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)

2011 round up: Part one: Marriage equality

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

What stood out on the international LGBT human rights front in 2011? A lot. But lets go out on a limb and pick three things.

• The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the ban on lesbians and gays in the US military, in September.
• The appearance of LGBT organising, at some level, in most African countries. (See, for example, what's happening in Mozambique in a post from January).
• The death of the last known gay survivor of the Holocaust, Rudolf Brazda, in France.*

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

Marriage equality

In terms of The News, international reporting, this was the year of same-sex marriage.

Same-sex marriage (or 'marriage equality' or 'gay marriage') was a leading international concern - whether in the West or raised as a chimeric threat, particularly in Africa. This year it was legalised in the second most populous US state, home to the UN and intentional media - New York state. American polls also, for the first time, showed clear majority support for marriage equality.

The immigration problems of bi-national, same-sex couples due to the Bill Clinton-era federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) drew national attention in America, but the Obama administration was criticised for being slow to act to use its powers to stop deportations of husbands and wives.

In the UK the Conservative-led government committed itself to marriage equality, there is to be a consultation next year, with Tory Prime Minister David Cameron famously saying he supported it because he was a conservative. The Scottish Nationalist government in Scotland appears likely to legalise same-sex marriage too, although there has been a strong, Catholic Church-led backlash.

In France, although marriage equality failed in the French parliament it is rumored that President Nicholas Sarkozy will announce his support in elections next year, supposedly inspired by Cameron's comments. But in Spain, lesbians and gays fear that a new conservative government may go backwards and convert gay marriages into gay civil unions.

It's been proposed by the Luxembourg government and by the Finnish government, and the Danish government permitted gay marriage in churches. The German parliament is going to vote on marriage equality next year. Civil partnerships are being mooted in Poland and Estonia - a first in a post-Soviet Union state.

Last month the governing Australian Labor Party supported same-sex marriage, though its leader does not and it is likely to fail when it reaches the parliament next year.

In July the Constitutional Court of Colombia ordered the Colombian government to legislate on same-sex relationship recognition - and that if they fail to, same-sex couples will be granted all marriage rights in two years.

Brazil's Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples are legally entitled to civil unions, and same-sex marriage will be included in the new Nepalese constitution.

In October, in a little noticed but extremely interesting case, a Kenyan court recognised 'traditional' same-sex marriage.

In July, a court in Delhi, India, effectively recognised the marriage of a lesbian couple, whilst ordering that the state must protect them.

* NOTE: Brazda is the last known survivor of the concentration camps. Gad Beck, who managed to escape the camps and helped others survive, is still living.

Video: Queer Pride celebrated in Delhi and Bangalore

Picture by Aditya Bondyopadhyay

Some 2000 people joined the forth Delhi Queer Pride 27 November, the second since India's Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality.

Organized by the Delhi Queer Pride Committee, all permissions were taken from the Delhi Police to host this march, and the police provided security cover during the event with over 40 male and female police personnel present.

The march ended in Jantar Mantar with a reading of the 'Charter of Demands for LGBT Rights' and a 2 minute silence for those Hijra sisters who died in the recent Nand Nagri fire tragedy.

India TV News quoted Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, who recently participated in the fifth season of TV reality show ‘Big Boss’, saying:

“Most of those who died were prominent gurus. When parents shut their doors to a hijra child born in the family, it is these gurus who adopt them. They are like our parents. Many in my community have been orphaned.”

Delhi LGBT held a parade, titled 'Jashn-e-Azadi' (a celebration of freedom), in June on the second anniversary of the Supreme court decision to spread awareness about the problems faced by the community like forced marriages, discrimination at workplace, social stigma and ostracisation.


In Bangalore, 800 attended the Pride march 30 November, the culmination of a week-long festival organised by the Campaign for Sexualities Minorities Rights (CSMR).

