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After UN Vote Allowing Gay Execution, South Africa Bears Brunt Of Backlash

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Two weeks ago, African nations led a charge successfully removing “sexual orientation” from a United Nations resolution protecting persons from extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Now, South Africa, once seen as a refuge for LGBT equality on the African continent, is feeling the brunt of the backlash against its complicity in the blatantly discriminatory vote against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

South African human rights groups and a major opposition political party have publicly castigated the government of South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma for its successful vote and leadership of Southern African countries in the UN General Assembly to remove protection of gays from extrajudicial and summary killings two weeks ago.

For further analysis into this story, read Tanya Domi’s piece, “UN Vote Allowing Gays To Be Executed Result Of Political, Religious Fundamentalism.”

Human rights groups, led by the Centre for Law and Social Justice, have written an open letter to the government of South Africa, asserting that that it has “violated [the] constitution [by its vote] at the UN and is complicit in execution of LGBTI people.”

The Centre’s letter, currently open for signatures, strongly criticizes the foreign policy of the governing African National Congress (ANC) government, alleging that it has “once again violated our constitution and the judgements of the constitutional court.  The government is now complicit in the criminalisation of people on the basis of their sexual orientation and allowing the death penalty against LGBTI people.”  The letter will be presented to the Zuma government on December 10th, International Human Rights Day.

The Democratic Alliance, a major progressive opposition party to the ANC, published a letter last week addressed to Maite Nkoane-Mashabe, the minister of  International Relations and Cooperation, about the vote that “makes a mockery of our constitution, which is widely regarded as one of the most progressive in the world (the only constitution in the world that includes sexual orientation as a protected class.)”  The Alliance said the government’s vote had aligned South Africa with the likes of Iran, Nigeria, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, states that carry the death penalty for consensual sex between adults of the same sex.

The letter, signed by Kenneth Mubu, a member of parliament and the Alliance’s Shadow Minister for International Relations and Cooperation, also expressed disappointment,

for South Africa to be among the 79 states which voted to have the amendment to this resolution passed.  The explanation for this vote offered by South Africa’s UN representative–that the international law is”insufficiently clear on the definition of sexual orientation, according to the official UN minutes–is patently ridiculous.

We have voted to weaken the international community’s response to extrajudicial killings based upon sexual orientation…South Africa should be leading the way in promoting LGBT rights on the African continent, and further afield.  Our foreign policy should set an example.  Instead, we are voting with states that publicly flog and execute their own citizens.

Once considered the human rights leader on the African continent, during the past fifteen years South Africa has steadily forsaken the legacy of former president Nelson Mandela, who promised South Africa and the world in 1994 that “human rights will be the light that guides our foreign affairs.”

Born and raised in South Africa, Clinton Fein, a San Francisco based LGBT activist and First Amendment advocate-artist, said that “Nelson Mandela must be appalled by the South African government’s UNGA vote” and called it “crazy.”

“To have a constitution that specifically prohibits discrimination based upon sexual orientation,” Fein said, “and for them [the government] to vote against [gays] is mind boggling. You would hope South Africa would be a leader–but they are going backwards, instead of forwards.”

The Democratic Alliance and human rights groups questioned the LGBT policies of the Zuma government, including UN representation by Ambassador Baso Sangu and the recent appointment of Jon Qwelane to be South Africa’s ambassador to Uganda, who is well known for his homophobic attitudes. During his campaign for president last year, Zuma bragged that “when he was growing up, an “ungqingili” (homosexual) would not have stood in front of me.  I would knock him out.”

Sadly, for South Africa, the continent and the world, without the political and moral leadership of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, two giant figures in South Africa’s journey from apartheid to freedom, it has chosen the low road by actively working against respect for LGBT human rights in its foreign policy.  Instead of being a leader for human rights, it has joined with pariah states who execute homosexuals, without cause. For those South Africans who embrace Nelson Mandela’s belief that human rights would light its foreign policy, and share Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s belief that hate has no place in religion or in the public square,  they have a real fight on their hands.

UPDATE: Protests against the United Nations General Assembly vote will take place in San Francisco and New York City, December 10-11.  For more detailed information see the Petrelis Files.

Tanya L. Domi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, who teaches about human rights in Eurasia and is a Harriman Institute affiliated faculty member. Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi worked internationally for more than a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights, gender issues, sex trafficking, and media freedom.

Image: South Africa’s Coat of Arms, launched on “Freedom Day,” 27 April 2000.

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Activist Minister Slams Regal Movie Theaters for Running War ‘Propaganda’ Before Films

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June 16, 2026

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The Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie, an activist minister with the United Church of Christ, has called on the Regal Entertainment chain of movie theaters to stop running a Department of Defense promotional video before films.

In an open letter posted to social media, Currie says that when he went to see the latest Steven Spielberg film Disclosure Day at a Portland, Oregon theater, he was “forced to watch an advertisement touting the leadership of Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and the so-called Department of War.”

“It was like we were at a movie theater in Russia or North Korea. Democracies do not do this. The audience loudly booed,” Currie wrote.

READ MORE: Trump Promotes Chilling Iran War Op-Ed Warning of What Could Be Coming Next

“We routinely see videos at Regal promoting careers in the military. This was not that,” he continued. “This was an advertisement promoting the political views of Donald Trump. It was not promoting our military. It was not promoting America’s greatest strength: our diversity. This was a MAGA campaign commercial highlighting a fake cabinet agency, the Department of War, which is actually called the Defense Department, and the MAGA America First platform.”

