Threats to Malawi's foreign aid over its treatment of LGBT people are leading to attacks on civil society organisations.
This week Malawi's Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Dr. George Chaponda said that recent withdrawals of foreign aid by various countries were the fault of two NGO leaders: Human Rights Consultative Commitee (HRCC) chairperson Undule Mwakasungula and executive director of Centre for Development of People (CEDEP) Gift Trapence. Both organisations actively support LGBT rights.
“The country is suffering because of the conduct of some leaders of the civil society. Those people are not patriotic. Some donors have withdrawn their aid and everybody is suffering. More than half of salaries for Ministry of Health come from the donors,” he said.
Chaponda's comments followed the state-run Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) broadcasting a claim by the Minister of Information and Civic Education Symon Vuwa Kaunda to have "discovered" that Danish groups were funding the NGOs with US$700,000 "to propagate same sex rights in the country for a period of three years."
In an MBC editorial comment, read by the station’s news analyst Mzati Mkolokosa, MBC called on Malawians to 'fight against such activists' saying they are 'not patriotic'.
“They don’t know how much our forefathers suffered to get ourselves decolonized. We are not yet free up to date, yet someone wants to sell us back to the colonialists. Perhaps they haven’t studied global politics and need to be decolonized themselves. But let’s fight against them before they succeed in handing us over to the colonialists,” MBC said.
Chaponda said that his 'discovery' vindicated what the country’s President Bingu wa Mutharika has said: that some NGOs are "being used by external forces to destabilize the government."
“These are the people who are being used as agents from the government’s enemies,” Chaponda said.
"All this was because Mwakasungula and Company had the audacity of reporting President Bingu wa Mutharika and his DPP-led government to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in Geneva, Switzerland. The rights body had quite a bagful of worries they wanted the world to be aware of. These included the recent call to arms to "protect me in the streets", the auctioning of freedom with some bizarre price tag on the right to peaceful assembly and discrimination against minority groups, notably gays and lesbians."
When the Ugandan government announced that the anti-homosexuality bill was on hold, those pushing it immediately blamed international pressure on President Yoweri Museveni. Pastor Martin Ssempa said that the bill was "being deliberately killed largely by the undemocratic threats of western nations".
He has a point. A campaign delivered half a million signatures to Museveni, various governments lobbied, the Germans said they'd cut aid, and now the US Congress has amended financial legislation (with bipartisan support) that would cut aid to countries deemed to be persecuting gay people. Introducing the legislation, congressman Barney Frank highlighted Uganda and noted that "the US has a fairly influential voice in the development area".
Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, has now said in a letter to Frank that his Treasury department "will continue to instruct the US executive directors at each of the MDBs [multilateral development banks] to seek to channel MDB resources away from those countries whose governments engage in a pattern of gross violations of human rights".
Pressure is also mounting from Europe. The European parliament passed a resolution in December "reminding" Africa that "the EU is responsible for more than half of development aid and remains Africa's most important trading partner" and that "in all actions conducted under the terms of various partnerships" that sexual orientation is a protected category of non-discrimination.
How financial pressure will play out remains to be seen. This month massive US funding for improving Malawi's power supply network went through despite that country criminalising lesbians.
Someone blinked regarding Malawi but there is undoubtedly more pressure on governments who repress gay people than ever before. Germany didn't blink and did cut Malawi aid.
Like Uganda, moves in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to criminalise gay people have also stalled – again diplomats have raised their concerns. But now there's a backlash.
In Uganda, Ssempa presented a two-million-signature petition to parliament on 7 April demanding that the anti-gay bill be passed (and damn the consequences). In Cameroon there is a huge fuss over European Union funding for a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) advocacy group.
Reflections on the work of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2010 as it works to end discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. IGLHRCs work spans the globe with staff in the Americas, Asia and Africa working to bring human rights to everyone, everywhere.
When thousands of marchers descend on the National Mall this Sunday to rally support for immigration reform, hundreds of them will be representing the LGBT population.
“Immigration Equality has registered 200 marchers and has also learned that an additional 100 LGBT advocates will be coming to D.C. by bus to join us at the march,” Steve Ralls, director of communications for the organization, said Tuesday. “We’re now expecting a contingent of more than 300, standing for LGBT immigrants and families on the National Mall.”
Immigration activists hope to impress upon Congress that they expect to see action taken on immigration reform this year, even as President Barack Obama declined just last week to commit to a time line.
In advance of the March For America, Democratic senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina are expected to unveil a bipartisan immigration bill this week that will serve as the lead piece of legislation on the matter.
For LGBT people, the immigration debate holds two concerns.
First, an estimated 12 million undocumented individuals live in the United States, roughly 600,000 of whom are LGBT (assuming that about 5% of the population is queer). Those individuals would benefit if an immigration bill laid out a path to citizenship, regardless of whether it included a provision for same-sex partners.
Second, an estimated 70,000 lesbian and gay couples in the country include one partner who is an American citizen and one partner who is an immigrant, according to the Williams Institute, a California think tank. While the immigrant partners in some of these couples have visas and green cards, about 36,000 of those couples include one partner who does not have a current option for obtaining residency — they may have temporary tourist visas or temporary professional visas or may be undocumented. Those couples would benefit specifically from the inclusion of the Uniting American Families Act, which would allow U.S. citizens and green card holders to sponsor their same-sex partners for residency.
But whether UAFA will make it into the Schumer-Graham (pictured) bill is an open question, as are a multitude of other considerations.
Schumer has a sizable LGBT constituency in New York and has traditionally maintained a strong record on LGBT rights. He also stated his full support for UAFA at last year’s hearing on the bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“For those who question the morality of permitting same-sex partners to obtain immigration benefits, I believe we should value the sanctity of preserving the family structure in whatever form it may take and in providing compassion for all Americans who yearn to live with their family,” Schumer said last June. “This act incorporates the same principles that I believe should govern comprehensive immigration reform.”
But Schumer is also a political pragmatist and must produce a bill that can garner GOP support as well as the approval of a diverse coalition of groups that back reform but disagree on the content of the bill. Schumer's office did not return phone calls for this article.
Just how contentious the inclusion of LGBT families is remains to be seen.
Democratic representative Jared Polis of Colorado has been front and center in the House’s debate over immigration and immediately ticks off a list of considerations that are already provoking heated debate providing a normalization process for the undocumented population, including verification of people through biometrics, augmenting border security.
“Those issues are all more controversial than including same-sex families,” said Polis, who has nonetheless signed on as a cosponsor of the House's comprehensive bill, H.R. 4321, which does not include LGBT families.
Polis stresses that the effort must attract some GOP votes, but he still doesn't see UAFA as a deal breaker. “Many of the Republicans who would be likely to support immigration reform are also Republicans that have a moderate record on LGBT issues,” he said.
He also notes a plus side to incorporating LGBT binational couples. “UAFA absolutely attracts support from lawmakers who have significant gay and lesbian populations,” Polis said.
Indeed, Democratic representative Mike Honda of California has credited the inclusion of LGBT families with attracting extra support for his immigration bill, the Reuniting Families Act. When he first introduced the legislation in the last Congress, he started with just five cosponsors; but when Honda reintroduced the bill in 2009 with a provision for same-sex couples, he racked up 57 original cosponsors.
