Video: Egyptian LGBT to occupy Tahrir Square on January 1

Source: Global Voices

By Mona Kareem

If Islamists were the ones to appeal as threatening to women and religious minorities in Egypt, then they are not alone when it comes to opposing passing LGBT rights in post-revolution Egypt. Recently, a Facebook page was established to promote the rights of homosexuals and to call on them to gather on the 1 January, 2012, in Tahrir Square to demand their rights.

Hundreds joined the page, not necessarily to support the demands, but to write homophobic comments, murder threats, and to cite Quran verses that show how Islam forbids homosexuality and defines it as a major sin. In one of the pictures posted by the page admin, a comment is written to define the page and to justify the rights of homosexuals to a normal life [ar]:

من حقنا الظهور في المجتمع بشكل علني لحمايه نفسنا و لحمايه المجتمع من اضطهاد المثليين لان المجتمع اللي لا يقبل الاخر يبقى مريض

We have the right to come out in society and to protect ourselves and protect our society from oppressing homosexuals because a society that doesn't accept the other is a sick one.

To explain why they have chosen to protest in Tahrir Square in January, the page had a post saying:

من نحن: نحن مجموعه من شباب مصر المثلي الجنس..نزلنا الميدان و شاركنا في الثوره..و نرى الان انه لنا كل الحق في العيش باحترام و علانيه..فنحن جزء من مصر الثوره ..فلا يزايد علينا احد

We are a group of gay Egyptian youth. We were in Tahrir and we took part in the revolution. We see that each of us has the right to have a life of respect in public. We are part of Egypt's revolution and we won't allow anyone to question our loyalty.

In one of its status updates, the page admin posted a message that s/he received from a gay Egyptian man, who was afraid to post it himself after he saw the insults and threats filling the page's wall:

ايه الضرر لما يكون في اتنين من نفس الجنس في مكان ما في العالم نايميين في حضن بعض؟؟ انا ضريتك في ايه؟؟

اخدت حاجة بتاعتك؟؟ اكلت اكلك؟؟ ايه؟؟ انا انسان احس واحب واكره واغضب واسامح وافرح

What's the harm if two people from the same sex somewhere in this world are hugging each other? How did I harm you? Did I take something that is yours? Did I eat your food? What? I am a human who feels, loves, hates, gets angry, forgives, and feels happy!

The page admin has also posted a note to media stating the reason behind rejecting interviews:

لكننا نعتذر لجميع الصحفيين عن عدم التواصل معهم..حيث اننا نرى ان تناول الاعلام لهذا الحدث الان سيؤدي الى احداث بلبله و ضجه اعلاميه قد تؤدي الى اجهاض اليوم من اساسه وارهاب شخصيات مثقفه وطنيه كانت قد ابدت موافقتها على المشاركه..و نرى انه من الانسب تغطيه الحدث وقت حدوثه وسيتم توجيه دعوات لجميع المؤسسات الاعلاميه في حينه

We apologize to all journalists for not responding to them. We think if media talks about this, there will be a big fuss which might lead to the failure of the national gay day we are planning. It will also make some national personages and intellectuals change their minds about attending the day after giving us their approval. We see it's better if the event gets covered at the time it takes place and we will invite media to be there then.

Another status came as a reply to all the threats that the page had on its wall:

الى الساده المصدومين من اعداد المثليين في مصر : احنا موجودين بينكم من زمان لكن انتم فرضتم علينا نعيش تحت الارض و دفنتم رؤسكم في الرمل كالنعام..ثانيا :كفايه بلطجه ومحاولات ارهاب لينا مش هانسمح لحد يشكك في وطنيتنا

To those who are shocked of how many of us exist in Egypt: we have lived with you for a long time but you forced us to live hiding. Stop you terror attempts; we do not allow you to question our patriotism.

The page has also posted a YouTube video which plays a written message from a gay Egyptian who says that he is just another citizen who contributes to the society and respects all, and expects to be treated the same in his own country.