The Hindu reported:

A highlight of Pride 2011 was that many new people participated, irrespective of their sexual orientation. “The garage sale [a fundraiser] and poster-making sessions brought the participation of several enthusiastic persons, some of them first-timers. And the pride march attracted techies who announced their support to the LGBT community with heart-warming placards. All these are positive signs that the LGBT community is slowly gaining acceptance,” said CSMR volunteer Sowmya Reddy

More video

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Video: 365 without 377

Imposed under the British colonial rule in 1860, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code criminalised any sexual acts between consenting adults of the same sex, stigmatizing them as 'against the order of nature'. On 2 July 2009 the Delhi High Court passed a landmark judgment scrapping this clause, thus fulfilling the most basic demand of the Indian LGBTQ community, which had been fighting this law for the past 10 years.

Three characters, Beena, Pallav and Abheena travel through the city of Bombay heading to the celebrations for the first anniversary of the historic verdict. '365 without 377' is the story of their journey towards freedom.

How a lack of ID impacts transgender people in the worst situations

Bhumika Shrestha

By Kyle Knight

Last summer when Bhumika Shrestha travelled to New York City to represent Nepal at the United Nations, she encountered some special questions during her layover in Doha. Shrestha, who is transgender -- or, in Nepal, third-gender -- presents as an elegant young woman. Her passport and citizenship ID card, however, both list her as a man named Kailash.





In Qatar, airline officials pulled her aside and questioned her about her passport and her appearance but eventually let her go.

The experience was unpleasant for Shrestha but not unsafe. In the worst-case scenario, the documentation discrepancy would have sent her home on the next flight to Kathmandu.

"They asked me questions, and I was scared to fail on my first trip to the U.S.," she recalls, "but then they believed my story that I was transgender and let me get on the plane."

Like so many transgender people, Shrestha faces daily administrative struggles. As Paisley Currah, professor of Political Science at City University of New York, explains in a paper titled "Securitizing Gender: Identity, Biometrics, and Transgender Bodies at the Airport," "When an individual's cultural legibility is not affirmed by their identity papers, even everyday quotidian transactions become moments of vulnerability."

However, while common transactions might be difficult, in situations where security is heightened -- such as at the airport -- discrepancies between gender presentation and documentation can make transgender people the targets of increased scrutiny, neglect, or abuse.

Such vulnerability can be aggravated by emergency conditions. Similar to situations at the airport, during emergencies that require intensified security, people who don't conform to gendered expectations become anomalies, and anomalies get special -- and sometimes unjust -- attention. Several countries have seen this happen. International relief agencies admit there is a dearth of attention paid to this issue.

Nepal, with its protected legal status for third-gender citizens, and currently in a disaster preparedness phase awaiting an earthquake, provides a compelling case study for how gender-appropriate ID can protect citizens in emergency situations. The stories from other disasters support government issuance of third-gender ID documents, a move the central government in Nepal has yet to make.

The Importance of Being Eunuch

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Gujarati movie explores gay issues

Prince Manavendra Singh Gohil

Source: Times of India

A Gujarati movie 'Meghdhanush [rainbow] - The colour of life' aims to explore the psychological anguish and difficulties that homosexuals face at various stages of their lives. Manavendra Singh Gohil, erstwhile prince of Rajpipla and gay rights activist, was in the city on Saturday dubbing for the movie in which he has a guest appearance.

"This is my way of expressing my support to the movie," said Gohil. "Mainstream cinema is a powerful medium to discuss any issue. We can talk and argue about our rights as part of a gay community, but when a person from outside the community makes a movie about gays, people can understand our perspective."

Citing the difficulties that gays face, Gohil said, "Unawareness is a major reason for discrimination of homosexuals. While coming out to my parents was a bit easier, coming out in front of the world was more difficult. The public outcry did unnerve me but I had resolved that I will break the general homosexuality-related misconceptions and advance my work in gay rights and awareness."

