Archives for November 2015

The Queen of Ireland: Gay rights movie released in Northern Ireland is sheer bliss

08/11/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

A charismatic drag queen is the star of this documentary about the Republic’s gay marriage referendum, writes Andrew Johnston

The Queen of Ireland couldn’t have timed its Northern Ireland release better. The documentary about marriage equality in the Republic of Ireland arrives in the same week the DUP scuppered a majority Assembly vote to allow same-sex weddings in the north.

After watching this deeply affecting film, the anger, sadness and frustration felt by many at the party’s underhand use of a petition of concern will be intensified. Director Conor Horgan’s beautifully shot and edited movie follows Panti Bliss, the drag queen alter-ego of Co Mayo-born performer and activist Rory O’Neill, who somewhat inadvertently became the LGBT movement’s figurehead in the run-up to May’s marriage rights referendum. In her towering heels and extravagant, blonde wig, she is an imposing presence, yet O’Neill’s larger-than-life character is as persuasive as she is visually arresting. In his own words, Panti is a “giant cartoon woman”, but she is also an eloquent and incisive commentator, who counts the likes of Stephen Fry and Madonna among her legion of fans, and in 2014, received an Irish Person of the Year Award.

Her creator’s life has certainly been an eventful one. The Queen of Ireland takes us from O’Neill’s childhood in the small town of Ballinrobe, where he was, as he puts it, “the local gay”, through the perhaps inevitable art college years, to the development of his stage persona during hedonistic adventures in London and Tokyo. Eventually, O’Neill comes home to a relatively more progressive Ireland and embarks on a campaigning trail that ultimately leads to the Republic becoming the first country to approve same-sex marriage through a public vote. The Queen of Ireland isn’t just powerful because of the emotive subject matter; it has a rich dramatic arc, too. There is tragedy when O’Neill suffers a serious health setback, and when he invokes costly legal proceedings with contentious remarks made on RTE’s Saturday Night Show, a row that is dubbed “Pantigate”. But there is triumph when he returns to Ballinrobe to perform to a sold-out crowd in a marquee in a car park near his family home, and later, when the ‘Yes’ result is returned in the referendum. As a stand-up, Panti is smart and hilarious, albeit one you might not take your mother to see (and indeed, O’Neill tones down the swearing and explicit sexual references for the homecoming gig, attended by his elderly parents). Panti’s abrasive one-liners earn The Queen of Ireland its 15 certificate, but behind the facade, O’Neill reveals a complex personality. He is as humble and kind as his self-described “court jester” drag act is outrageous. It may be Horgan’s film, but it’s O’Neill and Panti’s show, and as narrator, the cross-dressing star steers the narrative to its startling denouement – Ireland’s legalising of gay marriage. To see same-sex partners celebrating in streets where 22 years previously homosexuality had been punishable by prison delivers an emotional punch on a par with any feel-good flick. If you’d pitched this tale to a Hollywood producer in the early Nineties, you might well have been laughed out of the room. The realities of being a gay man or woman in Ireland in the Seventies and Eighties are well covered through extensive interviews and newsreel footage, and it’s heartening to see how far Irish society has come, though for audiences in the north, it will be dispiriting to be reminded how far we are lagging behind. The Queen of Ireland deserves to be seen by everyone, be they gay, straight, male, female, young or old. In fact, this important piece of work should be shown in schools – and maybe even in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

DUP tell Elton John to back off as he wades into gay marriage row in Northern Ireland

08/11/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

By Claire McNeilly

PUBLISHED06/11/2015

Jeffrey Donaldson was speaking after the pop superstar said it was time for local politicians to “enter the 21st century” in relation to same-sex marriage.

The Rocket Man singer also said that legislation would “sail in” if put to a public vote. But Mr Donaldson hit back and said it was up to the Executive to decide what was best for Ulster.
“Elton John is entitled to his opinion, but the reality is that we have a mandate to govern and we have to make decisions based on what we believe is best for Northern Ireland,” he added.
“The devolution settlement respects that degree of autonomy and therefore these matters should be decided at Stormont, not elsewhere.”
Northern Ireland politicians voted on same-sex marriage for the fifth time on Monday, with a majority of MLAs voting in favour for the first time.
But there will be no change in the law after the DUP used a controversial petition of concern to scupper the move.

Speaking during the debate, Paul Givan, the DUP chair of the Justice Committee, categorically ruled out same-sex marriage.
He said: “For as long as our party has the ability to control things on the Executive, there will not be legislation.”
It means that Northern Ireland remains the only part of the UK not to have legislated for same-sex marriage.

