ACOMSDave

Community Journalist

Archives for December 2015

Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez

By Leave a Comment

BWG
Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, ListsLance has always known he was gay, but he’s never had a real boyfriend. Sergio is bisexual, but his only real relationship was with a girl. When the two of them meet, they have an instant connection–but will it be enough to overcome their differences?
Allie’s been in a relationship with a guy for the last two years–but when she meets Kimiko, she can’t get her out of her mind. Does this mean she’s gay? Does it mean she’s bi? Kimiko, falling hard for Allie, and finding it impossible to believe that a gorgeous girl like Allie would be into her, is willing to stick around and help Allie figure it out.
Boyfriends with Girlfriends is Alex Sanchez at his best, writing with a sensitive hand to portray four very real teens striving to find their places in the world–and with each other.

Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists
Hardcover, 217 pages
Published April 19th 2011 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Boyfriends with Girlfriends
ISBN
1416937730 (ISBN13: 9781416937739)

‘Hoover’s War on Gays: Exposing the FBI’s Sex Deviates Program’ by Douglas M. Charles

By Leave a Comment

 
Hoover
‘Hoover’s War on Gays: Exposing the FBI’s Sex Deviates Program’ by Douglas M. Charles
>I confess to a degree of skepticism when I began reading Douglas M. Charles’s new tome, Hoover’s War on Gays: Exposing the FBI’s “Sex Deviates” Program. The activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and J. Edgar Hoover, its insufferable longtime director, would seem by this point to be well-worn scholarly territory. The field is both broad and deep. To name just a relevant few, FBI historian Athan Theoharis (a mentor to Charles) has written extensively about the FBI’s role in civil liberties abuses, Cold War-era red-baiting, and failed counterintelligence, and even addressed the longstanding rumors about Hoover’s own sexuality in J. Edgar Hoover, Sex, and Crime. Betty Medsger’s recent The Burglary detailed the rise and fall of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program that illegally surveilled and attacked a variety of civil rights, New Left, and countercultural groups. Meanwhile, Douglas Charles himself has surveyed the FBI’s role in “the rise of the domestic security state.” In his brief and brilliant exposé, The FBI’s Obscene File, he also described the bureau’s classification of alleged obscene materials, including how it used such classification to attempt to destroy the organized gay and lesbian movement. But as is often the case, a thorough scholarly explication of the role and importance of gays and lesbians to any particular historical moment has been the last to arrive. Fortunately, though, Hoover’s War on Gays is that necessary book. It takes its place beside such works as Kenneth O’Reilly’s Racial Matters, about the FBI’s attack on black civil rights organizations, in exhaustively detailing the effects of Hoover’s policies on specific social movements.

Charles dates Hoover and the FBI’s obsession with gays and lesbians to the 1930s, particularly the 1937 kidnapping and murder of a young boy named Charles Mattson. This particular case previewed features of decades of Hoover’s future actions: attacking marginalized groups for political gain and currying favor with the politically powerful. Despite there being no evidence that Mattson was sexually assaulted, the press reported that the FBI was seeking “sexual pervert[s]” in the case, and the public made mental associations between homosexuality and sexual degeneracy. Democratic president Franklin D. Roosevelt also made public statements regarding the case; this forced Hoover, a Republican appointee who was obsessed with maintaining his job and the FBI’s status, into prioritizing solving Mattson’s murder. Although the Mattson case was never solved, it was one prominent piece in a late 1930s sex crimes panic that played a role in Hoover’s beginning to collect information about gays as part of a larger drive against “sex offenders.” The FBI’s collecting of such information was intensive, building up to a formal Sex Deviates Program and File beginning in 1950. Although it was not confined to federal government employees, this program frequently used information gathered about such employees to have them fired. For Hoover, information collecting was in no way a passive activity; what he learned was used to destroy lives and to solidify his own power and influence.

