Guide urges gay-friendliness
Immigrants to Canada are now required to know that gays and lesbians have marriage rights.
Guide urges gay-friendliness
Immigrants to Canada are now required to know that gays and lesbians have marriage rights.
Harris: Gays online more than straights
Harris Interactive found gays and lesbians use social networking sites and Twitter more than straights.
Killings of gays increase in Mexico, report says
(Mexico City) Killings of gays and lesbians have risen in Mexico despite a government tolerance campaign and a law legalizing same-sex marriage in the capital, according to a report released Thursday by a coalition of civic groups.
A review of more than 70 newspapers in 11 Mexican states found an average of nearly 30 killings a year motivated by homophobia between 1995 and 2000, compared to nearly 60 a year between 2001 and 2009, the report said.
Ricardo Bucio, president of the government’s National Council for the Prevention of Discrimination, backed the report, saying it gave visibility to a lingering problem.
The government launched a radio campaign in 2005 to promote tolerance of homosexuals.
In December, the Mexico City legislature approved the first law in Latin America explicitly giving gay marriages the same status as heterosexual ones. The legislation, affecting only the capital, also allows same-sex couples to adopt children.
Mexico City’s annual gay pride parade draws tens of thousands of people, and in some neighborhoods gays openly hold hands.
But violence against gays seems to have increased as more become public about their sexual orientation, said Alejandro Brito, director of Letter S, one of the groups that released the report.
Mexico City had the most homophobia-motivated killings, with 144 between 1995 and 2009, according to the report.
Despite the federal government’s push to promote tolerance, President Felipe Calderon’s conservative administration campaigned against the Mexico City law allowing same-sex marriage.
Monday Watercooler: Ellen is no fan of America….which is news to her
Polish president dies in plane crash. It’s been a horrifying past few days for Poland. The country lost Lech Kaczynski [1], its president, his wife, and dozens of military and political leaders in a plane crash. As his country mourns the tragedy, we should note Kaczynski was an unrepentant homophobe. During a 2007 visit to Ireland [2], he opined gays and lesbians were going to end the human race. I’ve never danced on a grave in the past. Won’t do it now. Peace to his family, the families of the others who died, and those Poles who are grieving.
[3]
Ellen hates America. A few questions: 1) Family Feud is still on the air?, 2) is it wrong to miss Richard Dawson [4] and his lecherous ways?, and 3) who knew Ellen DeGeneres [5] doesn’t like America much? At least according to a family patriarch in the “Name something that everybody knows about Ellen DeGeneres” category. A friend suggested maybe the confused Daddy was thinking of Rosie O’Donnell, which makes him a bigger fool. Only a old straight man would confuse Ellen with Rosie.
[6]
Sen. John McCain has no clue about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Look at this interview with the senior senator from Arizona about DADT [7]. He rolls out Colin Powell’s 15 year old thoughts, and talks as if there has been no fluctuation in troop support [8] about the ban. Also he doesn’t think too much of gay soldiers. He loves their service, but needs them to be quiet about anything with the gay. And he uses a superb rhetorical trick. When Adm. Mike Mullen [9] says DADT needs to be repealed, he’s giving only his “personal opinion.” However, the theories of Marine Commandant General James T. Conway [10] are nothing but professionally objective. Nicely done, senator. Nicely done.
[11]
RIP Dixie Carter [12]. The Designing Women star died this Saturday. Was there a television character with a sharper tongue than Julia Sugarbaker [13]?
[14]
Treme. If you’ve never heard of David Simon [15], or The Wire, [16] it’s time to leave your wonderful gay ghetto. The writer and producer of the best drama [17] in TV history, returned last night with Treme [18]. As a TV free fool, I’ll have to wait for it to come out on DVD.
[19]
Another site to bookmark. After you check out our sister sites for your “pop culta” fix–AfterEllen [20], AfterElton [21], and NewNowNext [22]—make sure you head over to Gay.com’s new daily.gay.com [23]. The site is edited by good peoples. The more places for LGBT news and culture, the better people are served.
