February 17, 2006

Flying gay

There is an interesting call for a boycott of Emirates Airlines because its owner (the state of Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates) has sentenced eleven men, arrested last year after allegedly attending a 'gay wedding party,' to five-year terms for homosexuality and one-year sentences for obscenity, according to reports from Abu Dhabi.
It seems a fair call for a boycott, but one needs to be consistent too.
Places with popular airlines don't always have the right attitudes towards deviant sexuality. For example, Singapore's penal code is hardly liberal towards gays.
Or Fiji and most Polynesian islands who were rid of their easy-going sexual and sensual attitudes by generations of missionaries, so Polynesian Airlines and Air Pacific are out too.
I'm sure you could find dozens of other examples to avoid, so best to stick with Air New Zealand since we don't want to fund that fundie Ocker John Howard and his Qantas either.

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