And what of Hoover’s own sexuality? His relationship with right-hand man Clyde Tolson has certainly been cause for speculation, and that speculation was firmly in place during Hoover’s lifetime. But as Charles points out at the very beginning of Hoover’s War on Gays, comment on Hoover’s personal sexuality remains speculative. (Certainly anyone who believes the accounts of Hoover appearing in public in drag or at orgies — even without knowing the dubious sources of those claims–has very little understanding of the era in which Hoover lived or the social and political position he was attempting to maintain.) Still, Charles’s further assertion, that Hoover’s sexuality simply does not matter, may be surprising to many. He makes a compelling case, though: Hoover’s relentless assault on gays makes perfect sense even if he were straight. Gays and lesbians were an easy target in the culture wars, and rumors of the prominent’s homosexuality were politically advantageous to Hoover’s continued reign. While it may be psychologically satisfying to assume Hoover acted out of self-hatred, that prism is unnecessary; as Charles says, even if Hoover “was, as they say, straight as an arrow…[his] treatment and targeting of gays would still make sense to us given the era and the larger historical, political, social, and cultural forces at play.” For a thorough treatment of those forces, Hoover’s War on Gays will likely remain unsurpassed.

The creation of the Sex Deviates File in 1950 displays links to what historian David K. Johnson has dubbed “the Lavender Scare”–the long-term attack on federal employees that had its roots in the same era as McCarthyism. What Johnson showed and Charles more extensively documents here, though, is that the attack on gays in government predates the McCarthy era. The FBI had its hand in helping to oust Sumner Welles, FDR’s undersecretary of state, when Republicans receive evidence of Welles’ repeated drunken solicitations of African American train employees. This was just one of repeated FBI investigations into rumors surrounding the sexual lives of the prominent, among them Senator David I. Walsh, General Philip Faymonville, Supreme Court justice Abe Fortas, and Illinois governor and two-time Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson (whose index card from the Sex Deviates File is the only one to escape the file’s late 1970s destruction by the FBI). Some of these rumors were true, some not. What Charles makes clear is that Hoover ultimately did not care. These rumors’ truth or falsity was secondary to how useful they might be to Hoover in his relationships with the presidents and lawmakers whose favor he sought.
Of course, as time went on, there were increasing numbers of openly gay men and women for Hoover to harass and attack. The FBI’s investigations into, and surveillance and harassment of, among many others, Mattachine Society founder Harry Hay; Mattachine member and ONE, Inc. founder W. Dorr Legg; original Mattachine Society-DC leader Buell Dwight Huggins; the Daughters of Bilitis; Mattachine Society of Washington co-founder Jack Nichols (whose father, an FBI agent, was demoted and cut off all contact with his son after the FBI uncovered the connection), and, later, the Gay Liberation Front, show Hoover’s desire to crush subversion. That these men and women, who could easily have submitted to fear of the FBI’s power, continued to fight for social and legal changes forms an inspiring counter-narrative in what could have been (and sometimes is) a litany of sad tales. Although Hoover won many battles, the war continued well beyond his death in 1972, and the forces he supported are losing. And what of Hoover’s own sexuality? His relationship with right-hand man Clyde Tolson has certainly been cause for speculation, and that speculation was firmly in place during Hoover’s lifetime. But as Charles points out at the very beginning of Hoover’s War on Gays, comment on Hoover’s personal sexuality remains speculative. (Certainly anyone who believes the accounts of Hoover appearing in public in drag or at orgies — even without knowing the dubious sources of those claims–has very little understanding of the era in which Hoover lived or the social and political position he was attempting to maintain.) Still, Charles’s further assertion, that Hoover’s sexuality simply does not matter, may be surprising to many. He makes a compelling case, though: Hoover’s relentless assault on gays makes perfect sense even if he were straight. Gays and lesbians were an easy target in the culture wars, and rumors of the prominent’s homosexuality were politically advantageous to Hoover’s continued reign. While it may be psychologically satisfying to assume Hoover acted out of self-hatred, that prism is unnecessary; as Charles says, even if Hoover “was, as they say, straight as an arrow…[his] treatment and targeting of gays would still make sense to us given the era and the larger historical, political, social, and cultural forces at play.” For a thorough treatment of those forces, Hoover’s War on Gays will likely remain unsurpassed.
Hoover’s War on Gays: Exposing the FBI’s “Sex Deviates” Program
By Douglas M. Charles
University of Kansas Press
Hardcover, 9780700621194, 480 pp.
September 2015 – See more at: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/reviews/11/27/hoovers-war-on-gays-exposing-the-fbis-sex-deviates-program-by-douglas-m-charles/?utm_source=Lambda+Literary+Review+December+4th%2C+2015&utm_campaign=Newsletters&utm_medium=email#sthash.7vtdjm6j.dpuf

