Gay Africans are facing increased persecution in a continent where two thirds of countries retain laws against homosexuals. Sorious Samura investigates what it’s like to be gay in Africa.

Dispatches produce another great documentry, definately worth watching!

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Iranian filmmaker, actress and lesbian activist Kiana Firouz is in danger of being deported back to Iran for her “crime of unrepentant homosexuality“; for which the punishment is execution.

Kiana worked as an underground activist for LGBT women’s rights. During this time, she documented the horrific treatment of LGBT people in Iran and shot footage for a documentary about the commonplace horrific abuse of human rights there. When items of footage were discovered by Iranian Intelligence, Kiana was harrassed by agents in Tehran and fled to the UK as a student two years ago. Kiana has since directed and played a key role in Cul de Sac, the culmination of her work.

Her application for asylum in the UK was rejected by the Home Office, who were fully aware of the persecution Kiana faced in light of her sexual orientation. The Ministry argued that she could return to Iran and conceal her homosexuality. Seeing as the well-publicised evidence blatantly contradicts this ruling, it would seem that the Home Office is guilty of, at best, gross incompetence; at worst, wilful negligence.

LGBTQ rights in Iran

Iran’s “lawful” approach to sexuality; noosing two unidentified gay teens for their “crime”.

LGBTQ equality was once a reality in Iran, prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution; a Gay Liberation movement was in the works and even publicised gay marriages were tolerated. Since then, the country’s laws regarding LGBTQ rights have been based on an extremely conservative interpretation of Islamic law. Homosexuality is punishable by lashing, or execution by hanging in more “extreme” cases; Transexuals are institutionalised and often forced to undergo hormone treatments; LGBTQ people as a whole undergo sex change operations for fear of extreme persecution. It is utterly disgusting.

Make no mistake; forcing Kiana to return to Iran is nothing short of marching her to her death. We’re talking about a women who, in the face of extreme oppression, had the courage to step forward and speak out against it; to put a face to the abuse suffered by Kiana and her LGBTQ comrades in Iran. Every free and liberal LGBTQ person has an obligation to stand with her in solidarity and prevent this travesty from taking place.

What the student community can do

First and foremost, please sign this petition and join this Facebook group and show your support. And please…spread the word. Raising national awareness of this issue is a crucial part of this campaign.

Both the Lib Dems AND the Tories pledged to change the rules specifically for asylum seekers; acknowledging the consequences suffered by LGBTQ people who – just like Kiana – were sent back and told to keep quiet under the previous Government’s policy. That being said…the new Minister for Women and Equalities, Theresa May, has consistently voted against LGBTQ rights and – in my humble opinion – was a poor choice for the job. Regardless, it is time for her to do her part to uphold her party’s pledges. I will also be writing to Lynne Featherstone, the Lib Dem undersecretary for Equality – who, by contrast, has an excellent voting record for LGBTQ rights – to doubly ensure that conservative views towards homosexuality in the UK do not further jeopardise Kiana Firouz. I invite you all to lobby your MP’s to take action on this issue.

As some of you may be aware, there has been a great deal of media coverage on the Pope‘s recent attack against the equalities bill with a “missionary zeal”. Said coverage will attest to the fact that the Pope’s is mainly concerned with restricting religious organisations’ right to “act in accordance with their beliefs”. Specifically, to exclude women and homosexuals.

The Pope, when addressing Cardinals and Bishops of the UK, lauded the UK’s firm commitment to equality and opportunity for all, however described the equality of homosexuals as a “violation of natural law”_[src]. However, restricting the right of people to express themselves in accordance with their beliefs is debatable, when such “beliefs” are twisted to justify AND mandate persecution and discrimination of a particular group. This kind of archaic thinking does not belong in the 21st century.

So here we have a classic case of one groups’ rights infringing on those of another group; conflicting in such an aggressive and militant fashion, there can be no satisfactory resolution. However I’ve always believed that compromise can be found between two groups so vehemently opposed. It’s simple. Anyone who has seen the Spiderman films may recall the rather cheesy quote:

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

Rights are, in a sense, a form of power (better worded as empowerment) and I do believe that each right ensues an equal amount of responsibility – in the case of equal rights, one is responsible for respecting the right of others to equality. The “right” of more conservative religious groups to believe what they want to believe is nothing but an excuse for biggotry, and is a violation of their responsibilities as human beings.

This is hardly the first controversial move made by Benedict XVI in the name of “natural law”. Last year, he was heavily criticised for his claims that condoms would make the African AIDS crisis worse. He claimed that the distribution of condoms aggravated the problem rather than helped to combat the spread of these viruses. Of course when he elaborated further, he was clearly advocating celibacy as an alternative and – while there’s nothing inherently wrong with advocating celibacy – enforcing it through this kind of scare-mongering among third world countries is immoral and sickening.

