We have three months to raise $11,000 for the students at Guerneville, Monte Rio, and Forestville Elementary Schools and Stars Preschool! Every dollar helps!!!! The money raised will be turned into gift cards to Guerneville 5 & 10. Go to www.rrsisters.org for more information
Mouths of Rain is a distinct anthology of writings from Black lesbian intellectuals, showcasing the creativity and depth of thought in the community over the last century. Edited by Briona Simone Jones, a doctoral candidate at Michigan State University’s English department, it features academic essays, personal recollections, short fiction, and poetry. The anthology boasts works from well-known figures such as Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, and Ma Rainey, as well less prominent but equally as insightful authors. The title of the anthology is inspired by Lorde’s “Love Poem,” with its line “carved out by the mouth of rain.” As Cheryl Clarke writes in her Foreword, “Lorde’s generation of Black lesbian writers showed us how to talk and write about sex.” Some works have been published before, while others, including an Alice Walker poem, appear for the first time.
The book is divided into five sections, each exploring a different topic. Part I, “Uses of the Erotic,” starts with an excerpt from Ma Rainey’s song “Deep Moaning Blues,” “I went out last night with a crowd of my friends, / It must’ve been women, ‘cause I don’t like no men,” which then moves into a thrilling, explicit sex scene by Harlem Renaissance writer Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson. Dunbar-Nelson’s “You! Inez” continues the eroticism with lines like “Red mouth; flower soft, / Your soul leaps up.” These poetic, sensual works ground us in the physical and emotional power of lesbian love, serving as a nice lead-in to Audre Lorde’s “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” which asks women to reclaim their eroticism, so often “vilified, abused, and devalued within Western society.” Lorde argues that the erotic is “an assertion of the lifeforce of women” and allows for deeply profound connections between women. Because eros is “born of Chaos”, it has the power to inspire creativity and “give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world,” perhaps the greatest means of resisting “racist, patriarchal, and anti-erotic society.”
Part II opens with Anita Cornwell’s essay “Three for the Price of One: Notes from a Gay, Black, Feminist” which relates the challenges she has faced in navigating her many identities. Growing up “Black, poor, and female in the Deep South,” she grappled with ”[the] battles, fears, phobias, and anxieties continually raging within.” Even her first female lover did little to help, for “if she knew other Gay womyn, she kept them rather well-hidden from me.” After several more lesbian relationships, she realized she was “irrevocably Gay” which drew her more into feminism, finding “straight men too sexist” and wondering why straight women “continued to let men use and abuse them.” Sadly, she found the feminist movement racist and unwelcoming, commenting that “fear of encountering racism seems to be one of the main reasons that so many Black womyn refuse to join the Womyn’s movement.” She also had to contend with “the extreme conservatism” within the Black community, so that even relationships with other Black lesbians became “such a harrowing experience.” However, even with all the prejudice she experienced, Cornwell writes that “I am sure glad I will never have to find out” what her life could have been had she not been lesbian.
Ann Allen Shockley’s “A Meeting of the Sapphic Daughters” tells, in fictional form, a similar tale to Cornwell’s essay. Lettie and Patrice are a Black, professional couple who attend an all-white lesbian group. The “bouncer” at the event stares at Patrice “long, hard, silent,” and the group’s president asks them if they “live around here,” which they take as a “subtle warning.” While confronting racism, they also question their own stances, asking themselves, “Have we come out to our colleagues, friends – students?” after lamenting their inability to find other lesbians of color. This story and others highlight the prejudices remaining within these different groups, and the work still needed to make them more welcoming places.
Part V, “Radical Futurities”, contains some of the more academic pieces, with essays such as Bettina Love’s “A Ratchet Lens: Black Queer Youth, Agency, Hip Hop, and the Black Ratchet Imagination,” which looks at how queer Black hip-hop artists use the concept of “ratchet” as a way of challenging the idea of respectability. Cathy Cohen’s “Deviance as Resistance: A New Research Agenda for the Study of Black Politics” suggests that those in the Black community who are “different” might have other ways of engaging in political struggle that are worthy of study. Lay readers might find these later essays, with their academic jargon and more removed tone, less approachable than the more personal works; still, they address important issues. Susana Morris’ “More than Human: Black Feminisms of the Future in Jewelle Gomez’s The Gilda Stories” is a compelling look at Gomez’s science fiction novel about a Black lesbian vampire whose ethics, Morris suggests, might present an alternative to humanity’s self-destructive impulses.
