Video: Persecution of gay people in Sri Lanka

Video by LGBTsrilanka



"Saman" is a graduate student in Sri Lanka who was doing research on 'safer sex' for his thesis. He told me that while he was working in the southern city of Galle, the local police detained and tortured him assuming he was gay.

While in detention he witnessed how the Sri Lankan police discriminated against other allegedly gay men who were locked up in jail. Fearing retribution, Saman did not want to show his face or use his real name in recording this experience.

Under the Sri Lankan penal code Section 365 A, homosexual acts are prohibited and "violators" face a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. While few cases have ever been prosecuted, the threat of public shame and blackmail looms large for Sri Lanka's gay community and this "dead letter" has become a greater threat in light of pervasive police corruption.

This is only one example of the codified homophobia in Sri Lanka and its oppressive side-effects. Similar incidents are still happening to LGBT individuals in Sri Lanka on a regular basis.

These incidents include, but are not limited to blackmail, violent threats, employment discrimination, and rejection by friends, family, the police, and society at large. Cases of physical assault, harassment, and detention are not uncommon.

Regardless, these incidents are more or less ignored by the Sri Lankan media; even when they are reported, their connection to homophobia is rarely articulated. Of course, many LGBT individuals are happy to keep these incidents quiet, fearing that they would be subject to further attacks if they were outed. Both gay and straight Sri Lankans hold a negative view of homosexuality.

Related articles

• Video: A gay Sri Lankan migrant story (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Video: Sri Lankan gay activist speaks out (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Gay, Lesbian and HIV Grassroots Growing in China

By Paul Canning

Increased awareness is changing what was stigmatized treatment of HIV/Aids in China. This year the country will host its first 'AIDS Walk', which will include a trek along the Great Wall.

There are officially 780,000 people living with HIV/Aids in China, but stigma and discrimination means that people are afraid to get tested. Anyone taking an HIV test at an official disease control body must give their ID number.

But international bodies like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are backing grassroots groups like one run by gay man Nan Feng in the sprawling city of Chongqing, which also offers testing as part of its AIDS prevention work.

According to Zhang Beichuan, a Chinese AIDS expert, there now more than 200 such non-governmental groups in China.

Nan launched a website for gays in 1998. Three years later a local newspaper interviewed him on his AIDS-prevention work.

After the interview was published, Nan's colleagues surreptitiously put the full-page newspaper report about him unfolded on his desk.

"The people around me had the common prejudice that all gays have AIDS," he said.

He quit his job and the group starting distributing condoms at gay bars and promoting the website.

Landian, established in the provincial capital of Taiyuan in 2006, has provided free and private HIV tests for more than 450 gay males and their family members since September 2010.

With the help of Landian, volunteer groups were set up in another five cities in the province of Shanxi last year.

The number of volunteers is also growing as the public has become more tolerant to the gay community, according to the group.

Last month, HIV/Aids prevention posters appeared on the streets in Beijing - to the surprise of many. The posters had previously only been seen inside gay bars.

The AIDS Walk first took place in Los Angeles in 1985 to raise awareness of the epidemic and later this year will happen for the first time in China. It is being organised by three non-profit organisations, including the government-backed China Population Welfare Foundation, and has been approved by Chinese authorities.

As well as the support for grassroots gay groups, Global Fund for Women is backing a lesbian group, Lala Alliance, which has grown to have hundreds of members.

The group has organised several activist training camps and published China’s first lesbian oral history.

And in another example of change, last month the first China Rainbow Media Awards were handed out recognizing positive representations of LGBT people in China's mainstream media.

The organizers invited an elderly gay man nicknamed 'Old Paris' to present the Special Contribution Award to Dr. Li Yinhe, a well-known sociologist who has spoken out many times on homosexuality and who submitted several proposals to legalize same-sex marriage.

'Old Paris', who’s 72 years old, was jailed three times under the ‘hooliganism’ provision. Today he lives a quiet life together with his boyfriend. He says:

“Although I went to prison several times, I never felt that I was wrong. I never stole anything, I never robbed anyone, and I never did anything that was wrong.”

Expressing his sincere gratitude towards Li Yinhe, he said:

“I’ve lived for more than 70 years and at this moment I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. That’s all because of the tireless work Li Yinhe and others have been doing for all these years.”

Related articles

• China HIV Posters Stir Controversy (ilga.org)
• First ever China Rainbow Media Awards announces winners (ilga.org)
• 2011 round up: Part two: The growth of international projects (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

2011 round up: Part two: The growth of international projects

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

By Paul Canning

I'll be rounding up the year in a series of posts - in which no doubt I've missed something, so please let me know what I've missed in the comments!

The growth of international projects

The May 17 International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO), initiated by the black gay French leader Louis-Georges Tin, exploded this year with events from Lebanon to Fiji - in all over 70 countries took part.

One highlight amongst many: the presence, the voice of Burmese LGBT at events in Thailand. The spread of participation also highlighted the gaps - such as most of the Middle East and North Africa and elsewhere in Africa - as well as the almost total absence of IDAHO events in the United States.

The 'It Gets Better' project tackling bullying of LGBT teens and suicide drew large (although almost completely partisan) participation in the US but extended beyond to Finland, Canada, the UK, the EU, Malaysia, South Africa and Sweden. Diaspora Middle Eastern gays produced videos. In other countries, like the Netherlands and the UK, their own anti-bullying projects were launched with state backing.

In Africa we've seen the growth of networks (and networking) such as via the now 831-member strong International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) African branch, headquartered in South Africa, as well as of other pan-African networks like Amsher, which focuses on HIV/AIDS projects for both gay men as well as men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM). There was also new LGBT media in Africa: The news website Behind The Mask, again out of South Africa, grew with many new correspondents covering much of the continent. There are two new LGBTI magazines in Kenya, one online and another in print. In September Q-zine launched as "the pan-African voice for LGBTI and queer youth".

