UK-based LGBTI rights group Stonewall has reinforced the need for LGBTI-themed books for children.
The group says that books highlighting LGBTI issues are essential for LGBTI youths exploring their sexuality and gender identity.
The group made the statement at a time when LGBTI themed children’s books have faced considerable opposition in numerous countries, including the US and Canada.
Sidonie Bertrand-Shelton, Stonewall’s head of education programmes, said that including LGBTI themes in children’s books is not only important for the development of LGBTI youths but in ‘[helping] all pupils develop an understanding of difference,’ the Guardian reports.
‘Celebrating difference is an important step toward building inclusive learning environments where all young people can be supported to reach their full potential,’ Bertrand-Shelton added.
‘[This] makes representations of LGBT people in books and education materials vital for young people who might be questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity.’
A 2017 School Report by Stonewall found that only 20% of LGBT students had been taught about same-sex relationships at school.
The report also found that 77% had not learned about trans people or gender identity.
Stonewall’s statement comes after a Catholic school board in Canada earlier this week removed an acclaimed graphic novel which includes two boys kissing.
The Ottawa Catholic School Board said the book’s removal was ‘not necessarily’ because of the LGBTI content, but for ‘the actual relationship content … It is not a book we really need younger kids reading without guidance.’
However, the book was reinstated into primary schools following protests over the decision.
This week also saw a group of parents in Kansas protesting to have books with transgender content removed from school shelves.
The group claimed that a book such as I Am Jazz contained a ‘sexual revolution agenda, indoctrination of children’.
Other high-profile instances have seen disputes over LGBTI themed books throughout the world.
Last year in Hong Kong, the Sexual Orientation Ordinance Concern Group successfully lobbied to have a number of LGBTI themed children’s books removed from the shelves of public libraries.
The group – which claim they have no political or religious affiliations – said they were concerned that LGBTI inclusive content in schools might lead to ‘alternate brainwashing education’.
LGBTI rights in Singapore remain a contentious issue. LGBTI rights activists often meet with considerable opposition from both political and religious groups, and male homosexual sex is still criminalized in the city-state.
A conservative Christian group in the US has urged a district judge to block trans women from using a faith-based women’s shelter.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sued the city of Anchorage in Alaska to stop the authorities from applying a gender identity law to the Hope Center women’s shelter.
The ADF – which has been labeled an anti-LGBTI ‘hate group’ by some rights organizations – argues that issues of privacy and religious freedoms are at risk.
The case was brought about after a trans woman was turned away from the shelter last year.
ADF attorney Ryan Tucker argued that a number of women who used the shelter had been survivors of abuse or violence, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports.
He went on to say that allowing biological men to stay in the same shelter would be highly traumatic for some of the women, adding that some ‘would rather sleep in the woods’ in sub-zero temperatures rather than use the shelter which allowed trans women.
Tucker argued that there were other shelters available for biological men in the city.
ADF protesting marriage equality at the Supreme Court | Photo: Facebook/Alliance Defending Freedom
The shelter operators filed a lawsuit against the Equal Rights Commission last year after a trans woman complained that she was turned away in August last year.
The shelter argues that this was not because of her gender identity, but because she was intoxicated and had been fighting in a different shelter.
The operators say they are suing to clear their names of any wrongdoing.
Assistant municipal attorney Ryan Stuart countered that the legal moves were premature as the Equal Rights Commission had not finished their investigation.
The investigation is currently on hold, in part because of the shelter’s lack of cooperation, Stuart added.
The ADF is a controversial organization in the US, and in the past have argued that LGBTI rights infringe on religious freedoms.
They have been labeled a hate group by legal advocacy organization, The Southern Poverty Law Center, who say the ADF wants to push transgender people ‘back into the shadows’.
LGBTI rights group the Human Rights campaign described the ADF as ‘one of the nation’s most dangerous organizations working to prevent equality for LGBT people’.
