Video: Holocaust Memorial Day 2011 film trailer

Watch the making of the HMD 2011 online film: 'Untold Stories' and discover the stories behind the trailer.

Ali is a Iraqi LGBT activist who has experienced discrimination and persecution. His name has been changed and his face obscured to protect his identity as he still faces persecution today in London.

Apolinaire Kageruka is a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. He has never recorded his testimony before.

Astrid Aghajanian survived the Ottoman Empire’s destruction of its Armenian population. For more information on the events of 1915-18, please visit the USHMM site.

Hawa is a survivor of the genocide in Darfur. She has covered her face for filming in order to protect her identity. Hawa is not her real name.

Margret is a German Jewish Refugee. She and her family fled Nazi persecution and settled in the UK.

Michel is a photographer living in the UK. In 2010, he was a victim of hate crime when his home was vandalised and a swastika was painted on his door.

Mukesh Kapila was working as Head of the UN in Sudan in 2004 and brought the genocide in Darfur to the attention of the international community.

Safet Vukalic survived the genocide in Bosnia. He now lives and works in the UK.

Simon Winston survived the Holocaust in hiding. He is filmed at The Holocaust Centre.

Sokphal Din survived the genocide in Cambodia (1975-1979).

Vicky Botton lives in the East Midlands and is a Traveller. She speaks about the Untold Stories of the persecution of Gypsy and Travellers in the UK today. Vicky refers to the ‘gadje’ in her film. This is a Romani term meaning ‘non-gypsy.’

In Armenia, a "targeted media campaign" against us, say trans sex workers

Source: Unzipped: Gay Armenia



*Source: Epress.am (+ here; and AM)
Also relevant:
Բաց հարց Հրապարակ օրաթերթին
«Տրանսերը» նամակ չեն գրել

A few trans sex workers came to the editorial offices of Epress.am earlier this week to protest two recent stories published by local daily Hraparak.

In the conversation which ensued, the guests spoke about their relationship with the police and the consequences of publishing material without verifying the facts, which could very well endanger their lives.

The photos in the video were supplied by the individuals in the photos and are published here with their consent. They did not, however, wish to have their faces visible in the video. The dialogue is in Armenian only.

"I'm the only trans Vika, I did not give any information to the paper Hraparak. I don't know who could've done something like this against me," said local Armenian cross-dresser Vika, commenting on a story published by local daily Hraparak in which a transvestite by the name of Vika threatened a businessman by the name of Hovik. The paper informed Epress.am that the story was prepared on the basis of a telephone conversation. The editors say that a transvestite named Vika called Hraparak and described the incident, which they subsequently published. [Unzipped: Gay Armenia - Տրանսվեստիտը սպառնում է բացահայտել իրեն սպառնացող գործարարին]

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In Armenia, gays say they face scorn and harassment

Image via Wikipedia

Source: ArmeniaNow.com


By Gayane Abrahamyan

Constant clashes during the recent two months between the police and gay prostitutes (whose night meeting point is Children’s Park near the Yerevan Municipality) resulted in hot discussions over gays in Armenia, where homosexuality is hardly tolerated and still considered a moral disease.

During the recent few months press reports have circulated that Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglaryan is out to “clean” the park from its reputation as a night-time cruising point for gay prostitution.

City Hall refused commenting on the issue, saying that “the municipality has much more important problems than gays to solve.”

Yerevan residents living near the park say that nighttime fights in the park are common. They say that transvestites and presumed gay men are often attacked and beaten.

“They disturb us, too – we cannot simply pass by that section at late hours. Nevertheless, they are people, and it is unacceptable to deal with them like that,” says Armen Saribekyan, 48, resident of Zakyan Street, bordering the park.

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France: Four countries removed from 'safe countries' list

Image by Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration via Flickr

Source: Tetu

By Habi Bangré

Translation: F Young

Here’s a little bit of good news for asylum seekers from Armenia, Madagascar, Turkey and Mali: their applications will no longer be considered negatively a priori, because these countries are no longer considered without risk.

Homosexuals from Armenia, Madagascar, Turkey and Mali will now have a (slightly) better chance of getting asylum. Indeed, on July 23, the Council of State removed these countries from the list of “safe countries” - countries that France sees as respecting the principles of freedom, democracy and the rule of law, as well as human rights and fundamental freedoms.

