Continuing threats to gays on Kenya's coast

By Paul Canning

A Christian Radio Station in Mombasa, Kenya, is continuing to broadcast threats against local LGBT. Baraka FM, along with others, has been implicated in inciting the attempted pogrom February 11-13 in Mtwapa, near Mombasa.

Blogger GayUganda reports receiving an email stating that the station read out the following threat:

"Homosexuals are not human beings and should be treated as such..... The KEMRI-UW research centre has been given 7 Days to close or we shall attack it on Friday next week [12 Feb]"

The Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) clinic in Mtwapa was the centre of the mob attacks, due to it providing HIV/AIDS services to men who have sex with men (MSM).

The author of the email said:

Considering that this is how it started last time, if you remember we raised an alarm a day earlier and the attacks happened the following day, I advise that we take precaution and consider informing all our contacts in Mombasa about the Lurking Danger.

There is negative talk that the Muslims in Mtwapa want to make an example of someone, they are vowing not to take anyone to the police this time. Keep us in your hearts and as earlier requested, anyone who can assist especially in the area of reaching out to the Muslim community or the security apparatus will be highly appreciated.

Police rescued a number of gay men from mob attacks and released them without charge. Human rights activist Muthoni Wanyeki, a executive member of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, has praised the actions of the police.

Attempts at dialogue

Following the mob attacks, Sheikh Ali Hussein, Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK) Kikambala coordinator, and the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK)'s Kilifi District representative, Bishop Laurence Chai, had continued to threaten the KEMRI clinic and rejected government attempts to calm the situation by joining a committee which aims to educate wananchi (the public) on the operations of the clinic.

The Standard reports that Kenyan LGBT Christian organisation Other Sheep reached out to religious leaders in the region.

Leader Michael Kimindu said:

We went to Mtwapa and talked to Christians and they asked for more time to discuss the mess in the society over the gay marriages.

As well KEMRI took part in a media clinic at a Mombasa hotel 4 March. They told journalists that 15.2 per cent of all new HIV infections in Kenya were through men having sex with men.

Dr Mary Mwang’ombe, KEMRI researcher based at Mtwapa, said that it was difficult for researchers to gain access to homosexuals and investigate their HIV risk behaviour and prevalence rates.

Most of these men live a secluded lifestyle to avoid being discriminated against by the police and the health care personnel.

In addition to the clinic, a gay-friendly Mombasa bar, Club California, is facing closure following the imposition of 'impossible demands' by local authorities. The Department of Public Health visited the club 12 February, the day of the riot, and issued a notice demanding undefined improvements to the club's "sanitary conditions".

The victims speak out

South African LGBT website Behind the Mask has interviewed some of the men caught up in the February mob attacks. All preferred to use only their first names.

Ali, speaking through Javine Ochieng of Gay Kenya, said:

There was no wedding planned at all. I heard the news from the mosque as a sermon was being passed that there was a wedding to take place.

The Imam said that they can not condone a homosexual marriage to take place by any chance since the person to be married is a Muslim and that we have to protect the Islamic norms and shed blood to stop the wedding.

After the sermon at the Mosque Ali says he went to a barber and was questioned about the rumours of a gay wedding, supposed to take place 12 February. The barber accused Ali of one of those getting married and told him to get ready for "a hunt" that day for "those getting married and that they will be killed". On Ali's departure the barber told him never to set foot in his barber shop again.

Ali was beaten up by a mob and taken to Mtwapa Police Station where he was rescued by activists from Kenyan Human Rights Commission, then immediately taken to hospital since he relies on an inhaler for his asthmatic condition.

George was also attacked by the mob and taken to the cells while Nicholas was arrested from a research centre where he works.

Lameck was arrested from his home, Yvonne from KEMRI, where he works, and Hanza was rescued by activists and taken to a place of safety before the mob could confront him.

Ochieng said there were no charges pressed against those detained and that they were released the following day.

All are now in a place of safety coordinated by the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK) but they say they now live in fear, not knowing what will happen next.

Said Yvonne:

People can still recognise us even in our hiding place and there are rumours of demonstrations that will be held against homosexuality to strategise on how to search for the remaining gay people in Mtwapa and Mombasa.

Nicholas warned:

If the society does not accept this [existence of homosexuals], people will continue practicing unsafe sex, due to lack of information and hence the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Some of the people in the mob who were beating us are always gay in the dark and very heterosexual in light.

Kenyan press debate

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Texas’ LGBT community responds to help gay Iraqi refugees

Source: Dallas Voice

By David Taffet

Two gay Iraqi refugees who are living in Houston came to Dallas for the Creating Change conference earlier this month seeking assistance.

