Another attack on LGBT in Indonesia

Islam Defenders Front (FPI) flyer and banner condemning the IDAHO event. The flyer reads: "Dismiss them! We strongly reject International Day Against Homophobia here in Alun-alun Selatan, Saturday, 22 May 2010." Photos courtesy of IDAHO Jogjakarta organisers.

Source: fridae.com

By Sylvia Tan

Close to 50 people protested the police's inaction by cycling near the park where the scheduled event was to be held but the gathering was cut short after participants were warned that members of the Islamist group bent on breaking up any IDAHO activity were on their way.

A concert to be held in a public park in Yogyakarta (or Jogjakarta), Indonesia for LGBTIQ artists to showcase their talents and to commemorate International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) last Saturday had to be cancelled after their permit was revoked, organisers told Fridae. Diversity Stage was to be the finale of a three-part IDAHO programme to be held on the evening of Saturday, 22 May, at Sasono Hinggil, a large hall situated in Alun-alun Selatan (the South Square) in a public park.

Yuventius Nicky Nurman, a co-organiser of the event, told Fridae in a statement that on the afternoon of Friday, 21 May, a representative of Sasono Hinggil went to the office of the IDAHO planning committee and requested that the building-usage permit that Sasono Hinggil had previously issued be returned.

Organisers say they were told by the representative said that the local police had officially asked the venue to rescind their permit citing violent threats received from Islam Defenders Front (aka Front Pembela Islam / FPI) – the same group that forced the cancellation of the ILGA Asia conference in Surabaya and the Human Rights training event at Depok, near Jakarta.

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UK judge orders Home Office to stop deportations without warning

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Source: The Guardian 

By Peter Walker

A high court judge has ordered the Home Office to halt the deportation of foreign nationals with almost no warning after a legal challenge argued the process denies people access to justice before they are removed.

Immigration lawyers say officials have used the policy, introduced in 2007, to swoop late at night and escort people to flights leaving only a few hours later, meaning they cannot speak to a lawyer and challenge the order.

In one recent case, a seriously ill Cameroon national was arrested at 10.30pm scheduled to be put on board a charter flight leaving at 6.30am. A friend managed to call the man's solicitor, who in turn found a barrister to apply to a duty judge. The judge – roused from his bed – granted an injunction at 1.30am, calling the manner of the deportation "completely unconscionable".

"It was pure chance that I was up late working on another case and received the call," said the solicitor, Hani Zubeidi. "Otherwise I'd have got to the office the next day to find my client had already left the UK without me knowing about it."

UK Border Agency regulations guarantee those facing deportation a minimum 72-hour notice. But in March 2007 officials were allowed to waive this for unaccompanied children – who cannot be detained before removal and were thus seen as likely to abscond – or those viewed at risk of self-harm or suicide.

In January this year three other exceptions were added: people seen as being a threat to others, who might cause serious disruption or who have given permission for their own deportation.

The so-called zero-notice removal policy was challenged in the high court by the campaign group Medical Justice. Mr Justice Cranston ordered the Home Office to halt it before a full hearing next month.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We will implement the court's order with immediate effect."

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UK detention: Asylum centre extension 'like an oppressive prison'

Image via Wikipedia

Source: The Independent


By Robert Verkaik

"Plans to create Europe's biggest asylum removal centre at Heathrow Airport have been condemned by inspectors, who say detention conditions will be like an "oppressive prison".

The controversial extension to Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre will more than double the number of refugees and immigrants held there from 259 to 623 when the new wing opens next month. The super-removal centre was brought in by Labour as part of its policy of deporting more failed asylum seekers at faster rates.

But a report published today by Dame Anne Owers, Chief Inspector of Prisons, says that this would provide "prison-type accommodation, in small and somewhat oppressive cells – at odds with the atmosphere and facilities in the current centre."

Ms Owers added: "It would also double the population, making Harmondsworth the biggest removal centre in Europe. This combination will pose a considerable challenge to managers in seeking to embed recent progress and run a single, safe and decent centre."

Her findings are echoed by the detention centre's official monitoring agency, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), which has been granted unsupervised visits to Harmondsworth.

In its annual report the board says it "deplores the fact that new wings built at Harmondsworth offer lower standards of decency than the facilities they replace."

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Activists outwit Moscow police, hold brief Pride march, avoid beatings

By Paul Canning

LGBT activists defied homophobic Mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov and the courts who tried to ban them and paraded a 20-meter long Rainbow flag along a busy street in the centre of the city today.

According to Andy Harley, reporting for UK Gay News, "the police were totally out-witted after falling for all the 'mis-information' put out over the last few days. There was not a policeman in sight as the long flag was paraded for about 500 metres. One cop car arrived about five minutes after the activists has dispersed - and the media were by then doing interviews with both Russian and foreign participants."

A video report by TV1 (France) shows the preparations and interviews Louis-George Tin, Idaho founder.

Activists quickly uploaded this video to YouTube of the brief parade.



Peter Tatchell attending his fourth Moscow Pride called the event a 'flashmob' and tweeted "Up yours mayor luzhkov". In a statement he said:

This was the fifth Moscow Gay Pride and the first one with no arrests and bashings. It was also the first time activists succeeded in staging an uninterrupted parade.

The Russian gay activists have won a big political and moral victory. They staged their Gay Pride march, despite it being banned by the Mayor and the judges, and despite the draconian efforts by the police and FSB security services to prevent it from taking place.

I pay tribute to the courage and ingenuity of the Russian gay and lesbian activists. They outwitted the Mayor and his police henchmen.

Today’s events felt like steeping back into the Soviet era, when protests were routinely banned and suppressed. It is madness that Russian gay rights campaigners are being treated as criminals, just like dissidents in the period of communist dictatorship.

The real criminals are not the peaceful Gay Pride protesters but the Moscow Mayor and judges who banned this protest. They are the law breakers. They should be put on trial for violating the Russian constitution.

The EU, US and UK governments have shamefully failed to condemn the banning of Moscow Gay Pride. They support Gay Pride events in Poland and Latvia, but not in Moscow. Why the double standards?”

Western ambassadors to Russia offered no support to the Moscow Gay Pride organisers. They ignored suggestions that they host Gay Pride events in their embassy grounds and that they fly the gay rainbow flag on Moscow Pride day, 29 May.

