LA City Council Unanimously

Passes Gay Iraq Resolution

Mike Bonin, the chief of staff to Los Angeles City Council member Bill Rosendahl, shares some fantastic news, about a resolution for LGBT Iraqis that should garner some media attention:

The resolution passed unanimously. Ten of the council's 15 members rose to speak, many quite eloquently and emotionally, in support of the resolution. Local LGBT activists spoke in favor of the resolution, and did a representation of the SEUI local, who was at council on another matter.

Kudos to Councilman Rosendahl, Bonin, and the entire LA City Council for speaking out against the violence and murder against gays in Iraq. Here is the text of what passed this morning:

RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, any official position of the City of Los Angeles with respect to legislation, rules, regulations or policies proposed to or pending before a local, state or federal government body or agency must have first been adopted in the form of a Resolution by the City Council with the concurrence of the Mayor: and

WHEREAS, very disturbing reports are surfacing from Iraq about torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people; and

WHEREAS, for the past three weeks a crackdown on homosexuals has been going on in Iraq based on a religious decree that demands their death; dozens have been targeted and some religious leaders have also declared the death penalty for sodomy on satellite channels; and

WHEREAS, attacks against homosexuals have been abundant in certain neighborhoods, especially poor regions and remote areas such as the southern provinces and the Hurriya, Sho’la and Sadr neighborhoods in Baghdad; so far, 63 members of the group have been tortured; and

WHEREAS, a prominent Iraqi human rights activist has reported that Iraqi militia have deployed a painful form of torture against homosexuals by closing their anuses using “Iranian gum” a very strong Iranian-manufactured glue that if applied to the skin, sticks to it and can only be removed by surgery; after they glue the anuses of homosexuals, they give them a drink that causes diarrhea and since the anus is closed, the diarrhea causes death; and

WHEREAS, many young men who have been tortured by this method have gone to the hospital for treatment and in some cases they were refused treatment; and

WHEREAS, according to newspaper reports from local news sources in Sadr City in East Baghdad, a previously unknown group “Ahl al-Haq” (the followers of Truth) have stepped up the persecution of Iraqi homosexuals after the murder of a number of them in the past few days; and

WHEREAS, local police authorities have stated that “the extra-judicial killing of any citizen is a crime punishable by law. No one has the right to become a substitute for judicial authorities or executive authorities, and if there are complaints against individuals, there is law and there are police and there are government agencies. No group or class has the authority to punish people instead of the state;” and

WHEREAS, As a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Iraqi government has an obligation to protect the right to life (Article 6) and the right of all its citizens “to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” (Article 7);

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, with the concurrence of the Mayor, that by the adoption of this Resolution, the City of Los Angeles hereby includes in its 2009-2010 Federal Legislative Program support for legislation and administrative action which calls upon the government of Iraq to prevent the persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and protect the right to life and the right of all its citizens to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City Council hereby calls on the United States government, including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to take action to end the persecution and murder of Iraqi gays, including but not limited to making a strong, public and international statement condemning the action and exerting all necessary pressure on the Iraqi government to take action.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City Council hereby calls on the mainstream media to shine a light on and draw attention to this largely ignored story of brutality, discrimination and human rights violations.

PRESENTED BY:

BILL ROSENDAHL
Councilman, 11th District

[Solidarity Rally With LGBT Iraqis.
Sunday, May 17, Noon - 4 PM.
Harvey Milk Plaza, Castro and Market Streets
San Francisco, CA, USA.
JOIN US!]

LA City Council to Debate
Gay Iraqi Resolution

An email is circulating today, calling attention to a hearing tomorrow at the Los Angeles City Council, all about the atrocities faced by LGBT people in Iraq. If you live in LA, please try and make it to the meeting, and also contact your rep on the council.

It's great to see visibility for Iraq's gay community gaining traction in Southern California. Let's be optimistic the council will pass the resolution, and receive decent mainstream and gay press, and blogger, coverage.

Friends-

Could you please forward this to your lists of friends, LGBT supporters, or media contacts?

