Free This Book is Gay by James Dawson

For one thing, you won’t be able to pull while you’re there, and for another (and more seriously), what if you had to rely on the police or hospitals in a place where you aren’t legally recognised as having equal rights?
    I think that a lot of LGBT* people think that because somewhere is tourist friendly, it’s gay friendly. This simply isn’t the case. Instead of Jamaica or Barbados, go to Grand Cayman. See? Easy. Do your homework.
STEP TWO – SUPPORT CHARITY: We can help the fight by supporting groups doing the fighting for us.
    Amnesty International: Challenges governments and authorities to fulfil their responsibility to protect LGBT* people from such abuses. The organisation campaigns to protect human rights defenders who put themselves at risk by speaking out against abuses based on sexuality or gender identity.
    The Kaleidoscope Trust: Urges the British government, the Commonwealth, the European Union and others to use their power and influence to support the rights of LGBT* people. The trust works with parliamentarians, government ministers, officials and policy makers to try to effect real change in the lives of LGBT* communities around the world.
    ILGA: ILGA’s aim is to work for the equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people and their liberation from all forms of discrimination. The group seeks to achieve this aim through the worldwide cooperation and mutual support of their members.
    Stonewall: Stonewall is renowned for its campaigning and lobbying. Some major successes include helping achieve the equalisation of the age of consent, lifting the ban on lesbians and gay men serving in the military, securing legislation allowing same-sex couples to adopt, and the repeal of Section 28, (which prevented same-sex education in schools). More recently, Stonewall has helped secure civil partnerships and ensured that the Equality Act (2010) protected lesbians and gay men in terms of goods and services (for example, hotels can’t refuse you and your partner a room because you’re a same sex couple).

    All four of these groups rely on donations. This means you need to jolly well stick your hand in your pocket and donate whatever you can. Some charities are listed in the ‘Helpful numbers and websites and stuff’ section at the back of this book.
THE GAYS VERSUS RELIGION
    You know when we said it’s not very nice when people say that ALL gay men are like this or ALL lesbians are like that? WELL, it’s similarly shoddy to claim that ALL Christians think like this or ALL Muslims think like that. Before we get into a discussion about what each of the main religions thinks about homosexuality, it’s important to state that all people of faith are individuals, more than capable of forming their own opinions away from scripture.

    To be honest, most people of faith probably don’t give a flying fig about who you’re snogging – they’re probably worrying about their gas bill or whether they left their hair straighteners on.
    However, although most religious people are somewhat progressive, there are individuals and regimes that insist on clinging to multi-thousand-year-old bits of paper in the name of hate. If you look back at the list of gay-illegal countries, they do tend to be the ones where the legal system is tied to a religious regime – not naming names but, like, you know, Saudi Arabia.
    Before I tear some old religious stuff to shreds, I have faith that the vast, vast majority of religious people use (whichever) God’s teaching to find tolerance and love for all mankind. And also womankind (yeah, some religions are mega sexist too).
    Most people of religion see their sacred texts as a general guide for life – moral guidance, as it were. The problem comes when a minority take the written words literally – and the meaning of some of these words may even have been misinterpreted. Sacred stories and poems were written