"NewsWrap"
for the week ending July 28, 2007
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,009, distributed 7-30-07)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner
with Bill Kelley]
Reported this week by Sheri Lunn and Christopher Gaal
Both the International Lesbian and Gay Association and the International
Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission reported this week that the United
Nations Economic and Social Council, or ECOSOC, has granted U.N. consultative
status to two more LGBT organizations. ECOSOC accreditation allows such NGOs, or
non-governmental organizations, to attend U.N. meetings, submit written
statements, and make oral presentations. Canada’s Coalition Gaie et Lesbienne Du
Québec, and RFSL -- the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender Rights -- were each accepted by comfortable margins in a vote by the full
Council, which overruled its NGO committee recommendations to reject them.
ECOSOC consists of 54 rotating member states of the United Nations, drawn
from the five U.N. regions: Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the
West. For the first time, states from all five regions voted to accredit the
two LGBT organizations. Delegates from Canada, Brazil, Portugal and Norway
each spoke strongly in their support.
Three LGBT NGOs gained ECOSOC consultative status in December 2006: the
Danish National Association for Gays and Lesbians, the European branch of the
International Lesbian and Gay Association, and Germany’s Lesbian and Gay Feder
ation. Australia’s Coalition of Activist Lesbians and the U.S.-based International
Wages Due Lesbians have had consultative status at the U.N. for several years.
A number of additional LGBT groups are expected to submit applications for
consultative status to ECOSOC’s NGO Committee in January.
Iranian refugees and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights
Commission or IGLHRC -- are reporting that some of the 16 people hhanged last week
in Tehran may have been executed for being gay.
Islamic law forbids all sexual acts outside of heterosexual marriage. IGLHRC
noted that Iran’s sodomy laws "are grouped together with rape, sexual
assault, incest and sexual abuse of children, thereby conflating crimes of sexual
violence with acts of non-procreative sex." It’s therefore impossible to know
for certain if any of the executed men had only engaged in consensual adult sex,
or if they’d committed additional "sodomy" offenses such as rape or sexual
child abuse.
Two Iranian teenagers charged with engaging in homosexual acts were publicly
hanged on July 19th, 2005, provoking worldwide outrage. Small demonstrations
outside Iranian embassies were held this month in Santiago and Moscow on the
anniversary of those hangings, and to protest the latest executions.
According to IGLHRC, the latest "morals" crackdown is being used to create
fear, and to discredit increasingly vocal critics of the regime.
British-based human rights activist Peter Tatchell this week called claims
that two reggae dancehall stars had not signed an agreement to stop performing
homophobic "hate music" "absurd."
The Reggae Compassion Act reads in part, "We do not encourage nor minister to
HATE but rather uphold a philosophy of LOVE, RESPECT and UNDERSTANDING
towards all human beings as the cornerstone of reggae... We agree to not make
statements or perform songs that incite hatred or violence against anyone from any
community."
Buju Banton became notorious for his 1992 song "Boom Bye Bye," which a
dvocates shooting gay men in the head, pouring acid on them and burning them alive.
His management team told a Jamaica radio station this week that he had not, in
fact, signed the pledge as recently reported.
Beenie Man, who with fellow reggae performers Sizzla and Capleton reportedly
signed the pledge last month, has also denied signing it, telling the "Jamaica
Observer" newspaper that it was a fabrication of "profit-hungry European
promoters."
"We are not sure whether this is a case of spin by their management, or a
genuine recantation," said Tatchell. He told reporters that reggae promoter
Eddie Brown knows the artists and had flown to Jamaica to get their signatures.
"We have total confidence [in] Eddie Brown," he said, adding that, "The
signatures have been authenticated as genuine." Tatchell noted that copies of the
agreement, signed by both Beenie Man whose real name is Antony Davvis - and
Buju Banton real name Mark Myrie are posted on his Web sb site.
The three-year-long Stop Murder Music campaign targeting numerous offenders
has resulted in the cancellation of several concerts and sponsorship deals
around the world. Gay sex is illegal in Jamaica, and violence against LGBT people
is pervasive. J-FLAG, the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All Sexuals and Gays,
has heartily endorsed the campaign.
Tatchell said that four others identified as Jamaica-based murder music
performers - Elephant Man, TOK, Bounty Killa and Vybz Kartel - have thus far
refused to sign on to the Reggae Compassion Act.
Meanwhile, police in Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu have admitted targeting
effeminate males and transgender people -- both known as metis -- for the
apparent crime of carrying condoms.
