Swompdonkey

From a Canada.com article

Earlier Monday, the Christian Peacemaker Teams admitted they purposefully kept the fact Loney is gay a secret over fears his sexual orientation could further endanger his life while he was held captive in Iraq. "There was concern for his safety in this violent world of gay-bashing," said administrative co-ordinator Rebecca Johnson.

(...)It was in Loney's "best interest" to keep that part of his personal life under wraps because gay people are still targets of "antagonistic" attacks.


Notice the artful evasion... The implication appears to be that in this day and age, Loney's sexual orientation puts him in danger of "antagonistic attacks" from, say, roving gangs of intolerant bigots in downtown Toronto. By obliquely and deliberately characterising the threat as "this violent world", Johnson evades the thorny issue of the prevailing attitude towards homosexuality in certain very specific parts of the world. Anyone who knows anything about urban Canada and our famed value of tolerance sees this for what it is: disingenuous obfuscation.

No, Ms. Johnson. As a homosexual, Mr. Loney was not in danger "in this violent world of gay-bashing". He was in danger from a very specific localized threat: in this world there are theocratic absolutists who would happily crush him under a wall for buggery, there are Baathist thugs who would relish his kidnapping and murder as a sign to other decadent westerners, and there are jihadists who would love to video tape the sawing off of his sodomizing infidel's head for propaganda purposes... and, in case you didn't know, none of these people are found on Jarvis Street in Toronto.