'Pride' and the rainbow flag became increasingly visible in India with marches seen both in new cities and more and bigger events in the biggest cities. 2011 saw increasing depictions and discussions of homosexuality in the Indian news media and by Bollywood.

The impact of international funding and organised training in Africa and elsewhere showed in more professional organising and in improved relationships with both civil society and with local media. A particular highlight is Kenya which now has scores of groups including ones in remote areas. International HIV/Aids funding began to recognise a requirement to fund gay/MSM local projects and to oppose the criminalisation of homosexuality because of its impact on HIV/Aids prevention, however 2012 will likely see a setback with the announcement of a funding crisis at the biggest funder, the Global Fund.

Organised religious support for LGBT rights in Africa also grew, particularly marked by the work of the group Other Sheep, and the international activism of Anglican Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, from Uganda.

The international LGBT-specific 'clictivism' project allout.org grew to over a million members, highlighting the core role of the Web and social media in LGBT activism everywhere, but also the flip-side of activism's susceptibility to monitoring and crackdown - as has been tried in Turkey.

Earlier this month the United States announced that it was embedding international LGBT human rights engagement throughout government, including creating a new fund for grass-roots projects and directing that anti-discrimination be encouraged from USAID contractors. This announcement builds on earlier efforts, mainly of some European governments like the Dutch, who announced this year the creation of a huge fund for MSM/gay HIV/Aids projects that will help isolated communities, mainly in Africa.

In a development which will have long term implications, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which covers Latin America and the Caribbean, set up an LGBT rights unit.

Related articles

• In West Africa, Nigerians to train LGBT advocates for the region (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• What preceded Hillary Clinton's UN speech? (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Video: Envisioning LGBT Human Rights (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Ghana Education Ministry: 'Train teachers to reduce homosexuality'

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

The Ministry of Education in Ghana has said that the Ministry's HIV/AIDS Secretariat has trained teachers to educate students about homosexuality and its “adverse consequences” including HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Education Ministry Public Relations Officer Paul Krampah told the Accra Mail:

"We are very optimistic that things will change and the incidence of homosexuality in the country will be a thing of the past."

The Mail quotes the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVSSU) of the Ghana Police Service saying that more teenage boys in Junior High and Senior High Schools are becoming 'victims of sexual abuse'.

Many of these young boys and their families, according to the Mail, are reluctant to report such cases to the police.

In February the Deputy Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Stephen Adu told Citi News:

“I will agree that homosexuality and lesbianism started with single-sex schools. It has become prevalent and so more people have become aware of it. This is just one of the many problems we have in our educational system.”

In June The National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) in the Volta Region said they would use civic education clubs to 'fight homosexuality in Senior High Schools'.

The Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) have called for specialists to be placed at their disposal to train them on how to deal with homosexuality but has rejected widespread calls for single sex schools to be ended - though because, as the General Secretary of CHASS Felix Essah-Hienno puts it, mixed schools can 'equally breed gays and lesbians'.

Many Ghanaians believe, as Kwaku Adu-Gyamfi writes in Modern Ghana, that:

"Homosexuality is not born, but made. I believe the brainwashing process begins in schools and colleges, where many people develop the desire to experiment the act of having sex with the same sex. In the case of the Ghanaian homosexuals, it's an acquired lifestyle which is mainly derived from boarding schools and the importation of the sexual trade by our open-door hospitality."

Writes Isaac Karikari for Ghana Liberty:

"Second cycle schools have been major hubs for gay and lesbian acts. Senior high schools have been the real hot spots for gay and lesbian activities. It is in those places that gays and lesbians are really made. Underground gay and lesbian cells exist in many senior high schools."

Homosexuality has become a major topic of discussion in Ghana for some time, with international attention on the country following a directive earlier this year by the Western Regional Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo, to the police to arrest people suspected to be gay or lesbian.

Legislators began discussions last month on strengthening legal sanctions against gay people.

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• Audio: In Ghana, is it getting worse for LGBT? (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
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Major attack averted on Ethiopian LGBT?

By Paul Canning

A 'national embarrassment' for Ethiopia was averted after religious groups tried to disrupt the gay presence at a prestigious HIV/Aids conference.

The 16th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STIs) in Africa (ICASA) opened in Addis Ababa 4 December. Prior to the event, African Men for Sexual Health and Rights (Amsher) had planned a pre-conference meeting for 200 people but when they turned up to the Jupiter hotel they were told the facilities were no longer available. This followed a loud campaign against their event by religious leaders in Ethiopia's media.

A truncated Amsher event eventually went ahead using UN facilities but religious groups planned a press conference to continue to agitate against the group. This was called off at the last minute according to reports after the intervention of the Ethiopian government, worried about the 'embarrassment' associated with such disruption to such a huge international conference presence in Addis - 10,000 people were at the event - and the potential to divert future conferences.

Reports said that Minister of Health Dr Tewodros Astnahom held a closed-door meeting with the religious leaders. After the meeting, one of the religious leaders from the Ethiopian Protestant Church, Pastor Eitefa Gobena, told journalists that the press conference was not taking place.

A newspaper photographer was forced by government security to delete some of the pictures he took in the press conference room.

According to Global Voices, the debate on the religious attack on LGBT shifted online.

In December 2008 a campaign was started by Ethiopian religious leaders called “United for Life.” This was reportedly limited to urging the parliament to ban homosexuality in the constitution, but the Rainbow Ethiopia LGBT/MSM group reported that the religious coalition was actually calling for the death penalty for gays.
They said that the local media was engaged in “open psychological homophobic war to agitate the general society” against the LGBT community.

Kent Klindera the Director of MSM Initiatives at The American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) told Behind The Mask:

“There is major concern for the Ethiopian LGBT activists who will be here after the conference ends. The director of a group that amfAR supports has received death threats.”

“Recently, a local newspaper published an article purporting that the group had gone to Kenya learn ‘how to promote and spread homosexuality in Ethiopia.’ ”

These claims came after a Pepfar (the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief) funded study tour sponsored by EngenderHealth, a leading international reproductive health organization working to improve the quality of health care in the world’s poorest communities that sought to learn more on access of MSM (men who have sex with men) to HIV prevention and treatment.

