In Fiji, trans progress, legal progress

ICAAP 2011 - APCOM Satellite. I am what I am: Transgender health and challenges

Source: Fiji Times

Fiji became the first Pacific island nation to formally decriminalise consensual homosexuality last year, the world's second largest gathering on HIV/AIDS was told.

Despite this significant step forward, there was a distinct lack of information about men who had sex with men (MSM) and transgender people in Fiji, a report tabled at the congress on AIDS said.

The report from Amithi Fiji - a project that focuses on Fijian of Indian descent transgender and MSM - said attempts were made by the Government to include in HIV surveillance studies of MSM and transgender (TG) issues.

According to the report, very little was published in the academic literature about MSM and TG in Fiji.

The 100-page document said a review of published materials about MSM and TG in Asia and the Pacific in 2009 to 2010 revealed no academic articles specifically about HIV and MSM/TG in Fiji.

"It appears that the only study relating to HIV and risk behaviour among MSM and TG in Fiji was conducted by the AIDS Task Force of Fiji in 1998, with the results being released in 2001," the report said.

AIDS Task Force of Fiji, a community-based HIV organisation established in 1993, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the University of the South Pacific (USP) and the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University were also responsible for the findings contained in the report.

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The Yellow Tail Adi Senikau Pageant this year was a night of glamour and satire, with each contestants or Divas - the name used to refer to the contestants, bringing to the stage entertainment for the packed Hibiscus Festival main tents on the Friday night of the 2011 Vodafone Hibiscus week.

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International Day Against Homophobia and transphobia: pictures from around the world

The International Day Against Homophobia and transphobia (IDAHO) has published dozens of pictures from events which took place around the world on its Facebook page. Among the events documented are ones taking place in China, Brazil, Russia, Bangladesh, Israel, Belarus, Fiji, Kenya, Trinidad & Tobago, USA, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Bolivia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Uganda. Many other country IDAHO pages also have lots of photos.

Some of the photographs:

Beijing

Bangladesh

Fiji

Kenya

Paraguay

UK embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka flies rainbow flag

Uganda

• There is a second album of photos!

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Polynesia's ancient same-sex acceptance

Source: Blaze

By Eliot Rifkin

Few people appreciate just how gay-friendly Polynesia was before European contact. Even our own Captain Cook, who passed through Hawai'i, noted in his journals same-same (Aikane) relationships as well as transgenders (Mahu).

The ancient Hawai'ians weren't uptight about relationships and possessed an understanding of human beings' dual nature comprised of both masculine and feminine qualities.  The concept of opposite sexes is foreign to Hawai'ian thought and their language contains no female or male pronouns like 'he or she'. This reflects the Polynesian emphasis on integration and balance of the male and female gods. The Mahu embody this ancient Polynesian principle of spiritual duality and are viewed as an honoured intermediate sex.

The Polynesians of yore seemed way ahead of modern western culture in their acceptance. They possessed a fluid sense of sexuality and sexual activity that was enjoyed openly and without concern. 

Before the Europeans arrived in the eighteenth century, transgender roles were already socially accepted as well as kept male lovers (Aikane).

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Australia: We have little tolerance for gays seeking asylum

Image via Wikipedia

Source: The Age

By Nina Funnell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Gay tourism: Has cheapflights.co.uk just slandered four countries?

By Paul Canning

One of the UK's top travel websites, cheapflights UK, has issued a press release about the best and the worst places for LGBT tourists.

There's little surprise that top of their list of the worst places for the gays to visit is Jamaica and their PR made the news in Jamaica, whose press seems concerned about its image abroad but constantly rehashes claims by Jamaican police that actually the problem is those 'batty boys' bashing each other, the phrase 'lover's tiffs' being a constant.

Cheapflights 'top five' also includes Fiji, Poland, Nicaragua and Mauritius. Their PR makes reference to sodomy laws but homosexuality is only illegal in Jamaica and, kind of, Mauritius. Some of the other countries have - legally speaking at least - been far more advanced than either the USA, which got rid of sodomy laws through a Supreme Court decision in 2003 or the UK which only adopted anti-discrimination in employment and services law in 2007.

'Worst places to visit', really?

Take Fiji for example. This was one of only two three countries in the world which has included protections against discrimination on sexual orientation grounds in its constitution (the others are Bolivia and South Africa). However the 1997 constitution which did this has been abolished (the country is currently run by the military and expelled from the Commonwealth) and in 2005 there was a high profile arrest and jailing of an Australian tourist but the following year the government announced a new policy of no arrests.

One of the common sources for information on otherwise ignored countries like Fiji is GlobalGayz. That carries two negative and one positive story about being gay in Fiji. A Fijian wrote to them seeing the negative stories saying "I definitely don’t agree about these negative views about Fiji and how they deal with gays."

He did say that "in the small village areas here I would advise visitors to be cautious due to cultural sensitivity. Fijian villages are very conservative and respected places therefore I believe it is fair to show mutual respect to village beliefs and traditions." And the removal of all remaining vestiges of discrimination in criminal codes by the Fijian government since 1 February this year did cause the Women’s Action for Change group in Fiji to express concern over a possible violent public backlash.

The Foreign Office does not provide country-specific travel information and the company told me that "the research was done through Cheapflights editors and obtained from various online sources.  It wasn't specific user feedback."

Well according to numerous online sources, Fiji hosts a number of 'gay-friendly' resorts.

Having a (monthly) ball in Mauritius

Although, according to ILGA, a sodomy law remains on the books in Mauritius, there is also an active gay movement represented by the Mauritian LGBTI organisation, Collectif Arc-en-ciel. There have been Pride marches and there has been serious discussion around anti-discrimination laws with the government including sexual orientation in its 2008 discrimination bill.

Image by KhayaL via Flickr

Nicolas Ritter, Collectif Arc en Ciel Vice-President, told LGBT Asylum News: "if by “gay destination” you mean a place where you can find saunas, gay and leather bars, gay hotels and nude beaches, well in that context you are right. There are no such things in Mauritius. Mauritius is not and will never be a place like Sitges, Mikonos, Sydney or San Francisco."

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Fear of backlash in Fiji over new gay rights

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Radio New Zealand International

The Women’s Action for Change group in Fiji has expressed concern over a possible violent public backlash against a new decree recognising gay rights.

Its spokesperson, Peni Moore, says the new decree acknowledges that consensual sex between people of the same gender is now legal.

She says it is a huge step forward for Fiji, but she says there’s now concern that gay people will be targeted for abuse.

“If there’s a lot of pressure by the church, and condemning, it will mean that gay people will still have to be very very careful [and] will in fact emotionally suffer more abuse if its too publicly discussed. In the past when anything to do with gay rights has been brought up members of the community have faced continuous verbal and physical abuse.”

Peni Moore says she hopes the interim government won’t bow to any pressure to change the measure again.

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