Home / Contact / Stories, News & Reports / Photos Worldwide Gay Life,
Sites and Insights International Gay News & Reports 2005-06 Also see: Homosexuality
Laws Around the World The countries of the world have a wide
variety of laws relating to sexual relations between people of the
same sex - everything from full legal recognition of same-sex marriage
to the death penalty as punishment for homosexual conduct. 1 Queer Peace International's new website 6/05 2 Proposed bill in U.S. Senate hopes to unite gay couples split
by nationality 7/05 3 Gays And Globalism: Homosexuality: Progress vs Polarization 2/06 4 Modern Gays in Modern Eastern Europe 3/06 5
H.H. Dalai Lama's Human Rights Statement: 6 International
Meeting a Success--ILGA 23rd World Conference in Geneva 4/06 7a MSM and HIV/AIDS Risk in Asia: What Is Fueling the Epidemic Among MSM? 8/06 8 New Online Library Documents LGBT Human Rights Abuses Worldwide 10/06 9 Global warming to gay rights 12/06 10 Historic recognition of LGBT organisations at the United Nations 12/06 11 Report on ILGA's activities at the United Nations in 2006 12/06 12 EU nations “sharply divided” over gay marriage 12/06 13 The United Nations at the Fulcrum 12/06
June 18, 2005 1 Queer Peace International Initiative and Website Launch Queer Peace International is a consortium of gay, lesbian, trans-identified, questioning and straight allies identifying as Queer which aims to build peace and reconciliation through Queer communities around the world. QPI is based in Toronto, Canada and represents a network of non-political organizations in 25 countries. QPI’s activities include consolidating efforts to address relevant concerns and issues addressing Queer citizens at international and world forums. QPI will work with its international partners in facilitating fact-seeking and skills-building development missions; and acting as a global networking agent to further create positive and sustainable change for all. Queer Peace International is pleased to announce the launch of its new website <www.queerpeace.org> which will further actualize international efforts for peace-building and raising the standards of living conditions for LGBT people across the globe. To join or learn more about QPI, please visit our website or contact Robert Mizzi, Executive Director. Robert Mizzi
Executive Coordinator
'Two tough
hurdles'
February 2006 3 by Jeremy
Seabrook There is, of course, a great difference between ‘homosexuality’ (a word coined only in 1869 by a Hungarian doctor) and same-sex relationships, which are universal and rooted in all cultures. This legacy of the Raj – rarely invoked – nevertheless remains; a signal that homosexuality is an alien concept contrary to Indian tradition, even though the practice is of great antiquity. One of the most sensitive and tangible monitors of the direction of human societies – whether they are becoming more progressive or more conservative – is their response to same-sex relationships between men. In many countries – not all of them Western – there is a broad tendency to extend legal recognition to such relationships. Denmark was the first country to do so in 1989, followed by Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland. Britain followed suit at the end of 2005. Much of Africa, and the Islamic world, are moving in the opposite direction. The West makes much of its enlightenment in these matters. This is a relatively recent development. If it is widely cited as evidence of the advance of social justice in the West, it also defines us against cultures which regard homosexuality as a sin, punishable in certain states by death. The last execution for sodomy in Britain took place in 1836. It remained a capital offence until 1861. Just over a century later same-sex relationships between men over 21 were decriminalized. Until the 1950s homosexuality was branded as a ‘sexual deviation’ by mental health professionals. In the United States the last lobotomy designed to ‘cure’ homosexuality was carried out in 1951, although aversion therapy continued into the 1960s and beyond. The American Psychiatric Association declared homosexuality no longer a medical disorder in 1973. The World Health Organization removed it from its list of mental illnesses only 15 years ago. China persecuted gays under ‘hooliganism’ laws, which were scrapped in 1997 and in 2001 removed from its list of mental illnesses. Japan had done so in 1995, but Thailand, perhaps surprisingly, waited until 2002. While South Africa was the first country to enshrine equal rights for same-sex and heterosexual couples in its 1996 Constitution, other African states have fiercely resisted social – as against economic – liberalization. It seems that a reaffirmation of ‘traditional’ values is a symbolic gesture against globalization and the powerlessness of many African countries to withstand it. There is a supreme irony here. While repudiating the onslaught of the second wave of globalism, the rulers of Africa use the unreformed legislation of the first wave – laws introduced by former imperial masters. Thus Zimbabwe, struggling with hunger, corruption and misgovernment, makes a stand against what Mugabe describes as ‘a Western cultural practice’. He has said: ‘I find it extremely outrageous and repugnant to my human conscience that such immoral and repulsive organizations, like those of homosexuals who offend both against the law of nature and the morals of religious beliefs espoused by our society, should have any advocates in our midst or even elsewhere in the world.’ In Zambia, Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria illiberal laws are also invoked as a defence against what some see as forces of disintegration, even though common sense suggests same-sex relationships are scarcely the source of breakdown of traditional societies, which have been through the tempests of imperialism and globalization. The former President of Kenya, Daniel Arap Moi, said homosexuality is ‘a scourge which runs counter to Christian teachings and African tradition’. Nigeria is one of the most sensitive sites of conflict, since Sharia law exists in its northern Muslim states. In July 2005 a man was sentenced to death by stoning for a same-sex relationship. The sentence was suspended. In August 2005 two gay men who were facing the death penalty were bailed in the northern town of Katsina. In Russia same-sex relationships were decriminalized in 1993. During the Soviet era these were outlawed and penalties were severe: the temptation to ‘blame’ homosexuality on a decadent capitalism proved too strong for the puritanical zealots of the Soviet state. Brazil, too, has given de facto recognition to same-sex relationships by granting such couples the right to inherit each other’s pension and social security rights. A broader measure, tabled by Workers’ Party representative Marta Suplicy 10 years ago, remains stalled. In the context of increasing polarization, should we regard the Indian decision as a re-assertion of a backward-looking social morality, out of keeping with the progressive temper of the age? Or is it a precursor of a new Puritanism, a re-assertion of tradition, under attack by the alien, invasive values of globalization? The idea that ‘progressive’ views have prevailed is too optimistic. The death penalty for homosexuality or for acts ‘against the order of nature’ is still in force in Mauritania, Nigeria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Life imprisonment remains a possibility in Bangladesh, Uganda, Bhutan, India, Guyana, Nepal, Singapore and the Maldives. In the West, too, liberal views have not gone uncontested. In 1992 the Vatican called homosexuality ‘an objective disorder’. In the United States about 70 million conservative Christians believe homosexuality and bisexuality are chosen preferences, that the former is unnatural and can be altered by means of prayer and ‘reparative counseling’. In Sâo Paulo some three quarters of a million people joined the Gay Pride march in 2001, but scores of gay men are murdered every year in Brazil. An Orthodox priest who married two men in Russia in 2002 was defrocked, and in April 2004 the MP Gennady Raskov tried to recriminalize homosexuality. The Russian People’s Party blames gay men for HIV/AIDS and ‘the disintegration of the traditional family’. In Britain the homophobic murders in 2005 of David Morley and Jody Dobrowski received wide publicity, as did the murder of the 85-year-old great-grandson of the poet Tennyson. It is generally assumed that the Islamic world has the greatest detestation of homosexuality. This is not the whole truth. Indonesia has no legislation against same-sex relationships, which have always been tolerated. In Bangladesh Article 377 remains but is almost never used. However, in Saudi Arabia executions for homosexuality are frequent, while in Moshhad, north-east Iran, at the end of July 2005 two teenagers were hanged for the ‘crime’ of homosexuality. One was 18, the other a minor. They had been held for 14 months in jail and were given 228 lashes before being executed. This suggests that the younger one had probably been under 16 at the time of the ‘offence’. MPs from this very conservative part of Iran directed their anger at the domestic and foreign media for reporting the ages of the ‘criminals’. ‘The individuals were corrupt. Their sentence was carried out with the approval of the judiciary, and it served them right.’ Article 152 of the Penal Code states that if two men not related by blood are discovered naked under one cover without good reason, both will be punished at a judge’s discretion. Human rights organizations estimate that as many as 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. As greater economic integration is accepted as inevitable, it seems social and cultural differences come to bear all the more weight in defining the social values and independence of countries. Gains are fragile and impermanent, and maintaining them requires vigilance. The global response to homosexuality, far from showing signs of convergence, demonstrates clear divisions, ranging from the very liberal to the violently intolerant. As greater economic integration is accepted as inevitable, it seems social and cultural differences come to bear all the more weight in defining the social values and independence of countries. On this issue, as on almost every other, a deeply divided world is further polarizing; a process in which the most impoverished are also the most prejudiced. This is, perhaps, difficult to acknowledge, since many prefer to see poor people as victims of prejudice rather than as perpetrators of it – yet another contradiction in the awkward complexity of globalism. Jeremy Seabrook’s Second thoughts will appear regularly on the NI website.