Klindera said:

“I am working with several other global organizations to ensure that they have protection and are informed and empowered about security strategies to allow continue to do their work.”

Related articles

• Leaked cable shows limits of State Department LGBT issues reporting (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• In Ethiopia, 'mere concept' of LGBTI community 'non-existent' (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Ethiopia: Homosexuality Debate Arises as Ethiopia Hosts AIDS Conference (globalvoicesonline.org)

US asylum urged for trans Mexican

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Lambda Legal

30 November, Lambda Legal and a group of organizations that advocate for the rights of people living with HIV, including HIV-affected immigrants, filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Lopez Berera v. Holder, urging the Court to grant asylum to a transgender Mexican woman living with HIV/AIDS.

"Growing up in Mexico, Karolina Lopez Berera suffered horrific abuse at the hands of her family and police because of her transgender identity," said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, Lambda Legal Staff Attorney. "She fled to the United States to escape that abuse, and immigration officials concede that she was persecuted."

"Ms. Lopez Berera has been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Notwithstanding her diagnosis and her credible claims of persecution and abuse, the U.S. government is intent on deporting her to Mexico. Her forced removal, in light of rampant HIV stigma, discrimination, and persecution amounts to nothing less than an indirect death sentence."

"Our brief highlights the reality of Mexican cultural and social conditions, in contrast to recent pro-LGBT legislative accomplishments that are as yet only paper tigers," said Peter Perkowski, a partner at Winston and Strawn LLP. "Until Mexican attitudes catch up with the country's aspirations, Mexico will always be a dangerous place for transgender people with HIV, like Karolina. This case is therefore important not just for her, but for others like her who rely on United States asylum law as an avenue of escape from horrific abuses in their home countries."

The friend-of-the-court brief highlights country condition reports, media accounts, and studies that document the persecution, discrimination and neglect that transgender individuals, especially transgender people living with HIV/AIDS, face in critical HIV-related health care services in Mexico. Since transgender people are often deliberately excluded from access to, and the delivery of, HIV medications, Ms. Lopez Berera will not have access to life-saving medications. In addition, the brief discusses how Ms. Lopez Berera's HIV status places her in great danger of persecution because people living with HIV in Mexico are frequently the victims of hate crimes.

Counsel for amici curiae include Iván Espinoza-Madrigal from Lambda Legal, and Peter E. Perkowski from Winston and Strawn LLP. The firm handled this matter pro bono. The brief was filed on behalf of Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, the HIV Law Project, AIDS Legal Council, Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team, East Bay Community Law Center, HIV and AIDS Legal Services Alliance, and the Health and Human Rights Clinic at Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis.

• Brief of Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioner, Urging Reversal
• Motion for Leave to File Brief of Amici Curiae

Related articles

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How law blocks HIV/Aids prevention, treatment

Image by sassy mom via Flickr

Source: The Global Forum on MSM and HIV (MSMGF)

This World AIDS Day, as the United Nations Global Commission on HIV and the Law draws up its final recommendations, the Global Forum on MSM and HIV (MSMGF) urges national legislators around the world to review and repeal laws that undermine access to HIV services for gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM).  To help illustrate the connection between HIV and the law for this key population, the MSMGF has launched a new collection of resources that features case studies, toolkits and never-before-seen video testimonials from grassroots MSM advocates in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Cameroon.

“From laws criminalizing homosexuality in more than 70 countries to laws punishing non-disclosure of one’s HIV status, punitive legal environments around the world prevent MSM from accessing life-saving services,” said Dr. George Ayala, Executive Officer of the MSMGF.  “This is a major problem for the HIV response among MSM around the world, in countries rich and poor alike.”

The content of the archive was selected to make clear the connection between HIV and the law for this highly-impacted population, as well as provide grassroots organizations with tools to aid in legal advocacy for the health and human rights of MSM. 

“Civil society has formed the backbone of the response to the HIV epidemic among MSM around the world, with local men rising up to care for their own communities where support from government and society is lacking or absent,” said Krista Lauer, Policy Associate at the MSMGF.  “This archive is part of a larger effort to equip grassroots organizations with the information and resources they need to hold governments and multilateral institutions accountable for doing quality HIV work, including addressing harmful laws.”  

The website features the MSMGF's Specialist Submission to the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, made public for the first time.  Drawing upon focus group interviews, published research and other sources, the report makes five recommendations for law-based action that would have a game-changing impact on the HIV response for MSM:

• Review and repeal laws that undermine the HIV response among MSM
• Address the inappropriate enforcement of laws that hinder access to HIV services for MSM, through coordination, education and training with the judiciary and law enforcement officials
• Establish laws that protect the health and rights of MSM, and bring perpetrators of violence and other human rights abuses against MSM to justice
• Implement know-your-rights campaigns, and create enabling environments in which individuals can lay claim to their rights
• Integrate the law as a core pillar in all National AIDS Reponses, and adopt a rights-based approach to the HIV response

“We know that laws and policies that uphold the human rights of gay men and facilitate their access to services are absolutely essential for an effective HIV response,” said Dr. Ayala.  “But real action to transform legal environments has been bogged down by fear, stigma, and a lack of political will to take on the tough issues.  Courageous activists have continued to raise their voices in this struggle, often at great personal expense to themselves and their families.  We call on all Member States of the United Nations to heed the call of civil society, and recognize that the human rights movement is the HIV movement.” 

The online archive can be accessed on the MSMGF’s website at http://www.msmgf.org/law.

The Global Forum on MSM and HIV (MSMGF) is an expanding network of AIDS organizations, MSM networks, and advocates committed to ensuring robust coverage of and equitable access to effective HIV prevention, care, treatment, and support services tailored to the needs of gay men and other MSM. Guided by a Steering Committee of 20 members from 18 countries situated mainly in the Global South, and with administrative and fiscal support from AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), the MSMGF works to promote MSM health and human rights worldwide through advocacy, information exchange, knowledge production, networking, and capacity building.