The selections are wide-ranging enough so that every reader can find something of interest, from scholars and students to those just casually exploring the subject. One minor drawback, though, is a lack of publication dates for the older, “vintage” pieces. While reading them usually makes the era apparent, providing dates at the start might give a more immediate sense of the historical development. Still, the diversity of pieces, from across time and labels, written by “dykes, queer women, butches, femmes, and lesbians,” as Cheryl Clarke writes in her foreword, impressively shows the richness of Black lesbian intellectual life. Mouths of Rain is a timely anthology of writings that will certainly spark conversations, connections, and ideas, both within the community and beyond.
Saturday November 6th at 8 pm. Occidental Center for the Arts presents SonoMusette . Enjoy a delightful evening of evocative music of 20th century Paris, with classic tunes by Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Charles Aznavour, Yves Montand, and others. This talented ensemble features vocalist Mimi Pirard with Jan Martinelli, Robert Lunceford, Issac Vandeveer, and Kendrick Freeman. Proof of vaccination and masks required for this indoor event. $25 General/$20 OCA Members. Fine refreshments include wine and beer. Accessible to persons with disabilities. Tickets @ www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org. 3850 Doris Murphy Ct. Occidental, CA. 95465. Become an OCA Member and get a free event ticket! We are a non profit performing and fine arts organization dedicated to Keeping The Arts in our Hearts
On Tuesday, Oct. 19 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to expand mental health treatment and other supportive services for LGBTQ people, both inside and out of county jails.
The movement’s lead author, supervisor Sheila Kühl, said this will also address concerns that a large number of women, including pregnant or elderly women, have been unnecessarily imprisoned.
“The county needs to pay close attention to the sexual orientation and gender identity of the people in custody, because without knowing who they are, they cannot effectively meet their needs. “Because,” Kühl added. The motion calls for the implementation of a series of recommendations detailed in a report issued by the county’s Gender Response Advisory Board.
There are about 1,300 inmates held daily at Century Regional Detention Facility, the county’s women’s jail in Lynwood.
A 2020 RAND Corporation analysis estimated that roughly one-third of women in county jail have mental health issues and that nearly three-quarters of those women could be safely treated outside a jail setting.
However, releasing them would require significantly ramping up the number of available inpatient and outpatient beds in the community.
Reliable data on the LGBTQ+ population in Los Angeles County jails is not currently available, but a national survey indicates that roughly one-third of women behind bars across the country identify as lesbian or bisexual. The board motion also calls for additional data gathering.
Women are the fastest growing population in U.S. prisons and jails, and an estimated 86% of women in jail nationwide have been victims of sexual violence, according to the Vera Institute of Justice.
Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who co-authored the motion, recalled voting more than 20 years ago on a state public safety bill aimed at “stopping belly chaining and shackling pregnant women who are in active labor as they are being transported from prison or jail to deliver. Just barbaric ideology, barbaric practice.”
Mitchell also pointed out the racial inequities evident in the disproportionate number of Black women jailed for crimes largely rooted in issues of substance abuse and poverty.
“Black women comprise only 9% of all the women in L.A. County, yet they make up 33% of jail bookings among women,” Mitchell said. “The racial and gender inequities in our jail system are real and must be addressed.”
The Kuehl/Mitchell motion also referenced a goal to shut down Men’s Central Jail without a replacement as central to that vision, although that particular objective is opposed by both Sheriff Alex Villanueva — who runs the jails — and Supervisor Kathryn Barger.
Both Barger and the sheriff agree that the dangerously decrepit jail must be closed, but believe a replacement is needed to house and treat inmates who cannot be safely released, particularly given the current lack of community infrastructure.
