Let’s be grateful that we live in the west, and speak out on behalf of those who are silenced.
Christmas to me is like Thanksgiving. A chance to gather together with family and friends, enjoy their company and love, and usually full of drama. I totally draw the line with their pagan traditions.
Hurriyet Daily News reports:
A gay teenager was allegedly killed last month by his father and uncle in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır in a murder that the boy’s rich and powerful tribal family subsequently sought to cover up, according to local members of the LGBT community.
R.A., 17, had allegedly been exposed to violence by his family because of his sexual orientation before seeking refuge at a friend’s house, daily Cumhuriyet reported.
R.A.’s uncle, however, forcibly removed the teenager from his friend’s house; later, the boy reportedly had an argument with his father, after which the latter allegedly shot his son 14 times before he and his brother deposited the body by the side of the road, Cumhuriyet reported.
R.A.’s father and uncle were subsequently arrested for their alleged role in the murder.
A member of the local LGBT community said the family had sought to cover the incident up.
“The family wanted to cover up the murder which happened one month ago because they were a rich and powerful tribal family. They wanted the police to hide the incident,” the person said. “We are subjected to violence, but there is no place where we can make a complaint or search for our rights. Police insult and swear at us, doctors make fun of us.”
RELATED: In the past, Feiglin has said that the Nazi Party was made of up “thugs and homosexuals.”
Pink News UK reports:
Lebanese security authorities imposed a crackdown on a gay cinema in Beirut on Saturday and closed the movie house, arresting 36 male attendees and performing anal probes on them. The anti-gay campaign to pull the plug on gay cinemas in major Lebanese cities is gaining traction.
The website NOW Lebanon reported on Wednesday that the theatre, Plaza Cinema, was not the first such venue that Lebanese authorities had shut down. The Lebanese talk show host, Joe Maalouf, launched a high-intensity campaign on his show “Enta Horr” (“You’re Free”) on Murr TV (MTV) to ramp up persecution of Lebanon’s LGBT community.
According to a Thursday report on the liberal Egyptian web news outlet Bikya Masr , on his 28 July programme: “Maalouf made explicit reference to a porn cinema in Beirut where it is known that men have sexual encounters with other men. He claimed that the authorities were protecting ‘perverts’ and demanded the authorities to act upon it.
“Quickly thereafter, the cinema was raided, 36 men arrested and were subjected to anal examinations, supposedly to prove their homosexuality. MTV reported on the arrest of the 36 men with viciously homophobic language.”
The Lebanon-based Helem (an Arabic acronym for “Lebanese Protection for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders”), has sharply criticized Makhlouf.
Georges Azzi, a co-founder of the NGO Helem, established contact with the Hobeiche Barracks, where the 36 men were being detained, according to NOW Lebanon. He reported that the men had undergone anal examinations.
NOW Lebanon reported that Ziad Nabulsi, a spokesman for the Lebanese Association for Education and Training, accused the show of fanning the flames of hostile rhetoric by terming homosexuality an anomaly. Human rights lawyer Nizar Saghieh told NOW Lebanon that a statement condemning the probes and calling for an end to the practice had been sent to the Ministry of Justice. “It is shameful that it still exists,” said Saghieh.
According to the NOW Lebanon report, “the practice involves an egg-shaped device being inserted into the anus to find traces of sperm. It has been widely criticized by human rights organizations, which call the practice outdated, discriminatory and a violation of human dignity.”
In an email to PinkNews.co.uk on Wednesday, journalist Michael J Totten, an author at the website World Affairs who has written about Lebanon, said he was surprised to hear of last week’s incident.
“I wouldn’t describe Lebanon as a bastion of gay rights, but it’s much more advanced than anywhere else in the Arab world,” he wrote.
“Homosexuality is still technically illegal there, but I’ve met a number of out gay Lebanese in Beirut, and the city has a number of gay and gay-friendly night clubs.”
