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You Too Can Join the Sit-in Against Hate Crime on YouTube

YouTube users are posting videos in honor of 15-year-old hate crime victim Larry King in hopes of raising awareness of homophobia.  The continuous stream of videos includes video blogs, a message from Lizzy the Lezzy and Gary the Gay, a clip of Ellen Degeneres discussing the incident on her show, and many more.  By viewing the stream, users help keep the tribute at the top of YouTube’s list.  At this writing, the stream has been at the top of the list for more than 24 hours.   You can also post your own tribute and chat with other viewers.

With the attention YouTube gets from other media, perhaps this gimmick will finally prompt news organizations to pay more attention to victims of homophobia.  Even though Larry was shot at school, the incident received virtually no national news coverage.  Just a few days after he was shot, a college campus shooting was the top story nationwide.  Perhaps Larry’s death was not considered newsworthy because only one young man died.  Or perhaps it was because his skin is brown.  Or perhaps it was because he was gay.  No matter the reason, there’s no excuse for a lack of concern when a 15-year-old boy is murdered simply because he is gay.  There’s no excuse for continuing to tolerate gay-hate-baiting by our politicians and our preachers.  Ever since Karl Rove and company turned “gay marriage” into a talking point, conservative pundits, politicos and fundamentalist preachers have pulled no punches in their attempts to demonize and marginalize the queer community.  It’s time for this country to change the tone.  It’s time to return to a respect for our differences, or at least respect for human life.  It’s too late for Larry King, but outrage can be changed into action, and action against hate crime would be a welcomed change of pace.

You can learn more about Larry, see photos and videos,  and contribute to a memorial fund at his family’s tribute site at rememberlarry.com.  The YouTube streaming sit in URL is http://youtube.com/stream?s=1785069568.

LGBT Families Face MEGA Issues

I am on the mailing list for the MEGA Family Project, not because I currently have a partner and family in my life (I do not), but because I so admire the efforts of this important organization and want to keep up with their work. Born four years ago during the fight against the anti-gay marriage amendment in Georgia (the genesis of the name was “Marriage Equality Georgia”), MEGA has transformed itself post-amendment into an important voice and resource for LGBT families, in particular those with children. An e-mail to the MEGA list, penned by Executive Director Kathy Kelly, got my attention when it hit my inbox late last night. I was struck by the thoughtfulness and thoroughness of her words on the work yet left undone for LGBT families in Georgia (and in fact the nation, if not the world).

I wanted to post here some of Kelly’s thoughts, because I believe successfully meeting these needs is critical to advancing gay rights overall. Whether we currently find ourselves partnered with kids or not, issues affecting queer families affect all of us by association. Gay and lesbian family issues are, in a sense, examples of the discrimination and homophobia that impact the entire queer community. Ultimately, we all benefit from the work of MEGA, even if their focus on families with children doesn’t seem to apply to any one of use personally.

A rising tide lifts all boats. MEGA lifts us all through their work for acceptance, for equal rights and responsibilities under our laws, and for an end to hatred and fear. Here, then, are Kathy Kelly’s thoughts (very slightly edited by me for editorial consistency) on the state of her organization’s advocacy efforts, and her list of the 6 areas that she she sees as important for LGBT families:

“Some days, I am completely overwhelmed by the unmet needs we (in the LGBT community) are experiencing. There is so much that needs to be done for us to have strong families, healthy children, and to keep Georgia a place where LGBT families are treated well and continue to thrive.

I just came back from a national conference where many people are struggling with doing the very important work needed in the LGBT community, but I am in a very different place. I feel hopeful, optimistic, and downright joyful about the potential future for our families. We are on our way, we just need to continue doing the work to get our families to a strong, healthy place in history.