Germany’s political parties negotiating coalition agreements to create a new government should make a commitment to change the law on legal gender recognition, so that it is based on self-determination, not so-called expert reports, Human Rights Watch said today. While the parties try to reach agreements on key issues such as climate, foreign policy, migration, and the economy, they should also address the current pathologizing and onerous procedure for transgender people to modify their registered name and gender.
“Germany’s current procedure for gender recognition is out of tune with developments in international law and medical science,” said Cristian González Cabrera, LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “All political parties should agree to a change to the status quo in the next legislative session and make the procedure straightforward, nonjudicial, accessible, and based on self-determination for all trans people.”
Germany’s Transsexuals Law (Transsexuellengesetz) specifies that to have the name and gender with which they identify legally recognized, trans people need to provide a local court (Amtsgericht) with two expert reports. The reports must attest to “a high degree of probability” that the applicant will not want to revert to their previous legal gender. The law does not have a minimum age at which a trans person can seek legal gender recognition, an aspect of the law that should be retained.
According to a 2017 report from the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, applicants consider the assessment process humiliating. Some applicants said that to secure the necessary reports, they had to disclose immaterial details from their childhood and their sexual past, and even undergo physical examinations. The report found that the legal procedure can take up 20 months and costs an average of €1,868 (approx. US$2,160).
The political parties most likely to form a coalition government following Germany’s September elections are the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Union parties’ (CDU/CSU), the Free Democratic Party (FDP), and the Greens. These parties have made previous unsuccessful legislative attempts to reform Germany’s legal gender recognition procedure under the current government.
The SPD, the junior partner in the current ruling coalition, announced in January 2021 that negotiations broke down as the Union parties opposed a process based solely on self-determination. The Greens and the FDP, both in the opposition in the last legislative period, each presented bills to reform the Transsexuals Law, which the parliament rejected.
A growing number of countries around the world have removed burdensome requirements to legal gender recognition, including medical or psychological evaluation. Countries including Argentina, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, and Uruguay center individual autonomy over gender identity, providing for simple administrative processes based on self-declaration. Costa Rica and the Netherlands have taken steps toward removing gender markers on identity documents altogether.
The move toward straightforward administrative procedures based on self-declaration reflect science-based and human rights standards. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, an interdisciplinary professional association with over 700 members worldwide, has found that medical and other barriers to gender recognition for transgender people, including diagnostic requirements, “may harm physical and mental health.” The most recent International Classification of Diseases, which will come into effect in January 2022, formally depathologizes trans identities.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Germany is a party, provides for equal civil and political rights for all, everyone’s right to recognition before the law, and the right to privacy. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, in charge of interpreting the ICCPR, has called on governments to guarantee the rights of transgender people, including the right to legal recognition of their gender, and for countries to repeal abusive and disproportionate requirements for legal recognition of gender identity.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in Goodwin v. United Kingdom (2002) that the “conflict between social reality and law” that arises when the government does not recognize a person’s gender identity constitutes “serious interference with private life.” The European Union’s LGBTIQ Equality Strategy (2020-2025) also upholds “accessible legal gender recognition based on self-determination and without age restriction” as the human rights standard in the member bloc.
Principle three of the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity affirms that each person’s self-defined gender identity “is integral to their personality and is one of the most basic aspects of self-determination, dignity, and freedom.”
As a member of the Equal Rights Coalition, the Global Equality Fund, and the UN LGBTI Core Group, Germany plays an important role in advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) rights beyond its borders. In March 2021, the federal government pledged to do more through a LGBTI Inclusion Strategy, which, among its many goals, aims to further Germany’s role in promoting LGBTI people’s rights at international and regional human rights institutions.
“While Germany remains at the forefront of advancing the rights of LGBTI people overseas, its outdated approach to legal gender recognition for trans people taints its domestic human rights record,” González said. “In current coalition negotiations, Germany’s lawmakers should seize the opportunity to ensure that Germany’s transgender residents have their rights fully respected in law and make Germany a leader when it comes to gender diversity at home and abroad.”