'Meghdhanush' aims to create some awareness on the issue. It is a family drama, which takes the audience through a homosexual's anxiety and problems. Director Dr D N Devmani said, "It is an effort from our side to spread the message of respecting and accepting any individual, not ridiculing him."

The movie features gay actors along with Gujarati cinema's seasoned actors Jeet Upendra and Asha Panchal. "The support from the cast and crew of the movie was heartwarming," says the director. "Gay rights can not be won in courtrooms but should be won in the hearts and minds of people," said Manavendra. "Our duty is to educate people, no matter how long it takes."

Related articles

• Video: Major Pakistan newspaper focuses on homosexuality (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

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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In Nepal, LGBT group wants to help refugees from South Asia

Source: Times of India

After organising beauty pageants for gays and transgenders, followed by extravagant same sex weddings, Nepal will now move to more sombre issues, becoming the first country in South Asia to offer shelter to battered gays.

While several Nepali NGOs have been running shelters for women, who are the victims of domestic violence, and survivors of trafficking, Blue Diamond Society, Nepal's pioneering gay rights organisation, is set to become the only NGO in South Asia to offer a shelter to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBTs) who face violence in their own countries due to their different sexual orientations.

The LGBT Centre for South Asia, the first of its kind, is coming up in Kathmandu's Dhumbarahi area. The five-storey building will have conferencing facilities, a theatre, a clinic and a shelter for members of the community who face violence and death threats in their own countries.

"In countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan non-conformity is taboo and members of the community face violence and even the possibility of death," says Sunil Babu Pant, the founder of Blue Diamond Society and Nepal's only openly gay MP. 

"We had a pair of teenaged girls from Kolkata run away from home and come to us for help. One was from the Hindu community and one Muslim and there was additional parental anger. The shelter is meant for persecuted people like them."

In a gesture that has endeared it to Nepal's gay community, the republic's first Maoist government in 2008, headed by Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, made budgetary allocations for them and the land for the centre was bought with the money - NRS 25-30 lakh a year. Further assistance came from the Danish and Norwegian governments. Norway donated $150,000 for the construction of two buildings after Blue Diamond Society, then working from rented offices in Kathmandu, faced regular trouble with landlords, who threw them out under pressure from neighbours.

The last eviction caused deep distress especially as Blue Diamond Society was then also running a hospice for gays with HIV/AIDS. Pant described how the sick patients had to be moved on stretcher. Currently, there are 20-30 people at any given time in the hospice, with some of them being at the terminal stage and disowned by their families.

Pant says the centre should be up and running in the next 15 months - provided they manage to raise the rest of the money needed. Currently, Blue Diamond Society is seeking to raise $150-170,000 to complete the project.

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How 'Global South' lesbians are using the internet

Image via Wikipedia

Source: GenderIT.org

By Esther Nasikye

As personal computers became relatively inexpensive, the Internet has become an ever-increasing part of people’s day-to-day lives. People use the internet to communicate, educate, organise as networks, access information, find jobs - the list is endless. The World Wide Web however, is being progressively devoured by the implementation of national intranets whose content is "approved" by the authorities. In 2009, some sixty countries experienced a form of Web censorship, which is twice as many as in 2008.

Governments have come up with different ways to censor information on the internet including banning and blocking of sites, censorship of material by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), content filtering by key word and so on. During 2008 – 2010, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) conducted the Exploratory Research on Sexuality and the Internet (EroTICS) to find out how different people are using the internet in relation to their sexuality. The research was conducted in Brazil, India, Lebanon, South Africa and the United States. I talked to the researchers from India and South Africa to find out their experiences and their take on the findings.

This research was special because it was among the first to bring to the fore issues of sexuality and the internet. Manjima Bhattacharjya one of the researchers in India explains that the project was special because, “it was on a theme that was under-researched in India (while doing our literature review we had difficulties in finding enough relevant literature on how women were using the internet)," she said.

