Activists are warning of a new wave of anti-gay attacks in the Russian republic of Chechnya.
According to a social media post last night (10 January), activists are urging LGBTI Chechens to flee immediately, amid a new crackdown against LGBTI people.
It is understood authorities received new contact details of LGBTI people living in Chechnya.
‘We ask anyone still free to take this message seriously and leave the republic as soon as is possible,’ the statement read.
Chechan soldiers ‘would not even want to touch such people’
It continued: ‘I ask you to turn to human rights activists, the media, friends who can help you.’
The statement also provided a safe phone number for people in danger to contact. That number is: 8 (800) 555-73-74
‘Be careful and leave the republic as soon as possible,’ it concluded.
The Russian LGBT Network confirmed the reports to Gay Star News.
Chairperson Mikhail Tumasov said: ‘The persecution of gay people – both men and women – in Chechnya never stopped. We’ve been saying this the whole time.
‘The scale and style of persecution has changed form at times, but the persecution never stopped. Since late December, the security forces have increased their activity.
‘We are doing everything we can to help the victims. We will reveal more about the atrocities on Monday,’ he said.
Chechnya protest outside of Russian Embassy in London. | Photo: David Hudson
The Russian LGBT Network is trying to find safe spaces for those in danger. They’re also trying to get LGBTI people out of Chechnya and provide clothing, food accommodation and psychological support.
Polish mayor Pawel Adamowicz has died after being fatally stabbed at a charity event.
The LGBTI ally was stabbed in the heart and abdomen by an ex-convict who rushed onto the stage with a knife yesterday (13 January).
Blood donors flooded to hospitals in a bid to help save Adamowicz.
But Poland’s health minister Lukasz Szumowski has confirmed the mayor died, saying, ‘we couldn’t win.’
The attack happened in moments at the 27th annual fundraiser organized by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity.
Footage showed the Gdansk mayor on stage with a sparkler in hand, saying it had been a ‘wonderful day’.
The attacker then came towards him. Suddenly, the mayor collapsed and he grabbed his body.
After the knife attack, the assailant shouted from the stage he had been wrongly imprisoned by the previous national government led by Civil Platform.
The mayor formerly belonged to the party.
‘I was jailed but innocent,’ he said. ‘Civil Platform tortured me. That’s why Adamowicz just died.’
Police spokesperson Mariusz Ciarka said the attacker appeared to have mental problems. He also said the assailant appeared to have accessed the area with a media badge.
The man was arrested and under investigation.
Surgeon Dr Tomasz Stefaniak said Adamowicz suffered a ‘serious wound to the heart, a wound to the diaphragm and to the internal organs.’
Adamowicz served five terms as part of the Civil Platform party, and then was re-elected to a sixth term as an independent candidate.
He marched in last year’s Pride parade in Gdansk.
He said he dreamed of a time when ‘equality and fraternity can become a part of Poles’ daily lives’.
Adamowicz added he hopes of the day when ‘an asylum-seeker, an immigrant, a Roma person, an African American person and a Polish person will be able to sit together around a table in one, common house.’
Kevin Fret, a 24-year-old gay trap artist, has been shot and killed in Puerto Rico.
The musician was shot several times at around 5:30am local time on Thursday (January 11) while on his motorbike in the Santurce neighbourhood of San Juan, according to El Nuevo Dia.
Fret, who was hailed by many as the first openly gay Latin trap artist, died after being taken to the Medical Centre of Rio Piedras.
“Kevin was an artistic soul, a big-hearted dreamer”
— Eduardo Rodriguez, manager of Kevin Fret
Police on the American island have told CBS News that Fret’s murder is the 22nd reported homicide in the first 10 days of 2019.
Fret’s manager, Eduardo Rodriguez, told Billboard: “Kevin was an artistic soul, a big-hearted dreamer. His passion was music, and [he] still had a lot to do.
“This violence must stop,” he continued. “There are no words that describe the feeling we have and the pain that causes us to know that a person with so many dreams has to go.
Kevin Fret was hailed as the first openly gay Latin trap artist (kevin fret/facebook)
“We must all unite in these difficult times, and ask for much peace for our beloved Puerto Rico.”
The “Soy Asi” singer had previously spoken out about wanting to open the door for queer musicians to make it as trap artists.
