinks forcing descendants removed a dozen times still owe reparations to people for events that happened before their great grandparents were even born, so it doesn’t surprise me everyone decides to yet again pass the buck.
2eo
Wonder if Britain will ever rile up people again so badly that we’ll have people fly planes into our buildings?
If only there was a recent precedent in some capacity of this.
Callum
Yes, because that’s how it works – a parent nation institutes a law in a colony and at no time during the next 500 years, even when that country is no longer owned or governed by the ex-parent country, even when the country has a Parliament of its own, can said country repeal or pass its own laws.
Surely, that’s how governance works?
Britain has been independent of UK governance for over 65 years – they’re part of the Commonwealth, but this does not involve actual direct lawmaking in India, which has its own Parliament. Their Parliament repealed and re-enacted the sodomy laws, not ours.
Get off your high horse – almost all of the countries listed here have their own independent legislative process, not subject to the directives of the UK Government. Seriously, it’s been half a millennium. Grow the fuck up.
Callum
EDIT: India has been independent of UK Governance…
2eo
@Callum: They seem to think that by blaming us now for transgressions committed decades [centuries] before we were born admonishes American responsibility today.
As I said in the previous post, the rampant xenophobia on this site is purposely getting stoked, there’s plenty we could say about America but can’t because of death threats and a real threat of turning up in Guantanamo with no hope of ever having a trial or justice.
ponyboy
Why get on yer high horse? It’s not as if the article is tounge in cheek?? I find it quite amusing but still glad we have gay marriage in Scotland – Nuff said 🙂
Captain proton
You forgot Israel. We used to be a British mandate.
Teleny
When you consider how underdeveloped and impoverished Great Britain left most of its colonies, it’s hardly surprising that they instituted bias against lbgt people.
Off topic: Cate Blanchett looks so fierce in her Elizabeth costumes. Cary Elwes is one of my fantasy husbands. 🙂
the other Greg
@avesraggiana: “the vast majority of Americans born and raised in America are preternaturally, geographically-challenged…”
The sum total of what most semi-educated Americans know about India:
“Gandhi loved Triscuits.”
And that’s the ones who’ve heard of both Gandhi and India! “GANDHI LOVED TRISCUITS!”
balehead
The British casued 9-11 too….
Pistolo
Queen Elizabeth I? Why?!
Daveliam
@the other Greg: Wait, what? Ghandi loved Triscuits? I’ve heard of both but never heard of this. Does that make me less than semi-educated? Quadrant-educated, perhaps?
Reid Condit
Lawrence v. Texas has been on the books in the US since 2003, but news of that decision has yet to reach the San Francisco Dept. of Public Health, which as recently as last August issued a fact sheet that forbids privacy in bathhouses, thereby keeping the buggery ban in place in commercial venues (except presumably hotel rooms). . . San Francisco? Gay Mecca? Excuse me! Show me the way to LA or even just San Jose.
TomMc
@Teleny: RE: Cate and Cory. I couldn’t have put that better myself.
RE: This article in general – I liked the use of facts. However, it’s too bad that the author chose to ignore the multiple episodes of colonial violence perpetrated by France and Spain.
2eo
@TomMc: It’s only okay to be blatantly r@cist if the people are white, hence this article which is r@cist to Britain.
But we have come to expect it from Americans, it’s actually surprising when you come across people who aren’t. It is so casual and ingrained in the American psyche it will never change.
LAman
Though England is not the sole reason there is homophobia in those countries, England and “western countries” largely influenced homophobia during imperialism. In Ancient China, gay sex wasn’t as unusual as it is in their country today, but since China became westernized, gay sex is such a taboo subject.
AuntieChrist
@2eo: I can’t believe that you actually drew a comparison to 9-11…Britian’s lust for gold, power, tea, spices and cheap labor has reeked havoc on the world for hundreds of years, as well as the systematic subjugation of indigenous peoples all in the name of god and country…And you, you smug little horses ARSE have the nerve to play armchair critic…Go back to world of war craft or whatever geeky little hole you crawled out of…You’re a right bloody git, you priggish wanker…There is plenty of blame to be had by all, and you are as xenophobic as you accuse others of being..
ZaneStuart
Interesting article but blaming colonialism for continued abuses against LGBT folk is off the mark. In some instances centuries off the mark.
Homophobic “kill the gays’ fervor (law?) in Uganda is being stirred by AMERICAN “Christian” haters.
dayglowjim
@mgmchicago: Thanks for the notice of the dates. I was wondering how long it would take for someone to catch that, I guess not long!
