UN leader: 'How we can fight back against homophobia'

Image via Wikipedia  

Source: Washington Post


By Navanethem Pillay, United Nations high commissioner for human rights


Seth Walsh walked into the garden of his family's home in Tehachapi, Calif., last month and hanged himself. He was just 13. Before making the tragic decision to end his life, however, he had endured years of homophobic taunting and abuse from his peers at school and in his neighborhood. He is one of six teenage boys in the United States known to have committed suicide in September after suffering at the hands of homophobic bullies.

In the past few weeks there has been a spate of attacks directed against people perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. In New York on Oct. 3, three young men, believed to be gay, were kidnapped, taken to a vacant apartment in the Bronx and subjected to appalling torture and abuse. In Belgrade on Oct. 10, a group of protesters shouting abuse hurled Molotov cocktails and stun grenades into a peaceful gay pride parade, injuring 150 people. In South Africa on Sept. 25, a large-scale march in Soweto brought attention to the widespread rape of lesbians in the townships, assaults that perpetrators often try to justify as an attempt to "correct" the victims' sexuality.

Homophobia, like racism and xenophobia, exists to varying degrees in all societies. Every day, in every country, individuals are persecuted, vilified or violently assaulted, even killed, because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Covert or overt, homophobic violence causes enormous suffering that is often shrouded in silence and endured in isolation.

Read more »

Opinion: Creating a Single Story About Uganda

Image via Wikipedia

Source: African Activist

I have been troubled by the coverage of African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) issues in the United States and Europe for some time. It is heartening to see that African intellectuals like Keguro Macharia and Sokari Ekine are talking about the issue. You can read Macharia's article titled "How not to explain African homophobia" at Kenya Imagine and Ekine's response to this article titled "Single story homophobia and gay imperialism revisited" at Black Looks.

For many people in the United States and Europe, the sustained media blitz around the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 in Uganda has created another "single story" about Africa and particularly about Uganda. Some of the really important stories about Africa and Uganda have been completely missed. Here are some examples:

• The Human Rights and Peace Center at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda organised The Human Rights and Sexual Orientation forum through Baraza. African intellectuals and human rights activists have been working tirelessly to assure that democratic institutions thrive in Uganda.
• It was a special committee organised by Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni that recommended the withdrawal of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 from Parliament. Clearly Museveni saw the danger of the bill to Uganda's democratic institutions and demonstrated skilled leadership to make sure the bill never made it to the Ugandan Parliament floor.
• African Religious leaders have been at the forefront of taking a stand against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009. These leader include Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Bishop Senyonjo.
• African LGBTI Christian Evangelicals often suffer the most at the intersection of faith and sexuality.
• The Psychological Society of South Africa issued a groundbreaking statement on the goodness of all sexual orientations.

How long will it take Uganda to live down this "single story" about the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 burned into the minds of the West? The reality is that Uganda and the rest of Africa are full of many diverse stories and it is important that we hold all the stories about any particular place before we rush to judgement.

This was the masterful thesis of Chimamanda Adichie's lecture at TED titled, "The Danger of the Single Story."

Related articles by Zemanta

• Bishop Desmond Tutu on Uganda and "Africa, a step backward on human rights" (lezgetreal.com)

'I love Steven so much'

Source: The Guardian

A man whose same-sex "marriage" has become a symbol of the struggle for gay rights in Africa has vowed to become a martyr rather than give in to homophobia, campaigners say. Tiwonge Chimbalanga and his partner Steven Monjeza are facing a possible 14 years in prison with hard labour after becoming the first gay couple in Malawi to declare their commitment in a public ceremony .

Peter Tatchell, the veteran British gay rights campaigner, has maintained contact with the pair at the maximum security Chichiri prison in Blantyre as they prepare to stand trial next week.

Tatchell told the Guardian he received a defiant message from Chimbalanga that said: "I love Steven so much. If people or the world cannot give me the chance and freedom to continue living with him as my lover, then I am better off to die here in prison. Freedom without him is useless and meaningless."