[24]
Was South Africa’s biggest racist also a big old queen? The murder of South African white supremacist Eugene Terre’blanche [25] has put the country on edge. Two black farm workers are charged with the crime, and initially it was assumed Terre’blanche was killed over money allegedly owed. A lawyer for one of the defendants has said the victim tried to have sex with one of the culprits. Both are men, one 28 years old and the other 15. Terre’blanche’s allies are vehemently denying the claims. This story is not going to end well.
[26]
White Party 2010. A few weeks ago the Black Party came and went. This past weekend, revelers were all about the White Party [27]. Anyone go? How can people afford to attend these soirees during this lousy economy? I can barely get my drink on at my local bar. And if I can’t drink, what’s the point of a liver?
[28]
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/world/europe/11poland.html
[2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/6383897.stm
[3] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/Lech-Kaczynski-top.jpg
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawson
[5] http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/04/08/ellen-degeneres-family-feud/
[6] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-ellen-degeneres-top.jpg
[7] http://azstarnet.com/news/local/article_8931f508-4431-11df-a1d2-001cc4c002e0.html
[8] http://www.365gay.com/blog/021710-a-closer-look-at-dadt-survey/
[9] http://www.365gay.com/blog/020310/
[10] http://www.365gay.com/news/military-experts-separate-living-quarters-will-affect-unit-cohesion/
[11] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/John-McCain-top.jpg
[12] http://www.afterelton.com/people/dixie-carter-obit
[13] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tikaHHRIWM
[14] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/Dixie-Carter-top.jpg
[15] http://nymag.com/arts/tv/features/65235/
[16] http://www.hbo.com/the-wire/index.html
[17] http://www.slate.com/id/2149566/
[18] http://www.hbo.com/treme/index.html#/treme
[19] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/Mardi-Gras-Indian-top.jpg
[20] http://www.afterellen.com/
[21] http://www.afterelton.com/
[22] http://www.newnownext.com/
[23] http://daily.gay.com/
[24] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/newspaper-top.jpg
[25] http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/11/world/international-uk-safrica-terreblanche.html
[26] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/Eugene-Terreblanche-top.jpg
[27] http://www.jeffreysanker.com/
[28] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/White-Party-top.jpg
Even after death, abuse against gays continues
(Thies, Senegal) Even death cannot stop the violence against gays in this corner of the world any more.
Madieye Diallo’s body had only been in the ground for a few hours when the mob descended on the weedy cemetery with shovels. They yanked out the corpse, spit on its torso, dragged it away and dumped it in front of the home of his elderly parents.
The scene of May 2, 2009 was filmed on a cell phone and the video sold at the market. It passed from phone to phone, sowing panic among gay men who say they now feel like hunted animals.
“I locked myself inside my room and didn’t come out for days,” says a 31-year-old gay friend of Diallo’s who is ill with HIV. “I’m afraid of what will happen to me after I die. Will my parents be able to bury me?”
A wave of intense homophobia is washing across Africa, where homosexuality is already illegal in at least 37 countries.
In the last year alone, gay men have been arrested in Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. In Uganda, lawmakers are considering a bill that would sentence homosexuals to life in prison and include capital punishment for ‘repeat offenders.’ And in South Africa, the only country that recognizes gay rights, gangs have carried out so-called “corrective” rapes on lesbians.
“Across many parts of Africa, we’ve seen a rise in homophobic violence,” says London-based gay-rights activist Peter Tatchell, whose organization tracks abuse against gays and lesbians in Africa. “It’s been steadily building for the last 10 years but has got markedly worse in the last year.”
To the long list of abuse meted out to suspected homosexuals in Africa, Senegal has added a new form of degradation – the desecration of their bodies.
In the past two years, at least four men suspected of being gay have been exhumed by angry mobs in cemeteries in Senegal. The violence is especially shocking because Senegal, unlike other countries in the region, is considered a model of tolerance.
“It’s jarring to see this happen in Senegal,” says Ryan Thoreson, a fellow at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission who has been researching the rise of homophobia here. “When something like this happens in an established democracy, it’s alarming.”
Even though homosexuality is illegal in Senegal, colonial documents indicate the country has long had a clandestine gay community. In many towns, they were tacitly accepted, says Cheikh Ibrahima Niang, a professor of social anthropology at Senegal’s largest university. In fact, the visibility of gays in Senegal may have helped to prompt the backlash against them.
