Honduras is test of new American policy on gay rights

Protester holds up image of murdered gay leader Walter Trochez

Source: Tri-City Herald

By Tim Johnson

From U.N. chambers to the halls of the State Department, global pressure on countries to protect the rights of homosexuals and transgender people is rising.

For Josue Hernandez, the new emphasis can't come fast enough.

The 33-year-old gay activist bears the scar of the bullet that grazed his skull in an attack a few years ago. He's moved the office of his advocacy group four times. Still, he feels hunted in what is arguably the most homophobic nation in the Americas.

"We are in a deplorable state," Hernandez said of homosexuals in Honduras. "When we walk the streets, people shout insults at us and throw rocks. Parents move their children away."

Three months ago, a U.N. report declared that discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people — or LGBT — violates core international human rights law. It listed nations where violations are most severe.

Joining a push that originated in Europe, the Obama administration said in December that respect for LGBT rights is now a factor in its foreign policy decisions.

"Gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in what diplomats described as a landmark speech Dec. 6 in Geneva. "It is a violation of human rights when governments declare it illegal to be gay, or allow those who harm gay people to go unpunished."

But even as that view grows more prevalent, it has yet to translate into better security, less hostility or fewer killings in places like Honduras, a nation of 8 million people in Central America.

Since the beginning of 2010, Honduras has tallied at least 62 homicides within the LGBT community, and some experts say the count may be far higher. Some victims have been mutilated and even burned.

The killing of homosexuals is part of broader lawlessness. Honduras registered more than 6,700 homicides last year and has the highest per capita murder rate in the hemisphere.

One recent victim was Carlos Porfirio Juarez, a 25-year-old deaf mute who was taking hormones as part of a switch in gender to become "Karlita."

On Dec. 4, Juarez vanished while seeking sex clients at the Obelisco Park near the army general staff headquarters in Comayaguela, a city adjacent to the capital, Tegucigalpa.

"She didn't have a purse, a cellular phone or anything of value," said Jose Zambrano of the Association for a Better Quality of Life for those Infected with HIV/AIDS in Honduras.

"Only her life," added Zambrano's sister, Sandra, a leader of the group.

Read more »

Audio: Ugandan activist receives death threats

Screengrab of Red Pepper report on Mugisha headlined 'Bum Drilling Activist Gets JF Award'

Source: Huffington Post

By Michelangelo Signorile

A Ugandan gay activist who wrote a New York Times op-ed piece in December, speaking out against homophobia in his country enforced by the government and the police, has received threats and says he fears for his life, afraid to even go shopping alone or eat in a restaurant for fear of being poisoned.

"Just two days ago there was a very big piece of news about me," said Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, in an interview by phone from Kampala on my radio program on SiriusXM OutQ yesterday, referring to an article he says was written in a local newspaper, attacking him for writing the New York Times op-ed.

"It said that everything we are saying is not true. That we are just trying to get sympathy in the Western world. They put my picture in the newspaper with all these hate words and of course I got a lot of bad emails, bad phones, a lot of harassment against me."

[Edited to add: This article in the Daily Monitor is the one Mugisha is referring to. It accused gay activists of producing the Red Pepper tabloid newspaper, which 'outed' people and called for them to be hanged, in order to elicit international sympathy and attention. The tabloid's reports were eventually outlawed by a Ugandan court. Melanie Nathan spoke with Giles Muhame, publisher of Rolling Stone, who ridiculed the suggestion in the Monitor article.]

Mugisha, who in November received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award at a ceremony in Washington, had written in the Times back on December 22 about the conditions for LGBT people in in his country, which came under international criticism beginning in 2009 for its consideration of what had come to be known as the "kill the gays" bill, a law that if enacted would make homosexuality punishable by death or life imprisonment.

The bill was shelved in May of 2011, but Mugisha wrote that it could be introduced again at any time.

"Here, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people suffer brutal attacks, yet cannot report them to the police for fear of additional violence, humiliation, rape or imprisonment at the hands of the authorities," Mugisha wrote in the Times. 

"We are expelled from school and denied health care because of our perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. If your boss finds out (or suspects) you are gay, you can be fired immediately. People are outed in the media -- or if they have gay friends, they are assumed to be 'gay by association.'"

Mugisha also discussed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's historic speech in Geneva last month which put pressure on countries around the world, calling for gay rights to be included as human rights and tying foreign aid to a country's record on LGBT rights. Uganda, like other African countries is a recipient of U.S. foreign aid.