Tatchell, of the rights group Outrage!, also quoted Monjeza – who is described as thin and weak with jaundiced eyes – as saying: "We have come a long way and even if our family relatives are not happy, I will never stop loving Tiwonge."

Chimbalanga, 20, and Monjeza, 26, made history when they committed to marriage at a symbolic ceremony last December – the first same-sex couple to do so in the southern African state, where homosexual acts are illegal.

Two days later, the couple were arrested at their home. Facing taunts and jeers, Chimbalanga, wearing a woman's blouse, and Monjeza appeared in court to answer three charges of unnatural practices between males and gross indecency. They were denied bail, supposedly for their own safety, and have been forced to endure dire conditions in jail.

The couple are due back in court on Tuesday, when magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa will deliver his verdict. Angry residents and relatives from Machinjiri township, on the outskirts of Blantyre, say they will not allow them to return home if they are set free.

"They have given this township a bad name," said Maikolo Phiri, a local vendor.

Zione Monjeza, an aunt of Monjeza, said: "We as a family have been terribly embarrassed to be associated with this gay thing. It's a curse and a big shame. We will chase them away if they are freed."

Nchiteni Monjeza, Monjeza's uncle, said: "I won't drop a tear if they are jailed – they deserve it."

But for others, the couple are social revolutionaries in this impoverished, landlocked nation that usually makes headlines only when someone like Madonna flies in.

Read more »

Leading African clergy and civil society groups call on Uganda to stop the Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law, Kampala

Press statement

Leading African clergy and prominent individuals, as well as more than 60 civil society and human rights groups from 10 sub-Saharan African countries have endorsed a statement calling on the President, Government and Parliament of Uganda to reject the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in its entirety.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill provides for severe punishment, inclusive imprisonment, for those engaging in same sex relations, as well as for members of the public who fail to report such activities to the authorities.  The original draft also provides for the death penalty and life imprisonment.  The Bill has already gone through the first reading in Parliament and is now before the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee. "We are very concerned that it could become law within a few weeks or months", said Adrian Jjuuko, Coordinator of Uganda's Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law.    

The statement has been endorsed by leading African clergy such as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, the current Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Reverend Dr. Thabo Cecil Makgoba and Canon Gideon Byamugisha of Uganda. Others endorsing the statement include Pius Langa, the former Chief Justice of South Africa, and other jurists, academics, truth commissioners and human rights activists.

In the declaration, the endorsing individuals and organizations reaffirm their commitment to the universality of the human rights of all persons.  They note that "all forms of discrimination, in particular against vulnerable groups, undermine the human dignity of all in Africa".  The statement declares that the Bill "promotes prejudice and hate and encourages harmful and violent action against marginalized groups in Africa".

"Civil society organisations throughout Africa are mobilizing to persuade Ugandan Parliamentarians to block this pernicious Bill", said Phumi Mtetwa, executive director of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project in South Africa. Godwin Buwa, a lawyer with the Refugee Law Project in Kampala said that "if the Bill is passed, even in diluted form, it would constitute a massive setback for human rights in Africa".

The statement calls on African governments and the African Union to call on the President and Government of Uganda to withdraw the Bill and to respect the human rights of all in Uganda, without exception.

The list of individuals and organizations continues to grow and will be updated regularly.  The full list can be viewed at www.alp.org.za and www.ugandans4rights.org



CALL BY AFRICAN CIVIL SOCIETY: REJECT THE ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY BILL   

Read more »

Desmond Tutu: In Africa, a step backward on human rights

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Source: washingtonpost.com

By Desmond Tutu

Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity -- or because of their sexual orientation. Nor should anyone be excluded from health care on any of these grounds. In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights. We knew this was wrong. Thankfully, the world supported us in our struggle for freedom and dignity.

It is time to stand up against another wrong.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God's family. And of course they are part of the African family. But a wave of hate is spreading across my beloved continent. People are again being denied their fundamental rights and freedoms. Men have been falsely charged and imprisoned in Senegal, and health services for these men and their community have suffered. In Malawi, men have been jailed and humiliated for expressing their partnerships with other men. Just this month, mobs in Mtwapa Township, Kenya, attacked men they suspected of being gay. Kenyan religious leaders, I am ashamed to say, threatened an HIV clinic there for providing counseling services to all members of that community, because the clerics wanted gay men excluded.

