BUS 449 Post 15

Dear Reader,

This time I want to introduce you a very brave woman Alice Nkom. She is a lawyer form Cameroon who, despite numerous death threats, actively promotes gay rights and defends people accused of practicing homosexuality. (Cameroon is a country where same-sex relations are illegal and can cause a five-years imprisonment.)

On March 18 Nkom was awarded Amnesty International's Human Rights Award for 2014 for the work she has been doing defending men and women sitting in prison because of their sexual orientation. She described the award as a “prize of hope”. “This gives me a voice that can get heard everywhere,” she said.

“Being gay in Cameroon is like being in hell. Permanent jail, permanent harassment, permanent violence and discrimination. From your family to the workplace to everywhere. I wanted to add this human rights dimension to my work because I'm just like a mother. When you have two kids who are different and one of them is vulnerable, you have to take care. You have to love them. You have to help them.”

To give you an idea about the situation, here is an excerpt from Human Rights Watch report:

“Many gays in Cameroon are imprisoned for years on the basis of trivial evidence: a neighbour’s complaint, a brief text message, even an allegedly “feminine” taste in liqueurs. Some are arrested “solely on the basis of rumour”. Police often use torture or abuse to extract confessions from them.

Innocent people are framed, spied upon by neighbors, subjected to extortion and bribery, beaten by police and gendarme, humiliated with flawed anal examinations, raped in custody, disowned by parents as a result of arrest, and emotionally scarred by traumatic encounters with law enforcement – all in the name of justice.”

Alice Nkom is 69 years old, which it more than the retirement age but she actively works and represents jailed homosexuals. I truly wish we have more brave and dedicated people like Alice Nkom.

BUS 449 Post 14

Dear Reader,

Yesterday was a big day for many British citizens – it was the first day same-sex marriage could be registered. Even though the legislation passed last year, in England and Wales, March 29 was the first date couples could officially get married. In Scotland, same-sex marriages can be registered in October but Northern Ireland is not even planning to introduce the legislation.

David Cameron wrote an article for the Pink News website where he states: “This is something that has been very important to me. […] That is not something that the State should ever deny someone on the basis of their sexuality. When people’s love is divided by law, it is the law that needs to change.” He also said that the law sends a message to young teenagers who are not sure about their sexual identity; it gives them this feeling that everybody is equal whether you are straight or gay.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: "If our change to the law means a single young man or young woman who wants to come out, but who is scared of what the world will say, now feels safer, stronger, taller - well, for me, getting into coalition government will have been worth it just for that."

Peter McGraith and David Cabreza were one of the first couples to get married on that day. In his interview he said: "Very few countries afford their gay and lesbian citizens equal marriage rights and we believe that this change in law will bring hope and strength to gay men and lesbians in Nigeria, Uganda, Russia, India and elsewhere, who lack basic equality and are being criminalized for their sexual orientation."

Even though some religious groups still oppose the legislation, an archbishop of the Church of England said that: “the law's changed; we accept the situation”. At the same time the legislation prohibits the Church of England from registering same-sex marriages, they can only be registered by the state.

Here you can find more information on this topic.

BUS 449 Post 13

Dear Reader,

I want to introduce you to Ivan Okhlobystin, a Russian actor and an ex-priest. Besides starring in the Russian version of “Scrubs” he is also famous for his homophobic statements and the open letter to Putin asking for reintroduction of criminal prosecution laws against homosexuals.

In December 2013 he made a statement:

"I would have them all stuffed alive inside an oven. This is Sodom and Gomorrah, as a believer, I cannot remain indifferent to this, it is a living danger to my children!" I don't want my children thinking that being a faggot is normal. This is gay fascism! If a man cannot choose an appropriate person of the opposite sex for reproduction - that is a clear sign of mental abnormality, then he needs to be deprived of that right to choose."

Later on Twitter (https://twitter.com/PsykerO1477) he confirmed his statement defending himself by saying that "Everyone has the right to express their opinions."

