OUTSIDE THE GREEN ZONE: Cleo Creech has finished the Outside the Green Zone chapbook and it's now available for sale. Cleo created the chapbook to raise awareness of the horrible situation in Iraq where the GLBT community is under attack after Grand Ayatollah Ali Sustani's fatwa calling for gays and lesbians to be killed in the "worse possible way." Unfortunately, under the new Iraqi constitution that the U.S. signed off on and helped draft, such fatwas under a Shira-based constitution have the force of law. Gays and lesbians are increasingly becoming target and have been forced into hiding, their families killed, and children as young as 11 and 14, after being forced into prostitution, have then been executed by police as gay "deviants."
The chapbook has some background information on the situation, contact information for taking action, and poetry by Cleo, Franklin Abbott, Lisa Allender, Theresa Davis, Steven Reigns, myself and excerpts by Abu Nawas. The books are beautiful, with handprinted covers and vellum overlay. This is a limited edition and won't last long. There's a number of ways to get more information on the book:
MySpace:
www.myspace.com/outsidegreenzone
GLBT Iraqi Exile Blog:
www.iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com
Cleo Creech's Blog:
www.cccreech.blogspot.com
Books are available for sale with a donation of $2, which will cover mailing costs. However, we hope that you will donate more so that a donation can be sent to the Iraqi GLBT exile group in the UK. You can contact Cleo at MySpace or his blog to order the books and make donations. Cleo said this morning that he had received a number of big group orders so the first printing of 100 copies is sure to disappear quickly. He's already planning a second printing. Contact Cleo at outsidegreenzone@comcast.net.
Cleo has sent press kits to all major media and we are hoping to set up several events here in Atlanta in the coming weeks. Watch this space and the others mentioned here for details.
Comments
GAV
This is a horrible example of the thuggery of this warped culture, which contrasts the relative free field in the U.S. for different sexual lifestyles.
Yes, the Bush hand in constitution approval is there, but it's basically the blame of the overkill legalism/punishment-cult of the theocratic slugs.
And it's an example of specific "morality" enforcement gone to its logical extreme when "propriety" is objectified and inapplicable on a personal scale but on a general, crunching, cold, across-the-board law with dehumanized consequences.
This is why religions and secular ethics go through barbaric phases - and sometimes never move out of barbarism.
-David