"Every day of my life here in Uganda I have to be careful of what I do," Mugisha said in the radio interview yesterday. 

"It has reached the point that where I even have to be careful when I'm going to get food in a restaurant, to be sure that the food I'm getting, that I trust the restaurant, because I'm scared I could get poisoned. Even when I want to go shopping I have to call a friend and say can you come with me because my face has been in the newspapers, my face has been in the media. Just two days ago when my face was put in the newspapers I received harassment already. Now it is my fear of stepping out my house. If I want to go and buy food, because I have to eat, what is going to happen to me today?"

Mugisha fears what happened to the best-known gay activist in Uganda, David Kato, could happen to him. Kato was found dead in his home last year, bludgeoned to death with a hammer.

"That gives me more fear because he was murdered [in] his house," he says. "That is more scary. Not having the privacy. Not having the closure. It's very fearful for me."

Mugisha says all he can do is continue to keep speaking out:

"Maybe if I keep talking, maybe they will stop, maybe the homophobia will stop. People call me up and they, 'My family, they beat me up, they throw me out.' All I can do is shout and say, 'Please listen. We are hurting our own children, our own people.'"

Listen to the interview with Mugisha:

Related articles

• Uganda: David Kato killer gets thirty years (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Video: Ugandan gay activist wins Kennedy award (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Standing up to bullies



Hillary Clinton at the U.N. Human Rights
Council in Geneva on Dec. 6, 2011

By F. Young

Here's a story by Kristen Wolfe:

"Yesterday I had a pair of brothers in my store. One was maybe between 15 and 17. He was a wrestler at the local high school. Kind of tall, stocky and handsome.

He had a younger brother, who was maybe about 10 to 12 years old. The only way to describe him was scrawny, neat, and very clean for a boy his age.

They were talking about finding a game for the younger one, and he was absolutely insisting it be one with a female character."

Read the rest of this moving story at HuffPost.

Wolfe's story of two brothers and their dad gives me hope that, just maybe, the messages about the importance of bystanders speaking out against bullying are finally getting through. But it is still so rare.

I consider the way that many countries treat LGBTI's as bullying. So, Wolfe's heartwarming story reminds me of Hillary Clinton's speech at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Dec. 6, 2011:

"And finally, to LGBT men and women worldwide, let me say this: Wherever you live and whatever the circumstances of your life, whether you are connected to a network of support or feel isolated and vulnerable, please know that you are not alone. People around the globe are working hard to support you and to bring an end to the injustices and dangers you face. That is certainly true for my country. And you have an ally in the United States of America and you have millions of friends among the* American people."

Inspiring words. Even if it turns out that the USA delivers only a fraction of this, it's a huge help, and so rare (though not unprecedented) and desperately needed.

Related articles:

• Obama admin to 'leverage' foreign aid for LGBT Rights
• Global LGBT activists react to Clinton speech
• What preceded Hillary Clinton's UN speech?

Anti-homosexual protesters hit Sierra Leone streets

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Africa Review

Freetown was the scene of a big anti-gay rights protest on Friday organised to “ward-off" the possibility of recognising same sex marriages in the country.

Close to 1,000 protesters thronged the streets at the east end of Freetown attracting scores of onlookers on the process who cheered them on.

The post Friday prayer demonstration was organised by the Inveterate International Islamic Revitalists, who said they were worried that persistent pronouncements from major powers could influence the country`s politicians to recognise “alien” and “immoral” practices in the country.

The organisers say the protests will be a bi-weekly affair.

Sheikh Marrah, one of the leaders of the protesters, referred to a recent statement by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton who said US would use aid to encourage the respect of the rights of gays and lesbians.

That followed an earlier statement by UK`s prime minister, David Cameron, who said the people of Britain wanted to see countries that receive UK aid adhering to “proper human rights”, including “how people treat gay and lesbian people.”

"What we know as human rights will conform with the laws of nature… woman to man so that we can grow in number,” Imam Marrah told the Africa Review in an interview.

The UK Prime Minister`s remarks drew more aggressive responses from a number of African countries who have been openly hostile to same sex marriage, including Ghana and Uganda.

Condemnation

In Sierra Leone, the Deputy Minister of Information and Communications led the wave of condemnations that follow David Cameron`s statement. The minister in October that homosexuality was against the country`s culture.

