US Ban on Visitors with HIV Could End Soon

From the Associated Press

US ban on visitors with HIV could end soon

By JIM ABRAMS

WASHINGTON (AP) — A two-decade ban on people with HIV visiting or
immigrating to the United States may end soon through a Senate bill
aimed at fighting AIDS and other diseases in Africa and other poor
areas of the world.

The U.S. is one of a dozen countries — including Sudan, Saudi Arabia,
Libya and Russia — that ban travel and immigration for HIV-positive
people.

Even China, said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., recently changed that
policy, deciding it was "time to move beyond an antiquated, knee-jerk
reaction" to people with HIV.

"There's no excuse for a law that stigmatizes a particular disease,"
Kerry said Tuesday at a speech to the Center for Strategic &
International Studies HIV/AIDS Task Force. Even people with avian flu
or the Ebola virus have an easier time than those with HIV when it
come to applying for visas, he said.

Kerry and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., are trying to repeal the ban,
first implemented in 1987 and confirmed by Congress in 1993. The two
have attached their measure to legislation — which the Senate may pass
this week — that would provide $50 billion over the next five years to
fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa and other poor areas.

Foreign citizens, students and tourists can apply for a
difficult-to-obtain special waiver for short-term visits, but an
HIV-positive person has little chance of obtaining permanent
residency.

Under current law, HIV is the only medical condition explicitly listed
under immigration law. The Kerry-Smith provision would make HIV
equivalent to other communicable diseases where medical and public
health experts at the Health and Human Services Department — not
consular officials at U.S. embassies — determine eligibility for
admission.

Those with HIV seeking legal permanent residency would still have to
demonstrate they have the resources to live in this country and would
not become a "public charge."

The HIV ban was "adopted during a time of widespread fear and
ignorance about the HIV virus," said Allison Herwitt, legislative
director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and
lesbian civil rights group.

Among the consequences, experts on HIV and AIDS who are themselves
infected have been unable to attend conferences in the U.S. Students
and refugees in the country who may be at risk of infection have been
reluctant to seek testing or treatment.

"Health care professionals, researchers and other exceptionally
talented people have been blocked from the United States," some 160
health and AIDS groups said recently in a letter urging Congress to
end the current policy. "Since 1993, the International Conference on
AIDS has not been held on U.S. soil due to this policy."

Herwitt said some HIV-positive people seeking visas lie on their
applications and then don't bring their medications. "It's not only
wrongheaded and discriminatory, but can also cause people to not tell
the truth."

Both President George H.W. Bush and President Clinton sought to ease
the policy and in 2006 the current President Bush asked the Homeland
Security Department to streamline the waiver process. Congress so far
has not gone along.

There's still opposition.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., may offer an amendment to eliminate the
Kerry-Smith provision from the Senate bill. Sessions cited
Congressional Budget Office estimates that the new immigrants coming
in under the relaxed policy could cost the government more than $80
million over a 10-year period. "Most people just don't want to talk
about that."

Sessions said the Health and Human Services Department already has
considerable flexibility to grant entry visas.

The measure would offset the costs of new immigrants by raising the
price of applying for a visitor's visa by $1 for three years and then
$2 for the next five years.

The House version of the Africa AIDs bill does not have the travel and
immigration provision, but advocates said it will be included in the
final version of the bill that goes to the president.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., is sponsoring companion legislation in the House.

The Africa AIDS bill is S. 2731.

Islam Throws Wrinkle into Some Flood Recovery

Nazar Osman, owner of a flooded grocery store, stands in a drizzle in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
He's looking into loan programs run by Muslim banks since the Quran prohibits paying interest.

Full article from USA Today - July 15, 2008

Offensive or Tongue-in-Cheek?

The July 21 cover of the New Yorker magazine is causing quite a stir!!  Both the Obama and the McCain campaign agree that the picture is offensive!!  The New Yorker magazine defends its decision and says the illustration is satire.

Obama is wearing a tunic and a turban.  Michelle is wearing army clothes, has an AK-47 and an afro, and the American flag is burning in their fire place.  I think that's a picture of Osama bin Laden also above the mantle and ofcourse they're doing their famous "bump."

Offensive or just tongue-in-cheek?  What do you think?

Documentary Explores Homosexuality in Islam

Refugees from Iran, where the presence of homosexuality is officially denied, share a bittersweet moment.

