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For Bishop Harry Jackson, the District of Columbia pastor leading the fight against gay marriage recognition in the city, next Tuesday's start of the law leaves him with few friends and fewer options to contemplate.
On Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Judith Retchin upheld a ruling by the D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics that stopped a referendum aimed at repealing a bill that recognizes gay marriages performed in other states and countries from going forward. The panel said the referendum would violate the District's Human Rights Act of 1977 that prohibits discrimination based on race, gender or sexual orientation.
Retchin's 15-page ruling was not only broad, it chided opponents as well: “At bottom, the harm about which petitioners complain is not based on a denial of the right to referendum. Rather, they simply disagree with legislation enacted by our duly-elected [city] council. A citizen's disagreement with constitutionally sound legislation, whether based on political, religious or moral views, does not rise to the level of an actionable harm.”
David Cameron issued an apology to UK’s gay and lesbian citizens for a Thatcher-era law that banned the use of taxpayer money for any classroom "promotion" of gays and lesbians as normal and referred to gay and lesbian families as "pretend" families.
A July 2 article at the U newspaper The Daily Mail reported that Cameron, the leader of the Tory party, made his apology for Section 28 in an address at a fund raising event meant to benefit both Pride and the Tories, and sought to portray the conservative Tory party as a diverse political organization.
Saying the Tories had "got it wrong" in passing the anti-gay law, Cameron looked forward to gays and lesbians becoming a greater part of the conservative party.
Said Cameron, "If five years ago we had a Conservative and Gay Pride party, I don’t think many gay people would have come or many Conservatives would have come." See
The New York Blade, the biweekly that has covered gay-interest news since 1997, suspended publication this week, and its staff was let go.
The closing follows the sale of the New York City weekly gay bar guide HX to undisclosed buyers by HX Media, which also owns the Blade.
HX Media CEO Matthew Bank told The New York Times the paper had suspended publication. The staff of the Blade had been "let go, but the people on the Blade know that they may come back if the Blade is coming back." Banks could not be reached immediately Thursday.
In the Times article by Jennifer 8 Lee, Bank added that the next issue of the newspaper was scheduled for July 10 and "there are a lot of things that can happen between now and then."
The Blade had a free distribution of 22,000 copies and competed with Gay City News in New York. See A Leading Gay 'Blade' Newspaper FoldsEditor & Publisher
Homophobic Film Ever Made?" That’s the blurb on the cover of Attitude, a British gay magazine, where comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, posing nude to promote his new film, appears.
The film in question--and the name of the character, whom Cohen continues to portray in live promotional appearances--is Brüno, in which Cohen plays a gay fashionista seeking redemption during a global road trip.
The production reportedly drew trouble for Cohen, who was arrested several times during the shoot.
But the film’s reception has also been mixed, with dubious and even hostile reactions coming from the GLBT community.
Though the film reportedly seeks to skewer homophobia, some GLBT equality advocates worry that "Brüno" will actually threaten social progress made by gays in the last several years by presenting audiences with a flamboyant gay character.
A July 1 article at the UK newspaper The Daily Mail reported that Cohen’s appearance on the cover of Attitude was meant to "appease" gay audiences.
The article pointed out that Cohen also appeared nude on the cover of GQ magazine.
Last month, Cohen appeared at the film’s London premiere in character, and in a revealing costume that riffed on the traditional uniforms of the Queen’s Guards, drawing headlines in the process. See Brüno' Actor Shucks Clothes for Gay Mag Cover
In the first hearing on a federal challenge to Proposition 8, a judge reminded lawyers Thursday that the constitutionality of the anti-gay marriage measure would be determined by higher courts and that his job was to give them as many facts and findings as possible.
U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, appearing before a packed courtroom, also declined to suspend Proposition 8 before trial, noting that such a move would create too much uncertainty for the state and same-sex couples who would marry.
"This case is only touching down in this court," Walker said. "It will have life after this court, and what happens here in many ways is only a prelude to what is going to happen later.
"Our job at this point," he said, "is to make a record."