Change UK law on HIV drugs for asylum seekers: British HIV Association

Image via Wikipedia

Source: The Guardian

By Sarah Boseley

The law that stops visitors to the UK and asylum seekers from getting NHS Aids drugs must be changed, a senior HIV doctor says, not just in the interests of humanity, but because the drugs now reduce the chance that they will infect other people.

Jane Anderson, the new chair of the British HIV Association, which represents doctors in the field, says there is no sense in leaving people without treatment, following studies that this year showed the drugs prevented transmission as well as keeping people alive.

"The legislation raises complications about getting the right treatment into the right people. It deters people from coming to services and it is very confusing," said Professor Anderson.

The rules were drawn up under the last government in response to tabloid fears of waves of illegal immigrants heading for the UK for free Aids treatment. That, says Anderson, is a nonsense.

"The majority of people do not present for HIV care before nine to 18 months after arriving in the country, when they are ill or pregnant. We've never seen people getting off planes and rushing to HIV clinics," she said. Labour's stance was at odds with its policy to the developing world, she added. "The previous administration was very committed to ensuring adequate HIV care happened outside the UK, but at the same time as having barriers within our own borders."

Lord Fowler, the former Tory health secretary behind the "Don't Die of Ignorance" Aids campaign of the mid-80s, also called for the rules to be changed in his report on HIV earlier this year.

Many of those with HIV in the UK are in marginalised groups. HIV infection has not stopped rising in the UK, particularly among men who have sex with men and in the African-Caribbean community.

Infection still carries a heavy stigma. Among the patients at the Homerton hospital in east London, were she works, Anderson says about 30% "haven't really told anybody much" that they have HIV. Many of those who do face discrimination and rejection by their community, families and friends.

Anderson and her colleagues are also concerned about new commissioning arrangements in the NHS. While specialist care will be organised by the National Commissioning Board, testing and prevention are likely to be localised and the long-term needs of patients who are living longer will probably be managed by GPs.

"We have some of the best outcomes in the world and the best surveillance and we're not doing a bad job," said Anderson. "We're being asked to change the way in which we do that very good job with financial pressures and a structural re-organisation, neither of which are really designed to deliver joined-up care to a group of people who are already in a complicated place in society."

The stigmatised and marginalised people living with HIV infection may not get as good care as the middle-class "worried well" who know how to demand attention, she said.

Related articles

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AIDS : G20's Broken Promises

Video source: cro1radiozurnal

Miss Promesses isn’t happy about missed deadlines and broken promises by the G20 countries

By F. Young

G8 leaders had agreed in 2005 to provide universal access to anti-AIDS medications by 2010, but the WHO estimates that 10 million people are still awaiting treatment. That is two thirds of the people who need the treatment.

Miss Promesses [actually Nicolas Denis, Aides’ manager of international advocacy] was one of several AIDS activists at the G20 Summit in Cannes, France, on Nov. 3 and 4. The G20 consists of the European Union and 19 of the most important industrialized and developing economies.

The Miss Promesses happening, as it was called, in the G20 media center in Cannes on Nov. 3 was organized by Aides, the largest NGO working on HIV/AIDS issues in France.

According to Aides, 7000 people die of AIDS each day, yet, numerous studies show that access to treatment is a good investment for the future. A study published in The Lancet shows that if $22 Billion were spent annually till 2020 on HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support, $30 Billion in extra resources would flow annually to developing countries due to saved lives and reduced infections.

The French National AIDS Council has published a "Memorandum Equivalent to an Opinion" recommending that financial transactions be taxed to fund the battle against AIDS. In a news release, the Council explains why these innovative investments are necessary:

“For the first time in the history of the fight against HIV/AIDS, the opportunity to curb the spread of the global AIDS epidemic has been shown to exist. Indeed, we now know that treating infected people significantly reduces the risk of virus transmission."

"Ensuring the widest possible access to screening and treatment for those who need it is the best way to stem the spread of the epidemic. According to the World Health Organization, massive development of prevention, screening and treatment access programs could prevent half of the 62 million new infections predicted for the 2005 to 2015 period.”

On Nov. 2, the French groups Act Up Paris and Sidaction had expressed their disappointment that the G20 leaders were not pressing the wealthiest and emerging countries to make concrete quantified commitments to fund treatment access.

In fact, at the G20 the AIDS pandemic was overshadowed by the Greek referendum and Euro crisis. The G20’s final declaration made no mention of HIV/AIDS and merely acknowledged the initiatives in some countries for a tax on financial transactions.

However, according to Oxfam, a tax on financial transactions to fund international development (popularly called the “Robin Hood Tax”) gained additional support at the G20, and is now supported by Argentina, Brazil, Ethiopia, France, Germany, South Africa and Spain.

• Video of the demonstration at Cannes

Related articles

• Dutch launch massive, world-first HIV/Aids program aimed at world's marginalised (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• In Africa, will massive US HIV/Aids funding start trickling to gay/MSM groups (madikazemi.blogspot.com) 
• G20 Protests in Nice [Photographs] (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

'Insidious' Nigerian anti-gay bill will effect more than gays

Source: IRIN

Rights groups in Nigeria fear a same-sex marriage bill being discussed in parliament could boost already prevalent discrimination against homosexuals. The bill goes much further than banning same-sex marriage; it threatens to ban the formation of groups supporting homosexuality, with imprisonment for anyone who “witnesses, abet[s] or aids” same-gender relationships, and could lead to any discussion or activities related to gay rights being banned.

Under a colonial-era law, sodomy is punishable by a 14-year jail sentence; and in the country’s mainly Muslim northern states, where a version of Shar’ia law applies, the penalty is death by stoning, although this has never officially been carried out.

The National Assembly began debating the latest version of the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill in November. Most high-ranking officials have voiced their approval of the bill, signalling it is likely to pass.

