Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program (left) and International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission Communications Coordinator Hossein Alizadeh. File photos______________
Man hanged in Iran for 'anal rape'
A 21-year-old man was hanged in Iran's Kermanshah Central Prison on 'anal rape' ( ighab ) charges Dec. 5 despite a November order from the nation's chief justice, Ayatollah Syed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, that stayed the execution and sent the case for a retrial.
Shahroudi had determined that Makvan Mouloodzadeh's sentence violated Islamic teaching, decrees of senior Shiite clerics and Iranian law, after Mouloodzadeh's lawyer argued that there was no evidence of the alleged crimes and that several elements of the case violated proper procedure.
Shahroudi's retrial order, however, required review and assent from the Special Supervision Bureau of the Iranian Justice Department. According to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, the bureau declined to assent, upheld the sentence and ordered the execution to be carried out.
Mouloodzadeh was convicted in June of committing sodomitic rape when he was 13 years old despite the fact that, at his trial, his three accusers recanted their accusations, saying they had lied under duress. Mouloodzadeh likewise said his confession to the crimes had been coerced.
'This is a shameful and outrageous travesty of justice,' IGLHRC Executive Director Paula Ettelbrick said after the hanging. 'How many more young Iranians have to die before the international community takes action?'
Meanwhile, in an e-mail circulated the day before the execution, Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program, suggested that press releases and news articles reporting on Shahroudi's preliminary stay of Mouloodzadeh's death sentence could, in fact, speed up the execution.
Although Long's e-mail did not name IGLHRC, it seemingly referred, in part, to a Nov. 14 IGLHRC press release titled, 'Execution in Iran Halted: IGLHRC Cites Global Protest as Central.' The press release quoted Ettelbrick as saying, 'This is a stunning victory for human rights and a reminder of the power of global protest.'
In the e-mail, Long said: ' [ A ] nnouncing publicly how international pressure has swayed Iranian authorities often backfires and makes different factions in the confusion of Iranian politics determined to show that international pressure hasn't swayed them. Saying a 'homosexual' had been pardoned very possibly didn't help.'
Gay sex is punishable with the death penalty in Iran.
'We should not be speculating willfully that—though he may be innocent of one crime—he's guilty, before Iranian law, of another,' Long said. 'What is the benefit in that? How does that help him? ... Please, please, think before acting, and let us not put our egos and our identity politics before a young man's life.'
In an interview, IGLHRC Communications Coordinator Hossein Alizadeh responded that all of IGLHRC's actions in Mouloodzadeh's case were coordinated with, and approved by, Mouloodzadeh's attorney, Saeed Eghbali.
IGLHRC has become increasingly vocal in the past six months about Iran's ongoing executions of teens and men accused of engaging in sodomy, even though in nearly all the cases that have been publicized, the individuals were accused of other crimes as well, such as rape.
The organization has said it suspects that other charges often are tacked on to sodomy cases to prevent the public outrage that would accompany executions carried out solely for the crime of consensual adult gay sex. The group also believes executions solely for gay sex are taking place out of the public eye.
' [ O ] ur suspicions [ are ] that their current practice really is to rid society of lesbians and gay men,' the organization said in July.
Kyrgyztan sees
1st gay pamphlet
The first-ever Kyrgyz-language pamphlet on gay issues has hit the streets of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, the BBC reported.
Syinat Sultanalieva of the local LBT group Labrys said 5,000 copies of the brochure were printed.
It 'aims at providing objective and open information about homosexuals, and calls for an understanding attitude toward them,' she said. 'The cases when such people are subjected to discrimination and beatings are not far apart. In our country the plight of those outside of traditional sexual orientation does not seem to touch anyone. They are considered outcasts.'
Sultanalieva hopes the pamphlet will educate society on gays' lives, inner thoughts and feelings, and sorrows.
Labrys head Anna Kirey told the network that open homosexuals are rare in Kyrgyzstan because GLBT people 'are afraid of those surrounding them.'
Brazilian TV
network must
pay $42 million for
outing model
A São Paulo court has ordered the Brazilian TV network Rede TV to pay $42.7 million to model Carlos Alberto Cunha Gonçalves after he was outed by a guest on the talk show Superpop, GayNewsWatch.com reported Nov. 23.
Judge Carlos Dias Motta ruled that the remark invaded Gonçalves' privacy.
'Programs that are notoriously sensationalist should at a minimum make sure to respect the dignity of individuals because freedom of expression, achieved at a high price, cannot justify violating privacy, which is also a principle of the Federal Constitution,' Motta said.
Russian gays
arrested at
polling place
Thirteen gays and lesbians were arrested in Moscow Dec. 1 as they were voting at a polling place.
The activists, including lead Pride organizers Nikolai Alekseev and Nikolai Baev, were later charged with staging an illegal demonstration.
The detentions were an apparent response to a call by activists for gays to write 'No to homophobes!' on their ballots.
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who banned gay pride events this year and last year, was scheduled to vote at the same location about an hour after the arrests occurred.
The activists were taken to a police station and released several hours later after a representative of the city prosecutor's office pointed out that it is illegal to detain someone for more than three hours without giving a reason.
When Luzhkov banned the city's first two gay pride parades, organizers responded by staging protest rallies, which were violently attacked by neofascists, skinheads, Christians and riot police.
In January, Luzhkov said: 'Last year, Moscow came under unprecedented pressure to sanction the gay parade, which can be described in no other way than as satanic. We did not let the parade take place then, and we are not going to allow it in the future. ... Some European nations bless single-sex marriages and introduce sexual guides in schools. Such things are a deadly moral poison for children.'