On its 20th anniversary, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) is dedicating its annual signature fundraiser - A Celebration of Courage - to marking the past two decades of activism for LGBT equality. As Cary Alan Johnson, Executive Director of IGLHRC noted, "We have come a long way from our beginnings as a small group of activists in San Francisco at a time when there were very few organizations dedicated to working on LGBT rights in an international way."
Many dedicated individuals and organizations have played a significant part in achieving progress in recognition of LGBT rights. This year's A Celebration of Courage galas - on March 15 in New York and March 18 in San Francisco - will honor Colombian LGBT organization Colombia Diversa, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé, and Representative Barney Frank for their important contributions.
"In this movement that offers so many challenges, it is important that we take the time to honor the progress that has been made," says Johnson. These events offer an opportunity to remember milestones for equality; to honor those who have made a significant impact on the lives of LGBT people worldwide; and to acknowledge the supporters who have passionately and consistently sustained IGLHRC's work. It is also an important moment to gather support - including much needed financial support - that will allow IGLHRC to continue its work and partnerships with global LGBT activists.
It is the dedication to support local activists that is perhaps the hallmark of IGLHRC's work as it moves into the next decade. One such group, the Bogotá based LGBT group Colombia Diversa, will be awarded IGLHRC's Felipa de Souza award for 2010; this award, which includes $5,000 to further the recipients' work, is given annually to an outstanding grassroots group or individual in recognition of their courage and activism for the promotion and protection of human rights for all people. "In a context where human rights documentation, reporting and responding can be difficult and dangerous, Colombia Diversa is on the frontlines. Their tireless work to bring about change has made critical inroads for LGBT Colombians and for the human rights of all people," said Johnson.
Formed in 2003 by a group of LGBT activists, Colombia Diversa's work in the political, social, cultural and academic spheres has achieved significant advances for LGBT Colombians. Notably, their work led to a landmark Constitutional Court ruling in 2009 that achieved the same rights for same-sex couples as those of unmarried heterosexual couples. Colombia Diversa has successfully lobbied for political and legal change and widely reported on rights violations against LGBT people and homophobia in places like schools and the media; these efforts are placing LGBT people firmly on the regional and international human rights agenda. As a part of a broad coalition, Colombia Diversa launched the first LGBT community center in Latin America, pairing national advocacy with attention to the needs of LGBT individuals and communities. The organization is now working to secure the rights of same-sex parents and families, including the recognition of adoption by same-sex couples.
"The Felipa de Souza Award gives strong voice and respect to activists in human rights arenas all over the world," said Marcela Sánchez Buitrago, Executive Director of Colombia Diversa. "It gives Colombia Diversa a platform, allowing us to be heard and to improve our capacity to impact human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in Colombia and in Latin America."
The work of such local organizations is amplified and supported when prominent individuals or organizations use the power of their voice to advance the rights and understanding of LGBT people. UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé has done exactly this and is being honored by IGLHRC with the Outspoken Award. This award recognizes the leadership of an ally of the global LGBT community and has been accepted in previous years by luminaries such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson. Mr. Sidibé has been a vocal supporter of LGBT rights, calling for inclusive HIV and AIDS programming and an end to criminalization and other discriminatory laws and practices. Since his appointment in 2009, Sidibé has used his position to stress the link between the AIDS response and global human rights. He has taken forward the message that ending the stigma and discrimination faced by LGBT people is absolutely essential to breaking the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic.
IGLHRC is also honored to present the Special Recognition Award to Representative Barney Frank, who has been a strong ally and supporter of the organization's work since its earliest days in San Francisco. Rep. Frank has been a powerful force for LGBT equality worldwide, from his trip to Russia to speak out against the country's sodomy law in 1992 to his three decades of sponsoring pro-LGBT legislation and policies as a member of the US Congress that is ongoing to this day.
CHICAGO -- Six members of the U.S. House sent a letter last week to President Barack Obama and other leaders, expressing strong support for a little-known piece of legislation that would grant gay and lesbian couples the same residency benefits as their opposite-sex peers.
The measure -- called the Uniting American Families Act -- could affect 36,000 gay and lesbian binational couples, who would earn a path to citizenship not by getting entangled in matrimony, but by creating a new immigration category for "permanent partners."
For Chicago residents Karla Thomas, a native of Trinidad, and Stacy Beardsley, a U.S. citizen, the legislation is intensely personal.
The two women -- who met four years ago -- share a North Side Victorian cottage, two black labs and some investment properties. Thomas' citizenship was never much of an issue until her job as an engineering project manager at an international cosmetics company was eliminated last summer.
The layoff threatened not only her paycheck but also her employment-based green card, which means her time in the United States could be running out.
"No one should have to decide between the person she loves and the country she loves," Thomas said.
The Uniting American Families Act needs to be folded into any immigration overhaul that Congress is expected to tackle in the next few months, say advocates.
"It saddens me to think that the struggle for immigration reform, a movement based on the fundamental principles of equality ... could push on without including LGBT families," said Illinois Democrat Mike Quigley, who signed the letter along with Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.; Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Jared Polis, D-Colo.; and Mike Honda, D-Calif.
Opponents of the bill say any such provisions could be a deal-breaker for immigration reform.
"It's like pouring gasoline on a roaring fire," said Kevin Appleby, director of migration policy and public affairs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which sees such unions as violating church teachings. "Immigration is already controversial enough. Adding this issue could kill it altogether."
If Thomas, 30, and Beardsley, 39, were a heterosexual couple, their cozy domesticity could continue uninterrupted. They could marry, and Thomas could shop around her impressive resume -- which includes an MBA from Northwestern University and a decade of experience.
"You work hard. You build a life together. You try to be good citizens," said Beardsley, who manages charter schools in some of Chicago's most impoverished neighborhoods. "But, really, the legal options available to us right now are very limited."
Under federal law, gay and lesbian Americans are barred from sponsoring their foreign partners, even if their union is recognized by a state where gay marriage is legal, such as Iowa and Vermont. Almost half of these binational couples have children, and their predicament has been exacerbated by the economic downturn, according to Immigration Equality, a New York-based advocacy organization.
For now, Thomas, who came to the U.S. to attend the University of Mississippi, has gotten a reprieve. Her employer has found short-term assignments in other cities to keep her on the payroll.
What happens when those projects run out is anyone's guess, the couple said. Returning to Trinidad, where Thomas hasn't lived for a decade, would shrink her salary by 90 percent. They could move to Canada or England, which offer residency to same-sex partners, even though that would mean starting over again.
The best-case scenario? Immigration reform that includes everyone, they say.
"It's disconcerting to see an issue that affects me ... also affects Stacy," Thomas said. "I have a lot of guilt about what I'm doing to our family."
Yousif Ali, 24, and Nawfal Muhamed, 20, are safe in Houston. But life is difficult.
The two have been denied food stamps. Jobs are not easy to find. The Sharpstown neighborhood where they live is dangerous. Neither man speaks English well. And the American relief agency that helps refugees has no services for gay men.
But all that aside, the two gay Iraqi refugees have asylum status and are safer here than they were in Iraq.