The head of the Sierra Leone Methodist Church, Bishop Arnold Temple, was more forthright. He said Africa should not be seen as a continent in need to be influenced by the “demonic threat” of the British prime minister “as our values are totally different."

Organisers of last Friday`s protests say the march would be an ongoing one, and that they intend to stage one every Monday`s and Fridays until they cover the length and breadth of the country.

Shiekh Marra said they staged the protest because “we want government to understand well the repercussion of endorsing the practice of same sex marriage.”

Read more »

US State Department issues amazing LGBT video

By Paul Canning

The US State Department has followed up on Hillary Clinton's historic speech to the United Nations in Geneva with this video - one which could have been produced by an LGBT organisation and actually has the same style as those produced by many working for international LGBT rights.

The video uses some of the most reported excerpts from the hour long speech she gave on the same day that the White House issued a memorandum ordering all agencies and departments to support LGBT rights internationally.

What preceded Hillary Clinton's UN speech?

By Douglas Sanders

Hillary Clinton’s fine speech in Geneva on LGBT rights saw the US playing catch-up to initiatives of a dozen other Western countries. As activists, we welcome the US to the process. But dawn is not yet breaking everywhere.  There are many time zones.

In the years since the Second World War lesbians and gay men have gradually been recognized as legitimate minorities in the West. Soon half of Western Europe will have legal same-sex marriage (and most of the rest will have registered partnerships in parallel with heterosexual marriage). Latin America has begun to follow the same path, with marriage in two key states (Argentina and Mexico) and equal rights in other places (including strong leadership by Brazil). 

The combination of Western European and Latin America support has turned the tide at the United Nations, allowing (a) the accreditation of LGBT NGOs for lobbying purposes, (b) support from UN human rights experts, and (c) the first resolution by a UN political body in June, 2011, supporting LGBT rights (in the Human Rights Council). 

There is now some jockeying for applause by leading states. Which country has taken the lead and should get special praise? Is it the Netherlands? Is it Brazil? Is it France? Is it Argentina? Is it the UK? Is it the US? We have become fashionable! Hillary Clinton was photographed with a clutch of LGBT leaders from around the world after her speech.

Who is on the other side? Russia. States in the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Most of Black Africa. Who says nothing? India. China (which has stopped simply siding with opposing states on the issues).

The Netherlands must get the ‘lifetime career’ Oscar. It had the first post-war gay organization, and led in funding both for local and international LGBT organizations. Its domestic policy was termed gay and lesbian ‘emancipation.’ In 2001 it was the first country to open marriage. HIVOS, a humanist foundation, administers a part of Dutch foreign aid, and its name is inevitably on the supporters list for international events.  Sweden also gets credit now for supporting the International Lesbian and Gay Association.

The 1993 UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna was the first ‘coming out’ party for governments. Five stepped forward to state their support for gay and lesbian equality rights: Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands. Singapore also stepped forward – the only government to state their hostility to homosexual rights (and skepticism about human rights in general). 

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Contradiction in how Obama admin treating LGBT refugees

By Paul Canning

In his 'international LGBT rights Tuesday' policy announcement President Obama pledged support for LGBT refugees and asylum seekers. In a memorandum , he directed agencies, including Homeland Security, to "protect vulnerable LGBT refugees and asylum seekers".

The State Department laid out work it is doing on plans on supporting LGBT refugees, in conjunction with UNHCR and NGOs, and even pledged to directly help with relocation if activists are under dire threat.

In the US, a recent announcement on how immigration cases will be prioritised for decision to focus on those involving criminals has draw LGBT criticism because it does not offer explicit protection for lesbian and gay bi-national couples. However the new policy has drawn little attention for its impact on LGBT asylum seekers, those the President said Tuesday that his administration will protect.

Asylum lawyer Jason Dzubow points out that the new shifting of priorities on decision making has put asylum seekers at the bottom of the pile and describes the impact as "devastating".

The Executive Office for Immigration Review (“EOIR”, the Immigration Courts) is re-arranging its dockets to expedite priority cases in a pilot program running in Baltimore and Denver. Dzubow has already seen the impact in one case, of an Eritrean almost certain to receive sanctuary, re-scheduled from this December to May 2014.

According to EOIR, the goal of the Pilot Program is “to ensure that [limited] resources are focused on the Administration’s highest immigration enforcement priorities.” 