Thousands of participants and supporters take part in the 25th annual Belfast Pride parade on August 1, 2015 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

When asked about the issue yesterday on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir Elton said: “If it can be voted for in southern Ireland by two to one, it’s not the public vote, it’s by the politicians – and the politicians need to get their act together and enter the 21st century.”
“I’m sure if there was a vote for the public, it would sail in, as it would in Australia.”
Upon confirming he would perform a gig here, Sir Elton added: “I’m not a politician, but I will speak out for rights as and when I can, and I’ll speak about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights as I’m an elderly gay citizen.”
John O’Doherty from the Rainbow Project, a LGBT support organisation, welcomed the veteran singer’s intervention, adding that the issue had received “international attention”.
“Poll after poll has shown that the majority of people in Northern Ireland support the introduction of equal marriage,” Mr O’Doherty said.
“The majority of our Assembly members have voted in support of equal marriage but, unfortunately, the leadership doesn’t exist within Stormont to achieve it at this time.”
The Alliance Party’s Trevor Lunn – who was once opposed to same-sex marriage but has since been persuaded that it is an equality and not a faith issue – said he agreed with Sir Elton that people were in favour.
“The opinion polls indicate that the public in Northern Ireland is ready for this,” he added.
Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland programme director of Amnesty International, said Sir Elton was “absolutely right that most people in Northern Ireland back same-sex marriage”.
He added: “Politicians who continue to block progress must wake up and realise the damage they are causing to gay people in Northern Ireland, as well as to our international reputation.”
On Monday next week, a court case will being brought by two residents of Northern Ireland who have been lawfully married in England but whose marriage is only recognised as a civil partnership here.
Then, in December, a second case will seek to overturn the ban on gay couples getting married here.

What It’s Like To Be Young, LGBT And Vilified In Russia

06/11/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Curtis M. Wong
Gay Voices Senior Editor, The Huffington Post

Photographer Misha Friedman takes a look inside “The Iron Closet.”

MISHA FRIEDMAN

New Yorkers can get a no-holds-barred look at Russia’s beleaguered lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth as part of Brooklyn’s annual “pop-up” photography festival.
Photographer Misha Friedman, whose images have appeared in Time Magazine and The New Yorker, is bringing his exhibit, “The Iron Curtain,” to Photoville, which opened Sept. 10 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Friedman’s photos, presented by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, represent work that the photographer conducted over several years in Russia, he told The Huffington Post in an interview. His work with individual subjects lasted “several days to years,” he said.
Russia’s stance on its LGBT residents came under intense scrutiny last year in the wake of global speculation as to how its controversial “gay propaganda” law would impact foreign athletes participating in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, as well as attendees. It also sparked the ire of Elton John, Lady Gaga and Madonna, among other A-list stars.
While the global focus has receded somewhat in the meantime, Friedman said that Russia’s LGBT community is facing more discrimination than ever. In fact, three of the subjects in his “Iron Curtain” photos have since had to leave Russia, he said, because of their sexuality.
“Just because something is not in the news does not mean its not happening,” he said.
Now in its fourth year, the 2014 edition of Photoville runs through Sept. 20, and features more than 70 exhibitions. Head here for more details.

MISHA FRIEDMAN

National Day of Remembrance on Sunday

06/11/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

The annual Act of Remembrance for those who died in the two World Wars will be held this coming Sunday (8 November) at The Cenotaph, Garden of Remembrance, City Hall, Belfast.

The service will commence at 11am, and is expected to last around an hour. Anyone who wishes to attend can join us in the UUP room in City Hall (ground floor front) beforehand. There is a reception afterwards.

I spoke on Monday night in council on the minutes of the Diversity Working Group of 8 October 2015 (extract below) to encourage a substantial Blitz Memorial inscribed with the names of the 1,000 dead and the affected streets to be placed on the west side of City Hall. (I am chairman of the DWG.) The Belfast Telegraph has covered the matter in an article with some evocative images (link further below).

“Officers have also discussed possible locations available for a large-scale memorial within the grounds of City Hall. It is estimated that the current monument to the Titanic cost in the region of £120,000 – £150,000. Any monument in the grounds of City Hall would require Listed Building Consent, and previous discussions with Environmental and Heritage Services indicate there may be difficulties obtaining planning permission for any structure which is considerable in size.

