After discussions with several activists in many countries and cities about organizing an international same-day coordinated action this summer, activists in five other cities have stepped forward to join with gay Swedes on August 4 in solidarity marches.

August 4 is when Stockholm stages its annual gay Pride parade and celebration, and on that Saturday members of Tupilak, a gay and lesbian cultural workers collective, will march on foreign embassies in solidarity with LGBT people everywhere.

Ours out here is usually in early September...

On August 4, 2007 representatives of the Gay Homeland Foundation (GHF) will call on several consulates located in Cologne and hand over letters petitioning for decriminalization of homosexuality in Gambia, Malaysia, Nepal, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunesia. The Foundation welcomes the decision of Gay activists in Caracas, Cologne, Mexico City, San Diego, San Francisco, Stockholm, Warsaw, Washington and Vancouver to initiate actions on this Global Gay Solidarity Day, which hopefully will become a good tradition and will give fresh dynamics to the Gay movement in the next years. With some 300 millions Gay individuals worldwide there is much potential for interconnection and joint action.

GHF is pleased to see various Gay organizations and activists now standing united to express Gay solidarity. Despite all disagreements over singular issues, Gays still are one people, and in decisive moments they must stick together and confront the adversary in a close formation.

The Global Gay Solidarity Day shall serve as a reminder that while homophobia is imposed upon Gay people by others, there are also many things which Gays can make for other Gays by own efforts. The Global Gay Solidarity Day symbolically expresses the powerfull potential Gays have as a people, the solidarity itself shall be lived throughout the entire year as well.

Their oppressors of Gay people speculate that Gays will abstain from assisting their brothers and sisters from other countries, declaring such persecution to be within the sole competency of the responsible government.

GHF rejects such argumentation as frivolous. Persecution of Gay people in any given country is not an internal affair of the persecuting state, it is an assault on the Gay people in its entirety. Appeals to the national souvereignty are not a legitimate argumentation when it comes to violation of human rights. Gay citizens of these states are belonging to the Gay people, thus the worldwide Gay community shall no longer accept such infringements of safety and cultural freedoms of Gay people, wherever they occure.

When a country is interested in good relations to all peoples and nations, it shall respect all these peoples and nations. Criminalization of family life and disruption of cultural events of members of a particular minority is certainly not a suitable way to establish good international relations.

Persecuting countries shall be put before the option to abandon their laws criminalizing homosexuality, or be subjected to an embargo by countries belonging to “the free world.” The governments of western democracies must otherwise explain to Gay people why expropriation of private property is a sufficient reason for an embargo, but severe persecution of Gay people is not. Governments of the countries posing as human rights defenders must explain to Gay people how it is possible for them to be friends with governments determied to exterminate Gays from their populations.

The United Nations must address the Gay issue immediately. No other people is persecuted as fiercefully in so many states as the Gay people, and no other violation of human rights is as readily overlooked by the majourity of UN member states. The state sanctioned persecution of Gays often amounts to cultural and physical genocide as specified by the corresponding UN convention, and it must not be tolerated by the UN anymore. Unlike the poverty issue, this one does not cost billions of dollars and does not require complicated infrastructure programs. All it takes for the concerned governments is to rewrite few passages of their legislations.

To the knowledge of GHF, Gay people are persecuted by criminal legislation in the following countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominica, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guyana, India, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Singapore, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri Lanka, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Gays can be subjected to the death penalty in Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

The Gay Homeland Foundation renews its appeal to the international community to cease deporting Gay and Lesbian asylum-seekers to persecuting countries, and to consider instead the establishment of a self-administered territory for the Gay and Lesbian people.

What does it take to organize Global Gay Solidarity Days? First, start with putting out a request to fellow organizers and gauge if they're interested in such an international event.

Next step is, engage in a respectful debate about what day (or two) to stage the solidarity vigils. Third, allow local organizers to decide what kind of action to put on, the time to do it, and which global LGBT issues to focus on.

Fourth, mix in a handful of beautiful committed people in any city to pull together an action, invite the larger community and our allies to participate, and before you know it, LGBT in several parts of the world unite for a same-day coordinated action.

And finally, watch the activists in each city committed to the solidarity days stage their vigils and speak outs, and take photos, make videos, and write up short reports.

Activists in cities around the world took part in the first Global Gay Solidarity Day this weekend. Their goal: send a message to government and UN officials that queers everywhere deserve equality.

In Vancouver, activists held a moment of silence on Fri, Aug 3 to remember those who have fallen victim to human rights abuses because of their sexual orientation.

One interesting thing did happen when I brought up the topic of the Gay Homeland Foundation...something most had never heard of. One person got very animated and bascially stated that it sounded like "self-imposed exile" in his opinion.

The implicit assumption is further, that a person surrounded by homosexuals in their majourity is missing something - as in comparison to a person surrounded by heterosexuals in their majourity.