www.newsandletters.org
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS, April - May 2008Queer Notesby EliseThis year's Day of Silence, on April 25, will be in honor of eighth grader Lawrence King, gunned down by homophobic classmate Brandon David McInerney. The Day of Silence is held each year to remind us of the silence many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth feel they must exercise to protect their safety and lives. Over the last year alone, over one third of gay students reported homophobically-based harassment at school and one in five experienced physical assault. * * * The Coalition of African Lesbians will hold a conference that aims to tell the Mozambiqueans that LGBT people--particularly lesbians--experience discrimination and injustice. It is courageous for these women to have this conference on a continent where homophobia runs rampant. Thirty-eight of 85 UN members who oppose LGBT rights are from Africa. * * * In 2007 the Nepal Supreme Court demanded the government recognize gays and lesbians as the third gender and end discrimination against them. Gays and lesbians ran for office in the national elections for the first time. However, attitudes in Nepal have not really changed. Because of homophobic pressure from neighbors, an AIDS hospice has been shut down and its patients thrown out. Run by Nepal's gay rights organization, Blue Diamond, and sponsored by the Elton John Foundation, the organization moved four times for similar reasons. Currently, Blue Diamond's main office has been converted to an emergency hospital. * * * Five men in Egypt were sentenced to three years in prison followed by three years of close police supervision, and five other men were indicted for the "habitual practice of debauchery," terminology for consensual gay sex. Originally, 12 men were detained, involuntarily bound to hospital beds and tested for HIV. In Egypt a man can also be arrested, indicted and imprisoned for the mere suspicion of being HIV positive. Human rights groups around the world are calling on people to condemn the Egyptian government's torture of people suspected of having HIV and AIDS and to overturn the indictments and convictions. The government's crackdown may keep people who have HIV and AIDS from being treated. The letter of condemnation is at hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/07/egypt18439_txt.htm. --from Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International |
|
Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Dialogues l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search Published by News and Letters Committees |