Nonetheless, he said, “it shouldn’t be surprising… that the country where Hezbollah lives still has a long way to go.”
The Islamic Republic of Iran is Hezbollah’s main patron and both groups are part of the same global terror network. The Mullah-clerical regime practices lethal homophobia in Iran.
Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code bars sexual relations that are “contradicting the laws of nature,” and can result in a prison term of up to one year. Despite the penal code, which has not been eliminated, a Lebanese judge issued a ruling in Batroun in 2009 that same-sex relations did not violate natural laws.
Still, Lebanon’s LGBT community is not insulated from violence and homophobia, and remains in a kind of underground existence. In 2009, Lebanese army soldiers detained and severely beat two gay men who were having sex in the lobby of an unoccupied building in the Beirut suburb of Ashrafieh.
Stuart Appelbaum, a leading gay rights activist in New York and head of the Jewish Labor Committee, condemned these incidents.
“These Lebanese attempts to dehumanize and criminalize people because of their sexuality are far beyond anything remotely resembling common decency,” he wrote to PinkNews.co.uk on Wednesday. “These actions are a stain on Lebanese society. We all must express our outrage.”
Yoav Sivan, a journalist who has written about LGBT topics in the Mideast region, told PinkNews.co.uk ,“Regrettably, the way forward toward LGBT inclusion comes too often at people’s personal cost. Lebanon’s close diplomatic and economic partners, such as France, the US and other EU countries, should ask the Lebanese Government for explanations.“
Via Care2:
Gay and transgender persons in Turkey face “honour” killings by their families in Turkey to save face and respect for their children’s sexuality.
Sexual identity and homophobia in modern-day Turkey and the systematic violence and discrimination faced by Turkey’s LGBT community must be brought to the forefront
The 2008 killing of Abmet Yildiz was the first publicised gay so-called “honour killing” in Turkey, though not the first for sure. A recent case of a transsexual murdered by her brother has also highlighted the issue.
As does the news that Burhan Tatliwas was killed by his brother for being gay. His younger brother reportedly had been made fun of by his peers because of his brother’s sexuality. The murderer cut his brother’s throat and stabbed him four times on different parts of his body.
The cases emphasise the fact that men and transsexuals can also be victims of honour killings.
A fact that even Human Rights Watch, does not acknowledge but defines honour killings as something that happens to women.
The killings therefore raise the possibility that the definition and documentation of so-called honour killings needs to be re-examined. Families in Turkey want to protect the “reputation” of their name and so rarely this is reported to the authorities who also turn a blind eye. As such, cases are reported as other incidents.
The Turkish government is gradually opening up on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. But LGBT rights are still not part of Turkish law, and there is even less in terms of anti-discriminatory legislation. LGBT communities and vibrant gay scenes have been developing across Turkey in the last two decades. The country has also become a refuge for LGBT from neighbouring countries, most notably Iran and Iraq.
Despite the legal and social difficulties, the country is slowly opening up, yet many problems remain as recent events aptly portray.
Turkish LGBT activist Kemal Ordek summation of ‘this portrays how this system and morals turn a child into a murderer’ speaks volumes.
It is therefore called upon President Abdullah Gül to express his disapproval for the murder, to enshore that the culprit is suitably punished, establish laws condemning hate crime, homophobia and honour killings, provide extra protection for victims of hate-crime, and establish laws to prevent violence against gay and transgender citizens.
Sign the petition here.
According to a YouTube commenter, the text at the end reads: “There are still dreams that are not legal to fulfill here. How much longer will we dream?”
(Via Joe.My.God.)
Emirates 24/7 reports:
Kuwaiti police arrested 149 people, including 65 women, during massive raids against suspected prostitution dens as part of a crackdown against vice in the oil-rich Gulf emirate, newspapers reported on Sunday.
Hundreds of policemen and security agents participated in the campaign in several areas of the capital Kuwait City on Saturday.