Intolerance prevails


Analysts see the bill, which has been shelved twice in five years, as a potential boost to the popularity of a government whose approval ratings have stalled since elections in April this year. Most Nigerians strongly disapprove of homosexuality, with many seeing it as a foreign import at odds with a deeply religious society.

A 2008 survey by non-profit, Nigeria’s Information for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, of 6,000 Nigerians on their attitudes to homosexuality, found that only 1.4 percent of respondents said they felt “tolerant” towards sexual minorities.

A university student in the northern state of Jigawa was killed in 2002 when classmates set upon him after rumours that he was gay.

In September 2008, several national newspapers published the names, addresses and photographs of the pastor and congregation of a church in the port city of Lagos that ministered to sexual minorities. A few days later a mob that included policemen attacked the church. Members of the congregation lost jobs and homes and had to go into hiding; others are still harassed and threatened with physical harm, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

“Homosexual and lesbian practices are considered offensive to public morality in Nigeria. The… bill is crucial to our national development because it seeks to protect the traditional family, which is the fundamental unit of society, especially in our country,” said the influential newspaper, This Day, in its editorial on 10 November. “It will be difficult to import practices and lifestyles which are alien to our country and the majority of our people.”

Read more »

LGBT organising gets going in remote parts of Kenya

Rendili heardsman at waterhole near Lake Turkana picture Robin Hutton

By Paul Canning

In the furthest, most remote parts of the world you will find LGB and T people. Maybe no surprise but as Melissa Wainaina has been reporting for the African website Behind the Mask what may be a surprise is that they're organising. Kenya-based Wainaina has been visiting a new group which serves the nomads and pastoralists and refugees in remote Northern Kenya.

Upper Rift Minorities (URM) was officially launched 9 October. It has been helped into being by a number of Kenyan groups, particularly The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK) and the East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative (Uhai-Eashrhi).

Uhai-Eashrhi gave them a laptop and GALCK paid six months rent for a space in Lodwar town, the largest town in north-western Kenya, 624km by car from Nairobi.

The group is small but growing. It started four years ago but had a hiccup when two of the founding members died in a road accident.

Some members are nomadic pastoralists who farm in a system where animals such as cattle, goats and camels are taken to different locations in order to find fresh pastures. Others are from the remote Kakuma Refugee Camp (Kakuma is the Swahili word for "nowhere"). The 50,000 strong camp was established in 1992. Most residents are from southern Sudan, some from Somalia and the last major group from Ethiopia. Other groups include Burundians, Congolese, Eritreans and Ugandans.

The group has found some local support. Founding member Ken* told Wainaina "we were happy to learn that not all people are homophobic as we had previously thought."

But in one incident he was writing a funding proposal in a Lodwar cyber cafe and when the document was printed out the attendant read the document and "accused us of being immoral and bringing foreign cultures to Lodwar. The attendant shouted and held us back while calling the police to arrest us. The cyber-cafés [here] are not private like the ones in Nairobi."

Ken says there have also been instances of health discrimination, nurses saying “Oh we don’t treat such kind of people” which has led to people having to travel to Nairobi. But, he notes, "we have identified gay-friendly health workers who are willing to help but have no training in specialised sexual minority health issues."

Apart from establishing the centre the group recently planted five mwarubaini or Neem trees as a tribute to the late Professor Wangari Maathai (Kenya’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was feted for her contribution to the environment) and to signify a new dawn for sexual minorities in the North Rift.

They also hope to establish a safe house for those fleeing repression in neighbouring countries to Kenya.

Their remoteness in this vast part of Kenya is a problem, for example, in them getting hold of HIV/Aids prevention materials.

Another problem is limited electricity and so they need help in using solar as an alternative source of energy.

Says Ken:

"LGBTI members are moving away from rural areas to bigger cities to live freely. I am committed in creating safe spaces in rural Kenya, we can’t all move to the cities."

* Not his real name

Carving our own path: the pursuit of LGBT rights in the Middle East

Source: MSMGF

By Eli Abu Merhi

It has now been nearly 40 years since the gay liberation movement began in the West. We have four decades on which we can look back, study how far things have come, and examine the major changes that have taken place. Changes have occurred not only in the definition of our rights, but also at the cultural and social level. There is certainly much to look back on.

When one takes account of the major victories that have been achieved across many countries like the UK, South Africa, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States, one feels it is time to raise a glass and celebrate. Yes, this is good! One should celebrate such momentous progress and achievements. Yet, one must also reflect on the path to these victories, seize the lessons of how such progress took place, where it fell short, and why.

It is this kind of examination that holds the most value as we look to the experiences of these countries for lessons for our own movements. I am a gay man living in Lebanon, a country in a region that has seen no shortage of social change in recent years. As we push forward in pursuit of LGBT rights in our own countries, it is tempting to take cues from what has come before us in other parts of the world. Sometimes this is very helpful, and sometimes the unique social and cultural landscapes of the Middle East require us to look inward, to devise our own advocacy solutions tailored to who we are, to our relationships, and to our societies.

The media presents a strong example of the necessity of a different approach in the Middle East.  In some countries, homosexuality has become a selling point in marketing. For example, the very successful American television series “Modern Family” features a gay couple living happily with their adopted daughter in the suburbs of Los Angeles. A number of TV spots have done the same thing, using the image of “gay” to sell products.

The depiction of homosexuality in the Lebanese media has been markedly different. Some companies have used gay characters in ad campaigns – for example, a Lebanese cheese brand has used a gay man in their television ads – but they approached the topic in a humorous way, using the character as a source of entertainment rather than creating a figure the audience could identify with.

Television programs that have tried to depict homosexuality in a less comical, more genuinely positive light have run into a different kind of road block.  UNAIDS recently attempted to shoot a documentary for a Lebanese TV program to promote a “good image” of homosexuality, emphasizing the importance of family acceptance and support. The producers indeed found gay men in Lebanon who were out to their families and enjoyed family acceptance. But, to the surprise of the producers, very few of them agreed to appear on the program. Not even facial distortion or other identity protections could convince them otherwise.