Malawi President pardons Steven and Tiwonge

All Updates on Steven and Tiwonge will now be to this post

By Paul Canning

• Pardoned and ordered released
• Safe house being sought
• Report that both want to leave Malawi
• Government Minister threatens rearrest 

Updates

• Confusion on the couple's plans
• Malawian gay activists say plan to 'test President' with public weddings
• President demands 'end to talking' about couple 
• 'New' TV interview isn't, features Tiwonge defending the couple

Malawian President Bingu Wa Mutharika has pardoned Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, both given 14-year jail terms earlier this month after being convicted of gross indecency and unnatural acts. Mutharika ordered their immediate release.

The announcement came after Mutharika met with United Nations General Secretary Ban-Ki Moon.

The two have now been released and this website understands are now together at a safe house away from the capital, Blantyre.

Update 1 June: We still understand that Tiwonge is in hiding but Nyasa Times and Africa News are reporting him 'missing'.

The Guardian has an extremely disturbing story about Steven:

Monjeza's family members said his partner would not be welcome in their village.

Kelvin Kaumira, in his 60s, said the community was "fuming" over the incident. "People here are furious," he said. "There are so many beautiful women in this village looking for a hand in marriage."

Zione Monjeza, an aunt of Monjeza, said: "Nobody wants to see Tiwonge again in this village. If he dares to come here, he must do so with police for his protection."

Such is the widespread public hostility to homosexuality that there are fears of reprisals against both men.

They were booed and jeered when they appeared in court after the symbolic engagement ceremony that saw them arrested last December.

Trapence added: "My staff have been unable to meet Monjeza. He can't be seen around Chileka [village]. He could be afraid of the hostility from the public."

Elders from Monjeza's clan gathered to discuss his release and form a plan of action. His relatives expressed concern about him turning to alcohol. His uncle, Khuliwa Dennis Monjeza, said his nephew was "a notorious person. He is unrepentant. He has been drinking since he was released on Saturday night".

Relatives claimed Monjeza was drunk on a local gin brew called kachasu or "kill me quick".

"We are all happy he has been released," his uncle added. "But we haven't sat down with Steve to discuss the saga and determine whether he has learnt a lesson. Prison in Malawi is not a good place to be."

The uncle made clear that Monjeza's partner should not seek a reunion with him. "The issue of the same-sex marriage is abnormal in our culture," he said.

"We want to warn his partner Tiwonge that he should never set his foot in this village ... otherwise we shall deal with him. Our name, history and culture cannot be spoiled with one child known as Steve."

When the Guardian approached Monjeza, he replied: "I can't just talk to you. I am selling my story. Give me K100,000 (£460)." He then dropped his demands to K60,000. He added: "I need money. Good money. I have just come out of prison. I need to survive."

Update June 3: AFP reports that at brief press conference in Lilongwe June 2 the couple were both present and issued a statement calling the President a "caring father" and a "tolerant president."

"The president has demonstrated that he is a caring father, a considerate and tolerant president. We wish him good health in his everyday endeavours as he continues leading the country to respecting human rights and to economic prosperity," the statement said.

Update June 4: There's a local TV interview with them. Jimmy Kainja who runs a Malawi affairs blog from London informs us that this interview (now removed from YouTube) is not recent. It took place last December, just after the arrest. Kainja noting that this was while the two were still in custody which, in his opinion, means the interview should not have taken place because it could have prejudiced the case.

Kainja translates the content:

"The reporter is trying to get the couple to denounce what they had done (the alleged wedding) and somewhat apologise to Malawians whom the reporter said the couple had offended. The reporter is using leading questions and authoritative language. Tiwonge, the one wrapped in a piece of cloth, did very well in his answers. He stood for his beliefs - telling the reporter that "he was within his right to chose his sexual orientation". Steven got a bit more intimidated and didn't express himself well."

Box Turtle Bulletin has a longer translation, their contributor agrees with Kainja's analysis:

"The whole thing looks like it was set up as a public humiliation for the two. They were made to recant their story and to apologize to all Malawians."

"[Steven says] he was tricked by “akunja” – foreigners – into marrying Tiwo, who he was told was a woman."

"Steven “admits” that he just wanted to be famous, prompting the presenter to turn to the camera and say, “he admits it himself – he only did these things because he wanted to be famous.”"

Kainja adds:

"Most Malawians - including 'leading reporters' bought into what I consider a stupid conspiracy theory that the couple had been payed by international LGBT campaigners to stage the "wedding" in order to see how Malawi authorities would react. I don't know the origins of the theory but Malawi is a very conservative and religious country so the theory could have its basis on the grounds that religious folks are trying to say Malawians cannot have same sex couples, which is ridiculous because they know it happens underground."

"It also think it is a fair assessment that the reporter was (is) ignorant about LGBT issues and he didn't do his homework for the interview. In the end he felt safer to intimidate them - which was more than possible because they were in custody - rather than have a rational conversation, which the couple could have easily won."

"It is also a possibility that the reporter acted on instructions from his bosses because otherwise the interview should not have been aired as it had the potential to pervert the course of justice."

May 31 Update: Chimbalanga told AFP in a phone interview that "he was in Lilongwe to "have a breather", while his partner had returned to his village".

Gift Trapence, director of the Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP, described by AFP as "underground gay movement" but is actually a human rights organisation and also described as responsible for paying the couple's legal fees when they were actually paid by funds raised by others), told AFP that the group was trying to find jobs for Chimbalanga and Monjeza. However this website understands that at least one of them wants to leave the country.

Meanwhile Wongani James Phiri of The Malawi Gay Rights Movement (Magrim, which has a history of activism in the country) is quoted by Africa News as saying that:

"Malawi has many gays; but these people are suppressed. We plan to hold two weddings this year to see if these people's (gays and lesbians) rights will be respected. We are all Malawians."

AFP says that the President said June 2 that the country should "stop talking about the couple's "satanic" wedding".

"The story ends there," Mutharika told reporters.

"I don't want to hear anyone commenting on them. Nobody is authorised to comment on the gays. You will spoil things."

The couple's wedding was "satanic because they committed a crime against our culture, against our religion and against our laws," but said he pardoned them because "to err is human and to forgive is divine."

RFI reports that Mtharinka said:

"I am looking at our donors now...what they will say about the pardon. Is it possible to stop aid to Malawi because of two people who are insane?"

Mutharinka and Ban Ki-Moon

President Mutharinka said in a statement after meeting Moon:

"I have decided that with effect from today, they are pardoned and they will be released. These boys committed a crime against our culture, our religion and our laws. However, as the head of state I hereby pardon them and therefore ask for their immediate release with no conditions. I have done this on humanitarian grounds but this does not mean that I support this."

Update June 1: According to a member of the U.N. delegation who spoke to the New York Times but asked to remain anonymous:

“The secretary general told the president rather strongly that the current controversy was having a negative effect on Malawi’s reputation and obscuring the progress it had made in other spheres."