In Baghdad, Ali was kidnapped and raped. His boyfriend was murdered.
“Kidnapped many times,” Ali said. “I tried to escape. They put knife in my foot.”
After escaping, he said, he called an Iraqi LGBT group in London. They told him to go to Syria and contact the United Nations. He made it to Syria by bus.
He said there are checkpoints every mile of the trip.
“If they think you are gay, they tell you ‘Go out from the car.’ Take them to unknown place and disappear,” Ali said.
He said that life in Iraq is difficult for everyone because of the war. But for those who are gay, life is intolerable.
Living on savings in Syria, Ali rented a room. He met Muhamed, who had escaped to Damascus when he was 16. He also wanted to move to the west, but was afraid to go to the U.N. office to request refugee status. Although his life was in constant danger in Iraq, he was afraid of U.N. forces that he thought would abuse him if he told them he is gay.
Muhamed’s parents were dead. His brother and sister know he is gay but he is not close to them. He has a boyfriend who is still in Iraq. In Syria he had another boyfriend who is also still there, but he said that one is bisexual and felt safe.
Ali’s family does not know he’s gay. They think a bomb caused the wounds to his foot and that he came to the United States to receive medical treatment. They do not know about the kidnappings.
Ali was granted refugee status first and given asylum in the United States. About seven months ago, he was given a plane ticket through London to Houston. He said he is paying back the airline fare, $35 a month. Muhamed arrived a month later. In his application, Muhamed said he had a friend in Houston. He begged them to send him to Texas, but instead he was given a ticket to Nashville.
“Catholic Charities and U.N. separated us,” Mohamed said. He said that their refugee services only help families, not singles.
Bruce Knotts is the executive director of the Unitarian Universalist United Nations office. He said theirs is the only faith-based U.N. office with full-time staff advocating for LGBT rights. He is familiar with Ali and Muhamed’s case.
Once certified by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, they were resettled, Knotts said. The United States has accepted those seeking asylum based on sexual orientation since a law passed during the Bush administration that was introduced by Rep. Barney Frank.
Knotts said that the United States takes in more refugees than all other countries combined, but that Canada does a better job taking in LGBT asylum-seekers.
Catholic Charities provides many of the services in this country for refugees and is funded through the federal government. Their Web site says they provide “Apartment rent and furnishings.” Ali said that their Iraqi neighbors in Houston got both. He was given a bare apartment. Knotts agrees that Catholic Charities offers families services and provides for basic needs that they have denied the gay men.
When Muhamed arrived in the United States, he was assigned a straight roommate in Nashville. So he contacted Ali and bought a bus ticket to Houston where the two were reunited.
Life in Houston has been difficult. Ali said that he was given food stamps when he first came to this country but then the food stamps were cut off and does not know why. He has reapplied.
The only job he has gotten was working in a warehouse two hours a day. The job was a long drive from his apartment, and it cost more to commute than he was being paid. He’s looking for full-time work.
Knotts explained that the food stamps were cut off when Ali got the part-time job. He said one of the things the men need is someone who can help walk them through the system and advise them about getting job training and full-time work.
Muhamed said he would like to find employment but he has never worked. “Only high school,” he said. Ali explained that Muhamed has never worked before. While in high school he was kidnapped and raped and fled to Syria where he lived for four years and was not allowed to work.
Their Houston neighborhood is dangerous. Sharpstown has a large Iraqi immigrant population. Knotts said the two men are still living among the same people who tormented them in Iraq. At the Creating Change conference in Dallas last weekend, Knotts said they connected the two men with a Unitarian church in Houston and the Houston GLBT Community Center.
Knotts said, “They need friends.”
He emphasized they are here legally and need help applying for their green cards because both are eligible to work. They need someone to help them access the language classes, vocational training and other services the federal government funds Catholic Charities to provide to refugees. And, he said, they need to move to a gay-friendly neighborhood.
Sixty Members of Congress, led by Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), have issued a letter calling on President Obama and Congressional leaders to pass legislation which would end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) immigrant families. The statement, which comes from members of the LGBT Equality Caucus, urges passage of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) and for inclusion of “LGBT binational families in comprehensive immigration reform.” Under current immigration law, lesbian and gay Americans are unable to sponsor their partners for residency in the United States, resulting in many such families living separately, or facing imminent separation, from their loved ones.
“No one,” the letter insists, “should be forced to choose between the person they love and the country they call home. It is time that our immigration laws kept families together instead of tearing them apart.”
“Passage of immigration reform will require every family standing with their neighbors and loved ones to work for change,” said Rachel B. Tiven, Executive Director of Immigration Equality, a national organization that works to end discrimination in U.S. immigration law. “The LGBT Equality Caucus’s letter signals that our champions in Congress, and the LGBT community, are ready to work for passage of reform that includes all families, including LGBT families. There are more than 36,000 lesbian and gay binational families counting on us to get this work done.
The letter – spearheaded by Congresswoman Baldwin and Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Jared Polis (D-CO), Mike Honda (D-CA) and Mike Quigley (D-IL) – comes as Congress is expected to turn its attention to comprehensive immigration reform legislation in the near future. According to an analysis of U.S. census data, more than 36,000 lesbian and gay binational couples would benefit from an LGBT-inclusive immigration reform bill. Nearly half of those families, data show, are raising young children who face the possibility of being separated from one of their parents.
“Recognizing how important familes have been to our national development, the central mission of our immigration system has always been to reunify families.,” said Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). “In order to be true to that core value, comprehensive immigration reform must fix our system to include LGBT families. Failure to do so would leave us with a flawed system that continues to tear apart families, contrary to our legal and constitutional traditions.”
Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the lead House sponsor of the Uniting American Families Act, which would also end discrimination against LGBT binational families, agreed.
“We must take the government out of the business of singling out LGBT families for discriminatory treatment and live up to our democratic ideal of equality under the law,” Nadler said. “I join my colleagues in calling on Congress and the White House to include the Uniting American Families Act, which I have introduced in every Congress since 2000, in any immigration reform legislation, and end discrimination against binational LGBT families.
“There is simply no place for discrimination in America,” Congresswoman Baldwin added. “As we tackle comprehensive immigration reform, it’s imperative that we end discriminatory laws that hurt couples, their children and extended families, and their communities and employers.”
Immigration Equality has also significantly increased its legislative work on the issue, recently announcing the formation of a 501(c)4 Action Fund, to significant increase its lobbying work, and an expanded Washington, D.C. office.
“This is the moment,” Tiven said. “Introduction of comprehensive immigration reform legislation provides a unique opportunity to win a critical victory for LGBT families, and all families. We will work, non-stop, with our allies in the LGBT Equality Caucus, and the immigration rights movement, to do just that.”
GILLIBRAND, BALDWIN TO SEC. CLINTON: SAVE LGBT REFUGEES
LGBT Individuals Tortured and Killed in Iraq in 2009
No Proper Investigations, No Arrests for Crimes Against LGBT Individuals in Iraq
Take Action to Enforce Human Rights Laws to Protect Members of the LGBT Community in Countries Where Their Rights Are Abused.