Why this reluctance to appear in the program?  Because their families were not ready to face their communities.  The families requested that their sons deny the offer to take part in the show.  The families could accept that their sons were gay, but they could not face the judgment of their friends and neighbors.  Society is still highly influential – ostracizing not only the gay son, but also the family that embraces him.

It is clear that family acceptance of a son who has relationships with men is just one of many steps on the road to dignity and equality for LGBT people in the Middle East. Empowerment for MSM cannot only be focused on the man himself – it must also include his family. Such pressure on families is high and rising all throughout the Arab world. It will not be easy to test the limits of a community’s understanding toward a family that accepts their MSM son in the region. To say nothing of a son who is also living with HIV. Family empowerment is an essential part of the fight against stigma and for better rights, health, equality and access to HIV services in the Middle East.

It is clear that social change is possible in the Middle East, as evidenced by the sweeping revolutions of the Arab Spring. Some LGBT and HIV activists believe these events not only show that change is possible, but that we should push for the change we want right now, that we should strike while the iron is hot. While the Arab Spring presents new opportunities for change, a closer look at the forces that have shaped the course of events in the region also shows the pitfalls that must be navigated while pushing for our human rights.

When the Arab Spring began, it held within its wings a hope for change – change of many different kinds.  Many MSM took to the streets to push for the changes we want to see. However, as event progressed, the words of the community were overshadowed by organized calls for change from the mosques, launched every Friday after ritual prayers. These calls began as free and genuine, but over time, they were guided more and more by religious clerks. And now? The Muslim Brotherhood is now more influential in Egypt than it ever was before.  MSM were not the only ones to see an opportunity to tip events in their favor.

As religious conservatives are rising to fill the power vacuum, some gay Arab bloggers have been vocally concerned. “In Egypt and Tunisia there was a lot of hope initially that there would be a more tolerant civil society,” said Dan Littauer, the London-based editor of Gay Middle East. “Now it seems that the impetus for change will be hijacked by conservative forces who will make the situation worse for gay people and other minorities…  In Syria and other countries, there's a fear that gay people could be used as sacrificial lambs.”

Despite these challenges, progress is being made. Until relatively recently, homosexuality was illegal in Lebanon. According to article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code, any carnal activity between two people against the order of nature carried a punishment of up to one year in prison.

This law resulted in many people put in jail, as well as the deportation of many migrant workers. However, in March of 2009, Judge Mounir Suleiman from Batroun court district made a landmark decision: he ruled that consensual homosexual relations are not against the order of nature, and thus such cases cannot be prosecuted under article 534.

“Whereas man is part of nature and one of its elements, and a cell within a cell in it, it cannot be said that any practice of his or any behavior of his is against nature even if it is a criminal act because it is the laws of nature,” ruled Judge Suleiman. “If it rained in summer, if a heat wave struck in winter, or if a tree bore fruit after its usual time, it is all in accordance with the system and laws of nature for it is nature itself.”

A beacon of hope?  Perhaps, but certainly case to follow as we build our own path to the rights we deserve.

Eli Abu Merhi is a Lebanese activist and artist, whose work often expresses a critical observation of the community and transmits it with an upfront message that reflects the reality with all its beauty and ugliness. Holder of a law degree and an art student, Eli was born in Beirut, the capital of contradictions. He established OSE, organization for sexuality education in 2011 to lead TOT programs nation-wide defending gender equality, freedom of sexual orientation and liberties.  He is currently a member of the MSMGF steering committee.

Related articles

• Homosexuality acceptance in Moroccan society today (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Lady Gaga speaks out for LGBT rights in Lebanon and the Middle (page2rss.com)

Call to support HIV+ Mexican gay refugee Canada wants to remove

Source: AIDS ACTION NOW!

Call for Immigration Canada to stop the deportation of gay refugee claimants who are living with HIV and face extreme violence if sent home!

To show support for Herberth and call for him to stay, friends of Herbeth, concerned community members, Latinos Positivos and AIDS ACTION NOW! will be holding a support vigil of at Yonge and Dundas Square on November 8, 2011 at 6pm.

Herberth Menendez is a 30 year old Mexican citizen who immigrated to Canada in 2007. He left Mexico to claim refugee status in Canada because he feared for his life due to the intense discrimination and threats of physical violence he faced for being openly gay and living with HIV. Despite having submitted detailed proof of the homophobia and HIV discrimination he has faced in Mexico, Herberth is currently in the final stages of his Pre-Removal Risk Assessment Application. His lawyer has told him there is very little likelihood of his application will be accepted.

Canada has a record of deporting immigrants from many Spanish speaking countries, including Mexico, despite the fact that they have proof they will face violence in their home country if they return.The Mexican Government continues to put up a façade for Canada that homophobic murders do not take place there. However, we sadly hear of cases very often where gay men have been assassinated in Mexico for their sexual orientation or HIV status.

Herberth left Mexico to escape persecution from his neighbors and his own father because he was openly gay and is living with HIV. He was thrown out of his family home by his father and told never to return or he would personally kill him. When Herberth found out he was HIV positive, he suffered discrimination by friends and family and dealt with the intense stigma that exists in the medical community when he sought out health care in Mexico. Nurses and doctors would disclose his HIV-positive status without Herberth’s consent in front of other patients in the clinic without any conscious effort of respecting his confidentiality.

Herberth came to Canada to try and get support and leave a climate of fear and stigma he faced in Mexico. In Toronto, he found Latinos Positivos, an organization dedicated to supporting members of the Latin community who are living with HIV. Members of Latinos Positivos have now become Herberth’s family in Canada. He has volunteered for Latinos Positivos since his arrival and in 2011, Herberth’s drag persona Ashanti Silman was crowned Miss Latinos Positivos. In this role, Herberth has performed at and supported several fundraisers for the organization and helped raise funds for and awareness of their programming. Most recently he contributed efforts towards the production of a pamphlet about HIV and stigma in the Latin community with the Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples and Latinos Positivos.