FOR DUBLIN’S LGBT HOMELESS, NOWHERE TO GO

By Leave a Comment

Dublin Inquirer  =  WILLY SIMON
 

Photo by Caroline Brady

Photo by Caroline Brady


 
It can be rough at home if you’re lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans kid. Sometimes leaving seems like the best option.
Unfortunately, many of the kids who strike out on their own under these circumstances end up on the streets.
In the US, studies indicate that about 40 percent of all young people accessing homeless services identify as LGBT. In the UK, a recent study found that a quarter of young homeless people are LGBT.
LGBT youth are probably overrepresented on Dublin’s streets too. But we don’t really know.
Back in 2013, Special Rapporteur on Child Protection Geoffrey Shannon told the Oirechtas Joint Committee on Health and Children that LGBT people are highly represented among Ireland’s homeless and require “a targeted response”.
That prompted David Carroll, director of BeLonG To, a national organisation for LGBT young people, to demand that the government take LGBT youth homelessness seriously, research what was going on, and come up with a national response.
That was two years ago. There hasn’t been a study yet.

The Path to Homelessness

Homelessness is a bigger problem among the LBGT youth in Ireland than many people realise, says Gillian Brien, manager of BeLonG To’s youth services in Dublin.
In many cases, it’s down to a lack of acceptance of their sexual orientation or gender at home, says Brien.
Those who make their way to Ireland’s more cosmopolitan capital city in hopes of finding acceptance can struggle to keep a roof over their head once they arrive.
Two of the main factors pushing young LGBT people into homelessness are the same ones affecting so many other people in Dublin: rising rents and reduced social-welfare payments, says Brien.
Since January 2014, 18-to-24-year-old job seekers only receive €100 a week. If they don’t have families supporting them, that’s not going to go far in paying for food, rent and other expenses.

A Low Priority?

Once homeless, young LGBT people have few places to get help. Homeless services are overwhelmed, and ill-equipped to deal with their unique sets of mental-health problems.

“It’s best to accommodate people with similar issues in the same setting,” says Francis Doherty of Peter McVerry Trust. That’s because it’s easier to tailor services for them, to help them get back on their feet.
But as the numbers of people seeking access to emergency accommodation skyrockets, homeless service providers are struggling to do even the basics.
“The primary objective at the minute is just making sure that we have enough accommodation and homeless services for people that need it,” says Doherty. “We are not able to break it down into niches or specific areas as much as we’d like to, unfortunately.”
Based on her outreach work, Brien says it appears that the number of homeless LGBT youth is on the rise, and they need a safe place to go.
With no homeless service that specialises in the needs of young LGBT people, all they are left with is the city’s homeless hostels, which tend to cater to people struggling with addiction issues.
Says Brien: “They’d ask, ‘This young man, does he have a drug issue?’ And we’d say, ‘No he’s actually a straight-A student in school, it’s just because of his sexual orientation, he’s been asked to leave the family home.’”
Generally, she says, those who provide the emergency accommodation say it’s not safe to put these often young men in dorms with drug users. BeLonG To agrees.

The Couch Surfers

Where the government has failed, others have stepped in.
“What’s definitely happened over the last two years is LGBT young people have come together and provided a safety net for their peers,” says Brien.
When BeLonG To cannot find any suitable housing for homeless LGBT young people, their peers will ask friends in the community if anyone has a couch available for a needy young person. Someone always steps forward with a couch to crash on.
“I’ve never seen a population of young people come together and be so resilient and supportive of each other,” says Brien.
But the resilience of the LGBT community is a bit of a double-edged sword.
While their informal support for one another keeps young LGBT people off the street, it also keeps them off the Dublin Region Homeless Executive’s radar.
Brien and her BeLonG To colleagues think this informal support network allows the government to treat the issue with less urgency. Which is why they are still searching for money from the government to conduct research to put some numbers to the issue.
They believe that the government won’t act until there are numbers documenting the extent of the problem.
“If we had the money to hire a researcher, you would see the levels of homelessness among this community,” Brien says. “I think it’s only then would there be a reaction around providing a safe home for LGBT young people.”

