Gay-Friendly Cult Wants to See More Kissing
Posted at 5:37 PM Jun 10, 2008
My first encounter with the Raelians (yes, the intelligent design people) and their sexual politics was in Las Vegas, at the 2007 Adult Entertainment Expo. Yes, I met a cult at a porn convention. I was hoping that sentence would sound stranger than it does - but I guess it doesn't. At that time they were promoting their organization Cliltoraid, which is raising funds to start a hospital in Burkina Faso that will do reconstructive surgery on women who have had clitorodectomies. The official slogan of Clitoraid is "Adopt a Clitoris."
Yesterday I got a curious press release from with the subject heading, "Rael asks gays to kiss in public." Here's a snippet:
“I ask all gay men and lesbians to start kissing in public as often and as publicly as possible, and perhaps to launch a National Gay Kissing Day,” Rael said in an official statement released Monday. The founder and leader of the International Raelian Movement was reacting to a much-publicized incident at Seattle’s Safeco Field in which a lesbian was asked by an usher to stop kissing her companion.He compared denying gays the right to kiss in U.S. public places to the draconian public morality codes enforced in countries such as Saudi Arabia.
Though a religious leader could clearly be saying much worse things about public expressions of affection between queers, I don't really think it's his place to be calling for action. Which isn't to say that queer activists should be left to fend for themselves and have no outspoken allies, but I don't think Rael is the best face for National Gay Kissing Day. Unless he starts making out with the male members of his congregation in public to prove there's nothing wrong with it. Now that would be good entertainment.
--Audacia Ray
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