Also, finding an appropriate space in the East side would be extremely difficult because of the existing Titanic Memorial Garden. The front of City Hall is mainly laid out in lawns and recent commemoration structures such as the Magennis (VC) Memorial have been small in nature and balanced off with other statues.

Members may consider that due to the nature of the proposed Blitz memorial, the Cenotaph area might be deemed a more appropriate location.”

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/archive/events/belfast-plans-to-mark-75th-anniversary-of-blitz-34171488.html

What about social justice?

05/11/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Editorial: I came across this article by John Vincent, runs courses and lectures, writes, produces regular newsletters and ebulletins, and lobbies for greater awareness of the role that libraries, archives and museums play in contributing to social justice, and is also the author ofLGBT People and the UK Cultural Sector and along with John Pateman, Public Libraries and Social Justice. John was deservedly awarded a Honorary Fellowship for his work by Cilip in 2014.

My interest lies in the paragraph which states ‘…if, ten years ago, you looked for examples of public library websites that strongly promoted their LGBT provision, there would have been many good examples. Today, there are hardly any…’

Please read and let NIGRA know what you think about our current provision in NI LIbraries!

What about social justice?

John Vincent

Leon and I bumped into each other at the CILIP “Big Day”, where we were celebrating the achievements of the three finalists for the CILIP Libraries Change Lives Award, and he invited me to write a piece about social justice and community libraries.
This seems an entirely appropriate moment to consider this issue, as, at the “Big Day”, we were urged by William Sieghart to go out and copy the work of the three outstanding finalists (the winners, Northamptonshire Library and Information Service and the Northamptonshire Enterprise PartnershipEnterprise Hubs; and the finalists Hertfordshire Library Service and KidsHublibrary sessions, and Leeds Library Service Studio 12 – Writing Leeds) – William also declared that:
“We need to do something urgently. We’re at a Beeching moment – the review that led to the closure of railway branch lines – which many regret, and that’s why this is urgent.”
However, the one issue which William Sieghart’s talk seemed to gloss over was the role of libraries in working towards social justice!
An aside before we begin: some public libraries are working to tackle social exclusion, and have been doing so (albeit under different names) long before the introduction of the formal policy in 1997 – think, for example, of the community librarianship and outreach heydays of the 1970s and 1980s. However, it is also worth reminding ourselves that the research which led toOpen to all? [1], published by the then Resource in 2000, demonstrated that:
“… there are wide differentials between UK public library authorities [PLAs] in terms of activity relevant to social inclusion:

The survey estimates that only one-sixth of PLAs approximate to a comprehensive model of good practice for social inclusion. Most PLAs (60%), although having developed some initiatives, have no comprehensive strategy and uneven and intermittent activity. A final group of one-quarter of PLAs are those with little apparent strategy and service development
Targeting of disadvantaged neighbourhoods and social groups is used comprehensively by only approximately one-third of PLAs. Recent service developments in libraries, such as the development of ICT networks and literacy initiatives, tend to be targeted at socially excluded people in only a small minority of cases
Most PLAs report fairly high levels of community involvement by their staff but this tends to be at a general level, rather than focussed on disadvantage or exclusion
Most PLAs have no consistent resource focus on exclusion, and this is sometimes very marginal indeed. A minority of PLAs are very active in developing partnership projects but this is not a dominant factor in most PLA social exclusion strategies
Many of the UK’s most marginal and excluded people are not considered to be a priority in PLA strategy, service delivery and staffing. This applies especially to a number of social groups who commonly face stigma and discrimination: e.g. Refugees; Homeless People; Travellers.” [p ix]

