Marin’s Spahr Center Hosts LGBTQI+ Family Picnic@ Roy’s Redwoods July 15
This event will be hosted next week on Saturday, July 15, from 12:00-2:30pm, at Roy’s Redwoods. Meet us in the parking lot of the San Geronimo Golf Course Clubhouse. |
This event will be hosted next week on Saturday, July 15, from 12:00-2:30pm, at Roy’s Redwoods. Meet us in the parking lot of the San Geronimo Golf Course Clubhouse. |
In a first for LGBTQ+ people in California, Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins has signed bills into law while serving as the state’s acting governor.
Atkins, who is a lesbian, is “the first woman and first openly LGBTQ person serving as acting governor to sign bills into law while doing so” in California, according to The Bay Area Reporter.
Atkins took the action last Thursday, when both Gov. Gavin Newsom and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis were out of the state. She signed three bills: Assembly Bill 354, updating membership on the Sacramento Regional Transit District board of directors; AB 410, upgrading Braille signage on motorized scooters and other mobility devices; and AB 588, dealing with membership on the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency board.
“These bills impact public transit, shared mobility devices, & local water management will continue our efforts to protect CA & enhance our communities,” Atkins tweeted.
“I’m thrilled to step into the governor’s shoes, though I have better shoes than him,” Atkins said during the signing ceremony, the Reporter notes. Her wife, Jennifer LeSar, joined her at the ceremony.
Atkins had served as acting governor for a few hours in 2014, making her the state’s first LGBTQ+ person doing so, but she signed no bills then.
The senator, who represents a San Diego district, has a history of firsts. In 2014, she became the first lesbian and second out LGBTQ+ person to be speaker of the California Assembly; John Pérez, a gay man, had held the post previously. In 2018, when she was named president pro tempore of the Senate, she was the first woman and first out LGBTQ+ person in that position.
She will leave the Senate at the end of 2024 due to term limits, and she has set up a campaign account for a run for lieutenant governor then, when Kounalakis will also be term-limited. Kounalakis plans to run for governor.
Politico Europe reports:
Georgia’s annual LGBT+ Pride event was evacuated by the police on Saturday after hundreds of counter-protesters stormed the site. In a statement, organisers of the festival in the capital of Tbilisi announced that they had been forced to shut down the annual festivities after the authorities failed to maintain the perimeter.
“Today’s developments indicate that today’s planned events were pre-coordinated and agreed upon between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the violent group Alt-Info,” Tbilisi Pride said.
Smoke rose above the site, a field just outside the city, as LGBT+ rainbow flags were burned and right-wing activists danced to traditional Georgian folk music. Attendees had been told to board buses for safety moments before.
Read the full article.
Give the tweets below a minute to fully load. Around 90% of Georgians belong to the Georgian Orthodox Church.
A court in the Kurdistan region of Iraq dealt independent civil society a blow on May 31, 2023, by ordering the closure of Rasan Organization over “its activities in the field of homosexuality,” Human Rights Watch said today. Rasan is the only human rights organization willing to vocally support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), in addition to its work on women’s rights and domestic violence.
“Shuttering Rasan is not only an attack on civil society in Kurdistan but is also a direct threat to the lives and wellbeing of the vulnerable people they support,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “By closing Rasan, the government has sent a clear message that it does not respect freedom of association.”
Tanya Kamal Darwish, CEO of Rasan Organization, told Human Rights Watch that the purported reason for closing the group down was not because of its activities, but because the judge took issue with its logo, which contains the colors of the rainbow. The court order states that “the expert committee confirmed that the logo of the organization is a complete expression of its activities in the field of homosexuality.”
Rasan has appealed but is unable to continue operating while the appeal is pending.
The closure of Rasan is part of a broader pattern of oppression and targeting of LGBT people and activists by local Kurdish authorities in recent years. Human Rights Watch has previously documented the targeting of LGBT people online and violence against LGBT people by armed groups in Iraq, including the regional government.
The closure is the result of a lawsuit filed against Rasan in February 2021 by Omar Kolbi, a member of the Kurdistan Parliament, who accused Rasan of “promoting homosexuality,” and “engaging in activities that defy social norms, traditions, and public morality.” Kolbi also submitted a complaint to Barzan Akram Mantiq, the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Department of Non-Governmental Organizations, an official body responsible for registering, organizing, and monitoring all nongovernmental organizations in the region.
After the suit was filed, local police issued arrest warrants for 11 LGBT rights activists who were either current or former employees at Rasan based on article 401 of the penal code, which criminalizes “public indecency.”
“The Department of Non-Governmental Organizations is supporting MP Kolbi’s complaint against us, but that is backward,” Darwish said. “The department should have been supporting us, not standing against us.”
