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May 20, 2010 Iranian actress is fighting to win asylum in the UK because she fears she will be killed if sent home.

Kiana Firouz, 27, began making a film in Tehran several years ago to give voice to lesbians in the country.

Two years ago, she came to the UK as a student but Iranian authorities discovered her work and secret police began following her.

Homosexuality is illegal in Iran and the death penalty is imposed on repeat offenders.

Ms Firouz applied for asylum in the UK but was rejected and told she could avoid persecution if she was “discreet” about her sexual orientation.

However, she appears in a film based on her life called Cul de Sac, the premiere of which is tonight, and fears she is now well-known enough to be in imminent danger.

She plays herself in the work, which explores attitudes to homosexuality in Iran. The lesbian sex scenes in the film are, she believes, enough to result in her execution.

Ms Firouz is said to be “overwhelmed” by the attention on her case and is refusing to speak to the media.

But in a statement sent out last month, she said she would soon face deportation.

She said: “Homosexuality in Iran is a sin and offence which is subject to harsh punishment. According to the Islamic law, repetition of this offence will be punished by death. The punishment for lesbianism involving persons who are mature, of sound mind, and consenting, is 100 lashes.

“If the act is repeated three times and punishment is enforced each time, the death sentence will apply on the fourth occasion.”

Gay asylum campaigner Paul Canning said her case was “severely embarrassing” for the Iranian authorities and that she still has family in the country who will be in danger.

He told PinkNews.co.uk: “She will be put in prison, she will be raped in prison. It is extremely well-documented that this happens to women.

“She’s really embarrassing the Iranian regime. In the last year, there have been 50 to 100 executions – that we know of – of opponents to the regime.”

Her lawyer, who asked not to be named, told PinkNews.co.uk that Ms Firouz was now well-known to Iranian authorities, placing her in danger.

She said: “The Home Office believes she is gay but said she could be discreet. This is a ridiculous argument.

“The judge said the same at the appeal, that no one knows who she is.

May 20, 2010. We have asked the Home Office to reconsider this on the basis she is now mega-famous. There is no way the Iranian authorities do not know about her. She has been in media reports, international film festivals want to show Cul de Sac.

“She is not a household name but there is a lot of interest. It is impossible that they do not know about her.”

Today, the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government promised it would stop the deportation of gay or trans asylum seekers who were at “proven risk of imprisonment, torture or execution”.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/20/iranian-lesbian-actress-may-face-death-if-deported/

France has joined the United States in publicly condemning Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which would vastly strengthen the country’s anti-gay laws. “France expresses deep concern regarding the bill currently before the Ugandan parliament,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement sent to AFP in Kampala on Monday.

“France reiterates its commitment to the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

In an opinion piece published in Uganda’s Observer newspaper on Monday, the author of the bill, lawmaker David Bahati, argued that “homosexuality is not a human right”.

“The Anti-Homosexuality Bill is a nice piece of legislation. It aims at holding the integrity of Ugandans high in the sky,” Bahati argued.

“The fact that the moral fabric of America and Europe has been put under siege by the supporters of this creeping evil of homosexuality should not suggest that we follow suit.”

Also on Monday, Human Rights Watch reported that four members of the US House of Representatives have written to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the bill, arguing that its passage would undermine the effectiveness of American taxpayer funds spent in Uganda to help curb HIV and AIDS.

“This egregious bill represents one of the most extreme anti-equality measures ever proposed in any country,” Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said in a letter, co-signed by three other lawmakers.

Last year, the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) spending in Uganda amounted to almost $US300 million ($A334 million), around 2.6 per cent of the Ugandan economy, Ros-Lehtinen noted.

“We believe the Anti-Homosexuality Bill would undermine the substantial US contribution to Uganda through PEPFAR and raise serious questions about the effectiveness of this global health investment,” she wrote.

Uganda’s Minister for Ethics and Integrity James Nsaba Buturo said last week that Uganda has no intention of heeding the advice of foreigners on the issue of homosexuality.

http://www.somaligaycommunity.org/content/view/1194/1/

The following article responds to Tariq Ramadan’s article, entitled “Islam & Homosexuality”, and published in July, 2009 by the Middle East Online

The way homosexuality and Islam are being positioned against each other creates a false dichotomy and does no favors for GLBT folks or for Muslims. One of the more interesting facets of this issue is how many people who have been outspoken anti-gay “defenders of tradition” have suddenly decided to include gays in their defense of Western Culture. “Friends” like this nobody needs.

Brother Tariq here takes on quite a few issues, rather confusing the point. But one of the beautiful things about Islam is that it recognizes that we all bring our own backgrounds, biases, and information gaps to any argument and should listen to diverse opinions with respect.