The
progression of
gay rights in
Eastern Europe since
the collapse of the
communist Soviet
Union has been fitful,
erratic, uneven and
punctuated with hope
and grief. For every
step forward there
is a setback somewhere
else. The
protest was
echoed by the Belgium-based
ILGA—International
Gay and Lesbian
Association—as
well as by
New York-based
IGLHRC—International
Gay and Lesbian
Human Rights
Commission.
Amnesty International’s
Gay and Lesbian
division also
concurred in
the protest. (It
should be noted
that
a generous
amount of funding
for eastern
European gay
projects and
events comes
from western
European
countries such
as Holland
and Scandinavia.) Such groups as Croatia’s Iskorak (Step Forward), Slovenia’s DIH (Assoc. for Integration of Homosexuals), Bulgaria’s Gemini, Latvia’s LGLYSG (Latvian Gay and Lesbian Youth Support Group) and Hatter Support Society in Hungary—all are run by small groups of dedicated, courageous and vigorous volunteers who run some risk of exposure. Some groups offer phone hotlines, print newsletters, organize sporting events, sponsor film festivals (that get threats) or send representative to international LGBT meetings to learn strategies for effective lobbying. Clearly none of these organizations can remotely afford to mount a national anti-homophobia or pro-gay media campaign in the press or on TV to counter embedded sentiments against them. That said, it must not be forgotten that the brave folks from Warsaw’s LPH (Campaign Against Homophobia) mounted a public billboard program in 2003 called “Let Them See Us” in which life-sized photos of gay and lesbian couples were shown holding hands. (See their website to view the photos: http://www.niechnaszobacza.art.pl/index_en.htm) Negative
reactions
to gay
presence
in eastern
Europe
are inevitable.
Neo-Nazi,
racist,
anti-Semitic,
skinhead
nationalist
groups
appear
to be
the most visible
and violent
groups
who grab
headline
news
by
their
physical assaults
on gay events,
as happened
most
vehemently
in Belgrade,
Serbia in 2002
when
squads
of
skinhead
goons
attacked not only
the gay
marchers
but also
the
few police
present
to guard
them. One activist from Slovenia claimed that much of the homophobia in the east comes not from religious sources, since the atheistic communists ruled for most of the 20th century. Rather, the prejudice comes from, first, the strong influence of the Soviet criminal laws against homosexual acts; second, from a more general resistance to change. “People still think in the monolithic way—one system for all people. They are not used to diversity. They like the idea of freedom but not too much, especially if it includes ideas that move away from the old social ways.” The
desire
to join the European
Union, with
it
distinctly pro-gay
regulations
and standards,
has had an ambiguous
influence
on eastern
societies
as they entered
or prepared
to
enter the Union. Turkey, on one hand has
softened it’s
hard
stand
against
gay
groups
and
demonstrations
and
parades
(by
the
courageous
KOAS-GL
organization).
But
other
new
Union
members
or
members-to
be
like Macedonia
or
Lithuania have
yet
to
offer
any
window
of
expression
for
organized
LGBT
organizations.