“It was with middle class women in urban India - especially young women who are on the whole under-represented in feminist research in India; and it was a cross country project - which meant that the theme was in many ways universal," she adds.

With the research being conducted in five different countries on separate continents, the research gives a sense of how cultural differences make such a difference to the ways in which the internet plays out in peoples' lives, but also how universal the need for free expression and access to information is.

Interesting stories from the research 

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Video: In India, decriminalisation fails to smudge gay stigma

Source: cheesecrackers23

Delhi Gay Pride 2011



Source: India Today

By Suhas Munshi and Hakeem Irfan

Hundreds from the Capital's vibrant lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community gathered in all their colourful glory at Jantar Mantar on Saturday 2 July to celebrate two years of the Delhi High Court's historic decision to decriminalise homosexuality. But behind the multi-hued masks lay the regret that even after the repeal of the Indian Penal Code's Section 377, society still won't let them be.

For most homosexuals and transgenders, issues such as forced marriages, discrimination at workplace, social stigma and ostracisation are still very much a reality. Participants at the parade, titled 'Jashn-e-Azadi' (a celebration of freedom), said they had gathered at Jantar Mantar not only to celebrate the second anniversary of the high court judgment but also to spread awareness about the problems faced by the community. Organisers of the parade issued a statement, titled 'Celebrating freedom', which detailed the demands of the community.

It urged the government to pass an anti-discrimination law to address sexual orientation and gender identity issues. "The authorities should end discrimination against members of the LGBT community at work places, schools, hospitals and other institutions," the statement read. They also demanded that the Supreme Court uphold the 2009 high court decision, besides the setting up of transgender boards across the country.

Another demand was to increase sex education and counselling in schools. It is the absence of these that was one of the causes making it difficult for the "general Indian public" to accept the existence of gays and lesbians, they said.

The participants also demanded the provision of better health care facilities and a ban on the surgical and psychiatric medical intervention to alter gender or sex without proper legal consent.

On July 2, 2009, the high court had struck down the provisions of Section 377 that criminalised consensual sex between two adults of the same gender, saying it violated the fundamental rights as guaranteed in the Constitution.

On Saturday 2 July, Jashn-e-Azadi saw a band, Delhi Circle, performing on catchy lyrics. Many participants read out interesting poems narrating their own experience.

"I am gay and I am proud," Adrien Field, a New Yorker, said. Field is a fashion consultant with Vibe magazine. He said the HC decision was a "proud moment for the Indian society as people of various sexual orientations could finally come out in the open".

"Back in New York, we're quite cool about being gays or cross-dressers. But talking to my friends here, I find the acceptance of society still missing. It seems to be difficult to be a gay and an Indian at the same time," Field said. Many at the parade echoed Field's views, saying even after the repeal of Section 377, the largely spiteful perceptions in the Indian society towards homosexuals and transgenders had remained unchanged. Most of those at the gathering preferred to be concealed behind costumes and masks, saying they feared being photographed or video-taped and then being subjected to humiliation at home or workplace if someone saw the footage.

On the question of the feasibility of LGBT people getting to know each other openly in a city like Delhi, participants said joints meant exclusively for gays did exist, but the details of most of them are kept hidden. "I think it's wrong to say that gays can easily come out of the closet. Gays are still persecuted largely everywhere in the India. Most of us only come out in certain pubs and bars, about which we cannot advertise openly for the fear of being hurt," Rajeev, who works as a business analyst in an MNC, said.

Earlier in June, the United Nations Human Rights Council upheld the universal declaration of human rights. It passed a resolution on human rights violation based on sexual orientation and gender identity. "We have to reform social and institutional practices. We are celebrating tolerance and diversity. "The big struggle is on," Atul of Queer Campus, an independent group of LGBT students that organises regular discussions and programmes on the issue, said.