Washington, D.C. – With hundreds of LGBT individuals being beaten, persecuted and even killed in Iraq, Iran and other countries, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), joined by 11 of their Senate colleagues and 31 of their House colleagues, today wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her to work with U.S. Ambassadors, the United Nations and NGOs across the globe to enforce human rights laws that protect LGBT individuals in the countries where they are under threat. Where safe conditions are not possible, the U.S. and the UN must work with refugee and human rights groups to expedite refugees’ flight to safety.
According to Human Rights Watch, there is no official number of deaths since the killing of LGBT individuals began in Iraq, but the U.N. has provided rough estimates range in the hundreds in 2009 alone. Not one murder of an LGBT individual in Iraq has led to an arrest, according to Human Rights Watch.
“It is time for us in Congress to take a strong stand against all hate crimes and persecution – wherever they occur,” Senator Gillibrand said. “People in this world should not have to suffer or fear for their lives because of who they are or what they believe in. It is wrong and it must end. If Iraq, Iran and other countries are not providing the legal protections that members of their LGBT communities are entitled to, it is our duty to join with our partners in the international community, enforce the human rights laws that protect us all, and free LGBT individuals from persecution. While the ultimate goal is safe conditions in these countries, until that happens, the U.S., UN and the international community must ensure that LGBT refugees can reach safety in countries where they won’t face persecution”
“The lives of LGBT individuals in Iran and Iraq, as well as those LGBT refugees who have fled persecution, are in grave danger,” said Congresswoman Baldwin, Co-Chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. “I know Secretary of State Clinton shares our concerns for human rights and I hope she will use the full force of her office to respond to the plight of Iraqi and Iranian LGBT refugees and urge the UNHRC to do the same,” Congresswoman Baldwin said.
“Senator Gillibrand’s letter highlights the difficulty that foreign lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) refugees face when their home countries, and their countries of first asylum, permit or condone discrimination and brutal attacks based on sexual orientation or gender identity,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “Secretary Clinton has said that LGBT rights are human rights and we agree. We look forward to working with the State Department and Senator Gillibrand to ensure that U.S. foreign policy strongly supports protecting the human rights of LGBT individuals abroad.”
“Today, these Members of Congress have presented a comprehensive set of recommendations that will help ensure the protection of individuals who flee persecution based on their sexual orientation or gender identity only to face further persecution and violence in the countries they have fled to in search of safe refuge,” said Human Rights First’s Eleanor Acer. “We praise their leadership on this issue, and urge the administration to implement these measures including a fast-track resettlement process for individuals facing serious protection risks.”
Gideon Aronoff, President & CEO of HIAS said, ““Refugees who have fled persecution on the basis of their sexuality are among the most vulnerable in the world, as persecution often follows them across borders from one country to the next. Additionally, in some parts of the world the LGBT population is at special risk because of strong cultural mores that reject and demonize all but traditional male/female relationships. For some, resettlement to the U. S. or another free country is the only life-saving solution, but neither the U.S. Refugee Program nor the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is adequately prepared to give LGBT refugees the access to safety which they so desperately need. The Congressional letter organized by Sen. Gillibrand to Secretary Clinton suggests sensible and concrete steps to save the lives of LGBT refugees, and we urge the Department of State to give these suggestions expeditious consideration.”
The letter is signed by:
Kirsten E. Gillibran, United States Senator
Patrick J. Leahy, United States Senator
Daniel K. Akaka, United States Senator
Jeff Bingaman, United States Senator
Sherrod Brown, United States Senator
Robert P. Casey Jr., United States Senator
Russell D. Feingold, United States Senator
Frank R. Lautenberg, United States Senator
Joseph L. Lieberma, United States Senator
Jeff Merkley, United States Senator
Charles E. Schumer, United States Senator
Ron Wyden, United States Senator
Tammy Baldwin, United States Representative
Jared Polis, United States Representative
Barney Frank, United States Representative
Jan Schakowsky, United States Representative
Jerrold Nadler, United States Representative
Michael M. Honda, United States Representative
Lois Capps, United States Representative
James P. Moran, United States Representative
Zoe Lofgren, United States Representative
David Wu, United States Representative
Edolphus Towns, United States Representative
Carolyn Maloney, United States Representative
Alcee Hastings, United States Representative
John Conyers, United States Representative
Luis Gutierrez, United States Representative
Bill Delahunt, United States Representative
Eliot Engel, United States Representative
Raúl M. Grijalva, United States Representative
Chellie Pingree, United States Representative
Joseph Crowley, United States Representative
Gary Ackerman, United States Representative
Anthony Weiner, United States Representative
Maurice Hinchey, United States Representative
Steven Rothman, United States Representative
James P. McGovern, United States Representative
Lynn Woolsey, United States Representative
Paul Tonko, United States Representative
Mike Quigley, United States Representative
Steve Israel, United States Representative
Howard Berman, United States Representative
Henry Waxman, United States Representative
Brad Sherman, United States Representative
Senator Gillibrand and Congresswoman Baldwin’s letter to Secretary Clinton is below:
WASHINGTON, January 21 – The Ugandan Anti Homosexuality Bill (2009) undermines very basic human rights, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of Congress heard this afternoon.
Julius Kaggwa of the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law, who had flown-in from Uganda for today’s hearing, said that his group had been approached by many in his country who had received death threat.
And there was total silence in the hearing room at the US Congress when he told law-makers that he was himself a “personal victim” to both verbal and physical assault as were gays who often suffered daily.
“Our rights as human are universal,” he told the hearing, adding that the character of Uganda and the rights of its citizens were at stake.
Mr Kaggwa pointed out that sexual minorities in Uganda were already excluded in HIV programmes – and the Bill makes the situation unimaginably worse.
“All in Uganda are affected,” he said.
Mr Kaggwa added that the Bill was not just a foreign policy issue. “It’s national issue affecting all Ugandans.”
Cary Alan Johnson, executive director if the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, told the hearing that the lack of unequivocal condemnation by the Ugandan Government had already caused grave damage.
The United States must maintain the pressure on Uganda, he insisted.
Deputy Assistant Secretary Karl Wycoff, who was representing the U.S. Department of State, told the hearing that the Bill not only constitutes serious threats to human rights in Uganda and the internationall reputation of country, but also compromises Aids work.
Rev. Kapya Kaoma, a Zambian Anglican priest was is currently project director at the progressive Boston ‘think tank’ Political Research Associates, said that Ugandans were fighting for their rights – and needed the support of the United States.
He reminded the Commission member of the deep US conservative evangelical influcene and support for the Bill.
Rev. Kaoma pointed out that since the anti gay seminar in Uganda last March, at which three American evangelicals, including Scott Lively, attendend, 14 known cases of arrest had occurred, including one death, on grounds of suspected homosexuality
Christine Lubinski of the HIV Medicine Association at the Infectious Diseases Society of America said that 1500 doctors were outraged by Bill and its threat to combat HIV.
“Silence equals death,” she said. “We have a responsibility to ensure billions of USPEPFAR money is reaching those in need.
Representative Tammy Baldwin, who chaired the hearing, said that through their involvement in the Bill religious leaders were attempting to restrict human rights and that the Bill would put USPEPFAR in serious jeopardy.
“No modification of the Bill would make it palatable to those committed to social justice,” Ms Lubinski insisted.