One month later he wrote the open letter asking the president to reintroduce the law from the Soviet criminal code. He said that anti-propaganda law is not effective enough and Russia needs stricter measures in order to eliminate homosexuality from the eyes of public. (For those of you who speak Russian –you can find an open letter here.) Okhlobystin also suggests that a national referendum is necessary in order to address this issue and establish the criminal punishment for homosexuality.

BUS 449 Post 12

Dear Reader,

Today I want to tell you about the hidden gem of the South America – Uruguay. The country where homosexuality is legal since 1934, same-sex marriage is legalized (2013) and child adoption is allowed. More than that, there are anti-homophobia and anti-discrimination laws present since 2003 and gay people are allowed to serve in the military starting from 2009.

Uruguay is one of the most liberal countries in the South America. It is the first country which allowed gay people to adopt children. Despite a fierce opposition of the Roman Catholic Church, religion plays a minor role in this secular country so the law was passed without major obstacles. Uruguay President Jose Mujica pushed series of liberal reforms which are supported by the general public. In his interview he said: “We apply a simple principle: To recognize the facts. Abortion is as old as the world… Gay marriage, please, it’s older than the world. We had Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great. They say it is modern and it's older than all of us. It is an objective reality. It exists. Not to legalize it would be unnecessary torture for some people.”

His other reforms include legalization of abortion (2012) and marijuana (2013).

BUS 449 Post 11

Dear Reader,

I hope you had a chance to watch the Disney’s “Frozen”. I personally fell in love with this beautiful movie, especially with its songs. However, not everyone was touched, the right-wing conservatives in particular. To them, the movie that got two Oscars is a part of conspiracy to turn children gay. Fundamentalist Christian minister Kevin Swanson made this claim even though he failed to provide any evidence. "How many Christians are taking their kids off to see the movie 'Frozen,' produced by an organization that is probably one of the most pro-homosexual organizations in the country?" – he asked on the radio show. “You wonder sometimes, I’m not a tinfoil hat conspiratorialist, but you wonder sometimes if maybe there’s something very evil happening here. If I was the devil, what would I do to really foul up an entire social system and do something really, really, really evil to 5- and 6- and 7-year-olds in Christian families around America? … I would buy Disney.”

Believe it or not, such claims found their audience and popularity among people. In her blog “A Well-Behaved Mormon Woman” Kathryn Skaggs wrote a huge post “Frozen: Not Gonna "Let It Go" When Movie Advocates Gay Agenda” claiming that Elsa’s magical power is a metaphor for homosexuality. Here you can find her explanation of the “evil” movie but if you ask me it is just a piece of paranoid nonsense. However, it makes it crystal clear that people who support such absurd claim try everything to demonize LGBT people.

BUS 449 Post 10

Dear Reader,

Welcome back from a week break! I hope you enjoyed it. I decided to go on vacation and visited the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Everything was very nice: food, weather, towns that I went to. Two days before leaving the place and going back to the AUBG, I was walking around the town and came across a rainbow-colored stairs in a small park. I was told that it was painted earlier this year when Cypriot government passed the law that decriminalized homosexuality. Now, that sounded very interesting to me.

I did some research and here is what I found. In Northern Cyprus, only homosexual men used to be persecuted with three years in prison while female homosexuality was not considered illegal. As you know, Cyprus used to be a British colony, so such laws were inherited from the colonial legal code. After the island became independent and later divided in two, southern (Greece) part of Cyprus was first to decriminalize homosexuality in order to get accepted to the EU. In Turkey homosexuality was legal since mid-nineteenth century but now, due to a very socially conservative population newly elected officials promised to think about introducing anti-homophobia law that will persecute violence against LGBT community. By decriminalizing homosexuality, Northern Cyprus is now standing on the same line with Turkey and Southern Cyprus. By signing the bill in February this year, Northern Cyprus became the last one in Europe to legalize same-sex relations between consenting adults.