Walker's statements Thursday mirrored a tentative ruling he handed down Tuesday. That ruling heartened gay rights activists, who said Walker made it clear he appreciated the gravity of the challenge and their arguments. See Judge clarifies purpose at first federal Proposition 8 hearingLos Angeles Times -
Gay activists are demanding answers from the Navy after an openly gay sailor was found dead early Tuesday in a guard shack at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., a victim of what gay rights groups are calling a “hate killing.”
Navy investigators confirmed they considered the death of Boatswain’s Mate Seaman August Provost, 29, a homicide, but they would not confirm that Provost’s sexuality was a factor in his death.
Officials said a “person of interest” was being detained in the brig at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in connection with Provost’s death, but he was not identified, not considered a formal suspect and had not been charged with a crime. A Navy spokeswoman said she did not have information about whether the “person of interest” was a Marine or other service member.
A Navy announcement said investigators had completed an autopsy on Provost’s body, but would not determine an official cause of death until they received the results of toxicology tests.
A youth choir from a Texas church the Southern Baptist Convention cut ties with because it didn't adhere to the denomination's stance on homosexuals has been told they aren't welcome to participate in a Kentucky Baptist mission program.
The Broadway Baptist Church Chapel Choir, made up of high-schoolers, was informed Monday that it was "uninvited" to participate in the University of the Cumberlands' Mountain Outreach program, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. See Texas church choir 'uninvited' by Ky. universitySovo.com
More obvious choices perhaps such as Kylie Minogue are tossed in favour of characters such as Nelson Mandela and even the former England manager Gordon Taylor. Explaining the latter in his list, Sir Elton John said "I had been a lifelong Watford fan and Graham truly made whatever dreams I had for my team come true.
"In only four seasons Graham took Watford from the fourth division to the first, and of course to the FA Cup Final in 1984.
"After going on to manage the England team, he came back to Watford in 1996 and again the team's fortunes went up - this time to the Premier League."
Also among Sir Elton's selection were fashion designer Gianni Versace, "a dear, dear friend", and John Lennon, with whom Sir Elton collaborated in 1974 on the song Whatever Gets You Thru The Night.
Bernie Taupin, Sir Elton's lyricist and writing partner since 1969, was also put forward by the singer.
Sir Elton said: "Bernie is no mere 'collaborator'... he is without doubt an icon for me."
Lord Alli, Lord Smith, Sir Ian McKellen, Billie Jean King, Sandi Toksvig, Sarah Waters, Alan Hollinghurst, Jackie Kay and chief executive of Stonewall Ben Summerskill were the other selectors.
Gay groups are praising the imminent end of the U.S. ban on travel and immigration by HIV infected foreign nationals.
Last week at a White House reception for gay and lesbian leaders, President Obama listed the upcoming regulation change among his gay rights accomplishments.
“In addition, my administration is committed to rescinding the discriminatory ban on entry to the United States based on HIV status,” Obama told a cheering East Room crowd. “The Office of Management and Budget just concluded a review of a proposal to repeal this entry ban, which is a first and very big step towards ending this policy.”
While Obama might in fact be committed to lifting the ban, using it to bolster his gay rights resume is a bit of a stretch; Congress approved and then-President George Bush signed the United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculous and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 on July 30, 2008.
The Obama administration did, however, approve the regulatory change proposed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, which is expected to be implemented following a 45-day public comment period.
Lifting the HIV travel ban is an important legislative victory for groups working on LGBT immigration rights issues.
“Ending the HIV travel and immigration ban removes a federally-sanctioned stigma and sends a strong, clear message that the United States is working to end discrimination against people living with HIV,” said Victoria Neilson, legal director for Immigration Equality.
Immigration Equality worked closely last year with Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, California Congresswoman Barbara Lee and former Oregon Senator Gordon Smith, a Republican, to pass the legislation.
“There is no reason for this policy to remain on the books,” Kerry said in a statement. “I sincerely hope we can continue to work in a bipartisan manner with the help of the public health, religious, LGBT and immigration groups to make this proposed rule final as soon as possible.”
The nearly 22-year-old ban has kept “Americans, both gay and straight, separated from loved ones living with HIV abroad,” Steve Ralls, director of communications for Immigration Equality, told On Top Magazine.
“There hasn't been a single major HIV/AIDS or scientific conference in the United States in decades because of the ban, either. It has undermined our commitment to equality and tarnished our reputation as a leader in fostering scientific and medical innovation,” Ralls added.