On Wednesday, May 13, the Los Angeles City Council will consider a resolution, sponsored by my boss, Councilman Bill Rosendahl, putting the City of Los Angeles on record condemning this atrocity. A representative of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission will be on hand to testify.

The council meeting will be held at 10 a.m., May 13, in the John Ferraro Council Chambers, 3rd Floor, Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles, 90012, and we are hoping for a large crowd and outspoken opposition to this brutality.

While we eagerly await a court decision on whether California will recognize our relationships, our people are being tortured and murdered in Iraq. In a story largely ignored by the media, death squads are rounding up Iraqi gay men, sealing their anuses with powerful glue, then inducing diarrhea, which leads to a painful and agonizing death.

The annihilation of our people, ordered by religious decree in a nation where our troops have sacrificed their lives to restore religious freedom, is appalling. In San Francisco and New York, activists have protested. Here in Los Angeles, we cannot remain silent while this happens.

Thanks for helping to spread the word. Check this out: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=559818805&ref=ts#/event.php?eid=81351580825.

I invite and urge you to attend and to speak out. A large crowd of members of the LGBT community and human rights supporters will help us draw media attention to these crimes.

If you plan on attending, please RSVP to Anataly DeJesus in my office at anataly.dejesus@lacity.org. We will do our best to arrange parking.

Councilman Rosendahl, the IGLHRC and I hope to see you on Wednesday.

Thanks,
Mike Bonin
Email: mike_bonin@yahoo.com
Chief of Staff, Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosendahl

Straight GOP Blogger:
Holocaust of Iraqi LGBTs

[Solidarity Rally With LGBT Iraqis.
Sunday, May 17, Noon - 4 PM.
Harvey Milk Plaza, Castro and Market Streets
San Francisco, CA, USA
JOIN US!]


Someone out in the blogosphere has declared the murder of LGBT Iraqis a holocaust, while also demanding action from President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the entire Congress. That person is a hard-right blowhard self-declared heterosexual who blogs over at Big Hollywood, named John T. Simpson.

In a May 8 post, framed by the argument that Ronald Reagan was more of a friend to LGBT citizens than Barack Obama, Simpson segues into a diatribe about the troubles and slayings of LGBT people in Iraq.

As irritating as some of Simpon's writing and rhetoric may be, he's saying some important things we ought to listen to. His heated words used to emanate from Queer Nation types, and, more cool comments about this subject might have come from professional homosexual advocates at HRC, NGLTF and GLAAD in the 1980s.

But now the m.o. is to basically keep a shut mouth about the atrocities faced by LGBT people in Iraq. Except for a damn straight GOP loud-mouth, stirring up the pot.

Let the public show that the first person to describe the LGBT situation in Iraq in 2009 as a holocaust was a heterosexual.

Well, let me step forward and express thanks to John T. Simpson for asking the troubling questions HRC, NGLTF and GLAAD are supremely uninterested in posing.

Choice excerpts from Simpson's post:

But even as a straight man, I am VERY concerned about the officially-sanctioned extermination of LGBTs in Iraq on our dime, what I now call the Gay Holocaust in Iraq. What else do you call a specifically targeted pogrom, with the express goal of exterminating a segment of the population? If this were merely a death squad issue, that would be matter for the Iraqi government.

Unfortunately, the Iraqi government is neck-deep in the gay butchery themselves. Interior Ministry police hunt down gays in Baghdad, raid parties, hunt them online by using fake foreign IP addresses (as Iran does), then tortures and exterminates them in the worst possible ways. Just as Iraqi Spiritual Leader Ali al-Sistani declared they should be, in his 2006 fatwa of death against Iraqi LGBTs. Though removed from his website after controversy, the fatwa is still in full effect.

Allow me at this point to question the spirituality of a religious leader favoring any pogrom, or stating that ANYONE should die in the ‘worst possible ways’.

Here is one former Mahdi Army member who now makes a career of being a gay death squad ’surgeon,’ cutting out the cancer of homosexuality the Americans brought with them to Iraq. His words, not mine. Also, one particularly subhuman technique of killing gays, now quite popular with Iraq’s most pious Shiite extremists, is to super-glue a gay man’s anus shut, pump him full of a diarrhea-inducing compound, and have a few laughs as the victim suffers unbelievable agony before dying. The Iraqi tribes also now have carte blanche to exterminate any Iraqi LGBTs they find.