In
Macedonia,
fear
rules
the
public
behavior
of
gay
and
lesbian
citizens;
at the
same
time
some
Lithuanian
members
of
parliament
are
trying
to
collect
signatures
as
part
of
a drive
to
ban
gay
marriage
in
the
constitution. The major exception to this daunting eastern European homophobia is the former East Germany. It has been spared a similar gray fate because it rejoined with western Germany, which has ‘redeemed’ itself from the horrors of the Nazi years. Gays and lesbians in modern reunified Germany are protected by numerous federal laws that fully legalize homosexuality and forbid anti-discrimination specifically against gay citizens (as well as other categories such as gender, age, race and religion). Further,
there
is legislative recognition
of
LGBT couples that
gives
them the
same rights
and responsibilities
as non-gay
married couples.
And in
early 2006
the government approved a
public
monument to
be built
in Berlin
in memory
of the
thousands of
homosexuals
murdered
and tortured
by the Nazis. Recent
polls and
surveys taken
in many
countries—east
and west--consistently
reveal that
today’s
younger
generation,
born
in the
1980’s
with full
access to
western
ideas of
democracy,
free enterprise
and diverse
sexuality,
are
much more
favorable
toward
gay rights
than their
parents’ generation.
There
may
be fear
in the
hearts
of
gays,
leftover
from
history,
but there is a
lot
of hope
and anticipation
for the
future.
30
March 2006 6 7 by
Malcolm Thornberry
(Brussels)
High Risk Behaviors Leading to High HIV/AIDS Prevalence Ignorance about the extent of male-male sex results in a relative lack of MSM programming, which in turn leads to high levels of risk behaviors. In the past, HIV/AIDS prevention programming in Asia has often concentrated on heterosexual sex or injection drug users (IDUs).Therefore, many men see sex with women as being an HIV/AIDS risk and male-male sex as a safer option. MSM often show much higher condom use when having sex with women than with men. The prevalence of consistent condom use among MSM is as low as 12%, and up to half of all MSM in some regions have never used a condom.Yet a majority of these men believe that they are at low risk. In several countries less than 20% have been tested for HIV. Finally, up to half or more of these MSM also have sex with women—the result of a combination of situational sex and the social pressure to marry—and can thus serve as a bridge population for HIV/AIDS infection. The unsurprising outcome of a situation characterized by lack of programming, lack of knowledge, and high prevalence of unsafe sex is rising rates of HIV infection. Even in countries with low overall HIV/AIDS prevalence, cases among MSM contribute disproportionately to the total. Other
sexually transmitted
infections (STIs)
are both a marker
of unsafe sex and
a contributing
factor to the transmission
of HIV. In some
areas more than
half of all MSM
have an STI. Few
doctors in the
region have the
knowledge or cultural
sensitivity needed
to diagnose the
many cases of rectal
STIs.
New
Online Documentation
of Human Rights
Abuses Against
Gay, Lesbian
and HIV+ People
Now Available to
Help
Those Seeking Political
Asylum The
online library
documents human
rights abuses
against
lesbian,
gay, bisexual
and transgender
(LGBT)
people and people
living with HIV/AIDS
in countries
around the world.
