Forwarded message from Ben Summerskill, chief executive, Stonewall

The Bill now has to go to the House of Commons (because it started its parliamentary passage in the Lords). Without a doubt, we’ll face the same bogus arguments against equality that we’ve seen during the last few weeks. There will be further attempts to wreck it.

Equality in family life is every bit as important as equality at work or at school. We’ll continue to work tirelessly to secure this historic step forward.

Thank you for your ongoing support for equality.

An important issue about LGBTQ Iranians seeking asylum here in the UK and some info on action you can take………

 Mehdi Kazemi is a 19 year-old student from Iran, who came to the UK to study English in 2005. Mehdi is gay, and whilst he was studying in Britain his boyfriend in Iran was hanged for sodomy. Fearing he would suffer the same fate were he to return to that country, he applied for asylum in the UK. However, his application was turned down. He then travelled to the Netherlands, which has a reputation of being more sympathetic to asylum applications from gay Iranians; however, because of EU rules, he can only apply for asylum in the first European country he entered – the UK.

The court in the Netherlands has therefore detemined that he must be deported back to Britain. After some public pressure, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has announced that Mehdi will have his case reviewed upon his return to the Netherlands, and more than 60 MEPs have signed a petition asking Gordon Brown to reverse the decision. This however, does not gurantee him the right to stay in this country.

Pegah Emambakhsh, 40,  is an Iranian lesbian who fled to Britain in 2005 after her girlfriend was arrested and sentenced to death by stoning, faces being forcibly returned after losing the latest round in her battle to be granted asylum. Under the Iranian Islamic Punishment Act, lesbians found guilty of sexual relations can be sentenced to 100 lashes. But, for a third offence, the punishment is execution.

Pegah narrowly avoided deportation in August last year but only after her local MP, Richard Caborn, and other parliamentarians persuaded the Government to allow her to stay while further legal avenues of appeal were explored.  But last month the Court of Appeal turned down her application for permission for a full hearing and she now plans for a  judicial review at the High Court. The Home Office has also agreed to consider fresh legal representations on her behalf.

The Home Office accepts that gay people are executed in Iran for their homosexuality but believes that “gay people can return to Iran providing they are discreet.” Even if this were true (which its not), the publicity surrounding both of these cases would most certainly now put thier lives in danger.

The British government should not be afraid to critize the Iranian government in its human rights abuses, not just of LGBTQ people, but of women and others groups.  It is a disgrace for our government to say that they will be safe from persecution and execution so long as they are discreet. It is the same as claiming that Anne Frank was safe from the Nazi’s so long as she hid in her attic.

 Our supposed liberal government should stand up for the rights of LGBTQ people around the world as a matter of principal, and allow those facing persecution a safe haven in this country. There are a number of things as LGBTQ people we can do to help the two cases outlined above, and countless other similar cases.

 Write to your MP asking them to urgently support the campaign-  http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

 Join the facebook group to show your support- http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12378555308

Sign the Downing Street Petition here- http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Stopdeportinggay/

There will be a demonstration defending Mehdi Kazemi’s right to stay in the UK in London on  Saturday March 22nd, 2pm, outside Downing Street. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=24480530632

Each and every Jew has within them the “fine threads of fabric that weave us together as a nation” President Shimon Peres said in his inaugural speech.

Year in, year out the same debate goes on about the rights of Jews who are gay and living in Israel? Do they have the right to parade in their capital city?

Weeks before each annual march, there are always protests about their right to exist, to have families, civil union and the right of adoption.

The Pride march or rally directs the eyes of Israel to look to the streets of Mea Shearim as riot unleashes (as they do periodically over any issue that religious Jews disagree with).

The rioters set fire to their own front door steps, their high street and a harsh retaliation by the Israeli Police follows who attack anything that moves, Jew beats Jew in the shadow of fire that lights the dark streets of Mea Shearim – this is no DC comic book – or Nazi Germany – this is the part of Israel’s holy city, where the voice of the local leading Rebbes is followed to the letter!