Read more »

New logo, 3000 followers, 500 likes

LGBT Asylum News has a new logo, designed for us by graphic designer Evan Smith. We love it - and the initial Twitter reaction was great.

We'll be incorporating it into the website proper over the next few days.

At present you can see it on our Twitter account - which this week topped 3000 followers. Also our Facebook page - which this week topped 500 'likes'.

Don't forget, if you like what we do, please consider making a donation!

In Brazil, in one year, 250 LGBT murdered: a "homocausto"

Posters, flowers and candles left at a 21 November demonstration against homophobic attacks in Sao Paulo

By Paul Canning

A Brazilian LGBT organisation which has been documenting homophobic murders of LGBT people in that country says they have now hit a record number: one every day and a half.

Grupo Gay da Bahia (GGB), the oldest Brazilian gay group, documented 250 cases in 2010. The figure is part of their annual report - still being completed - that will be officially unveiled in March.

In an interview with Terra Magazine, founder of the GGB and 'dean of the homosexual movement in Brazil' ('decano do movimento homossexual brasileiro'), Luiz Mott, said that in 2009 there were 198, about 50 less than reported last year.

Speaking on Brazilian TV, Mott described what's happening as a "homocausto".

In the previous decade an LGBT person was killed, on average, every three days. In recent years, that average rose to a murder every day and a half.

Read more »

Happy new year - a look back and a look forward

By Paul Canning

LGBT Asylum News wishes a happy, safe and prosperous 2011 to all our readers.

In 2010 we published about a thousand posts, including 29 'action alerts'. Our daily average number of posts has gone up from about two to about four and they were viewed on the website about 110,000 times. You came from 191 countries, read, on average, one and a half pages and spent about two and a half minutes on the website. A quarter of you have visited and come back.

Our most popular content in 2010 was:

Kiana in a scene from the film 'Cul de Sac'

Iranian lesbian makes her appeal against removal by UK authorities
The story of Iranian lesbian asylum seeker Kiana Firouz, which we broke in April, attracted attention like no LGBT asylum case since that of another Iranian, Mehdi Kazemi. A petition for her drew an astonishing 45,000 signatures. In June, very quickly after a new asylum case was put to the UK Home Office, she won asylum.

Albania: reality TV programme prompts 'explosive debate' 
In March, reader John Hodgson gave us the story of Klodian Çela, an Albanian Big Brother contestant whose coming out on the show had prompted 'riots' in one town (there were claims the 'riots' were orchestrated for publicity). The story we broke was later raised by none other than Hillary Clinton as an example of homophobia in Albania during a speech to mark LGBT History Month in June!

Did X Factor 'out' a gay asylum seeker, putting him in danger?
In July we followed up on a story broken by Lesbian and Gay Foundation in Manchester of Zac, a teenage asylum seeker from the United Arab Emirates. Zac's story had appeared without his consent in the popular British tabloid newspaper The Sun - potentially exposing him to danger if he was returned. At year's end, Zac's claim for asylum has still not be settled

Iranian LGBT: Persecuted, harassed, raped, tortured, threatened with death, forced into operations
Our March post which collated testimony from Iranian transgender people, lesbians and gay men has proved popular throughout the year. Last month we published an in-depth analysis of the first report by a major NGO on the plight of Iranian LGBT.

Austria deports African gay footballer
In May we reported on Cletus B, a gay Nigerian deported by Austria. His case attracted mass support including a big demonstration in Vienna, but the authorities ignored the protests. In June a follow up report, Nigerian gay footballer deported by Austria has gone underground; Austrian police charge his counsellor with 'promoting an illegal stay', also proved popular. This story happened because of another reader, Heinz Leitner in Vienna.

In the US, two new strategies for same-sex binational couples
In November our republishing of a post by the American activist group Out4Immigration drew a lot of links and referrals from email. It looked at new ideas for changing the situation of same-sex couples facing the bald choice of having to leave America to stay together or be split apart.

