Tag Archives: anti-gay law

Rain Dove Proves North Carolina’s House Bill 2 Hurts More Than The Trans Community

A wide range of people – from musicians to politicians – are taking a stand against North Carolina’s House Bill 2.

Thankfully, one of the most outspoken is activist Rain Dove.

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The androgynous supermodel has released a short video on Facebook about discriminatory new laws.

With almost half a million views in one day, an essay that dismantles the bill accompanies the video.

Dove begins the essay by writing

DISCOVERY! HB2 IS NO LONGER VALID OR ENFORCEABLE! As of TODAY this minute-this very second that you read this the discriminatory ‘bathroom’ part of the bill can’t be upheld! Here’s why North Carolina’s HB2 Law is NOT VALID.”

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Dove goes onto explain that North Carolina does not have a statute requiring an individual to give their ID when approached by police.

The only circumstance that would allow for an officer to be able to take your birth certificate or ID force fully (whether you like it or not) would be if you are driving a vehicle or REASONABLY SUSPICIOUS of committing a crime.”

The essay highlights how law enforcement officers, as well as the general public, cannot decide if someone is of the “right sex” to use the restroom. Dove states that doing so is “called PROFILING” and also notes that

In 2014 Eric Holder BANNED Racial, Religious, and Gender profiling in the United States for Federal Officers as a technique to determine ‘potential guilt’. It’s called ‘Gender’ Profiling and not “Sex” Profiling because Sex refers to your sexual organs and/or birth certificate status. Gender refers to ‘the state of being’ aka your energy, aesthetics, clothing, voice, hair style – the you that is you.”

Watch the video below:

https://www.facebook.com/raindovemodel/videos/1798127703749354/

The Imitation Game Promotes Call for UK Pardon of Gay Men, But African LGBTs Still Suffer Because English Colonialism

2014 saw the release of The Imitation Game, a film led by Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch as he played the role of Alan Turing.

An incredibly smart and brilliant computer scientist and mathematician, Turing’s work helped the Allied Forces to victory in World War 2, by cracking Germany’s enigma code.

Winston Churchill even called Turing “the single biggest contribution” to their victory over Germany. But there was just one problem: Alan Turing was gay.

THE IMITATION GAME

At the time, being gay was a criminal offense and so Turing was convicted of “gross indecency” in 1952. Forced to undergo chemical castration, the stress was so much that he took his own life two years later.

It wasn’t until 1967 that the ban against homosexuality was finally overturned and in 2013 Turing was pardoned by Queen Elizabeth the Second. There are still 50,000 men who were also convicted who never received such an honour though which is why Cumberbatch and out gay entertainer Stephen Fry have signed a letter to have those men pardoned too.

But what of the gay people who are still suffering from anti-gay laws thanks to viewpoints and Penal Codes that the British Colony left behind?

Within countries on the African continent, India and Jamaica (all of which were formerly under British rule), anti-LGBT sentiment runs high with murders, abuse and suicide often occurring because of it.

Unfortunately, while the petition signed by Cumberbatch and Fry notes that “The UK’s homophobic laws made the lives of generations of gay and bisexual men intolerable” the fact of the matter is is that these men are allowed to live happy lives within the UK while millions of men (and indeed women) in former British Colony countries do not.

The UK government shouldn’t just be seeking to pardon those 50,000 persecuted UK men (including 19,000 who are still alive today) but it should also be seeking to improve the lives and human rights of the LGBT people living in its previously ruled territories.

Melanie Nathan, Executive Director of African HRC explains:

“Arrests and persecution abound in several African countries, where these Penal Codes remain the law of the land.

The United Kingdom must set this imperative example by pardoning every single gay person convicted under its persecutory laws, not only to right the awful wrong, but also to set the stage for those still subject to criminalization directly impacted by English Colonialism.”

Melanie Nathan

An online petition has also been set up to support this and has already garnered over 100,000 signatures. You can find the petition here.

Time To Make An Amends – UK Government Urged To Pardon 49,000 Men & Women Persecuted Under Anti-Gay Laws

The UK Government is being urged to pardon 49,000 men and women who were persecuted under Anti-Gay Laws.

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The action comes in response to the film The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and the publics newfound awareness of gay World War II codebreaker Alan Turing who was convicted of “gross indecency” for being gay.