After being kidnapped, raped, robbed and stabbed in Baghdad, Yousif Ali and Nawfal Muhamed escaped to Syria and were given refugee status by the United Nations. The United States granted them asylum.

But after arriving in the United States, Catholic Charities, which administers many of the federally funded programs for refugees, provided only limited assistance.

Other refugees are given furnished apartments. Ali and Muhamed were sent to different cities.

On his own, Muhamed made it to Houston from Nashville where Ali had been given a bare apartment and left to sleep on the floor.

They were housed near other Iraqis where they remained in danger and continued to be abused because of their sexual orientation.

The Unitarian Universalist office at the United Nations, the only faith-based U.N. office with an LGBT refugee program, brought the pair to the Dallas conference hoping to find some help.

After an article appeared in the Feb. 12 Dallas Voice, offers for assistance arrived.

Bob McCrainie of Texas Pride Realty in Carrollton saw the article.

He contacted Leslie D. Wilson, an associate in his Houston office. Wilson contacted Dallas Voice about his connection to a social service agency in that city that provides housing for homeless youth to age 25.

Through Geronimo D. Desumala III, the LGBT/SOGI (sexual orientation/gender identity) human rights program associate with the Unitarian U. N. office, Ali and Muhamed connected with the Houston agency.

They met with a social worker and case manager at the organization — which isn’t gay but does regularly work with LGBT youth — about housing.

Wilson said his understanding is that the two Iraqi men should have a new place to live by March 1.

In addition, a transgender woman in Houston, also with refugee status, went with them to the agency and will also be receiving housing assistance.

Tim Brookover is president of the Houston GLBT Center. He is now working with Ali and Muhamed and has been in touch with Desumala.

He called Ali and Muhamed “very resourceful.”

He has been to their apartment and said they had one twin bed, a kitchen table that someone in their complex was throwing out and, on the wall over a desk, a rainbow flag.

Brookover said he is in the process of signing up the GLBT center as a partner agency with the Furniture Bank.

Once the pair is in their new apartment, that organization will provide them a larger bed and some additional furniture.

He also introduced them to his friend, Hassan Zaidi, who took several days off from work to take them to Montrose Counseling Center, which does some case management, and to reapply for food stamps.

Meredith Lines works with Life Time Fitness and wrote to Dallas Voice that she might have a job for them. Her e-mail was forwarded to Brookover.

This week, she said, “I’ve been working with Tim at the GLBT center working on their employment.

They have both applied online, and at this point I am trying to place them with the correct department.”

Brookover said Lines has been wonderful, coaching the pair every step of the way.

He said she helped them with their online application and told them to call her when the facility sets the interview so she could prep them further.

She said, “I believe they would both be wonderful in the café or our operations department.”

Cash donations were offered by a number of people who wrote to Dallas Voice about the original article.

“That’s one piece of the puzzle we haven’t worked out yet,” Brookover said.

Desumala said they were hesitant to just have people write the two checks.

Brookover suggested that donations could be sent to the Houston GBLT Center, 3400 Montrose Blvd., Suite 207, Houston, Tex. 77006. The center has tax-exempt status and donations would be deductible.

Specify that the money is for Ali and Muhamed, he said, and it would be used for expenses such as their upcoming move.

Brookover said working with them has been a most gratifying experience.

“We’d love to see them get in school. They’re smart. They’re sweet. They’re funny,” he said.  

HT: @cheesivore

An Iranian asylum seeker in Brussels

Image via Wikipedia

Source: ILGA

By K

I come from Iran. I was born in 1979. I lived in Iran until 2006. I arrived in Belgium in 2007.

I am gay and during 2 years I had experienced very big problems in jail in Iran, my country.

In jail in Iran I was beaten several times by men from the secret police, struck with a knife in my knee and my lower belly at the right side, struck with wrists twice in my nose.

They beat me up for a full day sometimes, sometimes longer. During two years they had called my family or sometimes they called me out of home to arrest me. Then it was questioning, beating up, sleep shortage and food cuts during three days.

In the last month of 2003 (I can't say when exactly since the Persian calender differs) I was arrested in the street by a car. Three policemen in plain clothes called me in. We drove to the jail. After two or three hours of beating up they gave me Ampod injections and a little morphin. I fell asleep. Two hours later I woke up and stood up. I could notice I had blood and sperm in my backside and down my thighs. I was told to leave the jail after I was forced to wash me in the toilets.

During two years and a half, up to 2006, I had had sex in the jail in Iran thirty to maybe forty times. I have never told anyone about this problem because I was afraid for my little brother and my family.

Thank you very much.