The backlash dates back to at least February 2008, when a Senegalese tabloid published photographs of a clandestine gay wedding in a suburb of Dakar, the capital. The wedding was held inside a rented banquet hall and was attended by dozens of gay men, some of whom snapped pictures that included the gay couple exchanging rings and sharing slices of cake.
The day after the tabloid published the photographs, police began rounding up men suspected of being homosexual. Some were beaten in captivity and forced to turn over the names of other gay men, according to research by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
Gays immediately went into hiding and those who could fled to neighboring countries, including Gambia to the south, according to the New York-based commission. Gambia’s erratic president declared that gays who had entered his country had 24 hours to leave or face decapitation. Many returned to Senegal, where they lived on the run, moving from safehouse to safehouse.
In March 2008, Senegal hosted an international summit of Muslim nations, which prompted a nationwide crackdown on behaviors deemed un-Islamic, including homosexuality.
The crackdown also coincided with spiraling food prices. Niang says political and religious leaders saw an easy way to reach constituents through the inflammatory topic of homosexuality.
“They found a way to explain the difficulties people are facing as a deviation from religious life,” says Niang. “So if people are poor – it’s because there are prostitutes in the street. If they don’t have enough to eat, it’s because there are homosexuals.”
Imams began using Friday sermons to preach against homosexuality.
“During the time of the Prophet, anytime two men were found together, they were taken to the top of a mountain and thrown off,” says Massamba Diop, the imam of a mosque in Pikine and the head of Jamra, an Islamic lobby linked to a political party in Senegal’s parliament.
“If they didn’t die when they hit the ground, then rocks would be thrown on them until they were killed,” says Diop, whose mosque is so packed during Friday prayer that people bring their own carpets and line up outside on the asphalt.
Sermons like Diop’s were carried on the mosque’s loudspeakers as well as in Senegal’s more than 30 newspapers and magazines.
Around this time, in May 2008, a middle-aged man called Serigne Mbaye fell ill and died in a suburb of Dakar.
His children tried to bury him in his village but were turned back from the cemetery because of widespread rumors that he was gay. His sons drove his body around trying to find a cemetery that would accept him. They were finally forced to bury him on the side of a road, using their own hands to dig a hole, according to media reports.
The grave was too shallow and the wind blew away the dirt. When the decomposing body was later discovered, Mbaye’s children were arrested and charged with improperly burying their father.
In the town of Kaolack three months later, residents exhumed the grave of another man believed to be gay. In November 2008, residents in Pikine removed a corpse from a mosque of another suspected homosexual and left it on the side of the road.
The grave-robbing has shocked even hardened gay activists, such as Nigerian Davis Mac-Iyalla.
“People have done horrible things (in Nigeria). I have seen people spit on coffins and people spit on graves,” he said. “But it stopped there.”
Among the people who appeared in the photograph published from the gay wedding was a young man in his 30s from Thies. He was an activist and a leader of a gay organization called And Ligay, meaning ‘Working together,’ which he ran out of his parents’ house.
He was HIV-positive and on medication.
When the tabloid published the photograph, Diallo went into hiding, according to a close friend who asked not to be named because he too is gay. Unable to go to the doctor, Diallo stopped taking his anti-retrovirals. By the spring of 2009, he was so ill that his family checked him into St. Jean de Dieu, a Catholic hospital in downtown Thies, says the friend.
He was in a coma when he died at 5:50 a.m. on May 2, 2009, according to the hospital’s records. Although the hospital has a unit dedicated to treating HIV patients, the young man’s family never disclosed his illness, according to the doctor in charge.
Several gay friends tried to see Diallo in the hospital but were told to stay away by his family, says the friend.
When the AP tried to speak to Diallo’s elderly father at his shop on the main thoroughfare in Thies, his other children demanded the reporter leave. One sister covered her face and sobbed. Another said, “There are no homosexuals here.”
Hours after he died, his family took Diallo’s body to a nearby mosque, where custom holds the corpse should be bathed and wrapped in a white cloth. Before the family could bathe him, news reached the mosque that Diallo was gay and they were chased out, says the dead man’s friend. His relatives hastily wrapped him in a sheet and headed to the cemetery, where they carried him past the home of Babacar Sene.