Fans pay tribute to Kevin Fret
The tributes have poured in for Fret after his tragic death, with fans writing comments like: “At a loss for words 💔 RIP Kevin Fret” and “My heart hurts 💔 I’m so sorry this happened to you. RIP #KevinFret.”
One person paid their respects by writing: “RIP to the incredibly talented Kevin Fret, the first openly gay Latin Trapero from Puerto Rico.
“His unapologetic presence meant so much for the LGBTQ+ community and the future of Latin Trap… Thank you for always speaking and living your truth Kevin. Te amo para siempre (I love you forever) ♥️.”
Kevin Fret was just 24 when he died (kevin fret/facebook)
Others explained more of what made Fret so special, with one fan tweeting: “Kevin Fret was known not only for his music style but also an image that was breaking gender norms in #PuertoRico and stigma about being gay, gender nonconforming, and expressing gender identity freely—in a country where gay people still get mocked, bullied and killed.”
His uncompromising approach to expressing his sexuality was praised, for instance by a fan who wrote that he was “a true inspiration to many.
“Some people need the confidence you had. You didn’t deserve what happened to you. Puerto Rico and many other people will miss you.
“Being openly gay where you were from had to be tough. We are glad of what u did 4 PR💟.”
Students at Oxford University are calling for the firing of a law professor after he compared gay sex to bestiality.
More than 400 people have also signed a petition calling for John Finnis to be removed from teaching.
The 78-year-old is emeritus professor of law and legal philosophy at University College.
Finnis has said in 1994 homosexuality is ‘never a valid, humanly acceptable choice and form of life’.
He wrote in his collected essays, published in 2011, that it is ‘destructive of human character and relationships’.
He also added: ‘[Gay sex] treats human sexual capacities in a way which is deeply hostile to the self-understanding of those members who are willing to commit themselves to real marriage.’
Finnis, who converted to Catholicism in 1962, has previously advised the Vatican.
He has also called homosexuality ‘evil’, ‘destructive’ and similar to the abuse of children.
Finnis has also encouraged ‘gay cure’ therapy said approving of LGBTI rights is similar to approving terrorism.
Students signed a petition calling on Finnis to be removed from teaching compulsory lectures.
‘It puts a hugely prejudiced man in a position of responsibility and authority,’ they say.
‘It makes people who are affected by his discrimination question whether they should even attend these seminars…
‘University is a place to focus on education, not to be forced to campaign against or to be taught by professors who have promoted hatred towards students that they teach.’
Finnis told the Oxford Student: ‘I stand by all these writings. There is not a ‘phobic’ sentence in them.
‘The 1994 essay promotes a classical and strictly philosophical moral critique of all non-marital sex acts and has been republished many times.’
Alex Benn, one of the authors of the petition, said Finnis had ‘built a career on demonisation’.
Benn also told the Oxford Student: ‘Campaigns like this one often receive simplistic responses calling for tolerance or academic freedom. But law, employment and education already draw boundaries about what won’t be tolerated.
‘The humanity of disadvantaged people, including LGBTQ+ people, isn’t a debate …
‘I started this campaign not only to address the specific issue of Finnis’ role at Oxford, but to get Oxford to make up its mind – either it’s in support of equality or it’s not.”
A university spokesperson said: ‘Oxford University and the faculty of law promote an inclusive culture, which respects the rights and dignity of all staff and students.
‘We are clear we do not tolerate any form of harassment of individuals on any grounds, including sexual orientation.
‘Equally, the university’s harassment policy also protects academic freedom of speech and is clear that vigorous academic debate does not amount to harassment when conducted respectfully and without violating the dignity of others.
‘All of the university’s teaching activity, including that in the faculty of law, is conducted according to these principles.’
Chinese gay dating app Blued is halting new user registration for a week, it said on Sunday (Jan 6), following media reports that underage users caught HIV after going on dates set up via the world’s largest networking app for the LGBT community.
On Saturday (Jan 5), citing academic research, financial magazine Caixin said juveniles were heavily involved in the gay dating app, where some teenagers had even hosted live streaming. It added that many gay teenagers had unprotected sex through the app and contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
In response, Blued vowed to launch a “comprehensive content audit and regulation”, and crack down on juvenile users posing as adults and on texts, pictures and groups that involve minors.