The campaign, targeting suspected buildings and houses, resulted in the arrest of 149 people, including 65 women, mostly expatriates.
Police said 14 Arab women would be immediately deported while several gays and tomboys have been locked up pending trial.
“The campaigns will intensify in the next period to end such illegal practices inside suspected apartments and houses,” a police source said.
According to Pink News UK, this ain’t the first time it happens:
On the 29 April, seven gay men were arrested for wearing “indecent clothing” while spending time at the beach. Ten days earlier, 44 people were arrested, of whom, 4 were gay and 5 merely labelled as “cross-dressers.”
According to the activist, this is an attempt to appease MPs from the Islamist parties that now have a majority in Parliament (34 out of 50 seats).
Last week the Emir of Kuwait blocked a constitutional amendment to article 79 as to make Sharia “the only source” of legislation rather than a major or main source as it is now. Nevertheless the Islamists MPs have vowed that they will not desist and continue with pressures for constitutional amendments.
On 24 May, MP Dr. Al-Damkhi, a member of the parliamentary committee on tackling “practices alien to Kuwaiti society”, proposed to set up a “Rehab centre” to ‘treat negative phenomena alien to Kuwaiti society.’ DR Al-Damkhi explained that such a facility is needed ‘in light of the occasional spread of negative phenomena alien to our Kuwaiti society.’
He suggested that the centre would aim ‘to promote noble values amongst Kuwaiti youth, who are the future of the country; to fight what affects the moral values of the society; and to encourage the youth to be involved in fields that serve the nation’.
In addition it would ‘treat cases of gender identity disorder” which will solve the problem of “inappropriate treatment by the police” and allow “imitators” to receive treatment “for their conditions”. He stated that ‘providing rehab to such patients has become a necessity’.
On December 10, 2007, the parliament passed a bill proposed by Islamic MPs that amended article 198 of penal code so that anyone “imitating the appearance of a member of the opposite sex” could be jailed for up to a year or fined up to 1,000 dinars. Bill architect and long standing Kuwaiti politician Al-Otaib, who headed at the time the parliamentary committee monitoring “practices alien to Kuwaiti society”, said: ‘The law criminalising people who imitate the appearance of the opposite sex must be implemented and respected … Kuwait should ignore any international criticism.’
This law caused massive persecution and misery to transgender people in Kuwait which was slammed in a HRW report published on 15 January this year, criticising arrests, torture and abuse of transgender people in the country.
Article 193 of the Penal Code punishes homosexuality between men, over the age of 21, with up to seven years imprisonment. If the conduct involves persons under the age of 21, then imprisonment can be for a maximum of ten years.
The Jerusalem Post reports:
The Knesset voted down a bill on Wednesday that would allow same-sex, as well as interfaith couples to wed.
The legislation, by MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) opens the option of civil marriages for those who may not be wed according to halacha (Jewish law), as well as those who choose not to be married by the Chief Rabbinate. It was rejected, with 39 MKs opposed and 11 in favor.
Horowitz said there are tens of thousands of homosexual couples in Israel, and his law would help them and others who cannot exercise the basic right to be married and build a family.
“There is an extremist, dark institution deciding who may or may not get married,” the Meretz MK said. “The public is sick of the rabbinate.”
According to Horowitz, coalition parties betrayed their secular voters by rejecting the bill, choosing to pander to haredi (ultra-orthodox) parties, instead.
“Now, more than ever, it is clear to the public in Israel who is for a free society and who is for haredim,” he added.
After Horowtiz presented his bill, Justice Minister Yaacov Ne’eman gave a succinct rebuttal: “You did not bring your bill to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, so the government’s official stance is to oppose it. Thank you.”
Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On said she is not surprised by Ne’eman’s opposition, because he has said he is committed to building a halachic state.
“The Knesset is adopting religious law that is anachronistic, chauvinist, racist and discriminatory, which was written thousands of years ago,” Gal-On stated, calling for separation of religion and state.
