Associated Press Article: Gay Rights Activists Detained by Police in Russia.
By IRINA TITOVA (AP) – 1 day ago
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Russian police on Saturday detained several gay rights activists in a public courtyard within St. Petersburg’s noted State Hermitage Museum, apparently for holding an unsanctioned rally.
Two dozens activists unfurled banners and chanted “Homophobia the shame of the country” and “Marriage rights without compromises” before police moved in and seizing six people, who offered little resistance.
The rally was not announced in advance, but media were tipped off. Gay rights in Russia are poorly observed, with police often violently dispersing demonstrators and allowing attacks on them to go unpunished.
“This is outrageous that police stopped us and they didn’t give us a chance to speak about the violation of our rights,” said Nikolai Alexeyev, the leader of Russia’s beleaguered gay rights movement, after the rally.
The rally in the courtyard known as the Hermitage Garden was not well-received by visitors to the museum, one of the world’s oldest that was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great.
“Everyone has the right to protect his rights if there is any violation by the state,” said Igor Bazilyevsky, 28, an office manager. “At the same time there are other groups whose rights are violated, for instance Armenians or Jews, but they don’t go to such rallies.”
Another visitor, an accountant who would only give her first name, Natalya, said: “I don’t want to see these people here. I came here to see the sights, not to look at these idiots.”
Expressing disgust for homosexuality is widely accepted in Russian society, undermining Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s frequent claims that the country shares European values.
Gay rights activists in May held two parades in Moscow that they say only passed off peacefully because of “military planning,” giving the police the slip. Moscow’s Mayor Yury Luzhkov has famously equated gays with the devil.
New Internationalist Article: The Dangers Of Being Gay In The Muslim World!!
To be gay in post-invasion Iraq
Exiled – and still receiving death fatwas – Ali Hili is keeping up the fight for his gay compatriots.
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| Left: 1920s Iraqi trans singer Masoud al Amaratly. Right: When Ali’s friend sent him this photo of them at a Baghdad disco in the late 1980s, he scratched out Ali’s face to protect him. |
I used to work as a DJ at the 1001 nightclub in Baghdad at the al-Rashid hotel. I started working there when I won a DJ contest in 1987. It was a great scene – lots of dance parties – and a hang-out for the gay community.
When I was 18, I had a partner who was a foreign diplomat. Iraqi intelligence forced me to become a spy and report back to them, threatening that they would kill my family if I didn’t.
This went on for almost 10 years. I wanted to leave. I tried to escape once via Kurdistan but was arrested and handed over to Iraqi police. I used my connections to escape a jail sentence. The police asked me, why do you want to leave? I said life was hard under sanctions and I couldn’t make a living. So they sent me to Dubai to work for them. There I met my current partner – a Texan. I explained the situation to him and he understood. I started to get harassed by the mukhabarat [secret police] – they wanted information from me. We tried to escape to Dubai via the US embassy and were able to get to Europe. Eventually after many difficulties – constant threats from Iraqi secret police, several failed attempts and many traumatic incidents (including being nearly deported back to Iraq) – I made it to England in 2002. My partner had a job there. For the last seven years I’ve been fighting for the right to stay and seeking political asylum. I’ve been refused a couple of times already. I was granted permission to stay until 2008 but that’s expired. I’ve received a death fatwa against me from the Ayatollah Sistani in response to my activist work for gays in Iraq. The group that kidnapped British hostages, Assab Alsar Al-Haq (The League of the Righteous), has also threatened me. Now I’m under police protection, moving from house to house. But even the police said to me: ‘You have created this situation. You scream and shout against fundamentalists and they will threaten you. What do you expect?’
The irony is that the situation for gays has been caused by the Anglo-American invasion. The fatwas were issued by people empowered by the invasion. Now Britain should take responsibility for protecting their victims. Some people in Iraq are targeted because they are doctors, or Sunnis or Shi’as or women or Christians. But no-one is talking about the killing of gays by the fundamentalist militias. One of my best friends – a transsexual – was murdered by a militia from the Ministry of the Interior. They beat her and then set her on fire.
I never studied human rights – never thought I’d be leading an organization that advocates for LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] people. But this is something I’m compelled to do because of the lovers, friends, neighbours and relatives I’ve lost.
Some US-based human rights groups have been contacting gays in Iraq and trying to get them out. But this only endangers them. It’s a death sentence for people to come out and campaign. Someone I spoke to recently was arrested, detained and severely beaten just for belonging to our organization.
But leaving Iraq is not the solution. We can’t just evacuate everyone. That will give fundamentalists a reason to think they have won. There’s a long and proud gay history in Iraq. Just look at the poetry – like the Rumi poems where he always spoke of his lover, Shams. Or Abu Nawas who celebrated his love for young men in verse. There are examples of Caliphs who had male partners, like Muhammed al Amin. In modern history we had singers, actors, trans people, like female-to-male Masoud al Amaratly, a singer popular in the 1920s. Under King Faisal we had a secular, open society. We were one of the first Arab countries to have women ambassadors and a liberal civil code.
Now this new wave of Islam – that came out of the dens of evil – has been imposed on us. Wahhabist Islam from Saudi Arabia, financed by the US and fundamentalist Shi’a groups imported from Iran; religious parties established and funded by Iran that were banned under the old regime. Ironically, for a once-secular society, Iraq is now a more dangerous place to be gay than Iran.
The agenda is to divide Iraqi society and empower fundamentalists on all sides. There are good, moderate Islamic groups like the Islamic Party of Iraq who have been calling for a moderate secular Islam and the separation of religion from politics. Instead, their leaders have been assassinated. There’s a campaign against moderates by those close to the prime minister.