"Unfortunately, in this case, the Administration’s “enforcement priorities” (i.e., removal of aliens) comes at the expense of our country’s humanitarian obligations," says Dzubow.

"Delaying asylum hearings for 2+ years is devastating to many asylum seekers."

The stress of delayed decisions is well-documented around the world. Homeland Security could adopt a policy, Dzubow says, of starting the 'Asylum Clock' if decisions are delayed, which would at least allow asylum seekers to work. It should also offer at least some space in the courts for decision making for asylum seekers within a reasonable time frame for those like his Eritrean client.

The Obama administration has also been accused of doing nothing to protect detained LGBT asylum seekers in the US, from either maltreatment by those running detention centers or sexual violence, even rape. Here, 'protection' from such threats can often mean being held for long periods in solitary confinement - recognised as a form of torture.

There are also ongoing concerns about how LGBT asylum cases are treated in the immigration courts, with vastly differing approaches in different court systems across the US with many cases showing either a too high 'bar' for asylum seekers to reach or even homophobic treatment.

Said Physicians for Human Rights (PHR):

"This memorandum is a step in the right direction. But we urge the Obama administration to take a close look at the treatment of LGBT immigrants and asylum seekers in the US and work to reform our nation’s broken asylum and immigration detention systems, especially for the most vulnerable. We cannot expect to credibly protect the human rights of LGBT persons abroad when we cannot do so at home."

Dzubow says that "it might be futile to argue that we should not be prioritizing removals over protecting people fleeing persecution." However given Obama's pledge on LGBT asylum seekers the administration appears to have set up a clear conflict of priorities with how these refugees are actually treated by them.

Related articles

• Obama admin to 'leverage' foreign aid for LGBT Rights (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Report: Asylum and 'credible fear' issues in US immigration policy (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Why is Arizona shacking, isolating gay, raped immigration detainees? (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Obama Offers Asylum to Overseas Gays (usnews.com)

Global LGBT activists react to Clinton speech

In Photo (right to left): Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Alice N’kom (Cameroon), Anastasia Danilova (Moldova), Sanja Juras (Croatia), Adrian Jjuuko (Uganda), Sass Sasot (Philippines), Polina Savchenko (Russia), Vladimir Simenko (Lithuania), Arvind Narrain (India), Zoryan Kis (Ukraine), Santiago Eder (Colombia), N’dumie Funda (South Africa), Pouline Kimani (Kenya), and Rev. MacDonald Sembereka (Malawi).

Source: Council for Global Equality

For this historic moment in the LGBT movement, the Council for Global Equality was privileged to bring 14 prominent LGBT activists from around the world to Geneva to be present for Secretary Clinton’s Human Rights Day speech. The Council applauds both Secretary Clinton for the pitch-perfect speech as well as President Obama for yesterday’s vital Presidential Memorandum addressing the human rights of LGBT people worldwide.

Reactions from LGBT human rights defenders from around the world who were on hand to witness the speech included these:

Arvind Narrain from the Lawyers Collective in India:

“The Secretary made a passionate case for LGBT rights as gay rights while being very culturally sensitive. The generosity of mentioning the gains in South Africa, Brazil, India, and Nepal conveyed a wider sense of ownership of these issues.”

Sass Rogando Sasot from Society of Transsexual Women of the Philiipines: “

The sincerity and courage of Secretary Clinton is an invitation for us to make the dignity of our common humanity the center and goal of our politics. Her speech is another step towards a world that’s more inclusive, fair, and compassionate.”

Polina Savchenko from the Russian LGBT Network:

“Secretary Clinton’s point about ‘honest discussion’ is particularly important for Russia because we suffer from extreme ignorance. Discussion is shut down in our country. Her message about decriminalization was also very important in our country right now.”

Read more »

Video: Hillary Clinton's international LGBT rights speech to the UN

 

Transcript:

Read more »

Obama admin to 'leverage' foreign aid for LGBT Rights

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

In a major foreign policy announcement, timed for the anniversary of adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the White House has issued a memorandum (copy below) ordering all government agencies to promote LGBT rights internationally.

The memorandum directs agencies to:

• Combat the criminalization of LGBT status or conduct abroad.
• Protect vulnerable LGBT refugees and asylum seekers.
• Leverage foreign assistance to protect human rights and advance nondiscrimination.
• Ensure swift and meaningful U.S. responses to human rights abuses of LGBT persons abroad.
• Engage International Organizations in the fight against LGBT discrimination.

