Vapaa liikkuvuus -verkosto järjestää yhdessä myöhemmin vahvistettavien järjestöjen kanssa solidaarisuus-mielenosoituksen gambialaisen homon “Jawaran” puolesta. Mielenosoitus vaatii Jawaran vapauttamista säilöönottokeskuksesta ja turvapaikkaa Suomesta ulkomaalaislain mukaisesti.

Gambialainen Jawara (nimi muutettu) on seksuaalisen suuntautumisensa vuoksi vainottu nuori mies, jota uhkaa lähtömaassa vankeusrangaistus. Maahanmuuttovirasto on hylännyt hänen turvapaikka-anomuksensa.

Jawara on hakenut turvapaikkaa Suomesta kahdesti. Ensimmäisellä kerralla hän ei uskaltanut kertoa homoseksuaalisuudestaan, sillä hänellä ei ollut tietoa siitä, että Suomessa homoseksuaaleja ei kohdella samoin kuin Gambiassa. Hänen kumppaninsa kärsii vankilatuomiota seksuaalisen suuntautumisensa vuoksi. Jawara itse pääsi pakenemaan maasta vastaavaa kohtaloa.

Gambiassa homoseksuaaleihin sovelletaan maan rikoslain artiklaa 144: homoseksuaalisuus tulkitaan luonnonvastaiseksi sukupuoliyhteydeksi, josta voi seurata lain mukaan 14 vuoden vankeusrangaistus. Maahanmuuttovirasto myöntää Jawaralle tehdyssä kielteisessä päätöksessä, että Gambian poliisi noudattaa aktiivisesti maan rikoslakia homoseksuaalien kohdalla.

Gambian presidentti Yahya Jammeh ilmoitti vuonna 2008 tiukentavansa homoseksuaalien vainoa ja “katkaisevansa homojen kaulat”, mikäli heitä tavataan Gambiassa. Presidentti on myös kehottanut homoseksuaaleja poistumaan maasta, määrännyt turvallisuusjoukot pidättämään homoseksuaaleja ja vaatinut heitä majoittavia hotelleja suljettaviksi.

Jawara on saanut ensimmäiseen turvapaikka-anomukseensa kielteisen päätöksen elokuussa 2009. Toisen turvapaikka-anomuksen perusteella suoritetussa turvapaikkapuhuttelussa hän on dokumentoinut suomalaisille viranomaisille uskottavasti ja johdonmukaisesti todellisen syynsä paolle kotimaastaan. Tästä huolimatta Maahanmuuttovirasto on antanut asiassa kielteisen päätöksen maaliskuussa 2010 ja päättänyt käännyttää hänet maasta.

Jawara on ollut säilöönotettuna Metsälän säilöönottoyksikössä helmikuun alusta asti. Hänen lakimiehensä valittaa Maahanmuuttoviraston päätöksestä lähipäivinä Helsingin hallinto-oikeuteen sekä vaatii käännytyksen täytäntöönpanon keskeyttämistä.

“UNHCR:n mukaan henkilöille, jotka joutuvat hyökkäyksen, epäinhimillisen kohtelun tai vakavan syrjinnän kohteeksi homoseksuaalisuuden takia ja joiden hallitukset ovat kykenemättömiä tai halutto-mia suojelemaan heitä, tulee myöntää pakolaisstatus”, kommentoi Katja Tuominen Vapaa liikkuvuus -verkostosta.

Tilaisuuteen kutsutaan puhujiksi kansanedustajia ja kansalaisaktivisteja sekä tutkijoita. Paikalle toivotaan runsaasti ihmisiä puolustamaan Jawaran ja muiden vainottujen oikeuksia.

Vapauttakaa Jawara heti!

Diane Savino

New Yorkin osavaltion senaatti äänesti eilen samansukupuolisten avioliitoista. Äänestystulos oli lopulta liittojen sallimista vastaan. Staten Islandin edustaja Diane Savino puhui ennen äänestystä kauniisti esityksen puolesta. Video englanninkielinen.

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Senator Diane Savino, the representative of Staten Island in the New York State Senate spoke eloquently in favor of gay marriage before a vote on the matter. Despite her moving speech, more representatives voted against than for gay marriage. The speech is in English.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCFFxidhcy0&feature=player_embedded

The law [...] would imprison anyone who knows of the existence of a gay or lesbian and fails to inform the police within 24 hours. It requires the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” – defined as any sexual act between gays or lesbians in which one person has the HIV virus.

The law decrees that anyone who is aware of but fails to report homosexual activity within 24 hours be sentenced to 3 years in prison, and that anyone defending the rights of LGB people be sentenced to 7 years in prison. Activists are calling upon the Commonwealth to address the matter in the upcoming summit and to suspend Uganda’s membership if the law passes.