• For more information on how to help Herberth please contact: aidsactionnowtoronto@gmail.com 

• Email you concern to Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenny: Minister@cic.gc.ca and to the Ontario Minister of Citizen and Immigration, Charles Sousa: csousa.mpp@liberal.ola.org

• Latinos Positivos aims to help empower Latino People Living with HIV and AIDS to move beyond their diagnosis and establish a supportive and accepting Latino community within the AIDS movement.

 

Related articles

• Is the USA closing the door to LGBT Mexican asylum seekers? (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Video: Mexican gay activist fleeing persecution surfaces in San Diego (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• One trans person murdered worldwide every other day, figures show (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Dragging their way to expression (ahjohn.ca)

Did the UN just get a LGBT rights concession from Uganda?

Photo by riekhavoc

By Paul Canning

Since the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process began in 2007 at the Human Rights Council at the United Nations it has both forced governments to defend their polices as well as actually causing them to change them.

The current UPR session has already seen two countries agree to decriminalize homosexuality.

Uganda went into their session last week claiming that [PDF]:

"There is information of covert recruitment, of especially our children and youth, into such practices which we consider to be detrimental to the moral fabric of our society."

No evidence provided of this of course - because none exists.

The 'recruitment' line is one used widely by the proponents of the 'Kill gays' Anti-Homosexuality bill. Chief frontman for the bill, David Bahati MP, was challenged by US MSM news host Rachel Maddow on this last year when he appeared on her show. Specifically, she asked, where is the evidence? Challenged to produce it, he never has. Nor has anyone else.

The Ugandan activist Frank Mugisha was in Geneva for the session and, writing in Huffington Post, declares himself "disheartened and disappointed that my country of Uganda failed once again to take the rights of its LGBTI citizens seriously."

He cites: denial of basic health services; laws criminalizing homosexuality, and; civil society organizations denied the ability to register as official nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

The latter was flat out denied by the Ugandan government representatives present in Geneva. Writes Mugisha:

"For me, this is a laughing matter," writes Mugisha. "LGBTI groups, like the one I lead, will never meet Uganda's NGO criteria, as long as my government regards our work as criminal."

However he notes that a long list of countries from throughout the world "put my government on the spot", including telling Uganda to "stop the false allegations that LGBTI groups solicit young people into homosexuality."

The UPR may have had some effect on Uganda as it did agree to [PDF]:

• Investigate and prosecute intimidation and attacks on LGBT-community members and activists;
• Investigate thoroughly and sanction accordingly violence against LGBTs, including gay rights activists;
• Take immediate concrete steps to stop discrimination and assaults against LGBT persons.

It also agreed to a proposal put forward by Poland to "engage civil society in the process of implementation of UPR recommendations" - to work with NGOs to develop measures which combat violence
Activists within the country meanwhile continue to score small victories. Last week came the agreement of HIV/Aids activists to promote access for gays to HIV prevention and treatment in public health centres in Uganda, reports Behind The Mask.

Uganda's success in reducing national HIV/Aids prevalence from 30 per cent in the 1980s to about 6.4 per cent in 2010, according to Uganda Aids Commission figures, has been at threat because of a funding devotion to abstinence education programs. These have been massively funded by the United States PEPFAR program (which totals around US$280m PA). These near useless HIV/Aids prevention programs are backed by the fiercely Christian Ugandan President's wife, Janet Museveni, and often mean funds going to churches.

Programs for the MSM (men who have sex with men) minority as well as others such as sex workers and prisoners have almost entirely gone unfunded. Those working to combat HIV/Aids have also been reluctant to argue for them. However this is now changing because of grassroots work.

In July LGBT lobby group, Uhspa Uganda, was appointed to a committee to mainstream homosexual’s rights in Uganda’s Public Health Policies.

HIV/AIDS positive men’s leader, Richard Serunkuuma tells Behind The Mask that for more than 20 years he had lived with HIV/Aids and he wants gay people to have the same level of access to care, treatment and support. He decried the proposed Anti Homosexuality Bill that would make medical workers report their gay clients to police by virtue of information obtained when gay people visit health centres in Uganda.

Related articles

• Uganda's Lgbti Community and Aids Activists Unite in Health Access Campaign (mask.org.za)
• Tackling the Challenge of Hiv/aids in Uganda's Lgbti Community (mask.org.za)
• Major human rights award goes to Ugandan lesbian (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• As LGBT space closes in Kampala, Uganda tells UN that gays 'recruit' (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Does the world care about gays in Cameroon?

N'Kom image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

Two men arrested in August in Cameroon for looking effeminate and who reportedly "confessed" to homosexuality after being tortured are being defended today 10 October in court by the legendary Cameroonian LGBT human rights defender Alice N'Kom.

This morning she sent out a message:

"I'm about to walk into a courtroom in downtown Yaoundé to defend Jonas, 19 and Franky, 20 - two Cameroonian boys arrested last July for the "crime" of being gay."

"It's going to be a tough one, but I've never felt so strong: I know I have your support and 55,000 people behind me."

N'Kom is referring to a petition by allout.org. A third man was arrested with Jonas and Franky but bailed, according to the Cameroon LGBT group Association for Defense of Homosexuality (ADEFHO), "thanks largely to his money". N'Kom continues:

"Your efforts are having an immediate impact. My cell phone has been ringing non-stop with everyone from diplomats to human rights organizations and high profile media telling me that they are now paying attention to the crisis here. Also, I just heard that today's case is being closely monitored at the highest levels of our government. The Ministry of Justice knows the world is watching and that Cameroon's reputation is at stake."

"This is really positive - but many of the people arrested because they are gay are still in jail, and the violence is ongoing. We need to show the authorities that we will not stop until everyone is released, and until homosexuality is no longer criminalized under Cameroon's laws."

