lifeonq.com

Where Not to Go on Your Gay Vacation

The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) has released a new poster that maps LGBTI rights around the world. Think of it as an important reference for your gay travel planning. The map is color-coded to indicate where you may be subjected to the death penalty (seven countries) or imprisonment (76 countries and six other governmental or territorial entities) for being homosexual. It also indicates where you are protected by anti-discrimination laws (49 countries and 33 entities) and where you can get gay-married (19 countries and 14 entities). You may view the full map here.

ILGA created the map as a part of its celebration of the organization’s 30th anniversary. ILGA will also release a report on state-sponsored homophobia in time for the International Day Against Homophobia on May 17.

Members of ILGA will receive a copy of the map free of charge. Others who would like to own a copy or distribute multiple copies should contact the ILGA at information@ilga.org.

ILGA is a federation of more than 600 groups and businesses campaigning for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights. Every continent and over 90 countries are represented.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Give First U.S. Speech to the LGBT Community

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) announced today that Archbishop Desmond Tutu will give an historic 30-minute address to the LGBTI community in San Francisco on April 8, 2008. It’s the first time that he has directly addressed such a large LGBTI gathering in the United States. He will speak to a crowd of approximately 400 people at A Celebration of Courage, the IGLHRC’s annual gala awards ceremony, where he will also be honored for his leadership on human rights. Archbishop Tutu, a Nobel Prize winner for his work against apartheid in South Africa, has persistently challenged discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. He has publicly condemned persecution on the basis of sexual orientation, comparing it to apartheid. In article published in The Times of London in 2004, he wrote:

“We struggled against apartheid in South Africa, supported by people the world over, because black people were being blamed and made to suffer for something we could do nothing about-our very skins. “It is the same with sexual orientation. It is a given. I could not have fought against the discrimination of apartheid and not also fight against the discrimination that homosexuals endure, even in our churches and faith groups.”

Archbishop Tutu has also vigorously criticized the Catholic church for its homophobia. Last year, he told BBC radio, “If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn’t worship that God.” He has even challenged the church for “being almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality” when other issues such as poverty, HIV/AIDS and war are more deserving of attention and action. He told Union Theological Seminary students in 2006 that “All belong–white, black, red, yellow, Arab, Jew, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, young old, male, female, rich poor, gay, lesbian and so-called straight–all belong.”

I find his use of the term “so-called straight” to be an interesting choice.

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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.
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