Full Article from the Boston Globe - June 27, 2008

Heinous Vilification, Persecution of Homosexuals

From Malaysiakini - July 3, 2008

Heinous vilification, persecution of homosexuals

Nellsen | Jul 3, 08 4:15pm

Malaysia's sodomy law is not applied equally. It has been selectively and systematically enforced to vilify and persecute homosexuals. In Malaysia's Penal Code Section 377, the sentence for conviction of sodomy is flogging, plus up to twenty years in prison. Victims are flogged with a section of bamboo that is split into several strips. When bamboo is split, it has extremely sharp edges, which slice the skin like knives. Flogging is quite bloody and leaves permanent scars.

In addition to Section 337, just to prevent any homosexual from escaping conviction, Section 337A provides for a male to receive up to two years in prison for any act of 'gross indecency with another male person.' This vague wording allows prosecution for any kind of erotic interaction between two males. This law is explicitly applied only to homosexual behavior among males, but lesbians also suffer discrimination.

The US State Department 2006 Country Report on Malaysia concluded that these anti-gay laws 'exist and were enforced. Religious and cultural taboos against homosexuality were widespread'. There is much other evidence that shows the particularly strong and heinous vilification, discrimination and persecution that is happening to homosexuals in Malaysia today.

In 1998, homophobia and Malaysian politics intertwined when deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim made a major break with then premier Dr Mahathir Mahathir due to his economic policies, and pressured him to institute democratic reforms. The prime minister responded by charging that Anwar had sex with two men.

Anwar refused to be intimidated by what he called an untrue smear, and led protests against the dictatorial policies of the government. Mahathir then used the existence of the sodomy law to have his major political rival arrested.

The two men testified at the trial that Anwar had sex with them. But both of them later recanted their stories, and admitted that they had been pressured by government officials and police to make the accusation of sodomy.

Mahathir obviously believed that the charge of homosexuality would be so damning that most people in Malaysia would withdraw their support for Anwar and his call for democratic reforms would be discredited. While many Malaysians supported the deputy prime minister, and joined protests on his behalf, most of them did so only because they believe he did not really commit homosexual acts.

In response to mounting international criticism, the government established a National Human Rights Commission. The commission defines human rights solely as those provided for in the Malaysian constitution, and this does not include rights for homosexuals. There is no challenge to Malaysia's sodomy law, which criminalises all those who engage in same-sex relationships.

Gay people have no one to speak up for them in Malaysia. Without any public discourse on the subject of equal rights for homosexuals, there is little opportunity for changing the attitudes of the public or government authorities.

Therefore, since homosexuality is considered an affront to Islam, any news relating to gay and lesbian rights, especially including calls for ending discrimination against homosexuals, is suppressed.

Police raiding, aided and abetted by a scandal-hungry media, continues. For example, at 7:30pm on Nov 4 last year, police raided a gay party in Penang, and brought along reporters who took pictures of the gay men at this party. The police claimed there was sex going on at this party, though all of the photos that were made as soon as the police burst into the scene showed the men all fully clothed. P

Participants said that it was a purely social gathering, and denied there was any sex going on. Whether there was sexual behavior or not, what is important is that this was a private gathering of consenting adults in a closed private business.

The extensive publicity regarding government condemnation of homosexuality has sent the message to the police and others that persecution of homosexuals is acceptable. All my recent research shows that conditions for homosexuals in Malaysia are quite precarious. Things are getting worse rather than better, and there is no evidence of any turnaround potential for the forseeable future.

The negative attitudes, discrimination and persecution being experienced by Malaysian gay people today is a direct result of religious attitudes and governmental policies. Defining homosexuality as criminal 'sodomy,' imprisonment, censorship of media discussions of the issue, and police oppression, together constitute a pattern of government-sponsored persecution that is impossible to deny.

With this being the case, I think it is time to organise a massive campaign to end unjust laws (Section 377) and discriminatory policies in those nations that persecute sexual minorities.

Please spread the word, and let's begin a campaign to produce change for homosexuals being persecuted in the Muslim world. I remain an optimist, and having seen such dramatic change in China, as well as in other countries, I feel that change is possible in the Islamic world as well.

There are some Muslim nations that are not actively persecuting homosexuals, and they can be the model for change by the homophobic governments. But though I am ultimately optimistic I also know it will be a long struggle.

In the meantime we owe it to the poor people who are being discriminated against to do everything we can to help them escape from the oppressive conditions under which they have to live.