Uganda's parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi.

These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa.

Our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters across Africa are living in fear.

Read more »

Colombia Diversa, Sidibé and Frank Honored for Advancement of LGBT Rights

Source: IGLHRC 

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.

Decommissioning Human Rights in Cayman

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Cayman Islands News - January 26

By Danielle Coleman

The Human Rights Commission (which replaces the former Human Rights Committee) was established under section 116 of the new Constitution with a mandate of “promoting understanding and observance of human rights in the Cayman Islands.” However, the reputation of the Commission has been brought into question with the recent appointment of members who have a poor track record in the promotion and protection of equal rights for all.

While the new Commission continues to include members who have an unquestionable commitment to human rights, one (and arguably two) recently appointed member(s), Reverend Sykes, has on several occasions and over a period of many years acted and preached towards the exclusion of certain minority groups. By way of example, in 2001 when Cayman laws banning homosexuality were finally abolished, Reverend Sykes complained that this was ‘totally unacceptable’ and stated that such a move would lead to the mandatory inclusion of detailed acts of homosexuality in schools. The fact that this hasn’t happened has done nothing to dampen Reverend Syke’s crusade.

Reverend Sykes’ claims to defend a fundamental moral and biblical stance is little more than a matter of his own personal opinion. Many Christians argue that marriage rights for same-sex couples strengthens the institution of marriage and provides legal protection for partners as well as children of this family unit. The Archbishop of Canterbury has stated that “active homosexual relationships are comparable to marriage" in the eyes of God. South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said that homophobia is a "crime against humanity" and "every bit as unjust" as apartheid.

Same-sex marriages are, according to many Christians, supportive of religions’ commitment to the equality and dignity of all persons.

But while religion’s stance on homosexuality may be a matter for interpretation, human rights law is without ambiguity. The universal declaration of human rights is founded on the principle that all human beings are equal in dignity and rights. The abolition of Cayman’s anti-gay laws was based on the fact that they were a violation of international human rights law.

This issue goes beyond the Cayman Islands. Caymanians on the whole enjoy the highest standard of living in the Caribbean, and has considerable influence in the region. A message of intolerance here, particularly by members of the Human Rights Commission, can be translated into much worse in neighbouring countries. In Jamaica, Amnesty International has documented many cases of gay men and lesbian women being beaten, burned, raped and shot because of their sexuality. Sadly, we have increasingly seen signs of this in Cayman also. Reverend Sykes might not endorse such violence, but his public view that homosexuals do not have equal rights does little to help.

Reverend Sykes’ lack of tolerance of minorities may be viewed as inconsistent with his role as a religious leader; however I would argue that it is utterly and undeniably incompatible with his role on the Human Rights Commission whose primary responsibility is to promote understanding and observance of human rights in Cayman.

The Human Rights Commission is essential to upholding the basic freedoms that human rights provide: the equal treatment of all human beings regardless of the colour of their skin, their age, their socio-economic background, their sexual orientation or other forms of discrimination. To ensure that this important work continues, the Government which appoints members of the Commission should insist that Reverend Sykes publicly renounces his previous convictions, or replace him with someone whose views are not in conflict with the basic principles the Commission is established to uphold. Human rights are, before all else, an affirmation of our shared humanity. Any threats to the basic freedoms that flow from this principle are not a concern for minority groups alone. They affect all of us.

Danielle Coleman served as a member of the former Human Rights Committee from 2006-2009.

Peter Tatchell: The global struggle for queer freedom

Image via Wikipedia

By Peter Tatchell

Caroline Benn Memorial Lecture 2009

Delivered 13 October 2009 at Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln, UK.