Video: How the European Union is supporting international LGBT rights

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Intergroup on LGBT rights

On 30 June 2011, the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights held a hearing on LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex) rights in the world. Members of the European Parliament, European Parliament staff, European Commission staff, ambassadors and members of the public heard from human rights defenders, civil society and high-level EU civil servants about the human rights of LGBTI people worldwide.


Andrzej Grzyb MEP, acting Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights opened the event.


Andrzej Grzyb MEP: Introduction from LGBT Intergroup on Vimeo.

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Australia's refugee bureaucrats have strange ideas about gays and lesbians

Sydney Mardi Gras image via Wikipedia

By Senthorun Raj

When did clubbing and being sexually active become the reference points for measuring someone’s sexuality? Recent decisions by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) and the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) suggest that Western cultural stereotypes prevail in the determination of sexuality-based asylum claims.

The Refugee Convention 1951 outlines that asylum seekers must demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of a protected ground to be considered a refugee. The protected categories include ethnicity, nationality, religion, social group or political opinion. In Australian law, sexuality, or specifically "homosexuality", has been considered a protected identity under the category of "social group" since Morato’s case in the Federal Court in 1992.

Historically, claims made by sexual minorities have been met with resistance from decision-makers who have argued that persecution can be avoided if the asylum seeker chooses to remain "discreet". Stereotypes underlying the need for discretion are predicated on the assumption that gay men are excessively promiscuous, often seeking sex in public, and dangerous to the mores of society. These social imaginaries characterise any form of public affection as indicative of "overt sexual activity" that should be "rightly" condemned.

A 1999 case concerned a Chinese asylum seeker who was beaten and detained for three months for kissing another man in public. The Federal Court sought to dismiss the claim on the basis that Gui lacked appropriate discretion with respect to Chinese cultural norms and ought to have engaged in his display of homosexuality privately. In 2003 these discretion tests were rejected by the majority of the High Court — but the moralising rhetoric that underpins the so-called need for discretion continues to haunt current decisions.

Conversely, female applicants often face the opposite problem. Their claims are deemed to lack credibility because they do not conform to a highly visible stereotype of public promiscuity and consumption. In a 2008 case, a female applicant from Mongolia was questioned because her experiences of intimacy were not highly public or visible. The judge said:

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‘Being gay in India is about disclosure, not morality’

Source: Sunday Pioneer

Sunil Gupta discusses his photo-book Queer and tells Shana Maria Verghis how gay issues in India and US differ, the latest developments on Section 377 and that it is still hard to find a place to hang out with his tribe in Delhi

On July 2, 2009, a provision in Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalised sexual acts of adults in private, was struck down. The verdict was that it violated the Right to Equality, Protection of Life and Liberty. Photographer Sunil Gupta, who also works with the queer collective Nigah, explained that, “We recently went to the Supreme Court again, because many petitions were filed against the judgment by religious and extremist groups. But now there is a recess for the summer break.”

In collaboration with Vadhera Art Gallery, Gupta brought out collections of various photo-documentaries he shot over the years in a book called Queer. This provides glimpses into gay communities in India, US and Europe, among whom he has lived and worked.

Gupta had moved to US to study in the 60s, when the country was in flux of the Civil Rights Movements, feminism and Gay Pride marches. A mood he said he feels in India now, where he returned to settle in 2005. He told us, “It is like I’m reliving my youth.”

But it never has been a walkover for LGBT’s of the world. Least of all in US, despite Barack Obama’s support of the Matthew Shepherd Act, adopted as an amendment in 2009. Matthew Shepard was a 21-year-old, who in 1998, was tortured, tied to a fence and left to die, after he told two men, who offered him a lift, that he was gay. Later in... in on his way to the red-carpet Oscar function, where he was awarded for his role as US’ first openly gay politician in Milk, Sean Penn had faced wrath of homophobic protestors.

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Video: Film explores homosexuality in the Arab world

Source Bangalore Mirror

By Sudha Pillai

He is young. He is daring. He is of Lebanese/ Palestinian origin, living in Dubai. And...he is a homosexual man.