The first known Ugandan trans woman to receive a national ID card with an ‘F’ marker wants to “shed the sad African trans narrative”.
Cleopatra Kambugu always knew she was different. Growing up in Kampala, Uganda, in a family of 15, she describes her early life as challenging.
“People always called me ‘boy-girl’ or ‘shemale’,” she tells PinkNews. Her transness was always clear to her and to those around her, but she was held back by a lack of knowledge and terminology.
Now 35, Cleo Kambugu is a leading trans activist working towards social justice and equality for trans, intersex and non-binary people, as well as sex workers. In 2016, she became the subject of a film titled The Pearl of Africa, “a story of love, hate and being transgender”.
When the Ugandan government passed its Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2013, prohibiting same-sex sexual relations, Kambugu was outed by a tabloid newspaper. She fled to neighbouring Kenya for safety.
Following her move, she joined an activist-led foundation called Uhai Eashrithat provides funding for sexual and gender minorities based in East Africa. Within the first year of her joining, Kambugu facilitated the success of a grant transfer of $200,000 to an Ugandan movement in support of bringing down the Anti-Homosexuality Act. It was annulled three months later.
“This ushered a new era of donors believing that education and litigation advocacy can change things,” she beamed.
“The trans community in Uganda have done a lot of work to shift social norms around sexuality and gender. So, while some folks might not like trans people, they at least know who they are.”
Off the back of the film’s success, Kambugu became a global trans activist travelling to and from Africa – so much so that her passport ran out and she had to move back to Kampala to renew it, in 2017.
“I was flustered at the thought,” she said. “I wanted to avoid excessive questioning so declared my identity beforehand.”
She sought pro-bono advice from a community lawyer with the Human Rights Advocates Program, who enlightened her about the Registration of Persons Act. The law means that, to change a gender marker on identification documents, a person must have signed permission from both parents and the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.
“From that, I went in and requested that my case be handled by the highest person at the Ministry of Internal Affairs that dealt with passports and advice, which I secured,” she said.
To her surprise, there were no complications. The minister mentioned needing some time to consult with a legal tribunal to ensure he could not be reprimanded for what he was about to do. After a few days, Kambugu was called in and handed a new passport with the gender marker ‘F’.
Securing her passport in 2018 was just the beginning, especially since in Uganda, more value is placed on the national ID card. Without one, citizens are unable to interact with the government, vote, access health care or own any property.
“It comes with another set of barriers,” she said, “your local council has to approve of who you are post-transition and your parents too – despite your age.”
Luckily, Kambugu spent seven years working with her family as she transitioned, so they agreed to sign for her ID.
On 27 September, Kambugu logged into Instagram to announce through a heartfelt post, that after a year-long wait (due to COVID) she had become the first trans woman to obtain an Ugandan national ID card in her correct gender.
“I don’t think in giving me this ID they were making a statement. Just this year, [the government] were just discussing the sexual offence bill to re-criminalise homosexuality,” she said.
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Many African cultures believe that a name can path out your child’s future, so when she discovered that Cleopatra meant “father’s glory”, it felt like a beautiful way to honour her close paternal relation. Likewise, her last name, Kambugu, her grandfather’s name, means a perennial weed that is difficult to eradicate because of its resilience and stubbornness.
“I want to spend the next 35 years of my life shedding the sad African trans narrative. We don’t just carry tragic stories,” she said, “I am a molecular biologist, geneticist, activist, imaginative, daring, different, audacious and an Aries.”
Four men were brutally beaten with sticks and banished for being gay in Tamale, Ghana, capturing the rising tensions – and fears – over an anti-LGBT+ bill.
The men, according to graphic video footage seen by activists, were violently battered by a Choggu community leader as a crowd gathered to watch on Tuesday (19 October).
According to Pulse, a Ghanian news outlet, a gay couple in the town attacked his ex-partner with a machete.
