Oct 01, 2011
News: Bill Against Same Sex Marriage Reintroduced to Nigerian Parliamnent
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(Nigeria) - The Nigerian parliament is once again dealing with a Bill prohibiting same sex marriage. This is the third attempt to pass such piece of legislation in Nigeria. We asked Davis Mac-Iyalla to provide us some more informations. 
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Jun 24, 2008
News: Arsham Parsi discusses sexuality, politics and refugees in SF
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(USA) - As part of Bibi's outreach to our communities, Bibi|SF will be hosting talks on various issues affecting queer South West Asian, North Africans (aka Middle-Easterners). Its first engagement is with Arsham Parsi of the IRanian Queer Organization on Thursday, June 26 at the SF LGBT Center.
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May 22, 2008
News: IDAHO Action in San Francisco To Support Russian Gays
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(USA) - Gay human rights activists in San Francisco staged a speak out at the Russian consulate on May 16, in conjunction with IDAHO events around the planet. Before showing up at the consulate, the group sent emails to the staff explaining their reason for coming -- to press the government to grant parade permits to Moscow's Gay pride event.
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May 19, 2008
News: Reform the Homophobic Asylum System
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(London) - Speaking at the London IDAHO event on 16 May, hosted by Amnesty International and the Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association, Peter Tatchell of the LGBT human rights group OutRage! challenged the UK asylum policy.
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Apr 06, 2008
News: Olympic Torch Ambushed in London
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(UK) - The bus bearing the Olympic torch was today ambushed outside Selfridges department store in Oxford Street, London, by Gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of OutRage! Mr Tatchell ran in front of the bus carrying the Olympic flame. He held up a placard which read: "Free Tibet, Free Hu Jia." He shouted the same words as he ran along in front of the bus. The police wrestled Mr Tatchell to the ground, which delayed the bus briefly while he was removed to pavement. After questioning, he was later released without charge.
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Mar 25, 2008
Quickie Link: Call to Reform Asylum System to Protect Lesbian, Gay Refugees
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(UK) - The British Government is currently failing Gay refugees, Peter Tatchell told a rally in Whitehall, outside the Prime Minister’s official residence 10 Downing Street. Over 120 protesters braved hail and rain on Saturday to demand that Gay Iranian asylum seeker, Mehdi Kazemi, be granted refuge in the UK. They also urged asylum for the Iranian Lesbian refugee, Pegah Emambakhsh, and an estimated 12 other Gay Iranians who are at risk of deportation back to Tehran. There were calls for a “fundamental reform” of the way the Home Office treats LGBTI asylum applicants. “The British government had ordered Mr Kazemi to be deported back to Iran,” said protest speaker Peter Tatchell, spokesperson for the LGBTI human rights group OutRage!.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Mar 19, 2008
Quickie Link: Deportation of Gays to Iran Raised in UK Parliament
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(UK) - The British Government is coming under pressure from members of both houses of Parliament, mainly Liberal Democrats, to “come clean” about policies on who are deported to Iran – especially Gay men and women. At lunchtime at Prime Minister’s Question in the House of Commons, Greg Mulholland, the Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West, raised the matter, complaining about refugees being deported to Iran.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Mar 17, 2008
Quickie Link: Complicity in Iran's Anti-Gay Jihad
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(UK) - The British government announced Thursday that it was ending efforts to deport Mehdi Kazemi, a 19-year-old Iranian who has been studying in Britain – a move that should be applauded by human rights activists everywhere. Had he been forced to return to Iran, Kazemi would almost certainly have been executed there. Roger Roberts, one of eight members of the House of Lords who petitioned British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to allow Kazemi to stay in Britain, declared: “There is no doubt that he will be persecuted and possibly face state-sanctioned murder if he is forced to return.”
Note: Read more on FrontPageMagazine |
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Mar 15, 2008
Quickie Link: Gay Refugees Have Difficulty Proving They're Gay
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(Canada) - The Canadian Refugee Board needs to establish clearer guidelines on sexual orientation to help adjudicators avoid stereotyping Gay and Lesbian refugees who have little proof they are Gay, say legal experts. Last week MP Thomas Mulcair exploded at hecklers in the Commons and later shed tears at a news conference after Immigration Minister Diane Finley refused to allow Canada's latest Gay refugee claimant Kulenthiran Amirthalingam stay in the country on compassionate grounds. He later told the Montreal Gazette that he had seen a disturbing video depicting the kind of brutal punishment Gay men receive in Malaysia, including strapping a naked man until raw flesh was exposed. Amirthalingam, who is now back in Malaysia where he spent time in jail for being Gay, was declared not credible by the one-adjudicator panel. He joined a growing list of refugee claimants who have been rejected because they can't prove they are Gay.
Note: Read more on Canada.com |
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Mar 14, 2008
News: Anti-Gay Propaganda on British TV
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(UK) - George Galloway MP is accused of mouthing "the propaganda of the Iranian dictatorship" after he claimed on the Channel 5 TV talk show The Wright Stuff this morning that the boyfriend of Gay asylum seeker Mehdi Kazemi was executed for sex crimes (see full transcript below). The criticism comes from the Gay human rights group, OutRage!.
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Mar 12, 2008
Quickie Link: Gay Teenager Is Facing Gallows as His Asylum Bid Is Rejected
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(Netherlands) - A Gay Iranian teenager faces deportation from Britain and execution in his home country after a Dutch court refused to hear his asylum claim. Mehdi Kazemi, 19, will be forced to return to Britain, where his asylum application was rejected last year. He is then expected to be removed to Iran where his boyfriend was hanged two years ago for 'sodomy.' The ruling will put the Home Office under renewed pressure to reassess his case - or face the possibility of sending a young man to his death. The department’s own guidance concedes that Iran executes homosexuals but rejects the claim that there is a systematic repression of Gay men and Lesbians.