Palmer Scott
I’m pretty liberal, but honestly, it gets tiresome to constantly hear how ignorant U. S. citizens are. If we don’t know the exact latitude and longitude of some country that wouldn’t even cover the area of Arkansas we’re considered ignorant! If we can’t name every monarch, dictator and generalissimo that rule some former colony of Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany or the Netherlands, we’re ignorant!
Yes, our educational system is abysmal, but no more so than Britain’s. I recently saw an article where many Brits were asked to name our states. They did as bad as most Americans would do naming British counties (I can name and locate between 6 & 7 of them).
But let one of these countries get invaded or enter a civil war and next thing we hear is the people on their streets demanding that America come to their rescue! “Arm us, give us money, die for us, you ignorant, filthy dogs!”
We should NEVER have entered Iraq. Afghanistan was poorly planned and should have been a police action of the United Nations. This is the legacy of the Bush administration. Shameful and criminal. It should be a wake-up call to the . S. to stop acting as the policeman of the world.
Palmer Scott
The last line should read “call to the U. S.”
avesraggiana
@Palmer Scott: Actually, we Americans are pretty ignorant about anything going on outside our borders. Embarrassingly so. And just because many British people aren’t able to name our states is no indication that they are as ill-informed about the world outside their borders as we Americans are – or tend to be.
Part of it is our geography. We are so vast a country that our tendency is to be insular and to look inward and thus believe that anything worth paying attention to occurs only within our borders. After all, how much more gripping do our lives need to be, what with the antics of Lindsay Lohan, and Real Housewives of Name-your-City to captivate our attention? Who has time or the inclination to catch up on world affairs and international current events? The only time we learn about the outside world is when someone is attacking us or we’re sending “our boys” to invade or liberate some part of it. That, along with the very skewed pictures we get from TV or internet news makes for a very limited view indeed. Even though the “average Brit” cannot name more than a handful of our US states, it’s a pretty sure bet that even the most inveterate “lager lout” can have two or three intelligent things to say about their neighbouring countries, and even about US current affairs. Again, it’s partly a function of geography. The UK, along with the vast majority of countries in the world is a “small nation” and has a small nation mindset. That mindset includes a tendency on their part to look to the outside world for information, and for news about the world, from around the world.
As the world superpower, we have no such mindset. The only thing we know and care about the outside world is that we’re at the top of it. And for a vast majority of Americans, that’s really all that matters.
rand503
@AuntieChrist: Not to mention what they did to China in the early 19th century. By the end of the 18th century, China was by far the richest country in the world, due in large part to the fact that they exported silk, tea, and china. They wanted and imported nothing from the west, resulting in a huge trade imbalance in favor of China.
The Brits did NOT like the fact that they were paying for these three items with silver bars, the only thing the Chinese would accept. They tried to sell the Chinese anything and everything, to no avail. Finally, they realized that they owned all this land in Afghanistan that growed poppy seeds. So they sold opium to the Chinese.
That got them addicted, and within a decade or two, the balance shifted dramatically. Now China was paying for the opium with silver bars and became improvrished. When the emperor burned the warehouses of opium, the British became angry and declared war, all in the name of “free trade.”
So Britain waged war on Britina for the sole reason of forcing them to buy the opium. After a series of Opium Wars, western powers owned or controlled large parts of China, which was a deep humiliation to the nation. Worse, they freely traded in opium, destroying whole generations and the entire economy of China.
Because westerners smuggled silk worms out of China and then realized the technology to duplicate the production of china, Chinese exports dropped significantly, selling only tea. Of course, by the beginning of the 19th century, westerners smuggled out tea plants and planted them in British owned land in India, where they grew enormous tea estates. Slowly, China lost even tea as an export item. In 1880, 90% of their earned export income was in tea. AFterwards, Sir Thomas Lipton, who owned vast tea estates in India, devised ways to process tea with machines and the price of Indian tea plummeted. By 1890 China was exporting virtually no tea.
This was all a concerted effort to destroy China’s economy by the British so that they could have all the silver returned to British banks, and make China an export market in opium, the only thing they could sell there.
So, yeah, I don’tknow what worse — killing a few thousand in two towers, or making millions of people and several generations of people drug addicts who die an early and horrible death just to make money.
rand503
@Callum: IT takes time to change attitudes. Just because the British leave doesn’t mean that suddenly everyone become pro gay. You need to change hearts and minds, something we gays only started to do in the past decade or so.
rand503
Oh BTW, many of the great American fortunes, such as the Roosevelts and the Vanderbilts, was created during the Opium Wars or in the opium trade with China. They don’t teach that in school books, though.