Ki-Moon said Tuesday 25 May he would raise the convictions, which he criticised as violating human rights principles that ban both discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, as well as the criminalization of sexual acts between consenting adults, with the President. Moon repeated his call for the repeal of sodomy laws after meeting Mutharinka.

• Video: Africanews interview with UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon

UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe and the head of the Global Fund, Michel Kazatchkine met Mutharika on Tuesday 25 May to express concern about anti-gay laws.

Kazatchkine told a press conference after the meeting that "criminalising sexual behaviour drives people who engage in same-sex relations underground" and hampers HIV/AIDS programmes.

Malawian reaction

Initial reaction in comments to The Nyasa Times, Malawi's leading newspaper, from Malawians was largely positive. The newspaper editorialised that "pressure or not under pressure, the President has done the right thing to pardon the gay couple."

Update June 1: Since the release there has been a steady stream of threatening comments in Malawian online media as well as false reporting.

Malawian news sources have reported that 'Peter Tatchell has offered the couple UK asylum' and this has since been reported more widely. This is completely false. Nyasa Times published 3 June about this.

Update June 3: Amnesty International issued a press statement warning of further harassment.

“While we are delighted that the couple have been pardoned, we remain concerned that Steven and Tiwonge may be subject to future arrest and harassment under the same laws if they continue their relationship, because the presidential pardon applies only to the purported acts for which they were convicted” said Michelle Kagari, the deputy director of Amnesty International’s Africa program.

Journalist Watipaso Mzungu of the Malawi Daily Times newspaper said Malawians’ reactions have been mixed.  And, he said President Mutharika’s decision continues to raise a lingering question in a country that imposes stiff bans on homosexual behavior.

Peter Tatchell ,who has been supporting the couple since their arrest, has reported disquiet in Malawi about the length of the sentence - longer than that for most rapists and murderers.

Exiled critics of Malawi's President praised his decision. UK based author Mzondi Lungu posted to Facebook:

“0ur fights and voices against the imprisonment of gays has paid dividends, the President has ordered their immediate release. That is still not enough, the law against gays must be abolished as Malawi is democratic enough to protect the minorities from torture and degradation. Thank you Ngwazi Bingu for listening to our voices.”

But Canadian based Tom Likambale wrote:

“Bingu’s gesture on the release of the gays is going to be empty if it is not accompanied by a repeal of the law that caused their incarceration in the first place. This issue was more than just Chimbalanga and Monjeza. It was about the treatment of a minority. Bingu’s brother is justice minister. So let him talk to his brother. Repeal this stupid law.”

Gift Trapence, a spokesperson for Malawian human rights organisation Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP) who have been supporting the couple said:

"We're very happy and we praise the president for his maturity, but there is still a long way to go to end the culture of hate."

Rearrest threat, safety fears

Government Minister Patricia Kaliati, has threatened them with rearrest, telling the BBC:

"It doesn't mean that now they are free people, they can keep doing whatever you keep doing." They could be rearrested if they "continue doing that".

The couple's lawyer Mauya Msuku.said:

"The pardon only applies to the offence under which they were convicted. If, for example, they go back and the state is of the view that they have recommited the offence, the pardon will not apply."

The New York Times has reported that "Mr. Monjeza grew up on the outskirts of Blantyre. His relatives repeatedly have said they feel disgraced and would never welcome him back."

"Mr. Chimbalanga was raised in a small village beyond the huge tea plantations that dominate the Thyolo district, 40 miles from Blantyre. His uncle, the village headman, banished him in his teenage years, but his five siblings remained loyal, thinking their brother “bewitched.”"

"The couple have been in jail since Dec. 28, two days after they threw themselves an engagement party — a chinkhoswe in Chichewa — at the Blantyre lodge where Mr. Chimbalanga worked as a cook and housekeeper, referring to himself as “Auntie Tiwo” and insisting that he was a woman."

"This public celebration drew dozens of uninvited guests. Some hooted and jeered, and at least one phoned a local newspaper, which published a front-page article about “gay lovebirds” partaking in “the first recorded public activity for homosexuals in the country.”"

Undule Mwakasungure, a gay rights activist in Malawi, told The Associated Press on Saturday that he was concerned about the couple's safety, and working with other activists to find a safe house for them and possible arrange for them to leave the country at least temporarily.

"There is homophobic sentiment. I think they might be harmed," Mwakasungure said.

Edi Phiri, who fled Malawi for Britain five years ago after being beaten because he was gay, told the BBC that the two might need to seek asylum outside of Malawi.

"They will be out of prison, but what will happen next?" Phiri said. "The community will see them as outcasts. I don't think they will be safe in Malawi."

A cousin of Chimbalanga, Maxwell Manda, told The AP earlier this week that Chimbalanga wanted to leave Malawi upon his release. This website understands that Tiwonge has said he wants to leave Malawi.

Governments praise pardon

“These individuals were not criminals, and their struggle is not unique,” the White House said. “We must all recommit ourselves to ending the persecution and criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

The British government said that “human rights apply to everyone regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Earlier today protests against the couple's jailing had been held in London and New York.

London protest for Steven + Tiwonge, 29 May

• More pictures from London protest
• Protest video 

New York City protest 29 May

• Reuters video report 
• BBC News video report

UK consultation on NHS access for foreign nationals

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Entitlement Working Group

The UK government is looking at the way it charges foreign nationals for healthcare. It has launched a public consultation. This site is created as a resource for those who want to take part.

As a result of what you say, the Government may change the current system. If you have had difficulty receiving free healthcare, it is important that you take part.

Here are some of the questions you will be asked:

• Should the current system stay the same, should it change?
• Should people who have been refused asylum but who cannot return home have free hospital care?
• Should children who are here without their families have free healthcare?
• Should pregnant women have to pay for maternity care?

On this website, you can:

• Watch a video about the consultation
• Download the consultation document
• Read briefings from key organisations
• Get your community involved
• Explore areas of concern
• Comment

Make yourself heard on this issue. Start by watching the film Respond. Then take a look at the areas of concern.

Russian gays’ courage contrasts with the shame of Western embassies

By Andy Thayer, Gay Liberation Network

MOSCOW, Russia, 26 May, eve of Gay Pride – This afternoon in their final court date before Moscow Pride, gays and lesbians here predictably were rejected once again by the authorities. The Tverskoi District Court of Moscow upheld the ban on tomorrow’s Pride march.  On Thursday night, the Taganskiy District Court of Moscow upheld the ban on the assemblies before the march. 