Note: Read more on Times Online |
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Mar 09, 2008
News: Gay Refugee at Risk of Deportation to Iran
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(Netherlands) - Mehdi Kazemi, a Gay asylum applicant from Iran, is in detention in the Netherlands. He is fighting attempts by the Dutch government to return him to the UK. Mehdi fled Britain and sought asylum in the Netherlands because the British government wants to deport him back to Iran. The Home Office bid to deport an Iranian Gay asylum seeker will put him at risk of arrest, imprisonment, torture and execution.
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Mar 07, 2008
Quickie Link: Last Refugee Bid Refused to Malaysian Gay
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(Canada) - A Gay man from Malaysia who is to be deported Thursday after being refused refugee status is pleading with the federal government to intervene and let him stay in Canada. Kulenthiran Amirthalingan made a last-ditch appeal to Immigration Minister Diane Finley, asking her to stay the March 6 deportation order to his native Malaysia. He fears persecution because he is Gay. Amirthalingan moved to Montreal in 2003 and applied for refugee status in Canada on humanitarian grounds, arguing his life was in danger because his homosexuality made him a target of Malaysian police who detained him for five days, and abused him, physically and sexually. Amirthalingan lost his refugee status case because the judge was not convinced he was Gay. He filed for a humanitarian appeal and a pre-removal risk assessment, which were both rejected by the Quebec Immigration Board.
Note: Read more on CBC |
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Feb 28, 2008
Quickie Link: Another Iranian Tragedy
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(UK) - The scheduled February 26 extradition of Mehdi Kazemi, a 19-year-old Gay Iranian student, from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom, from where he will almost definitely be deported to his homeland, has been put off pending a Dutch court hearing on March 3. Kazemi fears that he could be executed by Tehran's theocracy, which in 2006 executed the lad who had been his lover. Homosexuality remains a capital crime in Iran. Kazemi fled to the Netherlands after the UK government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown ordered his deportation. It was only a last-minute legal appeal that postponed his return to Britain.
Note: Read more on Gay City News |
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Feb 27, 2008
Quickie Link: Boycott Jamaica
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(Jamaica) - Gay bashing in Jamaica is so prevalent that in 2006 Time Magazine wrote an article about the island headlined, "The Most Homophobic Place On Earth?" The New York Times this week showed that the anti-Gay climate has only worsened, with the island caught in a downward spiral of outright psychosis. It is time to hand an ultimatum to Jamaica's public officials: Stop allowing rampant abuse of Gay people or your economy will be crippled. The Times story is downright chilling. It details how last month five Gay men were having a dinner party when a mob appeared at the front door - kicking it in and attacking the men. While screaming homophobic epithets, between 15-20 thugs beat the victims senseless with sticks and cut them with machetes. One man is still missing, but police found blood at the mouth of a deep hole near the yard. This was not an isolated incident.
Note: Read more on PageOneQ |
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Feb 26, 2008
News: Europe Must Stop Deportation of Iranian Queers
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(EU) - He lived a marginalized and terrorized life as an Iranian homosexual in Iran; the burden of such a life became so strenuous that he finally left Iran for the UK with a student visa. Mehdi Kazemi is another Iranian Gay refugee who left his home country with the hope of securing a more dignified life for himself in the West; and yet he is another young refugee who sees his hopes for safety and human dignity fading in the face of European governments’ lack of respect for even the most basic human rights. The European governments claim to be the champions of human rights and democracy and condemn Iran frequently for its violation of human rights; and yet they willingly pave the road for the government of Iran to go ahead with its human rights abuses, and arrest and execute an identified Iranian Gay. Today, they sentence Mehdi to torture and possible death by deporting him to Iran, and tomorrow they issue statements commending this violent and unlawful act of execution.
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Feb 26, 2008
Quickie Link: Brazilian Gays Demand Apology For Persecution of Gays in Cuba
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(Brazil) - Grupo Gay da Bahia, the oldest homosexual non-governmental organization in Latin America, demands that the dictator Fidel Castro, before his death, recognizes and asks for forgiveness for the grave errors of the Cuban revolution responsible for the demoralization, persecution, imprisonment in concentration camps, forced labor, torture, deportation, and death of thousands of Gays, Transvestites and Lesbians in Cuba. The unfortunate resolution approved during The First Cuban National Congress on Education and Culture of 1971 decreed that “homosexual deviations represent a anti-social pathology, making it inadmissible in any way their manifestations, or propagation, establishing as preventive measure the shunning of recognizable homosexual artists and intellectuals from interaction with the [Cuban] youth," barring Gays, Lesbians, and Transvestites from representing Cuba artistically in festivals abroad.
Note: Read more on Vidas Alternativa |
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Feb 24, 2008
Quickie Link: Gay Refugees Not Always Welcome, Even in Canada
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(Canada) - Toronto refugee lawyer El-Farouk Khaki recalls an incident in which one of his clients, seeking refugee status in Canada as a Gay man, was told by a member of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) that if he could be more discreet in his home country of Kenya, he would be just fine. With no appeal division and one-member panels, a great deal of a claimant's chance of being granted refugee status has to do with that single IRB member who hears their case.
Note: Read more on Extra |
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Feb 19, 2008
Quickie Link: AI Senegal Opposes Decriminalization of Homosexuality
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(Senegal) - The chairman of the national Council of Amnesty Senegal, Samba Guissé, has called on all affiliate groups of the Senegalese chapter of Amnesty International (AI) to oppose any campaign aimed at legalising homosexuality in the country. In a statement issued here, Guissé urged the various groups to dissociate themselves from the position of the International Human Rights Federation (FIDH) calling on the Senegalese authorities to "review the criminal code with a view to to decriminalising homosexual acts". Guissé denies FIDH’s claims that "member organisations (including Amnesty International Senegal) had requested the Senegalese authorities to review the criminal code to abolish the criminalisation of homosexuality".