Kieran
Ironic that the British never would have acquired an empire without the Royal Navy whose ships were renowned for “Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash”.
TomMc
@2eo: I couldn’t have put that better myself 🙂
TomMc
@LAman: If you’ve seen the historical records… Well, at one point for instance, apparently most of the USA belonged to France and/or Spain.
I do believe too that France and Spain ‘owned’ large parts of Asia, South America, and Africa for a while too (??)
[Apologies for not providing facts and/or any URL’s here right now LAman. I’m in an EST time zone, and it’s rather late. Might it be okay if I defer sending along those examples, should I be able to find the (any?) unchallengeable ones, until tomorrow?]
ytrewq
Gee, way to go letting other people off scot free for their bad behaviour.
Much easier when we can just blame the British and perhaps the Germans for all the world’s problems huh.
Perhaps this writer can tell us next how the English are responsible for the aids virus, perhaps communism, global warming and the Kardashian sisters next. Now that we know that everybody else can be completely relieved of personal responsibility of their actions, it should be easy!
Sadly the anti-white sentiment is strong in this one Yoda.
jimbryant
The role of British women in creating homophobic laws can’t be denied.
British women fear male homosexuality because it proves that men are superior to women.
2eo
@ytrewq: Pointing out that it is simple Americans passing the buck.. AGAIN apparantly makes me an arrogant, smug git, which I absolutely am for the record.
Though compared to Auntie, self proclaimed “Not the sharpest knife” being called those things by it doesn’t particularly hold weight as an idea.
@TomMc: They can’t even see how they’re being r@cist, it’s quite sad really.
2eo
I must say being made aware that I’m personally responsible for the Opium Wars is quite surprising. Considering they finished 125 years before I was born.
I must remind the lovely German fellow I’m working with this afternoon whose 25 that he is responsible for the battle of the Somme.
moo
It’s very easy to look back on past events with a modern perspective. At the time of the Opium Wars, opium wasn’t illegal in Britain or China (or in the USA). It was simply a commodity, like tobacco or alcohol.
I wonder how people in a hundred years will look back on how western companies source and manufacture electronic goods and clothes today. Not favourably I imagine.
AuntieChrist
2eo…..WROTE
Wonder if Britain will ever rile up people again so badly that we’ll have people fly planes into our buildings?
Developing a dislike for some mealy mouthed Limy Bastard who calls himself 2eo does not make me a [email protected] has had a deep seeded hatred for America since WWII…Much of Europe, a continent that had dominated the world for several centuries, was in ruins, and host to the armies of the United States and the Soviet Union, who now held the balance of global power… Britain was left essentially bankrupt…I wonder how you would feel if you had friends who died on 9-11..? I lost a very old friend that day a gay man that I had known for years…Calling you a Bloody Git was an understatement and I kindness on my part…Dick head…
Callum
@rand503: That’s true, of course that’s true. All I’m getting at is that Queerty doesn’t seem to have acknowledged that either, and still seems to be blaming us for the actions of a country that we have little to do with any more (politically speaking).
the other Greg
If we start burning witches again here in New England, I know who to blame!
Funny how these former British colonies went through arduous struggles to gain independence, and then several decades after they finally DO gain independence, they’re still helpless to change any leftover anti-gay laws. But why does this seem to happen mostly with the anti-gay laws and not others?
@2eo: Silly 2eo! – “r@cism” in the US can only be directed at “people of color.” If it’s directed at white people it’s sneered at as “reverse r@cism” and since reverse r@cism can’t possibly exist, there can never be such a problem. Hope this clears it up for you! But you have an example of this in the British expression “the wogs begin at Calais.” Since I’m American I don’t know what a “wog” is, of course, but since it’s directed at white French people it can’t possibly be r@cist? 🙂
@Daveliam: “Gandhi loved Triscuits”… it’s a “Seinfeld” reference. Please self-deport yourself ASAP to Europe, where they only understand “Friends” references. Meanwhile, happy Festivus!
AuntieChrist
@the other Greg: In British English, wog is usually applied to Middle Eastern and South Asian peoples…Witches were mostly hanged after being tortured…There was some burning in Europe though.
2eo
@AuntieChrist: Even now you can’t help the supercilious obviousness of the idea I put forward, even in trying to address me individually you still manage to make it about how superior America and Americans are to everyone else.
