Cambodia's growing acceptance of same-sex love

Life seems to be increasingly comfortable for gay people in Cambodia, the predominantly Theravada Buddhist kingdom of approximately 15 million people. From The New York Times:

"Homosexual acts are not outlawed in Cambodia, as they are in a few Southeast Asian countries, but outward displays of affection and untraditional lifestyles are rare. Yet in Siem Reap, a small town that gets about a million tourists a year, gay visitors and locals are carving out a little haven. In the last few years, a small flurry of gay-friendly bars, restaurants and hotels has opened up in the city’s center and beyond, with wink-wink names like the Golden Banana and Cockatoo.

The scene is bolstered partly by Web sites like Cambodia Out (cambodiaout.com), which started in early 2009 and is believed to be the first commercial site in the country devoted to the gay community. Other sites like Utopia (utopia-asia.com) and Sticky Rice (stickyrice.ws), which appeal to gay people throughout Southeast Asia, have also raised the city’s profile."

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the one recorded case of a same-sex marriage in Cambodia. Two women, Khav Sokha and Pum Eth, wed on 12 March 1995 in Kro Bao Ach Kok village in Kandal Province with a ceremony that was attended by 250 people, including Buddhist monks and provincial officials.

Since then, there have been no other known documented cases of same-sex marriage in the nation, although as the BBC reported, the much revered King-Father of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk, after watching television images of gay marriages in San Francisco in 2004, stated that as a "liberal democracy," Cambodia should allow "marriage between man and man... or between woman and woman." He also said that transgender people should be "accepted and well-treated" nationwide.

While we await some kind of legislation to embody the will of Cambodia's King-Father, the nation continues to continue on its onward and upward path.

Blogswarm for American LGBT rights - ENDA

My American friends at The Bilerico Project are leading a blogswarm Thursday to demand that the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, move the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to a House vote.

ENDA is the federal bill that would prohibit discrimination against workers in the United States on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity for civilian nonreligious employers with over 15 employees. It is currently stuck in committee as it waits for markup. Representatives Andre Carson, Tammy Baldwin, and Jared Polis have all personally promised (on video and in a guest posts at The Bilerico Project) that the legislation would be voted on by the end of March 2010. Nothing has yet to happen.

The visual, below, represents LGBT employment discrimination law across the United States as of 11 February 2010.

   Sexual orientation and gender identity: all employment

   Sexual orientation: all employment

   Sexual orientation and gender identity: state employment

   Sexual orientation: state employment

   No state-level protection for LGBT employees

Civil rights must be equal for everyone in this world, and they are needed most by human beings against whom prejudice occurs frequently. LGBT communities will always be a small minority of the general population of any nation, including the United States. To support your American friends and family and participate in helping them attain equal civil rights, simply call Speaker Nancy Pelosi at 202-225-4965 and ask that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, HR 3017, move to a vote. Be polite, but firm, and after you call, click here and let GetEQUAL know how the communication went, even if that meant getting a busy signal or hang up.

One Life To Live abandons diversity

In December 2009, the American soap opera One Life To Live made history by depicting an unprecedented bedroom love scene between two male characters, Kyle Lewis (Brett Claywell) and Oliver Fish (Scott Evans). The "Kish" relationship storyline struck a chord for gay viewers who finally saw a paradigm of their own lives playing out on television as a normal and logical conclusion of same-sex physical and emotional intimacy. Sadly, just three months later, this romance and its characters have been written off the show and will be gone by mid-April 2010.

From TV Guide Magazine:

"Word is, the decision to drop the duo didn’t come easily. Kish has been a big success with the media and the show's gay fans, and gay-advocacy groups have showered OLTL with awards for creating the trail-blazing couple. But sources at the network say the duo failed to resonate with the mainstream audience. Ratings for the ABC soap were particularly dismal in late 2009 during the weeks that Fish came out of the closet and he and Kyle officially became a couple."

As we all know, in the world of broadcasting and entertainment, quality work is often overlooked in favor of ratings success, but what is disheartening about this move, in particular, is that the producers of One Life To Live have not allotted enough time to the storyline for viewers to establish a real connection with its characters. It's as if they gave three months to two actors to portray gay characters and said, "Come out to America and make them love you in 90 days, or else..."

