 Photo at left from Touch of Pink |
| Go to: A Journey towards becoming family |
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Above and Below Photos: The victim, who is the unnamed author of the email at right, displays the bruises on his left forearm and to his left back side, the result of police brutality. |
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| Above Photo: Rev. Rowland Jide Macaulay, Pastor, House of Rainbow MCC, Lagos, Nigeria
Mission Statement�House Of Rainbow is committed to basic Christian Gospel, that the love of God is freely available to all people, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. �Statement of Vision: We are on a bold mission to transform hearts, lives, and history. We are a movement that faithfully proclaims God's inclusive love for all people and proudly bears witness to the holy integration of spirituality and sexuality.
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Pictured Below: Alice Nkom, lawyer and defender of LGBT human rights, Cameroon, West Africa. |
| CLICK HERE for Other Sheep web page on Alice Nkom and the 9 gay men she defended in Cameroon, 2005-2006.
CLICK HERE for her most recent advocacy (February 2008): " Alternatives-Cameroon Announces the Release of Men Detained for More than 7 Months on Homosexuality Charges" (in French).
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| Other Sheep Theologian, Rev. Dr. Thomas Hanks, on: |
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| Above Photo: Rev. Dr. Thomas Hanks |
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Special Report from Nigeria |
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Special Report with photos: Nigerian police beat gay men
BRONX, NY. March 26, 2008. by Steve Parelli
About a month ago, a retired American public school teacher, who helps promising gay Africans pay for their college tuition as they attend college in their home country, phoned Other Sheep and left an urgent message to please call. His voice was desperate and his message was clear: a dear gay African friend (name withheld), in Nigeria where he lives and is a citizen, had been beaten repeatedly along with others at a party he was attending and placed in jail for some days along with others from the same party. His friend, one of the victims of the party raid, is a college student earning his degree in his country.
In the first article which follows, this young gay college student gives his first hand account of the police raid at the party and the inhuman beatings and the verbal abuses inflicted by the police upon those attending the party.
You may email the retired American public school teacher who submitted this report at hoopsguy38@yahoo.com. If you do so, please indicate in the subject line "Other Sheep report on Nigeria." He is looking for suggestions on how to help his Nigerian friend obtain a visa. |
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Special Report from Nigeria Victim gives first hand report of police brutality perpetrated upon gays Nigeria Nigeria, March 21, 2008
My Dear Friend in the USA,
I really hate to remember this because that day was simply horrible [but since you are asking me to put it in writing, here it is]:
I was invited to a party by a friend. I didn't know what the party was about. When I got there I saw that the party was just for guys. I didn't see any women there. We were there for about 30 to 40 minutes when suddenly we saw people entering the party in uniform. It was the police. A gun shot was fired to let us know not to move. They nabbed us and started to beat us, calling us all kinds of names. They said they knew what was going on here and that we were homosexuals and that we force straight young people to have sex and that we hurt young people. They said we are a gang and that we don't deserve to stay alive and that because of us the country will die. They said they don't know why God would create such people like us who would have feelings for their fellow men; that we should be cast to hell for ever and ever.
Well, my dear friend, I can't go on telling you this because what they said was so [terrible that I begin to question and doubt myself]. I am stopping here, but I just want you to know that you are the only one that makes me feel like a real person. I love you so much.
Love,
Your African Friend
CLICK HERE to see the unedited version (names withheld) of the above email. |
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In another story from Nigeria Brutal attack at Davis Mac-Iyalla's sister's funeral service of songs
Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Unedited email concerning and by Stephen Wariebi of Changing Attitude Nigeria
Dear Davis Mac-Iyalla,
As I write to you, I am in total shock and living in fear while feeling the pains I suffered in the hands of a mob group that attacked me at the service of songs ground of your late sister. This incident occurred at about 5:55 pm today the 20Th of march, 2008. . . .
While beating and brutalizing me, they were shouting on top of their voices "you notorious homosexual, you think can run away from us, huh? Where is Davis Mac-Iyalla? We heard from reliable sources that he was going to be here, Oh, so he is not here? He sent you and your notorious group to come and cause more abomination on our land. Davis Mac-Iyalla has brought a big shame to the family, the state and country and we will not rest until we silence him and any of you who joins to pollute the land with abominable act of homosexuality. While still beating me on the ground, they were . . .