Below are some critical areas that currently receive only minimal attention from MEGA due to our limited financial resources:

1. Our kids need support through ongoing programs to help them face the certain discrimination and possible bullying they may face.
2. Parents need to be better armed to face a world designed for heterosexual families (from churches, to schools, to the playground).
3. Parents need to be educated about the best legal means available to protect their families given the current political landscape in Georgia.
4. LGBT adults coming out of heterosexual marriages with children need our support from what is often a difficult transition for both kids and adults.
5. Our children need us to be advocates at every school around the state that is not providing a positive, affirming environment for LGBT families.
6. Parents who haven’t been able to complete second parent adoptions are losing custody of their children as a result of relationship break-ups. This isn’t healthy for our kids and is extremely painful for the parents.

These issues are what keep me working every day to champion the cause of LGBT families.”

-Kathy Kelly, Executive Director

MEGA Family Project

Kelly and the MEGA Family Project sent the e-mail to appeal for support for the organization. In particular, MEGA offers an option for donating called the “MEGA Family Champion.” By becoming a Family Champion, supporters choose to make automatic monthly contributions to this non-profit organization. In addition to the tax-deductibility of your donation, becoming a MEGA Family champion also brings you special discounts and other benefits throughout the year. (The MEGA Family Project is a 501(c)3 organization with the Internal Revenue Service, so your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.) If you want to support MEGA but don’t feel comfortable with a monthly donation, you can make a one-time contribution here.

In addition to its advocacy efforts, MEGA holds monthly educational and social activities to strengthen the LGBT community of families. The organization is based in the Atlanta Metro, but works on advocacy issues and hosts social events throughout the state of Georgia. MEGA also maintains several different mailing lists where you can opt in to receive news and information on specific issues–including adoption, artificial insemination, and parenting, to name a few. And there are regional lists for communication among LGBT families in specific communities, including, for example a list for the Savannah area, Cobb County and North Fulton County. Thanks to Kathy Kelly, the MEGA Family Project staff and to Georgia’s LGBT families for their visibility and for the positive example they are. Because hate really is not a family value.

Drop the Soap. Please.

If you find man-on-man rape humorous… if you think a prison sentence would be entertaining… then there’s a new game for you, available from the governor’s mansion of the state of Kansas. Governor Kathleen Sebelius‘ son John is the creator of what must be the world’s most bizarre and tasteless board game. It’s called “Don’t Drop the Soap.” The game is reportedly the result of an art school project by the 23-year-old son of the governor, a Democrat, and her federal magistrate court judge husband, Gary.

Available at the end of this month, you can have the game for your very own for a mere $34.99 plus shipping and handling. Apparently, the shipping will be handled from One SW Cedar Crest Road in Topeka, Kansas. Yep, that’s the governor’s mansion, the house that the people of Kansas maintain with their tax dollars.

Obviously, John Sebelius is some piece of work. What is it with heterosexual fantasies (or is it merely ignorance) about homo-sex and showers? What makes prison rape, (or stealing or gang fighting, for that matter) an acceptable premise for fun and games? And why would Governor Sebelius send her spokeswoman out to proclaim her and her husband’s pride at their son’s “creativity and talent?”

Play “Don’t Drop the Soap” and fight in gang wars, steal painkillers, smoke your stash in “The Hole,” and–the most fun of all–try to avoid being raped by Aryans in the shower room. I’m not making this up.

But rest assured, absolutely no lead paint was used in the manufacture of the game. John also promises us that “no puppies were injured” in the production of any of his products, which also include t-shirts featuring his artwork. (Note to readers: I am purposely not providing a link to John Sebelius’ Website. I do not want to inadvertently support him.)

Sebelius the younger, the third generation of two successful political families, clearly has no political ambition. (His grandfather, Kathleen’s dad John Gilligan, was governor of Ohio in the 1970’s. His dad’s dad, the late Keith Sebelius, was a Republican Congressman for 12 years.)

Certainly, John the younger has the creativity it takes to get away with selling an adults-only game about prison rape from the Kansas governor’s mansion, and get his parents’ blessing to boot. But what John Sebelius does not have is a talent for good taste.

As for Gov. Sebelius? Well, she may or may not know much about art, but she should know what is distasteful to a largely Democratic-leaning LGBT voter base. And she should know better that an adult game glorifying crime is not appropriate business to come out of the governor’s mansion.