The word “homosexuality” and the understandings of that word have a peculiar history. The term was itself coined in 1868 for political purpose and quickly found a medical niche. We know that there has been same-sex love through history, that it exists in all human cultures and that there is same-sex activity in hundreds of animal species. There is a growing body of scientific evidence that same-sex attraction is innate, that it has a largely genetic component. Like left- or righthandedness, one’s eye color or height, it is part of a range of normal variations. However the way sexuality is understood varies greatly from one culture to another.

Brother Tariq makes a very firm declaration about the universality of religious rejection of homosexuality, but there are in fact a growing number of religions that accept same-sex love. Unitarians, Quakers, and an ever-expanding range of protestant denominations accept GLBT members and offer same-sex marriage to loving couples. In the largest denominations – the Lutherans, Anglicans, and Presbyterians – the issue has been controversial exactly because same-sex love has been gaining so much acceptance. What “a majority of rabbis” accept I can’t say, but the Reform and Conservative branches of Judaism are accepting of homosexuality. Gay and lesbian rabbis are common and serve on rabbinical boards. A small, but growing number of Muslim groups are even becoming more accepting.

In Islam condemnations of homosexuality rest on the story of Lot (Sodom and Gomorrah) which is about men raping men. This is common in prisons, and we see it mostly in situations where men who identify as heterosexual attack men they perceive as gay. I’ve personally known men who were savagely attacked and gangraped by groups of men this way. There are also stories of such abuse by Egyptian and Iranian police. This has nothing at all to do with men loving men or women loving women.

Brother Tariq’s assertion that “Muslims are now being called upon to condemn the Qur’an, and to accept and promote homosexuality to gain entry into the modern world,” is quite an overstatement. There are people like Geert Wilders who urge us to reject or revise the Qur’an, and that of course is impossible. Some people do make impossible demands only to create trouble. That is quite separate from the issue of homosexuality, even if they do exploit that issue. Homosexuality is not something that can be promoted any more than blue eyes or being six feet tall can be promoted. People can experiment and “fool around” just as they might wear contact lenses or high heels, but in the end you are who you are. Heterosexuality is promoted, and in many places even mandated, but our God-given human nature will out, and homosexuals forced into heterosexual marriages by cultural and familial pressures live unhappily in loveless marriages, often leading double lives, cheating on their mates. Not only are gays and lesbians being deprived of fulfilling, loving partnerships but so are their heterosexual husbands and wives. Gay people know that a sexual orientation cannot be promoted. It can only be accepted – or rejected – that there are people of different sexual orientations, and that everyone, regardless of orientation is entitled to equal rights.

Brother Tariq is addressing the situation of Muslims living in western nations. Muslims who live in pluralistic societies, or as minorities, are obliged to respect the laws and customs of the lands we live in. In democratic nations where we are part of a dialogue where attitudes towards homosexuality are changing, we can take a voice in that conversation. Politically it is in our interest to promote acceptance for diversity. Our religion tells us to “live and let live.” Brother Tariq is quite correct when he says:

“There is no ambiguity, and ample clarity: European Muslims have the right to express their convictions while at the same time respecting the humanity and rights of individuals. If we are to be consistent, we must respect this attitude of faith and openness”

This is exactly what GLBT activists are working for – no more; no less.

http://huriyahmag.com/fall/features.jack.htm

You probably saw him on VH1, HBO or the many Pride Parades that he rockes with his jokes. Yes, it is Rob Nash (also known to many of us Muslims as simply “Salim”). When I first interacted with brother Salim, it was through an internet group for queer Sufis. I remember thinking, “This guy is funny.” Everything he said was funny. Talking on the phone with him, even his language is funny. I think it is a gift. A gift only God can give. You either have it or don’t. And he certainly has it. But beyond his jokes lies a man who deeply cares about social change, who thinks for himself and successfully gets his message across with laugh-out-loud funny performances. Critics everywhere love his Holy Cross Sucks!, a madly funny 30-character saga about three youths going through a four year Jesuit high school in Texas all played by him. I interviewed this talented Artist about his work, life and faith.

http://huriyahmag.com/fall/interview.rob.htm

October 8, 2009: A trans woman who was denied breast enlargement surgery is taking her primary care trust to court.

The patient, known only as ‘C’, has been living as a woman for ten years and has undergone hormone treatment, although she has not had any other surgery.

According to the Daily Telegraph, she argues that she will suffer great distress if Berkshire Primary Care Trust will not provide the surgery, saying it is essential to her identity as a woman.

Her case will be heard at the High Court on October 20th.