The use of aid ('foreign assistance') as a factor in promoting LGBT rights has recently come into focus with a major media storm in many countries following reports of the UK government withholding aid to countries criminalizing homosexuality.

The UK has clarified that it is not reducing but will consider redirecting aid from government budgets to other routes. It has also clarified that aid policy has four 'pillars', one of which is human rights and that includes LGBT rights.

Exactly how the UK will apply its policy remains unclear, however it is known to have used 'aid conditionality' in attempts to pressure Uganda to withdraw its 'Kill gays' bill and criminalisation of lesbianism in Malawi was a minor factor in a recent aid redirection, alongside a serious backsliding on human rights in that country.

The Obama memorandum also does not clarify how it will 'leverage' aid.

The White House said:

The Administration’s dedication to LGBT rights does not stop at our borders, as the President made clear at the United Nations in September of this year when he said: “no country should deny people their rights because of who they love, which is why we must stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere.”

Following an interagency process coordinated by the National Security Staff, this memorandum directs the first-ever U.S. government strategy dedicated to combating human rights abuses against LGBT persons abroad. Today’s memorandum applies to the Departments of State, the Treasury, Defense, Justice, Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Export-Import Bank, the United States Trade Representative, and such other agencies as the President may designate.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke on the policy in Geneva, today, 6 December. She announced a new 'Global Equality Fund', which will be a 'public-private' partnership and to which the State Department is contributing $3m. Amongst the work of this fund, it will:

Provide emergency assistance to NGOs and human rights defenders facing governmental or societal threats, and increase organizational capacity to respond to security concerns.

It specifically mentions support for Sierra Leonean activists, who have recently reported coming under attack following a media appearance. It also mentions that "where necessary" the Fund will support relocation of key activists.

In a briefing [PDF], the State Department laid out its ongoing work on LGBT asylum seekers and refugees. It said:

The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) is working to improve the security of LGBT refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants by implementing a comprehensive LGBT refugee protection strategy developed in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and NGOs.

Progress includes additional funding to UNHCR in places such as Turkey to help with resettlement of LGBT refugees, training for staff working on refugee protection, and the expansion of  NGO guidelines to ensure partners know that LGBT refugees and asylum seekers are a priority population of concern.

PRM is also funding new programs in this area, including research to develop best practices for serving LGBT refugees in urban areas and a pilot initiative in Costa Rica on the needs of LGBT migrants.

Presidential Memorandum -- International Initiatives to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,...

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Heterosexual Africa? Notes from the struggle for sexual rights

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Royal Africa Society

By Marc Epprecht

Not every story out of Africa is doom and gloom, even on topics like “the rise of homophobia.” To be sure, there have been some recent shocking cases of violence and hate-mongering against gays, lesbians, and trans people around the continent. Governments in many countries are meanwhile proposing to reform laws inherited from former colonial rulers, moving toward greater repression and in divergence from major international bodies and public health initiatives. Were Uganda to enact and enforce its proposed Anti-Homosexuality bill, to give one of the most notorious examples, it would be required to withdraw from the United Nations and African Union, sever links with all its major donors, and arrest a large proportion of the heterosexual population for knowing (but not reporting to the police) suspected homosexuals or human rights and sexual health advocates.

Another side of this story, however, does not get as much attention. This is the story of the emergence of a vibrant lgbti (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex) network across the continent, of creative and courageous challenges to homophobia, of sensitive and insightful new research into “sexual secrets,” and of political and religious leaders who are resisting the demagogic tide. How many people are aware that six African nations endorsed the recent UN General Assembly resolution to include sexual orientation in the universal declaration of human rights?

Alright, the Central African Republic and Gabon are not among the heavy weight or vanguardist states in Africa. One is probably justified to suspect neo-colonial arm-twisting upon them by their major donor (and the resolution’s sponsor - France). Nonetheless, a precedent has been set. It is not politically impossible for African governments to support an inclusive definition of sexual rights as understood by liberals in the West. Sexual rights activists in Africa, with international solidarity, are actively pursuing those rights through a range of strategies and fora, including through the mass media, the courts and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

This is not going to be an easy struggle. It is not just that overt homophobes seem to be proliferating in the context of intense rivalry between evangelist Christian and Muslim faiths and opportunistic (mostly American) missionaries. There is also a profound, ongoing economic and health crisis across much of the continent. This makes it extremely difficult for sexual rights and sexual health advocates to make their case in the public eye. How to convince unemployed youth, landless peasants, and women trapped in abusive marriages or survival sex work, that freedom for men to have consensual sex will improve their lives? This is particularly challenging given the widespread stereotype in Africa that gays and lesbians are economically privileged and well-connected to opportunities in the West.