That’s a relief for the nationals of these four countries because “the inclusion of a country on the list speeds up the consideration of asylum requests of the persons involved (15 days instead of 118 on average) and authorizes the prefects to return them to their country, even before the national court of asylum (“Cour nationale du droit d’asile”) has issued a decision on any appeal,” according to a release denouncing the practice issued by Amnesty International France, GISTI, la Cimade, ACAT-France and the Association des avocats ELENA France, which, with other associations, are behind the decision of the Council of State.

The "safe" countries are not for LGBT’s

But, it is the whole concept of "safe" countries that these associations want to challenge. "For us, each application must be examined on a case-by-case basis,” said Matilda Knight, member of Amnesty International France’s LGBT commission. “The ‘safe country’ concept is totally contrary to international conventions governing the right of asylum.” Especially when the list is found to be discriminatory, opaque and politically motivated.

Furthermore, countries that are still on the list ... are not really "safe", particularly for LGBT people. Benin, Ghana, Senegal and Tanzania criminalize homosexuality, while in Mauritius sodomy is forbidden, but not gay or lesbian romantic relationships (see our article). In other countries on the list (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Croatia, India, Macedonia, Mongolia, Serbia, Ukraine), caution remains the rule despite the absence of repressive laws . . .

Can we expect that states with a homophobic law will be removed from the list? At OFPRA, the agency that examines the situation of asylum seekers, we are told that there are no plans for such a project.

Droit d’asile: quatre pays retirés des «pays sûrs»

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Armenia: Homophobia turns deadly

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Global Voices

By Onnik Krikorian

Even if homosexuality was decriminalized in Armenia in 2002, society remains largely intolerant and traditional in its values. Naturally, in a country where nationalist ideology is also somewhat prevalent, fears that homophobia might turn even more extreme appear to be turning into reality. With blogs providing LGBT activists with a medium through which to voice their concerns, such fears can now be highlighted more openly than before.

This is especially true when in many cases it is actually the local media, and even some civil society groups, which seeks to promote homophobia. However, in recent weeks the level of intolerance in the mainstream media has alarmed many, with one newspaper going so far as to seemingly encourage hate crimes against members of the LGBT community in the country.

Pink Armenia comments on such developments.

It’s a pity but again l have read a homophobic article in an Armenian newspaper lately. […]

I don’t know why but almost all journalists mainly discuss the topic of homosexuality, I don’t know why but they never remember that there were and are many outstanding people among them, they just insist that it is amoral. It is evident misinformation of the society.

I won’t forget to mention that in the last article that I have read was a call to abuse and even kill homosexuals. I think that many will agree that appropriate punishment must be applied toward such people.

Unzipped: Gay Armenia also comments on what it views as a call to eliminate homosexuals in the country — literally.

When someone is homophobe, it’s bad enough. But when that homophobe advocates killing, he is crossing the line.

I have to confess, I do not read Iravunk tabloid. If it’s not for my friends, I would have been unaware of this whole bunch of ‘articles’ over the last week or so devoted to gays there.

[…]

Iravunk’s journalist then notes that “we do not want you to take this story as a call for killing. We simply wanted to present this story”. Obviously, what they effectively did is to advocate killing of gays.

[…] there is definitely enough evidence for opening the case against Galadjyan and his tabloid for inciting murder and hatred.

As a rule, one hate goes hand in hand with another hate. If you look at Iravunk’s articles, they are not just homophobic, but racist, full of hate to everyone who is different. […]

A week later, if such concerns might have been considered by some to have been exaggerated, the same blog reports that they were very real indeed.

Group of Armenian ultra-nationalists, a copycat of Russia’s and others’ neo-nazi, united under the so called Hayrenik (‘Motherland’) movement, published a post on their website threatening the life of Armenian author writing under the name Dori An. Dori An is the author of award winning gay-themed short story in Yerevan. […]

They provide Armenian government with the ultimatum type message: either you silence Dori An, using “legal means”, or we will do it by our means and methods. ‘Message’ is accompanied by Al-Qaeda terrorist-like picture, or its poor copycat.

Failing to produce any ‘results’ by ‘fighting external enemies’, and failing on all fronts, these ultra-nationalists try to create ‘internal enemies’ to justify their very own existence.

This is a direct threat to person’s life and the right for free speech, the very basic human rights protected under Armenian constitution. After all, this is effectively a terrorist-like ultimatum to Armenian government, and law enforcement agencies in Armenia should take up the case for further proceedings.

It remains to be seen whether the voices of such bloggers are heard by the authorities and action is taken to prevent homophobia in Armenia from turning deadly before it's too late.