The legislator who introduced the bill in the Ugandan parliament, David Bahati, is a member of the fundamentalist Christian church the Family. Members of the Family are very active in introducing anti-LGBT and anti-woman legislation in many countries, including the United States. The Ugandan president also appears to be closely affiliated with the Family. More about the US influence on Uganda’s anti-gay policies here, here and here.

CHINA The Chinese government plans to open a gay bar that may or may not serve refreshments to its patrons. What the bar will most definitely offer is education and information on the topic of safe sex between men. A group of gay volunteers will be hired to draw in the information-thirsty gay hordes.

THAILAND Thailand has implemented stricter gatekeeper measures for people seeking sex reassignment surgery. Those wanting surgery are now required to live one year as their preferred gender, undergo hormone replacement therapy and obtain the approval of two psychiatrists. Some fear these new measures will turn sex reassignment surgey into an underground business.

Adam Lambert

ARGENTINA A couple’s wedding was canceled after a judge blocked a previous decision that allowed the two men to marry. The couple obtained the initial autorization by suing the state when they were denied a marriage licence in April. The matter is now awaiting the attention of the Supreme Court. Same-sex civil unions are legal in some Argentinian cities but civil unions lack rights married straight couples are granted.

UNITED STATES American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert was dropped from ABC’s morning tv show following a late-night awards show performance that included simulated oral sex and Adam kissing another man. Lambert’s replacement on ABC’s family friendly morning show was Chris Brown who was recently sentenced to community service for assaulting his then-girlfriend, singer Rihanna.

UNITED STATES. There has been a second hate crime conviction in the US in connection to a killing of a transgender woman. Dwight DeLee was found guilty of killing Lateisha Green. DeLee claimed he wasn’t trying to kill Green when he shot his rifle into the car in which Green was sitting with her brother and a friend. The jury found this believable and DeLee was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and faces between 10 and 25 years in prison.

UNITED STATES. A gay bar was raided in Fort Worth, Texas on the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, June 28. Chad Gibson was injured during this raid and was hospitalized for seven days for serious head injuries. He was originally arrested for public intoxication. In a bar. The police claimed that the injured man was making advances at the officer and fell while resisting arrest and this was the cause of his injuries, while eyewitnesses claimed that the officers slammed the man into the wall and the floor, and also tackled other bar patrons. The mayor of Fort Worth has now issued an apology for the injury but not for the raid. The raid is being investigated.

The Advocate reports that the reason for the raid was the arrest of a man for public intoxication on June 26. The Advocate also reports: “in addition, police recordings reveal that on the night of the raid, an officer called for help after he went inside the Rainbow Lounge. His call was prompted by a bar patron who blew a kiss at the officer.”

UNITED STATES. Same-sex couples lack basic immigration opportunities in the US available to different-sexed couples. A different-sex couple’s US citizen half can sponsor their spouse for a green card if the couple wishes to live in the States, but this is not possible for same-sex couples. Reasons given for the justification for this policy are the usual bullshit excuses about eroding the institution of marriage and so forth. In short, states such as New York may recognise your same-sex marriage as legal but you will be deported if you want to make the state your home, because…. you’re not really recognised as a family unit. If there are queers out there who want to immigrate to the US: make sure that you pick a differently sexed person to fake marry for a green card or you’re out.

GLOBAL. Why are we all so queer? Is it nature or is it nurture? Some scientists say neither! Or… both?

“Researchers sometimes claim we’re hard-wired for things, but when you peel through the layers of the experiments, the details matter and suddenly the evidence doesn’t seem so compelling. The problem is that it’s much more complicated to explain why the evidence is on shaky ground, and often the one-liner wins out over the 10-minute explanation.”

SOUTH KOREA. Choi Han-bit, a transsexual woman, has made it to the semifinals in a beauty pageant in Korea. The pageant’s organisers have stated that they take no issue with Choi Han-bit’s participation in the 2009 Super Model Contest – no rules have been broken as her legal sex is female.

CHINA. China is creating guidelines and rules for the treatment of trans people. There are concerns that the rules will be too strict and will prohibit many from having access to surgery.

AUSTRALIA. Australia’s passport laws have been revised to allow a more flexible approach to gender markers for transpeople. Changing your gender marker has previously required a person to obtain a revised birth certificate which has been impossible without specific surgeries or if the person is married. The new law allows transpeople to obtain a limited validity passport in their preferred gender for overseas travel for the purpose of gender reassignment surgery without having to obtain a revised birth certificate. Transpeople who can not obtain a revised birth certificate can also apply for a standard issue passport if they are unable to have the mandatory surgeries because of medical issues and can prove this.