“This regulation is unnecessary, ineffective and lacks any public health justification,” Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights lobby, said in a statement. “We are confident that this sad chapter in our nation's treatment of people with HIV and AIDS will soon be closed.”
Immigration Equality also points out that the ban disproportionately affects gay and lesbian couples because their relationships are not recognized under current immigration law, and HIV ban waivers are generally based on a U.S. familial relationship.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday ruled that gay sex among consenting adults was no crime. The court said that section 377 of the IPC - which criminalised an act of consensual sex among adults - is a violation of the constitution and fundamental rights.
Though a historic judgement, India must never be allowed to forget that it has been a long and often harrowing journey for its queer community.
For a hundred and forty nine years the gay community in India has been mistreated. Often being arrested, threatened, blackmailed and sexually exploited with a tool called Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. An archaic law introduced by the British - though ironically removed from the British law books.
Being booked under Section 377, a cognisable offence means that a policeman can pick you up based on just suspicion.
"In the 60's I walked into a police trap. I went with a friend to a particular location that was used for sex and we were casually in the area and these cops turned up and they accused us of having sex," said gay rights activist, Sunil Gupta.
"They decided to pick on me and I was unprepared for this and didn't know how to handle the situation, so they beat me up and then they moved on to blackmailing me," he added.
With the Obama administration facing growing discontent among gay supporters, the mayors of Los Angeles and San Francisco joined in voicing concern today about a new U.S. Justice Department brief supporting the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
"I think it's a big mistake," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said shortly before he and his Los Angeles counterpart, Antonio Villaraigosa, kicked off the annual L.A. Pride parade in West Hollywood.
The 1996 law bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and enables states to refuse to recognize such marriages from other states. The Justice Department enraged leaders of gay rights groups Thursday by filing a lengthy defense of the law in a federal lawsuit in which its constitutional validity is challenged.
Newsom and Villaraigosa, potential rivals in next year's Democratic primary for governor, were both careful to avoid direct criticism of President Obama, who pledged during his campaign for the White House to repeal the marriage law.
St. Paul, Minn. — A YouTube video that shows a group of teenage boys harassing a man amid a torrent of anti-gay slurs in Minneapolis has been widely circulated online this week.
In the video, Adam Schreifels, 37, is seen walking along Grant Avenue in downtown Minneapolis shortly before 8 p.m. on Saturday.
Schreifels said he was leaving the annual Pride Festival in Loring Park with his friend Justin Grey Day when a group of about 10 teenage boys moved toward them.
"As we approached the curb to cross the street, one of them asked me, 'Are you gay'?" said Schreifels, of St. Louis Park. "I said 'yes, I am and proud of it'."
That's when Grey Day, 35, pulled out his digital camera -- which he said he had taken to the festival -- and started to record the exchange.
In the video, the boys can be heard saying "I hate gay people," "gay is not the way" and "gay is not good." They followed Schreifels for about a block, and at one point, started tossing rocks at Schreifels, he said.
At one point during the exchange, Schreifels said he asked the boys where they were from, and they said they were from Somalia.
Omar Jamal, a Somali community activist, issued a statement on Tuesday denouncing the boys' actions.
"It is unacceptable behavior to harass someone based on their sexual orientation," Jamal said.
Jamal, who serves as the executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, also said some members of the Somali community had sent him the link to the video suggesting that Schreifels provoked the boys as a way to get publicity.
AKOLA: Citizens from various walks of life have expressed opposition to Thursday's Delhi High Court order decriminalising homosexual sex, by holding that section 377 of Indian Penal Code violates the Constitution. Various Central ministers have expressed differing opinions on the issue in the recent past.
In Akola, BJP MP Sanjay Dhotre said he was staunchly against the decision as it would totally destroy Indian culture and put an end to social ethics and values. He said he would fight tooth and nail in Parliament and outside if the Union government moves to scrap section 377 of IPC.
Noted psychiatrist Dr Deepak Kelkar also condemned the move. He said killer diseases like HIV, AIDS and venereal diseases would spread like wild fire if such a move is made legal.