There was a concerted effort by some public library services after 2000 to put inclusion at their core. However, I think that social justice involves taking this a stage further still, for example by recognising the current harsh and discriminatory treatment of all kinds of groups in society (claimants, single parents, migrants, disabled people) and finding ways in which the library can provide information and other support (eg meeting spaces) to assist communities to fight for their rights, and also to help people think through where “the truth” may lie. In its policy guidelines, What makes a good library service?, CILIP says that:
“A good library service will deliver against key policy objectives and provide:
• … Equality, community cohesion and social justice …” [p2]
So, how are we doing?
As the CILIP Libraries Change Lives Award finalists (and, indeed, the other applicants for the Award) have demonstrated, despite the gloomy economic and political climate for public libraries, there is brilliant work going on in some libraries – work which not only supports communities that may otherwise be marginalised (unemployed people; children with special needs and their families; and young people from BME communities, many were excluded from school, experienced poor formal education and many have been long-term unemployed – to take the three finalists), but also shows how vital a public library can be.
However, is this pattern universal across the UK? To take two examples, if, ten years ago, you looked for examples of public library websites that strongly promoted their LGBT provision, there would have been many good examples. Today, there are hardly any.
When the Welcome To Your Library project finished in 2007, there was growing interest in developing provision for ‘new arrivals’ (refugees, asylum-seekers, migrant workers, etc), not only from the six WTYL partner areas, but across the UK – now, provision is minimal, with only a very few libraries targeting and providing services.
We know some of the reasons why this is happening: lack of library staff, time and resources; communities overwhelmed by other demands on their time; possibly political views about ‘new arrivals’.
But is there more to it? Could it be that, surreptitiously, we’ve become worn down by the calls to return to building-based services, to concentrate on existing users and their demands, to abandon ‘risky’ types of service, or services that do not show ‘high returns’ such as increased issue figures and visitor numbers? We do know that the sort of work that is required to make public libraries really relevant is time-intensive, and often involves relatively small numbers of users.
In addition, how many public library services have actually taken this sort of work into their core? Is social justice (or tackling social exclusion) embedded in everything they do, for example in making funding priority decisions? Or is it an add-on? Is it seen as a core activity, or a ‘project’? (And, by ‘project’, I mean something that is time-limited and short-term funded.) One of the dangers is that, when funding diminishes and when external funding sources dry up, so ‘social justice work’ also stops, instead of its being seen as a core activity.
And this then brings us to community libraries. I am arguing here that, currently, social justice is already on the ‘back-burner’ for some libraries, and, with politicians’ apparent urgent desire to decimate local services (at a time when, ludicrously, Britain is starting to commit vast sums of money to a highly risky and unproven war strategy in the Near East and North Africa; and the anomaly of savage cuts to local services whilst giving huge grants to businesses is only just being explored by the media), libraries – along with other vital provision – continue to be at risk.
The pros and cons of community libraries are neatly summed up in the new report from OPM and Locality, Rural library services in England: exploring recent changes and possible futures:
“Where communities have become more directly involved in supporting or managing their rural libraries, they can evolve into more effective, positive and well-used venues than their predecessors. This can involve the nurturing of a
library’s role in supporting social interaction, strengthening community ties, hosting events and activities to appeal to a wider range of people and creating space for clubs and societies to flourish.
In other cases, however, library friends groups might save a branch but bring with them very limited perceptions about what that facility will offer. As such, library service managers are sometimes concerned about the inability of some of their community libraries to live up to what should be expected of a local library from the point of view of standards / consistency of service and inclusivity.” [pp5-6, emphasis theirs]
It is this approach that has led to library provision becoming something of a postcode lottery, particularly where libraries have been ‘cast adrift’ by their local authority, losing the steer that they had previously.
Libraries must be properly funded and properly staffed if they are to take their rightful place in the struggle for social justice – and working towards social justice has to be their core aim. Without that, what is their purpose?

(http://leonslibraryblog.com/2014/10/13/what-about-social-justice/)

