Carnegie Hall announced on Saturday that Gazeta Polska Community of America, a U.S.-based group connected to the far-right Gazeta Polska newspaper in Poland, canceled its scheduled Oct. 24 concert.
“Carnegie Hall has been speaking with this rental group this week since we learned of the sticker campaign,” said Synneve Carlino, a Carnegie Hall spokesperson. “While they have told us that they don’t support the campaign, they informed us today that they will not present the performance.”
Gazeta Polska, a weekly Polish newsmagazine, has been criticized for its virulently anti-LGBTQ and anti-migrant content. Earlier this summer, it sparked global condemnation and an advertiser boycott in Europe after distributing “LGBT-Free Zone” stickers.
In addition, a summer 2019 issue featured an image of rainbow paint-stained hands desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus under the headlines “They want to destroy civilization” and “They want to stamp on everything that we have been.”
While Gazeta Polska Community of America claimed it is “independent and separate from the Gazeta Polska print media and it’s editorial board,” Rafal Pankowski, a sociology professor in Warsaw and member of the Polish anti-racism watchdog group Never Again, said the U.S.-based foundation “shares the political perspectives of the newspaper,” he added, Gazeta Polska’s controversial editor, Tomasz Sakiewicz, ” is very active in organizing it and leading it.”
The now-canceled Carnegie Hall concert had faced pushback from multiple performers, including pianists Jack Gibbons and Paul Bisaccia, both of whom turned down the event after learning more about the event host’s ties to the infamous Polish publication.
Abderrahim El Habachi fled Morocco two years ago out of fear he could be imprisoned for his sexuality.
He said that he is now part of a “huge community” who have come to the UK “to live their lives in an authentic way”, but have faced poor treatment under the British asylum system.
“The Home Office is putting people through hell,” he told ITV News.
“They don’t believe our sexual orientations or the struggles we are facing in our countries.”
El Habachi said that in Morocco, LGBT+ people are considered criminals and live under the constant threat of violence.
The Home Office is putting people through hell.
“If people sense that you are gay, they can beat you and you have no right to complain.”
“You are the victim at that moment but in the eyes of the law, you are the criminal because you are gay.”
He said that he and many like him arrived in the UK with dreams of “following that rainbow, but somehow the rainbow is stripped from us”.
“We need allies to help us accomplish that dream,” he added.
Successful LGBT+ asylum seeker claims fall.
The Home Office has long been accused of undermining LBGT+ asylum seekers’ sexualities.
In July, the now-Liberal Democrat MP Chuka Umunna said that LGBT+ asylum seekers in his constituency had been “treated in the most grossly humiliating, disrespectful manner by the Home Office and our Border Force authorities”.
A 2018 report by the UK Gay and Lesbian Immigration Group (UKLGIG) showed that between 2015 and 2017, the rate of LGBT-related asylum claims being accepted fell from 39 per cent to 22 percent.
Leila Zadeh, executive director of UKLGIG, called the decline “extremely worrying”.
“Our research has shown that the Home Office routinely disbelieves LGBTQI+ asylum claimants and disregard statements from friends, partners and LGBTQI+ organisations testifying to a claimant’s sexual orientation or gender identity,” Zadeh said.
“The Home Office is setting the bar too high for LGBTQI+ people. They are not applying the correct legal standard of proof that it is ‘reasonably likely’ that someone will be persecuted.”
In a statement to ITV, the Home Office said “the UK has a proud record of providing protection for asylum seekers fleeing persecution because of their sexual orientation or gender identity”.
It added: “Each case is considered on its individual merits and all decisions on claims based on sexual orientation are reviewed by experienced caseworkers.”
This was commissioned “in order to alleviate any concerns about the way in which vulnerable claims are dealt with,” the then-immigration minister Caroline Nokes said.
“The aim will be to ensure that empathy is considered by decision makers when assessing these highly complex claims.”
PinkNews has contacted the Home Office for comment.
Limiting marriage to a relationship between a man and a woman will remain China’s legal position, a parliament spokesman said on Wednesday, ruling out following neighboring Taiwan in allowing same-sex marriage, despite pressure from activists.
Taiwan’s parliament passed a bill in May that endorsed same-sex marriage, after years of heated debate over marriage equality that has divided the self-ruled and democratic island.