Nikolai Alekseev, principal organizer of Moscow Pride, described the farcical justice on display as “a funny circus.”  “Even the judge was laughing.” A lawyer for city insisted that the march permit wasn’t being rejecting for “the gay issue,” but because there were too many other activities going on in the city that same day.

Moscow Pride organizers applied for their permits on May 17th, the first day possible under the Russian federal permit law. Yet the reason given for the rejection of one of the proposed rally sites, the City said, was because there was another event scheduled for that same location – a 9 AM to 9 PM rally celebrating the policies of Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin!  This is what prompted the outburst of laughter from Judge Marina Chernova, who upheld the ban anyway.

“Often I am not pleased with how I speak in court,” said Alekseev, who was acting as his own attorney, “but today I was very satisfied with how I did, but it didn’t matter because it was a political decision.”

Defeated in court, Alekseev was still defiant. “We’re not going to surrender to the illegal decisions of the Russian authorities, and threats of violence against our peaceful public manifestation.”

Russian gays’ courage – who besides arrests and violence, risk losing jobs, housing and family connections for being out – stands in sharp contrast to the cowardice on display by Western embassies in Moscow.

When Pride events elsewhere in Eastern Europe have faced government bans and/or neo-Nazi violence, Western ambassadors have stepped in to support lesbians and gays. When the government of Lithuania initially rescinded a Pride permit for the capital Vilnius, “they made joint statements of the embassies that they’re supporting Pride, and they took part.”

In Belgrade, Serbia when the authorities banned Pride, the Swedish embassy defied the local authorities by hosting a Pride event for local and international gays and lesbians on the embassy grounds.

But it’s one thing to support despised minorities in poor countries whose governments don’t exercise much power on the international stage. It’s another to protest the policies of governments which exercise enormous economic and political power.

Continues, with video of press conference below the jump

Read more »

Torture, Rape, and Killings Pervade Nigerian Policing

Source: Open Society Justice Initiative

Police in Nigeria commit extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, and extortion with relative impunity, said a report by the Open Society Justice Initiative and the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN).

According to its findings, many members of the Nigeria Police Force are more likely to commit crimes than to prevent them. Police personnel routinely carry out summary executions of persons accused or suspected of crime, rely on torture as a principal means of investigation, and engage in extortion at nearly every opportunity.

"This shocking pattern of abuse calls into question the legitimacy of the entire Nigeria Police Force," said Okechukwu Nwanguma, advocacy coordinator for NOPRIN. "If President Jonathan truly means to improve public safety, then he must pay greater attention to police reform than his predecessor. We need to see renewed commitment at all levels during this critical time of transition."

The report points out that Nigeria's police force is over-centralized, under-resourced, and ill-equipped. Recruitment has been compromised by political interference, leaving the police with a poorly trained, badly paid workforce that is prone to corruption and violence.

"Strengthening oversight through a special prosecutorial unit for police crimes and regular monitoring of police and their facilities would help curb mistreatment," said Open Society Justice Initiative Executive Director James A. Goldston. "Resources from outside Nigeria will be essential to instituting these reforms. By focusing on the recommendations set forth in this report, international partners and donors can play an invaluable role in reducing police crime and restoring security."

The report, entitled 'Criminal Force: Torture, Abuse, and Extrajudicial Killings by the Nigeria Police Force', was produced by the Open Society Justice Initiative and NOPRIN, which carried out the research. It calls for increased autonomy and oversight, better recruitment and working conditions for personnel, and improved investigation, arrest, and detention policies.

Findings are based on independent field monitoring and investigation at over 400 police stations and posts in fourteen states and territories in Nigeria from February 2007 to January 2009. This research was augmented by a review of relevant legislation, case law and official reports, as well as secondary materials, including newspaper articles and NGO reports.

Video: Interview with Arsham Parsi, Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees

The Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees (IRQR) works to increase public awareness about, and provide support such as legal services and financial assistance, to refugees and immigrants leaving Iran because of persecution bases on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

We spoke with their leader on his recent visit to London.

Video: Iraqi government complicity in anti-gay pogrom

Iraqi LGBT presents evidence of government forces actions against gays and transgender people in Iraq.

Testimony smuggled out of Iraq shows how police and Interior Ministry forces are terrorising LGBT people.

Malawi updates: International action to support Tiwonge + Steven

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

• South African Anglicans call on Zuma to lobby
• Couple split up
• Malawians think 14 years too harsh
• Tatchell on Tiwonge's gender identification
• World wide protests being organised, Madonna starts petition

The Anglican church in southern Africa has called on President Jacob Zuma and the South African government to lobby for the immediate release of two Malawian's, Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, sentenced to 14 years in prison for their homosexual relationship.

"We urge them to press for the swift release of these two individuals, who have committed no act of violence or harm against anyone; for the quashing of the sentence against them; and for the repeal of this repressive legislation," the Synod of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa said.

"As we have previously stated, though there is a breadth of theological views among us on matters of human sexuality, we are united in opposing the criminalisation of homosexual people.

"We see the sentence that has been handed down to these two individuals as a gross violation of human rights and we therefore strongly condemn such sentences and behaviour towards other human beings."

Edited to add: Zuma has condemned the sentence. The Times (SA) reports:

Challenged by Democratic Alliance MP Dion George to repudiate "this despicable homophobic assault on the human rights and dignity of our brothers and sisters across Africa", Zuma condemned Malawi's imprisonment of two gay men who announced their intention to marry.

Though he said he had already condemned the persecution of the two men, there is no public record of any negative comment from him or from the government.

George told The Times Zuma's condemnation was a welcome breakthrough, but added: "What we need to see now is President Zuma saying this to all his African colleagues across the continent."

Reuters says:

"We have condemned the action taken to arrest people in terms of our constitution," Zuma said about the arrests in Malawi, in response to questions in parliament.

While homosexuality is illegal in most of Africa's 53 nations, including Malawi and Kenya, South Africa in 2006 passed laws recognizing same-sex marriage.

"We need to persuade, we need to make people understand, we need to move with them. We have never adopted a confrontational stance on matters," said Zuma, a polygamist with five wives and 19 children, some with women other than his wives.

The Anglican church in southern Africa also expressed concern at the "violent language" used against the gay community across sub-Saharan Africa, and at the increased legal action being taken against gay individuals, communities and organisations.

"Even in South Africa we are aware of instances of violence against the gay and lesbian community. We therefore appeal to law-makers everywhere to defend the rights of these minorities." It was immoral to permit or support oppression of, or discrimination against, people on the grounds of their sexual orientation, the church said.

