COURAGE - DEFY NARROW MINDEDNESS AND BIGOTRY - GO ON I DARE YOU!

I take my hat off to two young people, the England Cricketer Steve Davies and the Swedish Footballer Anton Hysen, who have done a very courageous thing - they've let on that they are gay. It is not right that they should have to be in the position where they need to make these declarations in the first place. And as Davies beautifully put it when speaking to CNN, there must surely come a time when a person's sexuality will be of no interest at all. These sportsmen have received full support and love from their families, friends and their team mates and are overwhelmed at the international public response.

It enables them to figuratively boot into touch the unpleasant comments (and I put it mildly) that the narrow minded or fanatical will come out with!

Less than a decade ago another young sportsman - an international motor cycle racer did the same. Well if ever "earth's foundations cracked, crumbled and collapsed" it was then. To prove his point to an unaccepting Dad, that young guy went out and promptly won the Isle of Man TT race - one of the most difficult and dangerous racing circuits in the world, so dangerous in fact, that the Late Barry Sheen refused anymore to race there.

This victory, surely, would win his Dad round to support him. Response? A beating up and broken ribs.

We have to accept that some families just cannot get their heads around the simple fact that being gay, bisexual or transgendered is normal and natural. To the religious pundits I say this. I dare you to step outside your own little closet - the Levitical closet that you've somehow wandered or been enticed into and can't find the exit. Stop looking. Be bold. The walls are not high. Just step over them!

In parts of the world my people are still flogged or, worse still, executed by beheading or hanging or, in one country, tied to four cars that then go north, south, east and west from a standing start. In another country, a wall is very precisely constructed. Court officials carefully monitor the bulldozing of the wall on to the convicted "criminals" ie people, including young people, who have been found "guilty" of same sex relations or activities. The court officials and priests wait for precisely 30 minutes before removing the boulders. If any remain alive, they are decreed to be innocent because He from above has ordained it.

Centuries ago, our country dealt with women by means of the ducking stool. They too, if found to be alive after the ducking, were deemed to have been forgiven and declared innocent by God. Of course, most drowned and so were deemed naturally to have been guilty. The practice may have gone but the mental processes take a lot longer to eradicate the motives of people hell bent on destroying others.

Faith is the very fabric of any society. It is the cement in the bricks. But when interpretation of what is written thousands of years ago (and here I refer to all religions because all religions subscribe to the same philosophy) is deemed to be as relevant today as it was at the time of writing, then we surely have a problem.

So to all you narrow minded people I throw down the gauntlet. I challenge you. Go on. Don't bother looking for the door; step over the wall and out into the sunshine. It will be the best thing you ever did, and, rest assured, for those to whom this means something, the very Host of Heaven will rejoice that day!

And to the bigots and narrow-minded, the one trackers, I throw another gauntlet down. Yes I do. I'm a fighter. I'm ex police and ex military.

I dare you to read the two links below and I warn you to keep your hands off people such as Steven Davies and Anton Hysen and all the rest of my people, and young people, who are living boldly and trying to make something of their lives and determined to do good for all of us.

http://ianbradleymarshall.com/thejustincampaign.aspx

and watch the video clip on the Conscience page and have a read too of Sweet Seventeen and Reconciliation.

http://ianbradleymarshall.com/Shoah.aspx

and read They Came in the Night against the music 'They'll Remember You'. The link is on there.

Do yourselves justice, give yourselves a break, live and let live and remember the lessons of history.

Again, for those who know the story, consider what one Man said to the accusers of a woman about to be stoned, 'Let him who knows no sin cast the first stone.' And one by one, pissed off no doubt, but seared by conscience like a red hot poker, they drifted away. A little while later, He says, 'Where are your accusers now? 'They've all gone' she replied.

And here is the lightning bolt, a universal declaration that reaches down and touches every second of every minute of every hour of every day - even to this present day. 'Then neither do I accuse you. Go...'

And if all that doesn't move you, that's no problem. Consider confronting Gareth Thomas who came out two years ago or Ben Cohen and his wife and the many other straight sports personalities who have no problem at all with their gay colleagues and who will be more than happy to withstand you.

Yes: the universal solution that reaches across cultures and religions - precise and simple - but which we have the greatest difficulty with: LIVE, AND LET LIVE.




Ian Bradley Marshall
LIVERPOOL
10 March 2011