aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Demand gay leaders support gay people around the world

Doug Ireland is exactly right:

Within the last weeks, there has been a spate of bad news from abroad. Consider: In the United Kingdom, a 28-year-old gay Iranian named Javad-whose full name is not used to protect him and his family in Iran-has been ordered to be deported back to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Last year, a video of Javad and his partner at a private gay party fell into the hands of the police. Fearful of being imprisoned, tortured, and executed for being gay-like so many other Iranian same-sexers-Javad fled to the U.K. last September, winding up in the town of Oakington, where he filed for asylum.

The Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization-PGLO, the largest Iranian gay group with secretariats in several countries, including Turkey and Norway-reported last week: “After a few days, Javad was arrested and taken to Oakington’s police department in Cambridge, where he was threatened and told that if he couldn’t come up with satisfactory answers for their questions they will forcefully deport him, sending him back to Iran. In December the British government denied his refugee status. Under the law, Javad has the right to appeal this decision. Sadly, a few days ago, without taking into consideration his appeal over the ruling, he received papers stating that he must leave the country; therefore, Javad was deprived of any protection by the British government.” [...]

In India-the world’s second most populous country, with 1.1 billion people-homosexuality was accepted in cultural traditions for thousands of years, and the Hindu religion had venerated bisexual gods-including Samba (above eft), son of Krishna, who seduced both men and women. Male worshippers had ritual sex with male prostitutes in Hindu temples well into the 20th century.

But homosexuality was made illegal under British colonial rule in the 19th century, and that colonial anti-sodomy law remains on the books, five decades after India’s independence. (The British themselves decriminalized homosexuality in 1968.) Under Indian law, gay sex is bracketed with sex with animals and pedophilia as an “unnatural” offense, punishable by 10 years imprisonment.

READ ON. Nepal and Cameroon and Poland… he strongly condemns the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), and the U.S.-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLRHC) for doing nothing:

I’m angry at our Brokebrain gay leaders for not making international solidarity with persecuted gays abroad part of their agenda, and thus part of our national gay agenda. And doing so requires a helluva lot more than just issuing an occasional press release. It requires, yes, real activism, organizing and education. The next time you think of sending a check to HRC or NGLTF, tell them you’re sick at heart at their indifference to this gay suffering. Demand that they create an international desk, and assign at least one full-time staff person to monitor attacks on gay people in other countries and educate gay Americans about these threats to human freedom abroad.

Demand that these groups immediately take up the most urgent case-the ongoing and massive entrapment, persecution, torture, and execution of gays in the Islamic Republic of Iran, on which their silence has been deafening. Demand they give Iran full-throated attention, through demonstrations-like the ones European gay organizations have been holding repeatedly all across the continent-public forums, and their own publications. Demand they provide concrete and material help for the penniless gay Iranian refugees from torture who are living precariously from day to day, under constant threat of deportation back to certain persecution for how and whom they love.

He urges each of us to visit and support the Persian Gay & Lesbian Organization. And sign the petition.