Well, they'll stone ya when you're trying to be so good,
They'll stone ya just a-like they said they would.
They'll stone ya when you're tryin' to go home.
Then they'll stone ya when you're there all alone.
But I would not feel so all alone,
Everybody must get stoned.
Bob Dylan
Yesterday, Iranian President Ahmadinejad proclaimed there are "no homosexuals in Iran."
This may be true since Iranian law is governed by Islamic (Sharia) law -- or God's law as it is written in the Koran.
Since the Koran (like the Old Testament of the Bible) calls for the stoning to death of gays and lesbians – simply for BEING gay or lesbian, it should come as no surprise that Iranian gays and lesbians try to stay invisible.
And, it logically follows that, except for God himself, what is not visible does not exist!
In America, at this writing, LGBTQ people have the right to live. Of course we are still struggling for certain rights – for example, equality -- but we are able to walk around without the expectation of being stoned to death for being out and open.
That being said, it is important that we remain vigilant to the real threat that there IS a very strong movement in the US to shift our form of government from the secular to a Christian Nation governed by Biblical law.
President Bush has even instituted in his administration, a department of Faith Based Communities Initiatives (FBCI) to “level the playing field” so that religious organizations have equal access to Federal funds.
Never mind that the FBCI is in direct conflict with the Constitutional directive to maintain a separation between matters of State and Church.
The founders of our Republic had a good reason for their desire to create a wall between the function of government and religious belief:
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