The Solution

For Doherty, of the Peter McVerry Trust, solving this problem is about about pinpointing why people are becoming homeless in the first place.
In the bigger picture, he thinks raising the rent supplement is key. But he also suggests that if they get a better understanding of how LGBT homelessness comes about in the first place, they may be able to prevent it through better outreach to families.
For Brien, of BeLonG To, an emergency shelter that caters to the needs of LGBT youth is crucial. A safe space similar to the Albert Kennedy Trust in the UK, perhaps.
That organisation caters specifically to homeless LGBT 16-to-25-year-olds. It joined forces with housing advocacy groups in the UK to create the “Purple Door” housing project, offering safe houses for young LGBT people rejected by their families.
The project gives young people places to stay, counselling, and career advice to help them get set up and become independent.
Brien says she and her BeLonG To colleagues will continue to lobby the government for such a service.
“If you support these young people and just give them somewhere to live, they will finish their studies go get qualifications and get jobs,” she says.
 

Editorial:

If you are in Northern Ireland 

You are not alone, if you want to talk to someone then you can contact:

  • Carafriend Telephone – 0808 8000 390 FREE – Free from landlines and most mobiles: 3, EE, O2, Virgin and Vodafone

  • NIGRA – 07719576524 and we will ring you back to take the call charges

What would you do if your child was gay?

By Leave a Comment

by Daniel Megarry

What-Would-You-Do

YouTube channel Culture Beats have been asking strangers around the world what they would do if their child was gay.

Most of the people asked said they would love their children regardless of their sexual orientation, and would try to understand.
A woman from Austria said: “You can’t do anything about it, because it’s not a decision he makes. He was born with this kind of orientation, so the only thing you can do is accept and support him.”
An Irish couple said: “I’d like to understand how he feels, it’s still your child. I would wish that he could find happiness whether he’s gay or straight. We’ve passed the gay law, gay people can marry now in our country. I’m very proud of that.”
Despite the majority showing acceptance, a few people had less positive views on the potential of a gay child.
A woman from the United Arab Emirates said: “I will kill him,” while a man off-screen said: “It’s against the natural law.”

When and where is being gay grounds for asylum?

By Leave a Comment

The Economist explains – Nov 19th 2013,

Hand reaching on LGBT flag
GAYS and lesbians in many parts of the world are celebrating. Fifteen countries allow homosexual couples to tie the knot, and in Britain a same-sex marriages bill will become law next year. Fifteen states in America have said “I do” to gay marriage. But elsewhere the picture is less rosy. Homosexuality is a crime in more than 75 countries, which threaten sentences ranging from fines to the death penalty. Because of this and abuse by their fellow citizens, every year thousands of gays and lesbians apply for asylum in more tolerant countries, citing fear of persecution. When and where is being gay grounds for asylum?
Many anti-gay laws are a hangover of the British empire. In 1533 the English parliament passed “An Acte for the punysshement of the vice of Buggerie”, the punysshement in question being death. Whereas gay sex has been legal in France since the late 18th century, it was banned in England until 1967. This helps explain why so many former British colonies in Africa still have anti-gay laws, while so few of the old French colonies do. It’s not always the fault of the Victorians, however: in some other countries, notably Russia, things have taken a recent turn for the worse.
The rules on asylum vary considerably. Italy automatically gives refuge to those from a country with anti-gay laws, while Spain makes it a lot harder. Many applications have been denied by countries that argued that gays can go home and avoid abuse simply by concealing their sexuality. America, Britain and a few others have stopped making this argument, but some European countries have continued to use the “be more discreet” defence. No longer. Earlier this month the European Court of Justice ruled that gays count as a “social group”, meaning they are eligible for asylum if they can demonstrate persecution (defined as the enforcement of prison sentences—mere fines or sporadic application of the law may not count). The verdict followed a similar ruling last year that religious refugees could not be asked to hide their faith or abstain from worship to avoid abuse back home.
But how can asylum seekers prove they are gay? Many authorities rely on absurd stereotypes to reject asylum claims: in Britain, for instance, gay applicants have been quizzed on their taste in music, according to Livio Zilli of the International Commission of Jurists, a human-rights lobby. Some applicants have gone to extreme lengths to prove their sexuality, including filming themselves in the bedroom. Sorting real from fake claims presents countries with a problem. They must solve it swiftly: because of the court ruling, the number of applications may well increase.