At least ten men have been arrested and imprisoned for homosexuality in Cameroon so far this year. Roger Jean Claude Mbede is one imprisoned in Yaoundé Central Prison (Kondengui) for homosexuality. According to Alternatives-Cameroun he is suffering in a state of deplorable health and lack of food with his left eye without treatment or medications.

"He told us he slept on the ground since his imprisonment, and is abandoned by most of his family members who regard  him as a wizard," they said.

Amnesty International is running an international campaign demanding Mbede's release.

A proposed revision to Cameroon's criminal code will equate homosexuality with pedophilia, according to activists.

Two new by-laws punish homosexual acts on minors between 16 and 21 years of age to eight years in jail with 10-15 year terms available for acts committed on minors younger than 16, activist Stéphane Koche told AFP.

Although 55,000 is a lot the number pales in comparison to other international petitions. So N'Kom is asking for further support and to push the petition numbers over 100,000. Supporters can send a message via Facebook or Twitter. Another option is to tweet to President Biya's account.

Cameroon is a member of the Commonwealth, one of only two non-former British colonies to join.

There is a major campaign to get the issue of homosexuality and HIV/Aids onto the agenda of the Commonwealth leaders summit in Perth, Australia, from 28-30 October. Laws like Cameroon's stop people who are at greater risk of HIV from accessing key prevention services and life-saving treatment services. As a result more people are infected and ultimately more people will die.

• Sign the letter urging action to stop HIV.

Related articles

• Cameroon: Jailed for Texting? Major new campaign launched (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• In Cameroon, proposed law change equates homosexuality with pedophilia (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• In Cameroon, arrested gays 'tortured into confessing homosexuality' (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Cameroon's longtime strongman seeks another term (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

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.

Gay Ghanians come out as civil society abandons them

Picture ACCRA [dot] ALT

By Paul Canning

Fed up with both day after day of nasty newspaper headlines and one civil society leader after another abandoning them, last Friday Accra's gay community came out, one-by-one, at a major 'straight' forum.

Ghanian blogger Graham Knight described the collective coming out as "remarkable".

The forum was the 'Talk Parti', a monthly space for Accra's "dopest artists and media creatives". It "provides a space for young people to create innovative projects, exchange ideas about global art and politics."

"The event last week showed the [voguing] film Paris is Burning and they had invited [gay leader] Prince MacDarling and his crew," says Knight, "some of whom represented his Coalition Against Homophobia in Ghana (CAHG). One by one, these guys stood up and announced they were gay (or gay but with girlfriend)."

In a Facebook comment, Independent Filmmaker Akua Ofosuhene said:

"It was great to see such a self confident, articulate, sharin and stylish Accra Gay community. The discussions were great and testimony to all that is great in Ghana."

Knight said that in the discussion gay people said that all the recent negative press had actually highlighted the issue to isolated MSM's (Men who have Sex with Men) and "showed they were not alone". As a result: "They didn't seem to have any strong views on the negative publicity."

The attacks on LGBT in the media began after a false but widely repeated report in May claiming that '8000 homosexuals had been registered' at an NGO.

The origins of the 'registered homosexuals' story are a humble USAID workshop, wrote Graham Knight in June:

"The workshop was attended by about 30 health workers. One of the doctors present made a wild guess that there were 8000 MSMs [men who have sex with men] in the combined Western and Eastern regions. It seems that this unsubstantiated opinion has been leapt upon by the media whilst refusing to give the background to the claim. It has led the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare to publicly state that no NGO is registering homosexuals in Ghana."

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In India, non-hijra transgenders struggle for identity

Image via Wikipedia

Source: DNA

There are several transgender identities that exist in South India. There are the female to male transgender identities of Thirunambigal in Tamil Nadu, Magaraidu in Andhra Pradesh and Gandabasaka in Karnataka. Then there are male to female identities such as the kothi, hijra (also called Aravanis and Thirunangaigal in Tamil Nadu), Jogappa in Northern Karnataka, Jogatha in Andhra Pradesh and Shiva Shakti in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Not all of these various identities are as well known as the hijra identity which has become societally synonymous with transgender identity. This is mainly because of the historic visibility of this community which has self-organised a cultural and social space through a Guru-Chela system.

This acts as a support to a lot of young hijras/kothis who leave their homes and join one of the seven Gharanas as ‘daughters’ or ‘chelas’ under their gurus. The hijra/kothi can often be seen at traffic lights carrying out their “basti collections” — one of the few occupations this community has struggled to provide for itself in a hostile and discriminatory society.

The HIV/AIDS funding that India receives has resulted in the setting up of many NGOs across the subcontinent which “target” the kothi as a primary carrier of the infection. But the gender identity of the kothi is glossed over by the easy conflation of the NGO term MSM (men who have sex with men) with kothi. Kothis are not men. They are male-bodied but identify as female.

Jogappas are young male children usually from dalit or other ‘backward’ castes, sometimes even from Muslim families in northern Karnataka, who are dedicated to the Goddess of Yellamma. They wear female clothes and act as mediators between devotees and the Goddess. They are forbidden to marry.

The Jogappa is not a category exclusively for transgenders but is a traditional space that permits cross-gender expression. This provides a lot of transgender women with a legitimate space to express their non-normative identities in society.

I identify as a Thirunambi. Female to male transgender. Long before I knew what I was, I knew I was gender non-conforming. Only recently did I find the terms that best describe what I am and found people who are similarly gendered. A person born as female but with the gender expression that is male. I struggled for several years of my life trying to articulate what I am. To tell my family, friends and lovers that I am not a woman who is boyish. But a man.

There are diverse ways to be a transgender man. Some of us want sex change surgeries, some don’t, some of us identify as heterosexual, some as lesbian or gay, yet others as multi-sexual. Some of us are more fluid with our genders than others. Some of us have been forced into marriages with men by our families, while others managed to leave our biological families to find limited freedom by migrating to other cities.

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