Vice-president of Akola Bar Association Aruna Mankar strongly opposed the step and said the Union government is making a grave mistake if it implements the change without placing a bill on the floor of the Parliament. See Citizens oppose legalising gay sexTimes of India
PITTSBURGH -- The Allegheny County Council passed a bill 8-6 on Wednesday night to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community against discrimination in housing and the workplace.
The bill passed with council members called "the Philadelphia amendment," which exempt fraternal, religious, charitable and sectarian organizations. Otherwise, the bill prohibits most discrimination based on certain characteristics when it comes to housing, employment and personal accommodations.In a statement released shortly before 8:30 p.m., Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato said he will sign the bill."With this ordinance, Allegheny County is sending a message that discrimination is never acceptable," Onorato said. See Allegheny County Council Passes Amended Anti-Discrimination BillThePittsburghChannel.com
Ever wonder what happened to Jim "I am a gay American" McGreevey?
McGreevey famously outed himself in resigning as governor of New Jersey in 2004, amid revelations that he had an affair with a man on his staff.
He now is in a "healthy, happy relationship" with a different man now, studying to become an Episcopal priest and volunteering at Exodus Ministries at the Church of Living Hope in East Harlem, New York, "which tries to help newly-released prisoners learn life skills and handle the significant challenges that ex-convicts face," according to a story by David Shankbone, a New York photographer and writer who befriended McGreevey while they attended the same church.
Shankbone wrote that McGreevey also "was a source of hope and friendship" for Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York last year in the wake of revelations that he patronized a high-priced prostitution ring, and has offered advice to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who recently admitted to leaving the country to visit his Argentinian mistress without telling his family or staff where he was going.
Originally designed to be an academic oral history project, Glenne McElhinney had no idea that the interviews of 11 Los Angeles gay-rights pioneers that she was conducting as part of the Impact Project would turn into On These Shoulders We Stand, a feature-length documentary screening at Outfest.
The 75-minute doc weaves together a series of interviews of 11 L.A. residents who played a prominent role in its LGBT history and is intended to tell the history of the city’s gay life and activism by the people who lived it: Ivy Bottini, Maria Dolores Diaz, Marsha Epstein, Miki Jackson, Don Norman, the Rev. Troy Perry, Dale Reynolds, Margo Strik, Kevin Thomas, Nancy Valverde and Mia Yamamoto.
Impact Stories proposes that the genesis of the gay-rights movement began before 1969’s Stonewall riots in New York. McElhinney, through first-person accounts from elderly members of California’s LGBT community, offers that its genesis began in the shadow of the Hollywood sign and traces the movement’s history through the “Golden Age”: starting in 1966 with the coalescing of the California Homophile Rights effort through 1981’s arrival of AIDS when a new era of activism was born.
The doc sheds light on the movement’s two main differences, according to LGBT oral historian McElhinney: L.A.’s repressed coverage of the movement in the press and lack of a strong, organized movement.
“In New York they got great coverage of all the Stonewall events — at the time — and a very organized and well-thought-out commemorative committee formed in the fall of 1969 and sent out calls and letters across the country,” she says. “New York was smart and able to follow through on celebrating the uprising right from the start. Here in L.A., every time the LGBT community tried something, the powers that be made sure it was suppressed.”
Through the interviews, McElhinney found that L.A.’s LGBT community started organizing “many years before Stonewall.”
A new North American group claiming to embrace "traditional Anglican values" will not last long, the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop has predicted.
Bishop Gene Robinson, an openly homosexual man living openly with a partner, whose 2003 consecration as bishop of the diocese of New Hampshire created a backlash among traditional believers within the U.S., church, told Ecumenical News International he does not believe the new Anglican grouping has long-term viability.
"A church that does not ordain women or openly gay people - I don't see a future for that," Robinson told ENI after delivering a sermon on 28 June at the First Presbyterian Church in New York City during the city's annual gay pride festivities.
His response came after the June 22-25 assembly of the Anglican Church in North America, meeting in Dallas, Texas, formalised years of dissatisfaction with the Episcopal Church over policies that have included the ordination of women, permission to perform holy unions for same-sex couples and the consecration of an openly gay bishop.
Calling the week the foundation of a "hopeful future," Archbishop Robert Duncan, the former Episcopal bishop of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said of the new denomination, "We are reaching out to North America in particular, and the whole world with the transforming love of Jesus Christ."
