International LGBT News

[Steven E. Webster]

Friends,

I don't know if we have a thread like this--but I want to keep before us the international nature of the LGBT movement. I have a particular interest in Africa. Here's a story about South Africa, but it gets into what is going on in the rest of the continent:

http://www.sundayherald.com/internat...546316.0.0.php

Steven Webster

[BenL]

From Walking In Integrity:

http://walkingwithintegrity.blogspot...in-uganda.html

Persecution in Uganda
An officer of Integrity Uganda forward the following article to me with this preface...
We have been busy with this case and we need your prayers things do not backfire against us. Some misquotings appeared in the papers recently reporting about the same and Bishop [Christopher] was mentioned . We need your prayers as the government is out on our necks that we promised to kill the minister for ethics collaborating with UK and USA allies. At a television live show it was emphasized that Integrity are the ringleaders into this. We are rather firm waiting for the ruling. God bless.

By Katherine Roubos and Val Kalende (Daily Monitor)
July 27, 2007: Two years ago, a government official broke into a home, seized property and detained one of the occupants without a warrant. The case seems clear, but will the plaintiff's homosexuality affect the verdict? The ruling, due next month in Uganda's Constitutional court, could set a precedent for sub-Saharan Africa's reportedly conservative masses.

Two Ugandan lesbians are suing the government for trespassing, theft of property, illegal arrest, and inhuman and degrading treatment. The case has been in court since December 2006 and a verdict is expected when the court session resumes in August.

Source: http://www.monitor.co.ug/news/news07274.php

[BenL]

The following is in reaction to a press conference by Uganda's gay group SMUG, in which they asked the public to stop discriminating against GLBT people. I couldn't get to the original without logging in, and I didn't want to register. The reaction is the "same old, same old," but in Uganda it take a lot of courage to speak publicly.

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/581922

Religious leaders rap homosexuals
Friday, 17th August, 2007 E-mail article Print article

By Steven Candia
and Alfred Wasike

FAITH groups yesterday condemned the homosexuals’ move to demand for acceptance while the Government and the Police moved with caution. On Thursday, homosexuals had a press conference where they complained about discrimination.

Sheik Yahaya Lukwago, an executive member of the Uganda Muslims Supreme Council, accused the group of polluting the public.

“In the Sharia law, they deserve to be killed. Allah created us for reproduction. Prophet Mohammed wrote in the Quran that homosexuals should be killed,” Lukwago said.

Archbishop Dr. John Wani, of the Seventh Day Adventists (SDA) Church said it was for such unnatural behaviour that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Rev. Aaron Mwesigye, the Provincial Secretary of the Church of Uganda, said the practice was against the scriptures. “God’s design and intention is for humanity to express itself only in male and female relationship and for procreation. We condemn homosexuality.

Our position is to seek out lost sheep.”
A senior Catholic cleric yesterday condemned homosexuality saying it “‘goes against the grain of the scriptures.’ “Procreation is the main purpose humanity was created. How would procreation take place if homosexuality is exalted,” he asked.

Ethics minister James Nsaba Buturo termed Thursday’s press conference as “a challenge against the law and unacceptable”, dubbing it “a game aimed at softening public opinion.”

However, he conceded that the matter was complex, adding that the Government would issue a statement on the matter “at an appropriate time.”

The press conference, largely perceived as pointer of the vice taking root in the community, forced Buturo to hastily convene a meeting with the Minister of Internal Affairs, seeking his opinion on how to deal with the matter.

Buturo also blamed the Police for not doing its work. “I wish the Police would do its work,” he said.

But the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, yesterday said the matter was complex and needed to be approached cautiously.

“This practice has been around and is a problem, which needs a multi-pronged approach, including stakeholders to combat,’ he said, adding: “But we are studying the matter.”

[BenL]

I copied the text of this article from another list I belong to. It is from the same newspaper. I don't know the URL.