On the other hand, despite the fact that she is pushing 60, Kathleen Sebelius is one hot governor. Should she ever find herself on the wrong side of the law, I’m sure her cell mates will be hoping she’ll drop the soap. Please.

(Don’t worry, governor. I’m only being creative.)

Phelps Family Won’t Let Heath Ledger Rest in Peace

Fred Phelps and his family cult are at it again. His Westboro Baptist Church announced their intention to protest at actor Heath Ledger’s U.S. memorial services. The actor, who was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on Tuesday, is expected to be buried in his native Australia.

Classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Westboro Baptist Church has picketed thousands of LGBT events, including funerals. The Topeka, Kansas group has more recently turned its rage toward the U.S. military, protesting the funerals of soldiers killed in action in Iraq. Their clearly irrational “rationale” is that God is punishing America for being tolerant of gays and lesbians by killing U.S. soldiers with IEDs.

Phelps’ church posted a bulletin on one of its many hate Websites announcing their intention to picket the actor’s U.S. memorial services, because he portrayed a gay cowboy in the ground-breaking film Brokeback Mountain. Heath Ledger was not a homosexual; he just played one in the movies.

And again, the media is covering Phelps’ announcement as a “church’s” protest. Yet Westboro Baptist “Church” is attended only by members of Fred Phelps’ immediate family. (Read my post about the Showtime documentary Fall from Grace for a full rant on the Phelps clan.) Just because Phelps twists the pages of the bible, picking and choosing the passages to follow, doesn’t make him a minister and doesn’t make his family a church. There is a more accurate term for Westboro. It’s clearly a cult built around the rage and abuse of one father, from which only four of his 13 children managed to escape.

From all media accounts (which, in their own right, have gone way overboard in sensationalizing the actor’s death), Heath Ledger was a tolerant man. His love for his daughter and family were obvious. If only those who were moved by Ledger’s art were less tolerant of the kind of hate and hurt that the Phelps family plans to interject into the actor’s memory. May Heath rest in peace.

Ga. Legislature May Detour Hate Crimes Legislation

In an article published yesterday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that efforts to restore hate crimes protection in Georgia may be out of reach in the upcoming 2008 session. Georgia’s original hate crimes law, passed in 2000 under Democratic leadership, was thrown out by the state Supreme Court in 2004 due to “vague” wording. State Senator Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) proposed a bill to restore the law last year, which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee but never made it to the Senate floor. Instead, Georgia’s Republican-led Senate opted for a measure by newbie Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens), which simply proposed study on the issue. Cowsert’s study group has met twice, with no one speaking in objection to including LGBT Georgians in any hate crimes bill. The director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and groups representing police chiefs, prosecutors and sheriff’s departments all expressed support for hate crimes protection at a November hearing.

Meanwhile, Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson has said he is not inclined to address the issue. Sen. Cowsert told the AJC that including LGBT citizens “could be a factor” in whether or not the legislature will support a bill. And Sadie Fields of the Georgia Christian Alliance, a leading voice of anti-gay hate during Georgia’s marriage amendment debate in 2004, told the AJC that “We definitely would oppose any legislation that included sexual orientation.” Poor Sadie. If she only had a heart.

Among the excuses Republicans use to justify excluding the LGBT community from hate crimes protection is a concern that such a law would have a “chilling effect” on a church’s ability to preach hate from the pulpit. It would seem that such hate speech is chilling in its own regard. But that argument is a red herring. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), all but five states (Georgia among them) have figured out how to punish hate without silencing speech, even if it’s hateful speech. In fact the AJC article quotes ADL Lawyer David Barkey that Georgia already has laws in place that distinguish between freedom of speech and criminal acts. (Unfortunately, Georgia is not in such limited company when it comes to specific hate crime protection for the LGBT community: 14 of the 45 states that do have some measure of hate crime protection did not include sexual orientation in their laws. Only 11 states include gender identity. See ADL’s state hate crime comparison chart for the details.)