LGBT activists are now calling on the British government to pardon the tens of thousands of other British citizens who were persecuted under draconian anti-gay laws of the past.

In 2013, Queen Elizabeth II pardoned Turing, who committed suicide after being convicted.

Following a screening of The Imitation Game in London, actor Stephen Fry said the pardon was only the start of what should be done to honor Turing.

“Should Alan Turing have been pardoned just because he was a genius, when somewhere between 50 to 70 thousand other men were imprisoned, chemically castrated, had their lives ruined or indeed committed suicide because of the laws under which Turing suffered?

There is a general feeling that perhaps if he should be pardoned, then perhaps so should all of those men, whose names were ruined in their lifetime, but who still have families. It was a nasty, malicious and horrific law and one that allowed so much blackmail and so much misery and so much distress.

Turing stands as a figure symbolic to his own age in the way that Oscar Wilde was, who suffered under a more but similar one.”

Stephen Fry

HRC president Chad Griffin ran an ad in Friday’s New York Times on the campaign to pardon the other 49,000 persecuted gay men and women. There’s also a Change.org petition underway for the campaign HERE.

Uganda President Urges Parliamentarians Not to Rush Reintroduce Anti-Gay Law

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda is urging parliamentarians not to rush to reintroduce a controversial anti-gay law that was invalidated earlier this month, saying the measure is not a priority and could hurt the country’s economic development.

Museveni, who held a meeting Monday with lawmakers from his party, urged parliamentarians “not to cause chaos” by quickly reintroducing the bill, according to Medard Bitekyerezo, a lawmaker who strongly supports the anti-gay measure. He said Museveni formed a committee, to be chaired by Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi, to look into the concerns of rights activists who challenged the constitutionality of the law.

“The law may come back with some small modifications, but I can tell you that it will come back.”

Medard Bitekyerezo

The panel of judges on Uganda’s Constitutional did not rule on the substance of the anti-gay measure, which allowed for jail terms of up to life for homosexual offenses, but jettisoned it because it was passed during a parliamentary session that lacked a quorum. The court ruled that there would be no further hearings, leaving the door open for lawmakers to try to reintroduce a similar law or a version of it.

The government-controlled New Vision newspaper reported Tuesday that Museveni warned lawmakers that the bill could hurt the country’s economic development. Museveni asked the parliamentarians to debate the law “without any emotional feelings,” the paper reported.

A Ugandan lawmaker says he has collected signatures from more than 200 parliamentarians who have promised to vote in support of the bill, which has wide support among Ugandans despite Western condemnation of it.

The U.S., the World Bank and some European countries delayed or redirected tens of millions of dollars in funding to Uganda’s government over the anti-gay measure, piling pressure on this East African country that depends on foreign aid to implement about 20 percent of its budget.

Museveni, who has said he supports strong legislation against what he calls the promotion of homosexuality in Africa, is a long-time U.S. ally who has held power here for nearly three decades. But he faces domestic pressure to step down amid growing allegations of official corruption and rights abuses – one reason local analysts believe he is increasingly sensitive to international attention on this East African country of 36 million people.

Watchdog groups said the invalidated anti-gay measure was draconian and unnecessary in a country where homosexuality has long been banned.

A colonial-era law that criminalizes sex acts “against the order of nature” remains in force.

Power to Uganda LGBT Community as They Hold Pride Parade in Entebbe

Members of Uganda’s LGBT community and their supporters are held a gay pride parade on a beach in the lakeside town of Entebbe.

The parade is their first public event since a Ugandan court invalidated an anti-gay law that was widely condemned by some Western governments and human rights watchdogs.

About 200 people attended the event, said Ugandan gay activist Moses Kimbugwe. He said participants were waited for police protection before they marched through sprawling botanical gardens in Entebbe, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the capital of Kampala.

Many marchers wore masks, signaling they did not want to be publicly identified in a country where gays face discrimination. Others waved rainbow flags as they danced and frolicked on a sandy beach.

This is the third annual gay pride event, said organizers. The first one, in 2012, turned violent after local police tried to break it up, said Ugandan lesbian activist Jacqueline Kasha. This time they were expecting full protection from the police, she said.

“We are a group of people who have suffered enough. We are Ugandans who have the right to gather in a public place … and we are going to have fun.”

Jacqueline Kasha