Gay 'conversion therapy' government funded in Hong Kong

By Paul Canning

The Hong Kong government is paying for discredited Reparative or Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapy (SOCT) for LGBT citizens.

Since June, the Hong Kong Government Social Welfare Department has been using the Christian SOCT organisation New Creation, to train the department's social workers in ”converting” their young clients' sexual orientation.

The concept has long been promoted by US evangelical groups. Now it is reaching around the world with 'conversion' a major component of anti-gay efforts by evangelicals in Africa and hundreds of 'Christian' clinics in Ecuador inflicting physical and psychological torture on lesbians to try to “cure” them.

In the Bavarian city of Munich the Union of Catholic Physicians in Germany recently announced it had found a cure for homosexuality.

Germany's LSVD gay and lesbian association executive director, Klaus Jetz, says conversion therapists are a growing problem in Germany.

"They are copying what has been going on in the US for a long time, and now they're coming to Germany," he told Deutsche Welle.

Mainstream medical associations universally pan the idea that you can 'pray away the gay' and the movement has lost ground in the US due to media exposure and general mockery of some of its more patently absurd elements.

Michelle Goldberg at the Daily Beast, just wrote about the 'End of the Ex-gay Movement'.

This followed the news that a 21 year veteran of the primary American 'ex-gay' group Exodus International, with 11 years on the board of directors, John Smid just wrote that:

I also want to reiterate here that the transformation for the vast majority of homosexuals will not include a change of sexual orientation. Actually I’ve never met a man who experienced a change from homosexual to heterosexual.

In Hong Kong a coalition, Tongzhi Community Joint Meeting, was formed to launch a global petition campaign against the Hong Kong government paying for 'pray away the gay' training. More than 20,000 signatures have been collected. In addition, a solidarity protest led by LGBT Asian American groups took place in New York back in August.

They say that the government is violating the Guidelines on Code of Practice for Registered Social Workers, the World Health Organization's position on sexual orientation, the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Guidelines on Sex Educations in Schools issued by the Curriculum Development Council of HKSAR, the Code of Professional Conduct by Medical Council and the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders.

The Social Welfare Department refused to publicize the details of what they were planning, but LGBT activists managed to collect a list of related documents which they published on a webpage “WiGayLeaks” [zh]. The documents show that the efforts are based on the “sick model” assumption with an attempt to convince the attendees that “same sex attraction is curable” and draw co-relation between homosexuality with AIDS and other sexual transmitted diseases.

In Ecuador, activists have managed to get numerous 'pray away the gay' clinics shut down. Hopefully the people in Hong Kong will have similar success.

Related articles

• Ecuadorian clinics torture LGBT to "cure" them (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Small gain as Hong Kong extends relationship visas to LGBT families (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Hong Kong's Pink Season, Sep 30 - Dec 4 (fridae.asia)

Ecuadorian clinics torture LGBT to “cure” them

Picture Andrew Ciscel

By Paul Canning

Ecuadorean authorities have so far this year closed 27 'ex-gay' clinics which claimed to “cure” homosexuality following allegations of torture and abuse by former 'patients'.

For a decade, lesbian groups have been calling for government action on the physical and psychological torture inflicted on lesbians to try to "cure" them.

At age 24 Paola Ziritti says she suffered "forcible confinement" in a clinic which her parents were led to believe would "de-homosexualize" their daughter. There, for 18 months, she suffered battering, sexual abuse, deprivation of all kinds, constant insults and being chained. Guards threw urine and ice water on her. She spent nearly three months in chains before her mother realized what she had done and freed her, Ziritti told Têtu magazine.

It took more than six months genuine psychological treatment for her to begin to recover.

Ziritti is the first lesbian to agree to file a complaint against these "treatments" performed in clinics that hide behind the drug addiction services they supposedly provide.

Tatiana Velasquez, of the lesbian organization Taller de Comunicación Mujer, says there are 207 clinics of this type in Ecuador. 27 have been closed by authorities following Ziritti’s testimony.

Nicolás Jara, Minister in charge of Public Health said:

“It would be very important that [victims] would denounce the cases in order to close down all [illegal clinics].”

