Tag Archives: Global Homophobia

Fashionistas to Boycott Dorchester Hotels Over Homophobia Row

Influential figures in the US fashion industry have called for a boycott of all hotels owned by the Dorchester Collection because the company is owned by the government of Brunei which recently changed its nation’s laws to allow the stoning to death of convicted homosexuals.

Fashion designers Peter Som and Brian Atwood, along with the co-owner of the Decades Boutique, Cameron Silver, have demanded that people stop attending designer dinners and charity fashion shows at such plush venues as the Beverley Hills Hotel.

Silver said on Tuesday, ‘The fashion industry and its supporters are unified in boycotting these properties.’ Asked about how the campaign got going, he replied, ‘Someone mentioned it to me while I was in New York on Sunday, I looked up an article [about the new law] and then posted something. [Valentino PR Director] Carlos Souza reposted it and then it was reposted by [Valentino’s longtime business partner] Giancarlo [Giammetti] and it just sort of grew from there.’

Shoe designer Atwood waded into the row with these comments on Instagram: ‘Don’t stay at the Principe di Savoia, Le Meurice, or the Dorchester during Milan, Paris or London fashion week’s [sic] this June to October. Send a clear signal to their owner, The Sultan of Brunei, that stoning people to death for being gay in Brunei is not acceptable. His new law comes into effect tomorrow April 22. Why not cancel your bookings tomorrow?’

In response, the PR manager for the Beverley Hills Hotel, Leslie Lefkowitz, issued the following statement: ‘We do not tolerate any form of discrimination of any kind. The laws that exist in other countries outside of where Dorchester Collection operates do not affect the policies that govern how we run our hotels. Dorchester Collection’s Code emphasizes equality, respect and integrity in all areas of our operation, and strongly values people and cultural diversity amongst our guests and employees.’

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The L Project Release LGBT Charity Single ‘We’re All Human’

As the UK’s first wave of same-sex newlyweds settle happily into married life, The L Project gears up to repeat their success of 2012 with a second LGBT charity single – We’re All Human.

And success is here. Only 15 hours after release, and The L Project have hit No1 in the Amazon Movers and Shakers charts, as well as No1 in the folk charts. They have also just entered the iTunes charts.

The new single, released yesterday, has been recorded by a diverse group of LGBT artists, and every penny earned from the song will be donated to LGBT charities who work to promote diversity and equality.

The L Project’s previous song It Does Get Better, released in 2012, made number 11 in the official UK indie charts, despite all the artists being unsigned. The song also topped the iTunes and Amazon charts for over a week, and received coverage in leading international LGBT magazines and local BBC radio, all without any professional promotion. That song continues to raise funds, through download sales, YouTube views, related merchandise, and royalties, to help prevent LGBT bullying in schools.

“Since the first song we’ve built up a massive network of support through social media. This time we hope that the mainstream media will pick up our story, so that even more people will download the song, and be part of changing the lives of LGBT people who need support. Some of that help will be financial, as we give every penny earned to the charities – including royalties – but we also have lots of stories about people all over the world being helped just by hearing the words and knowing there are people like us who care.”

Georgey Payne, The L Project – also the songwriter and producer of  We’re All Human.

The UK might have progressed a lot since 1999, when the country had the a largest number of anti-gay laws in the world, but others aren’t so fortunate, as highlighted during the SOCHI Winter Olympics. As the media outrage fades over Russia’s attitude towards the LGBT community, The L Project steps in to help keep the flame alive.

“It’s easy when you’re part of a majority to take the view that because you don’t experience an issue, there isn’t a problem. But the evidence is undeniable. Media stories focus people’s attention for a while, but when the stories stop, people become complacent, and inadvertently become complicit in allowing things to not only continue, but potentially worsen – not just in Russia, but in India, Uganda and around the world.

Sofia Antonia Milone, The L Project and also collaborated on the lyrics of the new song.

The benefiting charities this time are the Russian LGBT Network which helps LGBT victims of abuse in Russia, Mermaids, the UK’s youth Transgender charity and the Kaleidoscope Trust.

The L Project have released an official video to coincide with the song’s release, as well as some behind the scenes videos on youtube. These videos show some of the less visible contributors to the project: videographers, photographers, hairstylists, and runners, all of whom worked tirelessly and – just like all the artists – for free.

Please help us by sharing this song’s message of hope and warmth to LGBT people who still face a struggle. A struggle which can result in being burnt alive, hung, hunted, raped, and bullied. Some even take their own lives…

You can help change all this…

Links to download “We’re All Human”: 

Behind the scenes…

Watch Animated Short About Gender Recognition

A short film, released by the Open Society Foundation, presenting the hurdles many transgender people face every day. The film explains how trans people around the globe are unable to obtain proper official documents that reflect their personal identity.