Berkshire PCT will only fund breast enlargement in “exceptional circumstances” and has only funded one such procedure in the past three years, for a woman who was deeply distressed at the size of her breasts.

It decided that C’s case was not exceptional.

Stephanie Harrison, C’s barrister, told a preliminary hearing that the patient had been discriminated against because she had been treated exactly in the same way a biological woman without gender dysphoria would have been treated.

She argued: “Breast augmentation is not cosmetic surgery, it is a treatment for gender dysphoria. This is a treatment for a recognised medical condition.

“The fact that someone is transsexual is treated as irrelevant by the PCT. It is a legal error to say that you must treat transsexual females and natal females the same”.

Harrison claims that the PCT’s refusal to fund the operation is a violation of her human rights. C is claiming direct discrimination under the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act.

However, barrister for the PCT David Lock argued that C’s case was fundamentally flawed because it could not be shown that she was treated any less favourably than a biological woman.

He said she had been considered under the PCT’s trans policy, rather than as a biological woman.

Lock also expressed frustration at the “huge” costs of the case, estimated to be tens of thousands of pounds.

He said: “Public bodies who have to make rationing decisions, like PCTs, face enormous difficulties. Wherever you draw the line, there will be those who are disappointed.

“It would make the job of PCTs virtually impossible if their decisions were constantly attacked. We are a public body that prefers to spend its money on treating patients. The costs and complexity of this case are already huge.”

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2009/10/08/trans-woman-goes-to-court-after-being-denied-breast-implants/

September 2, 2009: The Indian government will not oppose a recent Delhi High Court ruling decriminalising homosexuality in the capital, according to a report.

A cabinet note seen by the Indian CNN-IBN television network recommends that the government leave it to the Supreme Court to rule on challenges to the decision.

A number of religious groups and individuals are appealing against it.

The note states: “The correctness of the Delhi High Court judgement has been challenged in an appeal before the Supreme Court. The government may submit before the Supreme Court that there does not appear to be any legal error in the judgement and the Supreme Court may take a final view whether the judgement of the High Court is legally correct.”

It is now up to prime minister Manmohan Singh to decide whether to oppose the ruling, although CNN-IBN reported that the union law minister suggested he would not.

Three cabinet ministers were asked to consider the ruling by Delhi High Court.

In July it ruled that a ban on gay sex between adults violates India’s constitution.

Section 377 was enacted in 1860 under the British Raj, in line with the anti-sodomy laws in England at the time.

It punishes anyone who “voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal” by imprisonment and criminalises a whole range of sexual acts from mutual masturbation, to fellatio and anal sex.

Delhi High Court Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Muralidahr said the ban violated fundamental human rights.

The ruling said: “In the Indian Constitution, the right to live with dignity and the right of privacy both are recognised as dimensions of Article 21.

“Section 377 IPC denies a person’s dignity and criminalises his or her core identity solely on account of his or her sexuality and thus violates Article 21 of the Constitution.

If the Supreme Court upholds the decision to decriminalise gay sex, the government can then add an explanation note to Section 377 saying it does not apply to consenting adults in private.

Iraq has witnessed an increase in the torture and executions of gay men in recent months, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday, with the attacks carried out mainly by militia groups and at times, by Iraqi security forces.

“A killing campaign moved across Iraq in the early months of 2009. While the country remains a dangerous place for many if not most of its citizens, death squads started specifically singling out men whom they considered not ‘manly’ enough, or whom they suspected of homosexual conduct,” Human Rights Watch said in its 67-page report.

“Murders are committed with impunity, admonitory in intent, with corpses dumped in garbage or hung as warnings on the street,” the group added. “The killers invade the privacy of homes, abducting sons or brothers, leaving their mutilated bodies in the neighborhood the next day.”

The prominent human rights group pointed out that the systematic campaign against gays has gradually spread from capital Baghdad to other Iraqi cities like Kirkuk, Najaf and Basrain in recent months. The group also urged the Iraqi government to take urgent steps to stem the increasing attacks on members of the gay community.

The report indicated that Baghdad remains the main center of the attacks, with the Mahdi Army militia, a Shiite militant group loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, joining in the anti-gay campaign in what it says is an effort to stop the “feminization” of Iraqi men.

The hard-line Shiite extremist group believes that gay behavior is un-Islamic and have shifted the focus of their violence against Sunni Muslims to gays in recent months, after being routed by U.S. and Iraqi forces last year and forced to declare a cease-fire.

The extreme Shiites have conducted bombing attacks on liquor shops in the past and are known to have carried out the beating and even killing of women for not wearing veils. The HRW report accuses them of conducting a less publicized campaign of “social cleansing” against gays in recent months.

