ATWOOD & IRAN: Just a quick update before I go to bed. This past weekend and the last couple of days at the job have seriously kicked my ass. I'm on the verge of a cold/sore throat and I really just need to go to bed for a day or so. However, these tidbits...I've reviewed Margaret Atwood's wonderful new collection of poems, The Door, at the VRZHU blog. You can read it at this link.
Last night was the benefit poetry reading at Actor's Express for the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission. It was a fantastic evening! There were about 40 people in attendance (more than I had expected) and we raised over $400. The money will be used to help GLBT people who have been exiled from Iraq and Iran and for setting up/maintaining safe houses in those same countries. We felt especially riled up last night after Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced during a speech in NYC earlier in the day that there were no homosexuals in his country. I have to admit, I wouldn't mind if someone dropped a bomb on his crazy ass. There are indeed GLBT people in Iran, although Mahmoud & Co are doing their best to extinguish them. Salon has a great article about Iran's intolerance (thanks to Andisheh Nouraee for the perfect graphic above) that also remembers the two teenage boys who were hanged in public in 2005 for being gay.
Many thanks to Franklin Abbott for putting together this reading and Actor's Express for hosting it. Theresa Davis, Lisa Allender, Cleo Creech, Reginald Jackson and Melanie Hammet were all moving and amazing last night. Please consider making a donation to the IGLHRC. Every dollar is vital.
Comments
Thank you again for all ya do, Coll,for the "po-biz", and human rights, too!