Protesters outside Lu's pharmacy

CANADA. A recently opened women only pharmacy in Vancouver denies service to transwomen. The pharmacy owner is of the opinion that womanhood is dependent on birth-assigned sex, and that they do not have the expertise or capacity to provide services to transwomen. Interestingly enough, they will write prescriptions for transmen. Several protests have been held to draw attention to this arbitrary discrimination.

RUSSIA. A man shot his girlfriend after discovering she had undergone sex reassignment surgery.

“The killer, identified as Vladimir F by police, shot Camila several times, deliberately targeting the parts of her body altered during a sex change operation. He had only found out about her previous identity after she turned down his offer of marriage.”

Every third day, a transperson is murdered.

INDIA. The government of Bihar is setting up a program to provide education and employment to its transgender citizens who often live in poverty.

“Transgenders will be provided literacy and vocational training to prepare them for respectable regular employment. It will give them the opportunity to enhance their socio-economic status,” said Masood Hassan, director of the social welfare department. ‘”

More on India’s LGBT community: Swathi and Sneha are two transwomen who wish to be the country’s first legally married same-sex couple. India recently decriminalized homosexuality, but same-sex marriage laws do not yet exist. Sindh Today gives us some stories from the members of India’s LGBT community, and Asian Tribune features a story on Noori, an influential Indian transgender woman fighting for HIV/AIDS awareness.

UNITED STATES. The Progressive discusses the prevalence of sexual assault on transgender prisoners in the US prison system. Transgender women are routinely placed in men’s prisons where they are vulnerable to assault and subject to punishment from the prison personnel. More here.

RUSSIA. An intersex child born in Russia will be operated on based on genetics, not self-identification.

Five days after the delivery, Olga was discharged, and her baby transferred to the pathology department of the Tushino Hospital.  Now the medical team is awaiting the results of genetic testing.  The parents are praying that the correct decision is made.
“In this case, only geneticists can tell whether this baby is predisposed to either the female or the male end of the gender continuum, ” tried to explain the young father.  “We’ll love our baby all the same, boy or girl.”

Here is a paper on the human rights of intersex children.

UNITED KINGDOM. An award-winning businesswoman raises trans awareness.

“We’re not quite there yet in how to deal with transgendered people,” she said. “I could have gone stealth, my surgery was good enough that people wouldn’t have known, but I decided it was more important than my own bit of comfort to use my experience to help other people.”

Buck Angel

GLOBAL. And here’s something nice and juicy to cap off all the depressing and less depressing news: Samesame features an interview with Buck Angel, transsexual porn star extraordinaire.

It wasn’t too long before the industry realised that a huge market that existed for the kind of porn that Buck was making and before long he had amounted a substantial filmography. It was also apparent that he was a brilliant performer. In 2007 Buck Angel was not only nominated for Transsexual performer of the year, but he actually took out the title. It was a proud day for Buck Angel.

UNITED STATES. The Maine Human Rights Commission has ruled that a transgender girl is allowed to use the girls’ bathroom at school. She had been using the girls bathroom without incident until a young lad, egged on by his charming grandpa, followed the girl into the bathroom and harassed her. As a result, the school decided the girl needs to use the faculty’s bathroom instead (what logic!). Fortunately the Maine Human Rights Commission intervened.

GLOBAL. There was a lovely wave of sexism in the wake of the announcement of lab-created sperm. The Guardian’s columnist Tanya Gold concluded that women are domestic and boring, and men are obsessed with tech wank and  violence. But women still need men because otherwise there’d be no-one to have sex with. Apparently in the world-without-men, lesbians have disappeared. My guess is they’ve disappeared because there are no more men to hate! Ahahaha! It’s a veritable carnival of all kinds of stereotyping, and that’s always more fun than several barrels of primates. The Times Online gives us 101 uses for a man beyond sperm production. Men are kind of dumb! And they’re kind of adorably doglike, and do such silly manly things! Like #13: “Ensuring that the children learn to play happily on their own by applying special male method of childcare, namely sitting on the sofa reading the paper while they set fire to the house.” Because men don’t give a fuck about their children. Everyone knows this. Except my dad. Oh, please stop, Times Online, you’re killing me with your funny.

GLOBAL. Consistent condom use can reduce your risk of contracting herpes by up to 30%. Consistent here means every time you have sex. More here and here.

UNITED STATES. Another gay panic defence in court, and this time it results in acquittal. Man stabs another man 61 times, then claims he was protecting himself from sexual advances. Is let go by the jury, because, hey, if a person with the same bits as you comes on to you, it’s their fault if they get stabbed. 61 times.

“Biedermann said Hauser threatened to sexually assault him, then held him around the neck and tried to stab him in the stomach with another weapon, an 16-inch dagger. Biedermann testified he escaped Hauser’s grasp, gained control of the weapon and stabbed Hauser as many times as he could. There were no witnesses.”