The breakaway grouping claims 100 000 members in 700 U.S. and Canadian parishes. These include four U.S. dioceses that cut ties with the Episcopal Church: Pittsburgh; Fort Worth, Texas; San Joaquin, California; and Quincy, Illinois. It also includes a number of other groups that had formed in recent years, including groupings with missionary efforts in Kenya, Uganda and the Southern Cone of South America.
Duncan announced that two African Anglican provinces, those of Uganda and Nigeria, which are said to be the two largest Anglican provinces in the world, had formally recognised the new North America group.
Among those addressing the assembly, attended by some 700 clergy and laity, was the Rev. Rick Warren, an evangelical leader in the United States, and Metropolitan Jonah, himself a former Episcopalian and the new primate of the Orthodox Church in North America, who told those assembled: "I am seeking an ecumenical restoration by being here today. This is God's call to us."
The Episcopal Church and of the Anglican Church of Canada did not formally comment on the ACNA assembly, the Episcopal News Service reported, but a representative of a group of Episcopalians who are remaining with the established U.S. church noted there is still unresolved litigation between the break-away Anglicans and the U.S. Episcopal Church over such issues as church property.
"Despite the ACNA's grand words, the new organization is being built largely with assets belonging to the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada. It is unclear what Christian moral principles can be invoked to justify this," said Kenneth Stiles, a Pittsburgh attorney and vice president of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh.
LONDON, June 30, 2009–Peter Tatchell this morning hit out at Gordon Brown, saying that the Prime Minister’s claims in a message of support to the gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender community ahead of Saturday’s Pride London were ‘hollow’.
The message includes the claim that: “We [the Labour government] won’t ever give up on the fight for equality – we are marching with you every step of the way.”
But Mr. Tatchell disagreed.“He claims to support gay equality but his government actually endorses some aspects of homophobic discrimination.
“It supports the ban on same-sex marriage. Civil partnerships are not equality – they are a form of sexual apartheid, with different laws for gay and straight couples.
“Gay and bisexual men are prohibited from donating blood, even if they always practice safe sex and have tested HIV-negative,” Mr. Tatchell continued.
“Successive Labour Home Secretaries have given visas and work permits to reggae singers who incite the murder of gay people. Such incitement is a serious criminal offence.
“The government's current Equality Bill is supposed to ensure equal rights for everyone but it specifically denies lesbians and gays protection against harassment.
“Labour’s many commendable gay law reforms are no excuse for its stonewalling on the abolition of these remaining aspects of homophobic discrimination.”
Mr. Tatchell then questioned Gordon Brown’s decision not to take part in Saturday’s gay pride parade, citing ‘security considerations’ – his wife, Sarah will be on the march, Downiong Street announced yesterday.
“This is just an excuse,” Mr. Tatchell claimed. “He’s not marching because he knows he would be booed and jeered, like he was at the D-Day commemorations.
“Instead, the Prime Minister will host a reception at Downing Street for LGBT rights campaigners and the “pink press” on the morning of Pride London. Those invited are mostly – [but] not entirely – tame apologists for New Labour.
“Critics of the government’s record, like myself, are not invited.
“The same selective invitation criteria was applied when Gordon Brown hosted a Downing Street reception for LGBT campaigners in March. An insider tipped me off that my name had been removed from the invite list, at Gordon Brown's personal request,” Mr. Tatchell revealed.
“He was apparently still angry that I had heckled him over his government's erosion of civil liberties, when he opened the Taking Liberties exhibition at the British Library late last year.
“I have been campaigning for LGBT human rights for 40 years, since shortly after the 1969 Stonewall Riots. I was one of the group of people who helped organise Britain's first gay pride parade in 1972.
“I don't do my human rights work to win awards, honours or invites. It doesn’t matter to me that I haven't been invited.
“What angers me is the principle – the way the Prime Minister invites and fetes mostly tame pro-Labour loyalists in the LGBT community. It is a manipulative tactic by an insecure government that knows its record on LGBT human rights is not as glorious as it claims.
“Instead of remedying the remaining issues of homophobic discrimination, Gordon Brown seems more interested in isolating and excluding LGBT voices who continue to insist on full LGBT human rights,” concluded Mr Tatchell who, on his Twitter page, posted today: “Seems Gordon Brown is out to get me, too - must be doing something right!”.