And she went on to say that Uganda already had regressive laws affecting the LGBT community in the country.
Representative James McGovern said that the Bill, which would seriously limit HIV work, turns people into “sex spies”.
And he had a warning to the Ugandan authorities: “US Congress stands behind Mr. Kaggwa”. He added that he would be “watching for his security very closely”.
This report was compiled courtesy of Jirair Ratevosian, Deputy Director, Public Policy at The Foundation for AIDS Research, who was “tweeting” from the hearing.
Rep. Tammy Baldwin (WI-02) chairs a January 2010 Congressional hearing in strong opposition to pending legislation in Uganda that would outlaw homosexuality and make any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex punishable by prison or even death.
Baldwin, Polis, Frank Lead Opposition to Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill Send Letters to Presidents Obama and Museveni
In strong opposition to pending legislation in Uganda that would outlaw homosexuality and make any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex punishable by prison or even death, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, and Congressmen Jared Polis and Barney Frank, Co-Chairs of the Congressional Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Equality Caucus, joined by more than ninety of their colleagues, have sent letters to President Obama and Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
In the letters, the Members of Congress call the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009 “the most extreme and hateful attempt by an African country to criminalize their LGBT community.” The Members asked President Obama to use his “personal leadership, and that of our country, in seeking to deter these legislative proposals,” and warned President Museveni that, “Should the bill be passed, any range of bilateral programs important to relations between our countries and, indeed, to the Ugandan people inevitably would be called under review.”
The Ugandan legislation would increase the penalty for same-sex sexual acts to life in prison, limit the distribution of information on HIV by criminalizing the “promotion of homosexuality,” and establish the crime of “aggravated homosexuality” punishable by death for anyone in Uganda who is HIV positive and has consensual same-sex relations. Further, the bill includes a provision that could lead to the imprisonment for up to three years of anyone who fails to report to the government within 24 hours the identities of everyone they know who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, or who supports human rights for people who are.
“The pending Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda is an appalling violation of human rights and it behooves us, as Americans and Members of Congress, to do all we can to prevent its passage,” said Congresswoman Baldwin. “We fervently hope that President Obama will use the full force of his office to oppose this hateful and life-threatening legislation in Uganda and send a clear message to other countries that such discrimination must not be tolerated. And, we hope that Ugandan President Museveni recognizes that this legislation is morally untenable and politically harmful to his nation,” Baldwin said.
“This is nothing more than the institutionalization of hatred and bigotry and it must be stopped,” said Congressman Polis. “Governments should promote peace within their people, not instill unconscionable discrimination, which will undoubtedly lead to human rights violations. I strongly encourage Presidents Obama and Museveni to do everything in their powers to prevent it from becoming law,” Polis said.
“Having accepted debt relief from the international community only a few years ago, Uganda has an obligation to show some respect for basic human rights,” said Congressman Frank. “Vicious unleashing of persecution of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people should and will be an obstacle to any future Congressional initiative to provide aid to that country,” Frank added.
The letter to President Obama expresses the Members’ serious concerns about the grave injustice occurring in Uganda and other countries that are taking steps to criminalize or otherwise severely discriminate against the LGBT communities and asks the President to speak out publicly against this proposed legislation to bring further attention to the issue.
The letter to Ugandan President Museveni urges him to use every means possible to convey to leaders in Parliament that this draconian legislation is reckless in both intent and potential impact and should be withdrawn immediately.
Amsterdam's Mayor Job Cohen married five American-Dutch gay couples during gay pride to protest U.S. immigration laws on Saturday.
The five couples were married on the “I Do Boat” as tens of thousands of revelers cheered on.
“We want to show to the American public that gay couples cannot get immigration, cannot get equal rights like heterosexual couples can,” Boris Dittrich, the former Dutch lawmaker who introduced a gay marriage bill eight years ago, told Reuters. He sailed on the boat as a guest of the city.
The boat was sponsored by the Amsterdam City Council and the Love Exiles Foundation, a group working for marriage equality in the U.S. for bi-national couples.
The five married Americans are from New York where their marriages might be legal – the state recognizes legal gay marriage – but the couples could not have wed there.
If the couples wish to remain together they will have to live in the Netherlands. Federal law denies gay and lesbian couples the right to sponsor an immigrant spouse to become a U.S. citizen under the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Love Exiles Foundation was founded by Americans Martha McDevitt-Pugh and Bob Bragar, who say they are living in exile in the Netherlands to be with the ones they love because the U.S. government will not recognize their Dutch marriages.
An estimated 36,000 bi-national gay couples are denied equal treatment, according to Immigration Equality.
Last month, California Representative Michael Honda introduced the Reuniting Families Act, a comprehensive immigration reform package that includes New York Representative Jerry Nadler's Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), which would allow gay Americans to sponsor an immigrant partner for citizenship.
The decision to include the UAFA in the Reuniting Families Act has created a rift among immigration reform backers.
Both the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), major allies in securing comprehensive immigration reform, decried the gay provisions.
“[The gay provisions are] a slap in the face to those of us who have fought for years for immigration reform,” Reverend Samuel Rodriguez of the NHCLC told Politico.com.
The five newly married couples, now forced to live in exile, will join the chorus of bi-national gay couples and allies asking Congress to pass gay-inclusive immigration reform.
“Hope is all we've got,” said New Yorker Patrick Decker, who married Stephan Hengst.
But even gay rights backers admit they'll have a steep incline to overcome.
“You got two very tough issues – the rights of same-sex couples and immigration,” openly gay Congressman Barney Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, told the Washington Blade. “You put them in the same bill, and it becomes impossible. We just don't have the votes for it.”
Iraqi gays condemn Obama/Clinton inaction on pogrom Embassy statement 'offensive and insulting'
03.06.09
For immediate use
A group representing Iraqi lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people (LGBT) has spoken of their deep anger and offence at a statement by the Baghdad US Embassy concerning the violence and murder campaign against gays.
In a response to US Rep. Jared Polis, following a meeting with Iraqi government officials, chargé d’affaires Patricia Butenis said "We have no evidence that [the Iraq government's] security forces are in any way involved with these militias."
Iraqi LGBT has been reporting for four years on police involvement with the terror campaign.
Group members speaking from Iraq said that they are "fed up with such 'political' words" and that the Americans are doing nothing to stop the terror campaign against them. They believe that the priority for Hillary Clinton's State Department and Obama's administration is to not upset the Iraqi government as they have no other allies within the country.
They believe that no-one is trying to help them and feel that the current timid diplomacy "will not do much good".
"These words from the American embassy are insulting to us, our lives in Iraq and to those many friends of ours who have died. This statement is evidence that the Iraqi government is doing nothing to protect its citizens."
"They are responsible for these crimes through bringing no one to justice, refusing to acknowledge their police's involvement and providing no rights for Iraqi LGBT in law."
"People should not forget that what's happening in Iraq right now is a direct result of the unlawful US invasion."
Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Rights Program, has also criticism the State Department. In an interview with EdgeBoston, responding to State spokesperson John T. Fleming's pointed statement that 'homosexuality is not a crime in Iraq', Long responded that the fact that homosexuality is not a crime punishable by death "would be an interesting fact if the law, or the rule of law, mattered in Iraq."