The video run before the film was likely this video first released to YouTube on Saturday. The video description calls it the first advertisement by the DoD since it was re-christened the Department of War. The clip touts President Donald Trump’s “Peace Through Strength” slogan. It features footage of soldiers intercut with images of Trump while audio of a speech by the president plays in the background.

The video was also shown during Sunday evening’s Freedom 250 UFC Fight at the White House.

“Regal’s decision to show this video can only be construed as an endorsement of Donald Trump, his failed war in Iran, and the white Christian nationalism advocated by Secretary Hegseth,” Currie wrote. “Again, I must demand that Regal stop showing this video immediately. Blessed are the peacemakers.”

Currie has been an outspoken progressive activist for years. In 2019, he even received death threats for his work, according to the Oregonian. Florida dentist Richard Glenn Kantwill told Currie, as well as other public figures, he would torture and kill him. Kantwill also called Currie an “immoral degenerate” and a fraud.

In 2025, Kantwill was sentenced to two years in prison for making the threats after pleading guilty in court.

Image by Staff Sgt. Michael L. Casteel via the U.S. Army.

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‘I Feel So Bad for Him’: George Conway Trolls Trump Amid White House Attack

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June 15, 2026

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Longtime Never-Trump critic turned Democratic congressional candidate George Conway is mocking President Donald Trump in a campaign video and a social media post while the White House targets him in a highly critical attack.

“Hi, Donald, it’s me, George Conway,” Conway, a conservative attorney, says in his video. “I cost you 88 f —— million dollars, and I’ve only just gotten started.”

“I know you like putting your name on everything from your plane to the Kennedy Center,” he continues. “But the only thing your name is gonna be left on when I’m done with you is the orange jumpsuit you’re going to have to wear in prison.”

“And you see that building back there?” he says over an image of Congress. “That’s where we’re gonna hold your third and final impeachment trial. The one that’s gonna put you away for good. And I’m gonna enjoy every minute of that.”

“We’ve got a lot of serious problems in this country, including, and especially, the price of gas — which is hitting $6 a gallon in some places, and that’s all because of you, Donald Trump. We can’t fix those problems until we impeach you and convict you. And that’s why I’m running for Congress.”

In a statement to Fox News, the White House blasted Conway.

“Lightweight George Conway is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person,” a spokesperson said. “His severe and debilitating disease known as Trump Derangement syndrome has melted his brain and made him crazy in the head.”

Conway is a co-founder of The Lincoln Project and was considered for a post as Trump’s Solicitor General at the start of his first administration. Conway withdrew his name from consideration.

On social media, Conway further mocked President Trump.

“Here’s our TV ad that poor wittle Donnie (@realDonaldTrump) didn’t wike and had to compwain to Fox ‘News’ about,” Conway wrote. “Sad! I feel so bad for him.”

Conway is running for a reliably blue seat in Manhattan.

“Conway, who previously lived in Bethesda, Md., before launching his congressional campaign, faces an uphill battle in the race for the heavily Democratic seat vacated by longtime Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who is retiring,” Fox News reported.

Earlier this year, Conway warned, “The way things are going in America, it should be clear we don’t have much time.”

“We certainly don’t have three years,” he said in February. “We need to help ourselves by pushing for impeachment and removal as hard as we can and carrying it out as soon as humanly possible.”

 

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A Letter From Florida Has a Blunt Verdict on the MAGA Movement: It’s ‘Dying’

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20 hours ago

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June 15, 2026

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The Villages in Florida, the largest retirement community in the world, has been home to an extremely active MAGA movement. Roughly seven out of ten county residents voted for Trump in 2024, and its MAGA golf cart parades are legendary.

But Sunday’s parade was sparsely attended, according to a letter to the editor in The Villages News, which declares that the MAGA movement there is “dying.”

Casey Marr writes that they arrived at President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday golf cart parade, found many open parking spaces “and only a few people milling around” 30 minutes before the starting time. At 1:00 p.m., the official start time, “there was certainly no big crowd of cheering people” to welcome the parade of golf carts, which numbered only about 100 and lasted just 20 minutes.

Marr explains that there were two smaller starting places, and says that even if they had a similar number of carts, there would only have been “a pitiful 303.”

“This was advertised as a Guinness World Record challenge,” Marr says. “The record was set on Sept. 4, 2005, here in The Villages with 3,321 golf carts.”

According to Newsweek, Trump’s approval in Florida is 13 points underwater. Nationwide, Trump is 23 points underwater.

“Several states that began his term in positive territory, including Florida, Ohio and Texas, are now net negative,” Newsweek noted. “Deep-red states still form Trump’s strongest base, but many of those margins have narrowed sharply since January 2025.”

The golf cart parade fell short of the record, but Marr notes that The Villages’ “No Kings” rallies have grown “exponentially.” The “latest had two locations with attendance close to 6,000.”

“There is now a ‘Leaving MAGA’ billboard here on U.S. Hwy. 441,” Marr writes. “The ‘Trump 47’ website is down. The MAGA Club almost never holds any events. You almost never see a Trump flag flying anymore.”

Trump, Marr charges, “is using the office to line his pockets. Started a war which spiked gas prices along with everything else. Inflation and unemployment are rising. Aligned himself with murderous war criminals like Putin. He continues to protect pedophilia. This weekend he is desecrating the White House by holding a fighting match like Caligula being entertained by gladiators. The list of horrific things being done, especially in this administration, is endless. And he’s even lost former stalwarts like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson.”

“Yes,” Marr declares, “MAGA is dying in the country and even here. Florida is purple now again and turning bluer daily.”

 

Image via Reuters 

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