The Occupy Wall Street movement is spreading globally and regionally. Small college towns across the United States demonstrate contrasting responses. Protesters in Carbondale, Illinois have been huddling under a model of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome on the campus of Southern Illinois University. Campus police are considering removing the dome. According to Freshman Derrick Burns: “We had about 20 tents set up. Now look – zero, it’s a shame.” Read more and see video here.
"2:40 and still no police" Photo via Occupy Arcata
Meantime in Arcata, California, home of Humboldt State University, 20 days into a camp-out, there have been some individual arrests, but the protests enjoy wide community support and the City Council is meeting to discuss installation of portable toilets and other amenities at the encampment.
Hugging the widow. Interesting racial politics at play in this notice from 1892. A bill was introduced in the Virginia legislature to reinstate whipping as a form of judicial punishment. The argument against it, as argued here, was that there was no provision to protect white offenders from a punishment deemed appropriate only for their black counterparts.
“Six men were executed by hanging in a prison just outside the city of Ahvaz early Sunday morning. Two were convicted rapists, one a drug trafficker, and the last three were found guilty of committing ‘forbidden acts against religion.’ Under Articles 108 and 110 of the Iranian Islamic Penal Code, the punishment for ‘Hadd’ or as the west calls it, sodomy, is death.”
via Queer Landia. For a list of the six countries which punish male homosexuality with the death penalty, click here. For the rest of the Queer Landia article, here.
Congratulations to ILGA, the International lesbian and Gay Association. They were the first LGBT group to gain ECOSOC (UN Economic & Social Council) consultative status from the United Nations in 1993. They lost it in 1994. When I was there in 2006, only one openly LGBT had ECOSOC status. Going there as ILGA members, we had to enter under the auspices of another organization.
Today, a major victory. Check out the details, and a list of which countries supported and opposed the vote here.
Attached photo is taken from ILGA’s website: “Patricia Curzi, UN-ILGA liaison officer, Renato Sabbadini, Co-Secretary general of ILGA and Pedro Paradiso Sottile, Regional Secretary for ILGA-LAC at the United Nations in Geneva.”
Congrats to all who lobbied tirelessly for years to make this happen!
Purity Parade - Screenshot from Belize News video
News from Belize: A “Purity Parade” protesting LGBT activists’ legal motion to decriminalize homosexuality. (Here is a little more information on the motion, put forward by LGBT human rights group UNIBAM.)
Their arguments aren’t too interesting – the same old “marriage should be between a man and a woman,” and the same old, tired (and inaccurate) reasoning: “Why? Because Jesus said so.”
The concept of an a “Purity Parade” is kind of interesting, but the execution is rather disappointing. I must say, Pride parades are much more interesting to watch. Maybe they should ask us for lessons.
But does it? Well-known Leatherman and friend of this site Peter Fiske has made an “It Gets Better” video and posted it on YouTube. We are, of course, re-posting. Kudos, Peter! It is fantastic. Of course. Messages of future promise are great, and can be just the thing to turn despair into hope. But. But. But. The “It Gets Better” video pep talks, started by columnist Dan Savage last year in an effort to curb high rates of suicide among queer youth, have really taken off. Cool. More on them here. Great campaign, but…it is not enough. Not nearly.
By all means, keep these positive messages coming. But. But. But. There are a few problems here. First off, it does not always get better – and we know that. If it always got better, dead friend of this site and Frameline co-founder Mark Finch would not have jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. A popular, successful adult gay man kills himself. Or: youthful co-conspirator WRG, handsome, smart, set to inherit two fortunes, dead in a hotel room in Rio with a spike in his arm, the body stripped of valuables. They had to identify him by dental records. Just two examples. It did not get better for either of them, and they were pretty well set to overcome the past.
But. But. But. Another problem: The most vulnerable queer kids may be those least likely to be able to respond to these messages. Consider two scenarios:
One: You are 17, a junior in high school, with loving, educated PFLAG parents, a nice group of theatre friends, early acceptance to UC, and a problem with the school bully who taunts you with calls of “Faggot!” and elbows you in the hallways to the amusement of his toadies. It makes your stomach churn.