Long has just returned from a fact-finding mission to Iraq where he spoke to 25 survivors from Baghdad and other cities, including Najaf, Basra and Samarra.
As a consequence of what they found, Human Rights Watch has been organizing ways for as many LGBT Iraqis as possible to get out of the country.
Colorado U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, who has spoken about Iraqi government involvement with the violence, has written with Reps. Tammy Baldwin and Barney Frank to U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill.
"As LGBT Americans and cochairs of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, we are disturbed and shocked at allegations that Ministry of the Interior Security Forces may be involved in the mass persecution and execution of LGBT Iraqis ... The persecution of Iraqis based on sexual orientation or gender identity is escalating and is unacceptable regardless of whether these policies are extrajudicial or state-sanctioned."
The letter called on the U.S. embassy in Iraq to "prioritize the investigation" of the allegations and work with the Iraqi government to end the executions of LGBT Iraqis. Polis is drafting another letter that would be signed by more members of Congress and sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Rep. Jared Polis has received a letter from Iraqi officials regarding reports of LGBT executions in the country, and he has sent a letter calling on the new U.S. ambassador to the country to investigate the charges.
After meeting with Iraqi officials earlier this month regarding the persecution of gays in Iraq, U.S. representative Jared Polis of Colorado has received a response letter from the Iraqi chargé d’affaires and has also initiated a new letter to the recently confirmed U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, that is cosigned by representatives Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin.
The letter from Iraqi chargé d’affaires Patricia Butenis denies any official government involvement in LGBT executions that have taken place but suggests some extra-governmental militias may have engaged in such violence.
"We have seen the international media report that, according to Amnesty International, as many as 25 men and boys were killed over the past few weeks by militia or relatives influenced by religious leaders who have publicly condemned homosexuality," Butenis wrote in a letter dated April 22, 2009. "Reports from Embassy contacts familiar with the areas where some of the bodies were found suggest the killings are the work of militias who believe homosexuality is a form of Western deviance that cannot be tolerated."
Brian Branton, Polis's chief of staff, said the information was a step forward after the Iraqi ministry had originally called the militia charges "unfounded." "We were glad to hear that acknowledgment in her letter because in earlier conversations with the state department they had not owned up to that," Branton said of Iraqi officials.
But Butenis rejected the idea that any of the Iraqi government's police had targeted LGBT individuals. "We have no evidence that [the Iraq government's] security forces are in any way involved with these militias," Butenis said in the letter.
Though Branton agreed that much of what's happening may not be explicitly sanctioned by the government as a whole, he also said people who work for the government may be taking matters into their own hands. "I actually think that you have some rogue individuals out there who are part of the government throwing people into jail and then, in some cases, killing them," he said. "Technically, it's not official, but it's happening nonetheless and no one seems to be stopping them."
Polis indicated in an earlier interview that he was inclined to believe that there’s "a breakdown in the chain of command." "I don't have any reason to believe that these instances were authorized at the highest level of civilian government," Polis said.
The letter also stated that no Iraqis currently on death row are charged with crimes related to homosexuality, according to the Iraqi minister of human rights, Wijdan Salim. "The [embassy justice attaché] has also reviewed relevant sections of the Iraqi Penal Code and confirmed that homosexual conduct is not punishable by death in Iraq," Butenis wrote.
Branton said it may be true that no one on death row is specifically charged with homosexuality. "But we think it’s unusual in the stories we've heard that five or six people will be thrown in a jail cell together, and it will become clear to them in the course of their conversations that they're all LGBT," he said.
Prior to traveling to Iraq earlier this month, Polis received a letter forwarded by an Iraqi human rights group that was written by a jailed man who said he was beaten into confessing he was a member of the gay rights group Iraqi LGBT. The group said the man had been sentenced to death in a court in Karkh, Iraq, and executed. (The group and the author's names were not made public for their protection.) Polis also enlisted the help of a translator to interview by phone a transgender Iraqi man who said he had been arrested, beaten, and raped by Ministry of Interior security forces.
On Monday, representatives Polis, Baldwin, and Frank -- the three openly gay members of Congress -- sent a letter on the matter to the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill.
"As LGBT Americans and cochairs of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, we are disturbed and shocked at allegations that Ministry of the Interior Security Forces may be involved in the mass persecution and execution of LGBT Iraqis," read the letter. "The persecution of Iraqis based on sexual orientation or gender identity is escalating and is unacceptable regardless of whether these policies are extrajudicial or state-sanctioned."
The letter called on the U.S. embassy in Iraq to "prioritize the investigation" of the allegations and work with the Iraqi government to end the executions of LGBT Iraqis. Branton said they were in the process of drafting another letter that would be signed by more members of Congress and sent to Secretary of State Clinton.
Ultimately, Polis would like to see the Iraqi government state an official policy on LGBT rights. "The Iraqi civilian government needs to make it clear that respect for human rights is a basic Iraqi value, including all groups that are not popular in Iraq -- Christians, gays, and atheists," he said. "There are moderate Arab countries where homosexuals are not accepted but at least the gays and lesbians who live there don't live in constant fear of life and limb and being arrested and executed by the police."
As organized killings of Iraqi gays have escalated in recent months amid a homophobic campaign in that nation's media, openly gay Democratic Congressman Jared Polis of Colorado has asked the US State Department to investigate. Polis, the first non-incumbent openly gay man ever elected to Congress, who returned from a visit to Iraq at the beginning of April, told Gay City News that while in Baghdad he had met with the chargé d'affaires, who is overseeing the US embassy pending the arrival of a new ambassador.
"We asked the embassy and the State Department to investigate the reports of killings of gay men, and turned over to the chargé d'affaires the names and phone numbers of all the gay Iraqi contacts we had and a letter detailing our concerns," including allegations that the Iraqi government is involved in the killings, Polis told this reporter, adding, "They seemed very willing to investigate."
If the State Department does undertake such an investigation, that would reflect a significant change in US policy by the Obama administration. In 2007, two openly gay members of Congress, Democrats Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, wrote a lengthy letter to Bush Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice detailing the anti-gay death squads' murder campaign and asking the US to investigate and intervene.
Their letter, which cited extensive reporting in Gay City News on repression of gays in Iraq, had no effect.
Polis, a millionaire Internet entrepreneur and philanthropist, traveled to Iraq at his own expense before his election last year and attempted to investigate the ongoing campaign of "sexual cleansing" of Iraqi homosexuals, and on his return contributed $10,000 to the London-based all-volunteer association Iraqi LGBT, which has a network of members and correspondents throughout Iraq that has been tracking the organized campaign of assassinations of Iraqi gays.
Ali Hili, the coordinator of Iraqi LGBT, who briefed Polis by telephone for his Iraqi trip, told Gay City News from London that "we have been able to confirm 63 more murders of gay people in Iraq just since December," bringing to nearly 600 the number of cases of LGBT Iraqis killed for their sexuality that his group has documented since the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of all Iraqi Shiite Muslims, issued a death-to-all-gays fatwa in 2005. But, Hili added, "Since there are parts of Iraq where we have no correspondents or members, we are convinced that the actual number of gays killed in these last months since December is much higher."