■ Peter Tatchell, a patron of Pride London, was not invited to a launch reception hosted by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, last night. At the reception, the Mayor said that he was unable to take part in Saturday’s Pride London parade as the date clashed with his son’s birthday.
“Although I am a Patron of Pride London, Mayor Boris Johnson barred me from his Pride launch reception at City Hall last night. Why,” Mr. Tatchell asked?
“Pride London Chair Paul Birrell twice requested that I and others be sent invites. His requests were ignored.”
The bigots collectively known as Stand for Marriage Maine, and who claim to be a "broad-based coalition" have launched their web site to rexcend gay marriage in Maine.
"An issue as important as the very institution of marriage deserves a vote of citizens of Maine," said Bob Emrich, another leader of the Stand for Marriage Maine coalition. "Our Web site is part of a comprehensive effort to restore the definition of marriage to what Maine, and of course all of human civilization, has known it to be - between a man and a woman."
The Stand for Marriage Maine coalition is led by the Catholic Diocese of Portland, the Maine Jeremiah Project, and the National Organization for Marriage (NOM); and other out of state groups.
Right Wing pundits on the right lost no time in seizing on the shocking case of a gay adoptive father who allegedly offered his five-year-old son as a sex object online.
Pointing to the case, which culminated in a June 26 arrest, a June 29 Christian News Wire article titled "Lombard Demonstrates Why Gays Should Not Be Able to Adopt" reported the broad outlines of the case, in which Duke University Center for Health Policy Associate Director Frank Lombard allegedly offered an undercover officer the sexual services of his young adopted son.
The article also used the case to decry, in equally broad terms, adoption by same-sex couples, taking the occasion to promote a purported study reportedly done by discredited researcher Paul Cameron.
Cameron, a long-time anti-gay activist and chairman of the Family Research Institute, was quoted in the article as saying, "The cant that ’gay parents are no more likely to molest’ is not based on evidence but liberal ideology."
Cameron, whose membership in the American Psychological Association was discontinued by the APA in 1983, and who was specifically cited in a 1984 resolution by the Nebraska Psychological Association that read, "[The NBA] formally disassociates itself from the representations and interpretations of scientific literature offered by Dr. Paul Cameron in his writings and public statements on sexuality," has, nonetheless, gone on to author a number of studies purporting to prove various claims about gays, including that they die younger than straights and that children reared by gay couples are "more apt to report sexual confusion... more apt to be socially disturbed... more apt to abuse substances... less apt to get married... more apt to have difficulty in attachment and loving relationships..." See Right Wing Hastens to Hold Up Gay Adoptive Dad, Alleged Pedophile ...EDGE Boston
Ever since the Iranian Revolution empowered a socially conservative theocracy led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979, the country has been a difficult place for gays, lesbians and transgender people to call home. Under Sharia law, the law of the Islamic republic’s land, homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death, causing many LGBT Iranians to either leave the country or live in secrecy.
Now, as the eyes of the world turn toward the streets of Tehran and other parts of the country in light of the massive protesting around Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial re-election over the popular reformist Mir-Hossein Mousavi, we ask what role LGBT Iranians are playing in the unrest and what the protests could mean for an already vulnerable community.
LGBT activists on the streets in Iran According to sources interviewed for this story, gay and lesbian protesters, largely based out of urban universities, have stood at the forefront of the opposition to Ahmadinejad alongside many women and religious and ethnic minorities. The protesters were further invigorated when Iran’s president-elect pointed to "thieves, homosexuals and scumbags" as the root of those who stand against him in a victory speech. His statement proved ironic, given his previous denial of the existence of a queer community in his country in a now infamous Columbia University speech two years ago.
"Iran’s LGBTs are looking at what is going on and saying that if we don’t do anything now, it’s going to become even worse than it was before," explained Neil Grungas, executive director of the Organization for Refugee, Asylum & Migration (ORAM), an organization which aides those seeking refugee status due to sexual or gender-based violence. "This is an opportunity for us to see the light." See Will Gay Iranians Come Out of the Revolt Better --or Worse?EDGE Boston
