Petrelis Files

State Dept Asked to Deplore Honduran Gay Bar Raid & Arrests

(Erick Martinez in San Francisco's Castro District, October 27.)

As part of a joint campaign of the Honduran Support Network in the United States, Gays Without Borders in San Francisco, and LGBT activists in Honduras to bring wider attention to the gay bar raid, arrests and assaults in Tegucigalpa last Sunday, we are lobbying the U.S. State Department to issue a letter of protest.

Our ambassador in Tegucigalpa today was sent this email, requesting that she speak out about the terrible actions of the Honduran national police during the raid and their harassment of LGBT people.

Please cut-and-paste the list of recipients, including myself, their addys and the text of this letter, sign it with your name, the name of your organization and your location, then send it to these U.S. officials. Thank you for helping the LGBT community of Honduras.

Recipients:

1. Lisa Kubiske, Ambassador, U.S. Embassy
2. Nathan Anderson, Human Rights and Labor Attaché, U.S. Embassy 
3. Benjamin Gedan, Honduras Desk Officer, U.S. State Department
4. Jane B. Zimmerman, Western Hemisphere Officer, Human Rights & Labor Bureau, U.S. State Department
5. Michael Petrelis, Gays Without Borders

Emails:

kubiskel@state.gov, 
andersontn2@state.gov, 
GedanBN@state.gov, 
zimmermanjb@state.gov
mpetrelis@aol.com

Text:

January 21, 2013

Dear Ambassador Kubiske and Other U.S. State Department Officials,

As an American deeply concerned with human rights and democracy in Honduras, I hereby request that you quickly issue a letter of protest and concern to the Honduran government regarding the January 13 raid on the gay bar Anubis in Tegucigalpa, and the unlawful detention and police assault on gays present at the time of the raid.

Among the persons arrested and attacked was longtime gay leader and AIDS educator Erick Vidal Martinez.

He was held for more than 12 hours, his photos of the police abuse erased from his cell phone, and his car and personal effects ransacked, all for witnessing the humiliating and homophobic behavior of the police and defending the human rights of the bar patrons to peaceably assemble.

I ask that you, on behalf the U.S. State Department, immediately and publicly call upon the Honduran police force to stop this arbitrary harassment of the LGBT community and beseech the government of Honduras to offer protective measures for Erick so that no further harm comes to him as he works to defend the human rights of all Hondurans.

Please acknowledge receipt of this urgent request for action on the day you receive it.

Sincerely yours,
Name of individual:
Organization's name:
City, state, country location: