"NewsWrap"
for the week ending May 5, 2007
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #997, distributed 5-7-07)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner
with Bill Kelley]
Reported this week by Rick Watts and Tanya Kane-Parry
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled this week that a ban
on the 2005 Pride march in Warsaw was a violation of human rights. The seven
judges, including one from Poland, were unanimous. The court agreed that
freedom of association and assembly, and prohibition of discrimination and the
right to an effective remedy, had been denied. All are guaranteed in the
European Convention on Human Rights.
When Warsaw activists defied a ban in 2004 and peacefully marched, skinheads
associated with All-Polish Youth, an affiliate of the far-right League of
Polish Families, assaulted them. In May 2005 Lech Kaczynski, as mayor of Warsaw,
refused to issue a permit for the Pride parade. He was elected President of
Poland in October of that year, and his government includes League members.
In its judgement, the Court said in part that: "The positive obligation of a
state to secure genuine and effective respect for freedom of association and
assembly [is] of particular importance to those with unpopular views or
belonging to minorities, because they [are] more vulnerable to victimization."
The ruling follows by just days a resolution in the European Parliament
condemning Polish officials for numerous anti-queer statements and reports that the
government was drafting legislation to ban so-called "promotion of
homosexuality" in schools.
Robert Biedron, president of the Campaign Against Homophobia and one of the
Polish activists who brought the case, told the "Associated Press" that the
Court ruling is "a very important step towards equality for gay and lesbian
people in Poland, and I think also in several other countries in central and
eastern Europe."
This was the first case of a banned LGBT Pride march being challenged in the
European Court of Human Rights. A similar lawsuit filed by Pride activists in
Moscow is pending.
GenderDoc-M, which organizes Pride activities in the Moldovan capital of
Chisinau, is reporting that they peacefully held two events there this week,
despite the city’s ban of a Pride march. Local officials took that action
despite the nation’s recent Supreme Court ruling that last year’s ban was
unconstitutional.
Claiming that an official permit was required, police prevented an attempt by
LGBT activists to lay flowers at a monument to the victims of repression.
They then laid their flowers at the feet of the police officers and left. A
City Hall spokesperson issued a media release soon after saying that no
permission for the event was required.
There was also a demonstration in front of City Hall to protest this year’s
Pride march ban. While there was a noisy counter-demonstration, police
protected the queer contingent, and the event remained peaceful.
GenderDoc-M Executive Director Boris Balanetkii said that the demonstration
showed that city officials’ fears that a Pride march would provoke public
disorder were not justified. He said that LGBT-supportive protest demonstrations
were also held at Moldovan embassies in Stockholm, Vienna, Bucharest,
Washington and New York.
LGBT people in Thailand are campaigning for protections in the new
constitution, being drafted in the wake of a September 2006 bloodless military coup
led by the Royal Thai Army. The new military leaders suspended the
constitution, prohibited political activity, stifled the media, and instituted martial
law. They’ve promised that a new democratic government would be in place within
a year.
A statement by the Thai Political Gay Group to the "Reuters" news agency said
that: "[W]e hope the guarantee of rights for the third sex in the
constitution will pave the way for amendments in other laws to give gays equal rights."
It said that despite Thailand's relatively queer-friendly reputation there is
still "clear prejudice."
Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, the nation's founding
leader, told a meeting of the ruling party’s youth wing that if some men are born
gay, then gay sex should not be illegal.
According to a report in the "Straits Times" newspaper, Lee said that " I
have asked doctors [about] this... you are genetically born a homosexual, because
that's the nature of the genetic random transmission of genes, you can't help
it -- so why should we criminalize it?… Let's not go around likeâ… moral
police… barging into people's rooms," he said. "That's not our busiiness."
"Gross indecency" between men is punishable by up to two years in prison in
Singapore, though the law doesn't seem to be enforced.
Lee, who was Prime Minister from 1959 to 1990, is now a special cabinet
minister in the government of his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The United Kingdom’s Sexual Orientation Regulations, recently approved by
Parliament to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in the provision of
goods and services, took effect on April 30th. Discrimination based on
gender identity has yet to be addressed.
Catholic adoption agencies, which unsuccessfully sought exemption from the
Regulations, have until the end of 2008 to comply with the new laws.
