Far be it from being said that this column ever indulges in rumor, innuendo, and stereotyping. With that out of the way what is a reader to do with this news item from The NY Times (10/12)about Cambodia’s next king: the present king is set to abdicate for health reasons and has called his son, Prince Norodom Sihamoni, home from France. The prince, 51, is a ballet dancer and choreographer. Here is a quote about him from a Cambodian journalist: ‘He is very, very, very intelligent and pure because he has not married, and he satisfies everything needed by his parents … and he never says bad things.’ He was a tish avante-garde when he choreographed a Cambobian classical dance but gave roles to men instead of women. Sounds like the Cambodian people are all set to get the best little king in the world. But probably no heirs as turkey basters are scarce on the ground there.
Here is what Parade Magazine (10/17)advice columnist Marilyn vos Savant (billed as having the highest IQ in the world in the Guinness Book of World Records)says in answer to a reader’s question about homophobia. The reader says people are tolerant of those with phobias about spiders or enclosed spaces and asks why homophobes shouldn’t also be ‘recognized as victims of their fears’ instead of being ridiculed and loathed. Vos Savant says, ‘… I think the term was made up to annoy the sort of heterosexual who is mindlessly contemptuous—not fearful—of all gay people. So don’t go treating them so gently … . They don’t deserve it.’
Leave it to the English to pack more information in a quarter page story than comparable U.S. news writers in 14 pages. Case in point: The Economist (10/9-15)in a story about murdered lesbian activist, Fanny Ann Eddy, from Sierra Leone (put upon by assailants at a gay-rights headquarters who raped and stabbed her and broke her neck)also mentions that 33 out of 54 African countries ban homosexuality. Many of the countries where it is legal deny it exists. South Africa alone actively protects gay rights while Burkina Faso allows it because of a ‘tradition of religiously sanctioned lesbianism among the women of the Dagar tribe.’ Before she was killed Eddy told the UN Commission on Human Rights that ‘homophobic attacks go unpunished,’ as will hers, no doubt.
An African-American Texan, Roderick Johnson, who is gay, has filed suit against the prison officials of the Allred Unit, a Texas prison, for allowing him to be made into a sexual slave and prostitute. According to The NY Times (10/16)Johnson alledges he was automatically given to the Gangster Disciples inmates, re-named ‘Coco’, and then rented out. He was also sold to another gang, the Bloods, and raped many times. Describing showers he said: ‘It’s like throwing a piece of meat to a pack of wolves.’ A number of inmates have testified to similar situations in other states.