It is
the most complete
documentation
resource of its
kind in
the world. The
information
now available
online will enable
asylum
seekers or their
legal advocates
to quickly provide
immigration authorities with
proof of human
rights abuses
in their country
of origin. This country condition documentation library is organized by individual “country packets.” There are 144 different country packets that chart for each country various types of documentation, which may include court decisions, human rights declarations related to sexual minorities, as well as expert opinions, newspaper articles, and reports on human right conditions for LGBT and HIV-positive people. “We get nearly 40 requests a week from people who call and need information to support their claims,” said Dusty Aráujo, Asylum Documentation Program Coordinator at IGLHRC. “By having our country packets online, it will be easier and more efficient to get the documentation out quickly to asylum seekers. When people are forced to flee a country, they take very little with them and usually not the information that shows how or why they were persecuted. The documentation we provide can clarify or confirm why they’re seeking asylum and the country packet can become evidence in their cases. While a person’s story can be compelling, often it is documents that prove a case.” A former asylum seeker, Rafael Dominguez, shared his experience with IGLHRC, saying: Applying for asylum is a very scary, painful, and emotional process. I had such a relief when I came across the Asylum Documentation Program at IGLHRC: it changed my outlook and the possibilities of success on my asylum claim. It was not enough having my story of why I was applying for asylum; I needed to provide reliable information about how the LGBT community in Mexico is being discriminated against. For one person to engage in that kind of research can be impossible: the window time to prepare and submit the documentation to the INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service] is very short…. Thanks to IGLHRC I was able to corroborate my claims and build a strong case for my asylum claim. In other circumstances, I would not have had the same success. I was granted asylum a year ago. IGLHRC’s country conditions library began in 1990 and has assisted over 6,600 people worldwide. ADP’s information is critical not only to asylum seekers and their legal representatives, but also to researchers, academics, and journalists investigating persecution of LGBT people and those living with HIV/AIDS around the world. Every day in countries throughout the world, the fundamental rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and people living with HIV/AIDS are violated. These abuses include: murder, incarceration, forced psychiatric "treatment," torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, denial of the freedoms of association, self-expression, press and movement, denial of the right to seek refuge/asylum, immigration restrictions, forced marriage, the revocation of parental rights and numerous other forms of discrimination. In addition to the country packets, the Asylum Documentation Program’s online library offers three thematic packets that may compliment a particular case on different topics. Thematic Packets include: Islamic World Country Packet: This packet illustrates the difficult juncture between Islam and homosexuality and the impact it may have on LGBT people and those living with HIV/AIDS in different countries. Lesbian Issues Packet: This packet was created to further support the asylum claims of lesbians, who because they are women, may face other types of issues not shared with homosexual men. Transgender Issues Packet: This packet has been put together to assist immigration attorneys and asylum seekers in front of an immigration judge or immigration authority who may be unfamiliar with transgender issues. “We
are tremendously
excited
about the
new IGLHRC
project,” said
David Berten,
president
of asylumlaw.org,
a
non-profit
dedicated
to
using the
Internet to
help lawyers
and
other accredited
representatives
worldwide
prepare the best asylum
cases they
can. “IGLHRC’s
Asylum Documentation
Program
has one
of the
most extensive
collection
of documents
in
the world
relating to
the persecution
of sexual
minorities.
The ready
availability
of these
documents
on
the
Internet will
help thousands
of
asylum
seekers and
their
attorneys
today
and
for years
to come.”
9 December 4, 2006 by Paula L. Ettelbrick Days afterward, when faced with five Israeli lesbian and gay couples who had married in Canada, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the government is required to officially register them as they would any other foreign marriage. In the U.S., only Massachusetts has enacted full marriage for same-sex couples. Vermont, Connecticut and California have elected to use the less inflammatory terms civil union" or "domestic partnership," and New Jersey is still hashing out its terminology. The majority of the states have laws or constitutional amendments restricting "marriage" to one woman and one man. Denmark in 1989 became the first nation to legally recognize same-sex relationships, and Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland swiftly followed that lead. Much of Europe, including France, Germany, Portugal and Hungary, now recognizes same-sex partnerships for a range of