It’s a real shame, as you admittedly are one of the less intelligent of the regular posters, but people like Greg here get it, and you don’t.
It’s so simple even a stupid r@cist walking stereotype like yourself should understand.
2eo
I was under the impression wog meant wife or girlfriend, like the term wag. Never heard that Calais phrase used before either.
the other Greg
@AuntieChrist: You’re so literal, Auntie. Maybe we do need an emoticon for sarcasm after all. (I should never doubt those nice folks at The Atlantic and Salon.com.)
And maybe I’ve been spending too much time down in RI because yes, I forgot that the witches in Salem, MA were generally hanged not burned! But one or two were drowned I think – I’ll look it up.
@2eo: Thanks, but @2eo: really?
jwrappaport
I must apologize for my countrymen and what is frankly a ridiculous, lazily-written article. The UK didn’t ruin gay sex for anyone – organized religion did. Fear-mongering and superstition know no borders or nationality. They are a scourge everywhere and are especially intractable among poverty and ignorance.
Germany, Belgium, and France also had extensive holdings in Africa, and I’d hazard a guess and say that those former colonies are just as homophobic and mired by religious superstition as those of Britain. If the UK is responsible for ruining gay sex, then I’m responsible for the ethnic cleansing of North America by the Jackson administration. A clue, no.
Ken
@Teleny: You said, “When you consider how underdeveloped and impoverished Great Britain left most of its colonies…”
That’s not quite fair. Those countries weren’t exactly major players in global politics and economics before Britain got there.
2eo
@Ken: Frankly I’m surprised when these kinds of Americans have even heard of Gandhi, I generally expect them to tell me how America liberated India in WWII on the back of a giant B-52 bomber piloted by JD Rockefeller and George Washington.
It’s a shame so many in our community can’t even help themselves in being so casually r@cist when there’s so many awesome Americans doing fantastic work.
2eo
@the other Greg: Yeah, not altering what I’ve heard to better suit the point I’m making in this thread, but I’ve actually never heard it, I’m from very north Yorkshire, our colloquialism has never really used those terms, or if it does it’s just never come up when I’m around.
Ken
@jwrappaport: Organized religion? If you are British, you know that “organized religion” in England takes the form of an official state church (surprisingly called “the Church of England”). Other churches in the Anglican Communion periodically edit their versions of the Book of Common Prayer to keep them on track with the state of the English language. The Church of England wants to do that too, but since it is the state church of England, Parliament has to approve any changes. Since it refuses to take the matter up, the Church of England is stuck with the Book of Common Prayer of 1666.
If “organized religion” can’t even edit its prayer book because the government won’t approve, who is politically more powerful, “organized religion” or the government?
Say “organized religion” and everyone will nod in enlightened agreement. At least “organized religion” has organizational structures that we can lobby, and most of their membership tends to agree with us. Since I am a pastor, I know that “organized religion” is a problem, but I also know there is a greater one.
Unorganized religion is the greater danger. They are the independent religious groups, rogue churches, and make-it-up-as-you-go-along TV preachers, sovereign right-wingers who roll their own religion, and politicians who use folk religion to prey on the superstitious. They have no overall structure or organization or clearly defined constituency. We have to deal with them one by one. The sorcerer’s apprentice had an easier time stopping those bucket-carrying brooms.
Niall
Did the UK also impose laws on those countries that makes them unable to ever progress or move forward on gay issues? Because the UK seems to be.
Ken
@2eo: Both ideology and ignorance live in a black-and-white world in which there are no exceptions to any rule.
jwrappaport
@Ken: “Organized religion” refers to the Anglican Church just as it refers to megachurches and so-called rogue churches. I define it broadly as any institution whose members subscribe to a set of spiritual rules laid down by a central authority figure (or figures) whose competency is above rational inquiry.
I get what you’re saying, i.e., that rigidly organized religions are easier to rein in, but I think it misses the point. The point is that, when you place a person, idea, or factual claim beyond rational inquiry, it is inherently dangerous irrespective of the structure that supports it. That’s what ruined gay sex for everyone, not the British Empire.
2eo
@Ken: I know, that’s why I’m so good at poking massive holes in idiotic arguments. The absurdity and outright lack of knowledge exhibited by Auntie and others not just in this thread but others attacking England and the English people for transgressions centuries ago deserves to be ridiculed.
R@cism will not be tolerated, and people like Auntie are the minority of Americans, and they deserve the verbal lashing they have received.
jwrappaport
@Ken: PS: I’m a proud American. Despite our First Amendment and lack of a state religion, we’re far more religiously conservative than many nations who overtly sponsor a faith.