The other Republican argument is equally hollow. We’ve all heard it before: crime is crime. It’s already illegal. They make no effort to explain, then, why law enforcement and prosecutors overwhelmingly want a hate crimes law. And the right-wing pot has no qualms calling the kettle black when it comes to specific punishment for flag-burning. If we follow their logic, flag-burning is destruction of property–already a crime. Why then have Republicans always postured for extra punishment just because that property is the American Flag?

If you look behind the curtain, you can see such Republican wizardry for what it is: just a bunch of old white guys trying to look strong and powerful, turning the knobs and pulling the levers of religion to suit their own agenda. Homophobia is an effective diversion, in lieue of a strong economy, affordable and accessible healthcare, schools that make America competitive for the future, or a foreign policy that foster respect rather than distrust and disdain. Republicans continue to attempt to hold on to power through fear and exclusion, rather than effective governance. The right wing wants Georgia and the nation to follow them down this yellow brick road again. Please. Don’t make me get the flying monkeys.

Fall From Grace a Prophetic Title for Showtime Documentary

We’re not in Kansas anymore. If only Fred Phelps had a heart. I TiVO’d K. Ryan Jones’ documentary about Phelps, Fall from Grace, which premiered last night on Showtime, (which will air five more showings on its networks as well as on-demand availability). Watching it over coffee this morning was a rude awakening. Seeing so much hate was so vile, I thought I would throw up my Cream of Wheat. Fred Phelps is pastor of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, a congregation that consists only of his immediate family, according to the documentary. The Phelps family began picketing to publicize their hatred of homosexuals in the spring of 1991. In the 16+ years since, they have staged more than 22,000 protests, most targeting GLBT events and gatherings.

Sitting clean-shaven (forbidden by God: Leviticus 19:27) before the camera in his Golden Girls sweat suit, no doubt weaved of many fibers (forbidden by God: Leviticus 19:19), Phelps cloaks his hate in religion. He spells out his biblical justification literally, quoting Leviticus 18:22 (including clarifying the exact punctuation). “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind SEMICOLON it is abomination.”

Apparently that’s all the bible-reading Phelps did. He missed the PARAGRAPH later in the chapter, where it says, ” “Though shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart COLON ‘thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neghbour COMMA and not suffer sin upon him PERIOD.” Then, in the next PARAGRAPH, the bible emphasizes the point: “Though shalt no avenge COMMA nor bear any grduge against the children of thy people COMMA but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself COLON I am the Lord.”

I will leave biblical scholars to debate interpretation of Leviticus, that tool of intolerance. I will leave it to ministers to justify why some Leviticus Laws are to be followed and others can be ignored. I will pause only to point out that the recently published Bible study guide, Study New Testament for Gay, Lesbian, Bi, and Transgender, is just the most recent scholarly challenge to literal Leviticus interpretation. Dr. Ann Nyland, an ancient Greek language scholar and lexicographer, indicates that “arsenokoites,” the Greek word assumed to mean homosexual, actually has a range of meanings, including one who anally penetrates another (whether female or male)–but can also mean a rapist, a murderer or an extortionist. She also asserts that the fabled fall of Sodom and Gomorrah was due to angels having sex with humans, not homosexuality.

What I found unbelievable in “Fall from Grace” was the disapproval of Phelps by other ministers. In the film, the Reverend Jeff Gannon, pastor of the Wichita, Kansas Chapel Hill Fellowship, (a different Jeff Gannon than the former gay prostitute-turned-conservative-blogger) said he “feels bad because Phelps gives Christians a bad name.” Yet Gannon and thousands of Christians like him do little to oppose their church’s official policies of intolerance, exclusion and condemnation of the LGBT community. Injustice is everywhere in the majority of Christian denominations. Dr. Martin Luther King warned us from a Birmingham jail cell more than 40 years ago: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

The injustice afflicted on LGBT Americans has recently threatened a different just cause: support for American troops in Iraq. The Phelps family has found a new target for their rage, and it is the right wing’s revered military forces. Phelps believes that homosexuals are taking over the U.S. military and the nation, and that soldiers killed in action in Iraq are proof of God’s vengeance. Phelps says God hates fags and is punishing America for allowing homosexuality to exist. He makes his point with protests at the funerals of American troops killed in Iraq.

