Sodomy - America vs Africa

If you're observant, you will see that I have a gadget way down on the left that highlights news based on keywords I specify. This week one of my keywords is "sodomy" (along with "BBC TV" and "Palin" - it's fun to see what you get day by day). Today, there are two reports next to each other that bear mention.

That elephant trunk is, erm, phallic!

The juxtaposition is very interesting, because this article talks about how the Texas Republican Party is trying to re-criminalize sodomy (oral as well as anal sex) in that state. They also want to jail anyone who issues a same-sex marriage license, and ban strip clubs. (This report also links to an article about a same-sex "crime" in Malawi, with a sentence of 14 years of hard labor.)

The other report comes out of Ghana. This African country was recently in the news because it has decided that gay people should be killed (no joke). The article here talks about a specific case of sodomy with a teenager; it will be interesting to see what punishment the alleged perp faces. The report, understandably, is in somewhat tortured English which, on the surface, is amusing - but the jarring reference to lesbianism is more than amusing, it's confounding!

So why are these two reports interesting? Well, it's kinda obvious - it strikes me that many Texans would be very much at home in Ghana and Malawi. I'm just sayin'...

Amusing sidenote: See this article about the gay McDonalds ad ... the French, as well as the rest of Europe, and many many other countries have a rather more sophisticated view of life. When will the U.S. grow up? For example, see this report about our friend Bill O'Reilly from Fox "News" discussing the ad, wherein he speculates "Do they have an Al-Qaida ad?" (the 'they' he refers to is Mickey D's).