The Iraqi Government is corrupt and dangerous when it comes to personal freedom: anyone who opposes their agenda is ‘disappeared’. Our struggle as an LGBT people is the struggle of Iraqis in general. Some of the Western gay rights groups are in denial about the connection between the invasion and the empowerment of fundamentalists – and the terrible situation for gays today. But the invasion was a catastrophe that destroyed Iraq culturally, morally – in all aspects.
We need more people to speak out about this. We need support for our organization, for the people inside; we need help, we need funds. Perhaps the world has become indifferent to the suffering of Iraqis – it’s a big guilt for the world – everyone wants the nightmare to disappear. But it won’t go away.
As told to Hadani Ditmars.
Ali Hili’s group Iraqi LGBT has established several safe houses in Iraq with the assistance of the Dutch organization, HIVOS. He lives in London under police protection. For more information or to make a donation see:
http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com
Associated Press Article: Saudi Man Sentenced To Four Months In Jail For Kissing A Woman In A Mall!
By ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI (AP) – Jun 10, 2010
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A Saudi court convicted a man and sentenced him to four months in prison and 90 lashes for kissing a woman in a mall, a government-owned daily reported Thursday.
Saudi religious police arrested the man and two women after seeing them on mall cameras “engaging in immoral movements in front of other shoppers,” the Al-Yom newspaper said.
The man, who is in his 20s, was seen with a woman “sitting on one of the chairs, exchanging kisses and hugs.” It was unclear what the other woman was doing. Neither the man nor the women were identified by name.
The kingdom’s powerful religious police, under the control of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, enforce Saudi Arabia’s strict interpretation of Islam, which prohibits unrelated men and women from mingling.
Zealous officers routinely jail unrelated couples found sitting together in restaurants or coffee shops.
The policemen also patrol public places to ensure women are covered and not wearing makeup; shops are forced in most places to close several times a day for Muslim prayers and men go to the mosque and worship.
Such kissing busts have increased as economic pressures have made it harder for young couples to marry and as the ultraconservative kingdom grapples with a push to relax its strict social mores.
Young men often must pay more than $50,000 in dowry and gold before their brides’ families will accept marriage — a huge burden in a country where economists put male unemployment at over 20 percent.
But the Saudi establishment remains divided on how far separation rules should go.
King Abdullah has been encouraging change in the oil-rich kingdom since becoming crown prince in 1982, and has intensified his efforts since assuming the thrown in 2005.
Male and female students can study together at the newly opened King Abdullah Science and Technology University, launched by the Saudi monarch last year. Abdullah dismissed a prominent hard-line cleric who criticized the policy.
But in April, the head of the religious police fired the chief of the Mecca branch for suggesting that women and men should be able to mix freely, showing that such reforms have their limits.
The newspaper said the man sentenced for kissing will receive his 90 lashes in three batches, and is banned from malls for two years.
The women will be tried in another court.
Essence Magazine Article: R&B Singer Jill Scott Is Against Black Men Dating White Women. Do You Agree Or Disagree?
You know the moment when you realize that fine, accomplished brother is with a White woman? Let’s call it “the wince.” Three-time Grammy Award-winning artist, writer, actress, philanthropist, mother and all-around Renaissance woman, Jill Scott gets to the root of our feelings on the matter.
My new friend is handsome, African-American, intelligent and seemingly wealthy. He is an athlete, loves his momma, and is happily married to a White woman. I admit when I saw his wedding ring, I privately hoped. But something in me just knew he didn’t marry a sister. Although my guess hit the mark, when my friend told me his wife was indeed Caucasian, I felt my spirit…wince. I didn’t immediately understand it. My face read happy for you. My body showed no reaction to my inner pinch, but the sting was there, quiet like a mosquito under a summer dress.
Was I jealous? Did the reality of his relationship somehow diminish his soul’s credibility? The answer is not simple. One could easily dispel the wince as racist or separatist, but that’s not how I was brought up. I was reared in a Jehovah’s Witness household. I was taught that every man should be judged by his deeds and not his color, and I firmly stand where my grandmother left me. African people worldwide are known to be welcoming and open-minded. We share our culture sometimes to our own peril and most of us love the very notion of love. My position is that for women of color, this very common “wince” has solely to do with the African story in America.
When our people were enslaved, “Massa” placed his Caucasian woman on a pedestal. She was spoiled, revered and angelic, while the Black slave woman was overworked, beaten, raped and farmed out like cattle to be mated. She was nothing and neither was our Black man. As slavery died for the greater good of America, and the movement for equality sputtered to life, the White woman was on the cover of every American magazine. She was the dazzling jewel on every movie screen, the glory of every commercial and television show. She was unequivocally the standard of beauty for this country, firmly unattainable to anyone not of her race. We daughters of the dust were seen as ugly, nappy mammies, good for day work and unwanted children, while our men were thought to be thieving, sex-hungry animals with limited brain capacity.
We reflect on this awful past and recall that if a Black man even looked at a White woman, he would have been lynched, beaten, jailed or shot to death. In the midst of this, Black women and Black men struggled together, mourned together, starved together, braved the hoses and vicious police dogs and died untimely on southern back roads together. These harsh truths lead to what we really feel when we see a seemingly together brother with a Caucasian woman and their children. That feeling is betrayed. While we exert efforts to raise our sons and daughters to appreciate themselves and respect others, most of us end up doing this important work alone, with no fathers or like representatives, limited financial support (often court-enforced) and, on top of everything else, an empty bed. It’s frustrating and it hurts!
Our minds do understand that people of all races find genuine love in many places. We dig that the world is full of amazing options. But underneath, there is a bite, no matter the ointment, that has yet to stop burning. Some may find these thoughts to be hurtful. That is not my intent. I’m just sayin’.
Gayblackcanada 