LGBT want protection in new Zimbabwe constitution

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Source: Behind the mask - Feb 26
   
By Miles Tanhira

As part of the constitution reform process currently underway in Zimbabwe, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) has produced a 15-minute documentary on LGBTI people calling for inclusion of their rights and recognition as citizens of Zimbabwe in the new constitution

Titled Tinzweiwo (Hear our plea) the DVD, according to GALZ, is a plea to Zimbabweans who have always brushed the issues of homosexuality aside as non-existent or unnatural to listen and address these issues.

The DVD contains testimonies of about 10 GALZ members, their experiences of homophobic in the hands of family, society and law enforcement agencies.

The members also highlight their reasons for advocating for the decriminalisation of homosexual acts as well as their call for an end to state instigated homophobia. This has led to constant attacks and threats to gay and lesbian people who at times run the risk of being blackmailed once their sexuality is discovered

In the DVD participants tell their stories as gays and lesbians who were born and bred in Zimbabwe who say that they have not been influenced by any foreigners contrary to the myth that homosexuality is a Western behavior imposed upon Africans.

Although most the interviews are in Shona, the video has English subtitles.

This DVD will also be distributed as part of the Sexual Orientation Indaba information pack to representatives from other NGOs, policy makers and members of some religious sectors.

Plans are also in the pipeline to submit copies of this DVD, together with GALZ’s submission to the Constitutional Select Committee.

The current Zimbabwean constitution brokered at the Lancaster House Conference in 1979, does not recognize non-discrimination on grounds of one’s sexual orientation.

The reformed codification ACT [2006] redefined sodomy to include consensual sex, or any act involving physical contact other than anal sexual intercourse that would be regarded by a reasonable person to be an indecent act.

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Registration opens for major LGBT asylum conference

A major conference titled 'LGBTI asylum seekers and refugees: a case of double jeopardy?' is to be held in July in London.

The conference will be launched at the House of Lords 5 July (Hosted by Baroness Joyce Gould) and will be held at the University of Greenwich 6 – 7 July. Early bird registration opens today.

It is a major opportunity for stakeholders from the academic, public, voluntary and private sectors to discuss and debate issues around asylum seeking resulting from human rights violations based on sexuality and gender identity.

Organisation is by the University of Greenwich (School of Humanities and Social Sciences) and ICAS (Institute for the Converging Arts and Sciences) in collaboration with the Metropolitan Support Housing Partnership, UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group, Michael Bell Associates Research and Consultancy, Metro Centre and Stonewall Housing.

The platform is the Over Not Out – The Housing and Homelessness Issues Specific to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Asylum seekers (May 2009) research (commissioned by Metropolitan Support Trust).
 
The conference will explore the double jeopardy faced by LGBTI Asylum Seekers and Refugees. This is a double jeopardy brought to bear, in the first instance, due to the originating country’s position against any sexual orientation / gender identity which might be considered different from the norm and therefore the extreme difficulties a targeted person may find themselves facing (via state/cultural/legal/political intolerance). It is a double jeopardy, in the second instance, when the person claims asylum where community values, as well as the legal, educational, housing and health environments may come into conflict.

It will also examine the range of political/philosophical questions that immediately come to bear: What does it mean to be a ‘citizen’ in the context of asylum seeking? What does it mean to deal with ‘identity politics’ at a time when the very notion of identity and the political movements expressing ‘alternative’ identities seem also to be undergoing a re-think in terms of a postmodern / digital age economy? There is no doubt that digital technology and social media have had a profound influence in raising awareness about the plight of asylum seekers and refugees because it can transcend national borders. But can it be more?

The aim of the conference is to provide a forum for knowledge transfer between the academic, public, voluntary and private sectors. We hope that this will contribute to a long-term impact in the areas of social policy and international human rights.

The conference will be organised around two broad themes.

First Jeopardy: Fleeing Persecution

A range of workshops and seminars exploring why people seek refugee status based on their sexual orientation and what the legal and political responses are to those claims.

• The UN Convention Relating to Status of Refugees
• Homophobia and the universality of human rights
• The UN Convention against Torture
• The process of seeking asylum in the UK and elsewhere
• Discrimination and anti-gay violence around the world
• Response of LGBT communities
• Impact of new technologies
• Media representations

Second Jeopardy: Are we failing to meet the needs of LGBT refugees and asylum seekers?

Public service providers in the UK are committed to policies that promote equality and inclusion for all. The conference will present a series of workshops and seminars exploring the extent to which the needs of LGBTI refuges and asylum seekers are being met with particular reference to the political landscape of equality and inclusion.

• The Equality Bill
• Health care, including mental health needs
• Religion
• Housing and financial support
• Detention
• Support networks which includes Refugee Community  Organisations
• Media Representation
• New Technologies
• Response of LGBT communities
• Sexual exploitation
• The role of support organisations: Mainstream vs. Specialist
• The role of the Police regarding hate/race crime

Conference organizers welcome contributions from organizations and individuals for research (completed and in development), seminars, workshops, round-tables and presentations. Topics are not limited to those suggested.