Unfortunately, this Gay Holocaust of Iraqi LGBTs, which has already claimed nearly 500 innocent lives in the most gruesome of ways since the 2003 invasion, and is now ramping up in violence and horror by the day, enjoys wide public support in Islamic Iraq. ...

To be fair, this gay horrorshow started on President Bush’s watch. He should have done far more to nip it in the bud in 2006 after Sistani’s fatwa. In my mind, that will remain a black mark on his record. He should have put a stop to it, instead of letting it fester to the point it is today. All that said, this issue is now fully the Obama Administration’s and Congress’ problem lock, stock and barrel.

So where is President Obama? Secretary Clinton? Madame SOS said she would stand with ALL the Iraqi people! Where is she on this issue, so near and dear to gay hearts? Nothing on State’s main or Iraq pages. Even Queerty, a major gay blog, is slamming Hillary on this issue. How bad is that? Where is our Gay Rights Hero President on our American tax dollars subsidizing a Gay Holocaust? ...

And somebody wake up Perez Hilton. Bigger problem here than Miss California, methinks. See if she can’t get the Prop 8 crowd as rabid on the horrific slaughter of Iraqi and Iranian gays as they are with the Mormon Church and us!

UN: 'Favourable Consideration' Needed
For Gay Iraqi Asylum Claims

[As the brutality against LGBT persons in Iraq continues, I wish to make a short announcement before getting into the meat of this post. The Gays Without Borders chapter in San Francisco on May 17 will hold a rally and fundraiser for the Iraqi LGBT organization from noon till 4:00 PM at Harvey Milk Plaza. We are lining up support from non-profits, politicians and social justice activists, for an afternoon of solidarity, and money-raising, for our brothers and sisters in Iraq. Please join us next weekend.]

This is just a small ray of hope for LGBT Iraqis with the resources and wherewithal to leave their chaotic and deadly country, and should receive widespread attention from gay blogs, advocacy organizations worldwide, and the mainstream press.

The spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ron Redmond, on May 5 in Geneva made on the record comments regarding persons seeking asylum outside of Iraq, and revisions in the agency's guidelines.

Redmond said homosexuals were a category needing 'favourable consideration' by nations offering to take in Iraqi refugees:

However, UNHCR advises that people belonging to specific groups from these governorates which have been identified as at risk should receive favourable consideration. These groups include, among others, members of religious and ethnic minorities; public officials; Iraqis perceived as opposing armed groups or political factions; Iraqis affiliated with the multinational forces or foreign companies; certain professionals; media workers; UN and NGO workers; human rights activists; and homosexuals.

At the end of of the briefing note is a link to the actual guidelines. I went over the document and culled the citation referencing persons with HIV/AIDS, and the section about LGBT citizens and their plight.

Notice that the UN uses the term LGBT, after spelling out what each letter stands for. I don't know how often, if ever, the UN refers to our diverse community with the LGBT definition, but it's sure good to see it used in the revised guidelines.

If the United Nations can include a substantive account of the mistreatment and deaths of LGBT Iraqis, and is also requesting other countries offer special treatment for those LGBT Iraqis seeking asylum, then I believe American gays have a special duty to take note of these developments.

We must also insist that our professional advocacy organizations put real resources into helping LGBT Iraqis, while we all must also lobby our federal leaders to expand America's number of Iraqi refugees overall, and for LGBT and HIV positive persons in particular.

Let us use the release of the revised UN Iraqi refugees' guidelines to keep pressure on the press and governments to recognize the special needs of LGBT Iraqis.

Click here to view the full 250-page PDF. Here are excerpts related to HIV/AIDS and LGBT concerns:

UNHCR ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION NEEDS OF IRAQI ASYLUM-SEEKERS

[Excerpt 1]

Persons accused of “un-Islamic” behaviour

Section 330:
[snip]
Although the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is low in Iraq, persons affected by the disease continue to be treated as social outcasts, and some have reportedly been targeted and even killed by extremists or their own families for their perceived engagement in “indecent acts” such as homosexuality, sex outside of marriage and drug use. (Footnote number: 1084.)