While most Americans sat passively by for Phelps’ ranting against “fags,” his disrespect for American troops prompted a little more action. In May 2006, President Bush signed an amendment to U.S. law that prohibits protests within 300 feet of military funerals at national cemeteries and outlaws them altogether for an hour before and an hour after the service. In April 2007, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed a similar state law. Other states added their own restrictions, including Kentucky and North Dakota. I did a little research and was unable to find any similar protections for funerals for gays and lesbians, another common Phelps family tactic. America tolerates homophobia.

But Phelps’ agenda seems more sinister than simple homophobia. In the documentary, Phelps declares that America is doomed. His son Timothy tells us his family’s goal is to “put the cup of God’s fury to the lips of this nation and make them drink.” The pickets signs are the writing on the wall. Their messages include “Fags are worthy of death,” and “USA=Fag Nation.” In case you fail to make the connection, others are clearer, such as “Thank God for 9/11.” He has stoked his rage, building a firestorm of hate toward his own country.

What we learn from Jones’ documentary is that Phelps’ rage runs deep. Two of his 13 children are interviewed by phone for the film, and recount vicious beatings from their father. Yet only four of his 13 children left the family and their church, a testimony to the power of his personality. There have been other “religious” men with similar holds on their families and followers, like Jim Jones, for example. It’s called a cult.

“Fall from Grace” is an important film. It should be required viewing for the Christian right. They should have to face what their hate helped create. It should be required viewing for the LGBT community. We should understand the danger that faces us, lest we choose to donate a dollar at Pride or join HRC and assume the fight for acceptance and inclusion is handled. It should be required viewing for any American who has fallen for the social conservative agenda.

I’ll close this post after one more dip in the quotationspage.com well. The Reverend Ralph W. Sockman said, “The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.”

On Being Queer and Iranian: A Real and Dangerous Existence

Arsham Parsi is proof positive that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not only wrong, but knows he is wrong. There are homosexuals in Iran, of course. And gay Iranians suffer from much more than a public denial of their existence. Beatings and executions are legal remedies for even the mildest display of homosexual behavior. Arsham knows the dangers of being Iranian and gay firsthand. Arsham fled his country and is now exiled in Canada, where he is Executive Director of the Toronto-based IRanian Queer Organization – IRQO (formerly called the Persian Gay & Lesbian Organization – PGLO).

With his permission, Life on Q is sharing Arsham Parsi’s story of his own exile and the torture of his friends and fellow Iranian queers. You can learn more about his and other LGBT Iranian experiences of persecution on the IRQO Website, including many disturbing photos and accounts of torture and execution. You may also support IRQO’s efforts to raise awareness, promote community and provide assistance to queer Iranian refugees and immigrants with a donation.

I Was Forced to Flee Iran

By Arsham Parsi, Executive Director, IRQO

I was born in September 1980, in Iran. As a teenager growing up in Shiraz, I was lonely and filled with self-loathing. I had never met another queer, and I thought I was a freak. I prayed to become a good person, a normal person. Other people fasted for one month, but I fasted for three. Then I found the Internet. And I discovered that I was not alone.

After that, I started to understand who I am and come to terms with my sexual identity. I began to do advocacy work for the queer community in Iran, but my work earned me the attention of the Iranian authorities. I was forced to flee Iran on March 4, 2005. It was 12:45 pm. I have never forgotten that time. I had to leave all my own things in my motherland and go into exile. It was intolerable.

My train took me to Turkey, where I was able to register as a refugee at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ankara. I had stopped praying by then. When I fled to Turkey, I promised my God that I would continue my support for Iranian queers and that would be my form of worship. Three months after arriving in Turkey, my case was accepted, and two months later I was invited to the Canadian Embassy in Ankara. Eight months later, here I am in Canada.

