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Off-Topic

lou91

Never posted on this forum before, but it seems a bit strange that there's no off-topic/general conversation thread, especially if meet ups take place. It could be a good addition, considering how a lot of the topics here are a bit heavy...

Thoughts?

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imme

Interesting article in the Guardian newspaper about gay people in Paraguay at the time of the Pope's visit to Paraguay and a few other South American countries in July 2015.

"Historic papal meeting can help change minds in Paraguay, says LGBT activist

The SomosGay director set to be among the first LGBT campaigners to meet with Pope Francis in country where community is often persecuted by violence.

Simón Cazal hopes the meeting with Pope Francis when he lands in Paraguay on Friday offers a chance to reach the ‘people in the streets, not the Catholic hierarchy’.

In some ways, Simón Cazal’s experience of coming out was like that of any young gay man in a small rural town: there was no local scene or support group he could turn to; the books in his college library said that homosexuality was an illness.

But Cazal had the particular misfortune to come to terms with his sexuality in Paraguay: a deeply conservative country which at that point was barely out of a 40-year military dictatorship which rounded up and tortured gay people.

“When I got up the courage to tell my parents that I thought I was gay, their reaction was terrible. They said that I was disrespecting them and breaking their rules,” said Cazal. “They said that this country didn’t have space for people like me. They said that if I ‘chose’ to be gay, I couldn’t stay in the house. And they threw me out in the street.”

Twenty years on, Cazal is set to make history. As the director of LGBT advocacy organization SomosGay, he is set to participate in a civil society roundtable with Pope Francis, who touches down in the small South American nation of barely seven million inhabitants on Friday as part of a whistle-stop regional tour.

Saturday’s encounter, albeit with several hundred other activists, will be the first time a sitting pope has publicly met with an LGBT campaigner.

Sitting in SomosGay’s colourful offices in the capital of Asunción, Cazal is clearly riding a wave of optimism that things in Paraguay are finally beginning to change. He’s quick to erupt into laughter, even when describing how he was fired from his job after attending a gay rights march in 2003, and thrown out of his apartment last year for hanging a rainbow flag from the balcony.

But his cheerfulness evaporates when he relates how, soon after unofficially founding SomosGay 10 years ago, he was attacked twice in three months – once by the police. “They knocked me unconscious and left me for dead … They broke me as a person, on every level. It was really hard to recover from so much violence,” he said.

Paraguay’s LGBT community still experiences a huge amount of discrimination. Of the 6,000 people referred to SomosGay each year, 93% have been the victim of violence. Fifty-four transexual people have been killed in Paraguay since the fall of of dictator Alfredo Stroessner in 1989. Boys are beaten up by their family for acting “too feminine”, and the NGO regularly receives reports of girls being submitted to “corrective rape”, sometimes by members of their own family, when they come out as gay. Minimal levels of care for HIV sufferers lead to easily preventable deaths.

For Cazal, the everyday discrimination is “directly related” to the outright homophobia displayed by Paraguay’s political class. President Horacio Cartes notoriously said prior to his election in 2013 that he would rather “shoot himself in the balls” than have a gay son. When police attacked an LGBT demonstration in 2014 and hospitalized activists a senior minister told local press that “homophobia doesn’t exist in Paraguay”.

“They say these things because they know they can get away with it,” said Cazal. “It makes you feel like a stranger in your own country. It discourages you. But then it makes you angry. It makes you think we’re going to stay and fight … if not for ourselves, then for the next generation so they don’t have to go through the same things as us.”

When he first received the invitation from the national bishop’s conference to attend Saturday’s meeting, he thought it was a joke. Cazal admitted that he and his colleagues were not sure if he should accept: other LGBT organizations have refused to attend due to the religious character of the meeting. “Some people said don’t even think about it, because it’s obviously a marketing move to present the pope as more open than he is and the church in a good light,” he said.

“But in Paraguay, 92% of people are Catholic and love the pope. If we reject the invitation, we’re rejecting democracy.”

Attending the meeting, he said, does not signal their support for the church – Cazal is an atheist – but offers a chance to reach the “people in the street, not the Catholic hierarchy”, he said.

“They’ll see that the pope invited gay people, and gay people went. And, at best, people will begin to think in a different way.”

Since news of the meeting came out, Cazal has been flooded with messages of support.

One wall of Cazal’s office is occupied by a mural of Batman, locked in a passionate embrace with a Robin-like figure. It’s an apt choice for a reluctant hero, who is still faintly bemused by the media coverage he has received.

And once the media circus has died down, Cazal will continue his work championing Paraguay’s LGBT community. “Here, we’re going to carry on. But with a new weapon. We have a new banner that we didn’t have before: we have the banner of the pope. And we’re going to use it for as a long as we can, to talk with people who see our existence as against their faith. This is going to give us a lot of strength.”"

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/10/simon-cazal-pope-francis-paraguay-lgbt-somosgay

Ten of Swords

Welcome back Itzy!

Banbha32

Seems like a good thread to resurrect. The forum does be fair quiet these days. A thread on all things gay and random is most welcome. The struggle is real after all :P How are all the old schoolers these days?

J_E

imme wrote: »

Twenty years on, Cazal is set to make history. As the director of LGBT advocacy organization SomosGay, he is set to participate in a civil society roundtable with Pope Francis, who touches down in the small South American nation of barely seven million inhabitants on Friday as part of a whistle-stop regional tour.