International ‘pro-family’ congress to coincide with Day Against Homophobia

05/11/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

by DOMINIK K. CAGARA | Nov 4, 2015

A major ‘family values’ conference will be held in Tbilisi on the 17 May amidst fears that it might be yet another attempt at silencing LGBT rights activism
Georgia was chosen as the site for the tenth World Congress of Families, Christian News Wirereported.
The international conference and festival will be held in Tbilisi on 16–18 May, so it will coincide with the Day of Family Strength and Respect for Parents on the 17 May that was established by the Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church last year.
The World Congress of Families is an NGO based in Illinois USA. Its mission statement reads that its aim is to ‘affirm that the natural human family is established by the Creator’.
The organisation stands for the idea of marriage between a man and a woman and opposes ‘pornography, promiscuity, incest or homosexuality’ which it sees as deviations from ‘natural sexual norms’.
American NGO Southern Poverty Law Centre has included the organisation in its list of anti-LGBT hate groups. It is also notorious for its links with the Kremlin and its support for the 2013 Russian LGBT propaganda law.
The local organising committee for the conference includes activists from the Demographic Renaissance Foundation of Georgia Levan Vasadze and Tinatin Khorbaladze.
Mr Vasadze told Christian News Wire that ‘[w]e Georgians are honoured and humbled by this great opportunity and privilege to host World Congress of Families X. As one of the oldest Christian nations on earth, we think this will be a refreshing opportunity for me and my fellow Georgians to meet Westerners (unlike those sent to Tbilisi by George Soros) who affirm human rights for all persons from conception to natural death but also defend the Truth, Beauty, and Goodness found in the Natural Family as the fundamental and only sustainable unit of society’.
The 17 May is internationally observed as the Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.
In 2013, Tbilisi saw unprecedented violence when Orthodox Christian activists, including members of the clergy, prevented a peaceful LGBT rights demonstration and attacked its participants as the police was trying to evacuate them. Twenty-eight people were injured, among them two journalists and three policemen.
Although the Patriarchate officially dissociated itself from the events, it has since attempted to reclaim 17 May as the day of the values which it brokers, in its view, in opposition to the LGBT rights movement.
Following the violent events, the government led by the Georgian Dream party stressed the public right to demonstration. Prime minister Irakli Gharibashvili has, however, called for amending the constitution so it defines a family as a union between a man and a woman.
Earlier this year, the Public Defender’s Office issued a report in which it concluded that Georgia took ‘no real steps towards protecting the rights of sexual minorities’.
All defendants in the 2013 anti-gay rights attack case were recently acquitted despite aggravating video evidence.
Irakli Vasadze, one of the leaders of NGO Identoba commented the attempts of Christian groups to reclaim the 17 May.
‘I do not believe that there is any conflict between us and the Church in claiming the 17 May, because, luckily for us, we didn’t set the date, and sadly for them, they simply appointed the date and invented the Day of Family [Strength and Respect for Parents] just to silence yet another community. We’ve been able to show that the Orthodox Church hates not only the LGBT people, but also women, artists, painters — like most recently Lia Ukleba who simply painted Saint Mary with a gun at her head. The Church tries to censor every expression of individuality in Georgia, including anything that is remotely related to sexuality. I believe that the Church is about dominating public spaces regardless the origin of the community: sexual minorities, women, or religious minorities. It’s a larger trend than a simple juxtaposition of LGBT politics on one hand and the Church politics on the other hand. We are looking at a fight of David and Goliath. David changed, but Goliath remained the same’.
Reported by Dominik K. Cagara

Almost two thirds of NI people ‘comfortable with same-sex marriage’, survey suggests

05/11/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

By Mark DevenportBBC News NI Political Editor

4 November 2015

Same-sex marriage survey results — Image captionAttitudes towards same sex-marriage appear remarkably similar on either side of the border, the survey suggests

Almost two thirds of people in Northern Ireland would feel comfortable if a family member had a same-sex marriage, a new survey suggests.

About 2,000 people in both NI and the Republic of Ireland were interviewed about issues from national identity to abortion and same-sex marriage.
The survey was jointly commissioned by BBC Northern Ireland and Irish state broadcaster, RTÉ.
On Monday, a majority of MLAs in the NI Assembly voted for same-sex marriage.
This was a first for Northern Ireland.
However, the motion was blocked by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) which tabled what is known as a petition of concern.
Next week, the first of two legal challenges to the Northern Ireland Executive on same-sex marriage is due to reach the courts.

A gay couple exchanging wedding rings — Image captionOn Monday, for the first time, a majority of MLAs backed same-sex marriage

Last week, same sex-marriage officially became lawful in the Irish Republic, after more than 60% of voters backed it in a referendum held in May.
According to the cross-border survey, carried out by the polling company B&A, attitudes towards same sex-marriage appear remarkably similar on either side of the border.
In Northern Ireland, 64% of those surveyed said they would feel very or fairly comfortable if a member of their family married someone of the same gender, while 23% indicated they would feel very or fairly uncomfortable.
In the Republic of Ireland, a slightly higher proportion, 67%, indicated they would feel comfortable but 21% said they would be uncomfortable.
The survey was conducted last month.

LGBT rights in Russia: Majority of Russians want to ‘liquidise’ or ostracise homosexuals

04/11/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

By Tom Po rter

More than half of Russians want gay people either ‘liquidated’ or rejected from society, according to a poll. The hardening of homophobic attitudes comes in the wake of the Russian government’s ‘gay propaganda’ legislation.
The poll, carried out independent pollsters the Levada Centre, found that 21% of Russians want members of the LGBT community ‘liquidated’, while 37% argued that they should be separated from society.