Darwish said that the trial, which took place last year, focused on the activities of Rasan and never mentioned any issues with the group’s logo. “They were asking about our activities, and we told them what we do,” Darwish said. “We focus on human rights. Anyone who comes to us with a problem we help without any discrimination.”
Rasan found out about the issue with the logo only when the court decision was published. “We weren’t expecting them to take any action against us, since we weren’t doing anything illegal. They used the logo as an excuse because they couldn’t find anything illegal in our activities,” Darwish said.
Rasan, which has operated in Sulaimaniya, a city in the Kurdistan region, for nearly two decades, has faced increasing threats and official retaliation for its activism and work. The group provides legal, psychological, and social support for women and LGBT clients, raises awareness of LGBT and women’s rights, and collects and compiles data relevant to LGBT people and gender-based violence.
In September 2022, members of the Kurdistan Regional Parliament introduced the “Bill on the Prohibition of Promoting Homosexuality,” which would punish any individual or group that advocates for the rights of LGBT people. Under the bill, the vague provision against “promoting homosexuality” would be a crime punishable by imprisonment for up to one year and a fine of up to five million dinars (US$3,430). The bill would also suspend, for up to one month, the licenses of media companies and civil society organizations that “promote homosexuality.”
Momentum for adopting the bill appears to have stalled, but in the context of repeated targeting of LGBT people, local LGBT rights activists fear it could be quickly revived and passed at the whim of local authorities.
“By going after Rasan, authorities are effectively scapegoating activists working to protect among the most vulnerable members of society, who should not fear reprisals for speaking up about abuses,” Coogle said. “The Kurdistan Regional Government should take immediate steps to ensure that organizations like Rasan are permitted to operate freely and cease harassment and targeting of LGBT advocates.”
Police in Salt Lake City are investigating after a number of Pride flags were set alight in the Utah capital.
The investigation began on Monday morning (3 July) after officers were called to a home where the owner reported their flag being cut down and burned, the police said in a statement.
After responding to the incident, they learned that at least four other LGBTQ+ flags in the area had been vandalised, reportedly during the early hours of that morning.
The police want to hear from anyone with information and have asked people in the area to check home-surveillance systems to see if they captured footage of any suspect.
In its statement, the police department also said it recognised “our responsibility to investigate hate crimes thoroughly and impartially to hold offenders accountable and ensure justice for survivors”.
They went on to say: “The Salt Lake City police department educates its officers and works with our community to recognise and condemn hate crimes and works to prevent them from occurring in the future.
“Hate has no place in our community.”
Photos of four of the flags were posted on social media by the police, with the images showing them having been cut and one in ashes on the ground.
Fox 13 reported more flags being cut and burned on Tuesday morning (4 July), this time near Harvey Milk Boulevard, named after the prominent gay rights pioneer.
One resident, Joseph Leyba, told the news outlet that he and four neighbours woke on Tuesday morning to find their flags in ashes on the pavement, and that he was “at a loss for emotions and feelings”.
He said it was particularly shocking because the area was Salt Lake’s unofficial LGBTQ+ district.
On a positive note, he added a woman he did not know replaced all the flags.
“She had Pride flags in her hands and was setting them on the front porches of all the individuals that had been affected,” Leyba said.
As the UK government fights to save its Rwanda asylum plan in the Supreme Court, a gay man from the country reports on the dangers facing the community there.
On Thursday (29 June), the Court of Appeal ruled that the government’s much-criticised plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful. Prime minister Rishi Sunak and home secretary Suella Braverman have indicated that they intend to challenge the ruling.
On the same day, the government’s Illegal Migration Bill, which backs up the Rwanda plan, suffered heavy defeats in the House of Lords.
Innocent Uwimana – whose name has been changed to protect his identity – is a gay man from Rwanda who migrated to the UK about 20 years ago.
He knows first-hand what life is like for LGBTQ+ people in Rwanda, and it’s for this reason that he is so disturbed by the UK’s proposal.
As debate rages on about the bill, Innocent set about finding out what life is like right now for queer people in Rwanda. Here, he reports on conversations during which he found that stigma and abuse are still a part of every-day life for LGBTQ+ people in the East African country.
Rwanda is one of the few African countries that does not overtly criminalise gay sex, and is a signatory to the UN declaration condemning violence against LGBTQ+ people.
However, same-sex marriage is prohibited and LGBTQ+ people are not protected from discrimination by any specific legislation.
LGBTQ+ people face stigmatisation and abuse there every day and there are many other factors that fuel hatred against them, especially religious and cultural factors.
I’ve had a chance to speak to a group of Rwandan LGBTQ+ people who currently live in the country, and who have faced discrimination their entire lives because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
“We don’t understand how the UK government would send LGBTQ+ people here knowing that they will face discrimination. Although the country’s recent human rights advances have been ‘enormous’, not all Rwandans are able to enjoy them equally,” one person told me.