But activists are demanding that the Ecuadorian government launch a serious investigation into illegal and degrading practices and the closure of all these centers.

Last month two further lesbians managed to escape from two clinics and file complaints.

According to the network of local LGBT organizations, clinics have also locked up gay men, transgenders and cross-dressers but on a smaller scale, "probably because they manage to leave the family earlier than girls," says Velasquez.

Velasquez says that the evidence they have collected shows a pattern: women were raped or threatened with rape, handcuffed, deprived of food and forced to dress like prostitutes.

Ziritti says that the closure of the first clinics by the government is good, but it is not enough. “Why is the one where I suffered still open?” she said, adding that she has been threatened since her testimony went on television in Ecuador.

Velasquez says that because of Ziritti's courage is publicly speaking out more abused victims are coming forward. Another former client was nineteen years old when he was forcibly taken by his father to a different clinic, where he was beaten, deprived of food, and also had buckets of cold water thrown on him.

Ziritti says that a group of young gays and lesbians stopped her on the street to thank her - Their parents were going to send them to the same clinics, but now understand the danger. They told Ziritti that she had saved them from hell, she says.

• View a Spanish language video that reviews the actions of the association Taller de Comunicación Mujer.

To help:

As an individual, you can send a Spanish language request to close the centers drafted by CLADEM; all the email addresses of the Presidency and the ministries of Justice and of Health are online.

As an organization, you can support the three associations Taller de Comunicación Mujer (San Ignacio N27-127 y González Suárez. Quito - Ecuador, Tel: (5932) 255 3542; Email: cpmujer@tcmujer.org) Artikulacion Esporadika and the Asociación Causana that are leading the fight to close these centers. They are also involved in drafting a complaint before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and protecting the women who will testify.

Translation help from French by F Young.

Dutch launch massive, world-first HIV/Aids program aimed at world's marginalised

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Source: GNP+

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands has reserved € 35 million so that gay men, people who use drugs and sex workers in 16 countries can get easier access to information, condoms, antiretroviral treatment and care.

Never before has a country launched such a large HIV program aimed at these vulnerable groups. It could mean a huge turnaround in reducing the number of HIV infections in the 16 countries.

The program will start in September 2011 and be implemented by seven Netherlands based organizations  including GNP+. As well as the grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the program has been made possible by € 11.7 million from other sources.

The 4.5-year program has been judged the best by the ministry.

Earlier this year there was a call for proposals for development cooperation projects aimed at vulnerable groups. The Dutch government’s decision to reserve funds for this project is highly important. It means a continuation of the ‘Dutch approach’ within international AIDS relief where access to prevention and care in combination with the decriminalization of drug use, homosexuality and sex work is central. This is the only way gay men, people who use drugs and prostitutes can get the care they need.

A good example of this care is the integrated needle exchange program for injecting drug users. Many HIV infections are prevented as a result. The great success of the Dutch approach is recognized internationally.

Vulnerable groups are 10 to 20 times more likely to become infected with HIV than the general population. Only 8% has access to prevention, care, HIV treatment and support.

Many countries have legislation that makes access to care difficult or impossible. Examples include laws that make homosexuality a criminal offence or ones that are used to prosecute sex workers.

Offering HIV/AIDS care developed for and by these vulnerable groups must therefore go hand in hand with political pressure to change such legislation. This is precisely the aim of this program. It is also aimed at partners of gay men, drug users and sex workers. Because of the taboo related to homosexuality, in many countries men also have a relationship with a woman or are married.

The program will be run in 16 countries: Georgia, Kirghizstan, Tadzhikistan, Ukraine, Botswana, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil, Costa Rica and Ecuador.

The program builds on work carried out in recent years. This work can now be continued and expanded. This new program will involve a lot more collaboration in order to be as effective and efficient as possible.

Gaps in existing projects will also be tackled. For example, most prevention programs along ‘truck routes’ in Africa are aimed at drivers. Until now, they have not benefited sex workers. This has meant that a great many infections still take place along these routes.