Footnotes:

1084 Heartland Alliance, a US NGO, in an e-mail correspondence with UNHCR in December 2008, confirmed that persons with HIV/AIDS have been and continue to be targeted in Iraq; see also IRIN, Iraq: HIV-positive Persons Fear Reprisals, 14 January 2009, http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82357;

Ibid., Iraq: HIV-positive couple murdered, 9 August 2006, http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=60142.

[Excerpt 2]

Sexual orientation

Section 333: While homosexuality is not prohibited by Iraqi law, it is a strict taboo and considered to be against Islam. Since 2003, Iraq’s largely marginalized and vulnerable lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) community has frequently been targeted for attacks in an environment of impunity. In the Central and Southern Governorates, LGBT Iraqis continue to face threats, torture and extra-judicial killings at the hands of “state and non-state actors,”1088 including their own families, which consider them as violating the family’s “honour”. (1089)

Iraqi LGBT, an Iraqi NGO based in London, accounted for more than 480 Iraqi gay men killed by Shi’ite militias since 2003, among them 17 LGBT activists. (1090)

The latest killing reportedly took place in Baghdad’s Sadr City on 2 April 2009, when two gays were allegedly killed by relatives in order to cleanse the family’s “honour”. (1091)

Also, Iraqi Police said that on 25 March 2009, they had found the dead bodies of four more gays in Sadr City, each bearing a sign reading “pervert” or “puppies” in Arabic on their chests, both derogatory words used to refer to homosexuals.

Reportedly, Shi’ite clerics in Sadr City had recently urged a crackdown on the perceived spread of homosexuality. (1092)

Also reported in the media was the 25 September 2008 killing of a leading gay activist in a barber shop in Baghdad. He was one of the organizers of safe houses for gays and lesbians in Baghdad and co-ordinator of Iraqi LGBT. (1093)

Reports speak about “a systematic campaign of sexual cleansing”. (1094)

Iraqi LGBT currently runs two safe houses in Baghdad to provide a level of physical protection to a limited number of LGBT Iraqis; however, the men and women lack any prospects as mediation with their families is generally impossible and protection by the Iraqi authorities is not available. (1095)

Section 334: The Iraqi Government does not consider the killings of LGBT Iraqis a priority and a Ministry of Justice judge interviewed by Newsweek told the reporter not to waste time on an issue that he considered being “very rare”. Generally, there is little tolerance towards homosexuality in Iraqi society and many Iraqis, including high-level officials, deny that homosexuality even exists in Iraq. (1096)

Accordingly, those who commit acts of violence against homosexuals and others often do so with impunity. (1097)

Section 335: In the Kurdistan Region, homosexuality is also considered a taboo and in contradiction with religious and social mores. Overt homosexual relations are not possible to entertain, and homosexual persons would have to hide their sexual orientation. Persons known or suspected to be homosexual would face significant social pressure and be shunned. They would also face difficulties to find employment in the private sector. Individuals may be at risk of “honour killings” at the hands of their families.

Generally, the authorities would not provide efficient protection given that homosexuality is considered unlawful by religion and customs.

Recently, Adel Hussein, a doctor and freelance journalist, was prosecuted as a result of a complaint brought by Erbil’s public prosecutor for writing a scientific article about homosexuality that was found to have offended public decency under article 403 of the Penal Code. He was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine,1098 but subsequently released on 7 December 2008 under a pardon granted by the Kurdistan President on the occasion of the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice (Eid Al-Adha). (1099)

Footnotes:

1088 HRW, World Report 2009, see above footnote 657.
1089 Lennox Samuels, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Do Kill, Newsweek, 26 August 2008,
http://www.newsweek.com/id/155656?from=rss; Frederik Pleitgen, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Wayne Drash, Gays in Iraq terrorized by threats, rape, murder, CNN, 25 July 2008, http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/24/gay.iraqis/; Cara Buckley, Gays Living in Shadows of New Iraq, NY Times, 18 December 2007,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/world/middleeast/18baghdad.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin.
1090 Gay City News, Violent Religious Extremists Target Homosexuals: Key Gay Leader Slain in Iraq, 7 October 2008, http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/11352.
1091 Wisam Mohammed and Khalid al-Ansary, Gays killed in Baghdad as clerics urge clampdown, Reuters, 4 April 2009, http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L4506230.htm; Sameer N. Yacoub, Iraqi police: 2 gay men killed in Baghdad slum, AP, 4 April 2009, http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwK_CSpBxsNuVUEaDuOwmSSCiqGwD97B
P3FG1.
1092 Ibid.
1093 Ibid.; PinkNews, Gay leader assassinated in Baghdad, 26 September 2008,
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-9112.html.
1094 Peter Tatchell, Sexual cleansing in Iraq, The Guardian, 25 September 2008,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/25/iraq.humanrights?referrer=ukgaynews.org.uk.
1095 Information received from Heartland Alliance, December 2008.
1096 Lennox Samuels, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Do Kill, Newsweek, 26 August 2008,
http://www.newsweek.com/id/155656?from=rss. See also Pleitgen, Tawfeeq and Drash, Gays in Iraq terrorized by threats, rape, murder, see above footnote 1089.
1097 IWPR, Baghdad Gays Fear for Their Lives, Iraqi Crisis Report No. 199, 20 October 2006, http://www.iwpr.net/?p=icr&s=f&o=324756&apc_state=heniicrd6201b571b0dd9ebc3b068b94ab0b968.
1098 AP, Journalist Jailed in Iraq over Homosexuality Story, 4 December 2008,
http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/41097; RSF, Doctor jailed in Kurdistan for writing about homosexuality, 2 December 2008, http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=29508.
1099 RSF, Kurdish president pardons doctor who was jailed for writing about homosexuality, 8 December 2008, http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=29508.

NYT ('01): Agriculture Dept Plans
to Hire Gay Liaison

An ancient, meaning pre-9/11, story from the New York Times, about plans at the Agriculture Department to hire a gay liaison in the first months of the Bush administration gave me reason to chuckle when I came across it this week.

First, I had no recollection that any such pro-gay opportunity was under consideration so early in the new administration, and it seems now, at almost the same point in the Obama administration, when lots of gay issues are not being addressed, quite radical for any federal agency to think of creating a liaison position.

Secondly, if I had to pick an agency most likely to appoint a gay liaison, at the bottom of my list would be the Department of Agriculture. The Department of Health and Human Services, which funds and directs many programs for LGBT persons, and employs lots of people from the community, seems a better choice to start a liaison program at all of the federal agencies.

I can't Google up any info showing that the Agriculture officials hired anyone for the slot.

An assistant in the department's press office couldn't confirm there was a gay liaison, and offered this suggestion and explanation:

Institutional knowledge about a possible LGBT liaison earlier in the decade more than likely left with the Bush Administration, unless you wanted an in-depth review of personnel records. This would require a Freedom of Information Act request.

In lieu of that, it may be helpful for you to learn historical perspective in what is known as the Plum Book of 2000 and 2004. In the 2008 Plum Book that I reviewed last night, I was not able to find a title specific relating to the LGBT community.

A query sent to the Times reporter who wrote the article, Eric Schmitt, has not produced a reply. Who better to know whatever happened to this liaison position at Agriculture, than the writer who brought it to everyone's attention?

Why was I thinking about gay liaisons and the federal government? It had to do with an excellent column by veteran journalist and lesbian Karen Ocamb, who's extensively covered recent presidents and LGBT matters. Click here to read Ocamb's "President Obama - Give Us an LGBT Advocate," from the Huffington Post, in which she backs the appointment of a liaison for us at the White House.

Check out these excerpts from the June 20, 2001, story from the New York Times:

The Agriculture Department is advertising for a ''gay and lesbian program specialist'' who would help improve working conditions for the agency's gay employees.

Gay advocates said today that they believed it was the first time an administration had sought to hire someone to handle gay and lesbian issues in the federal workplace.

''It's a big deal,'' said E. Julian Potter, who was President Bill Clinton's liaison to the gay and lesbian community. ''It takes an enormous amount of time to affect this kind of change within an administration.'' ...

The gay and lesbian specialist would help to carry out policies recommended by the department's gay and lesbian employee council that are adopted by the department. ...

Over the years, federal agencies have created special positions to handle issues concerning employees who are Hispanic or women, for instance, but the Agriculture Department job appears to be the first comparable position for gay workers. ...

Requirements for the job are fairly broad, including a ''skill in and ability to participate as senior resource person in planning projects'' and an ''ability to assure that written and oral communications are bias-free and that diversity is respected and valued,'' the advertisement states. ...

How long will be before we see a federal agency under Obama consider creating, maybe actually hiring, an LGBT liaison?

White House Preparing Stonewall 40
Proclamation for June

Back in March, I had an idea regarding some proper national attention for the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion in New York City that launched the modern gay political movement - ask President Barack Obama to sign a proclamation commemorating this milestone.

My friend Patricia Nell Warren, author of the classic gay novel "The Front Runner" and a civil rights advocate for many years, agreed to draft such a proclamation for me to submit to the White House. Click here to read her terrific draft.

Since then, I've communicated with Brian Bond, an openly gay man in the White House Office of Public Liaison, about whether the LGBT community could depend on the president to build on the fabulous letter he sent last June to the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club of San Francisco.

Today, Brian sent me this fabulous bit of news:

A draft is being prepared as we speak in preparation for June. First one since 2000!

Interesting that Bill Clinton issued a presidential proclamation honoring LGBT pride month in June 2000, his last year in the Oval Office, and Obama is getting ready to put forward a similar proclamation in his first year as president. Nice bit of progress!

Big shout of gratitude to Patricia for penning a wonderful draft proclamation, that got this ball rolling, and to Brian for advocating inside the White House for our president to honor Stonewall 40 next month.

I can't wait to read the Stonewall 40 proclamation from Obama in a few short weeks. And to also say, "Thanks, Mr. President."

Lesbian of Letters Sarah Schulman
Wins Coveted CLAGS Award

(The honoree, in an obvious good mood. Photo snagged from Tayari Jones' Flickr photostream.)

On my bookshelf, looking over me as I write this, are several books by my friend and activist colleague from ACT UP days, Sarah Schulman.

Up there are her novels, "People in Trouble," "After Delores," "Shimmer," and "Rat Bohemia," stacked up against "Stagestruck," her journalistic account of dealing with being plagiarized by the creator of "Rent" and the hassles it created for her. Nice to look to her works for inspiration, and out of admiration also for her as a writer and advocate of the highest caliber.

Sarah emailed me today to say she's excited, understandably so, over receiving a prestigious honor from the City University of New York's Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies. I'm thrilled to share her good news.

Give a read to the fabulous note that came her way via the web this afternoon:

Dear Sarah,

I'm delighted to tell you that the CLAGS Board of Directors unanimously selected you as the recipient of the 2009 David R. Kessler Fellowship, which recognizes a scholar, artist, and/or activist who has, over a number of years, produced a substantive body of work that has had a significant influence on the field of GLBTQ Studies.

In their decision, board members cited your many and diverse contributions to queer intellectual life as a scholar, artist, AND activist, as well as your ongoing commitment to political activism and lesbian visibility.

A major part of the award is the opportunity to deliver the Kessler Lecture, which is usually held on a Friday evening in early November. And the fellowship comes with an award of $2,500.

I'm cc'ing our Development Director, Alyssa Nitchun, who'll be contacting you to firm up details about the Lecture. But in the meantime, let me be the first to congratulate you on this award. We're really thrilled to be honouring you in this way!

Best,
Sarah E. Chinn
Executive Director
Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies

Couldn't happen to a more-deserving person! Big congrats, Sarah.

Luke Sissyfag is Now a Bear

( No more red gloss on his lips ... )

(... no more bobby pins in his hair. He's all bear!)