Malawian prison authorities have split the couple up, with Steven being transferred to the notorious Zomba prison, which loses one in 20 inmates annually to disease. Peter Tatchell said:

Read more »

Zimbabwe: Detained LGBT rights workers beaten and tortured

By Paul Canning

As we reported on Saturday, fears that the two detained LGBT rights workers would be tortured have unfortunately proved correct.

• Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said yesterday that Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Muhambi, who work for Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), have been beaten and tortured in police custody.  
• GALZ has suggested that this is a backlash from their participation in the constitutional review process.
• The home of GALZ's Director has also been raided.

Edited to add: Ellen and Ignatius have been released on bail.

Edited to add: See South African Mail & Guardian analysis at end - Is the crackdown about Zanu-PF baiting Tsvangari and his party?

The warrant to raid GALZ last week was issued by Chief Superintendent Peter Magwenzi who has been implicated in the torture of civil society activists.

ZLHR said:

David Hofisi and Dzimbabwe Chimbga, the lawyers representing the two employees Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Mhambi told Harare Magistrate Munamato Mutevedzi that their clients were tortured during their detention in police cells and asked for an investigation into the alleged torture.

Mhambi alleged that police used empty soft drinks bottles to assault him on his knees and forced him to “sit” in a position without a chair or any other tool for a long period. Chademana said the police also forced her to undertake the same action for a long period.

Both detainees allege that they were subjected to assaults all over their bodies.

Magistrate Mutevedzi initially ordered the police to surrender the two GALZ employees to Harare Remand Prison. However the police indicated that they would not be able to transfer the duo, forcing Magistrate Mutevedzi to publicly caution the police to only detain the two employees in police cells and not to torture or assault them whilst in cells until Thursday morning when they are supposed to be brought to court for the finalization of the bail application.

Meanwhile High Court Judge, Justice Joseph Musakwa will on Thursday 27 May at 14:15hrs preside over an Urgent Chamber Application filed by Chademana and Mhambi’s lawyers seeking their release. In their application the lawyers have requested the Officer in Charge of CID Drugs, only identified as Chibvuma, and Detective Inspector Gomo to release the two GALZ employees from the custody of the police because their arrest and detention is unlawful.

The lawyers argue that the arrest and detention of the two GALZ employees is now beyond the statutory 48 hour period provided for by Section 32 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07).

The Urgent Chamber Application was filed at the High Court in Harare on Tuesday 25 May 2010 at 13:00hrs. The Duty Judge, Justice Lavender Makoni, after asking the clerk to read the Certificate of Urgency to her over the telephone, stated that the matter “could wait” until the following day. It was following this delay that police unlawfully removed Chademana and Mhambi from their police holding cell and subjected them to the assaults described above, which amount to torture under the Constitution of Zimbabwe and various regional and international instruments to which Zimbabwe has become a voluntary State Party.

The concerns were raised in a letter to the Judge President, Justice George Chiweshe, and by way of a Supplementary Affidavit filed in the High Court by the detainees’ lawyer, Dzimbabwe Chimbga. An urgent set-down of the matter for today was requested in light of the safety and security concerns; however the High Court saw it fit to delay the matter further, to Thursday afternoon.

In what appears to be a major attack on organised LGBT Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum reports that the police have raided the house of Chesterfield Samba, the Director of GALZ.

They said:

Five police officers from the Zimbabwe Republic Police searched the house and confiscated Mr. Samba’s birth certificate, passport photo, magazines and business cards. Mr. Samba was not present during the ordeal, but the family members there report that the police asked for his whereabouts and when he will return.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (the Forum) condemns this conduct by the police in the strongest terms. The conduct of the police is unwarranted and is testament of the levels of intolerance within the police force and our government. Further the Forum questions the independence of the police in executing what clearly are political instructions against the gay and lesbian community in Zimbabwe.

The Forum reiterates its calls to all civil society organisations to stand in support of GALZ as fellow comrades in the struggle for human rights, being mindful of the fact that such repression can easily happen to any organisation fighting impunity in this country.

The Associated Press has reported that the charges against Chademana and Muhambi are under Zimbabwe's censorship law - not for possessing drugs and pornographic material as reported elsewhere. The lawyer, David Hofisi, from ZLHR, said they were charged with undermining Mugabe by allegedly displaying a plaque in their office showing former San Francisco Mayor Willie Lewis Brown Jr denouncing the President’s homophobia.

We reported yesterday that confirmation has finally come that Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangari's opposition MDC-T party has abandoned the move for some legal protections for that country's LGBT community, proposed during the constitutional review process.

GALZ says that:

We believe the pair are being victimised as a direct result of GALZ making a submission to the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (COPAC), despite the call for submissions for this process. We ask the question, is government asking for participation so as to clamp down on individuals and organisations that contribute to the process?

South Africa's Mail & Guardian said:

Despite Mugabe’s rhetoric, arrests of gays have been rare and the raids appear to be an attempt by Zanu-PF to bait the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has no coherent position on gay rights. Zanu-PF could be looking to put Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on the spot - he cannot condemn the arrests without being seen as supporting gay rights, which are strongly opposed by his supporters. But he cannot support the arrests as this will anger his civil society allies and Western supporters, who want an end to years of restrictions on personal freedom under Mugabe.

In March, while jointly addressing a Women’s Day rally with Mugabe, Tsvangirai backed Mugabe’s stance on gays. “I have heard President Mugabe speak about men who breathe into other men’s ears,” Tsvangirai said, to cheers and laughter. “I too disagree. Why would a man look for another man? There are more women than men anyway.”

But, reflecting the MDC’s unclear position, days later an official in Tsvangirai’s office told reporters the prime minister had only been expressing his personal views and not those of his party.

EU asylum policy ‘contradictory and self-centred’

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Malta Independent

by Noel Grima

The momentum behind an EU asylum policy has run out of steam and will possibly impose more stresses on Malta because the policy is at the mercy of the EU member states who have obtained what they want out of it and will not do more.

This was the opinion, expressed yesterday by Martin Watson, a keynote speaker at a half-day conference on Asylum in Malta and the EU held at Dar l-Ewropa, Valletta.

But it was also a sentiment shared by many other speakers at the conference who agreed that the situation is bleak, that the Union for the Mediterranean and the Barcelona Process are dead and that the EU basically wants to push the asylum problem if possible outside the EU frontiers or at the very least to the frontier states, of which Malta is one.

What is called the EU’s asylum policy, Mr Watson said, began in the 1980s when Germany, France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, for their own internal markets decided they needed the free movement of peoples inside the EEC. Thus was born the Schengen Pact in 1985, not out of any humanistic idealism but to enlarge the common market.