“No one should determine your identity except you. Yet this is an obstacle transgender people face every day. The majority of trans people around the world cannot obtain official documents that match their identity. And without these documents, it’s nearly impossible to do basic things like enroll in school, get a job, see a doctor, travel, or vote.”

In conjunction with animation, a global guide on gender recognition laws was also released – License to Be Yourself. This report documents the best and worst laws around the world, and also features case studies from Argentina, Australia, Hong Kong, Kenya, Ukraine, and the United States

‘Homophobia is un-African’ – Prominent Kenya Calls for Greater Tolerance of Gay Africans

Prominent Kenya writer, director and film maker, Wanuri Kahiu has called for greater tolerance of gay Africans across the continent.

In March, Kenya’s parliamentary majority leader claimed that homosexuality is something as serious as terrorism, saying, “We need to go on and address this issue the way we want to address terrorism.”

However this has not deterred Kahiu, who has spoke out and stated that…

“Homosexuality is not un-African, what is un-African is homophobia”

Wanuri Kahiu

Kahiu is a vibrant figure in African culture’s new wave scene. She directs both documentaries and fictional films. Her most celebrated film is the short science fiction film Pumzi that premiered at Sundance Film Festival

Last year, she produced “Homecoming”, a film based on the award winning novel by Monica Arac – Jambula Tree. The story centres on the love between two women in a country where same-sex activity is illegal.

“I wanted to tell this story because of the profound love that the man characters had for each other. Even though it’s a hard subject because it’s taboo, it was very important for me to tell a love story because that’s what it is: how true love can triumph over everything.”

Wanuri Kahiu

“The New Jews”: LGBT Activists Forced Out of Russia

Earlier this year 31-year-old Russian gay rights activist Slava Revin flew from Moscow to Washington, DC to seek political asylum. After receiving a death threat online from a man he believed was a police officer, Revin knew he couldn’t stay in a country increasingly dominated by widespread homophobic violence and anti-gay legislation.

Since arriving in the US, Revin has formed close links with the Russian LGBT expat community and stepped up his criticism of Vladimir Putin’s government. He has campaigned to end Philadelphia’s sister-city relationship with his hometown of Nizhny Novgorod and appeared in advocacy videos for Freedom House.‘I can’t just come here and keep my mouth shut,’he says.

Since Russia announced her controversial prohibition of “gay propaganda”last year, a huge number of LGBT Russians have contacted US Immigration to inquire about relocating to America. A record 44 such cases are being considered right now. In the last few months, asylum has been granted to eight exiled Russians.

LGBT Activists Forced Out of Russia 05

However, there are no guarantees that Revin will be able to stay in his adopted country. His case is currently being considered and he hopes that the Center Global, a project run by The DC Center for the LGBT Community, will successfully represent him. He is also being advised by the Russian-Speaking American LGBT Association, whose founder and co-president Yelena Goltsman has this to say about Revin and dissidents like him: ‘People don’t just get up and leave their country. LGBT people are basically [the] new Jews.’

Revin takes the anti-Semitism analogy further when discussing Russia’s persecution of LGBTs. ‘Everyone forgot about the Jews in Germany in 1939. They intimidate and beat people and arrest activists.’

Although it hasn’t been easy for Revin to start a new life in a new country, he appreciates the American tolerance of LGBTs. He now lives in Dupont Circle, Washington DC’s famous gay quarter, where same-sex couples are free to hold hands and kiss in public. ‘Nobody cares here,’ says Revin, ‘unlike in Russia.’


 

Let us not forget how homosexuals where once persecuted by the Nazis. We do not need history to repeat its self.

Olympics Must Protect LGBTs Say US Congress Members

Last Tuesday nineteen members of the United States Congress wrote to the President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach requesting he re-write Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter so that it explicitly opposes discrimination based on gender and sexual preference.

Penned as a response to the problems LGBT athletes and spectators experienced during the Sochi Winter Olympics earlier this year, the letter questions whether the IOC did enough to defend LGBTs from Russia’s homophobic legislation. In recent months Russian premier Vladimir Putin has signed laws outlawing ‘the propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations’ and banning gay people from adopting children. During the Sochi Games, the Russian police harassed and detained numerous gay activists, prompting international condemnation.

Figure Skating Men's Singles - Day 5

The bipartisan signatories of the letter were led by the Republican Representative Ileanas Ros-Lehtinen and Democrat Representative David Cicilline. Other LGBT Congress members who signed include Mark Pocan, Michael Michaud and Mark Takano.