While One Life To Live did break new ground with a same-sex couple on American daytime, it lost sight of the notion that diversity plays a very important role in the survival and adaptability not only of human beings, but of the interconnections between them. Failing to see this long term investment potential, and falling short of going beyond the same-sex cuddles, kisses, and love scenes to a place that better reflects the reality of contemporary society, the producers of One Life To Live have lost an opportunity to truly make a more profound difference in television and offer a model of something new and refreshing in daytime.

Let's face it. Relationships take time, both between characters on a television show and between a television show and its viewers. Sure, we're talking about a soap opera here, but maybe the reason that soap operas are becoming a dying species in the United States is because they fail to engage viewers in meaningful and long term relationships with the diverse, yet unfortunately fleeting, characters and stories they present.

For information on protesting the elimination of "Kish" from One Life to Live, check out Don't Push Kish in the Closet.

Hiram Monserrate down, 37 to go for Fight Back New York

The polls are now closed and the results are in, and, as expected, disgraced ex-Senator Hiram Monserrate, running as an independent, lost his bid to regain his seat in the New York State Senate, from which he had been expelled last month after being convicted in October 2009 on a third-degree assault misdemeanor count for dragging his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo, through the lobby of his apartment building. Pro-equality Democrat José R. Peralta won the 13th Senate District seat easily with over 60 percent of the vote.

For those of us who believe in fairness, and more specifically, for the organization, Fight Back New York, Mr. Monserrate's loss is the first victory on the campaign to remove from office each of the 38 New York State Senators who voted against marriage equality in December 2009.

As Fight Back New York spokesperson, Cynthia Nixon, stated, "We've tried the carrot. Now it's time for the stick."

Great activism. One down, 37 to go.

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission celebrates 20th Anniversary

The year 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), which was founded by Julie Dorf with the mission of working to end discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression worldwide. Over the past two decades, IGLHRC has been dedicated to human rights advocacy by addressing a variety of issues, including discrimination and equality; the right to privacy and family; torture, violence, and abuse; decriminalization of homosexuality; support for human rights defenders; freedom of speech, assembly, and association; gender identity and expression; and stigma-based discrimination in healthcare.

In 2001, IGLHRC was invited to present at the UN General Assembly's very first session on HIV/AIDS, but on the first day of the conference, the countries of the General Assembly voted to ban Karyn Kaplan, former HIV Program Officer at IGLHRC, from speaking because she represented a gay organization. Overnight, however, IGLHRC mobilized a campaign to reverse the vote, thus creating a turning point in the history of the UN, of LGBT human rights advancement, and of the HIV/AIDS movement. Check out the inspiring video, below, from In The Life Media, encapsulating, among others, this incredible achievement.



Happy Anniversary IGLHRC! We are thankful for your presence across the globe. Chapeau to you and to human rights for everyone, everywhere.

New Zealand anti-gay Christian Family Party closes shop

Here's some evidence that good beats evil from time to time.

The anti-gay Christian Family Party of New Zealand, established in 2007 "to reinstate traditional values and to put families first again in Parliament," has closed shop, reports Gay New Zealand. The party was lead by Richard Lewis, the former head of the conservative right-wing Christian party, Destiny New Zealand. The deputy head of The Family Party, Paul Adams, as a member of the United Future New Zealand party, in 2002 stated that people with AIDS should not be allowed to "run loose." In 2004, Mr. Adams fasted for 21 days to oppose New Zealand's civil unions legislation, which passed nevertheless in March 2005.

The request for de-registration comes after dismal attempts by The Family Party to garner electoral representation from the New Zealand public. In the 2008 general elections, the party failed to win any seats with only 0.35% of the national vote.