All of us: New educational resource to promote LGBT diversity in Australian schools

By Leave a Comment

Gay_Star_News_Logo

27 November 2015
by Sylvia Tan

The program is funded by the federal government and will be available to teachers next year

Snap 2015-12-06 at 14.30.37
Targeted at Year 7 and 8 students (12/13 years olds), All of US is the first resource of its kind to be launched and funded by the Australian federal government’s Department of Education.
The practical teaching kit was commissioned by LGBTI youth group Minus 18 and Safe Schools Coalition Australia which has more than 470 member schools dedicated to promoting LGBT diversity and acceptance in schools and reducing bullying against same-sex attracted and gender diverse students.
‘All Of Us has been developed to have a real impact on student attitudes towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and to encourage whole school change that affirms and supports the right of all students, staff and families to feel safe at school,’ says the official website.
Comprising seven video lessons, student handouts and posters, the program will form part of the health and physical education curriculum, and available for download and to all schools in both the public and private sector.
The videos explore the impact of homophobia and transphobia on students and schools, and explain what it’s like for a transgender young person to come out and affirm their gender.
Claiming that the Safe Schools Coalition Australia will ‘teach kids gay and lesbian techniques’, the Australian Christian Lobby has called for the program to be axed, the Sydney Morning Herald reported earlier this month.
Sally Richardson, national program director of Safe Schools said the latest resource has been driven and developed by teachers, and was in response to teachers who have for a long time asked for ‘additional support in the classroom to help teach topics of gender diversity, sexual diversity and intersex.’

Gordon Parks: Gay footballers – the last taboo or football’s greatest myth?

By Leave a Comment

Gregg Carrol took charge of Buckie Thistle in the Scottish Cup against Brechin in 2011.

GAY footballers? Who’d want to tackle that taboo, eh?

I have never shared a dressing room with an openly homosexual team-mate but a conversation earlier this week with Gregg 
Carrol was an eye opener.
Having kept his sexuality secret for decades as a player 
and boss with a host of Highland League clubs, he has walked away from the game by quitting as manager of Huntly.
He’s the only gay man I know in football or, more accurately, the only one I’m aware of.
There’s a bit of history to this tale. Having first met Gregg a few years ago when he was boss of Buckie Thistle, he didn’t suffer fools gladly. His team had played Stenhousemuir in a Scottish Cup tie but an incident where one his players appeared to punch a team-mate created a talking point for the reporters.
Not knowing Gregg from Adam, I asked what action he would be taking and he stared me down and said: ‘I’ll be dealing with it but it’s got **** all to do with you.”
Gregg Carrol (middle) with former Buckie Thistle goalkeeper Kevin Small (left) and Andy Low (right).Beating a hasty retreat, it’s clear he wasn’t a man to mess with but it also highlighted a desire to protect his players.
Our paths crossed again shortly after during an assignment to cover Buckie once more. Again it was his popularity, passion for the game and honest approach which struck me.
This week we spoke about 
“living a lie” over his sexuality and the decision to come out and confront the issues in his life.
He also told me about the 
support he’s had from within the game. To a man, he’s had nothing but compassion and backing from the players, coaches and committee men he’s encountered over his football career.
Gregg’s comments were an endorsement of the way the game can work for good within its own highly complex approach to often unspoken social realities.
Times have changed and, hands up, the caveman in me has also been replaced by someone who believes sport must be more honest and open about such matters.
It’s a myth to suggest a footballer should fear a backlash by coming out in the modern game. The only intolerance I witnessed at Dundee United, Clyde or Dumbarton was over my finishing.
The stigma doesn’t exist. In fact, coming out the closet these days could open a treasure chest of riches for a footballer. Chat shows, magazine features and instant celebrity status as well as all of the endorsements which would come with being a poster boy for the gay community’s battle for equality.
The attitudes of the past, Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang culture, have softened. The macho man has 
given way to more considerate and 
cosmopolitan player.
In fact, for any middle 
of the road footballers, 
coming out the closet could be considered a decent career move.
That’s not to trivialise the 
matter, it’s only to tell the truth.
There might have been a couple of guys I played with who were too scared to come out of the closet.
But you don’t have to look too far to see that attitudes towards gay athletes have been altered by 
campaigns against homophobia in football in recent times.
Carrol won’t be alone in hiding his sexuality within football but the game is ready to shatter that taboo