The group is most commonly known for defending Jack Philips, a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
The case went to the US Supreme Court, which sided with the baker. However, the court ruled in a limited capacity and said that their ruling might not apply to other cases.
This case is another instance of trans rights recognition, which has become a major talking point in the US.
There have been many recent arguments over whether trans people can use toilets in line with their actual gender, and whether trans women prisoners should be housed in male or female correctional facilities.
Conflict over trans rights has increased amid the deeply polarised climate of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Days before leaving office, Michigan’s governor has signed a directive to protect against LGBTI discrimination.
The directive signed by Republican governor Rick Snyder states that companies seeking loans, grants or other contracts must agree not to discriminate against LGBTI employees.
Snyder announced the directive on Friday (28 December) after signing it the day before.
‘Michigan’s continued reinvention and economic growth depend on talented individuals choosing to live and work here,’ Snyder wrote.
‘It is essential for state government to be a leader in welcoming all people to our state and ensuring that everyone is treated fairly and with respect.’
Snyder has less than four days left in his tenure. He will be succeeded by Democrat Gretchen Whitmer on 1 January.
Although the directive is not binding on the state’s Attorney General or Secretary of State’s offices, Snyder encouraged both departments to comply with its conditions.
Dana Nessel, incoming Democrat Attorney General, will be the first openly gay statewide official in Michigan history, The Detroit News reports.
The progress of LGBTI rights in Michigan has been mixed during Snyder’s eight-year tenure as governor.
Synder pushed for the expansion of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1976 to include anti-discrimination protection for LGBTI residents.
Prior to the Supreme Court ruling which legalized same-sex marriage, Synder was also involved in defending Michigan’s ban on marriage equality during several legal battles.
The governor will be remembered for being at the state’s helm during the water crisis in the town of Flint from 2014-2017, where thousands of people were forced to drink and bathe in bottled water due to contamination of the tap water supply.
Some Flint residents still do not have access to clean water.
152 elected officials in the US have signed an open letter urging the incoming Congress to prioritize a series of LGBTI rights initiatives.
The list of priorities include protections of trans constituents, amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity, focussing on HIV/AIDS treatments, and supporting asylum claims from LGBTI people who face persecution in their home nations.
The letter lists its signatories as including ‘Members of Congress, Governors, State Legislators, Mayors, City Councilmembers and School Board Members’.
The officials wrote the letter last week at a conference which was hosted by the Victory Institute, an organization which focusses on the training and support of LGBTI candidates.
The letter will be sent to the 116th Congress at a later date, The Hill reports.
In a statement, president and CEO of the Victory Institute, Annise Parker, said that the letter was a further indication of greater LGBTI representation and influence on US politics.
‘LGBTQ political power is growing thanks to the rainbow wave of LGBTQ people who won elected office in November — and this letter is the first sign of us wielding that new power,’ said Parker, who is also the mayor of Houston.
‘The current U.S. Congress failed to advance equality policies and legislation that most Americans support: non-discrimination protections, addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis, protecting trans people from abusive policies, and being a moral voice on the global stage.
‘The next Congress can remedy these wrongs and LGBTQ elected officials are determined to add their voice and energize their constituents around these important measures,’ she added.
Of the 432 openly LGBTI candidates to run, 240 (or 56.5%) won their elections.
This included Kyrsten Sinema, who will be the first openly bisexual senator in US history. Sinema was also the first Democrat to be elected to the Senate by voters Arizona since 1988.
‘I’m extremely scared,’ says Khairul, a young gay man from Brunei.
‘Khairul’ (not his real name) would only speak to GSN under the condition of anonymity out of fear of persecution in his home country.
‘Being gay in Brunei is something which means keeping it to ourselves and trying not to be open about it. There’s an invisible pressure which keeps us hidden,’ he says.
‘It really scares me to think that if they find evidence that proves I’m gay or conspiring against Sharia Law [by virtue of being] LGBT, then I’m scared that they might actually take action, and have the reasons to, I don’t know… Put me through conversion therapy, a trial, jail, a fine, or maybe execution.’
