Thursday, June 07, 2007

BAR: American Queers to Russian Gays: Drop Dead

I wrote this column before the June 5 actions at the NY and SF Russian consulates and launch of the Stoli boycott. It appears in the June7 Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco's venerable and most widely-read weekly. The BAR also provides some coverage and a photo of the SF action.

Our other gay weekly, the Bay Times, this week offers up the usual trenchant analysis by Ann Rostow on the Stoli boycott. And lastly, the SF Chronicle's Blogwatch notices our Stoli dump and consulate visit.

My BAR column:

For the second year running, bloody violence, police indifference, and official government violations of basic universal human rights treaties were the order of the day on May 27 in Moscow, as gays tried to petition Russian authorities for equality.

And like last year, when Russian gays attempted to stage their first Pride March and met a similar fate – both were well-covered by the mainstream and gay press and bloggers – average American queers collectively yawned loudly, after maybe a moment of bemoaning the violence, then kept silent and enjoyed the long Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Not only that, but our well-paid professional lobbyists remained silent. They issued no statements of solidarity prior to May 27, nor were they ready to quickly issue condemnations the day the gay blood spilled on the streets of Moscow, never mind organizing vigils at Russian government buildings on American soil.

Particularly galling was the four-day lag on the part of the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission to distribute a perfunctory statement deploring what happened in Moscow. What possible excuse can IGLHRC have for not being ready either with a statement, or miraculously, an action, over the aborted Russian gay Pride March? Waiting four days in the Internet age is like waiting four months for this sort of thing.

More than eight weeks before the second attempted Moscow gay Pride event, I e-mailed and spoke to people in San Francisco, where we have a large Russian Consulate, asking them to participate in a protest I wanted to stage at the consulate in the week leading up to May 27. My thinking was that enough gays were aware of last year's troubles and a consulate action prior to this year's attempted Pride would send a message to Kremlin leaders: protect the human rights of gays at the Moscow march.

The negative feedback, so common when I try to organize such things, was swift and pronounced. People generally let me know how they disapprove of my activism and political stridency. A few said they were heading out of town early to get a jump on the holiday weekend, but I wasn't convinced that was the real reason for their declining to join a protest for gay Russians. With the deep lack of even minimal community support, along with my own needs, finding part time work to pay my bills and combating a nasty opportunistic stomach infection, I abandoned my plans.

Foolishly, I spent April and May anxiously awaiting word that IGLHRC, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, or the Human Rights Campaign were mobilizing vigils at Russian government outposts, or at least simple e-mail and phone campaigns, before or after May 27, and as we all know, they never did.

Not one of the generously-compensated professional advocates at those well-funded nonprofits made a peep asking American gays to stand in solidarity with our Russian brothers and sisters.

As annoying is that the gay political community didn't, and hasn't for too long a time, demanded street actions and pressure campaigns from those advocacy groups over global gay matters.

Am I the only American queer who thinks international gay issues require more than the quiet insider approach as the only way to improve respect for the human rights protections of our family, regardless of borders? Why is it our professionals see no value in mobilizing actions of any sort, beyond their staffs? Or worse, as is the case with the needlessly arrogant and pompous gatekeeper head of Human Rights Watch's gay unit, deceitfully work to undermine the efforts of unpaid activists who do organize for gays around the planet?

I fully accept that many gays won't heed a call from me to hit the pavement in front of foreign consulates, or attend a candlelight vigil in the Castro, or make a call to an embassy in Washington.

So I'm not the candidate to lead these things.

And we're sadly not about to see the dainty dames and gents at IGLHRC, HRW, Amnesty, NGLTF and HRC get their polished loafers or nails dirty walking picket lines or corralling us to form e-mail-writing teams to bombard consular officials demanding respect of the human rights of gay people in their countries.

But what I refuse to accept is that nonprofits should not be doing such advocacy, as part of a multi-pronged approach. Please don't tell me we need to start another organization to engage in street activism or stage speak outs, when we already have enough groups with lots of staffers who could do such work.

I'm upset with American queers who by and large are woefully apathetic about international gay issues and our brothers and sisters beyond our borders, while also refusing to demand from nonprofits more methods and a variety of pressures on foreign governments.

Our community-wide ignorance and lethargy on global gay issues send a deafening message: "We don't care. Drop dead."

We must do more for the brave gays of Moscow and our family members all across the globe.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No Michael, you are not the only one. I spent 2 years trying to get someone's attention out there to help an Uzbekistani gay refugee, Ruslan Sharipov living in Sacramento. Nothing.. nada, zilch... (and not just from glbt groups) and I think he went home. Apparently, possible torture by the Uzbek government was easier to deal with than life in our United States.

I am at a loss to explain our behavior and lack of interest or action by our 'leaders'. But then, maybe that is the problem.. we have gotten so used to just throwing money at the problem that we assume that is enough.

Or maybe we have become like the rest of America, comfortable in our fear and unable to see ourselves as powerful arbiters of change.

Keep up the good work.

peace.... Tony

Anonymous said...

Why should we? There are many more issues at stake for Americans. For example, access to health care. Most of the so-called "Russians" that were beaten up in Moscow were in fact people from other countries (see Sydney Morning Herald for the breakdown) Another example is why we should not expend energy on the Moscow issue is American queers can not see the dangers of how the immigration bill will impact our ability to get equal rights. Where are the immigrants coming from? Mostly Catholic countries (i.e., conservative countries). So until we can take care of our own with access to health care and can ensure equal rights on our own soil, it is wasted energy to reach out across the borders.