A few months back, I was at a gay rally at City Hall and quickly grew bored because the speakers would stand close to the mic, making it hard to hear their words, so I cruised the crowd from the periphery.

As I walked around, one very adorable young bear turned, looked at me and smiled. He piqued my curiosity, and I thought I must know him from CraigsList or the sex clubs. On first glancing this young man, I could not place him in any political context.

"Michael?" he asked, and the voice registered as none other than flaming, radical femme-y queer activist, some might say terrorist for all the (good and very necessary) grief he caused the gay community and Bill Clinton, the infamous Luke Sissyfag.

It had been way more than a decade since we last saw each other, so we quickly got caught with each other. Luke, who long ago reverted to using his real last name, Montgomery, explained that he now works for an AIDS charity based in Haiti, We Can Build an Orphanage, and that he was in San Francisco for a few months. Click here to view a video about the charity, in which Luke speaks about his work.

There are lots of Google hits for Luke and his notoriety, plus his life after aligning with ACT UP, in addition to a Wiki entry.

Be forewarned though. One of the hits and a Wiki citation for him, regarding his heckling of Bill Clinton on World AIDS Day 1993, link to a video of the president getting heckled about HIV/AIDS.

However, the clip is actually from 1992, during the primary season, when Clinton appeared at a New York City restaurant where a fundraiser for his presidential ambitions.

The person heckling Clinton was the incredibly brave and visionary activist and person with AIDS, the late Bob Rafsky.

Anyway, always nice to catch up with Luke and wish him well with his advocacy on behalf of AIDS orphans in Haiti.

(No more being the same height. I swear back in the 1990s, Luke did not tower over me.)

Death Penalty Upheld in Gay SF Murder;

Drag Queen Juror's Bias Rejected

(Jose Sarria, gay rights leader, drag queen and death penalty advocate.)

Let me state at the outset that I am opposed to the death penalty, and that I read this story in today's SF Chronicle because the headline mentioned the death sentence in a San Francisco case being upheld, a case with quite a few gay angles.

I believe stopping capital punishment is a gay and a human rights issue, both here at home and abroad. Nothing would please me more than to see gay political groups stand against the death penalty and work toward its abolition in America, and around the world.

Here's what Bob Egelko, the Chronicle's court reporter, wrote for the paper about the decision handed down two days ago, and many of the gay aspects:

The state Supreme Court has upheld a San Francisco man's death sentence for robbing and stabbing a man he picked up in a Castro neighborhood bar in 1986, rejecting a defense claim that a juror concealed personal ties to the case because he wanted the defendant executed.

Clifford Bolden, 56, is the only San Franciscan among 680 prisoners condemned to death in California. ...

Bolden was convicted of murdering Henry Michael Pedersen, 46, who was found dead in the bathtub of his Corbett Avenue apartment in September 1986. ...

Prosecution witnesses said Bolden had met Pedersen at the Pendulum bar on 18th Street the day of the murder. ...

The state Supreme Court agreed in 2005 to consider defense claims of misconduct by one of the jurors, Jose Sarria, a San Francisco gay-rights activist who performed as a female impersonator at a local club. ...

Superior Court Judge Mary Morgan, who presided over the hearing, said she found Sarria more credible than the jurors who contradicted him. ...

Click here to read the court's full decision.

Based on this excerpt, I get the sense that juror and drag queen legend Jose Sarria, alias The Widow Norton, and I are in opposite camps on the death penalty, and that he's very supportive of state-sanctioned executions:

In her declaration, Juror Charlia S. stated: “[Jose S.]’s behavior in deliberations was consistent with the determination he showed before deliberations began. He would not listen. He just kept pushing until all the votes were there for death.”

Juror Allen P. testified at the hearing that during penalty deliberations Juror Jose S. was a strong advocate for the death penalty. He recalled Jose S. saying he would not change his mind. He also recalled Jose S. engaging with other jurors and arguing his position in favor of the death penalty.

