Gibraltar's Gay age of consent and California ruling on gay marriage on Proposition 8

As you may have read in Gibraltar's local media, a Bill to equalise the age of consent for homosexuals and heterosexuals, by setting this at 16, the age that already applies for heterosexuals and lesbians, was heard in the Gibraltar Parliament recently.

Daniel Feetham, the Minister for Justice, took the unusual step of bringing a motion asking for leave to introduce a Private Members’ Bill for an Act to amend the Criminal Offences Act.

There is overwhelming international legal and local constitutional pressure to implement equalisation although the issue is untested in the local courts.

The Equality Rights Group GGR welcomed the Bill:

"After nine years of GGR raising the public debate on sexual minorities in Gibraltar, we are pleased to see that Parliament has finally considered the question of age of consent inequality currently in force."

I was pleased to see the Bill has been passed to proceed to a formal reading of a Bill in Parliament.

As GGR Chairman Felix Alvarez recently said:

"Whilst Government has failed to introduce the debate as a public Bill on what, after all, is a public issue and instead, preferred to rely on one of its own members in a purely private capacity, it has, nonetheless passed the motion to proceed on the formal reading of a Bill to equalise the legislation. This, in effect, falls short of Government’s legal requirement to comply with what is unarguably an international law obligation and not, as they have argued, a mere question of ‘conscience'."

As Brian Reyes concluded when referring to a recent 'Child Porn' case, "Time for the legislators to get moving on this…swiftly, methinks", there's much to be done to bring legislation in these and other matters concerning human rights and anti-discrimination in Gibraltar, to international and European law standards!

Gay age of consent: Is 16 too young?

Back in March this year, Peter Caruana, Gibraltar's Chief Minister indicated that the Government was likely to be obliged to make the age of consent the same for heterosexuals and gays, although he expressed his own moral disagreement with this, saying that "young people have enough pressure on them at that stage of life". He did however concede that the 'leveling' is likely to happen. The 'great unspoken', as the Chronicle recently described this, is that it is expected that Peter Caruana, a devout Catholic who nonetheless backed the original decriminalisation of gay sex, may refrain from backing the substantive bill, which includes this issue of 'age of consent' when it goes before Parliament.

There's no question that this is a difficult moral issue and it's no surprise that emotions have been running high in Gibraltar over the issue of age of consent... and not just for gay males!

The Gibraltar Women’s Association have been arguing that the age of consent for sex should be 18 for men and women.

Back in January this year, responding to correspondence in the Gibraltar Chronicle the GWA were critical of the GGR lobbying of the Council of Europe. In a statement the GWA said they "wholeheartedly" agreed with a letter to the newspaper from Andrew Mifsud (10th January 2008 in the Gibraltar Chronicle).

"Mr Mifsud may be ‘bewildered’ but we are absolutely ‘flabbergasted’.

The Gibraltar Women’s Association is not a minority group as is the GGR and Mr Alvarez has no right to fight for rights which the majority of women in Gibraltar (including lesbians) have not asked for or want.

If a heterosexual couple consent to buggery it is their own decision and nobody needs to know!"

The GWA added that the fact that this is illegal "protects women who do not consent to anal sex"! Hmmm... Well, I'm no lawyer, but I would have thought, surely that issue is adequately covered in rape and sexual abuse laws in Gibraltar... and bears very little on the question of age of consent for gays?

Referring to Mr Alvarez the GWA further stated that "in any case, it is already legal between consenting males over the age of 18 so we fail to see what his problem is and why he feels the need to involve the Council of Europe in this matter".

I would respectfully suggest to the ladies of the GWA, that Mr Alvarez's 'problem' is probably not far removed from the same concerns on Mr Feetham's mind. In a recent interview with Paco Oliva, Daniel Feetham, Gibraltar's Minister for Justice, was asked, "why couldn’t you have raised the age of consent to 18"?

This question for me is the critical question in this entire debate.

I believe that when people who support the principle of equalisation come to consider the consequences they will rapidly come to the conclusion that it would be very much harder to obtain a social consensus to increase the age of consent to 18. For a start it would also take Gibraltar in the opposite direction of travel to the rest of Europe in respect of these matters. Strongly Catholic countries have equal ages of consent below 16. That includes Spain at 13, Italy at 14, France at 15 and Portugal at 16. Of the Council of Europe members only Turkey, the Ukraine and with some exceptions Malta have ages of consent set at 18.