Note: Read more on AfriK.com |
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Feb 16, 2008
Quickie Link: Gay Groups' Observer Status at UN Blocked
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(UN) - LGBT rights groups from Spain, the Netherlands and Brazil have been refused observer status that allows Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to participate in United Nations business. The UN Committee on NGOs was tied, with Columbia, Dominica, Israel, Peru, Romania, UK and the USA voting yes and Burundi, China, Egypt, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia and Sudan voting no. Angola, Guinea, India and Turkey abstained while Cuba was not present. The UK representative on the committee said they were discriminating against LGBT NGO applicants and that it is the right of the community to have their voice heard at the UN. Romania said the NGO Committee "engaged in a blatant act of discrimination today."
Note: Read more on Pink News |
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Feb 16, 2008
Quickie Link: US MCC Appeals on Jamaican Government to Stop Violence
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(USA) - Two weeks after one of their church members became the latest victim in a mob attack in Jamaica, leaders of a South Florida church are calling for a public awareness campaign in the Caribbean nation to encourage a more Gay-friendly environment. The latest incident occurred on Jan. 29. According to local press reports and New York-based Human Rights Watch, a mob broke into a house in the central town of Mandeville and slashed the occupants inside, sending two to the hospital. One was severely injured and the other is missing and feared dead, the advocacy group reported. One of the victims was a member of the Jamaican chapter of the Metropolitan Community Churches, local church leaders said. The assault was the latest in a string of attacks in a country where popular reggae lyrics openly encourage the killing of Gays, and citizens show little tolerance for Gays, despite repeated foreign condemnation.
Note: Read more on Miami Herald |
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Feb 08, 2008
Quickie Link: New Employment Opportunities for Nepal’s Transgenders
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(Nepal) - Transgender people in Nepal will now have the opportunity to study to become hairdressers and beauticians under a new scheme funded by the Norwegian government. Transvestites are a particularly marginalised and vulnerable group with little or no access to the job market, and frequent violence directed against them. Sexual minorities experience regular extortion, exclusion from family and society, verbal and physical abuse, sexual abuse and rape, arbitrary detention, blackmail and even murder. Norway says it is committed to fighting sexual discrimination wherever it occurs as part of its development policy. Because of their physical appearance, transgender people are often prohibited from attending school and experience great difficulties in finding jobs. The project seeks to provide income-generating skills training in order to give sexual minorities, who often work in the sex industry, the opportunity to seek alternative jobs.
Note: Read more on Nepal Times |
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Feb 01, 2008
Quickie Link: London's OutRage! Leader Blocks Pakistani Strongman's Limo
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(UK) - Britain's best-known gay activist, Peter Tatchell, confronted Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf this past weekend when the dictator arrived in London on the last leg of his European tour, blocking the general's car with his body repeatedly to protest "the suppression of democracy and human rights" by the military strongman. Tatchell, who this year marks the 40th anniversary of his start as an activist, undertook the protest against Musharraf even though he is still suffering the physical after-effects of the severe beating he received last year in Moscow when a crowd of fascist thugs, egged on by the police, violently broke up an attempted Gay Pride demonstration in front of Moscow's City Hall that Tatchell had gone to Russia to support (see this reporter's May 31-Jun. 5, 2007 article, "The Agony of Moscow Pride," a link to which appears in the web version of this article).
Note: Read more on Gay City News |
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Jan 16, 2008
Quickie Link: Now Lithuania Faces Council of Europe Censure Over Gay Issues in Vilnius
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(Lithuania) - The Lithuanian Government faces censure over three breaches of the European Convention of Human Rights concerning Gay issues in the past year. Jean Huss, the lawmaker from Luxembourg has tabled a written question to Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE) asking them to “engage in dialogue with the Lithuanian authorities”. Mr. Huss, a member of the the CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly, cites the ban by the city authorities of the planned visit last May of the European Union’s “anti-discrimination” truck to Vilnius during its tour of member states as part of the EU Year of Equal Opportunities for All campaign.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Dec 24, 2007
Quickie Link: 'Christmas Gift' from Netherlands for Gay Iranian
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(Netherlands) - It was not the Christmas present that a young Gay Iranian wanted. A court in the Netherlands has ruled that Mehdi, the Gay Iranian teenager, has to be returned to the United Kingdom, where he faces deportation back to Iran. He fled England last spring when a Home Office tribunal dismissed his appeal against deportation. “I was refused the right to appeal of asylum in the Netherlands because of the Dublin Treaty,” he said by telephone this afternoon. The Dublin Treaty, or Convention, is a European Union law that prevents asylum applicants from applying in multiple members states.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Dec 21, 2007
Quickie Link: Gay Iranian Teen Awaits Decision of Dutch Court
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(UK) - A young Gay Iranian, who fled the United Kingdom in fear after his asylum application with the Home Office’s Border and Immigration Agency failed earlier this year, will be spending the festive season hoping that a Dutch court will allow him to stay in the Netherlands. UK Gay News highlighted the plight of 19 years-old Mehdi in April following the failure of his appeal against deportation from UK back to Iran.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Dec 12, 2007
Quickie Link: 'Parliamentary Hooligans' Disturb Ceremony at EU Parliament
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(UK) - A leading UK Labour MEP has today called on Conservative leader David Cameron to denounce his party’s MEPs who today “heckled and shouted like hooligans” during ceremonies to proclaim the European Charter of Fundamental Rights in the European Parliament. The Charter gives rights to citizens of member states of the European Unions – and includes rights for the EU gay, lesbian and transgender communities. Michael Cashman described the actions of those UK Conservative MEPs as “a national scandal”. They joined the far-right UKIP members, fascists and communists in trying to shout-down the presidents of the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission during the ceremonies earlier today.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Dec 04, 2007
Quickie Link: Malta Gay Rights Movement to Host 2009 ILGA-Europe Conference
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(Malta) - The European International Lesbian and Gay Association Annual Conference will be held in Malta in 2009 following a presentation at this year’s conference held in October in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. Malta beat the other location, The Hague, that was competing to host the gathering. In a statement, the Malta Gay Rights Movement said that for such a small island the conference will present an ideal opportunity to raise the visibility of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) issues nationally, as well as in the wider Mediterranean and southern European region.