Blued claims to have 40 million registered users and is financially backed in part by the state-run Beijing News. Grindr is also now fully-owned by a Chinese company.
Islam once considered homosexuality to be one of the most normal things in the world.
The Ottoman Empire, the seat of power in the Muslim world, didn’t view lesbian or gay sex as taboo for centuries. They formally ruled gay sex wasn’t a crime in 1858.
But as Christians came over from the west to colonize, they infected Islam with homophobia.
The truth is many Muslims alive today believe the prophet Muhammad supported and protected sexual and gender minorities.
But go back to the beginning, and you’ll see there is far more homosexuality in Islam than you might have ever thought before.
1 Ancient Muslim borrowed culture from the boy-loving Ancient Greeks
The Islamic empires, (Ottoman, Safavid/Qajar, Mughals), shared a common culture. And it shared a lot of similarities with the Ancient Greeks.
Persianate cultures, all of them Muslim, dominated modern day India and Arab world. And it was very common for older men to have sex with younger, beardless men. These younger men were called ‘amrad’.
Once these men had grown his beard (or ‘khatt’), he then became the pursuer of his own younger male desires.
And in this time, once you had fulfilled your reproductive responsibilities as a man you could do what you like with younger men, prostitutes and other women.
Society completely accepted this, at least in elite circles. Iranian historian Afsaneh Najmabadi writes how official Safavid chroniclers would describe the sexual lives of various Shahs, the ruling class, without judgment.
There was some judgment over ‘mukhannas’. These were men (some researchers consider them to be transgender or third gender people) who would shave their beards as adults to show they wished to continue being the object of desire for men. But even they had their place in society. They would often be used as servants for prophets.
‘It wasn’t exactly how we would define homosexuality as we would today, it was about patriarchy,’ Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, a gay imam who lives in Marseilles, France, told GSN.
‘It was saying, “I’m a man, I’m a patriarch, I earn money so I can rape anyone including boys, other slaves and women.” We shouldn’t idealize antique culture.’
2 Paradise included male virgins, not just female ones
There is nowhere in the Qu’ran that states the ‘virgins’ in paradise are only female.
The ‘hur’, or ‘houris’, are female. They have a male counterpart, the ‘ghilman’, who are immortal young men who wait and serve people in paradise.
‘Immortal [male] youths shall surround them, waiting upon them,’ it is written in the Qu’ran. ‘When you see them, you would think they are scattered pearls.’
Zahed says you should look at Ancient Muslim culture with the same eyes as Ancient Greek culture.
‘These amrads are not having sex in a perfectly consenting way because of power relationships and pressures and so on.
‘However, it’s not as heteronormative as it might seem at first. There’s far more sexual diversity.’
3 Sodom and Gomorrah is not an excuse for homophobia in Islam
Like the Bible, the Qu’ran tells the story of how Allah punished the ancient inhabitants of the city of Sodom.
Two angels arrive at Sodom, and they meet Lot who insists they stay the night in his house. Then other men learn about the strangers, and insist on raping them.
While many may use this as an excuse to hate gay people, it’s not. It’s about Allah punishing rape, violence and refusing hospitality.
Historians often rely on literary representations for evidence of history. And many of the poems from ancient Muslim culture celebrate reciprocal love between two men. There are also factual reports saying it was illegal to force your way onto a young man.
The punishment for a rape of a young man was caning the feet of the perpetrator, or cutting off an ear, Najmabadi writes. Authorities are documented as carrying these punishments out in Qajar Iran.
4 Lesbian sex used as a ‘cure’
Fitting a patriarchal society, we know very little about the sex lives of women in ancient Muslim culture.
But ‘Sihaq’, translated literally as ‘rubbing’, is referenced as lesbian sex.
Sex between two women was decriminalized in the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, probably because it was deemed to have very little importance.
Physicians believed lesbianism developed from a hot itch on a woman’s vulva that could only be soothed by another woman’s sexual fluid. This derived from Greek medicine.
Much later, the 16th century Italian scientist Prosper Alpini claimed the hot climate caused ‘excessive sexual desire and overeating’ in women. This caused a humor imbalance that caused illnesses, like ‘lesbianism’. He recommended bathing to ‘remedy’ this. However, because men feared women were having sex with other women at private baths, many husbands tried to restrict women from going.