I am proud to have made my contribution in this area, and call upon all other rational people who oppose discrimination to do likewise. Lives of millions depend on this. Please do your part. Repeal Section 377.

Banker Launches Blog to Give Voice to Pakistan's Gays

From the Economic Times of India - July 3, 2008

Banker Launches Blog to Give Voice to Pakistan's Gays

ISLAMABAD: A self-proclaimed homosexual has launched a blog to voice the angst of the gay community that is forced to lead a closeted life in conservative Pakistan where same sex relationships are illegal.

Jalaluddin Ahmed Khan, a 27-year-old banker who describes himself as a "psychotic, sarcastic and socialist blogger from Karachi", writes about the vibrant gay life in the southern port city and in Pakistan, inviting people "looking for gay love" to join him in the virtual world.

"Homosexuality is illegal in Pakistan. Homosexuality is religiously unacceptable in Pakistan. Homosexuality is socially unacceptable in Pakistan.

But homosexuality is an entrenched cultural truth in Pakistani history. And in the Pakistani life today," Khan wrote about the hypocritical attitude towards gays in his blog "Tuzk-e-Jalali".

"As long as people are quiet about it and pursue homosexual desires before or after marriage and are not caught in the act, it is OK. Men are allowed incredible leeway in their sexual pursuits as long as they are not discovered," he wrote.

Khan feels Karachi is the city where homosexuality finds the most social acceptance.

"Peshawar and Quetta are cities where acceptance of pederasty and the homosexual act are considered normal but any open avowal of this would not be acceptable to anyone.

In contrast, in Karachi people might still accept you for being a homosexual," he wrote.

Khan, who claims most Pakistani homosexuals are forced to marry and that some lead active gay lives post-marriage, details in a long post his parents' reaction when he told them he was gay and decided to call off his engagement.

A Plea for Muslims Who Are Gay

From the Kansas City Star - June 10, 2008

A plea for Muslims who are gay

A Jihad for Love" is a documentary about young gay and lesbian Muslims' struggles with their faith. Jihad means "struggle" in Arabic and particularly the struggle we have within ourselves to do the right thing.

The movie will be shown as part of the weeklong Kansas City Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, which starts June 27.

When I previewed it, I had two overwhelming and paradoxical reactions.

The first was how incredibly beautiful Islam is. I would not expect most non-Muslim viewers to have this reaction. But I have been to some of the sacred sites the movie shows, and I have participated in some of the Muslim rituals.

I cannot get out of my mind the tenderness and devotion of a lesbian couple who trace calligraphy in stone of a passage from the Qur'an as they seek to find their place in their faith.

In a way, the film parallels, say, some Roman Catholics who love the church with its music, liturgy and sacraments, who follow a loving Jesus, for whom the warmth of family embrace is molded by reverential practice of the faith, but who are officially "disordered" because they love someone of their own sex.

My second reaction was grief at seeing devout young people suffering, with their lives threatened in the name of their faith. I don't like hearing an imam talk about stoning and beheading as punishment for loving another human being.

As the film follows individuals and pairs in their jihad for love, we see fear, curiosity, anguish, grief, lamentation; but because they are unwilling to abandon their faith, the anger is restrained.

Parvez Sharma made the film in secrecy and obscures some of the faces. The stories unfold in India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa and France, with an escape to Canada. We learn about the harsh traditional Islamic law but also Islamic interpretations that permit, and even legitimize, same-sex relationships.

It is ironic that Islam contains a long and at times honored tradition of same-sex relationships. The film includes a Pakistani holiday celebrating one such couple. But when the West colonized many Muslim countries, anti-gay laws were adopted.

The 81-minute movie shows at 4:45 p.m. June 29 at the Tivoli Cinemas. After the film, in cooperation with OpenCircle, I will lead a panel and audience discussion. Panelists are Josef Walker (Christian), Ahmed El-Sherif (Muslim) and Lynn Barnett (Jewish).

I'll ask, "How does the jihad you see portrayed in this movie compare with struggles you know about that people in your own faith have dealt with?"

Saudi Arabia Arrests Alleged Gays in Raid

From the Associated Press - June 21, 2008

Saudi Arabia arrests alleged gays in raid

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A Saudi newspaper says religious police have arrested 21 allegedly homosexual men and confiscated large amounts of alcohol.

Al-Medina daily says the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which employs the religious police, was told Friday of a large gathering of young men at a rest house in Qatif, in eastern Saudi Arabia.