What followed were the years of the Balkan conflict which produced a huge wave of asylum seekers who began shopping around for asylum and applying to many countries at the same time. Germany was the country most targeted, followed by Sweden and Belgium, possibly due to their generous assistance.

In typical EU fashion, the member states then decided to harmonise the processes and thus there was the Dublin Treaty, followed by the London resolution and the Amsterdam Treaty which harmonized the way the seekers were received, the procedure to be followed and the qualification of those to be accepted.

Read more »

UK: 'Final hope' for transsexual to stay

Source: Derby Telegraph

A transsexual Malaysian who is married to a Derby man has applied for asylum in a final bid to stay in this country.

Fatine and Ian Young wed in a civil ceremony at Derby Register Office last year and live together in Pear Tree but have failed in three separate applications for permanent visas.

The couple fear that Fatine, who was born Mohammed Fazdil Min Bahari, will be arrested and thrown in jail if she is forced to return to her home country, where same-sex marriages are illegal.

And they believe that, after death threats from Malaysia were put on an internet site set up to support Fatine, she could be in danger if she is forced to go back.

They are now waiting, again, to hear whether or not her attempts to stay will be successful but have been told it could take between two weeks and two years for a response.

Ian, 31, said: "If she goes back, her life will be in danger. That's what it's come down to. My brain has gone completely numb. There's been so much going on – it's now a waiting game and our family and friends are on edge as much as we are.

"This is our final hope."

Fatine, 36, initially entered the country on a six-month tourist visa. Her most recent appeal for a permanent visa, which was rejected by the Home Office in January, was made under a section of the Human Rights Act covering the right to a family life.

The application for asylum was lodged in April and Fatine had to go for a screening interview in Solihull. With a decision pending, she must sign on at a police station every week in Loughborough while the pair wait for the British High Commission in Malaysia to file a report about what risks she could face if she returned.

Ian, a caretaker for Derby City Council, said the couple were still receiving hundreds of e-mails backing them. He added: "We'd like to thank everyone for their support."

The couple first met in a coffee shop in Malaysia and Ian did not realise she was a transsexual. But despite Fatine's revelation and her refusal to have sex-change surgery, Ian said he was still in love and "could not contemplate his life without her".

It comes days after the new coalition Government promised action on the deportation of gay asylum seekers.

A document released by the coalition last week said: "We will stop the deportation of asylum seekers who have had to leave particular countries because their sexual orientation, or gender identification, puts them at proven risk of imprisonment, torture or execution."

• I fell for the woman of my dreams... and she turned out to be a he

Transgender Indonesians suffer police violence, discrimination

 
Alterina Hofan

Source: The Jakarta Post

By Ika Krismantari

Modern Jakarta is still no place for transgender people with the authorities reluctant in granting protection to the rights of individuals, whose gender and identity do not conform to society’s values, an anlayst and rights activist said.

“There is still an apparent lack of awareness among the authorities, especially the police, on how to handle this specific issue,” sociologist Siti Hidayati Amal said recently.

This view, Siti added, has led to police using violence in dealing with the transgender people because their lack of knowledge has prompted them to see these groups as abnormal.

Police also seem to turn a blind eye to people assaulting transvestites in the name of religion or community.

All penitentiary complexes in Jakarta are made strictly made for men and women, without special facilities given to transgender people, leading to confusion as to where to incarcerate these individuals.

The recent case of Alterina Hofan highlighted the authority’s unpreparedness in dealing with this issue.

Alterina suffers Klinefelter’s syndrome, a rare case where a male has an extra X chromosome that makes him look more like a woman.

Read more »

Australia: We have little tolerance for gays seeking asylum

Image via Wikipedia

Source: The Age

By Nina Funnell

Last week a court in Malawi sentenced a gay couple who staged a same-sex wedding to 14 years in prison with hard labour for "violating the natural order". Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa told the two men that he was handing down a particularly "scaring sentence so that the public [would] be protected from people like you, so that we are not tempted to emulate this horrendous example".

Malawi is one of 37 African countries in which homosexuality is considered illegal. Around the world, there are another 26 countries where all homosexuality is considered a criminal offence (and an additional 17 countries where male homosexuality is illegal but female homosexuality is not criminlised, largely because it is thought not to exist.)

Punishments range from whipping and incarceration (including life sentences) to the death penalty. The systemic homophobia and widespread persecution of gay and lesbian individuals across the globe is absolutely appalling.

Under Australia's Migration Act, individuals can appeal for refugee status on the basis that they hold a "well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion".

In 2003, the High Court of Australia determined that homosexuals could claim to belong to "a particular social group" and so were entitled to apply for asylum if they could demonstrate that they were homosexual and that they faced persecution in their country of origin.

Conservative opponents were quick to argue that the "floodgates were now open" and "we" were about to be "swamped by tidal waves of immigrants". Others expressed concern over the potential for spurious claims to be made, circumventing Australia's refugee laws.

They need not have worried. Time and again the Australia Refugee Review Tribunal has proved itself to be breathtakingly obstinate and utterly insensitive towards those who apply for refugee status on the basis of their sexuality. Some of these decisions have been upheld by the highest courts in the land.

Read more »

Zimbabwe: confirmation of Tsvangari abandonment of LGBT

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

Confirmation has come that Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangari's opposition MDC-T party has abandoned protection for that country's LGBT community.

In a statement on Sunday the Select Committee for the country's new constitution (Copac) said that no protections for LGBT would be included and that their 'outreach teams' will not elicit any views on the issue.

Copac chairperson Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana said last week:

“During the outreach training programme, the issue was never raised. The issue of gays and lesbians has been shunned by all the three principals to the Global Political Agreement."

The principals are Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the divided opposition Movement for Democratic Change party.


There has been confusion over the MDC-T position because the MDC-T submission to the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), made last October, says, under the Bill of Rights section, that:

In addition, the right to freedom from discrimination, given our history of discrimination and intolerance, must be broad to include the protection of personal preferences, that is gays and lesbians should be protected by the constitution.

Last month reported remarks by Zimbabwean Prime Minister and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangiri at a rally alongside President Robert Mugabe seemed to suggest his opposition to proposals that the country's new constitution offer protections for LGBT.



However, according to an open letter released at a press conference Wednesday 31 March by Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) and the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Tsvangirai subsequently wrote in his weekly newsletter:

There can be no place in the new Zimbabwe for hate speech or the persecution of any sector of our population based on race, gender, tribe, culture, sexual orientation or political affiliation. All of us are entitled to our own opinions on certain values and beliefs, but in order to move our nation forward and achieve national reconciliation and healing, we have to uphold and foster the fundamental principle of tolerance, including tolerance of people that have chosen to live, believe and vote differently from ourselves.

