Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
I really should send a thank you gift basket to Bahrain's MPs as they are really making my job easy these days. I need look no further than our sister newspaper GDN most days to find another of their ludicrous ideas to have a good moan at.
Last week they decided that they were bored of their same-sex doctors' idea and have instead decided to stamp out homosexuality in the kingdom. Not alleviate poverty or tackle the unemployment as most self-respecting members of parliament would at least pretend to be interested in. No. It seems they are more interested in refusing entry at the airport to anyone that may look too effeminate, than sorting out decent minimum wages for people that work far too hard for almost no pay.
They seem to have the idea that if all foreign gay people are removed from the island, impressionable young boys in schools will have no one to emulate and therefore the problem of homosexuality in schools will be stamped out - as if it was a contagious disease they need to keep out of the country.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not insensitive to religious beliefs, the law or sensitive sensibilities but to think that you can stamp out homosexuality just by refusing to let it in the country leaves (almost, but not quite) one speechless.
It's not my place to say what opinion a person should have in the matter but like it or not, it's a simple fact of life. Most of the world has accepted the fact that a person's sexual proclivity isn't (for the most part) a lifestyle choice; it's something you are born with, just like a high IQ or the colour of your eyes. Sending foreigners away or stopping them from even reaching the country isn't going to magically make homosexuality disappear.
It really is unbelievable how much time is wasted on things that nothing can be done about. Did the people of Bahrain really vote these MPs in to sit about all day concentrating on issues that can't possibly be resolved ... something that really shouldn't even be regarded as a problem that needs solving?
People are who they are and it's not up to anyone else to pass judgement.