Well-known gay activist Peter Tatchell, who recently announced his Green
Party candidacy for Member of Parliament, celebrated significant achievements made
by the queer community in the last decade. "We've overturned nearly all the
homophobic legal discrimination," he said. "The gay rights movement has been
one of the most successful law reform movements of all time." But he
cautioned against "creeping apathy" in the queer community.
MEP Michael Cashman, a co-founder of Britain’s major LGBT advocacy group
Stonewall, echoed Tatchell’s sentiment, saying that, "Just because we have
achieved equality doesn't mean we pack up and go home."
The Sexual Orientation Regulations took effect in Northern Ireland on January
1st.
There were also advances for LGBT people in the U.S. this week. The Oregon
state Senate, by a wide margin, approved legislation that would allow lesbian
and gay couples, and heterosexual couples unable to marry, to form legally
recognized partnerships. The Oregon House passed the bill last month, and
Governor Ted Kulongoski has said that he’ll sign it.
The state has a constitutional amendment banning same-gender marriage, so the
partnership legislation was carefully crafted to avoid legal challenges that
it would circumvent the amendment.
The Family Fairness Act will grant bereavement or sick leave to care for a
partner or a partner's child, allow a person to choose a final resting place for
a deceased partner, and transfer assets from a deceased partner to his or her
surviving partner if the deceased had no valid will. It also enables couples
to obtain joint insurance, enter joint rental agreements, and get an
equitable division of property in a partnership dissolution or annulment.
Oregon will become the seventh U.S. state to offer broad protections to
same-gender couples. Two other states and the District of Columbia have more
limited domestic partnership laws.
It’s the second major LGBT rights bill to pass in Oregon in the past two
months. In late April, the legislature approved, and the Governor has also
promised to sign, the Oregon Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination in the
state based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression in housing,
employment, public accommodations, education and public services.
The Colorado House has approved a bill banning workplace discrimination
based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.
A similar measure passed last month in the state Senate. The two versions
now need to be reconciled into one bill before going to Governor Bill Ritter,
who has said he’ll sign it.
Colorado law already bars discrimination in hiring, or in firing, demotions
or promotions based on race, age or disability.
Colorado is poised to become the 20th U.S. state to ban workplace disc
rimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and - with bills in two other states
pending their governor’s signatures -- at least the 10th state to ban
discrimination based on gender identity or expression.
The Vermont Senate this week gave final approval to a bill prohibiting bias
based on gender identity or expression in employment, public accommodations,
housing and credit. A similar measure passed earlier in the week in the state
House, and a joint legislative committee hammered out the final version.
If it’s signed by Governor Jim Douglas, the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force says that 36 percent of the U.S. population will be protected from
discrimination based on gender identity or expression. Douglas vetoed a similar bill
last year, but has reportedly said he will sign this version.
Vermont banned workplace bias based on sexual orientation in 1991.
And finally, according to a report this week by "Chicago Tribune" Foreign
Correspondent Kim Barker, a female impersonator is hosting a wildly-popular
national TV talk show. What makes the story even more interesting is that it’s
in conservative, predominantly Islamic Pakistan.
On one recent Late Night Show with Begum Nawazish Ali, which debuted two
years ago, the host flirted with the country's law minister, batting her long
eyelashes and calling him "darling." "Look at my hands," she told the minister,
showing off her French manicure. "Your hands are beautiful," he responded. "I
feel like kissing them."
Pakistani men and women normally don’t flirt publicly, and television hosts
certainly don’t call people "darling."
Ali, as played by 28-year-old male actor Ali Saleem, is a 40-something widow
of an Army colonel. As a man in drag, writes Barker, he’s able to shatter
every cultural and religious norm.
The show does have its critics. But aside from Ali’s beauty, which even some
Pakistani men admire -- while acknowledging that it’s a man in drag -- the TV
host’s popularity also comes from the fact that she preaches love, goodwill
and tolerance, even between rivals Pakistan and India. "Living in a so-called
extremist society," Ali’s alter ego Saleem said in an interview, "I have never
received any threats, I have never received any hate mail."
Fayez Agariah, who designs most of Ali's saris, said that, "People are
awe-struck because he's on TV. He's not a transsexual. He's not a transvestite.
He plays a character. There's no label for him."
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