It is a very great honour, and joy, to deliver the Caroline Benn Memorial Lecture 2009. Caroline was a friend and comrade. I remember her with much affection. She left us with a fine humanitarian legacy as a leading advocate of comprehensive education and better educational opportunities. She also lives on, in spirit, through her inspiring, passionate support for socialism, trade union rights, women’s equality and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) freedom. She was a true progressive, who dedicated her life, with much honour and nobility, to the upliftment of humanity. I am very proud to have known Caroline, and salute her life and work with this lecture.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have made great progress in Britain, especially in the last decade. But in large parts of the world, homophobic and transphobic oppression remains rife.

Take Jamaica, a country with which Britain has close ties. It is a parliamentary democracy and a member of the Commonwealth. It is not a police-state dictatorship. Yet male homosexuality is criminalised and punishable with up to 10 years hard labour. Homophobic discrimination and violence is endemic and the government refuses to take any serious action to protect LGBT Jamaicans.

One of my Jamaican colleagues was the AIDS educator and gay rights activist, Steve Harvey. He was a trail-blazer for LGBT people and especially for people with HIV. In late 2005, a gang burst into his home, kidnapped him, took him to a remote place and shot him dead in an execution-style killing.

Soon afterwards, Nokia Cowen drowned when he jumped into Kingston harbour to escape a violent homophobic mob that had chased him through town. A few weeks later, Jamaica’s trade ambassador, Peter King, was found dead with his throat slashed and multiple stab wounds. Then there was the gruesome discovery of the mutilated bodies of two lesbians, who were found dumped in a septic pit behind the house they shared. All these horrific, homophobic killings happened just weeks apart.

Only this summer, John Terry, the British consul in Jamaica, was brutally mudered in his own home by a killer who left a note abusing him as a “batty man” (Jamaican patois slang for faggot), and warning that the same fate would happen to “all gays.”

Homophobic violence is routine in Jamaica, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. LGBT victims of hate crimes seldom get justice. Police sometimes ignore anti-gay attacks and some officers have been known to abuse, threaten, beat and arrest gay-bashing victims. The perpetrators of homophobic violence are rarely put on trial and convicted.

What is happening in Jamaica is symptomatic of a much wider homophobic persecution.

Around 80 countries continue to outlaw homosexuality, with penalties ranging from one year’s jail to life imprisonment. Just under half these countries are former British colonies and current members of the Commonwealth – a community of nations supposedly committed to uphold democracy and human rights. The anti-gay laws in these Commonwealth nations were originally legislated by the British government in the nineteenth century during the period of colonial rule. They were never repealed when these nations won their independence from Britain.

As well as homophobic laws, British imperalism imposed homophobic prejudice, by means of the fire and brimstone Christian fundamentalist missionaries who sought to “civilise” the so-called “heathen” peoples of the colonies. Some civilisation! The British conquerers instilled in these countries a homophobic hatred that lives on to this day, which is wrecking the lives of LGBT people.

Homophobia is particularly extreme in the Islamist states that impose the death penalty for same-sex relations, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, Sudan and the Yemen. In some regions of other countries, such as Nigeria and Pakistan, Sharia law is enforced and lesbians and gays can be stoned to death.

Amid this gloom, last December something truly remarkable and historic happened. Sixty-six countries signed a United Nations’ statement calling for the universal decriminalisation of homosexuality and condemning homophobic discrimination and violence. This was the first time the UN General Assembly had addressed the issue of LGBT human rights. Previously, all resolutions that attempted to get UN committees to endorse LGBT equality had been blocked by an unholy alliance of the Vatican and Islamic states.

Despite this breakthrough statement, even today no international human rights convention specifically acknowledges sexual rights as human rights. None explicitly guarantee equality and non-discrimination to LGBT people. The right to love a person of one’s choice is absent from global humanitatrian statutes. Relationships between partners of the same sex are not officially recognised in any international law. There is nothing in the many UN conventions that concretely guarantees LGBT equality and prohibits homophobic discrimination

Nor are specific LGBT rights and protections included within the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It is only in the last decade or so that the ECHR’s equality and privacy clauses been interpreted to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

In the late 1990s, British LGBT citizens filed appeals at the European Court of Human Rights, against the UK’s then discriminatory, homophobic laws. They cited the ECHR’s right-to-privacy and anti-discrimination clauses to successfully challenge centuries-old anti-gay UK legislation. These victories at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg forced the British government to repeal the unequal age of consent for gay men, discriminatory sexual offences laws and the ban on lesbians and gays serving in the armed forces.