China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, has a thriving gay scene in major cities, but there has been little sign the ruling Communist Party will legalize same-sex marriage.
Asked at a news briefing whether China would legalize same-sex marriage, Zang Tiewei, spokesman for parliament’s legal affairs commission, said Chinese law only allowed for marriage between one man and one woman.
“This rule suits our country’s national condition and historical and cultural traditions,” he said. “As far as I know, the vast majority of countries in the world do not recognize the legalization of same-sex marriage.”
Individual Chinese legislators have occasionally in the past few years proposed measures during the annual meeting of the largely rubber-stamp parliament every March to legalize same-sex marriage, without success.
There are no laws against same-sex relations in China and despite growing awareness of LGBTQ issues, the community has been the target of censors in recent months, fueling fears of a growing intolerance.
Activists have asked people in China to propose amendments to a draft civil code en masse, though they have admitted they see little chance of success. The parts of the code relating to marriage are expected to pass into law next year.
The code makes changes on issues such as sexual harassment, divorce and family planning, but does not further the rights of the LGBTQ community, drafts published by parliament show.
Zang said the marriage section of the draft civil code maintains the bond as being between a man and a woman.
Prominent gay rights activist Sun Wenlin told Reuters he was disappointed in the comments, but not surprised.
“I feel that my partner and I are sacrificing our happiness for the country’s legal system,” said Sun, who three years ago had his application to legally marry his partner rejected by a Chinese court.
“They are undermining our life plan of choosing to marry the person we love.”
He added, “I feel I am being excluded, and am absolutely not a consideration for policymakers.”
Another activist, who asked not to be named, told Reuters there were cases in China of same-sex partners who had lost their homes after one of them died, as they lacked the legal protection of marriage.
“We hope these tragedies don’t keen happening,” the activist said.
Palestinian Authority (PA) police also issued an official statement on August 18 encouraging members of the public to report on the activities of LGBT+ groups.
Palestinian LGBT+ group Al-Qaws says that the PA police statement “promotes incitement against Al-Qaws” and followed an “unprecedented” attack on the group via its social-media channels.
Al-Qaws had been planning a “queer camp” for the end of August in Nablus, northern West Bank.
“The statement promotes incitement against Al-Qaws – and LGBTQ Palestinians – by encouraging members of society to report on Al-Qaws activities. Al-Qaws has since denounced such fear-mongering by Palestinian authorities,” the group said in an online statement.
“Al-Qaws has refused the ban on its activities and noted it will continue its work to fight patriarchy, colonialism and homophobia across historical Palestine,” the statement said.
While LGBT+ activities are officially banned in the West Bank, Al-Qaws has suggested five ways to support Palestinian queers.
Centre Palestinian LGBT+ voices.
“We are constantly talked about but our voices are rarely heard,” said Al-Qaws.
“When reporting on issues that pertain to LGBTQ Palestinians, just ask yourself: whose voice does this story centre?”
“Come talk to us and hear our perspective. Do not simply copy and paste translated Hebrew/Israeli media to tell our story. Al-Qaws activists and staff always provide our names when interviewed, so if you read an article/post with a claimed quote from us with no name attributed, you should know it is not from us.”
Colonialism, patriarchy and homophobia are all connected.
“Singling out incidents of homophobia in Palestinian society ignores the complexities of Israel’s colonisation and military occupation being a contributing factor to Palestinian LGBTQ oppression,” Al-Qaws said.
“We ask that you situate Palestinian LGBTQ oppression within the larger context of Israeli occupation, colonialism, patriarchy and homophobia.”
Steer clear of pink-washing.
“Perpetuating tiresome tropes of presenting Palesitnians as inherently oppressive and Israel as a liberal state that protects LGBTQ rights is counter-productive and factually baseless,” Al-Qaws said.
“Our struggle as queer Palestinians is against Israeli colonialism as much as it is against homophobia and patriarchy in Palestine.”
“Israel uses pink-washing tactics to lie about ‘saving’ LGBTQ Palestinians from their society. We ask that you steer away from these lies that are intentionally used to justify their colonisation of Palestine.”
Understand that Al-Qaws’ priority is community organising.