Ken
@jwrappaport: Most people cannot tell the difference between their social values and their religious values. When we say that someone is a religious conservative, the “conservative” part generally consists of social values, not religious ones.
AuntieChrist
@2eo: I am not arrogant nor at any point did I express the opinion that America is better or superior…You will continue to twist my words to suit your purpose so what is the point of even trying to develop an interesting dialogue or to trade quips and barbs in the spirit of fun…If you weren’t such an insufferable ass I would have liked to call you friend… @the other Greg:Sorry, I was a born again pagan so I am a tad sensitive about the Wiccan thing…
2eo
@AuntieChrist: It ceased being interesting when you and Rand503 decided to attack my countryfolk, and me directly as being responsible for events that occurred 140 years ago. The direct attack[s] were uncalled for and can only be interpreted as r@cist in origin, given the tone and language of the posts it’s only possible to infer you intentionally attacked my nation.
If you’d said the same things about black people and slavery [that you consider them inferior, EXACTLY what you and Rand said] there’d be uproar.
Kangol
@2eo:
Mind you America is a country that thinks forcing descendants removed a dozen times still owe reparations to people for events that happened before their great grandparents were even born, so it doesn’t surprise me everyone decides to yet again pass the buck.
What the hell are you talking about? What “reparations”? And how convenient that you left out 100+ years AFTER slavery of Jim Crow, legalized, state-sanctioned de jure and de facto SEGREGATION, DISCRIMINATION and white supremacist lawlessness.
But hey, a simplistic, unreal version of US history works for you, so great.
Back to the article, yes, British laws, as I’ve said before, have had a monstrous effect in all its colonies. People here keep mentioning Spain and France, but in many former Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, and Belgian colonies (there were comparative few Italian or German colonies), homosexuality is not penalized as harshly, and the Napoleonic code abolished criminalization in French colonies, though some have since taken up the criminalization and anti-gay banner.
This horrific British colonial legacy, combined with religious fanaticism, economic impoverishment, and bad leadership in countless former British colonies has meant a very difficult time for LGBTQ people. We are still extricating ourselves from this legacy in the US.
AuntieChrist
@2eo:Your comment about planes flying into buildings is what set me off…For the record I am not proud of the American people especially our foreign policies and the way most Americans act when abroad…I have a very healthy contempt for human beings in general so don’t flatter yourself that I find you any better or worse than anyone else…Unlike you I do not adopt an elitist attitude and consider some humans to be less than others…You refer to them as fringe and lesser…I understand that the majority of people are base, petty, cruel, and greedy…I make an effort everyday to try and be a better person,I may not succeed but I try.
2eo
@AuntieChrist: None of that extricates you from what you said, playing off targeted criticism as a “contempt for humanity in general” doesn’t work, as what you’ve said is quite literally you consider current living English people inferior to Americans.
You still can’t even see that you have said this, and have continued too.
@Kangol: I fail to see how anything I’ve said could be construed as defending atrocities committed in the past, but I’m sure you’ll arbitrarily decide, remember when you accused me of saying gay people in Jamaica deserve what they get when I in fact said literally the 150% opposite.
I don’t see how I shoulder any direct blame for colonial rule. I wasn’t even alive for 3 decades after the sun had set on the British Empire.
AuntieChrist
@2eo: I love your mental filter…I reread my comments and at no point did I say or even infer that…I merely stated a few historical facts…My attack was directed at you…Or can you actually read…? You see what you want to see…And now we’re done.
Daniel-Reader
The most chilling aspect of the genocidal India court ruling is that the judges declared that you only have constitutional rights if you belong to a large-enough group. The ruling attempts to divert judicial responsibility by claiming “only” 200 people were harmed by the law. As if “200” were some number to dismiss because justice is undeserved if you do not belong to a large enough group. Constitutions are to defend individual liberty and rights. A single person experiencing injustice is one person too many in the civilized world, but even “200” is not enough to have the judges in the case do their duty. The genocidal notion of having to have great enough numbers to satisfy a judge in order to have access to your basic individual rights is absolutely appalling and truly evil – a massive miscarriage of justice to human beings from all walks of life.
Tookietookie123
The UK has already identified the cause of homophobia in many of their former colonies, they even had someone(I forgot who) make a statement about it. They’re trying their best to fix their mistakes but nobody will listen, mainly out of pride and that they don’t want “western culture” to be pushed onto them despite it being “western culture” that made them homophobes.