5 Lesbian ‘marriage’ and legendary couples
In Arabic folklore, al-Zarqa al-Yamama (‘the blue-eyed woman of Yamama’) fell in love with Christian princess Hind of the Lakhmids. When al-Zarqa, who had the ability to see events in the future, was crucified, it was said the princess cut her hair and mourned until she died.
Many books, especially in the 10th century, celebrated lesbian couples. Sapphic love features in the Book of Salma and Suvad; the Book of Sawab and Surur (of Justice and Happiness); the Book of al-Dahma’ and Nisma (of the Dark One and the Gift from God).
‘In palaces, there is evidence hundreds of women established some kind of contract. Two women would sign a contract swearing to protect and care for one another. Almost like a civil partnership or a marriage,’ Zahed said.
‘Outside of these palaces, this was also very common. There was a lot of Sapphic poetry showing same-sex love.’
As Europeans colonized these countries, depictions of lesbian love changed.
Samar Habib, who studied Arabo-Islamic texts, says the Arab epic One Thousand and One Nights proves this. He claims some stories in this classic show non-Muslim women preferred other women as sexual partners. But the ‘hero’ of the tale converts these women to Islam, and to heterosexuality.
6 Muhammad protected trans people
‘Muhammad housed and protected transgender or third gender people,’ Zahed said. ‘The leader of the Arab-Muslim world welcomed trans and queer people into his home.
‘If you look at the traditions some use to justify gay killings, you find much more evidence – clear evidence – that Muhammad was very inclusive.
‘He was protecting these people from those who wanted to beat them and kill them.’
7 How patriarchy transformed Islam
Europeans forced their way into the Muslim world, either through full on colonialism, like in India or Egypt, or economically and socially, like in the Ottoman Empire.
They pushed their cultural practices and attitudes on to Muslims: modern Islamic fundamentalism flourished.
While the Ottoman Empire resisted European culture at first, hence gay sex being allowed in 1858, nationalization soon won out. Two years later, in 1870, India’s Penal Code declared gay sex a crime. LGBTI Indians finally won against this colonial law in 2018.
But what is it like to be colonized? And why did homophobia get so much more extreme?
‘With the west coming in and colonizing, they think [Muslims] are lazy and passive and weak,’ Zahed said.
‘As Arab men, we have to prove we are more powerful and virile and manly. Modern German history is like that, showing how German nationalization rose after [defeat in] the First World War.
‘It’s tribalism, it’s the same problem. It’s about killing everyone against my tribe. I’m going to kill the weak. I’m going to kill anyone who doesn’t fulfil this aggressive nationalistic stereotype.’
Considering the male-dominant society already existed, it was easy for the ‘modern’ patriarchy to end up suppressing women and criminalizing LGBTI lives.
‘In the early 20th century, Arabs were ashamed of their ancient history,’ Zahed added. ‘They tried to purify it, censor it, to make it more masculine. There had to be nothing about femininity, homosexuality or anything. That’s how we got to how are today.’
8 What would Muhammad think about LGBTI rights?
Muhammad protected sexual and gender minorities, supporting those at the fringes of society.
And if Muslims are to follow in the steps of early Islamic culture and the prophet’s life, there is no reason Islam should oppose LGBTI people.
For Zahed, an imam, this is what he considers a true Muslim.
‘What should we do if we call ourselves Muslims now? Defend human rights, diversity and respect identity. If we trust the tradition, he was proactively defending sexual and gender minorities, and human rights.’
Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, has stayed true to his word and signed executive orders targeting the LGBTI community.
The ‘proud homophobe’ used his first day in office to sign the orders. They will affect the LGBTI community, indigenous groups and descendants of slaves.
Just hours after his inauguration Bolsonaro removed LGBTI issues from consideration at the new human rights ministry, according to the Associated Press. He did not name another agency tasked to handle LGBTI issues.
The new human rights minister and former evangelical pastor, Damares Alves, has previously said ‘the Brazilian family is being threatened’ by inclusive policies.
‘The state is lay, but this minister is terribly Christian,’ she said in her first address as minister.