Note: Read more on Malta Independent |
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Nov 16, 2007
Quickie Link: 'Try Not to Act Gay'
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(UK) - The Home Office offered some bizarre advice to a Jamaican Lesbian who applied for asylum in Britain. In an asylum system based on institutionalised stonewalling, there's little hope for human rights - regardless of what the law says. Eight years ago, a landmark ruling by the House of Lords in two appeal cases (Regina v Shah and Islam v Secretary of State for the Home Department) signalled an important change in Britain's interpretation of asylum law. But in practice, ignorance of the implications of this ruling amongst asylum seekers (and the solicitors representing them) conspired to deaden the ruling's impact ... with one notable exception. The UK's Gay human rights movement picked up on its potential to help Gay men and Lesbians fleeing persecution in Africa, Jamaica, the Middle East and elsewhere.
Note: Read more on Guardian |
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Nov 15, 2007
Quickie Link: A Reward for Killing and Torture
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Uganda is drifting towards dictatorship, just like Zimbabwe a decade ago. The Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, is a new Robert Mugabe in the making, a budding tyrant who is subverting democracy and human rights (according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch) through voter intimidation, hounding opposition politicians, detention without trial, torture, extrajudicial killings, media censorship, corruption, suppression of protests, homophobic witch-hunts, and crackdowns on universities and trade unions.
Note: Read more on Times |
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Nov 15, 2007
News: Execution in Iran Halted
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(Iran) - The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has learned that the Iranian Chief Justice, Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, has nullified the impending death sentence of Mr. Makvan Mouloodzadeh, a 21-year old Iranian citizen found guilty of multiple counts of anal rape (ighab), allegedly committed when he was 13 years old. The Iranian Chief Justice described the death sentence to be in violation of Islamic teachings, the religious decrees of high-ranking Shiite clerics, and the law of the land.
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Nov 12, 2007
Quickie Link: Amnesty Points to Rising Anti-Gay Emotion in Lithuania
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(Lithuania) - Amnesty International today called on its 2.2 million members worldwide to address the rising tide of homophobia in Lithuania. In recent months the Gay community in the Baltic state has seen marches repeatedly banned for spurious reasons, a smoke-bomb attack on a Gay-rights conference, and numerous homophobic comments from leading politicians. Earlier this year in May, Vilnius Mayor Juozas Imbrasas banned a one-day visit of the official European Union “Stop Discrimination” truck on its tour of 19 member-states as part of the ‘For Diversity: Against Discrimination’ information campaign. Just days before the ban on the EU truck, the Mayor of Vilnius supported a refusal to display advertisements on Vilnius’ trolleybuses promoting sexual orientation equality in employment developed for an EU-funded project.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Nov 11, 2007
Quickie Link: Gay Man from Jamaic Wins Asylum in USA
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(USA) - A Gay Jamaican man who feared persecution if forced to leave the United States for his home country was granted asylum Thursday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “I am grateful to the United States government for saving my life,” Ven Messam said in a statement released by the Columbia Law School's Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic, which assisted him with his case. “My life in Jamaica was constantly in danger, with angry mobs carrying machetes, stones, knives, and guns, threatening to kill me because I am Gay. When I tried to contact the police for help, the police instead threatened to arrest me and told me to leave the country if I wanted to stay safe.”
Note: Read more on Advocate |
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Nov 08, 2007
Quickie Link: Nigeria Unfit To Host Commonwealth Games
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(UK) - It would be wrong to award the 2014 Commonwealth Games to Abuja because of Nigeria’s bad record on human rights, Outrage! said yesterday. Tomorrow, the Commonwealth Games Federation is due to announce whether the Nigerian city of Abuja or the Scottish city of Glasgow have been chosen to host the 2014 Games. “It would be wrong for the 2014 Commonwealth Games to be held in Nigeria, given the country’s serious human rights abuses, widespread corruption and flawed elections,” said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. “I would love an African country to host the games, but not Nigeria. “Awarding Abjua the games would reward bad governance, grave social injustices and the denial of civil rights to millions of Nigerians,” added Mr Tatchell.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Nov 07, 2007
Quickie Link: Dutch Call on Aid Recipients to Improve Gay Rights
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(Netherlands) - The Netherlands, a major donor of international aid, will lobby developing countries to legalize homosexuality and fight discrimination, the government said on Wednesday. A government survey showed homosexuality is illegal in 18 out of the 36 countries the Netherlands gives regular aid to, Development Minister Bert Koenders said in a statement, with punishment ranging from prison sentences to the death penalty.
Note: Read more on Washington Post |
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Nov 06, 2007
News: Three Gay Safe Houses in Iraq Forced to Close
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(Iraq) - Three out of five Gay safe houses in Iraq are closing down, due to a lack of funds to pay their rent and utility bills. The refuges were set up two years ago, to provide a place of safety for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Iraqis who have fled homophobic threats and attempts to kill them by religious fundamentalists and death squads. Previous appeals for solidarity didn't yield sufficient funding, leaving the activists desperate on how to bring the ends together to maintain the project.
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Nov 06, 2007
Quickie Link: UN: Support Global Gay Rights Charter
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(USA) - Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay will co-sponsor the New York event of the Yogyakarta Principles, a global charter for Gay rights, at the United Nations on November 7, 2007, Human Rights Watch said today. The Yogyakarta Principles, a landmark advance in the struggle to ensure basic human rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, were developed in response to well-documented patterns of abuse worldwide. Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson will address a side event on the principles, organized in parallel to the UN General Assembly. The forum, co-sponsored by Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, brings together nongovernmental organizations, UN representatives and state delegates for a discussion on the Yogyakarta Principles and the challenges of ending discrimination.
Note: Read more on HRW |
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Nov 01, 2007
News: Abolish Capital Punishment in Iran
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(Iran) - Makwan Moloudzadeh, a 21 year old Iranian now faces the threat of execution. His crime is his sexuality, which is illegal under the Law of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Many have been executed for sexual crimes such as extramarital and homosexual sex acts. Due to the legal processes and procedures of the Judicial system of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its complete lack of transparency, it is extremely difficult to access the documents, witnesses, testimonies, and other facts pertinent to the files of those accused, as a result of which it is almost impossible to verify the confessions, complaints, evidence, and verdicts.
