ugandan bill seeks death penalty for gays

salam,

a day after president obama signed a hate crime bill into law in the united states, a ugandan parliamentarian named bahati introduced a bill seeking the death penalty for gays:


Uganda's Outrageous New Sex Law

A Ugandan Parliamentarian wants to outlaw homosexuality and prescribe the death penalty for having sex while HIV positive. The worse news is, he might actually get what he wants.

BY MICHAEL WILKERSON | OCTOBER 28, 2009

link: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/10/28/ugandas_do_ask_do_tell

from turkey: Latest Anti-Gay Surge in Turkey Against Another LGBT Organization

Latest Anti-Gay Surge in Turkey Against Another LGBT Organization

October 23, 2009
Kaos GL Press Release

Black Pink Triangle Association in Izmir is the fifth LGBT (lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender) organization that faces closure threat from the
Turkish government. The first hearing will take place on February 19,
2010. The reason for closure threat is once again being against the law
and morality.

According to the information provided to the association, the Governors
Office of the City of Izmir is demanding closure of the Black Pink
Triangle Association.

Black Pink Triangle Association members stated that: "The prosecutor's
demand for closure of our association is clearly a violation of civil
rights. Establishing an organization a constitutional right and they want
to take that right from us.

When Black Pink Triangle Association was founded on February 20, 2009, all
the necessary legal documentation was filed to the Governors Office.

On May 26, 2009 the association received a notification from Governors
Office requesting the organization to correct some of the mistakes on the
application form. However the Governors Office also demanded correction
of some of the founding statues of Black Pink Triangle Association
claiming that the associations objections are against Turkish "moral
values and family structure.

Although the mistakes in the application form were corrected, the
Association refused to change the statues as per Governors request. They
also stated that Kaos GL (an LGBT organization in Ankara) and Lambda
Istanbul (an LGBT organization in Istanbul) have exact same statues and
after long legal battles they were able to exist as legal and legitimate
institutions.

On October 16, 2009, following the receipt of Black Pink Triangle
Associations response, Governors Office filed a lawsuit against them and
demanded closure of the institution.

Black Pink Triangle Associations lawyer Ceylan Elif Ozsoy stated to Kaos
GL that she found the action disturbing. She also pointed out the similar
actions were taken against Kaos GL, Pink Life and Lambda Istanbul
organizations and they failed.

Turkish authorities have targeted other LGBT organizations in the past as
well:

In September 2005, the Ankara Governors Office accused the Ankara-based
group KAOS-GL of establishing an organization that is against the laws
and principles of morality. Similarly, the Ankara Governors Office
attempted in July 2006 to close the human rights group Pembe Hayat (Pink
Life), which works with transgender people, claiming to prosecutors that
the association opposed morality and family structure. In both cases,
prosecutors dropped the charges.

In December 2006, the Ankara-based editor of Kaos GL, Turkey's only
magazine for LGBT people, 29-year-old gay activist Umut Guner, was
indicted under a vague statute banning "obscene" material, and faced up to
three years in prison. Authorities seized the magazine's entire press run.
Guner was acquitted later.

In another series of legal attacks on LGBT organizations and publications
in Turkey, on May 29, 2008 a court in Istanbul, the nation's largest city,
ordered the dissolution of Lambda Istanbul. Founded in 1993, the group is
Turkey's oldest LGBT organization, and has organized Gay Pride marches in
that city every year since 2003. On January 2009, the 7th Judicial Office
of the Supreme Court of Appeals has overturned the ruling of Istanbuls
3rd Civil Court of First Instance, which had decided to close down the
Lambda Istanbul Association for a violation of general morals.

--
Kaos GL is a LGBT organization and a legally registered non-governmental
organization that publishes a bi-monthly magazine to completely cover
Turkey. Please refer any questions to: news@kaosgl.com and refer to the
web site for information: http://news.kaosgl.com/

Stop using Israel as a shield

salam,

haaretz published a reponse to an article they published a week or so ago.

afdhere

Stop using Israel as a shield

By Afdhere Jama

Haaretz recently published an article about queer issues in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories ("Stop using Palestinian gays to whitewash Israel's image," October 7). The piece, by Morten Berthelsen, was a long interview with Haneen Maikey, an Israeli Arab and lesbian activist, who is very critical of Israel's treatment of gays and lesbians. But by insisting that there is nothing for Arabs or Muslims to learn or adopt from Israel, Maikey almost comes off as if she's defending the homophobia in Palestinian society, if not blaming the problem on Israel altogether.