The 11 MKs in favor of civil marriages were from Meretz, Labor and Hadash, as well as Kadima MK Nino Abesadze.
Joe.My.God. reports:
Last week a gay-friendly bar in Armenia was fire-bombed, reportedly because the owner is an LGBT rights activist who once marched in a gay pride parade. The suspects have been bailed out by members of parliament.
A homemade bomb this month targeted a bar, called “DIY,” which is seen as a haven for “free thinkers” and welcomes the often-shunned gay community of Yerevan. The hate crime, which happened just two days after the parliamentary elections, has given way to controversy, as ARF MPs Artsvik Minasyan and Hrayr Karapetyan reportedly posted the one million dram (approximately USD 2,500) bail to free the assailants. The attackers, Iranian-Armenian brothers Hampig and Mgrdich (also referred to as Arame) Khapazian, are said to have targeted bar owner Tsomak Oganesova for her activism in the LGBT community, and her participation in a Gay Pride Parade in Turkey. No one happened to be at the bar at the time of the attack, which happened during the early morning hours on May 8. However, substantial damage was reported to the walls and furniture, which were burned from the bomb.Other attackers returned to the bar yesterday to paint swastikas on its walls. Two more men were arrested.
Pink News UK reports:
Iran court sentence four men from the town of Choram, in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, to death by hanging for sodomy.
Four men named ‘Saadat Arefi’, ‘Vahid Akbari’, ‘Javid Akbari’ and ‘Houshmand Akbari’ are due to be executed shortly after their verdict was approved recently by high court judges, according to a report from the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) in Iran.
The four men are said to be from the town of Choram, in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province of Iran.
According to HRANA and JOOPEA, these four men will be hanged for sodomy according Shari’a law.
A gay activist based in Iran said: ‘Although being gay is not a crime based on Iranian criminal law but this is the most clear statement against same sex-acts in past months.’
He added that ‘there wereof our other men hanged in past five months.’
London based Iranian Human Rights Lawyer, Mehri Jafari said: ‘I am horrified and saddened to have heard the news about these four men. Not only with regards to the execution which is about to take place, but the fact that is beyond our control.
‘There are two important issues in this case; the location of the alleged occurrence and the interpretation of the Sharia’ law that a Hodud (strict Sharia punishment) is eminent. Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad is one of the most undeveloped provinces in Iran and it is obvious that a lack of access to lawyers and fair trial can be considered a serious issue in this case. After this announcement it is very likely that the execution will be carried out soon, and the remote location makes it difficult to exert any influence on the process.’
Mehri further pleaded: ‘I hope international organisations act quickly and effectively on this specific case.’
Gorji Marzban chairperson of the Austrian-based Oriental Queer Organization (ORQOA) said: ‘The recent death sentence for the four Iranian men is a shocking reality and demonstrates the discrepancy between Western and Islamic perception of queer life. The rhetoric of announcement makes the link between same-sex sexual activity, or sodomy with corporal punishment very clear. Last month the Iranian authorities hanged a young man and the local news agencies/authorities were intentionally unclear about the reason for the death penalty. In the case of these four men we have a clear text attributing the reason for hanging is sodomy.
‘The judicial denial of same-sex relationships in Iran stems from its relationship to Shari’a law and patriarchy. This is a warning signal not only for the queer population of Iran but also for all types of gender inclusive the heterosexuals who have sexual relations outside marriage.
‘The death penalty has failed to eradicate homosexuality from Iran but it was successful to force queer people into the closets. Sooner or later any Islamic community is obliged to integrate queer people. We believe that Iranians should gain more gender equality and rights and wholly condemn such an archaic sentence to murder which is inherently unislamic!’
Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its 2011 - We are a Buried Generation: Discrimination and Violence Against Sexual Minorities in Iran - stated that because trials on moral charges in Iran are usually held in closed sessions, it is difficult to determine what proportion of those charged and executed for same-sex conduct are gay and in what proportion the alleged offense was consensual.