ECHR judgments also successfully pressured Romania and Cyprus to decriminalise homosexuality. The ECHR has thus played an important role in challenging and overturning homophobic legislation.

Of the 192 member states of the UN, only a handful have repealed all major legal inequalities against LGBT people: including the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Canada, New Zealand and, more recently, the UK.

Britain’s record was not always so positive. In the 1980s, the UK had a greater number of homophobic laws than the then communist-ruled Soviet Union. Nowadays, we are one of the most progressive European countries. We’ve gone from zero to hero in a mere decade.

In large parts of the world, however, homophobia is still rampant. Hundreds of millions of LGBT people are forced to hide their sexuality; fearing ostracism, harassment, discrimination, imprisonment, torture and even murder.

Some of this violence is perpetrated by vigilantes, including right-wing death squads in countries like Mexico and Brazil. They justify the killing of queers as “social cleansing.”
Other homophobic persecution is officially encouraged and enforced by governments, police, courts, media and religious leaders.

This persecution is happening even in Europe and the US. In echoes of Margaret Thatcher’s notorious Section 28, Lithuania has just passed a new law banning the so-called “promotion” of homosexuality. The US maintains a federal ban on same-sex marriage and openly LGBT people are not allowed to serve in the armed forces.

Homophobic injustice is rife in much of Africa. Cameroonian gay men have been arrested and jailed in the last year, without any clear evidence that they had same-sex relations.

In Nigeria, in 2005, six teenage lesbians, one only 12 years old, were ordered to be punished with an agonising 90 lashes for consensual same-sex relations. Last year, a Nigerian gay pastor and another Christian gay activist were forced to flee the country after threats to kill them.

In Nepal, there is a long, sad history of transgender people being regularly beaten, raped, arrested and detained without trial.

Government ministers in Namibia, echoing the homo-hatred of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, have denounced lesbians and gays as unAfrican, as traitors and as spreaders of HIV/AIDS.

In the new post-Saddam Hussein “democratic” Iraq, the rise of Islamist fundamentalism has led to the creeping, de facto imposition of Sharia law, with deadly consequences for LGBTs – and for women who refuse to be veiled. Iraqis who murder LGBT people to defend the “honour” of their family escape punishment. The US and UK-backed Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has issued a fatwa calling for the execution of lesbians and gays in the “worst, most severe way possible.” Islamist death squads of the Badr and Sadr militias are assassinating LGBT people in their homes and streets, with impunity.

Russian religious leaders have united to orchestrate a campaign of hatred against the LGBT community. The Orthodox Church has denounced homosexuality as a “sin which destroys human beings and condemns them to a spiritual death.” The Chief Mufti of Russia’s Muslims, Talgat Tajuddin, says gay campaigners “should be bashed… Sexual minorities have no rights, because they have crossed the line. Alternative sexuality is a crime against God.” Russian Chief Rabbi, Berl Lazar, has condemned gay pride parades as “a blow for morality,” adding that there is no right to “sexual perversions.”

The Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, has denounced gay people as “satanic.” He has repeatedly banned Gay Pride marches. This violates Russia’s constitution and law, which guarantee freedom of expression and the right to peaceful protest. LGBT people who have attempted to march have been violently arrested.

The Iranian persecution of LGBTs continues unabated. Twenty-two year old Amir was entrapped by via a gay dating website. The person he arranged to meet turned out to be a member of the morality police. Amir was jailed, tortured and sentenced to 100 lashes, which caused him to lose consciousness and left his whole back covered in huge bloody welts. He is just one of many Iranian LGBTs who have been subjected to lashings, torture, imprisonment and, sometimes, execution.

The western-backed regime in Saudi Arabia retains the death penalty – usually beheading – for homosexuality. In early 2006, its neighbour, the United Arab Emirates, imposed six years jail on 11 gay men arrested at a private party. They were not imprisoned for sexual acts, but merely for being gay and attending a gay social gathering.