Tucked away on the island of Borneo and surrounded by the East Malaysian state of Sarawak, the tiny country’s majority-Muslim population of around 420,000 live under the absolute monarchy of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.
In May 2014, Hassanal announced that Brunei would begin the full implementation of Sharia law, to be introduced in stages over a number of years. The strict Islamic laws carried harsh sentences for a number of actions deemed offensive.
There was, perhaps, no group more affected than the LGBTI community: those found guilty of homosexual sex, the law decreed, would face punishment of death by stoning.
Almost overnight, Brunei was thrust under the global spotlight. The backlash against the anti-LGBTI laws was swift; with the international press leading the charge of shared outrage, celebrities and public figures began voicing their shock and revulsion, promising to boycott businesses with ties to Brunei.
Brunei in proximity to its neighbors in Southeast Asia
But real political action against the oil-rich nation was virtually non-existent. The initial shock soon faded, and the media cycle moved on.
In the four years since, the country’s move towards implementing Sharia law continues. For Brunei’s already marginalized LGBTI community, the possibility of prosecution, and perhaps a gruesome death sentence, is a lingering fear which never goes away.
Forced underground
In the space of a generation, various nations around the globe have seen rapid gains for LGBTI rights. This has largely been achieved through persistent political campaigning, relying on public visibility, and mobilization of the LGBTI community and its allies.
In Brunei, such forms of activism are an abstract concept. The mounting pressure has essentially forced the LGBTI community underground, to the point where it becomes a logical stretch to use ‘community’ as an accurate descriptor. Any attempt at open advocacy in Brunei is met with severe legal and social repercussions.
The pressure to conform can force many people to forcefully reject or suppress homosexual feelings. In some cases this can manifest in extreme forms, with gay men undergoing conversion therapy in attempts to ‘cure’ themselves.
‘I know one person who went through conversion therapy, and [he’s] acting as a straight man now, and married to a wife and has children,’ says Khairul. ‘I’m not sure what kind of therapy — I don’t even want to know, because I’m too scared to know what he went through.’
In Khairul’s experience, attempts at community building or reaching out to other gay men is restricted to the online space.
‘Social media is a good medium. But public social media, like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, if we were to say that we’re from Brunei and we’re gay, and we don’t tell our real identity, the Brunei community will actually go immediately on a “riot” and give extreme negative comments to everything,’ Khairul says.
‘I wrote an (anonymous) article about being gay, and reading some of the comments then I felt attacked, like “The ministry of religious affairs should deal with this,” or “You should be converted – it’s not too late,” or “We can save you if you come back to your religious roots”.’
Real connections are also difficult to build. The fearful climate leads closeted men to look to the online space to seek out secretive, non-committal sex over genuine relationships.
‘We were raised in this controlled community, and if we know that we’re gay then we have no rights, to be married, to have children, so we might just opt to have just sex with other men; we don’t care who they are,’ Khairul says.
The challenge of advocacy
‘Brunei [is] certainly the most conservative country in Southeast Asia,’ says Matthew Woolfe, founder and director of The Brunei Project, the only group whose main focus is advocating for LGBTI rights in Brunei.
‘I think that conservatism extends to the LGBT community. In general, the LGBT community in Brunei is much more low-profile than most other countries, and, whereas many of Brunei’s neighbors do have strong LGBT advocacy networks that have been quite vocal and have been campaigning for LGBT rights for some time, then, unfortunately, that just isn’t there in Brunei.’
The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, is thought to be one of the richest people in the world | Photo: YouTube/Alux.com
A native of Australia, Woolfe founded The Brunei Project in 2015 after hearing about the country’s adoption of Sharia law.
‘Something just clicked with me when I heard about these laws that were being implemented, and how unfair they are, and certainly how unjust and terrifying some of the laws are,’ says Woolfe.
