This week I would like to shed light on actual cases of discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community that live in what are considered “developing” or more conservative areas around the world. Sometimes it is easier to connect to tangible accounts to make the situation more vivid, especially in places where the government itself condones active discrimination of LGBTQ members and casts a blind eye towards violence or abuse.
For example, “during the Universal Periodic Review at the Human Rights Council…Iraq expressly and officially rejected calls by UN member States to act to protect persons on account of their sexual preferences, and to investigate homophobic hate crimes and to bring perpetrators of such crimes to justice,” (UN Human Rights Report). It is no surprise then that the UN continually receives reports of violence and abuse towards individuals based on their actual or perceived sexual orientations in Iraq. In particular, the issue of “perceived sexual orientation” may clearly just be based upon who someone associates with and is friends with, regardless of the fact that they may actually consider themselves straight. This can then put that individual in a vulnerable position of attack. Or, if someone wants to publicly disgrace a certain individual for an outside personal reason, it is easy to conspire a fabricated story about their sexual orientation and land fundamentalist attacks against them. Of course this has always been true of any ostracized group and results in a crumbling social network for individuals of the LGBTQ community, adversely affecting mental health, overall well being, and active visible LGBTQ rights groups, not to mention the constant threat of attacks.
In Iraq specifically, “the Iraqi Penal Code does not expressly prohibit homosexual relations between consenting adults. However, a variety of less specific, flexible provisions in the Iraqi Penal Code130 leave room for active discrimination and prosecution of LGBT persons and feeds societal intolerance.” At the same time, policemen and courts commonly take real or perceived homosexuality of a victim into account for certain hate crimes, with the intent of mitigating the persecution of the perpetrator.
To paint an even more disturbing picture, on June 16th 2010, 12 police officers burst into a “safe house” in Karbala’ and violently beat up and blindfolded the six occupants before taking them away in three vans. According the UN report, the six people arrested included three men, one woman and two transgender people. Five of the individuals have since been untraceable and one man sought emergency medical care with a severe throat laceration after claiming he had been tortured.
Other reports have included the case of ten men who were persecuted in Baghdad on account of perceived or actual sexual orientation. They experienced “extreme forms violence and abuse at the hands of members of the Mahdi Army, police officers, religious leaders and local criminal gangs, which had forced them to flee to a neighboring country in May 2009 from where they hoped to seek protection in third countries.”
With women in mind, the book titled Unspoken Rules by Rachel Rosenbloom argues that homosexuality as a whole is hardly accepted, but lesbian existence, in particular is hardly even acknowledged. According to Rosenbloom, “In Colombia, the term, “homosexual” has a fundamentally masculine frame of reference (and) Columbian society denies women the exercise of sexuality for pleasure.” This makes public disclosure nearly impossible and gay bars have even been noted to openly exclude lesbians.
In India, where marriage with a man is “instilled in the minds of young girls as the focal point of a woman’s life,” similar issues of discrimination persists, to the point where women have been driven to commit suicide. Same-sex relations were illegal under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code until July 2nd, 2009 when the Delhi High Court overturned the 150 year old section, legalizing consensual homosexual activities between adults. However, societal pressures and strong familial pressures, especially, persist.
Moreover, from personal experiences in other countries such as Tanzania it is evident that even among the more educated population, predominantly anti-homosexual sentiments arise. When speaking with Tanzanian university students the issue of HIV/AIDS and homosexuality came up in which one student responded, “I hate the gays.” Another one my friends who is currently a medical student at a well-known medical institution in northern Tanzania replied that she would cry if she found out that her son or daughter was gay and “simply wouldn’t know what to do.” The point here is that educated people, who are also some of the most determined, hard-working, loving and caring people I met his past summer still house prejudices against members of the LGBT community. An interesting note is that perhaps they do share other more positive or liberal sentiments but because of the taboo in their culture and society, they must acquiesce to the norm of social disapproval of LGBTQ members.
Through all of these accounts it is clear that LGBTQ international rights still have a long way to go. It is easy to get discouraged, however, I will be exploring positive interventions in the upcoming weeks from organizations like The Global Fund for Women and International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Both of these organizations have sought grassroots level community groups to support for their motives in advancing LGBTQ rights, while also operating at a higher level within the UN.
