Everybody knew

No breaking news that Michael Stipe came out a few days ago. REM, and Michael, are one of the greatest, and everybody's celebrating this coming out, and cheering, and everybody's full of superb intentions and against homophobia and all that. And REM's new album, Accelerate, is coming out very soon too. Also Alejandro Amenabar came out shortly before the release of his movie The Sea Inside. Then the press talks about Michael and adds to the album promotion which adds to the coming out etc. We knew you were gay, Michael, and we all know that homophobia is a crime, and we all know that knives cut. It's only we still don't know how to take their edges off, seen?

Bollywood stars on homosexuality

According to NewKerala.com, via Topix news, an increasing numbers of Indian movie stars are asserting their own position on changing the laws on homosexuality in India. Statements on the issue by some of the most renowned Bollywood stars are:

Lillete Dubey: Of course, the laws pertaining to homosexuality should be revised. They are archaic and inhuman. An individual's sexual preference is a completely private matter. It falls under the realm of the law when there's a public display of obscene behaviour. Any such conduct must be equally punishable for straight and gay persons. If gay behaviour offends publicly, the law has every right to react. Otherwise, we're the largest democracy and sexual freedom is our democratic right.
Celina Jaitley: My closest friends are gay and I wouldn't let anyone hurt them. The laws need drastic change. Homosexuality has existed since the invention of civilisation. Some of our greatest artistes today are gay. At this time of HIV and AIDS, gay rights should be our primary concern. In Britain, they've gay marriages. So why are we stuck with their obsolete laws? They left the country long back! Also science proves homosexuality is genetic.
Randeep Hooda: I've lots of gay friends, both male and female. As long as they respect my heterosexual space, I've no problems with their sexuality. As far as the gay party on Saturday night is concerned, if the partygoers were disrupting the neighbourhood's peace then they deserve to be pulled up. Alternative sexuality must not be an excuse for extra rights and privileges. If you want to be equal then fight it out in life just like any of us.
Manoj Bajpai: Yes, the law should be revised. All citizens have the right to decide how they live their lives.
Rohit Roy: I'm not very clear about gay rights and laws in India. But I must say this sort of raid gets us thinking about the priorities of the police. Shouldn't they crack down on elements dangerous to society rather than gays who just want to live in peace?
Nandana Sen: Yes, absolutely! The laws need a change. No one has the right to invade a peaceful private gathering. It's against our democratic principles to treat homosexuality as crime.
Tanushree Dutta: Oh my god! This is ridiculous. The laws need desperate change. Or maybe homosexuality is legal and the cops don't know about it?
Imtiaz Ali: Of course, the laws need to be revised. An act that is natural to some cannot be illegal in a free democracy.
Riya Sen: Everyone in a democracy should enjoy the freedom to do what he or she likes. I think it is uncivilised to question anyone's sexuality. Invasion of privacy is a bigger crime than any. Not just homosexuality, we need to open up our minds against all kinds of prejudice if we want to really go global.
Amrita Arora: Gays have just the same rights as straight people. I party with them and I find them sensitive and dependable. Why single them out to ridicule? High time people stop being judgemental about how others live their lives.
Vipul Shah: Yes, laws need revision. Nobody has the right to decide for others. It's every individual's birthright to decide his or her sexual preference. And nobody has the right to interfere. Unless they were behaving obscenely, the gay partygoers shouldn't have been raided.
Shefali Shah: I don't see why there should be laws against individuals based on their sexual preferences. It's a free world. People are entitled to make their own choices as long as their choices don't hurt anyone.
Samir Soni: I don't think the laws should vary according to sexual orientation. What is unlawful should remain so regardless of whether you are gay or straight.
Mahesh Bhatt: The state has no business to step into people's bedrooms and question their sexual preferences. It's a matter between two consenting adults.
Neil Nitin Mukesh: It's a sensitive subject that needs careful consideration.

Which reminds me to the fact that, in Spain, we lived our sexuality half in the closet and half openly, but it was only when Boris Izaguirre came out on full display of his queerness in Cronicas Marcianas, a late show which was followed by quite a number of Spaniards, when homosexuality happened to start to be viewed as something between curious and appealing... and that was the beginning of the so many changes we have witnessed in these last ten years.

Dangerous Living - Coming Out in the Developing World

Weeks ago, we at Party for the Rights made some reference to this production of a documentary showing how homosexuals outside Europe and the USA cope with their personal problems. We're proud to present the full documentary here today, so sit back, relax, and take a look at it down below.

Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World, is a feature-length documentary that explores the immense changes that occurred for gays, lesbians and transgender people living in the Global South. In the last decade of the 20th Century, a new heightened visibility began spreading throughout the developing world and the battles between families, fundamentalist religions, and governments around sexual and gender identity had begun. But in the West, few people knew about this historic social upheaval, until 52 men on Cairo’s Queen Boat discothèque were arrested for crimes of debauchery. That explosive story focused attention to the lives and trials of gay people coming out in the developing world and the film chronicles those events.
Dangerous Living opens with one of the Cairo 52 defendant’s, Ashraf Zanati, who was tortured, humiliated, beaten and forced to spend 13 months in prison. His simple, but powerful statement sets out the basic theme for the film: “My sexuality is my own sexuality. It doesn’t belong to anybody. Not to my government, not to my brother, my sister, my family. No.”
Directed by John Scagliotti and Produced by Janet Baus and Dan Hunt. Executive Producer is Reid Williams. Major sponsor includes The H. van Ameringen Foundation.

 

 

Technorati tags: Coming out, LGBT Worldwide, Dangerous Living

Kudos to Waymon Hudson

Waymon Hudson writes a moving text in The Bilerico Project, under the heading The Everyday "Don't Ask Don't Tell". Recommended reading for the weekend: we can all learn a lot from it. If only we could start putting his suggestion to work, at least those of us who are out... Some excerpts.

People often ask, “How can I make a difference?” At times when you feel like you are just one small person in a society that seems to be committed to denying LGBT citizens their full rights and equality, it often seems easier to sit back, live your life, and not get involved. It is easy to feel like you have no role to play in the LGBT rights movement, to feel like your life isn’t making an impact. But you are wrong. You can make a huge impact on society and the fight for equality by simply living your life, openly and honestly. You can do this by making sure you aren’t living what I have come to think of as the everyday “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

So what is this “everyday” policy, you may ask? It’s how so many of us live our lives. We go quietly about our business, many times facing struggles and roadblocks because of who we are as LGBT people. We do this everyday and never tell anyone about it. We don’t let our friends or families who are straight know about the discrimination or legal barriers we face just for being who we are. They don’t ask and we don’t tell.

By telling those that love us that we need them, by including them in our successes and our struggles, we can start to change how society views the LGBT community. Start telling those around you about your life. Tell them what you are going through and dealing with. Soon they will be asking what they can do to help. You can start to change society, one person at a time. You can have a huge impact on LGBT rights just by being honest with those around you. By ending this “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in our own personal lives, we can truly make a change that will improve the world. They will ask if we will only tell.

Technorati tags: LGBT, USA, Bilerico Project

Otto Fong

I'm sure it's not breaking news to say that Otto Fong, a Singaporean teacher, has removed his coming out letter in his personal blog out of government pressure. All that can be read presently in his blog is a small letter of Thanks (with a lot of supporting comments). However, The Online Citizen is currently hosting a copy of the deleted coming out post along with its comments.

Probably the coming out letter wouldn't have got worldwide attention if there had been no pressure on Mr. Fong, so this is another case where homophobia manages to miss its target. And what a target, because the post is one of the most beautiful texts one can reads. Just a brief sample, if you want to read it complete, please visit The Online Citizen.

Returning to Singapore, I came out to my family. My father, mother, brother and sister, out of love for their son and brother, walked the long road to acceptance. It was not easy for them, but they loved me before I came out, and they love me after. When I finally settled down with my longtime companion (we have been together for more than nine years), my entire family made sure my nieces and nephews included us in their lives. I loved my family too much to keep them in the dark, to deny them the chance to really know me. And they loved me too much to let some old prejudice tear our family apart [...]

Do you know what a bonsai tree is? A bonsai tree is an imitation of a real tree. It is kept in a small pot with limited nutrients, trimmed constantly to fit someone else’s whim. It looks like a real tree, except it can’t do many things a real tree can. It cannot provide shelter, it cannot find food on its own; its life and death are totally reliant on its owner. It is the plant version of the 3-inch Chinese bound foot for women: useless and painful.

Being in the closet, pretending to be straight, trimming our true selves to suit the whims and expectations of others, is just like being a human bonsai tree. By staying in the closet, we cannot even hope to be average, much less above and beyond average [...]

And on the same issue, Jireh Tan explains Why Singapore needs more Otto Fongs.

Technorati tags: Otto Fong, Singapore, Coming out, Homophobia

BBC World: Coming out in Jamaica

BBC world news wired the first part of a documentary about homophobia worldwide. This first part, aired on July 23rd, deals with Jamaica:

"There have been calls for a gay eradication day, mob violence towards homosexual people is tolerated by the police, and there is a lot of ignorance and fear.

Gay rights are not on the agenda and are unlikely to be in the future. As a result, many homosexuals stay firmly in the closet.

But what happens when people choose to come out under such hostile social circumstances?"

Allegedly the program can only be listened to by UK residents, however I've been able to download the mp3 file. The link to the program on the BBC site is this, but if it's not working, just send me a message and I'll manage to send the file to you, it's about 10 Mb.

Technorati tags: Jamaica, Coming out, BBC World, Documentary, Audio, Homophobia