“We are a small team of dedicated activists who believe change comes from working within our local context,” said Al-Qaws.
“We put enormous daily and strategic efforts in our local grassroots advocacy organising in Palestine. Therefore, and especially in such a crisis, we prioritise providing education and safety to our communities first.”
Support Al-Qaws’ work.
Practically, this includes following them on social media and sharing their resources.
“We believe in the power of people to make social change possible,” Al-Qaws said.
“Talk to your friends and family about the importance of standing up against bigotry towards LGBTQ people, and make sure that your vision of liberation and freedom in Palestine includes us all.”
Berlin police say a central memorial to the gay victims of the Nazis has been vandalized.
The concrete memorial in Berlin’s Tiergarten park, near the memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, features a window into which visitors can look and view a video of a same-sex couple kissing.
Police said Monday that security guards reported that overnight the window had been painted over.
Palestinian police have banned events organized by the LGBTQ rights organization alQaws because they go against “traditional Palestinian values,” the rights group said in a statement Sunday.
“AlQaws condemns the use of prosecution, intimidation and threats of arrest, be it by the police or members of society,” the group wrote on Facebook. “We have always been public and accessible about our work, through maintaining an active website, social media presence and engagement in civil society. However, we have never received threats to this extent before.”
AlQaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society emerged as a project in 2001 and formalized in 2007, according to its website. As part of the group’s work, it regularly holds events throughout Palestinian territories and offers support for LGBTQ people through hotlines and partnerships with other civil rights groups.
The statement from the Palestinian police announcing the ban came after alQaws held an event in Nablus, a city in the northern West Bank, in early August. The organization had plans to hold another event there at the end of the month.
Police said Sunday they would “pursue this gathering” and seek charges against anyone involved in it, according to The Associated Press. The Palestinian police are under the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Word of the gathering had sparked fierce debate on social media, with some Palestinians defending the activists and others condemning them for violating religious and traditional norms.
“We have never received threats to this extent before,” alQaws said in its Facebook statement. However, it acknowledged that the “crackdown against the fight for sexual and gender liberation is not new.”
“Throughout modern history, it has served as a powerful card for oppressive regimes and governments,” the group stated. “Sadly, the PA statement and subsequent public responses are well-honed tactics in the game of political gain and smoke-screening, not limited to the Palestinian Authority or to this particular event.”
Despite the crackdown, however, the alQaws said it will continue to work to combat the “social violence against LGBT Palestinians.”
Neither alQaws nor the Palestinian police immediately responded to NBC News’ request for comment.
Sa’ed Atshan, an assistant professor of peace and conflict studies at Swarthmore College and author of “Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique,” said the Palestinian police’s statement about alQaws is an attempt to “score morality points.”
By focusing on LGBTQ people, Atshan told NBC News, the Palestinian Authority can distract everyday Palestinians away from “its impotence in the face of the occupation.”
Being openly LGBTQ in Palestine, though, isn’t easy regardless, according to Atshan. He said unless you’re from a wealthy or secular family or live in a city, it can be difficult being out.
“While increasing numbers of LGB Palestinians are identifying as such, and slowly trans folks in Palestine are coming out, it is still tremendously difficult to live one’s life authentically, particularly as a trans person,” he explained.
Atshan also noted there seems to be an increase in anti-LGBTQ public expressions in Palestinian territories.
“This is a serious problem in our society,” he said, “and we have not grappled with the long-entrenched and ingrained homophobia in our society in a serious or robust, large-scale manner yet.”
And authorities seem to be leading the charge.
“The Palestinian Authority’s police have also been inciting surveillance and violence against LGBTQ Palestinians from their own families, neighbors and co-workers, with a spike now in social media posts calling for assaults against queer people in the West Bank,” Atshan explained.
Homosexuality is taboo in Arab countries, many of which criminalize it. Approximately 70 countries around the world — most in Africa and the Mideast — criminalize homosexuality.
Just months after a Tunisian presidential commission recommended the decriminalization of homosexuality, the North African nation has its first openly gay candidate for president: Mounir Baatour.
