20 Jun 12 | Index Index, minipost
A book depicting a family with two lesbian mothers has been pulled from the shelves in an American school district. “In Our Mothers’ House” by Patricia Polacco, which aims to foster inclusion for those with same sex parents, has been removed from the regular collection of books available in elementary schools throughout the Davis County School District. It is believed students’ can still borrow the book from the library, but only if a permission slip is provided from parents. LGBT families and groups across Utah visited the school district office to challenge the decision.
30 May 12 | Russia
Holding rallies and demonstrations is a right, specified in article 31 of the Russian constitution and one which is regularly abused by Russian authorities.
Since 31 July 2009 the opposition has held protests in support of peaceful assembly on the 31 day of each month that has 31 days. Three years of such protests have brought no luck to the group which suffers from the violation of article 31 most — the Russian gay community. For the seventh time Moscow authorities have blocked their attempts to hold a gay-pride parade. Police arrested forty people who came out to the unsanctioned demonstration: both LGBT activists and radical nationalists, who tried to confront them.
Last year the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia’s gay-pride ban was illegal, but the country’s authorities don’t seem to have considered the court’s decision. As Pride organiser and gay rights advocate Nikolay Alekseev told Index on Censorship, “Russian authorities cannot abandon ECHR’s decision forever, at least because of the fact that the Russian gay community has 15 more appeals waiting to be won there”. According to Alekseev’s plan, at some point the court will confirm the systematic violation of gay rights in Russia, and the issue will be brought up by the European Committee of Ministers, which is likely to influence Russian policy on gay community.
“We were ready to hold our demonstration any place in Moscow this time, but the authorities said that in any place we would violate the standards of morality,” said Alekseev, adding that “Russian authorities ignore the gay community and European Convention on Human Rights because they go unpunished and don’t receive tough ultimatums on the issue from their European counterparts”.
In March “United Russia” deputies in Saint-Petersburg successfully passed a scandalous law “against promotion of homosexuality”, which forbids LGBT activities and bans any information about LGBT promotion among minors. This means any LGBT activist can be fined up to 500 thousand roubles (10,782 GBP).
That is why gay rights activists have to take precautions and self-censor, says Gulnara Sultanova, director of “Side by Side”, a Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival, which has been held every autumn in Saint-Petersburg since 2008. The festival’s core idea is fighting discrimination and supporting congenial relationship between LGBT representatives and heterosexuals. Sultanova told Index this year her colleagues have to set an age limit to avoid fines, despite the fact some “films about gender identity and equal rights are useful to teenagers”.
Homosexuality was only decriminalised in Russia in 1993. Before that, gay men were put in prisons and lesbians were sent to mental hospitals. Most of the active part of Russian society were raised in that time, when it was inappropriate to even discuss LGBT issues. This, according to Sultanova, resulted in a vicious circle, where “a lot of gays and lesbians are afraid to come out and participate in civil protests under rainbow flags, and many people consider gay groups too closed to express solidarity towards them”. It will take years to break this circle, but the tendency, according to Sultanova, is positive.
Her optimism is shared by LGBT activist and Novaya Gazeta journalist Elena Kostuchenko. Last year during an unsanctioned gay pride march in Moscow she was beaten by ultranationalist youth group activist. This year, she says, protests against Vladimir Putin united polar groups: nationalists, antinationalts and LGBT activists. Together they had to run from the police, spend time in detention centres for wearing white ribbons (symbol of protest) and demand new fair elections.
“Since December people have realised that lawlessnessness concerns everyone, and if the state systematically violates the rights of one group (LGBT, for instance), it could any time violate the rights of any other, which is exactly what happens now,” Kostuchenko concludes.
10 May 12 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
A journalist and human rights activist has been found dead in Honduras. Erick Martínez Ávila, who worked for the Honduran LGBT group Kukulcán, was found dead in a roadside ditch on 7 May. The journalist was reported missing on 5 May, and had not been seen in public since he attended a demonstration with the LGBT community on 1 May. The motive for the murder remains unclear, but it is believed the journalist was strangled.
23 Mar 12 | Russia
Saint Petersburg authorities have surpassed their colleagues throughout Russia in persecuting gay community by passing a local law that actually forbids any LGBT activities, including pride parades and human rights activism, and by planning to make this ban Russia-wide.
Last week a scandalous law “against promotion of homosexuality” came into force in Saint-Petersburg. It stipulates fines up to 500 thousand roubles (£10,782 GBP) for any activities that can be referred to as “public propaganda of homosexualism, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism among minors”. According to Saint-Petersburg lawmakers, such propaganda means mass and unregulated distribution of information which might prove that “traditional and non-traditional relationship are socially equal”.
Human rights activists have expressed numerous concerns over the law as any public move of gay community may accidentally be seen, heard or read by minors, which means that any public move may be punished by fines — potentially disastrous for financially stretched gay rights groups.
The latest concern has been expressed by Madonna who is coming to perform in Saint Petersburg in August. On her Facebook page she wrote that she will “speak up for the gay community, to support the gay community and to give strength and inspiration to anyone who is or feels oppressed”. She called Saint-Petersburg law a “ridiculous atrocity” and promised to speak about it during her show in the city.
The law author — Vladimir Putin’s United Russia deputy Vitaly Milonov — said Madonna and her concert organisers are most likely to face fines and that he “will have to attend her concert to monitor the concert’s moral content”. Previously Milonov mentioned he had planned forbid Rammstein concerts in Saint-Petersburg.
Together with his colleagues Vitaly Milonov is planning to introduce a bill to the Russian State Duma banning “homosexual propaganda” across Russia. “United Russia” has a majority in State Duma, and rights activists fear that such federal law could pass.
Today “antihomosexual” laws, similar to the one passed in Saint-Petersburg, already exist in Ryazan, Archangelsk and Kostroma regions, but none of them has caused such a wide and scandalous response from civil society yet.
The passing of the law in Saint Petersburg was marked with a number of protest actions in Russia. The European Parliament has condemned the law, stating it “violates the freedom of expression regarding sexual orientation”, which is against European Convention on Human Rights. The US State Department has appealed to Russian authorities calling them to respect the rights of gay community in Russia instead of violating them.
The Kremlin doesn’t seem to take these statements seriously, and nor do Russia’s federal TV channels. TV remains the most popular media for most Russians, and channels don’t comply with objectivity rules when covering topics concerning LGBT people. That is why some 75 per cent of Russian citizens, according to SuperJob research centre survey, support the law against homosexual propaganda.
None of Russian cities has ever held a sanctioned gay pride. All were unauthorized and ended up with their participants beaten by aggressive ultranationalists and religious activists or arrested by police.
The only sanctioned action when LGBT people could march through the city with flags and placards was a 4 February march against Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin in Moscow. Tens of thousands people marched through one of the central streets in columns of diverse opposition and civil movements, including the gay community. And even there, during an event which was meant to celebrate democratic values and freedom of expression, gays received tellings-off and disrespectful jokes from some protesters.
Among all the repressed minorities in Russia LGBT community is one of the most vulnerable, usually causing less solidarity, than others.