Proposals should be between 200-350 words for individuals or 350-500 words for groups. It must include the presenter’s name, institutional affiliation (if applicable), email, phone number and postal address, together with the title of the session.

It is intended that the conference proceedings will be published.

• Please submit proposals to LGBTIASR.CONFERENCE@gre.ac.uk no later than 16 April.

• Conference website

• All proceeds above the cost of running the conference will be donated to UKLGIG (UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group).

Key dates

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The situation of LBT women in Colombia

Image by Hanoi Mark via Flickr

Source: ILGA

Document prepared by Colombia Diversa for The Beijing+15 review
1 - 12 March 2010 - UN Commission on the Status of Women, New York.

There is little information regarding the status of human rights of lesbian and bisexual women in Colombia. Difficulties related with the inexistence of state information systems or human rights organizations that include variables on the sexual orientation and gender identity of the victims, prevents the work of human rights defenders to shed some light on the real situation of this population.

Measures are not taken to eliminate the discrimination against women in all matters regarding marriage and family relationships.

Although the Colombian Government, through court rulings of the Constitutional Court C-075/2007, C-811/2007, C-798/2008, C-336/2008 and C-029/2009 has recognized rights for same sex couples – excluding marriage and adoption-, there are still obstacles for the enforcement of said rulings such as: prejudice and disinformation by public officials, requests for additional and different requirements to those applied to heterosexual couples, discriminatory interpretations of the rulings that limit the effective practice of rights.

Absence of neutrality of the Attorney General’s Office to defend the rights of same sex couples.

Attorney General Mr. Ordoñez, and Mrs. Hoyos, Delegate Attorney General for Childhood, Adolescence and Family, have stated that sexual and reproductive rights are not human rights and that the focus of gender is a dangerous “gender ideology” that is reduced to the promotion of abortion in anti-life campaigns and anti-family campaigns. On the other hand, through their documents, they have repeatedly shown little consideration and respect for human rights international law and international organisms and mechanisms in the defense of rights such as CEDAW, UNIFEM or have ignored vast interpretations of other committees of the United Nations regarding the concept of family.

Adoption by lesbian women

In concrete cases such as the request for acknowledgment to a lesbian woman to adopt a biological daughter of her permanent partner, this same organism decided to exercise an administrative surveillance of the case, to ensure that the standing of the Colombian Government be the aforementioned.

Violence and police abuse

For the years 2006- 2007 Colombia Diversa reports the murder of at least 17 transvestites dedicated to prostitution. These women are also the main victims of police abuse together with people who make their sexual orientation evident in public, such as same sex couples.

Prison situation

Lesbians, bisexuals and transvestites in prisons suffer violation of rights such as considering lesbianism as indiscipline, limitations of conjugal visits for their same sex partner in prison, control over affectionate and sexual relationships between inmates, prohibition to use clothes of the gender different to their biological one, degrading and humiliating treatments, such as denying access to cells or forcing them to shave their heads. All this was corroborated by the Human Rights Commission of the Senate.

Economic, social and cultural rights

The needs and rights of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women are not acknowledged, studied or contemplated by the public policies of the Government. It was established that lesbian and bisexual women are afraid to recognize their sexual orientation to medical personnel and for the case of transvestite women, their specific needs are not recognized by medical personnel, which implies a deficient medical attention, adding to the low subscription to the social security system in health by the latter.

• Download the report (PDF)

Conclusion of 90% of asylum cases by December 2011 is unachievable - UK Border Agency Chief

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Home Office

The report “Asylum: Getting the Balance Right?” inspected the UK Border Agency’s effectiveness in meeting its published targets for concluding asylum applications and legacy cases whilst ensuring quality decision-making and the provision of information to applicants.

Independent Chief Inspector, John Vine CBE QPM found that the UK Border Agency had almost 30,000 cases under the New Asylum Model (NAM) that had not been concluded within the required six month period.  He has recommended the introduction of clear targets to resolve these outstanding cases.

The report also found that the UK Border Agency would need to conclude over 11,000 cases a month to achieve its target of clearing the legacy of old asylum cases by July 2011. At the time of inspection he found that only 4,500 cases were being cleared each month.

Mr Vine said: “I have found that the UK Border Agency has clear performance targets that rightly focus on concluding asylum cases and these have driven improvement.  However the UK Border Agency needs to strike the right balance between meeting performance targets and high quality decision making when dealing with some of the most vulnerable people in society. We should remember that, first and foremost, this is about people’s lives.”

• View the full report “Asylum: Getting the Balance Right?”

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