“A man that’s known as being a homosexual can’t be buried in a cemetery. His body needs to be thrown away like trash,” says Sene. “His parents knew that he was gay and they did nothing about it. So when he died we wanted to make sure he was punished.”
The video footage captured on a cell phone shows what happened next. His thin body was placed inside a narrow trough in the middle of the bald cemetery dotted with clumps of weeds. Then you hear shouting.
The shaky image shows a group of men jerking around the edges of the grave. One of them straddles the pit and shovels away the fine gray dirt until you can see the shrouded body. It’s still inside the trough when they tie a rope around its feet.
They yank it out, cheering as the body bends over the lip of the grave. The shroud catches on the ground and tears off, revealing the dead man’s torso.
Rassul Djitte, 48, watched from behind the wall of a nearby school. He had not known Diallo personally, but says he felt a stab. “People were rejoicing,” he says. “They dragged him past me and his body left tracks in the sand. Like a car passing through snow.”
Culhane: Why do gays and lesbians care about marriage?
How did marriage, of all things, become the cause célèbre of the LGBT rights movement? Let’s face it: There are good historical reasons for us to eschew and pooh-pooh this institution, which doesn’t exactly have a glorious track record.
“Since When is Marriage a Path to Liberation?” was the provocative question that lesbian activist Paula Ettelbrick raised in an influential article more than 20 years ago. Her article slammed what was then the emerging focus on same-sex marriage as a misguided effort that would secure gay and lesbian “equality” within the stifling confines of an inherently unequal and patriarchal institution.
Yet there we were, Ettelbrick and I, together in 2007 on a panel discussing LGBT legal issues, and she was arguing for marriage equality. What happened?
I had the chance to ask her about this dramatic about-face during a cab ride to the train station after the event. Had she been possessed by the spirit of Andrew Sullivan? Well, kind of. All of the same-sex couples making their clear and passionate case to have the state recognize their unions had convinced her to value reality over ideology, and (here I’m guessing) perhaps to see that same-sex marriages have the potential to revitalize the institution, and to help transform it into a more egalitarian partnership.
But why is it so important for the state to recognize our unions in the first place? Let’s start by considering the alternatives. The first of these is a religious union. For many lesbian and gay couples, getting married in their church, synagogue, or mosque is deeply meaningful. But it’s not enough. Some (straight and gay) couples don’t derive spiritual nourishment from such ceremonies. And even for those who do, “the power vested in” clergy to legally solemnize marriages can’t solemnize theirs.
So what about a “secular substitute” for marriage, such as the civil union, that confers all the benefits of marriage but not the title?
Do I really need to ask this question?
First, the civil union doesn’t confer all of the benefits of marriage. It’s not recognized at the federal level, so that even if the obnoxious Defense of Marriage Act were repealed, couples in a civil union wouldn’t have any of the federal benefits of marriage, which are the most significant ones.
But it’s not just about the benefits, either. In some paradoxical way, the civil union is worse, because it’s pure discrimination. The state has given up all of the arguments against equality in conferring the civil union status, but still insists on a separate label. In In re Marriage Cases, The California Supreme Court hit the bull’s-eye in rejecting this kind of “virtual equivalence:
“[A]ssigning a different designation for the family relationship of same-sex couples…poses at least a serious risk of denying the family relationship of same-sex couples such equal dignity and respect.”
By this point, some of you are likely muttering: “OK, marriage, fine. But what about discrimination, social justice, and the real economic barriers to equality? Aren’t these the things that should be concerning us instead of this mostly abstract equality debate?”
Well, you probably didn’t mutter exactly that, but the point is fair anyway. Why all this emphasis on marriage?
First, many of us are, at heart, assimilationists who want to fit in with the most traditional structures. Think marriage and – the prom! Those gay and lesbian teens [1]who demanded to attend their proms are radical and traditional at the same time, as are those seeking marriage equality. It’s that scary incursion of the outlandish into “safe” structures that explains, at least in part, the sometimes vicious resistance we find in everyone from Maggie Gallagher to those parents who engineered the fake prom [2] that Constance McMillen was sent to.
The other part of this fight for equality has to do with the government’s role in the discrimination. Remember that many of the most important achievements of both the civil rights and women’s movements were ending government-sponsored discrimination in voting, unfair marriage laws, and segregated public facilities and schools. If government is willing to declare that members of a group are second-class citizens, then private and social discrimination is fair game.