Uganda: Kampala Homosexuals Speak Out
New Vision (Kampala)
16 August 2007
Alfred Waske
Kampala
In an unprecedented show of boldness, the homosexual community in Uganda yesterday came out and addressed their maiden press conference, complaining about discrimination and demanding acceptance by the public.
"Please, let us live in peace. Stop persecuting us. God created us this way.
We are children of God as well," shouted more than 30 homosexuals led by
Victor Juliet Mukasa, leader of the Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), their
umbrella organization comprising Freedom & Roam, Spectrum Uganda, Integrity Uganda and Icebreakers Uganda. Some of them wore masks.
The Uganda Penal Code Act criminalizes homosexuality. The law regards
homosexuality as an unnatural offence punishable with life imprisonment.
The Penal Code says any person who has carnal knowledge of another against the order of nature commits the offence.
Mukasa said their community comprises of lesbians (woman and woman), gays (men and men), bisexual (men and women), transgender (born with female genitals but with a male mentality) and intersex (born with more than one sexual organ or hermaphrodite). She abbreviated their community as LGBTI.
Dressed in a dark male blazer, Mukasa said in a female voice: "I am a
transgender. I was born with a vagina but my mentality is different." She
revealed that in order to hide her identity, she had been strapping her
breasts with belts, bandages and other materials.
"In a landmark case, we, Ugandan LGBTI people assembled at the High Court of Uganda two months ago to reinforce our right to privacy, dignity and property. There were no charges against us. We had done nothing wrong," Mukasa said.
She said her group went to court because the Police raided her home in 2005, arrested her guest, stole many documents, dragged them to Kireka Police post and forced her guest to strip naked in order to prove that she was a woman.
"We were treated in a degrading and inhumane way. Many of us have suffered similar injustice. We are here today to proclaim that these human rights violations are completely unacceptable," she protested as the roomful
yelled, "Leave us to live in peace."
They said they were concerned about the spread of HIV/AIDS because medical nstitutions discriminate against them. They urged the Police and LDUs to top harassing their members. "Don't lay a hand on us, we are the homosexual hildren of God. God created us this way and all we ask is let us live in eace."
Another transgender, Brenda Kizza, with a male face and female body shocked he media when she said the Police has tortured her so much that at some point they kicked her teeth out. She opened her mouth to show her fake teeth. "I had to buy these because I lost the originals, courtesy of
policemen," she testified in Luganda. Several others also testified.
Someone in the audience identified himself as Dr. Paul Ssemugooma and
estimated that there are at least 500,000 homosexuals in Uganda. There were human rights defenders like Jessica Nkuuhe, Sarah Mukasa, Beatrice Were and others.

[Steven E. Webster]

Friends,

Here's a link to an article at Talk2Action.com

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/8/25/3390/83947

This article contains many other useful links.

One interesting article that the above article links to points out that Uganda used to be a success story in AIDS prevention until the Bush administration pushed the unscientific idea of "abstinence only" on the country with the aid of some of their own home-groan "evangelicals."

The other important piece of information contained in this story is the fact that African LGBT people are actively seeking equality. Again, I feel we need to become more informed and supportive of their struggles. The struggle for human rights and LGBT equality are international struggles that do not know borders. By the same token, our adversaries here in the U.S. also are involved in promoting oppression of LGBT people abroad.

Steven Webster

[Steven E. Webster]

Friends,

Here's the link:

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=32744

When the article speaks of North American interests spending "the Almighty Dollar" to win influence with African bishops, I believe they are referring primarily to IRD (Institute on Religion and Democracy)--a right wing Washington think-tank that seeks to destroy mainline denominations like Episcopalians, Methodists and Presbyterians which have been "too liberal" in their social and anti-war emphases. They use the issue of homosexuality as a wedge issue to promote discord and schism.

Steven Webster

[Daniel]

I'm going a little North of Africa with this news.

The article/link illustrates how legislation in Britain is being opposed that would extend more rights to gay persons. What's worth noting here is how opposition to this legistlation is not unlike the religious Right's oppostion to Hate Crimes legislation.

The headline?

Church of England: Labour's equality law denies Christians right to oppose homosexuality

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1770

[u-dog]

Originally Posted by Daniel

I'm going a little North of Africa with this news.

The article/link illustrates how legislation in Britain is being opposed that would extend more rights to gay persons. What's worth noting here is how opposition to this legistlation is not unlike the religious Right's oppostion to Hate Crimes legislation.

The headline?

Church of England: Labour's equality law denies Christians right to oppose homosexuality

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1770

SERIOUS REPLY:

The issue is a LITTLE more complicated in England since they don't have the first and second amendments to protect ABSOLUTELY the right of free religious speech and conceivably churches could be forced to support and allow things that they feel are opposed to their core beliefs. Its one of the down-sides to being a non-constitutional democracy.

SILLY REPLY:

Someone needs to tell Rowan that he is the F***** Archbishop of Canterbury !!!!! HE NEEDS TO GET A F****** haircut! Have his eyebrows trimmed, iron his purple shirt once in a while and get his TEETH FIXED !!! SHEESH! He looks like he was sent for and couldn't come !

[BrentRichards]

Originally Posted by u-dog

Someone needs to tell Rowan that he is the F***** Archbishop of Canterbury !!!!! HE NEEDS TO GET A F****** haircut! Have his eyebrows trimmed, iron his purple shirt once in a while and get his TEETH FIXED !!! SHEESH! He looks like he was sent for and couldn't come !

Yeah, very Cantuar the Barbarian. He's Welsh, but I don't even think this look goes over in the collieries.

[BenL]

The Archbishop of Canterbury is scheuled to meet soon in New Orleans to "consult" with the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church USA over the primates' ultimatum concerning gay bishops and blessings of same-sex unions.

Integrity is running an action alert on its home page.

Any Soulforce action planned?

[u-dog]

Originally Posted by BenL

The Archbishop of Canterbury is scheuled to meet soon in New Orleans to "consult" with the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church USA over the primates' ultimatum concerning gay bishops and blessings of same-sex unions.