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Oct 30, 2007
Quickie Link: Anti-Gay US president Praises His Anti-Gay Ugandan Colleague
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(USA) - US President Bush met at the White House on Tuesday with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for talks that focused on trade, HIV/AIDS but seemingly ignored alleged human rights abuses of Gays and Lesbians. The two emerged from the meeting to appear for a camera opportunity with Bush praising Museveni for his push to lower the AIDS rate in the African nation by emphasizing abstinence until marriage. "Uganda is the epitome of how one can implement a comprehensive ABC strategy to achieve concrete and specific results for the sake of humanity," said Bush. Money provided to Uganda by the US to fight HIV/AIDS, however is alleged to have to groups that human rights activists say are responsible for attacks on Gays.
Note: Read more on 365Gay.com |
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Oct 29, 2007
Quickie Link: Saudi King's Visit to Britain Faces Protests and Boycotts
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(UK) - Britain's most sensitive and controversial relationship in the Middle East faces protests and boycotts during a state visit by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, just weeks after a lucrative new defence contract made clear that it was business as usual between the two countries. Prince Mohammed said: "I am offended when I see us portrayed as a barbaric country. We are not a stagnant nation." But the kingdom's image remains poor. Peter Tatchell, the Gay rights activist, said: "As well as flogging and executing Gay people, Saudi leaders are guilty of detention without trial, torture and the public beheading of women who have sex outside of marriage. Migrant workers are de facto slaves. The media is heavily censored. Trade unions, political parties and non-Muslim religions are banned. The country is a theocratic police state."
Note: Read more on Guardian |
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Oct 26, 2007
Quickie Link: Gay Mexican's Asylum Denied
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(USA) - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, based in New York City, has ruled in an unpublished decision that the current level of anti-Gay persecution in Mexico is not sufficient to justify granting a withholding of removal for a Gay immigrant who claimed to fear persecution if returned to that nation. The ruling, which affirmed a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), reversed what had seemed a trend toward granting the claims of sexual minority refugees from Mexico.
Note: Read more on Gay City News |
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Oct 25, 2007
Quickie Link: Iranian Gays Do Exist and Need the World's Support
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(Iran) - Homophobia runs deep into Iranian society. This, of course, partly reflects the influence of the conservative Islamic legal and religious standards promoted by the government. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini notoriously called for homosexuals to be extirpated as "parasites and corruptors of the nation" who "spread the stain of wickedness." It also reflects a patriarchal social system in which sexuality is controlled and feared, except when at the service of reproduction. The death penalty for lavat is not merely a paper punishment in Iran: it is enforced.
Note: Read more on Xtra.ca |
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Oct 23, 2007
Quickie Link: Gay Couples Left in a Legal Limbo
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(USA) - Gay citizens in the USA have problems to get visa for their foreign partners. So has Tom Knutson, a "fiscal conservative, registered Republican and a widely traveled professor" whose Thai partner will soon have to leave the USA. The couple will inevitably face, they say, the same excruciating choice thousands of other same-sex binational couples in the United States face and are increasingly stepping forward to protest. "I am a U.S. citizen being denied my rights as a U.S. citizen to live with and love who I want," said Knutson. He expresses quiet rage because he loves the United States, he said.
Note: Read more on www.sacbee.com |
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Oct 22, 2007
Quickie Link: Gay Activists Picket Saudi Embassy
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(UK) - Students and members of OutRage! took to the streets of London last week to protest about the treatment of gays in Saudi Arabia. Fifty people picketed the Saudi embassy after it was reported that two men had been sentenced to 7,000 lashes for "sodomy." The London protest, organised by the National Union of Students (NUS) LGBT campaign and supported by OutRage!, came eleven days ahead of the state visit to the UK of the Saudi head of state King Abdullah bin Abdul Azaz al Saud. Members of LGBT Labour also attended the event. NUS protest organiser Scott Cuthbertson called on others to protest the "continued criminalisation, imprisonment, torture and murder of LGBT people in Saudi Arabia."
Note: Read more on Pink News |
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Oct 19, 2007
Quickie Link: Fifty Protest at Saudi Embassy Over Lashings of Gays
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(UK) - Around 50 students, some from as far away as Manchester, Salford and Hull, protested outside the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in London this afternoon following the sentences passed earlier this month on two young Saudi Gay men. The pair were sentenced on October 2 to 7,000 lashings each in al-Bahah following conviction for ‘sodomy’. Amid chanting and singing, Claire Anderson and Scott Cuthbertson, LGBT officers with the National Union of Students, handed-in a letter of protest to an Embassy official. The protest was supported by LGBT Labour and Gay human rights group Outrage!
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Oct 19, 2007
Quickie Link: Mckellen Makes Fun Of Singapore's Anti-Gay Laws On TV
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(Singapore) - Sir Ian McKellen was so irritated to discover homosexuality is illegal in Singapore during a recent visit to the country, he asked for directions to a gay bar on live TV. He was in Singapore for a pantomime performance when he decided to poke fun at the country's anti-Gay laws during a television interview. He says, "I didn't realise, as a Gay man, that I'd be a criminal once I arrived - because it's illegal for a man to make love to another man in Singapore. At the end of the interview, they asked what was I looking forward to doing while I was in Singapore. And I looked at the man, who was clearly straight, and said, `Can you recommend any decent Gay bars?', which would be illegal in every possible way."