It’s no secret that Catholic church teachings have historically condemned the very idea of artificial contraception, but the issue of HIV and AIDS have kinda made this a grey area in which more progressive Christian sects are thinking rationally. The Pope, however, has taken this to a whole new level with his highly fascist approach.

This is a direct threat to the work that myself, the LGBTQ and the Chaplaincy have been doing towards combatting the archaic religion vs. sexuality ideal, and the Pope claiming to speak in “the name of God” is an utter offence to students of faith at Birmingham (LGBTQ or otherwise). I urge LGBTQ students, activits within the LGBTQ Association and – more importantly – followers of all Christian denominations to join me in condemning the Pope’s outmoded statements, conservative stance and underhanded tactics.

Today is the ninth annual Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK, a day commemorating the millions who were killed in the Nazi Holocaust.

The Guild and JSoc held an event yesterday in the Guild Council Chambers at which a Holocaust survivor was invited to tell her story. Due to University Commitments I was sadly unable to attend the event, however I’m told that it was a fitting memorial. It is essential that we honour the memory of the victims and and never forget the horror that was allowed to take place during this dark time in history. Among them were some six million Jews and some ten thousand LGBTQ people.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

George Santayana

The LGBTQ Association will be holding a discussion on the Holocaust – with particular focus to persecution of LGBTQ people – at the Wednesday Coffee Afternoon. The Association will be showing Paragraph 175 at the usual Sunday evening Film Night and would like to extend an invitation to all members of JSoc and members of the Jewish Community on campus.

Today is World AIDs Day, observed around the world to raise awareness of the Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) as well as the dangers posed by other sexually transmitted diseases.

Since 1987, AIDS has killed over 25 million people. As of 2007, over 33 million live people live with it worldwide, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in recorded history. For this reason, countless organisations take part in the observance of World AIDS Day to place the highest emphasis on sexual health to prevent the spread of the virus, and raise funds for research into treatments.

The Guild and LGBTQ Association will be marking the day with the Mermaid Fountain draped in a red sash, and suspiciously spewing forth dyed red water. There will also be the red double-decker bus on which Guild and LGBTQ volunteers will be handing out information, collecting for AIDs and sexual health charities.

• 12-2: Guild Car Park
• 2-4: Campus (library)
• 4-7: Halls of Residence

The LGBTQ have been kindly sponsored by Crusaid and the Terence Higgins Trust; two very prominent organisations in the field of sexual health and HIV. They’ve kindly provided posters

Also, the LGBTQ’s film night was moved from Sunday 29th to tonight at 6PM to coincide with World AIDs Day. We will be showing Philidelphia, a film that illustrates the controversy that many with AIDS have faced:

“When a man with AIDS is fired by a conservative law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit.”

There is a huge stigma surrounding religion and sexuality, and a strong belief among many in the LGBTQ community that the two are mutually exclusive. As far as organised religion goes, this belief is not without justification. Liviticus 18:22 has been reinterpreted and twisted throughout the centuries by various Christian denominations in order to condemn homosexuality. Homosexuals are also condemned in the Qu’ran 15:73 and 26:165, and homosexuals face persecution, torture, and even execution in regimes that institutionalise their own interpretation of a particular faith.

The Westboro Baptist Church is a particularly bad example of a conservative, homophobic organisation that gives faith and organised religion a very bad name (indoctrinating children into their hateful regime, no less).

However, while this is the experience of many LGBTQ people – a huge contributing factor to the number of athiests in the community – it’s certainly not the experience of all. More importantly, there is a huge difference between faith and organised religion; faith in a particular ideal is obviously more liberal than adherence to a value system established by the latter. Many LGBTQ people follow a particular faith – be it through their own interpretation of faith, or through the more enlightened organised religious groups within christianity/mormonism/etc who do not exclude on the basis of sexuality. These enlightened groups have been given a bad name by their conservative, homophobic counterparts in other religious organisations and they should not be treated as one and the same.

That being said, even in a welcoming and enlightened religious organisation it’s still very difficult for people to come out to others in such a community because of this stigma. It’s something we should work to avoid given the opportunity.

As I mentioned in my recent catch-up post, the Chaplaincy here at the University is very progressive, very friendly and myself and the LGBTQ have established a good working relationship with the Methodist Chaplain, Kara Cooper, in particular. Kara and the Chaplaincy staff acknowledge that LGBTQ people have suffered in the name of religious doctrine and are dedicated to changing this. Kara has also recently become a regular at many of our events (even providing a projector that actually works for GC chambers) and through our various discussions we’ve put together an event for this week.

The LGBTQ Association and the Chaplaincy will be running a faith and sexuality event tomorrow, Monday 30th November, at 6PM in the Chaplaincy’s Oasis lounge. It’s an opportunity for a group discussion with the chaplains, myself, a few committee members and other LGBTQ to discuss their experiences and perspectives. If anyone wants to come along please do; a free meal will be provided. Afterwards we’ll all mooch over to the pub for a quick drink. All in all definitely worth coming along to.