Tali Farkash, a columnist for YNET may be correct when she states that the majority of residents in Jerusalem are religious. The fact still remains there are Gay Jews living in Jerusalem who are religious.

Farkash should visit any Gay club in Jerusalem and she would soon realise that gay Jerusalem is not just for the secular Jews – but Charedi, modern orthodox and others!

Gay Jews have a right to march and yes, defending the rights of a minority is correct. Farkash should take the focus off whether the gays are a minority, because they are Jews and Israelis living in their homeland where they should be treated as equals. If they are not treated as equals barriers are created!

The constant battles of groups such as United Torah Judaism who neglect to realise one key issue – the general gay population in Israel are Jews, Jews who should be supported by their own people whatever their sexuality.

Religious parts of Jerusalem have rules regarding clothing and these rules are respected; in the same breath respect for other Jewish lifestyles should be accepted – whether they are conventional or traditional – the people are Jews nonetheless.

The past couple of years have been a success for Gay Jews in Israel. November 2006 saw the High Court of Justice ordering the Ministry of Interior to register same-sex couples who were legally married abroad, paving the way for civil unions in Israel as seen in Britain and elsewhere.

The Torah should not be used as an excuse for homophobic attitudes.

The ’sin’ of homosexuality is equal to the sin of breaking Shabat, both issues are addressed in the Torah but when do you see such powerful responses from the religious in Mea Shearim and the wider world about the ‘wider sin’ of the non-religious Shabat observance – a throwing of stones at cars being driven on Shabat can not compare to the cries of yeshiva students “Kill all gay Jews”, the chant that was shouted at the riots of Mea Shearim. When was the last time in London you heard ‘Death to Jewish non-Shabat observers”?

The secular majority in Israel supports freedom of choice for gays Jews. The right wing religious community are a growing minority who do not.

A religious Israel could develop and would need to decide whether its going to match the ideology of an Islamic nation state where religious rules force people to submit to religious law or whether, the Jewish version of a religious state enforces Jewish law but accepts that Jews come with many ideologies and if that is the case – Gay Jews should be respected and treated as part of the family, will full rights.

Jews will need to compromise and co-exist; the issue of homosexuality in Judaism along with a long list of modern day anomalies need to be debated.

It can no longer be the Orthodox versus the secular.

Today, it has to be simply the Jewish people – with differences but united. We should be thankful for the secular and less religious Jews returning home to Israel to simply remain Jewish and be amongst their own people.

We all know that religious and secular Jews live happily together – just look at London, New York, in-fact any Jewish community where Shabbat lifestyles of the religious exist while, Modern Orthodox, Reform etc, along with secular Jews go about their lives.

The non-orthodox will need to accept restrictions in religious districts (as is demonstrated in many neighbourhoods of Israel) and the orthodox will need to accept more liberal laws such as laws governing gay adoption and marriage.

The Welfare Ministry in summer 2007 granted some 30 lesbian couples permission to adopt their partner’s child.

Further developments followed a review by a committee founded by Isaac Herzog that will see gays and singles being able to adopt children in Israel following a routine test that would evaluate the parenting abilities of applicants – regardless of their sexual orientation.

There is a need for the legal framework to be fully set up to aid the growth of Gay Jewry.

The Jewish people are based upon the idea of a nation, a family, the acceptance of Gay Jews needs to start in the home and recent polls held in Israel demonstrate that the acceptance of a Gay Jewish population is being welcomed.

A Ynet-Gesher poll showed that 73% of respondents would accept a gay child with only 27% believing that the “coming out of the closet” would have an impact on their relationships.

The Orthodox community would do well to follow in the footsteps of those of its leaders who want to open doors, not slam them shut.

Judaism is our religion, our race and it belongs to all of us. It is time for equal rights and opportunities for all across the Jewish world.

GAY JEWS ARE JEWISH!