The people in the group explained the tactics used to discriminate anyone perceived to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
The first argument used is religion. Christianity is predominant, and leaders of the Pentecostal and Catholic churches in Rwanda have warmly embraced discrimination against LGBTQ+ populations.
In addition, many political and social influencers in Rwanda frequently utilise overtly religious justifications to condemn homosexuality, calling it not only “un-Rwandan,” but also “sacrilegious”.
The UK government has to understand that Rwandans’ conceptions of the world are substantially shaped by their religious beliefs, that religious ideas heavily shape their attitudes and behaviours.
On tope of that, homophobia has evolved into a rallying cry that mobilises the masses by urging them to guard themselves against westernisation. Political and religious leaders, as well as social media influencers, justify discrimination against LGBTQ+ people on the grounds of culture.
They claim that homosexuality and non-heteronormative gender identities are not part of African culture and that they were brought to Africa by Western countries (especially the US and European nations) as a way to impose their beliefs on the continent.
Some also claim that Western countries intend to wipe out the African population by promoting homosexuality and preventing people being in heterosexual relationships in which they can have children.
However, there is historical evidence of same-sex relationships and gender expression versatility as they are well-documented in many places in Africa, including Rwanda.
For example, in Rwanda, cyabakobwa (men behaving and crossdressing as women) and ibishebago (women behaving and dressing as men) were tolerated and they lived in peace in the communities in pre-colonial times.
But, unfortunately, this is no longer the case, and LGBTQ+ individuals have to hide or are forced to flee to other countries.
The people I spoke with noted recent, well-documented cases of violence against LGBTQ+ people and people simply perceived to be part of the community.
One example is that of a famous DJ and social media influencer who has been accused of being a lesbian. Despite her denial, she has been attacked in the media by religious leaders and other social media influencers, demanding she be arrested or beaten up.
Rwanda is clearly a country from which most LGBTQ+ people want to get out, to live in a place where they can be free and themselves. So why would the UK government think it is safe to send queer people there?
The people I chatted to were surprised that a country like the UK, previously known for pushing the human rights agenda, was now deliberately planning to send people to a place where it is known that they will face stigmatisation and discrimination.
When I asked the group what they sought to achieve, they said: “We hope the UK government will hear our voice and don’t put other people in a situation many others want to get out of.“
Ivan Miadini said it was like a scene out of the Old Testament.
He and his husband were walking their dog a week ago Saturday night in Drogheda, north of the Irish capital in Dublin, when a gang of teenage boys starting verbally abusing them, calling them “f****t bastards”, “queers” and “pedophiles.”
“They threatened to kill us, rape our dog and told us to go back to our own countries,” Miadini told the Independent. “They were going to chase us off the island.”
The incident escalated as the teenagers started hurling stones at the couple and their dog and then physically attacked them. Both men were punched in the head and face. One man suffered a broken nose.
The attack lasted over a minute.
Despite the violence, Miadini managed to record most of the incident — he said the boys knocked his phone from his hands twice — and he posted it online in hopes local residents would come forward with information about the attackers’ identities.
Remarkably, the couple hasn’t contacted cops.
Referring to the state police in Ireland, Miadini told a local radio station, “I didn’t film with the intention of sharing it with the Garda. I think there is another way to go here.”
“I am sharing this with various outlets, with people I know to share it among themselves so we can find out who these people are and see what their situation is.”
“I really want to know before taking this further down the line.”
A local Garda source told the Irish Mirror police are aware of the video online and that it was a “shocking” attack. He hopes the couple comes forward.
“These teenage gangs should not get away with this,” he said. “There is no excuse for such vile homophobic and racist abuse.”
Imelda Munster, a member of the Irish Parliament representing Drogheda, said she’s spoken to the victims and condemned the attack.
“These are two law-abiding citizens going out for a walk with their dog when they are attacked in broad daylight because of who they are.
“Under no circumstances should these thugs get away with this. It was a frightening incident and everyone in Drogheda is shocked and angry.”
For their part, the couple, who recently relocated from Dublin, think their attackers should avoid jail time and be directed on a path to community service.
“I don’t think the solution here is just to throw the book at them with a criminal prosecution,” Miadini said.
“If these young people aren’t educated, they will grow up to carry out worse assaults.”
“Hopefully it doesn’t take root,” said Miadini, “because that kind of hate can only grow.”
FORBIDDEN KISS @ The California in Santa Rosa 7:30pm – 9:15pm
SPECIAL COMEDY EVENT!
It’s comedy burlesque, sketch comedy, stand-up and more, including the premiere of a new talk show – with Cheryl King, Shan Free and Alia Beeton as The Cunning Linguists.
Join Cheryl and her other guests Velvet Thorn, Martin Gilbertson, Jonni Machado, Serena Elise, and Malia Abayon for this sexy, smart vaudeville show.