Two: You are 17, living on the periphery of San Francisco’s Castro district. You left Idaho and your violent Christian Identity family at 13 when your mother caught you with another boy. She broke a bottle over your head as you fled the house. See the scar? Arriving in SF, you met guys who turned you on to meth and fucked you raw. Already shell-shocked from childhood, you seroconverted at 14, have been on the streets for four years, and look really rough. Half-crazy with rage and despair, you kick trash cans and shout in frustration, sometimes sit on the curb sobbing. Everyone avoids you.
These are two pretty extreme, but true, examples. “It Gets Better” is a good message, but it is not enough. The kids need more than words. Even the UC-bound good gay kid needs more than words. And seriously damaged youth need a lot more. They also need the tools to survive a world which will continue at times to be hostile. Food. Shelter. Protection. Health care, including mental health and substance abuse help. Access to education, job-training, connections and good adult mentorship. Spiritual support, including services for survivors of religious abuse. They do not need to be encouraged in magical thinking: “Oh…if I can only get to San Francisco! It’s like Oz! Everything will be fabulous!” Yes, sometimes it gets better. But: it does not always get better, and it does not automatically get better. If we actually want to see the kids flourish, we need to open our eyes to the full scope of the horror under which some queer kids come up – and add real resources that are equal to our encouraging words. We need to get real.
“It was scary so forgive the camera shaking.” Friend of this site Anna Kirey, who was there and shot the video posted here, reports that 5 people were taken to the hospital with injuries sustained during attacks by fascists and ultra-nationalists during the 1st ever pride celebration in Split, Croatia on June 11, 2011. Attackers chanted “Ubij pederima!” and “Ubij srbina!” – “Kill the Fags!” and “Kill the Serbs!” According to first hand reports, many police stood back, laughing, and the Mayor of Split, wearing Croat fascist black, watched the action from a nearby outdoor cafe.
Kontra reports from Split: “Public gathering ended in violence. Rute of the march was not secured. Attackers were allowed to throw explosive objects, thorches, big rocks, ashtrays and other objects during the whole time of the march and on Riva where programe was supposed to be held. Facists were allowed to hold hands in facist salute and shout «Kill faggots» and «You must die» almost on the entire length of the rute. Before exit from Marmontova street to Riva it was allowed for big number of violent attackers to completely narrow down the passage for the march. They were also throwing explosives and other objects and participants of the march had to go back twice and then finally go through narrow passage. During all of this police officers were telling to participants to go through the passage, although they were constantly hit by explosives, rocks and other objects.”
Lepa Mladjenovic provides political analysis of the situation: “Croatia and Serbia are states after the long wars, and militaristic & fundamentalist religious politics vastly present .. on top of this there is a special role of the football fans in making of soldiers in the Balkan wars, they are now as well ones who are ultra nationalists, the same militarism continues with them precisely, supported with political nationalist parties and church!! thats all to understand.”
More video: From Balkan artist Rakijamala, click here and for uploads from Queer Zagreb, click here. Interested in the situation around the world? Check out ILGA: The International Lesbian and Gay Association. Kind of like the Queer United Nations.
The Eastsider LA reports that the Cove Avenue Stairway in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles may be renamed in honor of Harry Hay, who in 1951 formed the early gay rights group the Mattachine Society in a house he lived in at the top of the stairs. For the full article, click here.
This infamous piece of legislation, which would introduce a death penalty in Uganda for people found guilty of homosexual conduct, is up for a vote tomorrow.
Life is already bad in Uganda for LGBT people – all of my LGBT friends from there have had to flee from their lives, and have some of the most horrifying, brutal stories of any LGBT refugees I know. The Gay Highwaymen did a story on David Kato’s murder in Uganda earlier this year.
Want to do something about it? Credo Action has introduced this petition, which it will deliver to the president of Uganda. AllOut.org has another petition, as well as instructions for how to call your country’s representative in Uganda. Please consider signing, calling, and voicing your concerns about this legislation.
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Maštíŋčala Sáŋ
The Gay Highwaymen 