But consider the practical and legal difficulties. The age of consent for heterosexual and lesbians has been 16 since at least 1888 when an Ordinance was passed to protect “women and girls” and the legal age at which people can get married in Gibraltar has been 16 for decades. Lets be clear about it, the main motivating factor behind an increase of the age of consent to 18 would be in order to avoid lowering the age of consent for homosexual intercourse. Is that right? Consider, for example, the position of a 17-year old in a steady relationship who now found that his or her ability to have heterosexual intercourse had been curtailed in order to prevent the lowering of the age of homosexual intercourse.

It would also be necessary to raise the age at which people can get legally married. Consider also the bizarre situation that would arise if a 16 or 17 year old married girl were faced with the situation that the age of consent is raised to 18 or the case of young married couple (possibly a serviceman married to a 17 year old girl) coming to Gibraltar from Great Britain where the age of consent is 16. What should we do? Require them to refrain from having sexual intercourse whilst in Gibraltar, or would there be a two-tier system of a different sort whereby they would be exempt from prosecution whilst locals would be liable to prosecution for having sexual intercourse! Do we carve out exceptions for people who are married? What about those who are not married whose relationships are being interfered with retrospectively?

In all these cases people could complain that, under Article 8 of the Convention, their private life had been interfered with, and that raising the age of consent was neither proportionate nor necessary for the protection of their health or morals."

It is quite clear, despite the somewhat over alarmist worries expressed, with good intent I'm sure, by the GWA, that the equalisation of age of consent is the right thing to do.... and the sooner Mr Feetham's motion is passed to law, the better.

Age of Consent - Facebook Group

A Facebook Group has been set up in the hope of obtaining the views of young people in Gibraltar. This is what it asks:

The Women's Association of Gibraltar is asking for the age of sexual consent to be increased from 16 to 18. This means anyone under 18 who has sex will come under the criminal law.

Do you agree? Will this criminalise a lot of young people? Will it lead to increasing shame and a greater generational gap between children and parents?

The Gibraltar Chronicle has carried a lot of criticism of people who want the age of consent between gays and straights equalised. The only voice that is missing is that of the young people themselves. So - should young Gibraltarians make their thoughts heard in the media?

You can visit the Facebook Group here: Age of Consent - Gibraltar

Proposition 8 - Restrictions On Same Sex Marriage

From one Chronicle to another... tonight, the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting the state Supreme Court ruling today, that California voters legally outlawed same-sex marriage when they approved the Proposition 8 amendment in November, but the constitutional amendment did not dissolve the union of 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who wed before the measure took effect.

The 6-1 decision was issued by the same court that declared a year ago that a state law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman violated the right to choose one's spouse and discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation.

Prop. 8 undid that ruling. The author of last year's 4-3 decision, Chief Justice Ronald George, said today that the voters were within their rights to approve a constitutional amendment redefining marriage to include only male-female couples.

I'm sad to hear this. I agree with Ellen DeGeneres the twelve-time Emmy Award-winning American stand-up comedienne, television hostess and Hollywood actress, who has strongly campaigned against the Proposition 8 amendment ever since it was proposed. She was "saddened" by the passing of the original ban on same-sex marriage in California.

The talk show host, who is married to Hollywood actress Portia Rossi, recently said that by electing Obama America has taken a giant step forward toward equality but with the Proposition 8 amendment "took a giant step" backwards. She recently quoted Keith Olbermann on msnbc.com, who she thought was "very eloquent and brilliant when he said:

"To me this vote is horrible. Horrible. Because this isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics. This is about the human heart, and if that sounds corny, so be it."

Ellen added:

"What he said is all that needs to be said. It really is just about following your heart and people paying attention to what the right thing is!

This (the movement) needs for people to not be ignorant. It needs for people to open their minds and understand that it (same sex marriage) is a fundamental right: people need to be allowed to love who they want to love and marry who they want to marry. I don't know what it's going to take, but I have faith that people will realize that this is wrong."

Today's ruling... is a sad indictment on that hope.. and of love and people's humanity. It's about the right to love who you want and to marry whoever you happen to love!

At least, the the ruling does not affect the 18,000 who did manage to get married, before this amendment came into effect!