Note: Read more on www.cbs47.tv |
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Oct 18, 2007
Quickie Link: Gay Refugee not Gay Enough for Canada's Authorities
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(Canada) - What is it to be Gay? Can our Gayness be measured by how others perceive us? Are we Gay if we never have same-sex nudie relations? Are we Gay because we say we are, or are we Gay because someone else says we are? For asylum seeker Alvaro Orozco and Canadian Immigration Minister Diane Finley, these questions have never been more poignant or important to consider. Since his Oct 4, 2007 deportation date, Orozco, a 22-year-old Gay man born in Nicaragua, has been in hiding in the Toronto area. The deportation order is so far the last word from Immigration Canada on his three-year-long journey to achieve refugee status based on sexual orientation, a journey that began at the age of the 13 when Orozco fled his family to escape abuse and fled his country in pursuit of freedom.
Note: Read more on vueweekly.com |
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Oct 17, 2007
News: Situation of Gay People in Georgia and Azerbaijan
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(EU) - Georgia and Azerbaijan must stop discrimination and incitement to hatred and put in place an inclusive anti-discrimination law in line with Council of Europe and EU standards if they aspire to EU membership. This is according to the joint ILGA-Europe and COC Netherlands reports on the position of Gay people in the two South Caucasian countries. The comprehensive reports are the result of a joint fact-finding mission and reflect the vulnerable social and legal situation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders. They also reflect the position of national authorities and international organisations. Finally, the reports give a particular focus to lesbian and bisexual women and transgender people and give examples of human rights violations on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.
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Oct 17, 2007
Quickie Link: Two 'Safe Houses' for Gays in Iraq Set To Close
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(Iraq) - Up to 25 Gay men will next month have to 'take their chances' in Iraq where religious militia regularly seek out Gays and execute them. Two 'safe houses' for Gays will be forced to close at the end month – due to lack of cash, it was learned last night. And appeal for funds was made last month by the London-based IraqiLGBT group, which runs the five safe houses. The appeal was promoted on a number of LGBT online sites and blogs in several countries. But just under £1,000 ($US2,000, €1,400) is all has been raised as a result of the appeal. The amount barely covers the cost of running one safe house for a month.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Oct 16, 2007
Quickie Link: British PM to Address Age of Consent Inequality in Gibraltar
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(UK) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to take-up the matter of the unequal age of consent still in place in Gibraltar, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. The age of consent for heterosexual sexual relations in Gibraltar is 16 whilst the age of consent for same-sex sexual relations is 18.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Oct 10, 2007
Quickie Link: Is the US Government Financing Anti Gay Groups in Africa?
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(USA) - The IGLHRC has revealed that it has uncovered evidence that the U.S. government has funded groups in Uganda that actively promote discrimination against Gay people. The primary instigator of the backlash was Pastor Martin Ssempa, leader of the Makerere University Community Church and spokesman for the Interfaith Family Culture Coalition Against Homosexuality in Uganda. IGLHRC has evidence of grants made by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to the Makerere University Community Church. With support from conservative organizations such as Family Watch International in the United States, Mr. Ssempa has launched attacks on Gay people.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Oct 05, 2007
Commentary: Queer Iranians and Mr. Ahmadinejad in the Press
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On Monday September 24th, Mr. Ahmadinejad gave a talk at New York's Columbia University. The President of Columbia, under great pressure for having invited Mr. Ahmadinejad, tried to compensate by creating a favourable atmosphere for himself, an atmosphere which did not materialize until the question about homosexuality was raised. A question was asked about the situation of homosexuals in Iran and in response Mr. Ahmadinejad replied: "In our country we don't have homosexuals like in your country. This does not exist in our country. I don't know who has told you that we have this." This response elicited laughter and booing from the crowd in attendance.
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Oct 04, 2007
Quickie Link: Russian Gay Activist in Chicago
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(USA) - Nikolai Alexeyev – the main organiser of Moscow Gay Pride, editor in chief of the GayRussia website and general ‘thorn in the side’ of Mayor Luzhkov and the Moscow authorities – is making his first trip to America. He has been invited by the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network as the keynote speaker at their ninth annual Matthew Shepard March on Saturday.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Sep 29, 2007
Quickie Link: Out In Africa -- By Doug Ireland
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(South Africa) - Cary Alan Johnson, the Africa specialist for the New York-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), is respected globally for the dedication and effectiveness of his work on behalf of LGBT people on that continent. On October 15, Johnson is moving to South Africa to direct an expanded Africa team from IGLHRC's office in Johannesburg. Where in the continent has there been the most spectacular progress since Johnson has been on the Africa desk at IGLHRC? "I would have to say Kenya," he responded. "As I mentioned, it was the first African country that I visited, back in 1981, so it's the place where I can most clearly see the progress."
Note: Read more on Gay City News |
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Sep 26, 2007
Editorial: Who Said Anything About Bombs?
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke on Monday at Columbia University, where he avoided answering a question on persecution of Gay people in Iran, claiming there were no homosexuals in his country. The world rejoiced, and commentators didn’t spare with scorn on the Iranian President. Only few witnessed that Ahmadinejad’s words caused them no laugh at all, since there are too many dead bodies connected to his presidency.
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Sep 25, 2007
News: Activists Condemn Denial of Iranian Gays by President Ahmadinejad
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(USA) - During a controversial talk at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum on Monday, Iranian President Dr. Mahmood Ahmadinejad denied the existence of homosexuality in Iran: “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. … We don’t have that in our country,” he claimed answering a question about the rights of Gay people in Iran. The reactions to this claim were a mixture of disbelief, anger and warnings not to join into militarist hystery.
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Sep 24, 2007
Quickie Link: Michael Petrelis Talks With Ugandan Embassy
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(USA) - After more than a week of calling and emailing Mr. Charles Ssentongo, second in command at the Ugandan embassy in Washington, I finally got him on the phone this morning for a ten-minute conversation. I asked what his government is doing to protect the human rights and safety of gays and he assured me Uganda doesn't discriminate in treating all citizens equally.
Note: Read more on Petrelis Files |
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Sep 24, 2007
News: Arsham Parsi Spoke at Gozar Panel in Toronto
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(Canada) - Arsham Parsi, Executive Director of the Iranian Queer Organization, delivered a speech at Gozar Panel 'Silenced Voices' in Toronto on 16 September. He spoke of stonings and executions of Gay people in Iran, of the injustice and inequity, and manifold problems Iranian Gays face in exile. Sadly, many refugees are confronted by almost the same situation they met inside Iran since they are pressured by the Iranian diaspora community to live in a social ghetto. The GRD publishes here the transcription of the speech in its full length.