In Colombia, at least ten LGBT 'cleansed' in one week
In September we reported via Argentina's AG Magazine that a wave of killings of gays had hit Northern Colombia. Although this report drew links from a few American LGBT news sources, shamefully these killings were not more widely reported.

Big victory for USA in fresh United Nations 'gay killings' vote
Last month we 'live blogged' the sensational outcome of an American move to reverse a UN vote on excluding sexual orientation in a resolution on extrajudicial killings. We were the first to post the result and the only news outlet to analyze the vote in depth, showing the massive and possibly game-changing vote by African, Caribbean and Pacific Island countries.

Damning report says practically all UK LGBT asylum claims are being refused; Border Agency "cruel and discriminatory"
In March we looked at a new report by UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group (UKLGIG) which examined 50 LGBT asylum cases and found that nearly all had been turned down by British authorities. It also documented the then Home Office policy of 'go home and be discrete'. This report later informed Stonewall's 'No Going Back' report, released in May. In June came the historic Supreme Court decision which put an end to the 'go home and be discrete' policy.

Here's a Wordle showing the commonest words on LGBT Asylum News:

Our Twitter account, opened in September 2009, was almost at 2,000 followers at year's end and is now on 161 other 'Twitterers' lists. And we have 277 'likes' for our Facebook page - Facebook has proved an increasing source for referrals to the website in 2010.

We added 17 uploads to our YouTube channel, which we started in March, and 166 Favorites. Our video and audio has been viewed over 4000 times with In Phnom Penh, the amazing work of a 70-year-old transgender sex worker by far the most popular upload.

On the document sharing service Scribd, we've put 47 documents and these have been read over 13,000 times.

Content views by email last week

375 of you subscribe to the website by email and views of posts by this route now average over 1,000 per day - interestingly the content viewed this way is always very different to that viewed on the web. Our content also circulates widely via republishing on other websites as well as via web services like FriendFeed.

Our content has been widely picked up and repurposed by other news outlets - most notably by pinknews.co.uk, LezGetReal and the San Diego Gay and Lesbian News and later in the year by Pink Paper. We've had consistent links from the major US LGBT news outlet Towleroad, which has drawn in a huge new audience for the website.

We'd like to thank all those who have linked to, republished, 'liked' and retweeted our stories in 2010!

We'd also like to thank all those who have contributed to the website whether through their own posts or through suggesting stories or through helping with translations. We are always looking for help with translations so please let us know if you're able to help here.

Early in 2011 there will be major, exciting changes to the website. These will embed and make sustainable our goal of 'documenting the situations in countries from which LGBT people are fleeing to the UK hoping for a safe haven and the problems they can face from the UK asylum system' - and make this truly international. It will also provide a new way for our readers to talk to each other and for LGBT asylum advocates, lawyers, refugees and refugee workers to work together.

Keep watching this space! (And please give us your feedback by email or in the comments below!)

New way to read Twitter posters we've listed

By Paul Canning

You may have noted a new item appearing at the bottom of our right-hand column. We've started using a new service called paper.li which takes links from anyone's Twitter streams, tags or lists and turns them into a sort of daily online newspaper.

Ours takes a list of currently 63 Tweeters we've called 'asylum global south', which is our Twitter list of asylum and refugee groups plus news sources from the global south.

We're not the only one. Kenneth Mills in Belgium has one called 'The lgbtasylum Daily'. We also seem to be appearing in others 'newspapers', such as Barbra Jolie’s 'The Rights East Africa Daily'. Other ones which may interest could be Jessica Keralis’s 'The Refugees/IDPs Daily' and Deesha Chandra’s 'The refugeevoice Daily'.

You can be notified by email when it's published. The only downside I can see is how the algorithm picks which tweets to highlight - which makes a machine the editor, they wouldn't necessarily be our picks.

But generally it serves up a chunk of interesting content and this seems like a very useful new service for people who don't constantly check their Twitter streams. Let us know if you think any other Tweeters should be included in our 'newspaper'.