At the same time, the BBC reported last week that according to Amnesty International "in the last few weeks 25 boys and men are reported to have been killed in Baghdad because they were, or perceived to be, gay." In an unusual move, Amnesty International wrote to the Iraqi President, Nouri al-Maliki, demanding "urgent and concerted action" by his government to stop the killings.
Hili told this reporter, "There is an intensive media campaign against homosexuals in Iraq at this time which we believe is inspired by the Ministry of the Interior, both in the daily newspapers and on nearly all the television stations. Their reports brand all gays as 'perverts' and try to portray us as terrorists who are undermining the moral fiber of Iraqi youth." Hili said the current homo-hating media campaign appears to have been sparked as an unfortunate reaction to an April 4 Reuters dispatch that reported: "Two gay men were killed in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, a local official said, and police said they had found the bodies of four more after clerics urged a crackdown on a perceived spread of homosexuality... The police source said the bodies of four gay men were unearthed in Sadr City on March 25, each bearing a sign reading 'pervert' in Arabic on their chests."
"After the Reuters dispatch, the Iraqi media spoke about the murders of gays for the very first time," Hili said, "but unfortunately in such hate-filled and incendiary terms that their reports and commentaries only encouraged further violence." On April 8, the New York Times published a story, headlined "Iraq's Newly Open Gays Face Scorn and Murder," in which it recognized for the first time the existence of anti-gay death squads, which Gay City News first reported three years ago (see this reporter's March 23-29, 2006 article, "Shia Death Squads Target Iraqi Gays,"). "Gay men and lesbians have long been among the targets of both Shiite and Sunni death squads" in Iraq, the Times reported.
Unfortunately, the Times article omitted any mention of the anti-gay death squads of the Badr Corps, the military arm of the former Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which in 2007 changed its name to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq when it entered the coalition government as its largest Islamist party, and which acknowledges Sistani as its supreme leader and spiritual guide.
The estimated 11,000 members of the Badr Corps militia, which has been responsible for a large majority of the murders of gays since Sistani's fatwa calling for such killings, was integrated into the Ministry of the Interior in 2006, and since then its Badr anti-gay death squads have operated in police uniforms with complete impunity, as Gay City News has previously reported on many occasions.
Iraqi LGBT activists in Iraq have been the victims of Badr Corps members operating in police uniforms, including five key gay activists arrested in a police raid on a secret organizing meeting in 2006; no word of them has since surfaced, and they are presumed to have been killed (see this reporter's December 7-12, 2006 article, "Iraqi Gay Activists Abducted" ).
There have been 17 Iraqi LGBT activists killed since the Ayatollah Sistani's 2005 fatwa, including Hili's own brother.
Hili said the Times article also gave a somewhat misleading impression about the degree to which Iraqi gays are able to be open. Iraqi LGBT had maintained a network of four safe houses in Baghdad for queers targeted by the anti-gay death squads. But now, Hili told Gay City News, "We have had to close three of them out of fear. The guys we were trying to protect in those safe houses became so afraid in the current climate of vicious anti-gay crusading by the media and the clerics, and following the latest assassinations of gays, that they were afraid to continue living collectively, that this made them easy targets. So they simply left our safe houses.
We have now only one safe house left." Hili also said that he had received reports from Iraq of five gay men, all Iraqi LGBT members, who are in prison awaiting execution. Hili said "We have been told they are expecting to be executed in two weeks."
Hili said it is unclear on what precise charges the gay men will be executed. "One of our informants who was in detention with these five guys and then was released told me by phone how these men told him that their trial was a lightening-quick kangaroo court. It was an incredibly brief trial, and these five members of ours weren't able to obtain legal representation or defend themselves in that kind of context." Hili said that according to this account, the five members of his group "thought they were being accused of being a part of a 'terrorist organization,' meaning Iraqi LGBT," Hili recounted. The five were found by police in possession of literature from his group. Hili has spoken with both Amnesty International and with Human Rights Watch about the case of his five members awaiting execution.
Dalia Hashad of Amnesty International told Gay City News, "Amnesty has been unable to get from the Iraqi government any confirmation that the men are in custody or that they are facing execution, but from what we have heard from individuals in Iraq, they were sentenced to die for belonging to a 'banned group.' We are protesting to the Iraqi government and are continuing to try to investigate, but it is very difficult to get any information about such prisoners in Iraq." Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch's LGBT desk, told Rex Wockner's gay news service, "Together with other groups, members of Congress and concerned activists, we're doing everything we can to investigate and determine who's jailed and what their fates may be. The Iraqi government and the US government must both investigate these charges immediately." Long is traveling to Iraq to pursue an HRW investigation.
Polis is also trying to ascertain the status of the five imprisoned Iraqi LGBT members, but a statement given by a State Department spokesman to Edge.boston.com, a gay news website, raises concerns that the US may not yet be taking the charges seriously, despite the congressman's recent visit. The site quoted John Fleming, public affairs officer for the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, as pooh-poohing the notion that the five gay men facing execution were being targeted for belonging to Iraqi LGBT, saying that homosexuality "is immaterial to Iraqis." Fleming, according to Edge, stated, "Frankly, there are other issues they are concerned about like basic survival, getting food and water. It's a luxury for the average Iraqi to worry about homosexuality." This statement by Fleming, who served a year in Iraq under the Bush administration, is, of course, contradicted by the recent media reports this month by such diverse sources as the Times, Reuters, CNN, and the British dailies The Independent and The Guardian, confirming Gay City News' three years of reporting.
This State Department staffer's statement suggests rather strongly the urgent need to keep up the pressure on the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to thoroughly investigate the dangers facing gay Iraqis and act decisively to save those threatened with death.
Iraqi LGBT is desperately in need of contributions to finance its work in Iraq. Donations may be made on credit cards through PayPal on the group's web site.
Doug Ireland can be reached through his blog, DIRELAND
A gay man from the African nation of Sierra Leone is contesting a preliminary U.S. immigration decision to deny his request for political asylum.
Federal officials say the man, 29-year-old Dunrick Sogie-Thomas of Hyattsville, Md., failed to provide sufficient evidence that he would be subjected to arrest, torture and possibly death if forced to return to his home country.
But Sogie-Thomas says he was outed as gay last year in Sierra Leone, prompting members of his family to threaten to have him killed should he return to the capital city of Freetown, where he was born and raised.
The laws of Sierra Leone, a former British colony, classify homosexual acts as a crime punishable by up to life imprisonment.
“Dunrick gravely fears and is at particular risk of being arrested, tortured, detained, imprisoned, or killed by both his family and the authorities,” according to a 12-page brief that his attorney filed earlier this month with the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services.
In November, the CIS, an arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, issued a Notice of Intent to Deny an application for asylum that Sogie-Thomas filed on his own without the help of an attorney.
“In order to receive asylum, an asylum-seeker must show actual past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion,” said Asylum Office director Ann M. Palmer in her Nov. 19 Notice of Intent to Deny Sogie-Thomas’s asylum request.
“The persecutor you fear [is] that portion of the general society that is homophobic,” Palmer said in the notice. “You have not shown that such a persecutor is aware of your characteristic,” she said. “You have not shown that the government has an inclination to persecute you.”