‘Girls will be princesses and boys will be princes. There will be no more ideological indoctrination of children and teenagers in Brazil.’
Bolsonaro’s actions against the LGBTI community and other minorities come as no surprise.
He has previously said he would rather have a ‘dead son rather than a gay son’. He also said parents should beat their children back to being ‘normal’ if they suspected them of being gay.
LGBT activist Symmy Larrat told AP said she is not hopeful the Bolsonaro government will treat the community fairly.
‘The human rights ministry discussed our concerns at a body called secretariat of promotion and defense of human rights,’ she said.
‘That body just disappeared, just like that. We don’t see any signs there will be any other government infrastructure to handle LGBT issues.’
But Bolsonaro has friends in powerful places.
US President Donald Trump and the US’ United Nations Ambassador, Nikki Haley both tweeted their congratulation to Bolsonaro after his inauguration.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Trump was ‘very pleased with the relationship that our two countries are on the precipice of beginning to develop’.
‘He’s also confident that it (the relationship between the two countries) will benefit the world and the set of shared values that we believe we can together advance,’ he said.
A humble cinderblock home with a tin roof in a poor neighborhood in the Costa Rican capital of San José has become a refuge for nearly 40 gay Nicaraguan youth who played a leading role in the popular uprising against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s regime this past April. The destitute youth fled Nicaragua as refugees to nearby Costa Rica after Ortega launched a brutal and bloody crackdown on those who led months of mostly peaceful protests against changes in the country’s social security system and government corruption. The 8-month long government repression, condemned by the U.N. and the Organization of American States, has left at least 500 dead including two dozen minors as well as many more injuries. Among the victims are scores of LGBTI Nicaraguans. The violence has touched off a worldwide diaspora surpassing one million Nicaraguans, including hundreds if not thousands of gays. They are fleeing a country where neighbors inform on each other, the police and paramilitary supporters harass, illegally detain, beat, torture or kill anyone they suspect and do so with immunity.
‘They were shooting to kill’
“I never imagined that they would be so ruthless,” says Randal, a university senior studying psychology. “They were shooting to kill.” The bespectacled goateed youth’s voice quakes as he recounts the emotion filled months before he, along with many other gays were forced to flee Nicaragua. “As the number of innocent dead increased so did our rage,” he says. “The people were so enraged that we filled the streets of many cities in protests, we took over university campuses and flooded social media.” The country’s few LGBTI organizations were among the first to publicly denounce the violence. They were among the first to man the barricades, especially young gay influencers on social media. Randal says he was proud to see so many members of the LGBTI community participate in the protests.
“We were right there, upfront, in the struggle to defend our country,” he recalls. “Manning the barricades, delivering water and food. Helping the wounded. Providing encouragement,” he adds with a beaming, yet sad smile. “It was natural you see, we as a community are used to fighting for our rights. From an early age, I had to struggle for my right to be included and accepted in a homophobic culture.”
‘Payment for these protests has been death, prison and exile’
Once it became clear the Ortega regime was determined to kill or jail the dissenters even as it pretended to negotiate a settlement, many members of the LGBTI community involved in the protests realized they had little option but to flee to nearby Costa Rica. “The payment for these protests has been death, jail and exile,” says Ulises Rivas. The slight young man with copper brown skin and deep black hair and eyes was a long-time environmental and gay rights activist before the April crisis. He says when he fled for his life to Costa Rica he encountered scores of gay Nicaraguan youth who had been involved in the protests wandering the streets and parks of San José, homeless and hungry.
“About 10 of us got together and created Asociación Hijos del Arco Iris LGBTI (Children of the LGBTI Rainbow Association),” says Ulises.
Ulises approached several influential Nicaraguans who had been forced into exile in Costa Rica, including Alvaro Leiva, Nicaragua’s former human rights ombudsman. They contributed the seed money for the youth to rent the group home and launch Hijos del Arco Iris LGBTI. “We are so very grateful to them for their support. They have been among the few people willing to help us,” says Ulises.
“It broke my heart to see so many young educated Nicaraguan members of our community lost and confused in San José,” says Randal. “Hijos del Arco Iris LGBTI was our response. We not only gave them a roof and a plate of food but also a sense of purpose and a family.”