New Proud To Play sports festival to be held in New Zealand this February

By Leave a Comment

SB Nation LogoBy
@CydZeigler
on Dec 2, 2015
 
 

Proud to Play NZ

New Zealand organizers of the first-ever Proud To Play festival are excited to bring an LGBT sporting event to Aukland in 2016


 

first heard from Proud To Play organizer Craig Watson about a month ago. He was then, and remains, energetic and excited about his groundbreaking new LGBT sports event, set to hit Auckland this February. If you’re in the area, or have an interest in going, definitely think about participating. We have the feeling this is just the beginning.

Anyhow, here’s all the info from the Proud To Play organizers…

The very first Proud to Play sports festival will take place in Auckland, New Zealand, over 13-20 February 2016.  This new event includes 15 sports and sits alongside Auckland’s Pride Festival. 

The week-long event is aimed at the LGBTIF community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, takataapui, intersex, fa’afafine, and queer people), and their friends and whanau (family). 

It is expected about 500 people from across the Asia-Pacific region will register and the organizers expect the Auckland community will be a great host.

“We’ve been working closely with local, regional, and international LGBTIF teams and sports organizations,” Craig Watson, Proud to Play director, said. “Their advice is that we should expect around 500 people participating, which is fantastic and we know the community will show those from out of town a great time here.”

The 15 sports offered are: badminton, bridge, dancesport, dragon boating, golf, lawn bowls, netball, an ocean swim, road running, roller derby, swimming, tenpin bowling, tennis, touch, and volleyball.

All levels of participation are offered, from social and entry-level grades to competitive, and you don’t need to be a member of a team right now to participate as the organizers will find you a team once you register. 

The sports competitions will be hosted in quality venues across Auckland: the Trust Arena, the West Wave Pool and Leisure Centre, Pins Lincoln, and Te Pai Tennis Club. The ocean swim is part of the well-known Bean Rock Swim.

A philosophy of inclusivity, to break down barriers

The philosophy of the new Proud to Play tournament is based on the idea of playing sport in an inclusive environment – being proud to play, regardless of one’s sexual orientation or gender identity. 

Proud to Play has welcomed three well-known athletes as Ambassadors for the festival: Louisa Wall – now part of New Zealand’s government and the MP responsible for the legislation ensuring marriage equality – she represented the country in both netball and rugby; Robbie Mason, an Olympic rower for Team New Zealand; and Blake Skjellerup, a short track speed skater who represented New Zealand at the 2010 Winter Olympics. 

“It’s great to have an LGBTIF sporting event like Proud to Play in Auckland,” said Mason. “I hope everyone of all athletic abilities will sign up for at least one sport and take part”.

“Proud to Play is a community sporting event for everyone,” Skjellerup added. “Sexuality, ability, gender, everyone is invited to take part and that is what makes Proud to Play an extremely important and exciting event”

Registration is open now, and everyone is encouraged to BE PROUD TO PLAY. 

You can register for the very first Proud to Play tournament here.

Keep up to date with all the Proud to Play news here on Facebook.

Aotearoa New Zealand a proudly diverse country

Aotearoa New Zealand is a country with a diverse and multi-cultural population.  The Auckland region in particular is known to have a superdiverse population, with more than 25% of people living there having been born overseas.

New Zealand was the first country to allow women to vote, and one of the first countries to legalise same-sex marriage.  New Zealand’s rainbow community – lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, takataapui, intersex and fa’afafine people – is protected from legal, social and economic discrimination. 