In concluding this blog post... just for the record... (and in no way apologetically) I will add that I am not gay! I'm just a simple male heterosexual who cares for and loves his fellow man... male, female, gay, lesbian or whatever they happen to choose as their sexual preference!

Cafe Grumpy... a little corner of Gibraltar in the 'Big Apple'

My old friend John Cortes, the 'man at the helm' at GONHS (Gibraltar Ornithological & Natural History Society) wrote to me recently giving me the 'heads up' on an interesting story... about a little corner of Gibraltar in the 'Big Apple'... New York!

Cafe Grumpy, with two branches in New York City and soon to be three, is run by Caroline Bell and her husband Chris. Caroline has firm Gibraltar roots as she is the daughter of Gibraltarian Lucille Cortes and Nick Bell, who worked at the Gibraltar Branch of Barclays Bank in the 1970s.

Cafe Grumpy has a coffee shop in Manhattan and another in Brooklyn and will soon be opening a third New York venue... and they all sound like the perfect place... for a 'grumpy old Gibo' and coffee lover like me!

Cafe Grumpy has just been voted as "the best cup of coffee in New York" by a 'Readers's Choice' poll in the distinguished Eat Out Awards 2009 - Best restaurants and bars in NYC - Time Out New York!

Gibraltarians who visit New York should not fail to call at a branch of Cafe Grumpy for the best coffee in NYC... and no doubt a warm welcome! To find all their current locations click here.

Coffee and Gibraltar connections in the US of A

The connections between Gibraltar, coffee and our cousins across the pond do not end there.

I am subscribed to Google email alerts for 'keywords' I am interested in... and naturally one of them is 'Gibraltar'. Recently, I started to receive 'alerts' about posts and websites talking about 'The Gibraltar'. I was also seeing them coming up on my Twitter tweets... with many people mentioning they had just enjoyed a 'Gibraltar' or similar!

Intrigued, I of course had to have a look... and was amused to find that this relates to Cafe Grumpy... indirectly I understand (though my 'informed sources' could be wrong) and an interesting new fad in trendy 'Stateside' cafes... over a particular cup of coffee that has become highly sought after and known as 'A Gibraltar'

Here's a write up about it.. in Espresso News and Reviews @ TheShot.coffeeratings.com. They're not very complimentary... calling it "The Gibraltar: Fool’s Cappuccino"... indeed, they would like to 'defrock' it! Oh dear! lol

According to Espresso News and Reviews, 'The Gibraltar' originated in San Francisco (where they are based... what a surprise) and has since spread to Los Angeles (Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea), New York (Cafe Grumpy naturally) and now London (Climpson & Sons).

Anyhow... not wishing to embroil myself in this particular debate, (which sounds to me a bit 'up their asses' anyway), but in order to explain a little more to you about 'The Gibraltar', I thought you might be interested to read what else Espresso News and Reviews have to say and why they wish to 'defrock' a cup of coffee:

"The purpose of this post is to demystify, debunk, and, well, defrock the Gibraltar before the misconceptions behind this invasive species are allowed to propagate any further."

ha ha... Serious stuff!

So what is the Gibraltar? Espresso News and Reviews explains:

"Technically speaking, it’s the registered name for a line of glassware tumblers from Ohio-based Libbey Inc.

So what does any of this have to do with coffee? Prior to opening Blue Bottle Coffee Co.’s first SF café in Hayes Valley in January 2005, owner James Freeman experimented and tuned variables for his café by making cappuccinos in 4.5-oz versions of these cheap restaurant supply glasses. He offered these practice runs to his staff and to employees of the Dark Garden corset shop down the street.

Word of mouth spread, and these test beverages needed a name. Steve Ford, then a barista and roasting colleague of James at Blue Bottle (and now head roaster at Ritual Coffee Roasters), apparently found inspiration from the packaging for these glasses.

Thus the Gibraltar was born out of a combination of happenstance and an inside joke. Except now the joke has gone global."

It has indeed... as has their snotty, 'up their ass' tone!

I wonder what Caroline Bell might have to say about this?? I am very much hoping she has not been tainted by this sort of inane 'faddy' twatishness that seems to surround the Cafe glitterati in some corners of the US... after all, she is of Llanita blood... and in my experience we are far more down to earth... and 'feet firmly planted' than that... well usually we are! Here's hoping!