(added on behalf of Simon Williams)

Thanks to all of you that voted, I thought I’d attach my manifesto below so that it is here for future reference and your criticism…

I too would like to discuss the events of last week. It was great to see so many differing faces at both the evening with Rikki Beadle-Blair and the Big LGBTQ Debate. The feedback i’ve had has been great, and it was really refreshing to finally not shy away from overtly political topics and be able to sit down, discuss, suggest, interrogate and actually communicate face to face.

I know Rikki inspired a lot of people so hopefully we’ll see more of you taking an active interest in the future. As for the debate, it was far more subdued than i thought it was going to be, and I actually think some greater disagreements wouldn’t have been a bad thing. Though it was really interesting to see how much we all agreed on, considering that the people in the room supposedly had seriously conflicting political opinions.

However i disagree with the conclusions Gaz speculates that we reached. Whilst it was nice to have a bit of a Tory bash i don’t think there was a general consensus that we’ve achieved loads of great things since 1997 (i think Gaz’z Labour leanings may be putting a rather rosey tint on things).  In fact i think we concluded that there is still a very long way to go and that a number of the things achieved over the past decade actually count for very little and will do nothing in changing attitudes and values of the general public towards the LGBTQ community. I think we decided that in fact the achievements, if any help at all, only help(ed) those looking to assimilate into a no fuss ‘this is ‘equal’ enough for me’ kind of lifestyle.

 I think Emma O’Dwyer’s recent campaign tagline ‘Liberation with no apologies’ is great… so many people, even at the debate seem to think we’re being pedantic in our quest for liberation, that we should be happy with what the heterosexuals have given us and when they give us a new right we should be eternally grateful for the good deed they’ve done… which i obviously find completely laughable

Obviously i’m sure many of us could have debated all night, so i’ll save some thoughts back for the next debate which i hope there will be many more of.

I thought I’d take the LGBTQ’s blog virginity by reviewing the discussion event, held this Thursday 28 February, for LGBT History Month.  I can’t think of any better way of relaunching our website presence than by talking about something that we did so successfully to raise the profile of politics, equality and the LGBTQ community.

A panel discussion was held in the Rosa Parkes Room at the Guild of Students between

• Mark Gettleson, the Chair of Liberal Democrat Youth and Students
• Ryan Castle, Vice Chair of Birmingham University Conservative Future
• Lucy Brookes of NUS LGBT Committee
• and me, Gary Hughes, Labour Students candidate for NUS LGBT Officer. 

Political LGBTQers all.  We were discussing whether the LGBT community had achieved equality, exactly how we’d know whether we had, how we were going to achieve equality and (the exciting political bit) who we believe to be responsible for all of it.

The most exciting thing for me was the turnout.  Bear in mind that it was a self confessed political event for gays and therefore was unlikely to bring in huge crowds.  To my great and joyful surprise, 32 (that is thirty two.  Three-two) gays of the University of Birmingham rocked out for this event.  Astonishing.

We discussed the fact that its largely undeniable that the Tory government before 1997 had a pretty appalling record on LGBT rights.  Many of the Tory Party’s great and good spent a lot of time and effort trying to install new barriers to equality in fact – like Section 28.  We then agreed that a huge raft of equality legislation has emerged since 1997.  Things like

• civil partnerships
• the abolition of section 28
• adoption rights for LGBT people
• gender recognition
• outlawing of discrimination in goods and services provision
• allowing LGBT people to serve openly in the military
• equalising the age of consent
• outlawed discrimination of LGBT people in the workplace

among other things.  Isn’t the government amazing?   But then, I would say that…

I really hope that we can have more discussions and events like this.  From discussion about whether giving LGBT people adoption rights is equality at all, because it makes us operate like heterosexuals, to whether the LGBT community should work to finish our battles in equalty in law first, or focus on popular perception, the level of discussion was intellectually high and I loved doing it.  LGBTQ people don’t do this sort of thing enough.

A huge congratulations to Emma and the rest of the Committee for making it happen.  Hopefully, I’ll see you next year for the bigger and better sequel!