Saturday’s encounter, albeit with several hundred other activists, will be the first time a sitting pope has publicly met with an LGBT campaigner.

Looks like the pope is still doing a great PR run. I wouldn't hold my breath for any actual change to come of it. I think it has been made clear that a lot of things like that are done for show because the church knows it's losing support every day.

L.Jenkins

Good to be back 10.

Ten of Swords

I was reading the Memorable TV Ads thread in AH and got a bit nostalgic so I dug up this classic.

Things were a bit chaotic for me at the time when these ads originally ran and it was kind of reassuring to see this on TV, and it always made me smile

Enjoy

Ten of Swords

Goodbye and thanks to wonderfulname

Welcome (back) to Baby and Crumble

L.Jenkins

Do we need to sticky this thread to keep it going. Posting in the off topic thread has dropped off something shocking in recent times.

baby and crumble

To be fair the general level of posting in the whole forum is down... Not to sure why. These thigns always go in cycles though!

L.Jenkins

I suppose you're right Baby and welcome back.

Don't let anyone put you in the corner.

Ten of Swords

L.Jenkins wrote: »

Posting in the off topic thread has dropped off something shocking in recent times.

There is zero craic in this forum at the moment

It's a shame too because this is a great place when there are some good regulars.

But as B&C said it goes in cycles

Other threads that used to be good!

Funny side of not being straight

What are you listening to

L.Jenkins

I think we need to work on a revival or come back,

Annasopra

Submissions to the citizens assembly on the 8th amendment close at 5pm Tomorrow (Friday Decemeber 16th)

http://www.citizensassembly.ie/en/Submissions/

I'd really encourage everyone to make a personal submission

The constitutional convention was a big influence on marriage equality.

Annasopra

I have manflu at the moment and got so bored offwork I started reading books work had given me

Ten of Swords

What kind of books? Industry journals/manuals, training literature or health and safety and the like?

Annasopra

Ten of Swords wrote: »

What kind of books? Industry journals/manuals, training literature or health and safety and the like?

Leadership books on how teams are dysfunctional. Doing a leadership course through work.

Ten of Swords

I can't study when I'm sick. Watch Jeremy Kyle, be grand!

Get well soon though!

Annasopra

It wasnt even studying. Got bored watching **** daytime tv.

Ash885

I've got the complete seasons of Walking Dead and Good Wife to get me through the time off. Bring it oooon

baby and crumble

Well we're nearly at the big day- anyone else hosting family? All the in-laws are coming over. Spent today doing grocery shopping and making ice cream. Tomorrow it's ham cooking and making oodles of shortbread and Christmas biscuits!

Ten of Swords

This is the first year that I have not been single at Christmas, I'm actually really happy!!!

So this year it's just me and him and I cannot wait

lottpaul

Ten of Swords wrote: »

This is the first year that I have not been single at Christmas, I'm actually really happy!!!

So this year it's just me and him and I cannot wait

Congratulations to both of you -- hope you have a wonderful time!
With the passing of years memories of Christmas past are more and more important so I would just say to everyone - enjoy yourselves, create traditions, make memories!

Happy Christmas to all who post or read here - and every good wish for 2017.

L.Jenkins

Ten of Swords wrote: »

This is the first year that I have not been single at Christmas, I'm actually really happy!!!

So this year it's just me and him and I cannot wait

Hope you got him something nice for Christmas. If not and all else fails, wearing nothing but a Santa hat and a bow tie might do the trick :P

Annasopra

Ten of Swords wrote: »

This is the first year that I have not been single at Christmas, I'm actually really happy!!!

So this year it's just me and him and I cannot wait

Ah thats lovely. Have a wonderful time.

Banbha32

Ten of Swords wrote: »

This is the first year that I have not been single at Christmas, I'm actually really happy!!!

So this year it's just me and him and I cannot wait

Awwww. Thats so adoreable!!! Happy to hear Ten of Swords!

RiseToMe

Was all set for a lovely Christmas but post op complications have seen me admitted to hospital tonight. Fml.

Ten of Swords

L.Jenkins wrote: »

Hope you got him something nice for Christmas. If not and all else fails, wearing nothing but a Santa hat and a bow tie might do the trick :P

Disclaimer, I may have had oneor two egg nogs tonight!

Ive spend a ridiculous amount on him but you know what, mah boy is gettin spoiled this year

he can model some of his new clothes for me later

Night all, happy christmas

lottpaul

RiseToMe wrote: »

Was all set for a lovely Christmas but post op complications have seen me admitted to hospital tonight. Fml.

Sorry to hear that. Hope you're on the mend and feeling a bit better.

L.Jenkins

RiseToMe wrote: »

Was all set for a lovely Christmas but post op complications have seen me admitted to hospital tonight. Fml.

Do feel better soon.

[Deleted User]

Ten of Swords wrote: »

Disclaimer, I may have had oneor two egg nogs tonight!

Ive spend a ridiculous amount on him but you know what, mah boy is gettin spoiled this year

he can model some of his new clothes for me later

Night all, happy christmas

Raargh, so jealous. I've never had a bf at Christmas, or my birthday (which is two weeks before Christmas).

Sounds wonderful though, happy for you (though also bitter and resentful!

)

RiseToMe wrote: »

Was all set for a lovely Christmas but post op complications have seen me admitted to hospital tonight. Fml.