The pair were later interrogated, where the local authorities came to realise the men were gay, the outlet claimed, and named two other gay men involved in the scuffle.
They were then handed to the town’s chief, Naa Alhassan Mohammed, for further “interrogation” by Choggu elders.
But this included the men being thrashed by one of the town’s elders, Rightify Ghana, one of the country’s most outspoken LGBT+ groups which obtained footage of the beating, told PinkNews.
Mohammed fined the four suspects GH¢1200 and a ram each to “pacify the gods”.
In his ruling, Mohammed described homosexuality as “against the land and Islam”, adding that “if [Choggu] was in an Islamic state, they would have stoned them to death”.
“What they have done is desecrating the land and it against the gods,” he said. “May God expose all those in this act.”
The four men have since been turned to the Tamale police and charged, with a court date set for 4 November, Rightify Ghana added.
“For just trying to live, exist and thrive, these four gay men were beaten and fined by the people and Chief of Chogu, before turning them over to the Tamale police, and now the police have already sent them to court,” Rightify Ghana said in a statement.
The group added that the chief banished the four men from the town.
For Rightify Ghana, such hostility against queer people has only worsened in recent months as a backbitingly anti-LGBT+ bill is being rammed through parliament by a bloc of homophobic lawmakers and backed by religious leaders.
The wide-reaching “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021” would introduce a raft of policies punishing everything from sex toys and anal intercourse to trans healthcare and LGBT+ allyship.
From those providing or receiving gender-affirming healthcare to those who are an ally, the legislation would threaten countless members and supporters of the LGBT+ community with three to five years in prison.
Simply holding hands or kissing a member of the same gender on the cheek would be criminalised.
After all, the bill is named after the National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values – one of Ghana’s most vicious anti-LGBT+ groups.
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Lawmakers have brought the bill forward at breakneck speed since it was announced in March this year by parliamentarian Samuel Nartey George.
“Before the far-reaching anti-LGBTQ bill was sent to parliament, we were recording human rights violations,” Rightify Ghana said.
“However, the situation has worsened as our fears about the bill have started happening. Many more people are facing physical attacks, evictions have doubled, also we are seeing arbitrary arrests.”
“The anti-LGBTQ bill, even though not passed, has emboldened homophobes to mobilise against LGBTQ Ghanaians,” it added.
“The situation is especially worse for LGBTQ persons who live in rural communities, who face almost twice the risk of those in the larger cities.”
More than 60 House Democrats are calling on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to lift the State Department’s blanket ban on U.S. diplomats lobbying for gay marriage in an official capacity.
The lawmakers’ request comes after testimony in June from Scott Busby, the acting principal deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau on Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, revealed that the department’s official policy is to not “advocate for or against same-sex marriage overseas.”
In a letter addressed to Blinken on Wednesday, the group of lawmakers said the policy was “outdated” and should be “rescinded as a matter of urgency.”
“We do not ask the State Department to speak to marriage in every country or context,” the representatives wrote. “But we do ask the Department to provide the opportunity to U.S. personnel to defend our values and the dignity of our LGBTQI families at appropriate moments when the power of our example might make a meaningful difference.”
The effort, which has the support of 61 Democrats, is being led by members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, including Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada and Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, who is one of the 11 openly LGBTQ members of Congress.
The U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, and 28 other countries have done the same, including in Asia and Central America.
In 71 other nations, however, same-sex relations are criminalized, according to Human Dignity Trust, a global advocacy group for LGBTQ rights. In 11 of those countries — including Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iran — homosexuality is punishable by death, according to the group.
The lawmakers acknowledged in their letter that while many countries “are not at the point” to legalize gay unions, “where marriage is a significant public issue abroad, we trust you would want your Administration to be standing on the right side of history.”
Mark Bromley, chair of the Council for Global Equality, a Washington-based advocacy group that promotes LGBTQ rights abroad, agreed, saying that U.S. diplomats should be advising international lawmakers on passing same-sex marriage in countries where it is a “real possibility,” including Japan, Chile and the Czech Republic.