The poll is the latest of a series conducted since 1989 charting Russians’ views towards minorities. As part of a series of liberalising reforms in the 1990s, homosexuality was legalised in 1993, and five years later removed from a list of mental disorders. A 1999 poll found that only 15% wanted gay people liquidated, and 23% thought they should be ostracised. This was a significant reduction from the 63% who thought homosexuals should be liquidated or ostracised in 1989, the year of the fall of Soviet communism.
Under the presidency of Vladimir Putin, attitudes towards homosexuals have become increasingly negative. In a poll carried out in May, 37% of Russians told the centre that they believed homosexuality is a disease that needs treating.
In December, Human Rights Watch accused Russian authorities of ignoring rising homophobic violence. “Russian law enforcement agencies have the tools to prosecute homophobic violence, but they lack the will to do so,” said Russia researcher Tanya Cooper.
Under Russia’s ‘gay propaganda’ laws, which were passed in 2013, it is illegal to provide those under 18 with information on same-sex relationships.

Watch the new trailer for Grinder

04/11/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

15th October 2015 by Daniel Megarry

A trailer for new film Grinder has been released, and it showcases the darker side of gay life.

The story follows gay teenager Luke, who is seduced by a model agent to run away from his troubled home in the suburbs to the bright lights of New York. While there, he meets an older photographer who becomes obsessed with him and tries to stop him sinking into the dark world that awaits him.

Starring in the film are Jon Fleming, of Will and Grace and Dante’s Cove fame; Brandon Ruckdashel, who also wrote and directed the film; and newcomer Tyler Austin.

The film’s creators are currently submitting it to film festivals, and it’s expected to receive a 2016 release

Poverty among gay people common but often ignored – campaigner

04/11/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

By Astrid Zweynert

PHNOM PENH (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Phally barely scrapes together enough money to survive by selling fried papayas on the streets of Phnom Penh.

The 27-year-old gay man would like to expand his small business to sell chicken wings and desserts.
But it has been impossible to get a loan, adding to a long list of problems he is facing in his native Cambodia, where discrimination against sexual minorities is deep-rooted and anecdotal evidence suggests many gays live in poverty.
Poverty eradication is one of the new global development goals agreed by world leaders last month but there is no specific mention of sexual minorities and the global extent of poverty among this group is little known due a lack of data.
To help people like Phally, Micro Rainbow International, a non-profit organisation which aims to lift lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people out of poverty, has set up a crowdsourcing platform to help individuals boost their income and economic opportunities.
“Poverty among LGBTI people doesn’t get a lot of attention,” Sebastian Rocca, chief executive of Micro Rainbow told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“There is little data yet but it is clear from our work that in an environment where poverty and prejudice are widespread, like in Cambodia, many LGBTI people are finding it hard to make a living and face rejection and violence from their families.”
In 76 countries, many of which are in Africa and Asia, gay and transgender people are criminalised and persecuted, according to Micro Rainbow.
Micro Rainbow provides support for LGBTI people to set up small businesses, and also works with companies to break down discrimination and offer training opportunities.
Much attention has focussed on changes in the law to end discrimination against gay people but legal changes do not automatically translate into acceptance by society, said Rocca.
“Look at South Africa – best laws in the world but lesbians get raped every day,” he said. “Just changing the laws is not enough. We need to change social attitudes as well.”
By improving economic opportunities for gay people, society’s attitude will also change, in particular in poor countries, where having a small business can often mean much-needed extra income for the family, Rocca said.
“When we helped a lesbian to set up a food cart… everything around her changed. Her family no longer rejected her, they started to work in her small business with her. Her younger brothers, who were rubbish collectors, were able to go to school because she paid the fees,” said Rocca.
Apart from Cambodia, the organisation works with governments and local citizen groups in Brazil and Britain, and it plans to expand to Uganda, Zimbabwe and the Philippines.
Rocca said even countries with relatively progressive anti-discrimination laws, such as Brazil, had high levels of cultural prejudices, making it hard for gays and lesbians to find jobs and exposing them to violence.
A survey among LGBTI people carried out by Micro Rainbow in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas found 61 percent of respondents were unemployed and lived in poverty.
Rocca cited a “gay affluence myth” as one of the reasons why poverty among sexual minorities has not been getting a lot of attention.
“There is this myth that we need to revise that gays and lesbians are rich and childless, at least in Western countries, and that’s not helping to focus attention on poverty among our community.”
(Reporting By Astrid Zweynert; Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)