Since laws prohibiting same-sex intimacy have now been declared unconstitutional, the most important state-sponsored formal discriminations we face are DADT and the ban on our marriages. So, while marriage may never be a path to liberation – much less to robust social and economic fairness – it’s a vital part of our rights as citizens. That’s why it matters.
John Culhane is Professor of Law and Director of the Health Law Institute at Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware. He blogs about the role of law in everyday life, and about a bunch of other things (LGBT rights, public health, sports, pop culture, philosophy and lots of personal stuff) at: http://wordinedgewise.org. Here’s a fuller bio [3]. He will be blogging the week-long Equality Forum [4] from Philadelphia later this month.
[1] http://www.365gay.com/blog/ruby-sachs-prom-politics/
[2] http://advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/04/05/ACLU_Investigating_Fake_Prom/
[3] http://law.widener.edu/Academics/Faculty/ProfilesDe/CulhaneJohnG.aspx
[4] http://equalityforum.com
Zions Bancorp asked to do more for gays, lesbians
(Salt Lake City) An assortment of investor groups represented by the New York City comptroller says Salt Lake City-based Zions Bancorp isn’t doing enough to protect gay, lesbian and transgender employees from discrimination.
But the banking company’s board is urging shareholders to vote against a proposal sponsored by the comptroller’s office on behalf of five city pension funds to amend the regional bank’s equal employment opportunity policy.
The amendment will put to a vote at the company’s annual stockholders meeting May 28. It would explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, according to a preliminary proxy statement released by Zions.
If it is approved, the board wouldn’t be bound to change the bank’s discrimination policy but would consider the idea, according to the proxy.
Zions says the company’s current policies already achieve the objectives of the proposal.
“The company really has a zero-tolerance policy for any kind of discrimination that would cause an employee to perform poorly in their job, meaning if they were troubled by discrimination and it resulted in poor performance, we would have to address that,” said James Abbott, investor relations director at Zions.
The 10-member board agreed unanimously to oppose the proposal. Abbott said the company believes a culture of discrimination could drive out highly productive employees, which might hurt its revenues.
The company also believes it’s up to cities and states to extend protection to gays and lesbians. Such protection exists in liberal-leaning Salt Lake City, but not throughout the rest of conservative Utah.
In an e-mail to The Salt Lake Tribune, comptroller’s office spokesman Greg Bell said the pension funds have a long history of submitting similar shareholder resolutions with the purpose of advancing equality while protecting the investment interest of shareholders.
“All employees should feel safe and accepted in the workplace,” Bell said. “Secondly, a work environment free of fear and harassment is good for the productivity and morale of employees, and the reputation and sustainability of companies.”
The pension funds own 918,244 shares of Zions common stock, about 0.6 percent of the 150.4 million shares in circulation.
German leader to open Gay Games VIII
Germany’s foreign minister and vice chancellor, Guido Westerwelle, will preside over the opening ceremony of the 2010 Gay Games, according to a news release [1]from the sports organization.
Westerwelle, who has been out on the job since 2001, will open the eighth Gay Games, held this year in Cologne, Germany.
[2]
“We are so pleased to have found such a prominent advocate. With his commitment, Dr. Guido Westerwelle sends an important signal for more tolerance and acceptance of gays and lesbians in our society,” said Annete Wachter, chief executive officer of Gay Games Cologne, said in a statement.
The Gay Games are expected to attract 12,000 athletes from 70 countries. At least 34,000 spectators are expected to watch the opening ceremonies.
The goal of the Gay Games is to foster tolerance for the LGBT community.
[1] http://www.games-cologne.de/en/gay-games/news/guido-westerwelle-will-be-sponsor-gay-games-viii-cologne-2010
[2] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-germany-gay-games-top.jpg
Withers: Diaz talks silly….again
Once again Ruben Diaz, Sr. spouts something senseless. The New York State senator has a history of typing out rambling releases, epsecailly when the topic is gay, and then trying extricate himself from some of his own daft mess.
Yesterday Diaz issued a release, wondering why gays and lesbians are not supporting Gov. David …