For such a small country, New Zealand has some world-renowned sporting successes.  While the All Blacks are the current Rugby World Cup Champions, the Silver Ferns national netball team have held second place in the World Championships since 2007.  Individual athletes of note include Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mt Everest; Danyon Loader, Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer; Valerie Adams, world shotput record-holder; Lydia Ko, number one women’s amateur golfer; and surfer Ella Williams recently won bronze at the World Games in Nicaragua.

 

The Commonwealth is working on LGBT issues

By Leave a Comment

ldv-logoBy | Fri 4th December 2015 – 2:55 pm

Most people wouldn’t know that the large biennial Commonwealth Heads of CommonwealthGovernment Meeting (CHOGM) just took place in Malta. The Telegraph made a quip about the ‘Dictators Club’, the Daily Mail twisted some policy announcements. The Independent had bits of coverage. The Guardian, surprisingly, stuck to rewording Government press releases.
Tim Farron also intervened on the subject of LGBT rights. Paraphrasing: he said that the Government should be raising LGBT rights as an issue using its position of strength in the Commonwealth. This statement got coverage – the point was well landed! But when you think for a moment, you realise the intervention was wrong.
LGBT rights were actually a major topic. The Commonwealth People’s Forum, the Civil Society part of CHOGM, made part of its post-Forum Declaration on LGBT rights. The Commonwealth Secretary General reprimand to leaders in his pre-CHOGM speech, and a quick check of Hansard, shows that Baroness Verma announced weeks ago she would chair a CHOGM discussion on LGBT rights.
Admittedly LGBT rights aren’t mentioned in the CHOGM communique or Leaders Statement, but that’s not surprising. The Commonwealth uses a strict consensus mechanism. Instead of occupying a position of strength, as Tim Farron suggests, Britain is just one of 53 members. Our entire policy platform can be vetoed by Tuvalu if that government wishes. There’s no qualified voting based on size and no Security Council permanent seat. The Commonwealth is what many Liberal Democrats campaign for elsewhere: a respectful, rules-based international institution where vulnerable states leverage the same influence as ‘big’ powers. In that situation, does anyone expect the states that persecute LGBT people not to veto condemnation of their behaviour?
That doesn’t mean LGBT rights weren’t raised. According to EU reviews, the UK is the most progressive European state on the subject of LGBT rights, and Cameron has used LGBT rights as part of his drive to detoxify the Toryies. In addition, the CHOGM was hosted by another state and leader with a strong LGBT record. And even if one thinks Prime Ministers Cameron and Muscat wouldn’t raise LGBT rights: it’s hard to imagine Canadian PM Justin Trudeau not fighting that fight.
The reality is that the CHOGM takes place without the media present. The CHOGM Retreat is also totally off the record; so there’s never a record of discussions. Yet you can still piece together what happened.
First, as pointed out, LGBT rights were deliberately raised in the CHOGM margins and clearly in the foundations of some kind of Maltese strategy. Secondly, despite the consensus mechanism and de-facto vetoes, the Commonwealth appointed a new Secretary-General on a LGBT rights’ platform, so clearly the British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and Maltese diplomatic services have been busy. Thirdly; the UK will host the next CHOGM in 2018. It’s inconceivable, given the British debate, that the Government would host in 2018 if its policy wasn’t to raise LGBT rights at CHOGMs.
This is not to say the Commonwealth is strong on LGBT right. Peter Tatchell is right in calling the Commonwealth a bastion of homophobia, and our Governments efforts are small steps to changing that. But our party resorted to an inaccurate sound bite and missed an opportunity to wield influence. We mistook lack of media interest for lack of progress.
We could turn that around and yet add to the debate about using the Commonwealth not just to advance LGBT rights, but also to further our wider international goals. After all, if the Toryies can provide the Commonwealth with £15 million to capitalise a disaster insurance programme that helps poor countries respond to crises more quickly, deliver a £5.6 million new development programme for the world’s smallest countries, establish a £5 million counter-extremism programme, and a youth network to prevent radicalisation; imagine what a Liberal Democrat Government could achieve.
* Dan Smith is a psuedonym. The author is known to the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He has a professional background in foreign and commonwealth affairs.
Read more by or more about or .