The idea that "others" are somehow behind the extreme homophobia in our communities is something one encounters often in the Arab and Muslim world. I myself encountered this attitude repeatedly during research for my recent book on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) lives in the Muslim world. Such an approach does little to help gays and lesbians, who face threats that can range from harassment to capital punishment. But until Muslim and Arab activists learn to admit that homophobia is a problem in our societies, and one for which we bear the responsibility, things are just not going to change. Only after one accepts the facts is it possible to move on to the next step. And the fact is that homophobia has been a problem in Arab and Muslim societies since long before Israel was created or the West colonized us - or whatever other "foreign" entity folks decide to blame, on any given Friday. When an Israeli Arab gay woman blames the occupation for the hatred of queers in Palestinian society, that is equivalent to declaring the baseless homophobic notion that homosexuality itself was introduced into the region by Israel or the West.

Beyond that, the article seemed to be using Israeli society's purported homophobia - including the claim that court rulings in favor of gay people's rights have benefited only a handful of people, and mention of August's fatal attack on a clubhouse for young gay people in Tel Aviv - to support the argument that Israel is "just as bad" as the rest of the Middle East for gays. Anyone familiar with queer issues in the Middle East can appreciate the silliness of such an idea. I would like to tackle the most horrific example cited: the shooting in Tel Aviv, which left two dead and wounded some 15 bystanders. Many years ago, while traveling in Israel, I met a Jewish woman who had immigrated from the United States and had been injured in a suicide bombing. I asked her why she would choose to leave the safety of the United States for a country that's in a constant state of conflict. She responded with words that truly changed my understanding of Israel and of Jews' relationship to it. She said: "It is a privilege to be injured or even killed in a Jewish state."

For a gay person in a country like Israel, in a region like the Middle East, with its historically conservative religions and societies, as horrific as violence is, one could similarly say that it is a privilege to be shot in a gay social center. The very fact that there are such centers to visit is a privilege. In most other countries in the Middle East, there aren't any social centers for gays.

Likewise, it is a privilege to be able to challenge discrimination in the courts. There isn't any country in the Arab world where one can take on homophobia via the legal system. In fact, in most Arab countries such action would truly compromise your personal safety, and endanger the very lives of the people you are trying to defend.

So, when a gay woman in Israel declares that "there are no gay rights in Israel" - from the office of the gay organization that she heads, and in the knowledge that she enjoys the legal rights and protections enshrined in that country's legal system - one can appreciate the stark similarity to the hypocritical denials of leaders from Arab and Muslim countries, who declare with a straight face that there are no gays in their states.

Regardless of how people feel about the occupation, or about Israel in general, it helps to focus on the reality and the facts. If we are going to change the homophobic attitudes in our societies, we have to stop using others as a shield. Otherwise, our hypocrisy will spit in the face of our own struggles, and ultimately serve only to increase homophobia.

Afdhere Jama is the author of "Illegal Citizens: Queer Lives in the Muslim World" (Salaam Press). He is based in San Francisco.

link to my piece: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1121552.html

link to the original piece: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1118197.html

Muslim footballers agree to play gay team

Muslim footballers agree to play gay team

Agence France-Presse

October 10, 2009 09:49pm

A MAINLY Muslim non-league French side said they could take on rivals consisting of gay players after all, four days after snubbing them in what the former on Saturday insisted was a "misunderstanding".

Paris Foot Gay (PFG) were set to play fellow Creteil side Bebel, who are composed of mainly Muslim players last week but Bebel cried off a day beforehand, sending an email in which they regretted they could not honour the match as doing so was "against their principles".

more: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26193649-23109,00.html

Inayat Bunglawala: Gay Muslims need support

salam,

this is from the guardian. it is written by uk muslim council's inayat bunglawala. very interesting, indeed. gay muslims definitely need support.

- afdhere

***

Gay Muslims need support

Discrimination based on sexuality is as wrong as that based on religion. The Muslim Council of Great Britain can take a lead

more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/oct/05/gay-muslims-support