Sogie-Thomas has since retained the services of attorney Christopher Nugent of the Washington law firm Holland & Knight, which specializes in immigration and asylum cases. Nugent said the firm was able to take Sogie-Thomas’s case on a pro-bono basis because he is unemployed and could not afford the legal fees associated with an asylum application.
Nugent said that Sogie-Thomas was unfamiliar with the legal precedents and procedural issues that could have helped him make a stronger case for asylum.
Among the points that Nugent stressed in subsequent legal documents filed on Sogie-Thomas’s behalf is that Sogie-Thomas avoided persecution in the past by concealing his sexual orientation from his family, neighbors and co-workers.
But his quiet life in the closet was shattered last summer, Nugent said, when Sierra Leone police raided the apartment of his domestic partner and discovered photographs of Sogie-Thomas and his partner engaging in sex.
Authorities then appeared at the home of his parents and relatives as well as at his place of work, informing his family members and employer and co-workers that he is gay, Nugent said.
“We’re hopeful that the asylum office will reconsider their decision given the clear risk of harm, including torture, incarceration or death to our client, Dunrick, based on the plethora of additional evidence that’s been submitted,” Nugent said.
“It shows that there’s a clear pattern and practice of persecution of outed homosexuals in Sierra Leone,” he said. “We believe he would even face the prospect of being arrested upon arrival at the airport.”
Visa expires next week
Sogie-Thomas has been living in the U.S. since August on a tourist visa that is scheduled to expire Feb. 27. If the CIS doesn’t act on his asylum application by that time, immigration authorities would likely begin deportation proceedings against him, Nugent said.
Sogie-Thomas could appeal the deportation action, Nugent said, but he was hopeful that the asylum application would be approved soon on the administrative level by the CIS.
In a legal brief filed earlier this month, Nugent says that Sierra Leone police confiscated sexually explicit photos of Sogie-Thomas and his domestic partner during a police raid of the partner’s apartment in August. Police raided the apartment as part of an investigation into allegations that the partner was involved in a cocaine ring. Sogie-Thomas has said he was not aware of his partner’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking until the time of the man’s arrest in July.
Nugent’s brief says that authorities in Sierra Leone visited Sogie-Thomas’s family members, including his mother, at their homes in Freetown to inform them about the discovery of the photos, which show Sogie-Thomas and his partner engaging in sexual acts with each other.
Sogie-Thomas said he and his partner sometimes photographed themselves engaging in sex. He said the photographs were taken and remained in the privacy of their homes. Authorities discovered them on the hard drive of his partner’s computer shortly after the partner was arrested, Sogie-Thomas said.
Nugent’s brief says Sogie-Thomas was in the United States visiting other relatives in Illinois at the time authorities in Sierra Leone informed the family that they had obtained proof through the photographs that Sogie-Thomas is gay.
According to Sogie-Thomas, his mother called him at one of his relatives’ homes in Chicago to inform him the family had “disowned” him.
“She told me that if I ever come back home, they would have me killed,” Sogie-Thomas said.
He said other relatives called him to inform him that police contacted them to inquire about his whereabouts.
“They said the police were looking for me, that they wanted to talk to me,” Sogie-Thomas said.
Nugent said that human rights organizations continue to report cases of “honor killings” in Sierra Leone by people who believe a member of their family has disgraced the family because of certain actions, including the discovery that a relative is gay.
Nugent also says in his brief that Sogie-Thomas and his domestic partner had befriended a lesbian activist in Sierra Leone who was later murdered in an incident that gay rights supporters consider an anti-gay hate crime. He points to press reports in Sierra Leone that a man charged in the lesbian activist’s murder later escaped from a prison and remains at large, a development that has led activists to suspect that law enforcement officials either condoned the killing or were involved in the crime.
Current legal requirements call for a U.S. asylum applicant to prove that he or she has suffered past persecution in a foreign country or that he or she can show that there’s a strong likelihood of suffering from persecution in the country in the future.
U.S. immigration officials traditionally have granted asylum when they were persuaded that an applicant would face persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.
In 1994, under the administration of President Clinton, immigration officials began to recognize persecution based on sexual orientation as grounds for asylum under the “social group” category. Beginning in the Clinton administration, immigration officials also approved asylum applications for transgender and HIV-positive individuals under the “social group” category.
But the New York-based gay advocacy group Immigration Equality has said that cases like Sogie-Thomas’s are difficult to win because the applicants have yet to experience outward persecution, such as an arrest or physical injury or threat.
‘Tantamount to a death sentence’
Chris Ratigan, a spokesperson for the Citizenship and Immigration Services office, said the office never comments on pending asylum cases, which are considered confidential.
“Our asylum officers are highly trained,” she said. “They make decisions on a case-by-case basis.”
Ratigan said the office approves asylum applications in about 33 percent of the cases.
A spokesperson for the Sierra Leone Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations made in Sogie-Thomas’s asylum application that widespread anti-gay persecution is occurring in the country.
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) sent a letter to the Citizenship & Immigration Services office in support of Sogie-Thomas’s asylum application.
“I have been informed through many human rights reports and human rights activists of the life-threatening conditions that openly gay people face in Sierra Leone, including risk of abuse and imprisonment and risk of immediate arrest, imprisonment, torture, and death by authorities,” Frank says in his letter. “If Mr. Sogie-Thomas is forced to return to Sierra Leone, he will surely not be able to live as an openly gay man and will face life-threatening conditions from not only the authorities, but also his family.”
In an interview with the Blade, Sogie-Thomas said he and his domestic partner managed to avoid persecution and threats by concealing their sexual orientation since the time they became a couple in 2004.
The two met in London, where both had traveled to visit family members. Sogie-Thomas, who is a native English-speaker, said he studied to become a social worker in London and worked for five years at a London-based, non-profit social services organization that helps abused children.
While living in London, Sogie-Thomas said family members there pressured him into entering into a relationship with an American-born woman who became the mother of his daughter.
“During this time, Dunrick tried to suppress his gay identity, however secretly continued his relationship with his [male partner], even after returning to Sierra Leone in 2006,” says the brief filed on behalf of his asylum application.
Upon his return to Sierra Leone in December 2006, he helped form another non-profit group that provides counseling and social services for troubled and disadvantaged youth, Sogie-Thomas said. He and his partner, a prominent Freetown businessman, continued their hidden relationship as domestic partners until the time of the partner’s arrest on drug-related charges in July 2008.
Sogie-Thomas said he last saw his partner when he visited the man in jail shortly after the arrest.
“He urged me to get out of the country,” said Sogie-Thomas. “He was afraid they would link me to the drug case, even though he said he told everyone I was not involved.”
Telling family members and co-workers that he wanted to visit his daughter, who was then living in Illinois with her mother, Sogie-Thomas made arrangements to travel to the U.S. In August, family members and co-workers in Sierra Leone phoned him in the U.S. to inform him that police were looking for him and had disclosed that he is gay.
“He’s reportedly the talk of Sierra Leone,” Nugent said. “It’s a very small country. Now he’s a well-known gay who is seen as the cause of shame for the family, culture, community and his country. It’s tantamount to a death sentence for him to go back.”
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