purposes, including inheritance, property and social-benefits rights. Countries in formerly communist blocs — the Czech Republic and Slovenia — recognize partnerships, and Croatia has extended some economic benefits to same-sex couples. In September, the Senate in Uruguay voted 25 to 2 to pass a broad partnership law, positioning that country to be the first Latin American nation to extend legal rights when it is passed by the full legislature. New Zealand's and Australia's domestic partnership laws allow some of the most important benefits, such as immigration, inheritance and property rights. The government in Taiwan suggested a bill allowing same-sex marriage, though nothing has yet come of it. In Brazil, Argentina, Italy and Switzerland, some economic and legal rights have been extended by city and regional authorities. Just last month, Mexico City broke ground as the first government entity in that country to recognize same-sex civil unions. These developments clearly mean that the number of same-sex couples whose relationships are legally valid is on the rise. By the end of the decade, it is possible that hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples will have entered legal marriages, civil unions or domestic partnerships. When Britain's domestic partnership registration law went into effect last December, government ministers predicted that between 11,000 and 22,000 couples would benefit from the law by 2010. More than 6,500 same-sex couples registered just in the first year. About 12,000 Canadian, 7,000 Dutch, 2,500 Belgian and 1,300 Spanish same-sex couples are already married. These unions are already having ripple effects around the globe. In Ireland, a lesbian couple is asking the government to recognize their Canadian marriage. A court in the Caribbean country of Aruba ruled that the Dutch marriage of a lesbian couple must be registered in Aruba, which is part of the kingdom of the Netherlands. How this trend will play out in countries that have not yet recognized same-sex relationships is still up in the air. Will the United States, for instance, accommodate a major corporation's desire to have one of its top executives from Canada move here with her legal spouse? Or a domestic-partnered diplomat from New Zealand? Or an American lucky enough to find the man of his dreams while working in South Africa? Will Sir Elton John's highly publicized civil union with longtime partner David Furnish be recognized by a hospital emergency room in Las Vegas or St. Louis or Salt Lake City should one of them fall ill on a concert tour? To Be Sure, the backlash prompted by increased gay and lesbian visibility, whether through marriage or other demands for equality, has been fierce. South Africa's decision has drawn angry responses from religious and community leaders. Angry crowds in Moscow last May jeered a few dozen lesbian and gay marchers and demanded that Russia be cleansed of the evils of homosexuality. Likewise, an international gay pride event in Jerusalem had to be held in a stadium — instead of as a parade — because of threats and lobbying from ultra-Orthodox Jews and some Muslim and Christian groups. Gay communities haven't even raised the issue of marriage in Latvia, Uganda and Honduras — where police violence and state discrimination are still standard practice. Yet the governments of those countries have gone out of their way to promote anti-gay hostility by outlawing same-sex marriage. In Nigeria, a bill awaiting legislative action would impose criminal penalties for engaging in or performing a marriage ceremony for two men or two women. In the United States, President Bush has consistently pushed the radical measure of amending the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, as has Australia's prime minister, John Howard. Despite the backlash, one fact is self-evident. The trend toward recognizing the dignity and love of two people of the same sex will not disappear. As barriers to same-sex couples fall, courts, legislatures, religious denominations and businesses everywhere will need to respond. As Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero proclaimed when his newly elected reform government approved same-sex marriage in 2005: "We are not the first, but I am sure we will not be the last. After us will come many other countries, driven, ladies and gentlemen, by two unstoppable forces: freedom and equality." Paula L. Ettelbrick is the executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
December 12, 2006 10 Yesterday, 11 December 2006, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) granted consultative status to three gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organisations: to ILGA-Europe, the European Region of the International Lesbian and Gay Association, to the Danish and German national lesbian and gay association, LBL and LSVD. Consultative status granted by the ECOSOC allows NGOs to enter the United Nations, participate in its work and speak in their own name. No other LGBT group till this day enjoyed this right, apart from COAL, the Coalition of Activist Lesbians, a group based in Australia. “State homophobia has been hit and will not remain unchallenged anymore,” says Rosanna Flamer Caldera, Co-Secretary General of the International Lesbian and Gay Association. “It is a very special moment for the LGBT movement: this historic decision follows the statement