Integrity is running an action alert on its home page.

Any Soulforce action planned?

GET A HAIRCUT!!

[Steven E. Webster]

Friends,

Just came across this story.

http://www.risu.org.ua/eng/news/article;17657

I'm keepiing my eye on developments like this because I think our adversaries are international in nature. Our movement also needs to be international.

Steven Webster

[BrentRichards]

Originally Posted by u-dog

GET A HAIRCUT!!

Picture the demonstration of gay Anglican hairdressers ... "Equality Now! Haircut Tomorrow!" or "Split Communion Maybe, Split Ends Never!"

Sorry, feeding stereotypes.

[Daniel]

This bit of news, about an ex-gay guy running for mayor of Edmonton Canada, reminds me the saying- All politics is local.

http://www.towleroad.com/2007/09/ex-gay-edmonton.html

[Daniel]

The President's presence at Columbia University is very controversal- to say the least. Here's a part of the Q & A via the NYTimes.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20.../index.html?hp

Updated, 1:56 p.m. | Mr. Bollinger asked Mr. Ahmadinejad: “Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator, and so I ask you, and so I ask you, why have women members of the Bahai faith, homosexuals and so many of our academic colleagues become targets of persecution in your country?”

He asked whether Mr. Ahmadinejad was using a nuclear confrontation with the West to distract from his incompetent leadership at home. He also asked to be allowed to lead a delegation of scholars to Iran to speak freely, as Mr. Ahmadinejad can do today.

He confronted Mr. Ahmadinejad over his description of the Holocaust as “a fabricated legend,” calling him either “brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.” He called Columbia a world center of Jewish studies that since the 1930s has provided a home for Jewish refugees. He called the Holocaust “the most documented event in human history.”

~


Updated, 2:51 p.m. | In response to a question about the treatment of homosexuals in Iran, Mr. Ahmadinejad was initially evasive, instead talking about the death penalty, which, he pointed out, exists in the United States. “People who violate the laws by using guns, creating insecurity selling guns, distributing guns at a high level are sentenced to execution in Iran,” he said. “Very few of these punishments are carried out in the public eye.”

Pressed by Dean Coatsworth on the original question about the rights of gay men and lesbians in Iran, Mr. Ahmadinejad said: “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country.”

The audience booed and hissed loudly. Some laughed, uncomfortably.

“In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon,” Mr. Ahmadinejad continued, undeterred. “I do not know who has told you that we have it. But as for women, maybe you think that maybe being a woman is a crime. It’s not a crime to be a woman. Women are the best creatures created by God. They represent the kindness, the beauty that God instills in them. Women are respected in Iran.”

I guess he doesn't remember the young men who were lynched last year.

[Steven E. Webster]

Friends,

Some of you may have heard of homophobe Scott Lively of the Oregon Citizens Alliance. You may also have heard of homophobic riots against LGBT persons in Eastern European and Slavic countries--there's a connection:

The Southern Poverty Law Center has a story here:
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intel...le.jsp?aid=809

And Box Turtle Bulletin reports here:
http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2007/10/05/855

Steven Webster

[RonPrice]

The opposite of freedom of religion is the banning of religion. The Baha’i faith-community in Iran is a case in point. Iran has effectively banned the Baha’i religion by criminalizing it as a religious organization.

On the heels of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Iranian regime tried to eradicate the Baha’i Faith as a viable religious organization by executing its leaders. In 1981, the state summarily executed all nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran. In 1984 and 1986, Iranian authorities executed the majority of the members of the new National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran, which had been elected to replace the martyred members of that same council.

The alternative to killing was criminalization. In 1983, when summary executions of elected Baha’i leaders didn’t work (because new Baha’i leaders were soon elected to take their place), the government of Iran simply outlawed Baha’i administration in toto. This was a stroke of evil genius. For the Iranian regime knew that the Baha’i administrative councils had no legal recourse but to comply. In strict conformity to the Baha’i principle of obedience to government, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran, in quiet grandeur, complied with the Iranian ban on organized Baha’i activity by voluntarily suspending its administrative network (August 1983).

In 1996, thirteen years later, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Question of Religious Intolerance (in his report to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights) urged that “the ban on the Baha’i organization should be lifted to enable it to organize itself freely through its administrative institutions, which are vital in the absence of a clergy, so that it can engage fully in its religious activities.” See Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, “Iran: International Religious Freedom Report” (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State, 2001, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2001/5691.htm).

After two failed attempts, which drew international condemnation, the Iranian leadership soon discovered that, whenever it tried to “cut off the head” of the Baha’i community, the head would grow back, for the simple reason that the Baha’i community would democratically elect a new national administrative body.

For more on this subject and thanks for his comments: go to the internet site Iran Press Watch for an article entitled "Criminalizing the Baha’i Religion," March 15th, 2009 by Dr. Christopher Buck.