A Long Way from Safe

First published in Bay Windows on July 17, 2008

Summer for many of us is a time to find respite, perhaps by heading to the beach to stick our toes in the sand and watch the waves roll in. The problems still facing us in the United States-new ballot initiatives to fight, constitutional liberties under assault, anti-immigrant demagoguery that hampers asylum efforts-can wait a few weeks. Vacation can also give us a fresh perspective. A quick survey of what is happening around the world reminds us that the struggle to which we will return is global.

On July 19, Russian gay activists led by Nikolai Alexeyev were planning to picket the Iranian embassy in Moscow on the third anniversary of the hanging of two gay youth in Iran, as they had done the previous two years. But on July 14, Moscow authorities banned the demonstration. Moscow's gay rights marches in recent years have been met with violence by skinhead gangs under the placid gaze of police.

On May 29, a Turkish court ordered the GLBT group Lambda Istanbul shut down, claiming that it violated penal code and constitutional provisions on morals and the family. On June 4, three gay activists from Sexual Minorities Uganda were arrested in Kampala for staging a peaceful protest at an AIDS conference. On July 5 in Hungary, hundreds of right-wing counter-demonstrators attacked the Budapest gay pride parade, throwing rocks, eggs, feces and Molotov cocktails at marchers and the police.

Even where our rights are significantly more advanced, the struggle continues. On July 10, British human rights activist Peter Tatchell reported that a London tribunal had ruled that an Islington registrar was within her rights in refusing to perform same-sex civil partnerships as being against her religion. This contrasts with the action of some county clerks in California, who avoided performing gay wedding ceremonies by declaring they would no longer perform any weddings.

After a lengthy activist campaign, Tehran-born Seyed Madhi Kazemi, whom British authorities sought to deport to Iran despite his lover Parham having been put to death there, recently won "leave to remain." Yet gay asylum seekers from Syria and Azerbaijan still face deportation from Scotland and Wales. The group GayAsylumUK continues petitioning Prime Minister Gordon Brown to "stop deporting gays and lesbians to countries where they may be imprisoned, tortured or executed because of their sexuality." Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has been heavily criticized for saying there is no danger in Iran for gay people who are "discreet."

On July 1, after extensive lobbying by the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, the Swedish Migration Board decided that people who live openly regarding their gayness in Iran should receive asylum. On the other hand, a woman told a Toronto forum in June that many Latin American lesbian and transgender women have been denied asylum in Canada despite having been tortured and raped in their home countries.

International solidarity efforts are hampered by the gay movement's wide variations in its stages of development from region to region. Perhaps our most powerful organizing tool is the Internet, whose power is understood by repressive regimes. A bill pending in the Iranian parliament would impose the death penalty on bloggers who "promote corruption, prostitution or apostasy." One thing we can do is press Western corporations to stop aiding and abetting such repression.

The greatest work of changing minds and hearts is close to home, where family bonds often remain strong despite intolerance and threats of violence. Religious fundamentalisms are a significant factor, such as in Nigeria where Christian prelates justify anti-gay rhetoric by citing fear of losing adherents to Islam. Harsh anti-gay laws dating from the colonial era are another factor, spreading poison long after the countries that imposed them have reformed their own laws.

The rejection of such malign influences suggests a way of turning the tables on arguments from tradition. Gay people in former colonies can point out that, far from homosexuality being a European vice, homophobia is the malign import. European Parliament member and former Polish foreign minister and Solidarity leader Bronislaw Geremek took a similar tack when he declared, "Homophobia is not part of Polish tradition." Geremek died on July 13, but his words still echo. Thus, ironically, an enlightened nationalism may help us as we slowly build our global network of support and hope, link by link.