Stars and Stripes covers gay American servicemen in South Korea

One of the lead stories in Friday's Stars and Stripes, the daily newspaper published for the "U.S. military, DoD civilians, contractors, and their families," provides a snapshot of what social life is like for gay American servicemen in a bar district in Seoul, South Korea. "Homo Hill" (as referred to by locals) contains a cluster of bars frequented by gay male South Koreans and foreigners:

"...Among them are U.S. soldiers, who on recent visits by a reporter to the area made up a noticeable number of the Hill's clientele despite the threat they face of being discharged from the military for having homosexual relationships...The scene on the Hill is an example of how the military lives uneasily with the 'don’t ask, don’t tell' policy. Joint patrols of uniformed American military police and South Korean police, as well as 'courtesy patrols' of U.S. officers and enlisted soldiers, regularly walk through the district, but they rarely question anyone there, according to gay servicemembers...And the soldiers on the patrols don't look for evidence of homosexuality among servicemembers either...On several occasions, a reporter observed American soldiers holding hands, hugging and kissing in the gay district. But some troops said they were reluctant to show affection in case their straight co-workers accidentally wandered into a bar and saw them..."

In January 2010, the White House and congressional officials started work on inserting a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell into the defense appropriation bill for the 2011 fiscal year. More than 25 nations, including Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, and Russia, allow gays to serve openly in the armed forces.

Argentina federal judge nullifies gay marriage

A federal judge in Argentina has nullified the marriage of Damian Bernath and Jorge Salazar, who last week were the first gay couple to marry in the nation's capital of Buenos Aires. From the Catholic News Agency:

"On Monday, Judge Felix Gustavo de Igarzabal of Buenos Aires reversed a decision which allowed two gay men to marry at the city's civil registry office on March 3. In his ruling the judge said no marriage took place 'because of the absence of the institution’s structural elements,' in this case a man and a woman, and thus declared the act to be invalid.

He also said any 'legal effects derived from the act shall be suspended.'

The judge ordered the two men to turn in any marriage licenses or documentation received from the civil registry office within 72 hours or face monetary penalties."

We'll see how this one gets resolved, but something tells me this isn't the end of the battle for Messrs. Bernath and Salazar. Argentina's first same-sex marriage, which was between Alejandro Freyre and Jose Maria Di Bello in Ushuaia in late 2009, remains intact as the debate continues.

Cynthia Nixon - Fight Back New York

American actress Cynthia Nixon, best known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the series Sex and the City, has joined the newly established Fight Back New York movement, which is working to replace 38 New York State Senators, both Republican and Democratic, who voted against marriage equality in December 2009. She and thousands of others thus far have united to show these politicians that their homophobic actions have consequences. Check out Ms. Nixon's fantastic video, below.



"We've tried the carrot. Now it's time for the stick."

Play a role in defeating the anti-gay legislators by signing up on the Fight Back New York website, joining the group's Facebook page, and spreading the word to family, friends, and allies.

Fiji decriminalizes homosexuality

Through the new Fiji National Crimes Decree on 1 February 2010, Fiji became the first Pacific Island nation with colonial-era sodomy laws to formally decriminalize homosexuality, reports UNAIDS. The new Crimes Decree removes all clauses about "sodomy" and "unnatural acts" and uses gender neutral language in the remainder of the sexual offences section.

"'We’d like to congratulate the Government of Fiji on taking a bold step by removing the punitive law,' said Stuart Watson, the Pacific Coordinator of UNAIDS.

'This reform is an important milestone towards achieving a rights-respecting legal framework, not only for men who have sex with men but the entire community in Fiji.'"

The legislation comes nine years after the 2001 murders in Suva of gay residents and partners, John Scott and Gregory Scrivener. Mr. Scott was the Director General of the Fiji Red Cross. In the 2005 book "Deep Beyond the Reef," Mr. Scott's brother, Owen, examines the killings of the men within the context of the Scott family history in Fiji, the political crises that have marked the island nation's history, and the mix of tribal authority and democracy commonly found in the South Pacific. The book is the basis of the 2008 critically acclaimed documentary film from New Zealander Annie Goldson, An Island Calling, for which I have posted the trailer, below.

Nepalese transgender person enters politics

Following in the footsteps of Sunil Babu Pant, the first openly gay politican and Constituent Assembly member in Nepal, Bhumika Shrestha, an important figure in the Nepalese transgender community, last month formally became a member of the Nepali Congress (NC), the largest party in the ruling coalition.