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Beyond the anti-gay bill: the difficult truth about Museveni’s government in Uganda

Source: The New Republic

By Elizabeth Palchik Allen

Pink is political in Uganda. But not in the way most outsiders think. This past May, opposition leaders in the capital of Kampala were targeted with firehoses that drenched them in bubblegum-colored liquid, dying their clothes and skin. Their crime? Attempting to hold an “unauthorized” rally in the city’s Constitutional Square.

Since April, opposition groups have been leading an intermittent campaign called “Walk to Work” to highlight the country’s soaring commodity prices (food inflation recently topped 44 percent). But what began as a bread-and-butter protest quickly swelled into a political protest against the country’s president, Yoweri Museveni.

The hyper-aggressive response of Museveni’s security forces led to bouts of rioting among the country’s urban poor, with scores being arrested, hospitalized, and shot. The protests died down only when Museveni put the country’s main opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, under virtual house arrest. (He’s currently facing charges of inciting violence and holding illegal assemblies.)

Chances are you didn’t hear much about these protests, though. Lately, when Uganda has made news in the United States, it’s generally been for one reason: a radical anti-gay bill that surfaced in the country’s legislature almost two years ago.

The measure — which, among other things, would have mandated the death penalty for people convicted of having gay sex multiple times — came to be known abroad as the “kill the gays” bill. It had languished in committee since late 2009, but was suddenly brought up for discussion this past May, during the final days of Uganda’s last parliamentary session — the same week, oddly enough, that opposition politicians were being sprayed pink.

The bill had no real chance of being passed — not only was it too far behind in the legislative process, but Museveni was against it, which, in this electoral autocracy, made the proposal as good as dead. Back in early 2010, Museveni personally told a U.S. delegation that he’d “handle” the bill, reassuring diplomats that “nobody in Uganda would be executed for homosexual behavior.” And Museveni was as good as his word: The bill officially died on Friday, May 13. (There is a possibility that the new parliament might revive the bill, perhaps stripped of its most odious provisions.)

The demise of the bill was good news, of course. Yet, coupled with the suppression of anti-Museveni protests and the virtual house arrest of leading politicians, it illustrates one of the sad ironies about Ugandan politics: Museveni’s anti-democratic impulses can champion the lives and liberties of some, even as they strip the larger populace of its human and civil rights.

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What happens if Uganda's 'kill the gays' bill passes? How can the World help then?

Zimbabweans fleeing to South Africa: could this be repeated for LGBT Ugandans?

By Paul Canning

Uganda's anti-gay forces do not give up. Despite the government indicating hostility to the Anti-Homosexuality 'kill the gays' bill they have pushed it up the Parliamentary agenda. Even if it did not get to a vote today, at the last gasp of Uganda's current Parliament, they have insisted it will be brought back, brought to a vote - which they are near certain to win - and reports suggest this could be as soon as next month.

If passed, the World will continue to urge President Museveni to veto it (huge petitions are urging a veto). Undoubtedly Museveni will come under a lot of diplomatic pressure - this has happened before and is happening again. There will also be legal moves to have the then law declared unconstitutional, Ugandan activist Frank Mugisha:

"It violates the constitution of Uganda, so we shall go to courts of law, and appeal for the law to be repealed."

But even though Museveni has said in the past he would veto it, a veto would be unprecedented on any legislation by him.

Various people on the ground have said that the bill's revival is a "distraction", coming at a time when Museveni's governments is being heavily criticised for its repression of street protests and the opposition. Last week he was asked if he could be compared to Idi Amin Dada by a Kenyan TV reporter.

Says Sarah Gunther of the American Jewish World Service, which funds several Ugandan groups, suggests that this means Museveni has every reason not to listen to the West's calls for a veto:

"Passing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill and pandering to the country’s hateful climate for LGBTI people would surely garner Museveni increased public approval at a time when he desperately needs it."

Is the world ready for the consequences of Uganda enacting this law? A key Kenyan activist tells us that he is already receiving two to three calls A DAY from Ugandans wanting help. "We are speaking of a crisis here," he said. If the World loses and the bill becomes law and a witch hunt starts what will the consequences be and what we should be doing?