Homophobia runs deep into Iranian society. It reflects a patriarchal social system in which sexuality is controlled and feared, except when at the service of reproduction. Of course, it also reflects the influence of the conservative Islamic legal and religious standards promoted by the government. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini notoriously called for homosexuals to be extirpated as “parasites and corruptors of the nation” who “spread the stain of wickedness.”

Before I fled to Turkey, three of my closest friends committed suicide because of their sexual orientation. More recently, Iranian police arrested two gay men in their 20s for hosting a small house party. The men received 80 lashes each; I doubt that I would be able to endure one. I admire their courage. After getting his punishment, one of the men asked the person who executed this inhuman sentence whether he felt closer to God by this savagery. Their lives, like many if not all the other LGBT persons in Iran, is miserable.
More »

Jim Neal Out for NC Senate Seat

North Carolina businessman Jim Neal is taking on Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole for U.S. Senate, and as of this weekend, he’s taking on homophobia as well. In an online discussion Saturday on BlueNC.com, Neal responded to a comment that he is rumored to be gay by saying, “I am indeed. No secret and no big deal to me– I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t think otherwise.”

The story was picked up by DailyKos on Sunday, and was the subject of an AP story published on the Winston-Salem Journal’s website yesterday.  Even USA Today posted the story on its breaking news blog.

According to the Winston-Salem Journal article, Neal is the only Democrat who has so far entered the race for Dole’s seat, even though Democrats feel the Senator is vulnerable because of her support for the war in Iraq and because she was running the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the party’s general beating in the 2006 mid-term elections. The Congressional Quarterly listed her seat as one of the five most vulnerable in the country, yet Democrats are reportedly wary of signing up for what promises to be a very expensive campaign. Already declining to run are Attorney General Roy Cooper, Gov. Mike Easley, U.S. Rep. Brad Miller and two state legislators.

Enter Jim Neal, a Democratic fundraiser and founder of The Agema Group, a Chapel Hill-based corporate financial advisory firm. A North Carolina native, Neal returned to his home state last year. With many of the higher profile contenders opting out, it will be interesting to see if the national and state Democratic parties will help fuel Neal’s run. Even though he announced he filed his papers for candidacy on October 4, as of this writing, Jim Neal is nowhere to be found on the North Carolina Democratic Party’s list of 2008 candidates. On the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s Website, a news search turned up no results for Jim Neal. Ditto on the DSCC’s blog.

Does Democratic establishment’s silence on Neal’s candidacy reveal an admission that they do not believe Dole is defeatable? Is it a defiant shunning of a candidate new to the political scene who is apparently not a “chosen one?” Or worse still, does Democratic denial of Neal’s candidacy show their true colors when it comes to the politics of homosexuality? Perhaps the Dems want our votes, our contributions and our service, but they do not want queer participation in politics.

Senate Passes Hate Crimes Prevention Act

As expected, the U.S. Senate voted yesterday on the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and as expected, the majority of the Republican Party chose to side with hypocrisy and divisive politics. The Republican minority hoped to filibuster the bill but were thwarted by a 60-39 super-majority vote, thanks to the tolerance of nine Republican and two independent Senators. An article in today’s The Washington Post reported that Republicans hoped to remove the provision in final negotiations with the House. In the event that effort fails, GOP party leaders will reportedly encourage President Bush to follow through on his threat the veto the bill.

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Gordon H. Smith (D-Oregon) are among the most valiant heroes in this effort. Sen. Kennedy likened hate crimes to domestic terrorism, attaching it to funding for President Bush’s war in Iraq. This will make it much more uncomfortable for the President to veto the bill. After months of spin linking war funding to support for the troops, it will be interesting to see if Bush can call upon his college cheerleading skills in any sort of acrobatic move around the pro-military stake that he and his party drove into the ground. Sen. Smith introduced the legislation then stayed the course, keeping crimes of homophobia on his agenda longer than Bush has kept U.S. troops in Iraq. In his comments to the Senate yesterday, Smith said:

“For the last seven years I have entered a hate crime almost every day into the Senate Record. I’ve entered hundreds upon hundreds of individual hate crimes into this record to demonstrate the need for this legislation. Many of these crimes are extremely brutal. Some even result in the death of the victim. I do this to raise awareness. I do it to demonstrate the severity of these attacks and to show the frequency of these violent crimes. I also do it to remember these often nameless victims and to give a human face to these senseless acts of violence.”