‘We share what little we have, even our body heat’
You have to drive through muddy rut filled roads on the outer fringes of San José to get to the Hijos del Arco Iris LGBTI home. It’s in a poor neighborhood where cinderblock tin-roofed houses are perched precariously on lush verdant hills. Skinny mongrels roam the neighborhood. Loud bachata music permeates the cool moist mountain air. As you enter the house, painted in faded mango, green and turquoise the first thing that you notice is the energy. Nearly 40 youth from late teens to late 20s share the space. Some are busy sweeping the cracked tile floor, others are huddled around a small battered laptop while others strategize beneath a Nicaraguan flag next to a wall calendar of upcoming events in which they will participate. I watch as a slight young man named Alberto carries an old aluminum pot to an outdoor wood fired stove and begins to make rice and beans.
“Sometimes it’s all we can eat,” he says. “Provided there are donations.”
What happens if there aren’t donations. I ask. “We go hungry,” he says almost apologetically.
Helping him cook is Arlen. The frizzy haired 20-something young lesbian was among the first people to move into the home “I was wandering through the parks, homeless,” she says. “I don’t know what would have become of me, if it weren’t for the boys,” she notes.
Two Nicaraguan refugees prepare rice and beans at the home outside San José, Costa Rica, where they are living. Hunger is among the many challenges for LGBTI Nicaraguans in Costa Rica who have fled violence associated with President Daniel Ortega’s regime’s efforts to quash anti-government protesters. (Photo by Armando Trull)
Arlen fled Nicaragua after she was flagged by security forces as one of the main providers of food, supplies and medicine to youth holed up in multiple barricades throughout Managua.
“Paramilitary crashed the door of the house where I was living,” she says. “Fortunately, I wasn’t there. That same day I headed to Costa Rica with just the clothes on my back and the little money I had.” It’s pretty much the same story for most of the youth here, fleeing one step ahead of paramilitary thugs under government orders. This humble home has indeed been a refuge. The youth share wafer thin mattresses on the floor. They huddle together like lost children, under multiple worn blankets that barely protect them from the cold sweeping up from the floor and hovering overhead. They hug battered teddy bears. On the walls, rainbow flags and even a unicorn.
“We have become like a family,” says Magdiel, one of the group’s leader, as he shivers beneath a blanket. “The older take care of the younger. We share what little we have even our body heat at night.”
A gay man from Nicaragua sits in a house in San José, Costa Rica, after he fled violence in his homeland. (Photo by Armando Trull)
In one corner of the house towards the rear a slight young man and a blonde girl sit on a battered donated sofa talking about how much they miss their families. “I had always lived within the warm and loving embrace of my papa,” she says and then bursts into tears, the sobs coming like a tidal wave. Soon the young man is also crying and so are the other youth nearby. “We are so young, so inexperienced and innocent,” says Ulises in a cracked voice as he watches the youth embrace one another. “We long for our families so very much. It’s very painful. We did what we believed was right. We stood up against oppression.” But returning home is not an option, it could place not only them but their families in danger. So Hijos del Arco Iris LGBTI is giving these youth purpose. They participate in weekly activities such as cleaning up public parks, dance lessons and free haircuts.
“We want to show people in costa Rica that we can be a positive force in the country that has welcomed us,” says Ulises. The youth also participate in workshops to learn survival skills in a new society including how to apply for asylum.
‘A humanitarian crisis’
As undocumented refugees seeking asylum in Costa Rica, these gay youth face an uncertain existence. Unable to work legally, unused to paying for healthcare and with little support they are surviving in crisis mode. More than a million Nicaraguans have fled the political violence and the economic collapse of the country since April says Marcela Farrach, a caseworker for RET International, an international relief NGO. It’s likely that thousands of LGBTI Nicaraguans are part of that diaspora says the young woman. Farrach has been working on a pilot program sponsored by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to help Nicaraguan refugees and asylum seekers in Costa Rica. “They are extremely vulnerable and the funds to help them are insufficient especially as the number of refugees continues to multiply. It is a humanitarian crisis,” Farrach says.
‘I was terrified I would be tortured and raped’
Some Nicaraguan gays have managed to escape to other parts of the world where they have a better second chance at life, including Spain. That is the case for David.