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International pressure on anti-gay laws in Africa must not stop

The Musevenis and Obamas

Source: The Guardian

By Paul Canning

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.

Read more »

US State Department human rights reports: "more of a kabuki dance than a liberation march"

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

By Council for Global Equality

The State Department last week released its annual human rights report.  Once again, the Council for Global Equality applauds the State Department’s effort to “provide an overview of the human rights situation around the world as a means to raise awareness of human rights conditions, in particular as these conditions affect the well-being of women, children, racial and religious minorities, trafficking victims, members of indigenous groups and ethnic communities, persons with disabilities, sexual minorities, refugees, and members of other vulnerable groups.” And once again this year, the report bears witness to a clear and growing crisis in human rights abuse directed against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people worldwide.

For the second year in a row, every country chapter now includes a section on “societal abuses, discrimination, and acts of violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” highlighting LGBT-related incidents in almost every country in the world. Those abuses include arbitrary arrest and detention, police abuse, rape, murder, social exclusion, impediments to political participation, discriminatory health practices and extreme trends in employment discrimination that exclude far too many citizens from the economic life of their own country. In many cases, the report notes that transgender individuals, lesbians and refugee fare even worse.

While the State Department’s annual report to Congress examines a broad range of human rights concerns impacting various minority communities, the report sets out in stark terms how dangerous it is for LGBT individuals to go about their daily lives as ordinary citizens in many parts of the world. The report also makes clear that LGBT rights are not special rights, but that they are firmly rooted in basic human rights protections that are shared by all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, and that those protections are under severe attack in the world today.

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US State Dept human rights report picks up LGBT asylum issues in UK

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By Paul Canning

The 35th annual human rights report of the US State Department has picked up on "significant disadvantages" experienced by LGBT asylum seekers in the UK.

In launching the report April 8 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton drew particular attention to the report’s identification of abuses against LGBT people internationally:

“Because I believe, and our government believes, that gay rights are human rights, we remain extremely concerned about state-sanctioned homophobia,” Clinton said.

She hoped that the reports which cover every country bar the US itself would "give comfort to the activists, will shine a spotlight on the abuses, and convince those in government that there are other and better ways.” They may also be used to bar aid to certain countries if the US Congress passes recently introduced legislation.

Mark Bromley, chair of the Council for Global Equality, told the Washington Blade that Clinton has made LGBT rights one of the State Department's top priorities. Expanded coverage of LGBT rights was begun last year but the 2010 reports show patchy coverage across Africa and the Middle East.

State Department interest in LGBT asylum

The UK report cited last year's Stonewall report 'No Going Back' and pulled out for mention its identification of the "fast tracking" of LGBT asylum claims, repeating Stonewall's finding that LGBT have complex cases and in "denying them quickly, UKBA staff did not give applicants time to talk openly about their sexual orientation."

Home Office Minister Damien Green told the House of Commons in February that the government did not accept that sexual orientation asylum claims are complex and therefore would not exclude them from 'fast track', as it does other types of cases.

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The sudden rise of a pro-gay foreign policy in the United States

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Source: Huffington Post 

By Javier Corrales

The Obama administration is often criticized for betraying gay rights. Despite having helped repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, critics still charge that the White House continually reneges on its pledge to work hard to end marriage bans and gay bashing. Yet, on another unnoticed front, the administration has actually gone far beyond anything ever promised. The administration is taking steps to establish the first pro-gay foreign policy in the history of the United States.

So far, this foreign policy effort is off to a good start. But unless a more systematic approach is taken, the administration's baby steps will remain just that: a decent impulse with little reach.

Arguably, the administration's first steps have been laudable. In January, President Obama issued a public condemnation of the killing of gay activist David Kato in Uganda and of five members of the LGBT community in Honduras. In reality, Obama is merely treading behind the footsteps of Hillary Clinton, whom the The Advocate, a magazine covering LGBT news recently described as the "fiercest advocate" of gay rights in the administration. In fact, Clinton was the first first lady to march in a gay pride parade eleven years ago. Today, she intends to become the first secretary of state to make the State Department pro-gay.