From Sindh Today:

"'I joined politics to get a platform for my people. Politicians realise they can’t ignore us. In the last elections, all the major parties included the sexual minorities in their election manifestos,' Bhumika told IANS in an interview.

She remembers how she was thrown out of school as a 10th grader for her 'womanish ways'.

'I was about 10 when I realised I was different from others,' says Bhumika, who chose the name when she decided to carve out a new identity for herself as a woman. 'I preferred the company of girls and wanted to wear their clothes.'"

In 2007, Ms. Shrestha, who is in her early twenties, won the first ever Miss Pink Nepal contest and used the opportunity to partake in public programs seeking equal rights for the LGBT community. She is also a human rights officer in the Blue Diamond Society, founded by Mr. Pant, Nepal's first organisation to protect LGBT rights.

Marriage inequality challenged in Cyprus, Austria

Since 2004, Cyprus, as a member of the European Union, has implemented an anti-discrimination law that explicitly forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment. Now, the Interior Ministry Permanent Secretary of Cyprus, Lazaros Savvides, has indicated that the government of the island country in the eastern Mediterranean will soon examine the issue of legalizing same-sex marriage. The move was prompted by letters sent to the Interior Ministry by a man, living permanently in Cyprus, asking for the law governing civil marriages to be amended to allow same-sex couples to wed. The man stated that under the existing legislation, he was a victim of a breach of human rights and discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. From the Cyprus Mail:

"[Interior Ministry Permanent Secretary Lazaros] Savvides said that the intention is to hold a meeting [in March] involving the Attorney-general’s office, Law Commissioner Leda Koursoumba, Ombudswoman Eliana Nicolaou – who also heads the Authority against Racism and Discrimination – as well as senior representatives of the relevant government ministries...The meeting scheduled...appears to be a step forward, but given the lack of EU legislation on the issue, there is no guarantee that it will conclude that the law on civil marriages should be amended."

Austrians Horst Michael Schalk and Johann Franz Kopf, who were denied the right to wed in Vienna in 2002, are currently awaiting the verdict of Schalk and Kopf v. Austria, their petition to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in which they claim that they "were discriminated against on account of their sexual orientation since they were denied the right to marry and have no other possibility to have their relationship recognised by law." They also "allege that they suffer financial disadvantages compared to married couples."

While Brigitte Ohms, speaking on behalf of Austria, argued that the legislation that went into effect in January 2010 legalising same-sex unions in Austria offered gay people a partnership similar to marriage, Klemens Mayer, on behalf of the couple, maintained that the law still discriminated against gays in several ways, including the lack of certain benefits to same-sex couples that are nonetheless available to opposite-sex married couples. You can watch the webcast of the hearing, which took place on 25 February 2010, at the ECHR website.

Lee Daniels wins at Independent Spirit Awards

Congratulations to openly gay African-American actor, film producer, and director, Lee Daniels, who won the Best Director prize for his work on Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire at the Independent Spirit Awards on Friday evening. Precious recounts a difficult period in the life of Claireece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a black 16-year-old who lives in Harlem with her dysfunctional mother, Mary (Mo'Nique).

Mr. Daniels had received much acclaim in 2002 for producing Monster's Ball. He was the first African-American sole producer of an Academy Award-earning film for which Halle Berry won the Best Actress Oscar.

The Independent Spirit Awards (originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are dedicated to recognizing independent filmmakers.

Mexico City, Buenos Aires, start a new gay marriage chapter

Mexico City handed out its first licenses for same-sex marriage Thursday, allowing gay couples not only to wed legally, but also to adopt children and receive government benefits. The legislation was passed in December 2009 and applies to the approximately 10 million inhabitants of Mexico's capital city.

This major event in Latin America came just a day after Washington D.C. started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, while the first same-sex couple in Buenos Aires married, following Judge Elena Liberatori's order to the Civil Registrar to allow Damian Bernath and Jorge Salazar to wed. Argentina's first same-sex marriage occurred between Alejandro Freyre and Jose Maria Di Bello, who had been given permission by a judge to tie the knot in Buenos Aires in November 2009, but then were blocked from doing so by another judge until the issue could be resolved by the Supreme Court. The couple ultimately decided to marry in the city of Ushuaia at the southernmost tip of Argentina.

