The News is Out

The front pages of today's Star and the Globe and Mail both boast big colour photos of peace activist James Loney, who was rescued from his kidnapping ordeal in Iraq last week, arriving at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. Flanking him are his family members ... and his "partner Dan Hunt."

Yes, Loney is gay. No, the media never revealed that during his four months in captivity. Yes, we knew he was gay. No, we did not think it was a good idea to make that information public. Yes, I knew as well -- and was expressly asked not to write about it and not to write about the fact that we weren't writing about it.

Why?

Fears were that, since we had no idea who his captors were, the fact that he is a gay man might have put his life in greater peril than it already was. As the Star's Michelle Shephard and Jessica Leeder report:

"After this I'm going to disappear for a little while into a different kind of abyss, an abyss of love. I need some time to get reacquainted with my partner, Dan, my family, my community and freedom itself," (Loney) said.

It was the first time there was mention of Hunt as media outlets had refrained from referring to him during the activist's captivity, out of concern that the kidnappers would harm Loney because of his sexual orientation.

Here's the Canadian Press take:

The co-director of the Christian Peacemakers Teams says the family of freed Christian peace activist James Loney kept his sexual orientation quiet out of fear for his safety.

Doug Pritchard says the family feared Mr. Loney might come to harm at the hands of his Iraqi captors had they known he was gay.

Mr. Pritchard says it likely wouldn't have helped if Mr. Loney's partner, Dan Hunt, had come forward with public pleas for his release.

Mr. Hunt made his first public appearance since Mr. Loney's ordeal began last November when he greeted his partner Sunday at the airport.

Is that a knock on Islamist whackos? Obviously. But it speaks well of the media that, without any collusion between us, we all kept our yaps firmly shut.

Was that good journalism? I don't know. But it was the right thing to do.

Bet this one gets a lot of you going.

Comments

[Jay Currie]

Good for the Canadian media (though why the man's sexual orientation would be reported at all beats me.)

So I wonder: given the choice between shooting an American (Quaker tool of Great Satan) and a gay man which way would our boys from the Religion of Peace jump. We know they shot the American; but if they had had this nugget of information? Hmmmm. Plenty of walls to pull down in Bagdhad.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Jay,

Precisely! Why should it be an issue or reported unless the MSM likes keeping homophobia alive. It certainly has sold many articles and ads.

Hats off to you Antonia and the Star for exercising 'responsible journalism'! Hmm, I am sure glad there were no cartoons involved! LOL

[nps]

I don't care one way or another about his sexual orientation, ditto his religious convictions. I care even less about Iraq and what is going on over there and what the Americans/coalition of the willing are up to.

However, I am very glad to hear that gentleman is alive.............

[Joan Tintor]

Ditto Currie. I don't see the big dilemma for the media, because in most stories someone's sexual orientation is not an issue anyway.

But IMO, we shouldn't send our troops to rescue people who've gone unprotected to a war zone, against the government's advice, on a fool's errand (the foolishness of which is underlined by the gay/straight angle).

[Rebel]

Well, considering the 11th century view "Islamist whackos" have of women and the absolute intolerance of anyne who disagrees with their rigid dogma, it's a valid conclusion that they might harbour a wee bit of hostility toward a gay man and act accordingly. The media keeping its collective yap shut was simple common sense given the circumstances.

[Diana-Marie]

Joan Tintor
".....we shouldn't send our troops to rescue people who've gone unprotected to a war zone, against the government's advice, on a fool's errand ...."

Why not? The troops follow the orders of their government. The CPT people understood the risks and felt the value of their work outweighed the negative possibilities. They underwent essential training and appear to be well organized and disciplined. More power to them, they may be presenting the only trustworthy Western face in the entire area. Is there anyone else out there documenting human rights abuses by the occupying forces?

[dave]

Joan, does that mean we should not rescue fools snowboarding into closed areas due to avalanche risk, or careless mountaineers who are stuck at 10,000 feet, or bicycle couriers who ignore the rules of the road? Not to mention how much we could save by refusing to treat alcoholics or smokers or overwight people when they come to their just reward.