Members of Nepal’s LGBT Blue Diamond Society and a visiting activist from the
New York-based Human Rights Watch filed a formal complaint about the beatings
and arrests of several metis in Ratna Park in mid-July. Police Sub-Inspector
Pardeep Chand reportedly informed them that: "We found metis carrying condoms
and the metis also told us that they use condom[s] while having anal or oral
sex. So it's our regular campaign to control metis inside the Park and
elsewhere."
According to Blue Diamond's account of the events, officers approached the
metis; threatened to shoot them if they tried to flee; punched, kicked and
clubbed them; searched their pockets; found money; and accused them of prostitution
and of engaging in unnatural and illegal sexual activities.
The metis were reportedly held for several hours in two police vans before
being released.
Police in Rome detained two gay men for kissing outside the Colosseum this
week and accused them of "lewd conduct," sparking outrage from human rights
groups and calls for an apology from an Italian government minister.
The men, in their twenties, were taken to a police station for several hours
before being released, according to the queer rights group Arcigay, which
called on LGBT people to gather near the Colosseum on August 2nd for a protest
"kiss-in".
Police Colonel Alessandro Casarsa told the "Reuters" news service that "Faced
with an obvious violation of the norms that govern a place visited by
thousands of people, the two were written up and let go."
Italy's Health Minister Livia Turco expressed embarrassment over the
incident. "Things like this certainly don't happen in a normal country," she said.
"I hope that these boys are given an apology because this was a bit excessive."
Spanish authorities announced this week that they’ll review the case of a
judge who ordered a woman to "choose between her daughters and her lesbian
partner," according to a report by the "Associated Press."
Judge Fernando Ferrin Calamita of Murcia last month awarded custody of the
two young girls to their father, who filed for divorce after allegedly finding
his wife in bed with her female lover, because "it was proved that the mother
is a lesbian."
In his ruling, the judge also said that "a homosexual environment is
prejudicial to children, and notably increases the risk that they, too, become
homosexual."
But the Spanish Federation of Gays, Lesbians, Transsexuals and Bisexuals
disputed that discredited claim, noting that "The law states that the custody of a
child should be decided independently of the sexual orientation of the
parent."
According to Britain’s "Pink News" Web site, Judge Calamita has also crusaded
from the bench against topless swimming and nudists. Silvia Jaen,
Secretary-General of the Spanish Federation, told reporters that "The judge can think
what he wants, but he can't dictate rules that go against the law."
In other news, gay and lesbian couples lined up by the dozens to register
as domestic partners under a new law that took effect this week in the U.S.
state of Washington.
Registered domestic partners will get rights to hospital visitation, the
ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations, and inheritance rights when
there is no will. But those are a far cry from all the rights legally married
gay and lesbian couples enjoy in Massachusetts, and the Washington registry
falls considerably short of civil unions created for same-gender couples in a
handful of other states.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld an antiquated state law in
March, originally enacted to prevent interracial marriage, that bans couples
who live in another state from marrying in Massachusetts if the marriage would
not be legally recognized in their home state. But Massachusetts officials
announced last week that same-gender couples from New Mexico who want to marry
in their state may legally do so, because New Mexico is one of only two states
whose laws don’t explicitly limit marriage to a man and a woman. The other is
Rhode Island.
Equality New Mexico celebrated the announcement, but cautioned that while
their state offers limited domestic partnership rights to its lesbigay residents,
"Some but not all businesses, the state, and others may refuse to honor
[Massachusetts] marriages, along with the federal government. Couples must be
prepared to live with a level of uncertainty while we continue our work to end
marriage discrimination."
And finally, a court ruling in Southern California’s Orange County this
week demonstrates how marriage inequality can also hurt heterosexuals. A judge
ordered a man to continue paying alimony to his former wife, even though she's
now in a registered domestic partnership with another woman, because under
California law alimony ends only when a former spouse remarries. The judge said
that a registered partnership is not a marriage, and that the man must keep w
riting monthly checks to his ex-wife.
The California Supreme Court is considering challenges by the city of San
Francisco and other plaintiffs to the state law that bars same-gender couples
from legally marrying. The Attorney General’s office has defended the law,
arguing that gays and lesbians already enjoy the rights of marriage under
California’s various domestic partnership laws.
But San Francisco’s Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese Stewart told reporters
that the alimony ruling "highlight[s] the irrationality of having a separate,
unequal scheme" for same-gender couples.
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