One can get killed or at least jailed for being homosexual in that part of the world (In Dubai, as in most Arab countries, homosexuality is a crime punishable by a jail sentence ranging from 3-15 years). In this backdrop, Fadi Hindash has pushed the boundaries even further by making a film about homosexuality in Dubai and the hypocratic ways of the Arab world.

One might think that Fadi has a death wish, but then Fadi prefers to live his life and tell his stories with integrity rather than cloak himself in hypocrisy. In his film Not Quite the Taliban, the young filmmaker talks about his own homosexuality and also confronts the modern generation of Arabs who he feels are more conservative than the previous generations.

Fadi Hindash, screenwriter and director of documentary and feature films, talks to Bangalore Mirror. Excerpts

Q: What is Not Quite the Taliban all about?

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Video: In India, despite descriminalisation, gay activists say nothing has changed

Video by the new Equal India Alliance.

Source: The Times of India

The Delhi High Court may have decriminalised homosexuality a year ago, but leading gay rights activists today claimed that nothing has changed on the ground as homosexuals still face discrimination and harassment including by police.

"It was one of the momentous judgements in the last 60 years. But still on the ground nothing has changed. Police still target the community. They are often beaten up and harassed," Ashok Row Kavi of Humsafar Trust said.

He was speaking at a panel discussion on "Gay Rights as Civil Rights:Perspectives from the US and India."

He, however, admitted that a lot of issues have opened up following the Delhi High Court judgement.

Director of Naz foundation Anjali Gopalan said the favourable court ruling had come after an eight-year battle but the plight of lesbians in India continues to be the "worst".

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The US Federal Government destroyed my life

Image by Francisco Diez via Flickr  

Source: Engayging Life

By Kris Bass

It’s coincidental that I am posting this around the time President Obama is visiting India for his 10-day South East Asia tour. This is just after the mid-term elections in the US during which the Republicans, helped by the Boston Tea Party, gained many seats to assume majority in the House. The failure of Obama, and the Democrats in general, is considered to be due to his failure to pull back the economy on right track, unemployment, and the medical policy.

I am not a citizen of the United States. Yet, I follow the various developments in the States scrupulously. Why? Because, in one way or the other, the Federal Government’s policies are responsible for the situation my life is in right now. I’m talking about its stand on immigration equality for same-sex partners. My life was turned upside down because I couldn’t be with Vinokur, a citizen of the United States. Despite us being partners for life and having being almost engaged to each other, I couldn’t be with him in the States in the first place, which forced him to consider visiting me during a time when his health was not at its best. Now having been separated, Vinokur has found a new partner and has moved on.

Why am I bringing this up now? Because I know of another beautiful couple who are facing separation because the Indian partner being denied a visa to stay in the States. My friend Danny from the state of California, which has illegalized same-sex marriages after a brief period of legalization, had met his Indian partner a few years back, when he was graduating at the University. In a year’s time, they met each other and moved in with each other in Danny’s home. Danny’s boyfriend later found a job and had started working there.

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Launching: LGBT India Foundation

Image by Marco Bellucci via Flickr   By Nitin Rao

Over 30 million of our fellow Indian citizens identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, and deserve greater equality at colleges, in the workplace and society at large. By kick-starting a visible and mainstream conversation, we can work with you to get there.

As our first project, in Winter 2010, we will be building a much needed online resource to answer the "basics" on LGBT issues, and to bring gay-straight citizens together in one progressive community. For a country with the largest young LGBT population in the world, it shocks us that this doesn't quite exist as it should.

In 2011, we will accelerate work on two more initiatives:

• Supporting large companies in creating "safe spaces" at the workspace for LGBT employees to confidentially connect with resources and mentors. Our initial partners will be companies in the technology, finance and consulting sectors, that already have LGBT initiatives outside of India
• Supporting inspiring young leaders at Indian colleges launching gay-straight student clubs, by providing them with funding, opportunities to connect at a conference, and mentorship.