The current reforms to implement Sharia law are still ongoing. Implementation of the second stage of the three-stage process — which includes the laws which can see the execution by stoning for homosexuality — is expected to begin within the next year.
Although the burden of proof for death by stoning is high – at least four people must testify to having seen the individual commit a homosexual sex act – and the law has not yet been implemented, just the thought of it has pushed the LGBTI community further into hiding.
‘I think people in Brunei, in general, are very afraid to take a risk,’ says Khairul. ‘Everyone wants to see change, they want things in the country to improve, they want their basic rights like to speak out, and so forth, but while they want those rights and they want to change, there are very few people who are actually willing to take the risks necessary to push for that change, and to advocate for that.‘
‘In general, I do feel extremely frustrated about the people who are don’t even want to fight for their rights for being gay, as they feel like it’s impossible,’ Khairul adds.
‘That’s one of the big challenges with LGBT advocacy in Brunei,’ says Woolfe. ‘People are relying on their private networks, and keeping it within those networks for support, but they’re not reaching out to these other organizations where they could potentially draw from their experience to start forming some sort of advocacy movement within Brunei.’
Reaching out to Southeast Asia’s LGBTI community
The Brunei Project has firsthand experience of the challenges in trying to organize for such a cause in the country.
In 2016, the group hosted a low-key get-together for members of the LGBTI community in a hotel in Brunei. Though it went off without incident, when Woolfe later attempted to reenter Brunei he was stopped by immigration officials and told he had been effectively blacklisted and barred from re-entering the country.
‘Initially, I thought: “OK, where do I go from here?”’ says Woolfe. ‘Hopefully one day I’ll have it overturned. It does make it harder doing this work.’
Since then, Woolfe has begun developing ways to conduct his work for The Brunei Project in absentia.
‘A lot of the work that we had done, and continued to do, we based on social media,’ he says. ‘I continue to make new contacts through social media [and] continue to work with these contacts who are based in Brunei, it just means that I can’t visit the country myself.’
The Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque in Brunei
The situation has also added urgency to the group’s efforts to forge connections with LGBTI groups in neighboring countries. Recently, The Brunei Project has begun building ties with LGBTI community support group Oogachaaga based in Singapore, offering gay Bruneians a nearby community to reach out to for help and support.
‘We have received a small number of clients connecting with us from Brunei, talking about feeling isolated with no local LGBTQ community resources, finding it difficult to live closeted lives, which in turn impacted their relationships with loved ones,’ Leow Yangfa, Oogachaaga’s executive director, said via email.
‘Not surprisingly, there were also concerns about their mental health and psychological well-being. The Brunei Project recently reported that there has been an increase in the number of suicides. Hence, in addition to offering our online counseling services, we also connected The Brunei Project with suicide prevention hotline and email services in Malaysia (Befrienders) and Singapore (Samaritans of Singapore).’
‘I feel like it’s going backwards’
While spreading the word and building connections with neighboring human rights groups is a necessary step, it is still very much a start. Brunei remains a conservative and closed-off country, where the fear of legal and social persecution has become nigh-on instinctual in the mindsets of many LGBTI Bruneians.
This is also at a time of heightened fear for the country’s LGBTI community. Though the transition into Sharia law has encountered delays, the Bruneian government is expected to see through its full implementation within the next few years.
In this respect, optimism is in short supply when considering the future of LGBTI rights in Brunei.
‘Unfortunately, I don’t see any sort of mobilization coming in the near future,’ says Woolfe. ‘I think that there’s a fear that if they do become more vocal and more active that may actually be to their detriment. From what I’ve gathered, there tends to be a feeling that if they keep a low profile and not get noticed, then they may be able to get through it.’
‘I feel like it’s going backwards and getting to a worse situation,’ says Khairul.
‘In all honesty, I feel like I can’t do much. I feel like I can’t even help my community by protecting them. If someone was out openly and they get attacked I’d feel like I’d need to protect them, but I’m scared that I can’t.’