For too long, many of you, my fellow Zimbabweans, have not had the freedom of choice. Our new constitution shall be the cornerstone of a new society that embraces this particular freedom of choice and tolerance of both majority and minority views.

Mangwana said it was key for the nation to focus on issues of development rather than to focus on "weird Western cultures".

“Other nations, particularly in the West, have positive views on the issue of gays and lesbians and have gone on to enact laws that recognise gay rights.

“Zimbabwe, as a nation, is guided by traditional morals and we cannot go to our communities and seek views on the necessity of such inhuman practices,’’ he said.

UKLGIG: Sensational headlines risk lives of LGBT asylum seekers

Source: UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group (UKLGIG)

UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group (UKLGIG) is concerned that recent publicity, particularly the article in The Independent this Sunday, creates a false impression of what happens to LGBT asylum seekers in the UK.

In April 2010 UKLGIG released a report “Failing the Grade” (PDF) which states that between 2005 and 2009, 98% of lesbians and gay men claiming asylum on the basis of their sexual identity were refused by the Home Office at the initial interview stage. The Stonewall report “No Going Back” reiterates these findings.

Fortunately for LGBT asylum seekers, the justice system in the UK allows for a number of further steps in the process before all avenues have been explored and these further steps ensure that many of these asylum seekers are in fact granted asylum by the courts.

To say that “virtually all gay asylum seekers are sent back to persecution” is absolutely untrue and damages the considerable reputation of UKLGIG and the support that we give asylum seekers in those courts. Sometimes the evidence of UKLGIG is what ensures that a lesbian or gay man wins their claim.

Not only does such reporting damage the credibility of organisations that support LGBT asylum seekers, perhaps more importantly, it creates a climate of fear for those currently going through the process and for those who are thinking about claiming asylum – keeping them illegal and in danger of exploitation and destitution.

UKLGIG asks reporters keen to impress and generate public response if they are prepared to accept responsibility if the loss of credibility of UKLGIG means that an Iranian asylum seeker is returned and executed.

• See also: 98% sent back? The Independent's article makes a bad situation worse

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• Not all gay asylum-seekers sent back to face persecution (leftfootforward.org)

Video: Malawians speak out against Chimbalanga/Monjeza sentence

This video produced by G & A International.

Though the government and some civil society officials are celebrating with the conviction and sentencing of the gay couple, Tionge Chimbalanga and Steve Monjeza, there is a great section of people who feel they have been unfairly treated.



Quoted: Richard Brigden, Southern African Litigation Centre; Samuel Magombo, Blantyre resident; Undule Mwakasungula, Executive Director, Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR).

USA: Gay immigrants savor freedom

Source: Chicago Tribune

By Georgia Garvey

John Ademola knows there is no asylum from hatred, no refuge from ignorance.

But after decades of battling his own identity as a gay man in Nigeria, afraid for his life and safety, the former Catholic priest who now lives in the Chicago area knows a new reality.

"If any crazy person decides to kill me simply because I'm gay, here (in the U.S.), the community will still ask, 'Why did you do it?'" he said. In America, "there's not a government after me."

Ademola applied for — and was granted — asylum in the U.S. in 2009 based on his homosexuality and fear of what he might face if he returned to Nigeria. He now holds a green card that puts him on the track to U.S. citizenship.

The Riverdale resident, 50, is one in a seemingly growing but hard-to-track group of Chicago-based immigrants who've successfully applied for asylum based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Such asylum applications have been possible for 16 years, after then-Attorney General Janet Reno declared an LGBT asylum case precedent.

Experts say there are likely many more immigrants who could apply for asylum based on their LGBT status. But many don't know they can or fear the repercussions of doing so.

Read more »

Why Dan Savage and others should shut up about African politics

Image via Wikipedia

Source: San Diego Gay & Lesbian News

By Paul Canning

Personal opinion of the Editor

Dan “Rush” Savage is a big fat idiot ... and he's not the only one.

The comparison with Rush Limbaugh, famously skewered by Al Franken in his best-selling book with the same title as this piece, is apt because they both have a history of running their mouths off.

Savage's latest is eye-wateringly idiotic. Reacting to the jailing of the gay couple Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga in Malawi on Thursday, he said aid should be withdrawn.

He's not the only one. The comment threads have been full of such calls in both the UK and the USA. Joe.My.God, the influential blogger, made Savage's comment the Quote Of The Day.

On Huffington Post, Ben Cohen says "Dan Savage Needs to Shut up About Malawi" and points out that what Savage demands would directly lead to the deaths of thousands of people (unless some other country came in and replaced American aid). Others have pointed out that the USA doesn't aid the kleptomaniac government – “foreign aid” goes to non-government organizations - making Savage's point literally idiotic.

But surely for god's sake, actions taken by us (the West/North) because of the jailing of Malawian gays should be taken which will actually benefit Malawian gays?

Savage, and others, assume that - magically - the USA waves a big stick and Malawi complies. Generously, I'll suggest that he seems to be unaware of the potential for backlash, which could see Malawian gays actually suffering even more than they currently are.

This isn't the first call for aid withdrawal and it's a major topic of debate in Africa. Near universally Africans say “f--k you and your aid, we're independent now, we make our own decisions.”

Last year, similarly “outraged” American gays called for a boycott of Jamaica and its products because that government either turns a blind eye to or its police actually carry out murders of gays (they claim Jamaican gays murder each other).

Jamaican gays told these “activists” that a boycott would be extensively covered in Jamaica's media (in small countries any mention of them overseas is inevitably picked up), this would lead to a backlash and it would put them at serious risk. The Americans said they knew better and a boycott would force the Jamaican government to change. Fortunately that boycott call went nowhere.

Now for a re-run with Africa.

Read more »

Zimbabwe: LGBT organisation's staff face new political charges

Image via Wikipedia

Source: ZimOnline

by Hendricks Chizhanje

Police on Monday slapped two members of the Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) with a new charge of undermining the authority of President Robert Mugabe, one of their lawyers said last night.

The GALZ members, Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Muhambi, were arrested last Friday by police who stormed the organisation’s Harare offices claiming they were looking for dangerous drugs and pornographic material.

The lawyer, David Hofisi, said in addition to formally charging the GALZ employees with possessing drugs and pornographic material [LGBT ASYLUM NEWS note: The AP says they were charged under the censorship law], the police had also charged the two with undermining Mugabe by allegedly displaying a plaque in their office showing former San Francisco Mayor Willie Lewis Brown Jr denouncing the President’s homophobia.