We are deeply grateful to TED for their support and inspiration, and will be sharing updates at http://www.lgbtindia.org/. Please feel free to send me a message over LinkedIn if you would like to get involved.

In India, no activists for poor gay men

Source: Express News Service

By Ashley Tellis

It has been more than a month now since news broke of Irfan trying to commit suicide by self-immolation. Irfan is the rikshawalla who went home with Prof Siras on the day he was illegally filmed having consensual sex with Siras at his house after which the latter was suspended from the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

Siras was subsequently found dead and the case is still under investigation as it is not clear if it was murder or suicide. Instead of interrogating the allegedly corrupt and sick Vice Chancellor of AMU, the various officials involved in the so-called ‘sting operation’ and the hypocrites and cowards in AMU, the police have been consistently harassing this rikshawalla. They have taken him into custody over three times now (though there is no FIR or anything against him) and beat him severely.

Irfan’s desperation at this continued harassment and abuse forced him to attempt to end his life. His wife saved his life and reports say his only crime was to have sex with Siras in an attempt to make some money.

The classist and elitist nature of the so-called queer movement becomes clear here. Where are the emails expressing outrage at the harassment of Irfan? Where are the online campaigns collecting signatures in support of Irfan? Where is the fact-finding committee on the harassment of Irfan? Where are the NGOs who work with MSMs (surely Irfan qualifies as one) when they are needed to protect a poor rikshawalla from being systematically tormented by the police?

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India: making progress for LGBT

Image by Jace via Flickr

Source: Sydney Star Observer

By Andie Noonan

It’s almost a year since a Delhi court ruled to repeal section 377 of India’s 149-year-old penal code which made homosexuality a punishable crime.

Parmesh Shahani, Indian magazine editor and author of Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India, told Sydney Star Observer, on a recent visit to Australia, his country was still in a “transition” phase.

“The change that has taken place in India hasn’t just taken place legally, it’s taken place tremendously within the social and cultural realm,” he said.

“Not just activists, regular people, company managers, workers in factories, housewives, mums dads, these are all people who read the newspapers and read about what’s happening in the rest of the world and it certainly impacts on the way they view homosexuality in India.”

Shahani — who published his book in 2008 — said although general views on homosexuality have shifted in the last few decades the court decision was a critical step.

“I think the past few years have been simply phenomenal because when the book came out, homosexuality was still criminal,” he said.

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Israel: Gay father of twins born to Indian surrogate denied permission to bring his sons home

Source: Haaretz

By Tomer Zarchin

A homosexual father of twins who were born to a surrogate mother in India is being denied permission to enter the country with his infant sons. The move stems from a family court's refusal to issue a standard legal order that would pave the way for the children to obtain Israeli citizenship.

For the past two months Dan Goldberg and his twin sons, Itai and Liron, have been staying at a Mumbai hotel, awaiting permission from the Jerusalem Family Court to proceed with a paternity test that would determine whether he is indeed their biological father.

Until the test is performed, the babies will not be granted entry into the country, nor will they be eligible to receive health insurance or medical treatments.

In dozens of prior instances, family courts have issued decrees requiring Israeli parents of children born abroad to undergo DNA testing to confirm they are in fact the biological parents - a prerequisite for the childrens' naturalization as Israeli citizens.

In Goldberg's case, the twin boys were delivered by a gestational carrier who had been implanted with an embryo from another woman. Goldberg cannot legally bring the babies into the country without permission from the court to perform a paternity test.

Judge Philip Marcus, unlike his colleagues on other family court benches, rendered a decision this past March in which he stated that he lacked the jurisdiction to issue a court order for Goldberg to take a paternity test. In addition to the Goldberg case, Marcus has also delayed issuing decrees in two other instances involving homosexual couples from Jerusalem expecting the birth of their children via surrogacy.

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