Implicit & Explicit Discrimination of LGBTQ members in an International Context
This week I would like to shed light on actual cases of discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community that live in what are considered “developing” or more conservative areas around the world. Sometimes it is easier to connect to tangible accounts to make the situation more vivid, especially in places where the government itself condones active discrimination of LGBTQ members and casts a blind eye towards violence or abuse.
For example, “during the Universal Periodic Review at the Human Rights Council…Iraq expressly and officially rejected calls by UN member States to act to protect persons on account of their sexual preferences, and to investigate homophobic hate crimes and to bring perpetrators of such crimes to justice,” (UN Human Rights Report). It is no surprise then that the UN continually receives reports of violence and abuse towards individuals based on their actual or perceived sexual orientations in Iraq. In particular, the issue of “perceived sexual orientation” may clearly just be based upon who someone associates with and is friends with, regardless of the fact that they may actually consider themselves straight. This can then put that individual in a vulnerable position of attack. Or, if someone wants to publicly disgrace a certain individual for an outside personal reason, it is easy to conspire a fabricated story about their sexual orientation and land fundamentalist attacks against them. Of course this has always been true of any ostracized group and results in a crumbling social network for individuals of the LGBTQ community, adversely affecting mental health, overall well being, and active visible LGBTQ rights groups, not to mention the constant threat of attacks.
In Iraq specifically, “the Iraqi Penal Code does not expressly prohibit homosexual relations between consenting adults. However, a variety of less specific, flexible provisions in the Iraqi Penal Code130 leave room for active discrimination and prosecution of LGBT persons and feeds societal intolerance.” At the same time, policemen and courts commonly take real or perceived homosexuality of a victim into account for certain hate crimes, with the intent of mitigating the persecution of the perpetrator.
To paint an even more disturbing picture, on June 16th 2010, 12 police officers burst into a “safe house” in Karbala’ and violently beat up and blindfolded the six occupants before taking them away in three vans. According the UN report, the six people arrested included three men, one woman and two transgender people. Five of the individuals have since been untraceable and one man sought emergency medical care with a severe throat laceration after claiming he had been tortured.
Other reports have included the case of ten men who were persecuted in Baghdad on account of perceived or actual sexual orientation. They experienced “extreme forms violence and abuse at the hands of members of the Mahdi Army, police officers, religious leaders and local criminal gangs, which had forced them to flee to a neighboring country in May 2009 from where they hoped to seek protection in third countries.”
With women in mind, the book titled Unspoken Rules by Rachel Rosenbloom argues that homosexuality as a whole is hardly accepted, but lesbian existence, in particular is hardly even acknowledged. According to Rosenbloom, “In Colombia, the term, “homosexual” has a fundamentally masculine frame of reference (and) Columbian society denies women the exercise of sexuality for pleasure.” This makes public disclosure nearly impossible and gay bars have even been noted to openly exclude lesbians.
In India, where marriage with a man is “instilled in the minds of young girls as the focal point of a woman’s life,” similar issues of discrimination persists, to the point where women have been driven to commit suicide. Same-sex relations were illegal under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code until July 2nd, 2009 when the Delhi High Court overturned the 150 year old section, legalizing consensual homosexual activities between adults. However, societal pressures and strong familial pressures, especially, persist.
Moreover, from personal experiences in other countries such as Tanzania it is evident that even among the more educated population, predominantly anti-homosexual sentiments arise. When speaking with Tanzanian university students the issue of HIV/AIDS and homosexuality came up in which one student responded, “I hate the gays.” Another one my friends who is currently a medical student at a well-known medical institution in northern Tanzania replied that she would cry if she found out that her son or daughter was gay and “simply wouldn’t know what to do.” The point here is that educated people, who are also some of the most determined, hard-working, loving and caring people I met his past summer still house prejudices against members of the LGBT community. An interesting note is that perhaps they do share other more positive or liberal sentiments but because of the taboo in their culture and society, they must acquiesce to the norm of social disapproval of LGBTQ members.
Through all of these accounts it is clear that LGBTQ international rights still have a long way to go. It is easy to get discouraged, however, I will be exploring positive interventions in the upcoming weeks from organizations like The Global Fund for Women and International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Both of these organizations have sought grassroots level community groups to support for their motives in advancing LGBTQ rights, while also operating at a higher level within the UN.
References:1) http://www.iglhrc.org/cgi-bin/iowa/home/index.html
2) www.uniraq.org/www.ohchr.org
3) Rosenbloom, Rachel. Unspoken Rules : Sexual Orientation and Women’s Human Rights. London: Cassell, 1996.