The Representatives have called for the IOC to place the issue of LGBT rights top of the agenda at its summit in Monaco this December. “While we understand that politics are not a component of the Olympic Games,” the letter reads, “we believe amending Principle 6 to further uphold the ideals of non-discrimination will illustrate how the Olympic Games achieve their fundamental principle of ‘plac[ing] sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind …”

This letter has been seen as a clear sign that, although the Sochi Games have finished, international concerns remain about the IOC’s commitment to LGBT rights.

What’s the Worst City in the World?

Pollution, poverty, overcrowding, homophobia – these are just some of the criteria by which a new survey has ranked the world’s most unpleasant cities. The tourism and dating site MissTravel.com asked its readers which cities they’d be even less keen to visit than Sochi, Russia.

Sochi hit the headlines earlier this year when it hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics. Not only did visitors complain of the city’s hostile attitude to LGBTQ people, but they raised concerns about the quality of local accommodation, food and transport.

Over 3000 respondents voted for Dhaka as the metropolis they’d most like to steer clear of. The capital of Bangladesh has a population of 14 million, more than half of it living in dire poverty. The air is choked with carbon emissions and other noxious chemicals.

Runners-up include New Delhi, the traffic-clogged capital of India; Mexico City; Algiers and Rio de Janeiro, one of the host cities of next year’s football World Cup. There was some surprise that two American cities made the list. Detroit, Michigan and Youngstown, Ohio have been hit hard by the recession – homelessness and unemployment are two key reasons why MissTravel.com readers would not want to holiday in these places.

One theme that all the above cities have in common is that they have never been very welcoming to LGBT visitors.

Global Homophobia – The Shocking Truth

Global Homophobia – A recent study has revealed the true extent of homophobia around the world and established that it is illegal to be gay in a shocking 76 countries. From Africa to East Asia, the Middle East to the Americas, LGBT people run the risk of exile, forced labour, public whipping, life imprisonment and even execution.

During the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics the international community protested against Russia’s controversial “gay propaganda” law. However, this latest research, conducted by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), makes it clear that such anti-gay legislation is not unique to Russia.

In disturbing detail the 110-page study names and shames the 76 least gay-friendly countries on Earth. The study is updated every year and we share some of its most recent findings below:

Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Progress?

Despite the Coalition forces’ stated aim of restoring human rights to Afghanistan, the post-Taliban authorities continue to persecute the LGBT community. As in other countries, there is widespread confusion between the terms “homosexuality” and “paedophilia” and gay people are regularly sentenced to long periods in gaol.

Dominican Republic: Treated Like We’re Insane

It is a source of embarrassment for the Western psychiatric community that, until the 1970s, the scientific consensus was that homosexuality was a form of mental illness. This myth still persists in the Dominican Republic, where courts can order those prosecuted for “sodomy” and “gross indecency” to undergo psychotherapy to “correct” their behaviour.

Angola: Hard Labour in the 21st Century

When the great Irish playwright and wit Oscar Wilde was prosecuted for “gross indecency” in 1895, he was sentenced to two years’ hard labour. Within a year his health was ruined and he was to die a little later. If Wilde had visited Angola in 2014, he may have been given exactly the same punishment. Indeed, repeat offences of homosexuality – and even cross-dressing – in this Southern African country are punishable by long spells in labour camps.

Guyana: A Confusion of Prejudices

There’s a strange anomaly to Guyana’s anti-LGBT laws. While lesbian behaviour is perfectly legal, a same-sex relationship between men is a felony crime and anyone convicted faces the rest of their life in prison.

Iran: ‘We Don’t Have Gays’

Former President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmedinijad infamously declared in 2007, ‘In Iran, we don’t have gays.’ People tended not to take his claim too seriously, given that Ahmedinijad also denies that the Nazi Holocaust ever happened. At any rate, there clearly are gay people in Iran because it is quite typical for them to be put to death by Shariah courts. Two men caught kissing in public can be sentenced to “60 lashes”, according to the country’s penal code.

Pakistan: ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

Although Pakistan’s laws are biliously anti-gay, the LGBT community tends to be left alone by the authorities so long as it observes a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. It is possible for LGBT people to congregate and even live together, providing they do so in secrecy.

Saudi Arabia: The World’s Toughest Penalties?

Despite being strongly supported by a number of Western states – amongst them the USA and the UK – who claim to care about LGBT rights, Saudi Arabia is unusually cruel to those with alternative sexual persuasions. Exile, public whippings and executions are commonplace