The 23-year-old gay rights activist and vlogger came under government scrutiny for posting videos of his participation in the peaceful marches and subsequent postings calling out the Ortega regime’s violent crackdown. In one tearful clip, a clearly distressed David with mascara running from his eyes says, “They are sending their thugs and mobs armed with guns, knives, rifles and shotguns. I don’t want my country to become another Venezuela. I don’t know where this will end.” For David it ended in October after a gay friend Denis Madriz was found shot to death a few days after disappearing. Madriz had been active in the protests and an iconic photo of him holding a large Nicaraguan flag had made the rounds of social media. “I feared I was next,” he says. “Human rights organizations had fled the country after death threats. There was no one left to protect us.”
David crossed the border by bus to Costa Rica and after a few months of despair fled to Spain where he met two gay childhood friends, Victor and Justin. They also participated in the protests, providing food and drink to protesters. The slim young men are university students, one an industrial engineering major the other a psychology major. They both have white blond hair and that made them easy for government informants to finger them. A phone video recorded by Justin’s mother and aunt captured the night two armed paramilitary thugs came to arrest them.
“We are here for the two blondes, the terrorists participating in the protests,” says one of the thugs. The women denied the boys were there. “We don’t know what you are talking about,” they said defiantly. The thugs insisted and tried to break in the home and the women became shrill. Ultimately the thugs relented leaving with a final warning, “We were told they were here, we have their photos. We are coming back and we are going to fuck them up!” The youth had left the day before. Justin who is 5’5″ and weighs 120 lbs. and besides going to college was a professional makeup artist and manager at a family meat market. He says calling him a terrorist was an absurd but convenient label cooked up by the Ortega regime to arrest and disappear peaceful protesters.
“I was terrified that If I were to be arrested I would be tortured, raped, because that’s what they do to gay people and then disappeared,” says Justin, noting LGBTI protesters have been singled out for crueler treatment because of the homophobic nature of Nicaraguan society.
Victor and David say they feel safe in Barcelona because their rights as gay refugees are respected, but they admit that finding a place to sleep and even food is a daily struggle because they lack legal status. (Photo by Armando Trull)
Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity was commonplace in Nicaragua before the protests broke out, but the Ortega’s government and specifically Vice President Rosario Murillo, who is Ortega’s wife, made some overtures to the LGBTI community.
The government in 2009 created the Special Ombudsman for Sexual Diversity position within its Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman. The country’s Health Ministry in 2014 issued a resolution that bans discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation in health care.
Murillo has appeared on Nicaraguan television with a trans woman who graduated from a prominent university with a communications degree, but the LGBTI community continues to face harassment and abuse from police officers and soldiers. Efforts to enact an LGBTI-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance in Managua and in other cities have stalled because of the unrest. Most LGBTI groups not supportive of the government have closed their doors as their leaders and members have fled the country.
LGBTI activists participate in a Pride march in Managua, Nicaragua, on June 28, 2018. (Photo courtesy of William Ramírez Cerda)
‘Here I feel safe and welcome’
In Barcelona; Justin, Victor and now David have found a welcoming gay community that has helped them through the process of integrating into Catalonian and Spanish society. Their first stop was the community organization STOP SIDA, which means STOP AIDS. “We have lawyers who provide legal advice on how gays who are victims of violence because of their sexual orientation or gender identity can apply for asylum,” says Luis Villegas, co-manager of STOP SIDA. Villegas says the organization provides information on how to integrate into Spanish society.
“We also have social workers who provide them with resources on how to survive and thrive and ways for them to participate in workshops and outreach efforts,” he says. The youth applied for empadronamiento, a status that allows undocumented refugees to access a wealth of social and health services in Spain. They were helped to process asylum applications that would ultimately result in a NIE, an alien identification number that allows them to work as their asylum case is decided. “We are proud that as a community we are able to help fellow members of our community who are vulnerable and at risk,” says Villegas.
Victor is very grateful for that help. He tells me so as we walk through Plaça d’Espanya on a beautiful crisp fall afternoon. A pair of police officers smile and nod prompting a comment from Victor. “I was very afraid of cops when I first arrived here,” he says. “I know that in most places police are here to protect you but in my country they kill us. In Barcelona, I feel protected, I feel my rights are valued, you know?”