Above photo: Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria, to whom the above email is addressed.
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Meet Rev. Rowland Jide Macaulay of Nigeria and lawyer Alice Nkom of Cameroon
See photos and links in left hand column.
During the 2006 ILGA (International Lesbian and Gay Association) World Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, Steve Parelli, Executive Director of Other Sheep, met, for the first time, Rev. Rowland of Nigeria and Alice Nkom of Cameroon. See their photos and related links at left. Both strive for the human rights of LGBT people of West Africa.
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My Baptist preacher father: His speech of hate towards LGBT people
by Steve Parelli, BRONX, NY. March 26, 2008
SHOOT THEM ALL!
"They should all be taken out and shot or hung" sounds like something the police, in the first article, would have shouted as they raided the party in Nigeria and beat the unsuspecting victims.
But no, this pronouncement was made in up-state New York, by a lay pastor of the local Baptist church of Southwest Oswego, in his parsonage on a Sunday morning in the late 1980s just prior to going over to the church he pastored to lead and preach in the morning services.
HE KNEW I WAS GAY, YET HIS SPEECH WAS FULL OF HATE
He was my father, Rev. Richard Anthony Parelli. We were sitting in the parsonage living room. It was late spring or early summer. We were dressed and ready for church. He was reading the Sunday morning Syracuse paper. The front page had an article on gays. It inflamed him. He spoke his denouncement with anger and hatred. I was visiting my parents with my wife and four children. His rash statement - because of its ugly tone of voice - riveted through me like a gun shot. My father knew I was gay. I had come out to him about two or three years before I married. We had discussed it extensively and then treated it like it didn't exist. Now I was hearing that I should be taken out and shot or hung. The whole gay issue, to this day, still excites him with disgust and rage, so much so, that he still refuses to see me and my partner of more than ten years.
I'LL TAKE A BAT TO YOUR HEAD
"I'll take a bat to your head if you and your partner show up at your grandmother's funeral," my Baptist preacher father warned (about 15 years subsequent to his "shoot-or-hang"-the-gays outrage) repeating the threat two or three times over the phone in uncontrollable anger. In fifteen years he hadn't gotten control of his hatred for LGBT people.
MY FATHER'S RAGE - A LOT LIKE THAT OF THE NIGERIAN POLICE
On another occasion, my father told me that if he were to see me in a social setting with my partner, he would not be responsible for what he might do to us -- an obvious statement that he might actually physically attack us. This is just like the action of the police of Nigeria, a spontaneous fitful unleashed attack. The difference is, in the United States my father would be foolish to act upon his impulse to attack because of the justice that would most likely prevail, although any threat in any situation must be taken seriously. Unlike the Nigerian police who sought out their victims by a raid, I live with a sense of security that my father would not seek us out. Of course, my partner and I keep our distance.
RELIGION MUST BE AN ACTIVE DETERRENT TO HATE SPEECH AND HATE CRIMES
As stated, my father is an ordained Baptist lay preacher. Religion should be a deterrent to such hate speech. All too often it is not. The church is often too passive and uninvolved where real actions of justice are needed. Perhaps, this is due in part to the church's ignorance as to what is really happening -- hate crimes of speech and action right in its own backyard -- as was the case of my father, Rev. Richard Parelli: hate speech hidden in the parsonage. What would his denominational leaders of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches say or do if his hate speech was known to them?
The Christian world, in Africa and in America and everywhere, must seek to put an end to LGBT hate speech and hate crimes. The church, whether it does or does not welcome LGBT people of faith, must speak up against these LGBT hate crimes, as well as all crimes of hate, speaking out and acting on behalf of all people groups who experience hate speech and hate crimes. |
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 A Journey towards becoming family: When life and family became real for me
by Steve Parelli
This article first appeared in the Presbyterian Welcome newsletter, the Winter 2007/2008 issue.
The movie Touch of Pink illustrates my journey towards becoming family. The main character, Alim, a young gay man of Indian decent living in London, has an ongoing imaginary friendship with the actor Cary Grant. He tells Cary Grant any personal difficulty he is experiencing and his imaginary friend always has the right answer. READ MORE | |
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