Because of the lack of transparency, Human Rights Watch said: ‘It cannot be ruled out that Iran is sentencing sexual minorities who engage in consensual same-sex relations to death under the guise that they have committed forcible sodomy or rape.’
The issue of the death penalty for same-sex acts is further compounded by the fact that the Iranian legal code does not differentiate between rape and homosexual acts.
Furthermore, in many cases, it is often unclear whether the accused has actually committed a sexual act or it is a mere accusation based on some dispute. Even in the cases where the same-sex act has happened, often it is not clear whether the individuals involved are actually gay or it is an occasional act of sexual gratification.
Iranian Human Rights activists constantly note the fact that the two genders are strictly segregated increases the tendency for same-sex acts among the youth, in a phenomena that is also similarly known in single gender prisons. Indeed this phenomenon happens throughout highly segregated societies in the Middle East and North Africa.
Joe.My.God. reports:
According to a report on Emirates 24/7, Saudi Arabia has banned gay boys and “tom boys” from attending government schools and universities.
The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most feared law enforcement authority in the oil-rich country, has been asked to enforce the new orders, Sharq Arabic language daily said. “Instructions have been issued to all public schools and universities to ban the entry of gays and tom boys and to intensify their efforts to fight this phenomenon, which has been promoted by some websites,” it said. The paper did not make clear who issued those instructions but said gay and tom boy students can go back to schools and universities if they prove they have been corrected and have stopped such practices. It said high-level orders have been issued to the Commission to immediately enforce the new rules and to step up efforts to combat this phenomenon and other “unacceptable behavior” in public places.More on this as information becomes available…
Queerty reports:
Israel allowed gays in the military years before America and it looks like the country might beat the U.S. in lifting the complete ban on homosexual men donating blood, too. Last week, Labor Party chair M.K. Shelly Yachimovich asked Health Ministry director Dr. Roni Gamzu and Eli Bin, CEO of Magen David Adom’s National Blood Bank, to alter the country’s current policy:
- “The question about sex between men, without asking the donor whether he had had unprotected sex, is a serious deficiency,” Yachimovich wrote. “Under such circumstances, there is a significant risk of AIDS infection even among heterosexuals, yet the questionnaire doesn’t address this and creates the mistaken and dangerous impression that AIDS is a ‘homosexual disease.’”
Next month, the ministry will discuss altering the policy to allow blood banks to accept donations from men who haven’t had what Haaretz refers to as “same-sex intercourse” in at least a decade. Currently any homo who has engaged in what the Ministry defines as “homosexual relations” since 1977 is disqualified.
First of all, the language being bandied about is distressingly vague: Can we use grown-up words like “anal sex,” please? Or would a gay man who’s only ever performed oral sex be denied for having had “homosexual relations”?
Leave it to heteros to be coy about what constitutes intercourse.
Secondly, if the change passes, it’ll be a positive symbol but we can’t see it having much practical importance: How many gay men stopped fucking ten years ago?
Okay, it’s been a while for us, but not that long!
Emirates 24/7 reports:
An appeals court in Abu Dhabi upheld a previous court verdict and sentenced a European and an Asian man to six months in prison and ordered their deportation after they were convicted of kissing each other on the mouth in a public place, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The court supported the previous sentence after a witness confirmed again that he saw them hugging and kissing each other on the mouth in a street in Abu Dhabi, the Arabic language daily Alittihad said.
The two unnamed defendants again told court they were hugging each other while the European said he kissed his friend on the head as he was leaving the UAE.
Their defence lawyer asked court to acquit them on the grounds the witness gave contradicting statements.
The paper said a man who happened to be driving in the area saw the two hugging and kissing each other on the mouth.
He told court that he was not first sure of what he had seen so he turned back and saw them kissing again.
“The court sentenced them to six months in jail and ordered their deportation after serving their prison terms….they two were charged with committing an indecent act in a public place,” it said.
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