“It might have made sense 20 years ago, but now we’re at a point where there are countries where having the U.S. speak up and explain our own path to marriage equality could make a difference,” Bromley said.
However, he added that the State Department’s policy “came from a good place,” arguing that in countries where homosexuality is still criminalized, talks of gay marriage may disincentivize lawmakers from legalizing same-sex relations.
“What the embassies have to do first and foremost is listen to the LGBTQI community and ask them, ‘What can we do that would be helpful or not helpful?'” Bromley added.
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden pledged to advance global LGBTQ rights and reverse the Trump administration’s “utter failure to defend American diplomats who speak out for LGBTQ+ rights abroad.”
In February, the president issued a memorandum to “promote and protect the human rights” of LGBTQ people around the world. The memorandum also directed U.S. agencies to review and rescind “inconsistent directives” that counter the administration’s objective to expand LGBTQ rights globally.
The State Department did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment regarding the letter from House Democrats.
A survey asking students if they think “queers” should be allowed to use the school restroom with “normal people” circulated at an Illinois high school this week, the latest of a recent slew of reported attacks on LGBTQ students across the country.
The survey was distributed at Anna-Jonesboro Community High School in Anna, Illinois, on Wednesday by an unidentified number of students who called themselves the “Anti-Queer Association,” according Rob Wright, the school’s superintendent.
It asks students to vote either “(YES) I WANT QUEERS TO GO IN THE BATHROOM” or “(NO) I DON’T WANT QUEER KIDS TO GO TO THE BATHROOM WITH US NORMAL PEOPLE.”
Wright told NBC News that only a few copies of the poll were handed out before the school discovered them Wednesday morning, but an image of the survey was posted on Facebook. He added that the number of students involved in the debacle was “very limited” and that disciplinary measures were taken against them.
“I really can’t give any specific information regarding any individual students or what those measures were taken, but I can tell you that this type of harassment is taken very seriously by the district,” Wright said. “We’re not going to tolerate it under any circumstances.”
The Rainbow Cafe LGBTQ Center in nearby Carbondale, Illinois, shared a post on Facebook letting local queer youth know they are supported and the center is “working with statewide agencies to determine the best course of action.”
Michael Coleman, a board member of the Rainbow Cafe LGBTQ Center, told WPSD-TV, an NBC affiliate that covers Southern Illinois and the surrounding area, that students had been reaching out to the center in response.
“They really feel very unsafe in that environment in Anna-Jonesboro and that they felt that nothing was going to get done,” Coleman said. “That by us taking that stand, that initiative, they really feel like it’s not going to happen anymore.”
In just the last several weeks, there have been a number of reported incidents of anti-LGBTQ harassment in schools.
At a high school near Jacksonville, Florida, several weeks ago, students were accused of harassing classmates in a gay-straight alliance club and stomping on Pride flags. In Georgia last month, a high schooler was charged with attacking another student draped in a Pride flag in a school cafeteria. And this month, students at a high school in Missouri held a peaceful protest following what a parent described as a bullying incident of a gay student that led to a physical altercation.
These reports come as Thursday marked Spirit Day 2021, an annual celebration where people show their support against the bullying of LGBTQ youth by wearing the color purple.
Recent surveys also show that bullying of LGBTQ students remains a pervasive issue in the U.S.
A study this year by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, found that 52 percent of LGBTQ middle and high schoolers reported having been bullied in person or online in the past year. Transgender youths reported higher rates of bullying than cisgender gay, lesbian and bisexual youths — 61 percent and 45 percent, respectively.
And 29 percent of LGBTQ middle schoolers in the survey who were bullied attempted suicide in the previous year, compared to 12 percent of those who said they were not bullied, The Trevor Project found. Over 34,000 LGBTQ youths were surveyed for the study last year.
Wright said private bathrooms are available for students in the school’s principal and nurses offices. He added that counseling has always been and will remain available for students who inquire for it.
“We see this in the real world with adults having a hard time expressing their differences in an appropriate manner,” Wright said. “We have to start doing that with our students at this age, too, and know that everybody’s welcome and everybody deserves to be treated with respect and dignity.”