The trial jury foreperson, John C., testified at the hearing that he did not recall juror Jose S. saying he would never change his vote. On the issue of penalty, all the jurors deliberated and expressed their views. Juror Kathleen K., testifying at the hearing, did not remember anything unusual about Jose S.’s participation in the penalty deliberations.

Juror Andrew N. testified that during penalty deliberations Juror Jose S. announced: “ ‘I am not going to let you guys just get out of here because of—because you want to go home.’ ” He did not recall Jose S. saying he would not change his vote, but Jose S. did say he would not change his vote “ ‘just because ya’ll want to go home.’ ” According to his recollection, Jose S. talked a lot during deliberations, listened to the other jurors, and argued in favor of the death penalty.

Juror Thomas S. testified that at the start of penalty deliberations Juror Jose S. announced he would only go for the death penalty. In his opinion, Jose S. did not deliberate but merely stuck to his position; Jose S. seemed to be completely inflexible. He testified that Jose S. did not explain the basis for his position on the penalty issue. Thomas S. testified that he had originally voted for life imprisonment without possibility of parole and that he regretted changing his vote.

Alternatives to the Jamaica Boycott

In all battles for social change and justice, whether gay or straight, a multiplicity of approaches is necessary. No single approach is the answer to affect political change. It's wise of activists to never put all of their eggs in one basket.

That is why, in addition to helping organize a boycott of Jamaican liquor and tourism, I've also called and written to the Jamaican embassy in Washington and the honorary consul in San Francisco. I've attempted discussions with Jamaican officials, to convey my deep concerns for LGBT Jamaicans and the need overturn the buggery law, while also imploring others to do the same.

Since the boycott began, my colleagues Wayne Besen and Jim Burroway, and a number of LGBT Jamaicans on both sides of the boycott issue, have posed this basic question:

What alternative courses of action should be implemented?

No one has presented a list of alternatives, so I'm making an attempt now. A few suggestions to consider:

1. Send a letter to Prime Minister Bruce Golding, the old fashioned way, on paper and through snail mail. Inform him you care very much for the well-being and human dignity of LGBT Jamaicans, want all bashings and killings against LGBT citizens properly investigate and prosecuted, and that buggery law is anachronistic and uncivilized. Respectfully request a reply. Here is his address:

Prime Minister Bruce Golding
1 Devon Road
Kingston 6
Jamaica, West Indies

2. Make a copy of the letter, and send it to Anthony Johnson, Jamaica's ambassador to the United States. This is where to send it:

Ambassador Anthony Johnson
Embassy of Jamaica
1520 New Hampshire Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20036

3. Also let the Jamaican Tourist Board know your thoughts, and send the board a copy of that same letter. Mail it to:

Jamaican Tourist Board
5201 Blue Lagoon Drive
Suite # 670
Miami, Florida 33126

I believe snail mailing hard copies of your letters will have a greater impact than simply sending an email or making a telephone call. A letter, on paper, in an envelope, with a stamp affixed, delivers an extra message on top of the text of the letter. All those steps taken by the sender, shows the recipient the issue at hand deserves utmost attention.

4. Speaking of phone calls, give the Jamaican Tourist Board a call and let them know you're not traveling to the country because of the hostility and violence against LGBT people. The number is:

1-800-233-4582 , on Skype. The number spelled out, for non-Skype users is One-Eight-Hundred-233-4582.

You can also call Ambassador Johnson at the embassy in DC, and speak with his assistants, telling them why you want more government action to protect LGBT from mob attacks. The number is:

1-202-452-0660 , on Skype. For non-Skype phones, dial One-Two-Zero-Two-452-0660.

5. Donate money to JFLAG, Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, Allsexuals and Gays. For info about making a financial gift to JFLAG, check out this page on their site:

http://www.jflag.org/misc/donate.htm

Some critics of the boycott have put more time and effort into halting the boycott, than they have making their voices heard by Jamaican government and tourism officials.

I ask those critics to write the prime minister, ambassador, send a check to JFLAG, phone the tourist board, and otherwise put forward additional ideas to complement the boycott. Heck, even supporters of the boycott should do all those things!

Be sure to visit BoycottJamaica.org for updates as the boycott moves forward.