The paper says scores of men were initially arrested but only 21 remain in detention.

Homosexuality is seen as a sin in Islam and prohibited in Saudi Arabia and most other Muslim nations. In the conservative kingdom, the offense can be punished by flogging or prison.

 

Conservative Anglicans Plan Rival Conference as Split Over Homosexuality Grows

Ana Pimsler/The Potomac News, via Associated Press

The Rev. Martyn Minns, who was made a bishop last year in the Church of Nigeria, is a prominent Anglican conservative.

Op-Ed: The World is an Unkind Place for Gay Refugees

INTERNATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

The World is an Unkind Place for Gay Refugees
Commemorating June 20, World Refugee Day

By Hossein Alizadeh

Just two years ago, Arash and Javad (not their real names), two young Iranian men were building their future together. Arash was pursuing a successful career in Iran's financial sector and Javad was a university student in Tehran. Now the men live in abject poverty in a remote area of Turkey. They have no income and are frequently forced to scavenge for food in their neighbors' trashcans. Javad, a diabetic, needs regular monitoring and medication, which he cannot afford. His health has deteriorated to the point where he regularly suffers diabetic comas.

How did two young, upwardly mobile Iranians end up in such dire circumstances? The answer to this question is simple. Arash and Javad are gay men forced to flee their country as refugees. According to the Iranian penal code, homosexual conduct is a crime that is punishable by death.

Arash and Javad met in 2005 and conducted their relationship in secrecy for over a year. But late in 2006, Javad's father caught them in an intimate act. Incensed at being dishonored, the ultra-religious man locked his son and his partner in the bedroom and rushed to the kitchen to get a knife, intending to kill them on the spot. Arash and Javad managed to escape through a window but knew that if they stayed in Iran either the mob or the morality police would soon catch up with them. Left with no choice, they fled to neighboring Turkey and applied for refugee status.

According to UN statistics, there are currently over 21,000 refugees in Turkey, 2,500 of whom are from Iran. Turkey is the preferred destination for many Iranian refugees because they do not have to get entry visas. However, once gay refugees arrive in Turkey, the situation is bleak. Due to the volume of applications, it normally takes up to two years for them to be reassigned to a country willing to accept them. During the transitional period, gay refugees are only allowed to live in small towns, without the right to work or pursue education. While the UN Refugee Agency may provide some financial aid, the amount is nominal and before they are eligible they must be recognized as "genuine" refugees. This is a process with results that are not guaranteed.

Arash and Javad have been interviewed twice by the UN Refugee Agency since their arrival in Turkey in December 2006. So far they have not been recognized as refugees, and therefore they are not eligible for any financial or medical aid.

This can lead to destitution for gay refugees, like Arash and Javad, who are forced to leave their country to escape persecution and death. Unlike other refugees, who travel in groups and enjoy various degrees of support from their family, church, or party members, gay and lesbian refugees are often disowned by their family members, have no support network, and in most cases do not have enough resources to survive the resettlement process.

The situation of gay refugees is complicated because the Turkish public and law enforcement agents are very hostile to sexual minorities, despite the fact that homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey. In recent years, many gay and lesbian refugees have been subject to verbal and physical attacks. As a consequence, they are often forced to remain indoors during the day for their own safety, and venture outside only at night, under cover of dark, when they are less likely to be recognized as foreign and can more readily hide their sexual orientation.

Tragically, there is no organization that attends to the needs of gay and lesbian refugees worldwide. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, along with a few human rights and resettlement agencies, tries to respond to the refugee crisis but the overwhelming volume of cases makes it impossible to do without large-scale intervention. The US government currently spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to resettle religious and ethnic minorities who are persecuted in their home countries. Isn't it time for our government to show some interest in protecting this vulnerable population, too?

Hossein Alizadeh, a gay Iranian who won asylum in the United States, is Communications Coordinator at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

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The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) is a leading human rights organization solely devoted to improving the rights of people around the world who are targeted for imprisonment, abuse or death because of their sexuality, gender identity or HIV/AIDS status. IGLHRC addresses human rights violations by partnering with and supporting activists in countries around the world, monitoring and documenting human rights abuses, engaging offending governments, and educating international human rights officials. A non-profit, non-governmental organization, IGLHRC is based in New York, with offices in Cape Town and Buenos Aires. Visit http://www.iglhrc.org for more information