Not a bad week for equality in the Americas.

Dutch gays in Den Bosch can receive communion

A little protest can make a big difference.

Gay activists in the Netherlands called for an end to demonstrations at Sint Jan's Catholic church in the town of Den Bosch, which began last month after an openly gay man was denied communion. During the most recent protest on Sunday, activists, who were dressed in pink with pink wigs, walked out of the service at the church after priest Geertjan van Rossum said "the correct experience of sexuality is part of the ten commandments," reports Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

In the end, however, after a meeting between the church council of the main Roman Catholic church in the Netherlands, Sint Jan's in Den Bosch, priest Geertjan Van Rossum, Vera Bergkamp of the COC gay organization, and Henk Krol, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Gaykrant, a spokesman for the diocese announced, "People should decide for themselves whether or not to attend communion whatever their sexuality and should do so with a clean conscience." Hence, anyone wanting to receive communion can now do so.

Tourism blog 'The Montréal Buzz' turns off gay content (updated)

Last night, I came across a new blog, The Montréal Buzz: An Insider Take on the City, a site created for Tourisme Montréal, the main bureau in Montreal that promotes the city "as a premier travel destination to non-local markets," and I noticed something very peculiar about the setup. At the level of tabs, after "All Posts," "What to See," "Where to Eat," and "What to Do," comes the heading "LGBT Content" with a switch that allows visitors to choose between "On" and "Off." While category filters are commonly found on web sites, what makes the Tourisme Montréal blog so unusual and disturbing is that there is only one available filter, that being for LGBT Content. Perhaps even more disconcerting is the fact that the filter defaults to "Off," meaning that LGBT Content will be hidden unless viewers make the effort to click on the dropdown menu and select "On."

Montreal is internationally known for its liberal attitudes, especially towards LGBT people, yet this content filter aspect of "The Montréal Buzz" would seem to indicate that the LGBT community in Montreal is a second class option, one that is conveniently tucked away by default, as if it were not an integral part of the city in which LGBT freedoms and rights are among the most advanced in the world.

This kind of electronic segregation is, at once, shocking and offensive to Montrealers, including me, who understand that one of the best things about this city lies in the diversity of its people. Would there ever be an option to turn off, let's say, Arab, Latin American, South Asian, Chinese, Southeast Asian, Filipino, Haitian, Italian, Irish, First Nations, Anglo-Saxon, or Jewish content on the Tourisme Montréal blog? I certainly hope not, but I wonder why visitors to the site been given the choice to hide gay content. The Montreal LGBT community is just as vital and historic to the city as any other group who has chosen to settle here. I suppose homophobes can appreciate the fantasy of Montreal without gay people by viewing The Montréal Buzz as it is in default mode. In reality, however, Montreal is a thriving and vibrant city of human beings of all sexual orientations and backgrounds who peacefully coexist. It's unfortunate that Tourisme Montréal has chosen to keep some of them in the closet of The Montréal Buzz.

UPDATE - The questionable "LGBT Content" toggle button has been removed from "The Montréal Buzz"! See? We can all make a difference by voicing our concerns and spreading the word. Thanks to all those who commented, and thanks, Tanya Churchmuch, at Tourisme Montréal.

Marriage equality arrives in Washington D.C.

Today, Wednesday 3 March 2010, is a milestone for progress in the United States as same-sex marriage became legal in the nation’s capital, this despite efforts by opponents to block its implementation through both legislative maneuvering in the House and Senate and a last minute call to the U.S. Supreme Court and Chief Justice, John Roberts, to put the law on hold. You can view the Chief Justice's full three-page ruling denying the request for the stay at the U.S. Supreme Court website.

Washington D.C. is now the sixth jurisdiction in America where same-sex marriages can take place. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire also issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Couples began applying for licenses this morning at the D.C. marriage bureau in anticipation of weddings occurring after the mandatory three-day waiting period required of all couples marrying in the District.

Congratulations to all the gays and lesbians in Washington D.C. who pushed for the legal recognition of their relationships.