The election of a right-wing, Catholic fundamentalist government in Poland in 2005 resulted in the abolition of the government office for combating discrimination against women and LGBTs. The same year, the Mayor of Poznan banned the Gay Pride parade. LGBT people marched anyway. Over 60 were arrested. Many more were injured after the police failed to protect them from the violence of far right counter-protesters.

Uganda is gripped by the state-sponsored victimisation of LGBT people. Typical is the fate of gay rights activist Kizza Musinguzi. He was jailed in 2004 and subjected to four months of forced labour, water torture, beatings and rape. Another gay Ugandan, Isaac K, narrowly escaped an attempted summary execution by a homophobic mob acting with the connivance of local government officials.

Those who speak out against anti-gay violence risk dire consequences. Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo was dismissed by the Church of Uganda for defending the human rights of LGBT people.

In recent years, the Ugandan government has passed a law banning same-sex marriage, fined Radio Simba for broadcasting a discussion of LGBT issues, and expelled a UN AIDS agency director for meeting with gay activists.

LGBT people have nevertheless made huge strides forward in many parts of the world. A mere four decades ago, “queers” were almost universally seen as mad, bad and sad. Same-sex relations were deemed a sin, a crime and a sickness. It was in only 1991 that the World Health Organisation declassified homosexuality as an illness, and that Amnesty International agreed to campaign for LGBT human rights and to adopt jailed LGBTs as prisoners of conscience.

Nowadays, the global tide is shifting in favour of LGBT emanicipation. An out gay man and LGBT activist, Sunil Pant, was elected to the parliament of Nepal in the post-monarchy elections. In 1999, Georgina Beyer took office in New Zealand, becoming the world’s first openly transgender MP. Uruguay, formerly a military dictatorship, this summer lifted its prohibition on gay servicemen and women. The Lebanon has made history by becoming the first Arab Middle East nation to allow the open, legal establishment of an LGBT welfare and human rights group, Helem.

While fundamentalist religion is still a major threat to LGBT equality, we also have our allies in many faiths. The anti-aparheid hero, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has compared homophobia to racism, and described the battle for LGBT freedom as the moral equivalent of the fight against apartheid.

Six countries now outlaw sexual orientation discrimination in their constitutions: South Africa (1996), Fiji (1997), Ecuador (1998), Switzerland (2000), Sweden (2003) and Portugal (2004).

In almost every country on earth, there are LGBT freedom movements – some open, others clandestine.

For the first time ever, countries like the Philippines, Estonia, Lebanon, Columbia, Russia, Sri Lanka, and China are hosting LGBT conferences and Pride celebrations. Via the internet and pop culture, LGBT people in small towns in Ghana, Peru, Uzbekistan, Kuwait, Vietnam, St Lucia, Palestine, Fiji and Kenya are connecting with the worldwide LGBT community. The struggle for LGBT liberation has gone global. We’ve begun to roll back the homophobia of centuries. Bravo!

Postscript:

LGBT movements worldwide are urging every government to legislate LGBT equality and human rights and to tackle homophobic and transphobic prejudice, harassment, discriminatiion and violence. These demands include:

1 – Decriminalise same-sex relations; in particular, abolish the death penalty and flogging.

2 – Allow the formation of LGBT organisations and the advocacy of LGBT human rights; and consult with these organisations and their spokespeople when drafting new laws and policies.

3 – Outlaw discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity, in employment, housing, education, advertising, health-care and the provision of goods and services, such as hotel accommodation and service in bars and restaurants.

4 – Establish an equal age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual acts.

5 – Grant legal recognition and rights to same-sex partners; either via civil marriage or civil partnerships / civil unions.

6 – Teach gay-inclusive sex and civic education in schools, in order to challenge homophobia and promote understanding and acceptance of LGBT people.

7 – Crackdown on homophobic hate crimes, to protect LGBTs from hate-motivated violence.

8 – Revise all laws to make them sexuality-neutral, so there is no legislative differentiation between heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality, and so that heterosexual, lesbian, gay and bisexual people have the same rights and responsibilities in law.