Clinton's mission is simple: eliminate "violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity" anywhere in the world. She declared this in a speech in June 2010, in which she also called on U.S. ambassadors and foreign governments to join this battle. She even designated staff to work on ways to advance LGBT rights, created funds to help victims of hate crimes abroad, and even came up with a new slogan -- "Human rights are gay rights, and gay rights are human rights," an adaptation of a similar slogan she once used on behalf of woman's rights.

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In Ukraine, society becoming more homophobic

Members of Nash Mir on Independence Square in Kiev

By A. Zinchenkov, A. Kravchuk of Nash Mir, Kiev

Ukrainian society becomes more homophobic. Whereas in 2002 33.8% and in 2007 46.7% of Ukrainians considered that homosexuals do not have rights equal to other citizens' rights (public opinion polls (PDF) carried out by the TNS Ukraine sociological service by request of Nash Mir), throughout 2010 the situation substantially worsened.

The indicative survey of the Socis sociological center conducted in September, 2010, showed that about 65% of Kiev residents consider homosexuality as a perversion or mental disease. Likewise were the findings of ‘A family in Odessa students’ eyes’ survey of the Gorshenin Institute, March, 2010, which established that 74.7% of the students polled consider homosexual relations inadmissible. Another survey of the Gorshenin Institute, December, 2010, (‘Morals in Ukraine’ telephone poll) showed that 72% of Ukrainians have negative attitude towards sexual minorities.

At the 45th session of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which took place in Geneva, January, 2010, Ukraine presented a report on implementation of the respective UN convention.

On January 18 were heard the shadow reports of Ukrainian public organizations on human rights observance towards women in the country. Among others, a representative of Kherson LGBT organization For Equal Rights informed those concerned that the national legislation makes no provision for sexual orientation discrimination prohibition, although homosexual women suffered numerous cases of their rights and freedoms being violated. Because of the above mentioned lack of provision, crimes against the women noted cannot be qualified as hate crimes.

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Video: Maddow on Kato

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By Paul Canning

The leading liberal US news show host Rachel Maddow presented a segment Friday night about the death of Ugandan activist David Kato and editorialised about how the US should regard the impact of its citizens, those evangelicals working in Uganda, on the local LGBT community.

The segment had actually been trailed eight days before but news from Egypt has precluded it being shown earlier. Maddow has been one of extremely few mainstream US television journalists to consistently cover Uganda and her show has interviewed at some point most of the leading players, including David Bahati MP, author of  what she has  dubbed the 'kill the gays' bill.

She has given space to other journalists, such as Jeff Sharlet, author of 'The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power', covering the links between the 'kill the gays' bill's authors and very powerful US evangelicals, linking Bahati to right-wing republican politicians for example.

Maddow's coverage is collected by her under the headline 'Uganda be kidding me'.

In this segment she covers the scenes at Kato's funeral and shows extracts - you can watch a 7 minute video of the funeral - including the powerful comments of retired Anglican Bishop Senyonjo. She talks about the police's dismissal of homophobia as a motive in Kato's murder and lists evidence that maybe it was a hate crime. (Warren Throckmorton comments on his posting of Maddow's segment that: "Those close to Kato have told me that Kato did not pay prostitutes and that the scenario developing around him is implausible.")

Maddow quotes Kato on how evangelicals have taken their arguments to Uganda and found an audience for their discredited (what she has dubbed) 'cure the gay' ideology. She calls them 'quacks'.

If Ugandans believe what these Americans are telling them, she says, it's no great leap to believe you should force gays to, as Bahati has put it, "repent", for haven't these Americans showed how we can 'cure' these people?

So this is 'an American story', she argues. Bahati's rise in Ugandan politics is, she says, directly linked to his American sponsors. She points out that Bahati has not passed on the evidence he claimed existed in her interview with him that foreigners were 'recruiting children to homosexuality' and sending millions into Uganda for that purpose.

She paraphrases Bahati's response to her show following Kato's death as:

"We want to kill people for being gay because the Americans told us you don't have to be gay if you don't want to be."

Maddow says at the end that donor countries should convey to Ugandan authorities "do not disappear David Kato's murder - otherwise we will make you a pariah for it."

She sums up:

"Given American citizen's vile involvement in that country maybe America can take the lead on this?"

Related articles

• Anti-gay reaction to David Kato's death (wthrockmorton.com)
• Ugandan 'kill the gays' bill author on US TV (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Bahati "more than confident" bill will pass (wthrockmorton.com)
• Obama Statement on Slain Ugandan LGBT Activist David Kato (towleroad.com)

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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