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Sep 24, 2007
Quickie Link: UK Must Do More to Ease Iraqi Refugee Crisis
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(UK) - The Iraqi refugee crisis is reaching breaking point, says a new Amnesty International report following a research mission to Syria and Jordan which host the bulk of Iraq’s refugees. Help from the international community has been “seriously inadequate,” concludes the report, focusing particularly on countries like the UK which participated in the invasion of Iraq and hence “carry particular responsibilities to Iraqis”. As often reported in the last three years by UK Gay News, the plight of Gay Iraqis is of particular concern – an aspect often forgotten.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Sep 21, 2007
Quickie Link: Nice try, but ... -- By Peter Tatchell
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(UK) - Whatever you think of Gordon Brown and New Labour, it was in many ways a bold, brave move for the prime minister to declare that he will unilaterally boycott December's EU - African Union summit in Lisbon if President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is allowed to attend. At last, some moral leadership from a government that has been rather short on principles in recent years. Is this the first sign of a welcome revival of the long discarded ethical dimension to Labour's foreign policy? We live in hope, but my advice is: don't hold your breath. But unless Brown is planning a one-leader boycott, which seems unlikely, he has to get other EU and AU leaders to join him in making the same commitment: if Mugabe goes, we don't go.
Note: Read more on Guardian |
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Sep 20, 2007
News: Iraqi Gays Win Asylum in UK
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(UK) - Two Iraqi Gays have been granted asylum in the UK, in a court ruling overturning a previous decision of British authorities to deport them. The two men have survived attempted assassinations by Shia Islamist death squads in Iraq and were seeking refuge in United Kingdom, but their initial applications for asylum had been turned down by the Home Office, despite compelling evidence of anti-Gay persecution and threats to kill them. With the support of the Gay human rights groups OutRage! and Iraqi LGBT both men appealed against the refusal of asylum and won.
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Sep 16, 2007
Quickie Link: Activists rally in Front of Nicaraguan Embassy in Taiwan
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(Taiwan) - Gay rights activists staged a demonstration outside the Nicaraguan embassy in Taipei yesterday as part of an international campaign against the country's sodomy law. "Love is not a crime!" activists from six non-governmental organizations shouted in Mandarin, English and Spanish outside the embassy. The international campaign was initiated by Amnesty International Mexico and also took place in 10 other countries. "Nicaragua is the only Latin American country with a law that prohibits sex between people of the same sex," said Emily Wu (吳佳珊), an Amnesty International Taiwan member. "That is not only a violation of the Nicaraguan Constitution, but also of international human rights."
Note: Read more on Taipei Times |
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Sep 16, 2007
Quickie Link: Cash Crisis Puts Doubt on Future of 'Safe Houses' for Gays
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(Iraq) - Iraqi LGBT is facing a cash crisis in their efforts to assist lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people in Iraq. For over a year, Friends of Iraqi LGBT has been trying to help by funding safe houses in Iraq for those who have come to the attention of the death squads and who have consequently had to flee their homes. Since the US-led invasion of Iraq, gay people in Iraq have suffered particularly intense persecution. Violence against all the gay community has intensified sharply since late 2005, when Iraq’s leading Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, issued a fatwa (religious decree) which declared that gays and lesbians should be “killed in the worst, most severe way”.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News |
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Sep 15, 2007
Quickie Link: Alvaro Orozco to Be Deported
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(Canada) - Canada's immigration system has once again rejected Alvaro Orozco. The Nicaraguan-born refugee claimant, originally denied status last October because an Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) member didn?t believe that he was gay, was issued a negative decision on Sep 14 in connection with his second pre-removal risk assessment (PRRA). A deportation date has been set for Thu, Oct 4. Orozco, 22, came to Canada in 2005 by way of the US, which means that he would be deported back to the US. "If they send me to the US I would go to a detention centre," says Orozco. "I was in the US for five years and I was illegal so if I go back I maybe can face jail there."
Note: Read more on Xtra.ca |
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Sep 13, 2007
Quickie Link: Mexican Refugee to Be Deported From Canada
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(Canada) - Gay refugee Leonardo Zuniga, who fled to Toronto from Mexico three years ago, may be put on a plane in the next weeks and returned to the country he fears. In June of last year, the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) denied Zuniga refugee status because it deemed he wasn't a person in need of protection and "would not face a danger of torture, nor would he face a serious possibility of risk to life, cruel and unusual treatments or punishments." "I'm going to be living in fear or hiding in the closet all my life," says Zuniga. "Mexico has a beautiful image as a progressive country for LGBT people, but it's just an image."
Note: Read more on Now Toronto |
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Sep 12, 2007
News: Activists Call for Action to Support Gay People in Nicaragua
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(Nicaragua) - Human rights groups across the world have called for action to remind the government and the parliament of Nicaragua of their obligations to respect inalienable rights of Gay people. Amnesty International has declared 13 September 2007 the worldwide day of action to remove the article 204 of the Nicaraguan Penal Code, which reads: "Anyone who induces, promotes, propagandizes or practices in scandalous form sexual inter-course between persons of the same sex commits the crime of sodomy and shall incur 1 to 3 years’ imprison-ment". Gay organizations and individuals are urged to write letters to Nicaragua embassies and stage protest demonstrations.
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Sep 12, 2007
News: Lesbian Refugee Released from UK Detention
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(UK) - The Friends of Pegah Campaign from Sheffield has released informations that the ordeal of Pegah Emambakhsh has found an end so far. Pegah was granted bail and she is finally out of Yarls Wood Detention Centre and back with people who will love and care for her. The Court of Appeal has also agreed to hear her case. The group believes that the case will be listed within the next couple of weeks and a decision will be made within the next few months.