The Dutch program will be carried out by seven organizations: Aids Fonds/STI AIDS Netherlands, Aids Foundation East-West, COC, Global Network of People living with HIV, Health Connections International, Mainline and Schorer.

Together with 102 partner organizations in the 16 countries listed, they will ensure that in the coming years 400,000 gay and bisexual men, transsexuals, people who use drugs and sex workers get access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and other support.

New Report Shows Major AIDS Funders Fail to Track Investments for Gay Men and Transgender People

Source: MSMGF

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In Ecuador, trans people battle violence, discrimination

Source: Metro

"I knew I was different when I was a child," says Diane Rodríguez, a transgender activist.

"I used to play with boys, not because I liked how they played but because I liked them. Now I realise it was because I had the mentality that I was a girl."

Diane used to be Luis. Last year, after suffering discrimination at work, she set a legal precedent in Ecuador when she fought for the right to officially change her name from male to female. She is now fighting for the right to change her gender on legal documents too.

I meet her at the offices of Silueta X, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the foundation she set up at the same time she launched her legal battle, which helps transgender people deal with legal, health and education issues.

A frequent problem she comes across is transgender people being kicked out of home, leaving them with no option but to turn to prostitution. As a result, the transgender community suffers from high levels of HIV.

It’s something close to Rodríguez’s heart, as she was banished from home by her stepfather.

"‘I had to work on the streets for one week," she says. "If my mother hadn’t found me and taken me back, I would still be working on the streets now."

Latin America has a particular problem with transphobia. As well as transgender people encountering discrimination with friends and family, they are also subject to high levels of violent attacks and murder.

Between January and June last year, there were 93 reported murders of transgender people around the world. Of these, 74 occurred in Latin America. However, Rodríguez says it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

"There are no good statistics, because when the police find a transgender person dead, they just put “male” on the form," she says. "It’s a hidden problem."

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Video: Project Transgender — Various Bodies, the Same Right

Source: Fairhaven College

Elizabeth Vasquez, Ecuadorian Attorney at Law and founder of Project Transgender, speaking at Fairhaven College on February 2, 2011.

Elizabeth Vasquez will speak to the right of all sexual identities to participate in the various cultural and artistic life in their communities; and address the programs established to realize these rights in her country, Ecuador.

Elizabeth Vasquez: “Project Transgender—Various Bodies, the Same Right” from Fairhaven College, WWU on Vimeo.

Wikileaks, the US Embassy Cables and Migration Issues

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Source: Franck Duvell: Diary on Human Migration Research

When ‘Cable gate’ – Wikileak’s publication of the US embassies’ reports to the US State Department Washington - hit the headlines in November and December 2010 I was wondering whether there is anything in it for migration and migration policy researchers. So far, I am not aware whether anybody else has already gone through the documents, so I had a quick look. Unfortunately, only a fraction of all cables – 2000 out of 251,000 - are already published on Wikileaks’ website (http://213.251.145.96/cablegate.html).

In short, migration and refugee issues only play a very minor role in the set of documents I have sifted through. And where these are mentioned this is mostly in the context of terrorism, general threats to regional stability and security or with respect to Muslim minority communities. The first impression from these cables is that from the US American consular perspective migration as such is not considered a major issue and is not causing great anxiety whilst Muslim migration and minorities and to some extent border security are issues of concern.

Worldwide: Some reference to migration can be found in the already notorious ‘reporting and collecting needs’ issued by the Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. For instance, the request for West Africa lines out to collect information on ‘population and Refugee Issues’, including ‘population movements in the region, and governments' involvement and response, indications of actual or potential refugee movements within or into the region, locations and conditions of refugee camps and informal refugee and internally displaced persons (IDP) gathering sites and transit routes’ government capability and willingness to assist refugees and IDPs, health and demographic statistics of refugees and IDPs, dynamics and impact of migration and demographic shifts’ (2009, http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/04/09STATE37566.html). And also in Hungary information is requested on ‘demography, including ...migration’ and ‘plans and efforts to respond to declining birth rates, including through promotion of immigration’ (2009, http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/06/09STATE62393.html). Similar requests were sent to many other countries.

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