[Antonia]

Joan Tintor said:
".....we shouldn't send our troops to rescue people who've gone unprotected to a war zone, against the government's advice, on a fool's errand ...."

I guess that would also describe any unembedded journalist who ventures outside the Grenn Zone to try and tell the story.

[Bill-Muskoka]

My, how far we have come in two millenia!

Today some promote the concept of the 'Selective Samaritan'!

Make sure you are on the approved list before venturing forth into everyday life.

[Adam in Whitby]

If CPT activists should be left to their predictable ends in Iraq (and I'm still on the fence about that), there's a very good reason for them to be:

They demand it themselves.

"We make clear that if we are kidnapped we do not want there to be force or any form of violence used to release us."

http://tinyurl.com/fq2fa

Either they are grownups making informed decisions, and their wishes should be respected. Or they are deluded cranks who need to be protected as much from themselves as those they go to help.

Like I said, I'm still on the fence.

[Michael Watkins]

Hooray for the media's self-restraint, which of course was the right thing to do.

Joan - I'm with Antonia on this; if people start doing *only* what the Government advises them to do, we are in big trouble. Sometimes the most selfless, courageous, and *right* thing to do is exactly opposite what the government advises.

Opposing the war in Iraq while at the same time supporting the *people* of Iraq -- against the will and wishes of more than one government -- is about as brave and selfless a thing as we've witnessed a Canadian do in a long time.

[john q.]

In principle, withholding information from the public in order to protect the safety of an individual is a sound policy. But it is a dangerous and slippery slope. Who knows what else is not being told in order to "protect" who knows who's "safety".

Are we to seriously believe that Loney's captors would have checked Canadian media outlets to see how their little kidnapping escapade was going over with the Canadian public?

[Jon]

I, for one, was proud to hear of Canadians actively waging peace in Iraq ... and putting their lives on the line for it, although greatly dismayed that their lives wound up endangered as a result.

I was perhaps still prouder to find out after the fact that one of them was a gay man (no sissy, he).

And now I'm particularly proud of the Canadian journalists who managed to contain themselves rather than trying to make some silly point by highlighting that fact.

Good on everyone involved, on all three counts.

[stephen.reeves]

I would hope the media would be discreet in all such cases, not just "peace activists" in Iraq.

What a non-story Antonia. Why is anyone even talking about not talking about this mans sexual orientation at all? Good grief media people!

[sooey]

gay?! AND christian?!

[Maz]

It seems to me that James Loney put his partner and his family in a
terrible emotional fix by venturing into the wasteland that is Iraq. I
think he might have have leaped into that "abyss of love" from the
get-go, and spared them all a terrible ordeal. I'm glad that he and
his two soulmates made it; too bad it wasn't all three of them - I'm
referring to the American, who was tortured and killed by his Iraqi
captors.

[Bill-Muskoka]

While his sexuality is a non-issue, and the media did the right thing by not making it a public issue, the fact remains this.

What are these evangelicals thinking? Are they so determined to prove God will protect them from their own delusions of grandeur that they will pay no heed whatsoever to reality?

Yes, the concept of showing 'caring love' to a people in turmoil is honourable. How about going where such a message is truly appreciated? Perhaps New Orleans?

Were the CPT to look at history they would find the reason, beyond the self-serving religious fanatic's beliefs, that it was the Christians that started the problem in the Middle East with their invasion during the Crusades. Why do, of course, the Muslims remember, it is required to remember. They remember that history as a Jew remembers the Holocaust.

There were those who promoted peaceful co-existence between Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Their hardest fought battle was protecting the three from the likes of the Vatican Armies, and other Christian Crusaders that came to take Jerusalem for the Christians, not the Jews, not the Muslims, not for unified peace, just for their sect.

Saladin stood them off, and acted honourably in allowing those trapped in the city to leave unharmed. Saladin was the Muslim Leader.