made by Norway at the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of 54 countries, pushing that forum to address sexual orientation and gender identity. ILGA, a federation of 550 LGBT groups around the world, has been working for a number of years to have sexual orientation and gender identity come out at the United Nations. The first speech at the UN on LGBT rights was given in its name in 1992. In 2006, ILGA held its world conference in Geneva, European headquarters of the United Nations and organised four panels on LGBT issues at the second session of the Human Rights Council. ILGA also initiated a campaign to have an increasing number of LGBT groups apply for ECOSOC status. In a clear demonstration of uneasiness and an attempt to avoid any debate on the topics of sexual orientation and gender identity, countries sitting at the ECOSOC postponed the debate, using procedural manoeuvres from one meeting to another. “This last meeting of the ECOSOC is the fourth this year where countries have had to discuss these applications from LGBT groups,” comments Rosanna Flamer-Caldera. “Some states argue or fear we may be asking for special rights and use this as an alibi to block us from entering the UN,” she continues. “This is not a question of special rights. It is a basic question of equality and universality of human rights. We demand the right not to be discriminated against on the grounds of who we are, as lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender persons. On the international level, this starts with the United Nations recognising the mere fact LGBT people exist, that they can organise as groups and, as such, participate in UN work and protest against the many human rights violations we still suffer from around the world”. ILGA thanks the many NGOs which have supported this campaign - with special recognition to Arc International and ISHR, the International Service for Human Rights. In 2007, applications from seven other LGBT groups will be considered by the ECOSOC. For more information: Special report on this ECOSOC Campaign available at Get involved! Make a donation to ILGA: http://ilga.org/donate.asp International Lesbian and Gay Association http://www.ilga.org/news_results.asp?LanguageID=1&FileID=937&FileCategory=1&ZoneID=7 December 2006 11 The statement delivered by Norway this Friday December 1 is but a step, a glorious and historic one with the greatest government support ever, in a process started in 1992 with the first speech on gay rights ever given at the United Nations in the name of ILGA. An arduous process which fortunately and unexpectedly went through an acceleration in 2003 when Brazil presented the first resolution banning discrimination on sexual orientation and gender identity. ILGA, as the only worldwide federation of LGBT groups, has played its role in this process. Our efforts to have sexual orientation and gender identity come out at the United Nations grew in importance in 2006 and organised around three aspects: - Gaining the right to speak in our own name at the United Nations: the ECOSOC campaign READ OUR REPORT Sincerely, Patricia Curzi & Stephen Barris
18 December 2006 12 by Torsten Højer The Dutch are the biggest supporter of gay rights, with 82% backing same-sex marriage whereas less than 20 % supported the idea in several eastern and southern countries. Support is highest in northern European nations. Behind the Dutch, 71 percent of Swedes, 69 percent of Danes and 62 percent of Belgians back gay marraige. In contrast, only 11 percent of Romanians, 12 percent of Latvians and 14 percent of Cypriots agree. Overall, 44 percent of citizens in the 25-nation EU believe homosexual marriage should be allowed throughout the bloc, according to the poll.
December 28, 2006 13 by Doug Ireland One of the arrested men died in custody of complications from AIDS, his health having been aggravated by the inhumane, harsh conditions of his imprisonment. The U.N. decision marked the first time since 1994 that an official body of the world organization had condemned a member state for prosecuting homosexuality as a crime. In another victory, on December 11 three gay organizations were granted consultative status by the United Nations' Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)-the Danish National Association for Gays and Lesbians, the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany, and the European branch of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA). The worldwide ILGA organization, as opposed to its European branch, once had ECOSOC status, for only one year from 1993 to 1994, but was stripped of it following a scandal orchestrated by the U.S. right wing in which a small number of ILGA's member organizations around the world were accused of not taking a strong enough stance against pedophilia. Gay groups faced an uphill battle at the U.N. ever since. By allowing the three LGBT groups consultative status, ECOSOC overrode a January report of its Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, which had called on the Council to withhold status from the gay groups. The negative report had been instigated by Iran with the support of the Bush administration, which in January joined an "axis of evil" coalition of homophobic states, including Cameroon, China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, Senegal, Sudan, and Zimbabwe, to block the gay groups from