9 – Provide access for same-sex couples to fertility treatment and give them the right to foster and adopt children.

10 – Offer gay-inclusive HIV education and prevention campaigns, non-discriminatory HIV care and support services, and LGBT access to free or low-cost condoms.

Onward, upward and forward to queer liberation worldwide.

* Peter Tatchell has campaigned for LGBT human rights for over 40 years. For more information about his campaigns and to make a donation: www.petertatchell.net

South Africa: Zuma's new God squad wants liberal laws to go

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Mail & Guardian

By MANDY ROSSOUW

The National Interfaith Leadership Council, formed by Rhema church leader Ray McCauley and closely associated with President Jacob Zuma, flew its conservative colours this week, saying that it wants to revisit laws legalising abortion and same-sex marriages.

Last week the council (NILC) entered the debate about the ­Judicial Service Commission’s decision to drop its investigation into Western Cape Judge President John ­Hlophe. It attacked the challenge to the JSC by Freedom Under Law, chaired by former Constitutional Court judge Johann Kriegler, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s support for it, saying it could “only serve to further erode the integrity of the judiciary and undermine the confidence of the people in it”.

“For us, the ruling signified closure on this sad chapter and paved the way for the judiciary to heal and move forward,” the NILC said.

Nthabiseng Khunou, an ANC MP and member of the NILC secretariat, told the Mail & Guardian that the council would “play a role” in revisiting legislation legalising abortion and gay marriage.

Khunou, a pastor, said the laws were very unpopular in South Africa’s churches: “I know most churches want them abolished, so the reason for NILC is to give a voice to people who don’t have it.”

Khunou revealed that the NILC had recently discussed the possibility that South Africa might legalise prostitution, “saying: why has the church been so quiet about it? We must play our role here.”

Interviewed this week McCauley, the council’s national convener, denied any formal links between the organisation and the ANC.

But at least four members of the 20-odd group of religious leaders are ANC MPs, including heavyweights such as ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga and former Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool.

McCauley insisted the group was open to other political parties. But no religious leaders who support opposition parties have joined.

“The NILC does not consult with the ANC, although there are people there who are part of the ANC,” he said.

Motshekga said the ANC insisted that the party accorded the NILC no special treatment.

“We’re on record as supporting [the] council and noted what it said about Judge Hlophe, but it is not for us to approve or disapprove.”

McCauley was not speaking for the ANC, but for his own constituency.

The M&G can also reveal that the NILC uses the ANC parliamentary caucus’s communication facilities to communicate with the media. The two NILC press statements were sent from the ANC’s offices in Parliament.

Motshekga claimed to be unaware of this, while McCauley said the statements “should not have been sent from the ANC”. Khunou said ANC MPs are free to use party email facilities for any purpose they saw fit.

Other ANC sources point to the close relationship between Motshekga and McCauley through which the idea for a new religious formation was hatched.

McCauley controversially gave Zuma an exclusive platform to speak in his Johannesburg church during the ANC’s election campaign this year.

Vusi Mona, at that time the Rhema spokesperson, defended the church’s decision to invite Zuma to address the congregation, and not leaders from other parties. Mona quit Rhema shortly after the elections to join Zuma’s presidential communications team.

Self-confessed frand convict Carl ­Niehaus was also a Rhema spokesperson before his stint as ANC spindoctor during the election campaign.

In August the NILC met Zuma and pledged its support in helping the government deal with service ­delivery protests.

Other religious leaders have been caught off guard by the decision to launch the NILC. McCauley is a leader of the National Religious Leaders’ Forum (NRLF), which includes representatives of all the major faiths practised in South Africa.

He did not attend an NRLF meeting on Wednesday.

The general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, Eddie Makue, said the purpose of the NILC was unclear to the religious fraternity. The SACC is set to meet NILC leaders before the end of September to clarify matters, he said. He added that the Dutch Reformed Church, formerly linked to the apartheid government, was also considering joining the NILC.

Makue said the SACC decided in 1995 to embark on “critical engagement” with the government: “We took the view that governments come and go, but the church will always remain.”