Today, the area, beit Baghdad, Jerusalem, Kabal, is re-experiencing the same thing, only this time the groups are far more numerous. Each striving to be in control. It is, in short, mass gang warfare for the turf.

It is not a place for evangelicals to be promoting their religious beliefs. It is a place overrun by religious beliefs, all in conflict with each other. None are looking to find the common ground just the issues that differentiate them from one another.

The brave troops that willingly walked in Harm's Way are the true heros of this story. Not the CPT who tempted God by being foolish to begin with. Let God work God's plan there.

It is the people who are the problem. They, like anyone else, must grow to despise war, pain, suffering, and their own endless hate. Until they do there will not be peace. Armies do not make peace. People make peace, first in their own being and then with others.

Follow the wisdom of the Bible folks. 'Do not grab fighting dogs by their ears lest you be bitten!' The survivors are very, very fortunate to be alive.

It is becoming clearer by the day why, without even a hint of justifying his horrid reign, Sodumb Insane had a hard line and ruled with an iron fist. The people there respond to that. Fear of their own government overcame what decency could not. Their willingness to act badly.

Let the CF Peacekeepers do their job. They are professionally trained to do the job. They do not need amatuers getting in the way and becoming hostages. This is a war zone, not an evangelical tent meeting!

[John W]

The media certainly did the right thing in not reporting Loney's sexual orientation. But they soon got even with a barrage of vitriolic right wing attacks on the hostages and on the Peacemakers organization in general.

For example, the Globe's Margaret Wente and Rex Murphy who usually pick the easiest target of the week then pile on with
unrestrained enthusiasm, both jumped on the Peacemakes with similar arguments on the same day.

In their Saturday columns, the two writers didn't seem to understand that the Canadians rescued in Iraq are known as Christians.

This sect has been doing this
stuff for 2000 years and nobody has ever been able to do anything much about it.

You would think Rex and Margaret, the other columnists who piled on, and the radio talk show hosts who went ballistic, could have shown a little more perspective and moved on to a more worthy but still, of course, equally helpless subject..

[Antonia]

Just for the record, I deleted a comment here about what Loney might be doing with his partner when they are finally alone. There's no need to get into that kind of thing here.

[sooey]

besides, you can read all about it in the bible. between the lines. backwards. "paulisgay, paulisgay, paulisgay"

[Joan Tintor]

Diana-Marie: Actually, until this operation, my understanding was that the standing orders of the Canadian government were for our troops to NOT go to Iraq. I thought that position was shared by most commenters on this blog. Glad to see some of you coming around. But seriously folks: while the rescue troops may have been sent by the government I get to vote, for the CPTs weren’t.

The attempted comparisons to skiers, cyclists, fat people (guilty!), smokers, etc. are beyond absurd. Paramedics are not sent into live fire zones to recover or treat people.

For a comparison that would actually be on point, how about this one: would you still support Canadian troops being involved in a rescue, if the hostages were ex-Canadian (possibly with other nations’) military types, who are working in Iraq providing private security for the rebuilding effort? I’ll go first: my position would be the same.

Even though I personally think that what they are doing is worthwhile, and an important component of larger effort that I also support, other Canadians may disagree and I don’t get to veto their views when it comes to where our troops go. Thanks for playing.

[Country Boy]

John W,

I read both Wente’s and Murphy’s articles. Wente’s quotation from George Orwell was most apt, and Murphy made an excellent point – that the Christian Peacekeepers organization seemed to willfully ignore the fact that the hostages were rescued and not “freed”, and they only reluctantly expressed gratitude to their rescuers.

Note that this was not the case with Loney personally. He publicly expressed gratitude, and according to Stephen Harper also asked Harper to thank his rescuers during a phone conversation with Harper shortly after the rescue.

[William Fudger]

Will someone please direct me to Acronyms 101. I foolishly thought that they were only used when the full meaning was elsewhere in the same article and not in perpetuity. WSPDMTA-101

william fudger
sedum@telus.net

[Antonia]

William, Try this.
http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid11_gci211776,00.html