Baatour, 48, is a lawyer and president of both the Tunisian Liberal Party and Association Shams, Tunisia’s main LGBTQ rights organization. Baatour’s candidacy is noteworthy because in Tunisia homosexuality is still a crime that is punishable by up to three years in prison. Baatour himself was jailed in 2013 for an accusation of “homosexuality,” and he said prison was “very hard, and the psychological impact is very sad, and after that I was in depression for one year.”
Baatour said he expected to make the ballot for the September 15 election, which was moved up because President Beji Caid El Sebsi died unexpectedly in July. Baatour vowed to go to court to challenge any effort to bar his candidacy, though he said he collected double the number of signatures required to run.
In June, the Committee on Individual Freedoms and Equality, known by its French acronym COLIBE, released a report that recommended an overhaul of Tunisia’s penal code — including ending the country’s criminalization of homosexuality. It also recommended abolishing the death penalty, giving women more rights and dismantling patrilineal citizenship and inheritance.
“The state and society have nothing to do with the sexual life amongst adults … sexual orientations and choices of individuals are essential to private life,” the COLIBE report states. “Therefore the commission recommends canceling [the criminalization of homosexuality], since it violates the self-evident private life, and because it has brought criticism to the Republic of Tunisia from international human rights bodies.”
If elected, Baatour hopes to enact the recommendations in the COLIBE report.
“I am absolutely in favor of the COLIBE report, I will adopt it in my program, and I will do all my best to execute the report,” Baatour said. “The main idea of my candidacy is to fight more for more freedom in Tunisia, more individual rights, and to stop the persecution against LGBT community engaged by the government against all homosexuals in my country.”
Since Tunisia’s 2011 revolution ushered a new period of democracy into the country, the government has actually ramped up its persecution of the LGBTQ community due in part, according to Baatour, to an increase in police recruiting Islamist people to join the force.
“I think because the Islamists were in the older coalition after the revolution, and I think in the police there is a lot of recruitment of Islamist persons,” Baatour said.
Baatour’s run is another historic moment for Tunisia. In 2011, Tunisians took to the streets in massive protests that resulted in the resignation of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who eventually fled in exile to Saudi Arabia. The Tunisian uprising inspired similar movements in Yemen, Libya, and Egypt that also deposed presidents, while an uprising in Syria morphed into the civil war that continues to this day.
Fred Karger, who in his 2012 Republican primary run became the first openly gay American to run for president, congratulated Baatour on Twitter. “He’s very, very courageous for doing what he’s doing in the Arab World, as the first not just in Tunisia but the first in Africa and the Muslim world. He seems to be a very qualified candidate,” Karger said.
“It’s such an important thing to do for so many people around the world,” Karger said, “to see someone to be out and proud and doing what he’s doing.”
Andrei Vaganov and Evgeny Erofeyev have been raising their two sons, now 12 and 14, for nearly a decade. The children were adopted by Vaganov shortly before he and Erofeyev were married in Denmark.
The couple didn’t face any problems until the youngest son, Yuri, was hospitalised due to a stomach ache and doctors realised he had no mother.
This precipitated a sexual abuse investigation that threatened their right to live freely as a family.
Here we live, we are an ordinary family
“We never asked our children to hide anything,” Vaganov told independent Russian news outlet Meduza. “This was our conscious position: why is it somehow stigmatising and so on. Here we live, we are an ordinary family.”
The morning after Yuri was discharged from hospital, Vaganov and Erofeyev were told to report to police for questioning.
What started as a “pre-investigation check” quickly became more serious, and Yuri was ordered to undergo a physical exam to rule out abuse.
“This, frankly, is a very traumatic event for a child,” Vaganov explained, particularly as Yuri had a troubled childhood before adoption. “They inspect Yuri, he swears, cries. 40 minutes, probably this all went on.”
By the time Vaganov and his son were allowed home, the story that a gay couple had ‘raped a child’ was already all over the internet.
Later their elder son Denis was also called in for an interview, and a family law attorney advised them to prepare to flee the country. The couple were told protective services would almost certainly try to place their children in foster care.
“Because in such situations, children are simply removed from the family before further proceedings, which can last for years, since the article is related to the sexual integrity of the child,” Vaganov said.
Shortly afterwards authorities suggested that Yuri be turned over to a state-owned rehabilitation centre while the case was investigated, despite forensic testing showing no signs of physical abuse.
Erofeyev and Vaganov decided the time to leave had come; not long after they did so, investigators demanded they turn themselves in for questioning.
No charges have been made against them yet, but Buzzfeed News reported that the case has only gotten more dire in the last month.
On July 15, a speech in Russian Parliament denounced gay adoptions as the potential end of mankind. The next day, the Investigative Committee opened a case against the agency that allowed Vaganov to adopt his children.
The law bans the “promotion of nontraditional sexual relations to minors” – a reference universally understood to mean a ban on information about LGBT+ lifestyles.
Members of the Russian gay community and gay rights activists from Europe hold flags during a banned gay rally in Moscow (Andrey Smirnov/Getty)
Human rights groups say that the law has exacerbated hostility towards LGBT+ people in Russia, and that in preventing LGBT+ people from accessing inclusive education and support services, it has had detrimental impact on children and young people.
The European Court of Human Rights has found Russia to have violated LGBT+ people’s rights three times in as many years.
he body of a 40-year-old trans woman known as ‘La Gata’ was found by her family in the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas in the South American country.
This is the eighth case of murder or violent death of a trans person in the country this year, according to Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Diane Rodriguez, the first trans woman elected to Ecuador’s National Assembly, told Reuters: “Once again, the LGBT community in Ecuador is in mourning. We thought (the attacks) were going to decrease, but on the contrary, we’ve been surprised by this year’s statistics.”
The killing has sparked fears of a rise in anti-LGBT violence in the country, which has seen progress for the LGBT+ community in recent years.
The constitutional court in the capital Quito voted five-to-four to approve same-sex marriage in the cases of the two, extending gay marriage across the country.
When LGBT activist Yelena Grigoryeva found her name on a hit list of a “gay-hunting” group, she did not appear to take the threat seriously.
The group called itself “Pila”, meaning “saw”, after the series of Hollywood horror films of the same name, in which a serial killer plays games with his victims.
Pila promised “very dangerous and cruel little gifts” to a number of Russia’s gay activists.
“That’s just a threat,” Grigoryeva wrote on Facebook early last month, posting a screen grab of the group’s website on her page.
“This is not how crimes are committed.”
On July 21, her body was found in bushes close to her home in Saint Petersburg, with at least eight stab wounds to her face and back. She was 41.
The murder has horrified Russia’s LGBT community, even though there seems to be no firm evidence linking Pila directly to Grigoryeva’s fatal stabbing.
“I do not know who these people are, but it’s significant that people who think this way live among us,” said activist Mikhail Tumasov, who has also received threats from Pila.
“Many people would like to do in reality what Pila is threatening us with. The idea has emerged that killing people over their sexual orientation is not just normal, but noble,” he told AFP.
Russia’s gays and lesbians are no strangers to violence, hate crimes and even homophobic murders.
But a vigilante group seeking to turn violence against LGBT people into a game and encouraging Russians to hunt them down for sport plumbs new lows, campaigners say.
Activists said the Pila website had been around for about a year, posting names and pictures of their targets and promising “awards” for attacks on them.
– ‘Start protecting citizens’ –
Prominent activist Igor Kochetkov accused authorities of doing little to stop it as he urged police to probe the website and the death threats against Grigoryeva.
AFP / OLGA MALTSEVARussia’s LGBT community is no stranger to violence, hate crimes and even murders
“Dear police and other law enforcement agencies. It’s time to get to work!” Kochetkov, whose name was also on the hit list, said in a recent video address.
“Start protecting all citizens! And if you believe that people like us should not be protected find yourselves a different job.”
Pila’s website has only recently been blocked, as have its channels on the popular encrypted messaging app Telegram.
They say Pila may not be made up of cold-bloodied killers, but that its main goal was to further terrorise Russia’s beleaguered gay community.
AFP/File / Olga MALTSEVARussian riot police detained gay rights activists during World Day Against Homophobia and Transophobia in Saint Petersburg in May
“Pila is dangerous because it sows hatred. It inspires people to commit real crimes,” said Alla Chikinda, spokeswoman for an LGBT support centre in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
The centre, too, has received threats from Pila, which called for it to be shut down.