Adult-oriented material, for those 18+. Parental guidance is suggested.
The Supreme Court in Nepal has issued an interim order enabling the registration of same-sex marriages, a move which has been described as a “significant step towards marriage equality” in the country.
The interim order was issued by the Supreme Court on Wednesday (28 June), asking the government to establish a separate register of marriages for same-sex couples in the country, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The US embassy in Nepal wrote on Twitter: “This decision is a significant step towards marriage equality and recognition in Nepal that marriage is a fundamental right.
“With the recognition of full marriage equality, Nepal will continue to be a leader in protecting all citizens against discrimination.”
While same-sex marriage is still not yet fully legal in Nepal, activists have said that the move is “very significant” for same-sex couples and “third gender” people. “Third gender” people are officially recognised in Nepal as of 2007, and can list their gender on ID including passports. The gender has been included in Nepal’s census since 2021.
“This is a very significant development, as same-sex as well as third genders and their partners can register their marriages. They will be entitled to the same rights as heterosexual couples,” LGBTQ+ rights activist and former parliamentarian Sunil Babu Pant said.
“Parliament may take a while to pass the marriage equality law, but this order gives a practical solution to members of the sexual and gender minority communities who wish to register their marriage legally.”
Couple Surendra Pandey and Maya Gurung told AP that they married in a Hindu ceremony six years ago. However, their marriage is not legally binding. They told the outlet that they were “relieved” to finally be able to register their marriage.
Gurung said: “I am overwhelmed with joy because of this decision and it is a day of commemoration for our community.
“This court ruling has established that we are equal citizens of this country.”
If Nepal fully legalises same-sex marriage, it will become the second country in Asia to do so, after Taiwan made the historic step in 2019.
The mayor of a California city in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area has drawn criticism from citizens and business leaders after refusing to issue a proclamation recognizing June as Pride Month and describing LGBTQ+ identity as a “choice of lifestyle.”
As the Los Angeles Blade reports, 2023 was the first year since 2014 that the city of Torrance, California did not issue a Pride Month proclamation. While the city reportedly does not sponsor Pride events or fly the Pride flag over its city hall, former mayor Patrick Furey did issue the proclamations beginning in 2014.
But this year, Mayor George Chen, who was elected in 2022 after Furey retired, opted to break with that tradition, frustrating local LGBTQ+ residents and business owners who say the city has seen an uptick in hostility toward the queer community. Last year, Pride decorations outside local businesses were torn down, according to the Daily Breeze.
Early last month, the paper reported that Chen turned down a request to issue the annual Pride Month proclamation. The mayor said that his decision was not meant to be a public condemnation of the LGBTQ+ community.
“To me, it was a proclamation request,” Chen told the Daily Breeze in early June. “I denied the proclamation request because this is a certain choice of lifestyle for some people, and I respect each person’s personal choice. It does not rise to a proclamation.”
However, the choice to play pickleball apparently does rise to that level; earlier this year, Chen issued a proclamation declaring April National Pickleball Month, the L.A. Bladenotes.
Frustrated with the mayor’s decision and last year’s vandalism, members of the Downtown Torrance Association (DTA) reportedly came up with a plan to hang rainbow Pride banners on the downtown business district’s light poles, where vandals cannot reach them. The DTA also drafted its own Pride Month proclamation, which was ratified by all 50 of the DTA’s member businesses, the L.A. Blade reported.
Members of the organization read the proclamation aloud during a June 6 city council meeting. But according to the Daily Breeze, the mayor’s office has the right to decline any proclamation request made by a Torrance resident, per city policy. Chen declined the DTA’s request.
The L.A. Blade reports that the morning after the meeting, security cameras outside one downtown business captured city officials removing the DTA’s Pride banners. At a subsequent meeting after business owners rehung the banners, city representatives reportedly told DTA members that they could face misdemeanor charges if they did not remove them.
Additionally, Chen and the Torrance city council have reportedly failed to issue formal statements condemning anti-LGBTQ+ graffiti that began appearing on city bridges.
The situation has been devastating for members of the local LGBTQ+ community and their allies.
“I’m seeing people in my community losing hope,” Adam Schwartz told the L.A. Blade. “It’s destroyed people’s trust in the city. A lot of people can hear this and go, ‘Oh, Torrance is such a backward, bigoted place,’ and that hurts everyone in Torrance.”
“It’s frustrating for me to see that I’m still not really welcome,” said Silas Quinn, a transgender Torrance native who moved back to the city last year. “I’m still not really what Torrance wants to be a part of their community.”
But Isabel (Douvan) Schwartz, who helped draft the DTA’s proclamation, remained defiant. “This will not stop the Downtown Torrance Association from finding other ways to celebrate Pride,” she told the L.A. Blade. “Next year, we will find another way to celebrate.”