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London: Gay couple threatened with death in violent late night homophobic assault
141
Government considers watered down same-sex marriage bill to minimise Tory rebellion
133
Tory MP Gerald Howarth: 'There are plenty in the aggressive homosexual community who want more than just same-sex marriage'
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France: Far right activist commits suicide in Notre Dame following legalisation of equal marriage
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Philip Hammond: 'No great demand for gay marriage and it's upsetting vast numbers of people'
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Government to consider abolishing civil partnerships or opening up to straight couples
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Norman Tebbit: David Cameron has 'f**** things up' with his equal marriage bill
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David Cameron: Gay teenagers will stand that bit taller following equal marriage vote
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Lib Dem Deputy Leader Simon Hughes: 'Marriage should be between one man and one woman'
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US church blames Oklahoma tornado on gay basketball player Jason Collins
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Robert in S. Kensington 667
GulliverUK 333
Jock S. Trap 313
Eddy 312
Iris 285
That There Other David 279
Mark Y 279
rapture 269
Rehan 260
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I thought that Tiwonge was a trans woman? Isn’t it pretty dodgy to refer to her as a “he”?
I know that Tiwonge referred to himself as a woman, but does that mean he should be regarded as a transwoman?
A western concept of what is trans can be very different to the rest of the world. Many ‘transwomen’ in Iran for example are gay men who have had gender reassignment to avoid persecution for being gay.
Regardless – I do hope the Malawi High Commission is damaged at the protest on Saturday.
It is an absolute disgrace that the Malawian High Commissioner has not been expelled from Britain in response to these men’s imprisonment.
I think this protest should be very loud. Not to send a message to the Malawian government who seem too primitive to understand the concept of basic human rights.
This protest should be used to send a message to the British government. The message should be ‘Why is there no cast iron guarantee that the only British aid money that should be sent to Malawi should be sent to NGO’s who respect human rights’
All other aid and trade to Malawi needs to be stopped.
And why hasn’t Malawi been expelled from the Commonwealth yet?
I have no issue with this protest and will go to show support. -but its shame that people are unwilling to turn out and protest every time a member of the LGBT community is murdered or seriously attacked in the UK
Theres too much abuse again us and we do every little to address the issue. of ober
Gav
“The message should be ‘Why is there no cast iron guarantee that the only British aid money that should be sent to Malawi should be sent to NGO’s who respect human rights’. All other aid and trade to Malawi needs to be stopped.”
I understand the strong anger at this situation but removing aid is absolutely not the answer. The solution to the abuses of Stephen and Tiwonge’s human rights is not to cause further human rights abuses to other Malawians by removing the aid which keeps them alive.
Still can’t the story right? When you do this it’s called trans-erasure. Stop appropriating the life experiences of transsexual women for the “gay” cause. Recognize that this is a straight couple and Tiwonge is a trans woman!!!
Malawi Justice system Violates human Rights:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/M100518R/
“365gay editor’s note:
Some activists and journalists have said that Chimbalanga is transgender. Other accounts say that they self-identify as a gay couple.
Like Box Turtle Bulletin, I think that non-Western gender issues are complicated . Additionally, a quote from the NYT makes it seem as if it’s possible that Chimbalanga is intersex:
“I have male genitals, but inside I am a complete woman. Maybe I cannot give birth to a child, but I menstruate every month — or most months — and I can do any household chores a woman can do.”
In any case, it is clear both that Chimbalanga identifies as a woman and that others don’t see her that way, but consider her to be gay, which is why she and her partner were convicted.
I feel that this is a situation where language fails us – perhaps Chimbalanga and Monjeza are using gay in our sense of “queer.”
But when things are confusing, self-identification should rule.
So 365gay will refer to Chimbalanga as female, Monjeza as a gay man and their partnership as a gay one.”
http://www.365gay.com
Update by Paul Canning:
http://madikazemi.blogspot.com/2010/05/malawi-updates-international-action-to.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SaveMehdiKazemi+%28LGBT+asylum+news%29
Sign Madonna’s Petition here !!
Older news, but most relevant:
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/05/19/State_Department_Condemns_Malawi_Conviction/
No 4: Eleanargh: you say: “I understand the strong anger at this situation but removing aid is absolutely not the answer. ”
It is not a matter of removing aid. Malawi should continue to receive aid.
But the ONLY British aid that should be given to them is through NGO’s with a respect for human rights.
The Malawi government through their evil, genocidal laws cannot be trusted to receive a penny of British money.
And their Ambassador to Britain needs to be expelled.
Through the imprisonment of this couple Malawi has declared itself a primitive, backward, murderous nation.
That is how Malawi should be treated.
Any update on when Malawi is to be expelled from the Commonwealth?
It makes sense to me that the Nations who are giving aid to Malawi (mainly the USA and the UK) have the kind of leverage needed to give this developing Third World country a good reason to modify its penal code in such a way as to guarantee the Human Rights outlined in its Constitution…and to release Steven and Tiwonge at once.
Not only should it be put into the responsible hands of NGO’s, aid money should be handled by humanitarian and secular NGO’s primarily because we have seen the damage that can be done by Xtian evangelical organism who poison the heart with hatred towards the LGBT community while caring for the needs of the poor.
As for the Commonwealth, if the Secretariat has taken any action at all on this issue, now would be a good time to make it known. I’ve browsed the Commonwealth site, and I am really disappointed to have found nothing on this issue. I’m usually a big fan of the Commonwealth, an NGO made up of 54 countries fostering the values that nurture political maturity and wholesomeness in the world where so many injustices go unnoticed.
a case in point:
http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2010/05/28/23089?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BoxTurtleBulletin+%28Box+Turtle+Bulletin%29
Thank you, Germany.
***** BREAKING NEWS*****
Sky News today (sat 29th may 2010) report that the president of Malawi has pardoned the gay Couple.