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Sep 08, 2007
News: Protests in Berlin to Save Iranian Lesbian From Deportation
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(Germany) - An Iranian lesbian seeking asylum in Germany is to be deported, according to a recent decision by German authorities. Homosexuality is punishable by death is Iran. A protest vigil organized by the German Lesbian and Gay Association (LSVD) and attended by about 50 people was held today outside the Ministry for the Interior and Sports. The Iranian woman had sought asylum in Germany because of the imminent danger of execution in Iran. Authorities did not believe her, and, according to the newspaper TAZ, she is now to be deported to Turkey. A possible reprieve may come from the Commission for Cases of Hardship, however any resulting finding would be a mere recommendation.
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Sep 08, 2007
News: IGLHRC Asks to Submit Nominations for the 2008 Felipa Award
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(USA) - The Felipa Award honors an organization or an individual whose work has made a significant contribution toward securing the full enjoyment of the human rights of all people and communities subject to discrimination or abuse on the basis of sexual orientation or expression, gender identity or expression, and/or HIV status, anywhere in the world. The award commemorates Felipa de Souza, a woman who was convicted and tortured in Brazil by the Portuguese Inquisition in 1591 for having sexual relationships with other women.
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Sep 07, 2007
Commentary: What Will Happen to Pegah and to Human Rights in the UK?
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Dear Friends, the Campaign of Flowers, as well as the entire Campaign for Pegah, is based on the recovery of the values of brotherhood and solidarity in actions for the defence of human rights. We live in a difficult age and unfortunately the governments, the magistracy and often the most well-known humanitarian organisations in the world have relegated the Universal Declaration of Human rights, the Convention on the Status of Refugees and other rules on which we base our level of civilisation and respect of minorities behind other priorities: security, immigration control, the defence of nations and families.
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Sep 07, 2007
News: Solidarity Actions with Gay People at Risk in Nicaragua
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(Nicaragua) - In spite of positive initiatives across the Americas, Nicaragua continues to criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. Amnesty International issued a call for actions on behalf of Gay people in Nicaragua. Although to Amnesty International’s knowledge no one has to date been prosecuted under Article 204 of the Nicaraguan Penal Code, it potentially criminalizes Gay men, Lesbians and Bisexual people in same-sex relationships. The wording of the article 204 is also vague enough to permit the prosecution of individuals for activities such as campaigning for LGBT rights or anyone providing sexual health information or services.
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Sep 07, 2007
Interview with Iranian Gay Couple
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(Iran) - A Gay couple from Iran talked with Arsham Parsi from Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO). Kamran, a 24 years old and Kaveh, a 25 years old have been together for 3 years. They fled Iran and are currently in Turkey, awaiting their asylum case to be proceeded by the UNHCR. In the interview, the two young men describe the daily social persecution Gay people are suffering in Iran, but also the hardships the refugees must face when fleeing their country without means for existence.
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Sep 04, 2007
Quickie Link: Peter Tachell Talks About UK Asylum Politics on TV
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(UK) - The recent attempted deportation of the Iranian Lesbian refugee, Pegah Emambakhsh, is typical of the inhumanities of Britain's asylum system. Peter Tatchell interviews Dr Frank Arnold, clinical advisor to the Medical Justice Network; Puck de Raadt, an asylum worker with the Churches' Commission on Racial Justice; and 'Maria', a former asylum detainee who fled persecution in an ex-Soviet bloc state.
Note: Watch online on doughty.gdbtv.com |
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Sep 01, 2007
News: Human Rights Activists Asked To Apply For Fellowship
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(EU) - The Open Society Justice Initiative, an operational program of the Open Society Institute (OSI), joins with Central European University (CEU) to announce the Justice Initiative Fellows Program for 2008-2010. The aim of the program is to support and further develop a network of lawyers and activists working internationally on human rights-related issues. Since its inception in 1996, 155 fellows have graduated from the Justice Initiative's Fellowship program. The Justice Initiative Fellows Program is a two-year program of study and practical work experience. Up to ten applicants will be selected to participate in the 2008 program. Applicants from the following regions and countries are eligible: Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Central/South America.
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Sep 01, 2007
Quickie Link: Send Flowers to Pegah Emambakhsh
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Pegah Emambakhsh is completely worn out. Till now her life has been characterized by pain, fear and death. She is a nice, reserved, religious and optimistic woman, but the world till now has offered her just discrimination, hatred, persecution, humiliation, injustice and imprisonment. Even now that her drama is known all over the world, even now that in many we pray for her, for her future, she's penned in a cold prison, without privacy, love or human warmth. Dear friends, let's make her to feel our love saying her that we're not all the same persons, that good persons exist, people who believe in brotherhood and solidarity. Send her a flower or a bunch of flowers with any flowers shipment service: Roses, Lilies or Gerberas. Flowers of all the colours, perfumed like the justice. Roses and Asylum for Pegah!
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Aug 30, 2007
Commentary: Pegah Emambakhsh and The New Frontiers of Human Rights
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The widespread international campaign to save Pegah Emambakhsh’s life, which has involved governmental institutions, human rights organizations, GLBT activist groups, intellectuals, experts in international law and millions of people who have come to love Pegah, has succeeded in achieving a positive outcome. Pegah is now serene, she is being assisted by a top legal office, by the “Friends of Pegah Campaign” association (which the EveryOne Group is proud to be part of) and has obtained the guarantee that her case will undergo an objective reassessment. The meeting between the lawyers and the magistrate was extremely positive and satisfactory.
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Aug 30, 2007
News: Euro-Parliament Takes Up the Case of Lesbian Refugee in UK
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(EU) - Following a proposal by Italian MEP Giusto Catania (PRC), representing the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group in the European Parliament during today's Conference of Presidents - and Graham Watson, President of the Parliament's Liberal Group, European Parliament President Hans Gert Pöettering has accepted to write a letter to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the fate of Pegah Emambakhsh, the Iranian lesbian woman who risks expulsion from Great Britain to Iran.
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