joining the nearly 2,900 organizations which have ECOSOC consultative status. These two encouraging developments gave added impetus to a new initiative hailed as "the next big thing" for the global LGBT movement-an initiative, launched in November, to put the U.N. on record in favor of the abrogation of the anti-gay laws in all 75 countries that still make homosexuality a crime. The worldwide petition campaign for such a declaration by the U.N. Human Rights Council was launched by the Paris-based International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO), which in 2006-only its second year of existence-was observed on May 17 in more than 50 countries and endorsed by the European Parliament. The annual date of May 17 was chosen by IDAHO to mark the anniversary of the day in 1990 when the General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. The new IDAHO campaign was launched in Paris on November 20 with the support of ILGA and dozens of other international and country gay organizations, from Spain to Brazil, from Kenya and Senegal to Israel. The effort was also endorsed by a roster of V.I.P.s that included five Nobel Prize-winners, 11 Pulitzer Prize-winners, and six Academy Award-winners. Among the celebrity endorsers of the campaign are Desmond Tutu, David Bowie, Meryl Streep, Tony Kushner, Mike Nichols, Bernardo Bertolucci, Salman Rushdie, Gore Vidal, Tom Stoppard, and two former French prime ministers. The IDAHO petition-entitled "For the Universal Decriminalization of Homosexuality" and based essentially on the articles of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights-says, in part, "We ask the United Nations to request a universal abolition of the so-called 'crime of homosexuality,' of all 'sodomy laws,' and laws against so-called 'unnatural acts' in all the countries where they still exist." The brilliance of this long-overdue idea is multi-fold. First, it provides a vivid way of highlighting the continued oppression of LGBT people around the world and the vital need for international gay solidarity. Second, it gives people in many countries a common goal around which to organize. Third, when the resolution is passed, it will serve notice on repressive nations that, as IDAHO's founder, Professor Louis-Georges Tin of France-who also conceived the idea of the U.N. decriminalization effort-put it, "gays and lesbians around the world cannot wait any longer for their love to cease being made a crime. Many are in jail, or at risk of being jailed. Some are being killed. This has to stop now." If you wish to join the IDAHO campaign, visit the group's Web site at http://www.idahomophobia.org. Gays, lesbians, and the transgendered here in the U.S. need to pressure our national institutions, like the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, to make this campaign for universal decriminalization of homosexuality a part of their agenda and to agitate for it. Unfortunately, 2006 was also the year of the dog that didn't bark as these U.S. LGBT institutions continued to be largely silent on the oppression of gays and lesbians around the world. This reporter's work in the pages of this newspaper has regularly examined, in depth, the horrors that have befallen homosexuals in countries less free than the U.S., as well as their brave struggles that demand our support. We have reported-to name just a few examples-on the fight by a fledgling LGBT group in Indonesia to repeal 54 regional laws in the country's provinces that penalize and criminalize homosexuality; on the dictatorial Belarus government's anti-gay crackdown that forced cancellation of the country's first public gay conference; on stepped-up police raids and arrests of lesbians and gays in Peru prior to local elections there; on the serial murders and lynching of gays in Jamaica, one of the globe's most homophobic countries; on anti-gay witch-hunts in Ghana and Uganda; on the police and fascist assaults that broke up attempts to hold Gay Pride celebrations in Moscow, Estonia, and Latvia; on the theocratic death squads systematically murdering gays in Iraq, to the utter indifference of the country's U.S. occupiers; and, of course, on the continuing lethal persecution of gays in Iran, where homosexuality is punishable by death. If you doubt the desperate need for more international solidarity on the part of U.S. gays, listen to the voice of Mani, a 24-year-old underground gay activist in Iran this reporter interviewed in July-his words could speak just as well for all the LGBT people in the other 74 countries where homosexuality is still a crime: "You who live serenely and comfortably on the other side of Iran's frontiers," Mani told Gay City News, "be aware that those who think and feel and love like you do in Iran are executed for the crime of homosexuality, are assassinated, kidnapped, and barred from working in offices. You have festivals, and they prisons. You select Mr. Gay of the Year, but they don't even enjoy the right to have gravestones. Be fair and tell us what difference there is between us and you. Isn't it time that all homosexuals around the world rise up and come to our defense? Listen to this poem by Sa'adi [the classic Persian 13th century poet who celebrated same-sex love']: All human beings are different parts of the same body, who Doug Ireland can be reached through his blog, DIRELAND, at http://direland.typepad.com/direland/ |