Regardless of possible threats of sexual violence… I may be going on a limb here… but stabbing someone 61 times is no longer mere self defence.

Image from documentary Be Like Others

SWEDEN. A couple in Sweden is trying to raise their kid without gender norms. They refuse to tell people the child’s sex and don’t use gendered pronouns when referring to the child. The child gets to decide what gendered behaviours to adopt and can experiment freely.

GLOBAL. A new documentary, Be Like Others is out, depicting the lives of young Iranians who undergo sex reassignment surgery. Some of them are gay men who view sex reassignment surgery as the only way they can live in Iran and adhere to the strict gender binary. The film’s website has reviews and clips.

GLOBAL. Diagnosing Difference is a new documentary about the effects of having a medically diagnosable gender identity is out. The film is currently being screened at film festivals and US campuses.

“Using the diagnosis as a departure point, the participants debunk myths and misconceptions about transgender identities, challenge stereotypical gender expectations, and offer educative insight into the terms and language used to describe transgender lives.”

Go here for more onformation about the film, and here to see clips.

HONDURAS. Reuters features a photo essay depicting transpeople in Honduras.

MEXICO. A city regulation that enabled police violence and abuses has been repealed in Puerto Vallarta. The regulation allowed the police to harass and arrest whoever they felt was engaging in “public practices that indicate the development of an abnormal sexual life.”

Historically, misdemeanors codes have been used to persecute, abuse and arrest people whose sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression deviates from social norms. These regulations have enabled various types of police abuse, such as the arrests of gay men and lesbians for simple acts of affection, like holding each other’s hands. Such discrimination—always in violation of basic human rights—occured in Puerto Vallarta despite contravening the provisions of Mexico’s constitution.

TURKEY. Hossein Alizadeh writes about the conditions of Iranian glbtq refugees in Turkey.

For LGBT refugees in Turkey, this is the daily struggle they must contend with: away from family and friends, with painful memories of persecution and harassment in their native country, they are now unwelcome strangers, living in extreme poverty, isolation and hopelessness, waiting for what feels like an eternity to find out if any country on the planet will give them a chance to live like human beings.

More in the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission blog.

UNITED STATES. The Stranger, a Seattle paper has published its annual queer issue, titled “Shocked and Repelled”. This year’s issue features personal stories about polyamory and kinks (among other topics) from an adult American standpoint.

UNITED STATES. New Hampshire has legalised same-sex marriage, being the 6th state to do so in the United States. You may enter into a legally binding union with any consenting adult of your choosing in the following states: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, Maine. New York and Washington, D. C. will honor your choice of spouse but will not marry you unless you happen to be of different legal genders.

Danny La Rue in character

UNITED KINGDOM. British drag queen Danny La Rue has died at the age of 81. He said of his character: “It took me 20 years to make something that wasn’t acceptable, acceptable. I mean, it’s not funny just to put on a frock and a wig. It takes a lot of time to develop a character. But I suppose I must be doing something right, otherwise I wouldn’t have lasted.” You can read Danny La Rue’s obituary at the Guardian.

GLOBAL. The Amnesty International Report 2009 is out. Questioning Transphobia lists the items that concern transsexual and transgender rights.

GLOBAL. Jamison Green, a researcher and author is gathering material for a book called The FTM Guide to SEX (working title) and you can take part by answering a survey. There are separate surveys for transmen and the partners of transmen. Act quickly, the information is being collected only until June 30 2009.

Angie Zapata

UNITED STATES. Transwomen are being targeted in Memphis, Tennessee. There have been 5 violent attacks on transwomen since 2006. The latest victim is Kelvin Denton who was shot on May 27 and is in critical condition.  More at the Curvature and Pam’s House Blend. In the United States the perpetrators of hate crimes against transpeople tend to use the trans panic defence in court. In July 2008 in Colorado Angie Zapata was beaten to death by Allen Ray Andrade after he discovered Angie Zapata was a transwoman. His defence in court rested on the trans panic excuse – the shock of realizing he had had sex with a non-cissexual made him kill. Andrade was convicted of first-degree murder and hate crimes, this being the first time anyone has been convicted of a hate crime in connection of a transperson’s murder. More on Angie Zapata’s murder at Shakesville: 1, 2.

UNITED STATES. And some happy news to wrap things up: Sergio Garcia, an openly gay fellow, was elected prom queen at a Los Angeles high school. Associated Press reports (via Yahoo News): “He also promised that he would be wearing a suit on prom night, but ‘don’t be fooled: Deep down, I am a queen.’” Sergio Garcia’s interview below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgl-OxWKYKE