The report, entitled “‘They want us exterminated’: Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq,” included interviews with doctors and members of the gay community in Iraq. Some of the interviews suggested that members of the security forces had often colluded and even joined in the killing in some instances.

Doctors who were interviewed for the report acknowledged that the sectarian attacks on Sunnis and Shiites by the extremists from both sides have now shifted to gays, and they confirmed that hundreds of gay men are being tortured and executed by the Islamic extremists in Iraq.

The report said that that the executions of gays is mostly over “fears that Iraqi men’s masculinity is under threat,” and added that some of the executions were so-called honor killings carried out by family members “because ‘unmanly’ behavior threatens the reputation of the family or tribe.”

“Iraq’s leaders are supposed to defend all Iraqis, not abandon them to armed agents of hate,” said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “Turning a blind eye to torture and murder threatens the rights and life of every Iraqi.”

“This report… documents a campaign of violence against men in Iraq who are suspected of being gay or who simply don’t act masculine enough in the eyes of their killers,” Long added.

The report blamed the government for not keeping a proper record on the number of gays killed in recent months, citing the failure of authorities to investigate such crimes and the stigma preventing families from reporting the deaths.

Without providing actual numbers, the rights group said in the report that hundreds of gays have been kidnapped, tortured and killed since the beginning of this year in a wave of violence that began in the Sadr City stronghold of Mahdi Army militia in Baghdad.

Though the Iraqi government condemns the attacks on gays, it has failed to provide adequate protection for the homosexuals in the country against attacks and executions by the Islamic extremists.

The government acknowledges that the nation’s culture stigmatizes homosexuality and says that it is taking serious efforts to educate police, security forces and the public in general about the human rights of members of the gay community.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/TOP%20STORY/2483382/

July 12, 2009: Gay Muslim book translates into possible trouble. GlobalGayz protests “perverted” book title used for Arab translation of book about gay Muslims

Today’s New York Post carried the following story about the newly published book Gay Travels in the Muslim World. The book is a collection of articles by traveled writers familiar with homosexuality in the world of Islam. It was edited by veteran journalist Michael Luongo of New York. It seems that the Jordanian publisher that put out the Arab-language translation used an old Arabic word that translates into “pervert”, which was once commonly used to describe gay people. Considering that there is already a pervasive and largely hostile attitude about gays in Muslim countries, this is bound to make life MORE difficult for gay people in these countries.

GlobalGayz writer and owner Richard Ammon contributed a chapter to this book, based on the tragic experience of a friend’s murder in Morocco. Ammon met the deceased, George Waldo, several years ago and interviewed him for story about gay life in Morocco. (See Gay Morocco story)

In Gay Travels in the Muslim World, the violent incident is described in its various complexities of culture, sexuality, money, religion, fantasy and betrayal.

Said Ammon, “It is doubly regretful for me to have this book, an honest testimony of gay Muslim life, have its title mistranslated with the use of a pejorative term that demeans gays. It is regretful that we have come so far in the struggle for gay rights and recognition only to be publicly smeared by a single unaware Jordanian publisher. It’s doubly regretful that a dear friend and sophisticated gentleman’s life be included in such an unjustly labeled book. George deserves much better than this.”

Luongo said he has protested the mis-title and demanded a more modern and accurate title be used.

August 25, 2009 Lambda Legal, a group that pursues litigation in support of LGBT rights, has called on the US government to end a ban on people living with HIV from travelling to or taking up residence in the country.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the US Department of Health and Human Services has proposed removing HIV from the list of communicable diseases of public health significance for immigrants to the United States.

The ban originates from 1987, when fear about the spread of the disease led US officials to require anyone with HIV to declare their status and apply for a special visa.

In July 2008 President George W Bush signed the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief Act, which cleared they way for ban on HIV positive people from entering the United States to be ended.

However, the ban remains in force while the Department for Health and Human Services decide how to proceed.

Scott Schoettes, HIV Project Staff Attorney at Lambda Legal, said they had written to the CDC backing their proposal.

“Lambda Legal strongly urges the CDC to move swiftly to finalise and implement the proposed regulations, thereby ending the discriminatory and disgraceful HIV travel and immigration ban and allowing the United States to more fully assume its role as a leader in the global fight against HIV/AIDS,” he said.

“Adoption of these rules will ensure that people living with HIV will no longer face this type of stigma and discrimination from our government.”

Lambda said there is a “broad consensus among the scientific, medical and public health communities” that admission of individuals living with HIV into the United States does not present a threat to the public health of the United States nor pose any danger to its citizens.