Having said that.. and being a coffee lover as I said... I would love to try a cup of 'A Gibraltar'... see what all the fuss is about. I'm going to have to see if I can organise a trip sometime... maybe even to Caroline's Cafe Grumpy in NYC!

In my Inbox today... A 'Home Depot' scam warning

I received a 'heads up' warning today in my inbox... for those men who may be regular Home Depot customers.

It recounts how a friend of mine has, over the last month, become a victim of a clever scam while out shopping.

He tells me how simply going out to get supplies has turned out to be quite traumatic and warns... "Don't be naive enough to think it couldn't happen to you or your friends"!!

Here's how the scam works

Two seriously good-looking 20-21 year-old girls come over to your car as you are packing your shopping into the trunk. They both start wiping your windshield with a rag and Windex, with their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy T-shirts.

It is impossible not to look!!

When you thank them and offer them a tip, they say "No" and instead ask you for a ride to another Home Depot. You agree and they get in the backseat. On the way, they start undressing. Then one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet!

My friend tells me he had his wallet stolen on November 4th, 9th,10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th and the 24th 29th. Also December 1st, 4th, twice on the 8th, 16th, 23rd, 26th, 30th, three times last Saturday and very likely again this upcoming weekend!!

So tell your friends to be careful!!

P.S. Walmart has wallets on sale 2.99 each

What is Home Depot?

According to Wikipedia, The Home Depot is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services.

The Home Depot is the largest home-improvement retailer in the United States, ahead of rival Lowe's, and the second-largest general retailer in the United States, behind only Wal-Mart.

Headquartered in Atlanta, The Home Depot employs more than 331,000 people and operates 2,193 big-box format stores across the United States (including the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam), Canada (ten provinces), Mexico and China!

I've already written to Atlanta... pointing out my blog post today... and asking for a suitable commission!

Gibraltar and US agree exchange of tax information

Dow Jones Newswires reported this evening on a US Treasury announcement Tuesday that they have signed an agreement with the Government of Gibraltar that will allow the two countries to exchange tax information.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Gibraltar's Chief Minister Peter Caruana signed the agreement in London in advance of the G20 meetings this week.

The agreement allows for the exchange of criminal tax information relating to any taxable year and civil tax information relating to taxable years beginning after 2008.

Additionally, it calls for Gibraltar to provide the US with information on bank accounts in Gibraltar.

Good to see the 'Chief' has moved very quickly and rather adeptly foiled any problems that were likely in the wake of the US Government and other countries looking at the so called 'fiscal paradises'!

There'll be some worried looks exchanged around Spain's 'elite' when they read about this! What are they going to bang on about now?? Maybe they should focus on where they put their own money!

USS Theodore Roosevelt on its way to G20 Summit

The US nuclear powered carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt transited out of the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar this afternoon.

The nuclear powered super-carrier is on its way to provide air cover for US President Barack Obama’s first official visit to the UK during the G20 Summit, following weeks of meticulous planning.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt will be within a day’s sail of Britain during the G20 summit.

The carrier comes equipped with an air wing of 90 aircraft including FA18 Super Hornet multi-role fighters and Sea Hawk helicopters capable of in-flight refueling.

The 90,000 ton carrier has completed a seven month tour supporting ground troops in Afghanistan where its aircraft flew 3,100 sorties dropping 60,000lbs of ordnance.

Images Credit

Images by kind permission of DM Parody © http://dotcom.gi/photos

In my Inbox today... Michael Richards makes some good points on racism

Michael Richards, who is better known as Kramer from TVs Seinfeld (my favourite character), is 'proud to be white' and 'in my inbox today' he makes some good points!

I just received one of those 'Forward this' emails, explaining Michael Richards' defence speech in court after he was accused of making racial comments in his comedy act.

Michael makes some very interesting points...

Someone finally said it. How many are actually paying attention to this? There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, etc.... and then there are just Americans.

You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction. You call me 'White boy,' 'Cracker,' 'Honkey,' 'Whitey,' 'Caveman'... and that's OK.

But when I call you, Nigger, Kike, Towel head, Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink .. You call me a racist.

You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you... so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?

You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King Day. You have Black History Month. You have Cesar Chavez Day. You have Yom Hashoah. You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi.

You have the NAACP. You have BET... If we had WET (White Entertainment Television), we'd be racists. If we had a White Pride Day, you would call us racists.

If we had White History Month, we'd be racists.