But life in Spain isn’t easy for these gay Nicaraguan exiles. They work in the underground economy, walking dogs, doing hair and makeup or as waiters. Sometimes they stand in soup lines to save the little they make in order to pay rent. The young men rent a small bedroom in a fifth-floor walk-up apartment in a rundown building. It’s in a working-class Barcelona neighborhood known as Venezuela because so many Latino immigrants live there. It’s a step up from when they first arrived says one of the young men. “We had to spend the night with our dates because we had nowhere to sleep, it was either that or the parks,” says Victor.
Shortly after that conversation, Justin and Victor were given NIE cards and David received empadronamiento The youth are very fortunate and on their way to a new life in Spain although the process is still many months from ending. For Hijos del Arco Iris LGBTI back in Costa Rica, it’s a much more difficult process in a poorer country straining under a refugee and humanitarian crisis of staggering proportions with fewer resources.
Yet all of these gay Nicaraguan youth face every day with optimism, dignity and hope. Living proof of the truth of their motto Juntos somos un volcán or “United we are a Volcano.” This volcano roared on April 19 and has continued to roar in Nicaragua and now roars in exile- Randal says his community fought for the rights of all Nicaragua and for a country where in the future the rights of all will be respected “for justice, for equality for what all of us as human beings deserve.”
Two LGBTI Nicaraguans who fled violence in their homelands embrace in the house in San José, Costa Rica, where they are currently living. (Photo by Armando Trull)
Paul Makonda ordered people to report others they suspected of being gay, and within days police received hundreds of reports.
‘If you know of a homosexual, you must report them to a police officer. No one can escape,’ Makonda told media.
Even though African LGBTI advocates protested the move, the World Bank and Denmark cut aid to Tanzania because of its homophobic policies. Advocacy group Pan Africa ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Intersex association) argued the LGBTI community would be blamed and made scapegoats for the cuts.
But in new research, Neela Ghosha of Human Rights Watch found the aid cuts had influence Tanzanian policy. The World Bank decided not to put forward a $300 million education grant because of the crackdown.
The action seemed to work. In a statement the World Bank said: ‘(government officials) assured the Bank that Tanzania will not pursue any discriminatory actions related to harassment and/or arrest of individuals, based on their sexual orientation’.
Even though the government promised to end the crackdown it has not eliminated all its discriminatory policies.
‘The extreme nature of Mr Makonda’s threats – to round up all gay men, subject them to forced anal examinations, and jail them for life – are what attracted international attention, including from the World Bank,’ Ghosha wrote.
‘But other forms of discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are persistent and pervasive.’
Ghosha pointed out the government banned HIV prevention programs for men who have sex with and the distribution of water-based lubricant for HIV prevention. Authorities also raided meetings of health and human rights group, where they accused activists of ‘promoting homosexuality’.
Two separate petitions launched earlier this year in Canada asking the government to ban conversion therapy have amassed a combined 70,000 signatures.
One petition has received 11,200 signatures, and the other – which was started by It Gets Better Canada – has 58,400, according to BBC News.
The first petition calls on Canada’s government to ban conversion therapy for minors, and also asks them to prohibit taking young people out of the country to take part in the practice.
Meanwhile, It Gets Better Canada is asking the government to clearly state that Canada “opposes the use of conversion therapy and other related treatments,” according to the BBC.
Devon Hargreaves, who helped launch one of the petitions, told the BBC that there was no reason for Canada to allow the practice as a country that considers itself a forerunner in human rights.
Just three countries in the world ban conversion therapy – Ecuador, Brazil and Malta.
UK LGBT+ charity Stonewall defines conversion therapy as “any form of treatment or psychotherapy which aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or to suppress a person’s gender identity.
“It is based on an assumption that being lesbian, gay, bi or trans is a mental illness that can be ‘cured’.”
The charity also brands the practice as “unethical and harmful.”
All major counselling and psychotherapy bodies in the UK – as well as the NHS – have condemned conversion therapy.
A 2009 survey of more than 1,300 mental health professionals in the UK found that over 200 had offered some form of conversion therapy.
Conversion therapy has been making headlines recently as two high-profile films have recently been made about the practice.
Boy Erased and The Miseducation of Cameron Post have both made waves for their powerful depictions of the harmful practice.