British citizens with HIV who want to travel to the US must attend an interview at the American Embassy in London before they can travel legally.

A new online visa waiver system was set up recently, but those who have HIV must still have a special visa.

Currently, people with HIV are permanently excluded from the United States except in exceptional circumstances.

In April Lisa Power, head of policy at THT, told PinkNews.co.uk:

“While we are pleased that the US government intend to revisit their entry regulations, it has not happened yet.

“People with HIV shouldn’t jump the gun by assuming it’s already okay to travel to the US without a special visa.

“Everyone entering the US is still required to state that they have no transmissible conditions, alongside not being a terrorist, a Nazi or a criminal.

“People who don’t get the special visa but then disclose their status on entry run the risk of being forcibly deported and banned from entering the US again, so please be aware of the rules before you fly.”

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-13805.html

The number of new HIV infections among South African teens has dropped significantly, prompting hope that national efforts to tackle the epidemic have finally turned a corner after years of denial and delay. A report by the Human Sciences Research Council released Tuesday said that although young people continue to have multiple sexual partners - which drives South Africa’s epidemic - they are increasingly heeding advice to use a condom.

“There is clearly light at the end of the tunnel,” said Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi. “There is real light.”

Motsoaledi, a respected medical doctor, became health minister last month. He must overcome the legacy of former President Thabo Mbeki, who denied the link between HIV and AIDS, and his health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who mistrusted conventional anti-AIDS drugs and promoted beetroot and lemon.

“Unfortunately we spent a lot of time fighting each other. I am quite sure that we are going to stop fighting each other and start fighting the disease,” said Motsoaledi. “I am hoping that in the next few years the results will be much more encouraging than this,” he said.

During nearly 10 years of neglect, new HIV infections reached a peak of 1,000, with nearly 1,000 deaths from AIDS every day. The council’s report estimated that around 5.2 million South Africans were living with HIV last year - the highest number of any country in the world.

The report said that HIV prevalence in children between 2 and 14 fell from 5.6 percent in 2002 to 2.5 percent last year, mainly thanks to the spread of drugs to prevent women passing on the virus to their children.

Young women continue to bear the brunt of the epidemic; nearly one third of women aged 20 to 34 are infected with the virus, the report said. Infection rates peak later in men.

The survey of more than 23,000 people was entitled “A Turning Tide Among Teenagers?” In rare good news, it said that HIV incidence - the number of new infections - among teens was falling. For instance, incidence among 18-year-olds halved between 2005 and 2008 to 0.8 percent. In 20-year-olds it decreased from 2.2 percent to 1.7 percent.

Olive Shisana, head of the research council and one of the report’s authors, said this was because of an increase in condom use among young males aged between 15 and 24, from 57 percent in 2002 to 87 percent in 2008. In females of the same age, there was also an increase of condom use, from 46 percent to 73 percent. Condom use among males aged 25 to 49 doubled and among women it tripled.

“Young men have made a decision that they are going to run around, but they are going to use a condom. They have made a decision that they will have a lot of sex with a lot of different people, but they are going … to make sure they are protected,” she said.

Every year the government distributes many millions of condoms free of charge as part of its anti-AIDS campaign and - to loud applause - health minister Motsoaledi indicated he would be willing to increase the condom budget further.

But on the downside, the survey showed that messages that young people should abstain, delay their first sexual encounter and have only one partner, were falling largely on deaf ears. This was the approach traditionally promoted by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which is the biggest foreign donor of South Africa’s anti-AIDS drive.

Funding from that plan paid for the survey, the third conducted since 2002.

It said the percentage of 15-59-year-old males who had more than one partner in the past year increased from 9.4 percent in 2002 to 19.3 percent in 2008.

It said there was an increase in the problem of teens having older partners who would buy them food, clothes and pay for transport. This is particularly risky because older men have a higher HIV rate than teenage boys, and often the teenage girls do not have the bargaining power to insist that they wear a condom.

Shisana said that in poor areas, girls came under pressure from their families to stay in such relationships despite the risk.

Even more worryingly, the survey showed a decrease in the proportion of people who understood about HIV prevention from 66.4 percent in 2005 to 44.8 percent in 2008. More people understood the need for condoms and the need to dispel previously widespread myths that sex with babies cured AIDS, but this was offset by a big increase in the people who thought there was no risk in having multiple partners.

Motsoaledi said the government would try to strengthen its AIDS prevention campaigns - long weakened because of bureaucracy and mixed messages in the health department.

“It is clear our work is well cut. We can’t pretend that we don’t know what to do,” he said.

http://www.365gay.com/news/hiv-rate-among-south-african-teens-has-dropped/