If we had any organization for only whites to 'advance' OUR lives, we'd be racists.

We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce. Wonder who pays for that??

A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American pageant, but any colour can be in the Miss America pageant.

If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships... You know we'd be racists.

There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the USA. Yet if there were 'White colleges', that would be a racist college.

In the 'Million Man March', you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists.

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you're not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.

You rob us, carjack us and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist.

I am proud... But you call me a racist. Why is it that only whites can be racists??

There is nothing improper about this e-mail. Let's see which of you are proud enough to send it on. I sadly don't think many will. That's why we have LOST most of OUR RIGHTS in this country. We won't stand up for ourselves!

BE PROUD TO BE WHITE... It's not a crime YET... but getting very close!

It is estimated that ONLY 5% of those reaching this point in this e-mail, will pass it on.

Well... I'm not one of the other 95%! Not only did I pass it on, I posted it here... and I can assure you... I'm NO racist!

Saludos! :)

The heartwarming story of Chief Master Sgt John Gebhardt

In my Inbox today... the story of Chief Master Sgt John Gebhardt, superintendent of the 22nd Wing Medical Group normally based at the US's McConnell Air Force base, Kansas, who gained worldwide attention for a photo of him holding an injured Iraqi child.

This is the story of this photo, originally taken around October 2006, when Chief Gebhardt was deployed at Balad Air Base in Iraq. It has been published on many websites worldwide and has been circulating via emails during the last two and a half years. Today, it arrived in my Inbox!

The story is a heartwarming one... and in complete contrast to the stories, that unfortunately we are accustomed to, that we still see daily coming out of our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The young infant in Chief Gebhardt's arms, had received extensive gunshot injuries to her head (ghastly and clearly seen when zooming in on the image) when insurgents attacked her family killing both of her parents and many of her siblings.

Apparently, the 'chief' had a knack for comforting her and they often would catch a cat nap together in a chair.

The photograph generated a lot of attention when it first began circulating back in 2006. It is perhaps an indication of the photograph's simple but powerful symbolism that it continues to circulate more than two years later.

Chief Gebhardt is now back at home in Wichita, Kansas, with his wife, Mindy. They have a warm, hospitable home five minutes away from McConnell Air Force Base. His son Ryan, 25, and daughter Amber, 23, have long since outgrown being cradled and he said he thought about them constantly while he held the Iraqi child.

"I got as much enjoyment out of it as the baby did," he said.

"I reflected on my own family and life and thought about how lucky I have been."

His affection for children is no secret to his wife, Mindy. While dating John in high school, she watched how he bonded with the child of a coach of one of his athletic teams. That softer side of him is one of the reasons she married him.

"People see him as this tough guy," she said, "but I always see that other side of him that is full of compassion."

The chief, who grew up in Jordan, New York, is not at home in the spotlight. When asked to talk about himself, he always tries to switch the focus to the other military people who served with him at Balad.

While deployed to Iraq, the chief tried to help out any way he could. He figured holding a baby that needed comforting that would free up one more set of arms that could be providing care to more critical patients.

"If I have an opportunity to help out, I look for that opportunity," he said. "They had more than enough to do."

The chief was not alone in volunteering at the hospital. There were more than 800 different volunteers at the hospital during the time he was deployed to Iraq, he said. Some of them volunteered so much that he mistakenly thought they were assigned to the hospital.

When Mindy describes the best qualities of her husband, the first word out of her mouth is integrity. She said the photo of her husband and the Iraqi child truly represents him. She believes he has been so successful because he is such a straight-shooter and puts others' welfare ahead of his own.

"He never leads anyone astray," she said. "He will never do something for himself that would have a negative effect on someone else. He always tells it like it is."

But, the chief attributes his success to his family.

"Without their support I don't know where I would be," he said. "I definitely wouldn't be in the position I am."

And it is the chief's hope that families in Iraq will receive the same kind of support in the future. They are just like American families, Chief Gebhardt said.

"I pray for the best for the Iraqi children," he said.

"I can't tell the difference between their kids and our kids. The Iraqi parents have the same care and compassion for their children as any American."

Life is calmer for Chief Gebhardt now that he is back home, and even though his recent 'fame' has highlighted an eventful 27-year career, he said he wouldn't change a thing.

"If I had to do it over again, I would sign up and give it another ride," he said.