Brazilian gov't
organizes large
LGBT conference
Brazilian government organizes large LGBT conference
Brazil's federal government is organizing a groundbreaking 1st National Conference of Lesbians, Gay Men, Bisexuals and Transpersons.
Subtitled 'Human Rights and Public Policies: The Way Forward to Ensuring the Citizenship of Lesbians, Gay Men, Bisexuals and Transpersons,' the event will be held May 9-11, 2008.
A decree convening the conference was signed by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and published in the Official Gazette on Nov. 29.
Toni Reis, president of the Brazilian Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Association, called the decree and the conference 'unprecedented.'
Some 700 attendees are anticipated, 40 percent of them government officials. Beforehand, conferences will be held in each of Brazil's 27 states to prepare for, and elect delegates to, the main gathering.
'The overall organization of the conference is the responsibility of the Special Department for Human Rights, which has ministerial status and reports directly to the president's office,' Reis said.
In his decree, Lula said he wants 'to promote the citizenship and human rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transpersons, [ and ] strengthen the government's Brazil Without Homophobia Program.'
Croatia sees first
openly gay candidate
Croatia's small Croatian Bell party has put forward the nation's first openly gay political candidate.
Vinko Kalinic wants to represent the northern region of Zagorje in Parliament.
According to Javno.com, Kalinic is a reporter, songwriter, fisherman and former intelligence officer and seminarian.
'I came out of the closet exclusively as rebellion and [ in ] solidarity with those who were discriminated against and humiliated, and I state that with pride everywhere I go,' he told Javno. 'My goal in politics is to, by coming out of the closet, have the sexual orientation of people become a completely irrelevant issue.'
Brighton to ban
anti-gay music
Local authorities in the gay-resort city of Brighton, England, are set to ban music that bashes gays.
The ban would apply to live music and to recordings played in bars, clubs and other venues. Reports named rappers Eminem and 50 Cent and Jamaican dancehall singer Buju Banton as likely targets of the law.
An establishment that violates the ban would face losing its business license and being shut down. The ban also would extend to music that incites hatred based on religion or race.
Councilor Dee Simson, chairwoman of the local council's licensing committee, told the BBC the ban 'will be used in really extreme cases to stop the playing of what's loosely termed 'murder music.''
'We have a large gay and lesbian community in Brighton and Hove, and we want to protect people from facing such hatred,' she said.
European parliamentarians
criticize Russian patriarch
Forty members of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly have reprimanded Patriarch Alexy II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church and Russia's senior religious leader.
In an Oct. 1 address to the parliament, Alexy called homosexuality 'an illness [ and ] distortion of the human personality like kleptomania.'
He also said 'no one should force me and my brothers and sisters in faith to keep quiet when we call something a sin when it is a sin according to the word of God.'
In a newly revised declaration, parliamentarians from Albania, Andorra, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom 'urge Patriarch Alexi to avoid the use of language inciting intolerance and to respect, rather than seek to deny, the fundamental rights of sexual minorities.'
The CoE, founded in 1949, promotes democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights and similar agreements. Forty-seven nations are members.
Swedish Christian school
told to stop 'sin' teaching
Sweden's National Agency for Education says a private Christian school's teaching that homosexuality is sinful violates the national curriculum's anti-discrimination policy.
The Andreas Gymnasium School has until Nov. 30 to demonstrate how it will comply with the determination.
The Swedish national gay group RFSL ( its official name is now just initials ) complained to the agency after hearing the school's headmaster call homosexuality 'sinful' on a television broadcast.
Thai activist to sue insurance company
Leading Thai gay activist Natee Teerarojjanapongs says he may sue the American International Assurance Company for refusing to sell him a life-insurance policy. Natee claims a sales agent told him AIA does not insure gays or bisexuals. 'We need equal treatment,' Natee told the local Nation newspaper. 'We will file a petition to the Administration Court because such behavior violates the 2007 Constitution.' The company denies it excludes particular groups of people across the board yet also acknowledged it rejects applicants who face a higher risk of HIV infection, according to the Bangkok Post.
Spain grants asylum to Algerian transsexual
Spain granted political asylum to an Algerian transsexual Nov. 6. 'B.B.' was able to prove she had faced persecution and social and workplace discrimination in Algeria based on her gender identity. Gay sex is banned in Algeria under penalty of three years in prison. The government applied Spain's new Law on Equality to its Law on Asylum, and determined that B.B.'s case met Geneva Convention criteria for political refuge. B.B. was given a five-year residence card and assurance she will not be sent back to Algeria.
Swedish Web site cleared of anti-gay hate charges
Sweden's Supreme Court on Nov. 7 overturned the conviction of Web site editor Leif Liljeström on charges of being an accessory to incitement of anti-gay hatred. A district court had sentenced Liljeström to two months in jail, and the Court of Appeal had upheld the conviction but reduced the sentence to one month in jail. Liljeström did not write the hateful words that appeared on his Bibeltemplet site, but he allowed readers to post comments such as, ' [ M ] en who cannot summon up the energy to abstain from intercourse with other men should be sentenced to death and hanged from posts in the town square.' Liljeström said such remarks promoted discussion. In letting Liljeström off the hook, the Supreme Court determined he may not have known the comments were illegal. Two judges on the five-person panel voted to uphold the conviction, saying the postings 'went far beyond the bounds of reasoned debate.'
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