The Matthew Shepard Act is not yet law, but the Democratic Party—plus nine fair-minded Republicans—gave the LGBT community pause to celebrate yesterday. In this moment, it is important to remember that it was the brutal death of Matthew Shepard which put a very real, very American face on violence against homosexuals, bisexuals and transgendered persons.

The dedication of Judy and Dennis Shepard deserves much of the credit for raising awareness of hate crimes. Through their work with the Matthew Shepard Foundation, they built support for legislation against hate crimes targeting the LGBT community. Through one mother’s sacrifice, from her personal pain, comes an opportunity for every LGBT American to feel a little bit safer.

Homophobia: Common Ground for George Bush and the President of Iran

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has finally found something he and President George Bush agree on. Both are anti-gay activists who believe homosexuals should be marginalized, outcast and punished. Their religious beliefs give them an excuse for their homophobia.

Speaking at Columbia University Monday, Ahmadinejad declared that there are no homosexuals in Iran. Perhaps this is because queer Iranians are subject to imprisonment, torture and execution. Or perhaps Ahmadinejad has simply extended his denial of the Holocaust to include another group Hitler included in his death camps: homosexuals.

The Human Rights Campaign chose the right word for their official statement on Ahmadinejad’s assertion: absurd. “Today’s assertions by President Ahmadinejad that there are no homosexuals in Iran would be simply absurd were it not for the fact that international human rights watchers have long documented some of the most horrific acts of persecution and violence committed against gay people in Iran. These acts of terror have included incarcerations, beatings, and brutal executions. Ahmadinejad’s denial that there are gay people in Iran shows the extent to which he devalues the lives of the many citizens his government has and continues to violate,” HRC President Joe Solmonese said in the statement.

Paula Ettelbrick, Executive Director at The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) said the Iranian President was disingenuous in his remarks about the human rights situation in Iran. “The Iranian President’s stark denial of our reality reflects his government’s ongoing refusal to recognize the basic human rights of LGBT people. IGLHRC and other human rights organizations have documented widespread and systemic violations of the rights of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Iran,” she said in an IGLHRC statement.

Interestingly, the Iranian president may have actually helped the cause of the citizens he denies, and that of all queer Muslims of both Persian and Arab descent, by raising the visibility of the brutal and oppressive treatment that LGBT people endure at the hands of his government and others–including our own. Coverage of Ahmadinejad’s comments was broad and deep. Even Al Jazeera included it in their coverage of the Columbia University forum. Gay rights organizations, bloggers and the mass media have seized on the opportunity analyze the absurdity of his assertion, putting gay rights abuses outside the U.S. on the radar. The conversation that has resulted creates a logic problem for anti-gay Americans, who now find themselves agreeing with the Ahmadinejad’s extreme views.

Tomorrow, the U.S. Senate will again consider the Matthew Shepard Hate Crime legislation. In the wake of Ahmadinejad’s comments, perhaps it will be harder for Republicans to vote against it. To do so puts them on Iran’s side. And as President Bush has told us, either you’re with us, or you’re with the terrorists. Sen. Ted Kennedy brought the issue back to the floor yesterday with a statement linking hate crimes to terrorism:

“Hate crimes are a form of domestic terrorism. They send the poisonous message that some Americans deserve to be victimized solely because of who they are.

“The time has come to stand up for the victims of these senseless acts of violence – victims like Matthew Shepard, for whom this bill is named, and who died a horrible death in 1998 at the hands of two men who singled him out because of his sexual orientation. Nine years after Matthew’s death – nine years – we still haven’t gotten it done. How long are we going to wait?”

President Bush has already come out on Ahmadinejad’s side on this issue, threatening to veto the legislation.

Check out our resource page for information, organizations and resources for queer Arabs, Muslims and Persians.