Northern Ireland’s gay marriage ban: Judgment reserved on legal challenge

By Leave a Comment

Belfast Telegraph logo
PUBLISHED04/12/2015
 
 

PANews BT_P-ca7a8c9c-f29f-410a-823d-0c4c18d6aca6_I1

Shannon Sickles, left, and Grainne Close say the prohibition on same sex marriage breaches their human rights


 

Judgment has been reserved in a landmark legal challenge to Northern Ireland’s ban on gay marriage

Two couples, Grainne Close and Shannon Sickles and Chris and Henry Flanagan-Kanem brought the case claiming the region’s prohibition on same sex marriage breached their human rights.
Mr Justice O’Hara heard the high profile case in tandem with another action in which two men who wed in England want their marriage recognised in Northern Ireland.
The judge told Belfast High Court: “There are a lot of issues raised in this case and the other. I will give my judgment after Christmas.”
Both couples were, respectively, the first and second in the UK to enter into a civil partnership after Northern Ireland became the first part of the UK to make that option available in December 2005.

Following the Yes vote in May’s referendum on marriage equality in the Irish Republic, Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK or Ireland where civil marriage is denied to same-sex couples.
Legal proceedings have been taken against the Department of Finance and Personnel on grounds that the ban contravenes entitlements to marriage and a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Outlining the department’s objections to the judicial review, barrister Tony McGleenan QC said the State had no “positive obligation” to permit gay marriage because civil partnerships met the minimum requirements set out under human rights legislation.
Mr McGleenan said: ” We say there has been no interference with the applicants’ Article eight rights.
“We say that because in this context all the applicants are civil partners they enjoy the rights and benefits that go with that. What they are lacking is the ability to call the relationship, marriage.
“There is no doubt that causes consternation and concern..
“But is it an interference with their Article eight rights? We say not.”
The lawyer said the issue has been “looked at exhaustively” with three rulings at Strasbourg, most recently in October.
“Strasbourg has spoken six weeks ago on this issue,” he added. “There is clear and consistent juris prudence.
“Article eight (of European Convention on Human Rights) does not give rise to a positive obligation to same sex marriage. Article 12 does not give rise to a positive obligation to same sex marriage and both of those taken together with Article 14 do not give rise to any issue of discrimination.”
Earlier this year about 20,000 campaigners marched through Belfast city centre demanding a change in the law.
However Northern Ireland’s devolved Stormont Assembly has repeatedly refused to legislate on the contentious issue.
Although the majority of MLAs voted in favour of introducing gay marriage when it was debated for a fifth time last month, the proposal fell because unionists who oppose the move deployed a controversial voting mechanism to effectively veto it.
Mr McGleenan claimed a court intervention could undermine devolution.
He said: “It is not a matter that is being ignored. It is live in the democratic process. The applicants may not be satisfied with the pace, outcomes or infrastructure but it cannot be deemed that it is not a live issue.”
Northern Ireland’s Attorney General John Larkin QC also addressed the court briefly.
Mr Larkin, Stormont’s chief legal advisor, said he wanted to “echo” the views of the department, deal with “devolution” issues and highlight the absence of any “wrongful act” – such as a refusal to marry from the registry office at Belfast City Hall.
On Thursday a barrister representing both couples argued that Northern Ireland was a “blot on the map” and that the ban marginalised gay people as “biological oddities”.
Throughout the hearing, Ms Close and Ms Sickles listened intently from the public gallery where they sat among a number of gay rights campaigners.
The male applicants were not in court.
Outside Ms Close said she felt it had been a “fair hearing”.
She said: “It has been an intense couple of days. We now need to wait.
“Our love is equal. It is not any less. It is equal.
“We are not here to look for a religious ceremony or a religious marriage; we are here for civil marriage and for our love to be represented as equal.”
Amnesty International has supported both couples throughout the legal process.
Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty’s Northern Ireland programme director who was present throughout the two-day hearing, said: “We look forward to new year weddings. We’re hopeful the judgment will allow many committed, loving couples in Northern Ireland the simple right to get married.
“It is shameful that these couples were forced to appeal to the courts to get equal treatment and that a minority of politicians have continued to block this progress, in defiance of public opinion.”