A gay man from Afghanistan who was burned by a Taliban member has said he is “shocked” by the lack of support and solidarity shown by the international LGBT+ community.
Sohil – whose surname has been withheld to protect his identity – is a young gay Afghan whose life was thrown into disarray when the Taliban seized power in August.
Afghanistan was never accepting of homosexuality, but he was in contact with a small network of other gay people. Now, they’re all “living in the shadows” – hiding themselves to evade capture and torture by the extremist group.
“Imagine you have all the great hopes for your life, you have everything, and then one day you wake up and everything is gone,” he tells PinkNews. “I lost my university, I lost my life, I lost my community. Even the boys I was in contact with, they are all living in the shadows. They are all hiding themselves.”
His daily life is very different to what it was before the Taliban took over. Sohil says he was just a “normal person” before extremists weaponised his sexuality. He was a medical student who had ambitions to get out of Afghanistan and build a life for himself. Now, he’s been forced to flee his home – he told his family his history of supporting human rights could make him a Taliban target.
“I live like a prisoner. I was living in my own house with my family. After the Taliban attacked me, I couldn’t live in my house because they would recognise my face and they knew who I am. Now I am living in a different home. My family doesn’t know about my sexuality. If I tell them I will lose their support too.”
Sohil is in danger every day he remains in Afghanistan. He was recently left traumatised after a Taliban member burned him with scalding water. The incident occurred when he went to a local government office in an effort to get a passport and a copy of his birth certificate.
“I was wearing just regular jeans and a T-shirt,” Sohil says. “Suddenly someone grabbed my hand. I was wearing a mask because I didn’t want anyone seeing my face. My heart was pounding. I saw there was a guy who had a gun on his shoulder.
“He asked me: ‘What are you doing here?’ I said: ‘I have come for my birth certificate.’ He said: ‘Why are you wearing that T-shirt? You’re wearing western clothes.’ I said: ‘It’s just normal clothes, everyone wears it.’ I knew that it wasn’t about my clothes. I know that he somehow had identified that I am not straight.”
Sohil continues: “He took me in his office and asked me again: ‘Why are you wearing this and why are you here?’ I said again: ‘I’ve just come for my ID card and my birth certificate.’ He said: ‘You’re lying.’ He slapped me on my face and I fell down on the ground. His two soldiers beat me. He asked again: ‘Who are you?’ I didn’t confess that I am one of the LGBT activists. He then beat me again and kicked me in my stomach.”
The attack escalated when the soldier picked up a teapot full of boiling water and went to pour it on Sohil’s face.
“I just turned my face and the tea fell down on my chest and my shoulder,” Sohil says. “Someone grabbed my hand and pushed me out of there somehow, I don’t know how. I was in so much pain and trauma. I couldn’t sleep for one week after that.”
Sohil is terrified for the future and he is desperate to get out of Afghanistan so he can start a new life away from the Taliban. He is shocked and disappointed that the rest of the world has left people like him to languish there, and he is frustrated by the lack of response from the global LGBT+ community.
“We don’t know if we will be alive tomorrow or not,” he says. “I think the whole world doesn’t think about that. I think our own LGBT+ community doesn’t think about that. In two months, no one contacted me… I had a hope that our LGBT+ community will help us but day by day, I am losing my hope. I don’t know what to do. I hoped that our LGBT+ community will help us, but there is no one standing for us. I used to stand for my guys in Afghanistan, now I want them to stand for us.”
He adds: “I am totally shocked, I had hoped the LGBTQ community will help us, they will listen to our voice, but they are totally gone. No one is listening, no one is looking out for us. In this time we need the most help, there is no one. I don’t know why, do people just forget about us?”
The situation for LGBT+ people in Afghanistan right now is “terrifying”, he says.
“They are searching for people like us that stand against the Taliban. All of my community have deleted their social media accounts. People have told me: ‘Please do not contact me, we are not safe. If someone finds out about our gender or sexuality we will be killed.’”