“They have now been formally charged and a fresh charge of undermining President Mugabe has now been added,” said Hofisi, who is from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) that is helping defend the two GALZ workers.

According to Hofisi the two were likely to appear in court tomorrow after today’s Africa Day holiday.

Mugabe is know for his dislike for gay and lesbian people who has described as “worse than dogs and pigs” and Mugabe’s supporters and government agencies have fought to keep homosexual people away from the public view most notably by barring them from participating at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair.

Earlier this Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai publicly spoke out against homosexuality and said an exercise underway to write a new constitution for Zimbabwe should not be used to smuggle the rights of gay and lesbian people into the country’s fundamental law.

In a sign that the anti-homosexual tendency is probably common across the region, a Malawian judge last week sentenced a gay couple Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza to a maximum of 14 years in prison with hard labor under that country’s anti-gay legislation.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Press Release

Read more »

No HIV care for 90% of gay men in Asia Pacific: UN

Image by United Nations Development Programme via Flickr

Source: AFP

More than 90 percent of gay men in the Asia Pacific region don't have access to HIV prevention and care services, as levels of the disease soar to "alarming levels", a UN report said Monday.

The study, conducted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said discriminatory laws in many countries are exacerbating the "critical situation" with abuse and human rights violations commonplace.

"If countries fail to address the legal context of the epidemic, this already critical situation is likely to become worse," said the report jointly produced with the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health.

Many national HIV policies now accord a priority to men who have sex with men, the report said, "even though the legal environment remains repressive."

"HIV prevalence has reached alarming levels among men who have sex with men and transgender populations in many countries of Asia and the Pacific," the report said.

Read more »

Hope on UK LGBT asylum? And a new demand

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

In his excellent explanation last Friday of the problems with the Coalition government's one line commitment on LGBT asylum, announced on Thursday, Bernard Keenan pointed out there is one action they can take to show they mean business: withdraw from the Supreme Court test case involving an Iranian and Cameroonian on 'go home and be discrete'.

As Bruce Leimsidor in his piece for us on the reporting of Stonewall's report, being launched today, says:

The persecution inflicted upon gay people in many countries is, in fact, so horrendous, it so defies imagination, that our natural reaction is incredulity. Worse, it is so irrational that there is a tendency to try to explain it through suspecting some sort of provocation on the part of the gay victim. That is what is behind the “discretion” argument, which has produced so many unjust adjudications for LGBT asylum seekers.

This incredulity is shown by the comments both Keenan's piece and that of an anonymous gay Iranian also in the Guardian have attracted. With the latter, the fact is that gays do (despite what Ahmajinedad says) exist in Iran and there are YouTube videos showing them having parties. So if you don't 'provoke' the Iranian regime with your 'flaunted' homosexuality why can't you go back?

The research and numbers on persecution is there but it's not great precisely because it's not a priority for most human rights actors and the state makes any sort of advocacy and information gathering hard if not impossible.

Last year the journalist Doug Ireland reported on twelve death sentences in Iran and managed to get some confirmation. This led to a statement from Human Rights Watch but absolutely no subsequent press interest, even from the LGBT media. Amnesty International ignored it.

The Coalition statement says "at proven risk of imprisonment, torture or execution." Marshaling 'proof' which stands up in a system the Stonewall report describes as riddled with "institutionalised homophobia" ain't easy.

New Home Secretary Theresa May is tasked with implementing the Coalition agreement and this is happening against a background of campaigning against her appointment because of her past votes against LGBT equalities legislation, in particular a 40k+ Facebook petition.

Responding to questioning on BBC Question Time, she said that she would now vote differently and had "changed her mind" on issues such as lesbian and gay adoption.

However she went further and said that she wanted to be judged on what the government did rather than said and pointed to the Conservatives Equalities manifesto, published on the Monday before the election.

She pointed out that this addressed other issues than those she had voted against and first cited homophobic bullying in schools and next cited the LGBT asylum commitments.

"What will show the difference the government will make is what we will do in government on this particular agenda of equalities," she said.

"[The manifesto] did commit that one of the things we would be doing is looking at ensuring that people who are claiming asylum from particular countries because they are at proven risk in relation to their sexuality, that we should be able to take that into account as an issue when looking at those claims."

As Refugee Action, the Refugee Council and LGBT Asylum News explained on Friday, May's words and the Coalition's inclusion of this issue is extremely welcome however the one sentence wording does not actually change the position of LGBT asylum seekers in practice.

The Conservative manifesto expands on the text in the Coalition agreement to address the 'discretion test'. Because there is no clamour around asylum as there is around her past votes I'm encouraged that May chose to point to the asylum commitment as an example of where they will seek change - the manifesto says "change the rules" - and where they should be judged by their actions.

It remains to be seen how 'rules' will be changed - we have identified eight headline issues with current Home Office policy and practice - but, as we have said earlier, it would be churlish not to be encouraged by their choice of language around the emotive issue of asylum. Simply put, they don't need to do this, there are few if any votes in it and they could, like the previous government, simply mention other LGBT equality issues and leave this one out.

They have already been 'stung' on LGBT asylum by the right wing mass tabloid Daily Mail so to have then left asylum in their manifesto as a commitment - problems with the wording aside - should be seen as a positive move.

But we can ask them to "show the difference the government will make" immediately in one straight-forward move: withdraw from the Supreme Court test case. I'd like to see the 40+ Facebook petitioners move at least some of their attention to that sort of demand.

Edited to add: Liz Williams, a refugee lawyer who acted for UNHCR in the Supreme Court case, has fed back that:

"I'd rather the Government didn't fold at this stage, with the hearing complete and only the judgment awaited. All that would achieve would be to leave the unsatisfactory Court of Appeal judgment in place as binding law. That was a favourite tactic of successive Labour Home Secretaries when they saw cases going against them, which I'd rather not see repeated."

We asked:

"Could the new government otherwise indicate its distance from the previous government's opinion without ensuring a negative legal outcome?"

Liz replied that:

"in theory they could perhaps write to the Supreme Court withdrawing their submissions and inviting the judges to adopt ours and/or the appellants' in their judgments, but that would be a very unusual step. Not sure how the court would respond. The key thing is that they need to issue a new Asylum Policy Instruction to deal with the problem (APIs are what UKBA staff follow when approving claims) - obviously the sooner, the better, but I imagine it will take a little while to get the necessary detail drafted and approved by Home Office lawyers."

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