DO YOU HAVE AN OPINION?

After reading an article about a gay couple in Malawi that is now in dire straits for simply being gay, which you can find following this link:. http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss&id=24065&url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/01/malawi-gay-couple-married-test

I decided to post an article about homosexuality. It comes as no surprise that according to the cultural and geographic setting and, moreover, according to the mindset of the people, homosexuality receives different treatments.
Western Europe has historically been more tolerant towards homosexuality. Going back to 1791 when France allowed gay and lesbian relations without discrimination or legal sanctions. Aside this, in Ancient Greece and Rome, homosexuals were allowed to relate freely in society. Only when Catholicism became the official religion of the Roman Empire did things change.
So, I decided to leave you with some food for thought about a gay couple in Malawi. I think this article serves as a thermometer or a reference point for reflection on how far we have come, culturally and as individuals, towards gay tolerance and gay rights. One of the gay movements' main fights back in the late 60's early 70's was that the Psychiatric Association stopped considering , homosexuality as a mental disorder. With Sweden's unique protest in 1979, when many people called in sick, stating that they were homosexual, so they couldn't go to work, leading to the removal of homosexuality as a mental disorder. In the US, this battle was won 6 years earlier, in 1973 . - That seems to have been the easiest battle the american gay rights movement won since they began back in 1924.
Do you remember the heated uproar that Bill Clinton had to face because he was in favor of admitting gays in the military service? Now, the US , the land of the free and the home of the brave, allowing liberties of all sorts, actually (over)reacted to such an issue, and as a compromise the DADT bill (Don't Ask Don't Tell) was passed (http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/10/654.html). As a result, homosexuals were admitted in the military, but they have to be closeted and not reveal their sexual orientation. Well, silence just might be a way o getting it out in the open? Now, how far are Americans towards gay tolerance? Are gay less patriotric? Are they worse soldiers just for the mere fact that they are gays?
Countries such as Cuba, China, Egypt, Iran, Jamaica, North and South Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Syria, Turkey, Venezuela, Yemen... and Russia only allows gays to serve during wartime. The list of countries that do allow gays to serve in the military is much wider, including 20 of the 26 NATO members.
I remember in 2005 when I was in the US, on our way back home my brother and I were listening to a public radio station and they were reporting that the Catholic church was considering admitting gay priests under special circumstances. Such circumstances were not explained, but they surely intrigued me. First and foremost because I thought priests were celibates. Having heard that report, actually made me go and double check the meaning of celibacy, because sexual act is a sexual act, homosexual or not. So, did that mean that the Catholic Church breached a little on its rigidity towards the subject of priests' sexual acts? Why does this tolerance only apply to homosexuals?
Well... that just came to mind as I was writing, but I didn't want to eliminate it from my blog.
What's your opinion?