Now Pay Attention

Firstly, I shall apologise for my lack of posts over the past months. I didn't realise my following was as avid as it was, so I shall make a better effort from now on.

Right, now on to a couple of things which have caught my attention and I believe warrant a comment or several. I don't think I'll inject much levity on either issue, neither merits it. You may laugh anyway, I know it's how I tell 'em. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

Gay marriage has been featured a lot since this weekend, especially surrounding the completely idiotic comments made by Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Archbishop of Edinburgh and St Andrews. On the Today programme on Monday he compared it to the slave trade and said it would "shame the United Kingdom". Well Your Eminence, have you ever thought that such views are themselves shameful? In a century where we are all the time forging ahead to promote tolerance and understanding, it is not at all helpful to express such opinions publicly.

Not that I'm outright condemning opposition to gay marriage. I know that now we have the Civil Partnership Act and under that same-sex unions are held to be legally valid that should be enough. But it isn't and nor in fact should it be. Marriage is more than a piece of paper tying two people together for what ought to be the rest of their lives. Marriage for many is an emotive subject -- if you just want your partner not to have so much hassle when you're on your deathbed and afterwards then a civil union is the way forward, for anyone of any sexual orientation. To be married means that you have every intention of being together with your chosen person for the rest of your natural lives, not just sharing assets.

For myself as an out gay man, I can see why people want this, although I personally would be happy with just a civil partnership. But this is an argument about social justice, because marriage is also a social contract. People will doubtless come back to me and say "what do you understand about marriage?" I will then reply, "what does your average cardinal understand about it beyond Christian dogma?" And therein lies the heart of it, at least in my view.

By extension, and this is something I picked up in the Telegraph yesterday, there is the worry that traditional family life is being eroded. Children being brought up by (shock!) parents of the same gender. Those parents may have even had a (oh no!) same-sex marriage performed in a church. So? To those of you who think sexuality is either taught or inherited, you clearly believe that the First World War could have been easily avoided or Hitler was a misunderstood individual with bad parents. Parenting is about being able to bring a child up in a stable and loving environment with clearly-defined rules and boundaries. There are heterosexuals readily parading their bad parenting around and yet it is still largely frowned upon if two gay people wish to bring up a kid or three. Of course nobody can say they'd be better than their hetero' counterparts, but we should encourage more gay couples to come forward to either foster or adopt and have their chance.

And now for something else, on an unrelated subject. The campaign surrounding the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. Made by an American to highlight the plight of Ugandan child soldiers on behalf of Invisible Children, an international organisation whose aim is to promote the well-being of children who would otherwise be ignored, it is without doubt the worst effort I have seen made involved with anything ever. It is total drivel. Here's why.

Firstly, Joseph Kony himself is known and wanted by the International Criminal Court, a body not recognised -- interestingly -- by the US. The ICC only has the power to prosecute once those who have been indicted by it have been brought before it. Kony has been at large in Uganda kidnapping boys and abusing girls for around two decades and so far nobody has decided to infringe Uganda's sovereignty to go and stop him. So on that point, the campaign fails.

Its aim is to go viral and show the world what a terrible state Ugandan children are in. Not that Swazi children who are likely to be born with AIDS and (if they're a girl) sexually abused from infancy are much better off, or children from other parts of Africa brought into the households of Africans living in the West to work as slaves. Nope, Uganda is currently the cause celebre we should all have concern for. Tripe.

Invisible Children has already been condemned for not spending even half of its holdings on direct action. Figures suggest that out of a fund of roughly $8.6 million, over two-thirds went on staff salaries, travel, transport and film production. Jezebel.com (from whence I produced my figures) labels this campaign as the "meme du jour". They're not far wrong.