Τό γυναικεῖον τῆς Ὑπατίας - An Áit Bhanda na Hypatia - Hypatia's Gynaeceum

By fatima - Mirrored from Feministing
(I am thrilled to see someone speaking out about this, so brilliantly... right on, fatima)

http://community.feministing.com/2009/04/the-truth-about-femmesor-we-fu.html

the truth about femmes...or we fuck with misogyny so it's just easier to ignore us

i originally wrote this as a piece when me and couple other people in chicago were trying to start our own femme mafia (http://www.myspace.com/femmemafia). i thought it would be useful for people to ponder here at feministing as well, since i have seen some femme-bashing in some of the comment threads. i hope this can open up your minds to what a queer femme identity looks like.

on any given night, approximately 293584577432 hot queer women of all shapes and sizes, races, ethnicities, ages, religions, abilities venture into their local queer bars in search of a good flirt, fuck, or maybe even someone to fall in love with. they wear dresses, lipstick, long hair, and heels. they are outgoing and shy, the most dominant of tops and the most submissive of bottoms. they are funny, brilliant, and friendly. one thing is for sure and that is that they are HOT. and yet so many complain that no one approached them, that no one even saw them, and that everyone assumed they were straight. because queer femmes are largely ignored by the 'mainstream' queer community. the fact that they are even separate from the 'mainstream' just shows how fucked the whole thing is anyways. because that means that they are the 'other' and that the 'mainstream' are the people who look stereotypically gay.

okay so i like to wear lacy bras and undies. i live in dresses. hot pink lipstick makes my lips look amazing. and i wear eyeshadow. i like to knit and i want to learn how to sew. when i have time, baking and cooking are actually fun for me. all this and i love women. everything about them is beautiful to me. they make me excited about life and love and sex. i am femme and i am queer. if people can't see both of those things as being complementary to each other then it shows nothing more than their FEAR of the gender that i have chosen for myself.
( there's more... )
so when feminists and queers decide that they are ready to really kick patriarchy in its privileged balls, of course we will need the genderqueer, androgynous, and butch people, but we will also need the people who adorn the lipstick, the heels, the push-up bras. open your eyes and truly see us. because we are femme and we are fierce.

Disparaging or even hostile attitudes toward femmes and femininity I've often heard from both cis women and trans women invite a look at a hatred that I've found to be very prevalent and yet hardly ever acknowledged, let alone analyzed. We need to call it out for what it is, another form of misogyny.

I suppose in response to comments I've encountered like "feminine trans women are hard to take" or "feminine cis women get on my nerves," it would be fair to say that I find femmephobia hard to take, and it gets on my nerves too. Then we'd be even. But it wouldn't advance understanding or dialogue. That'll take some work and caring and thoughtfulness.

I get that being female and non-femme in a society that on the whole demands femininity of females gets really oppressive, and builds resentment. I totally get that. And I support non-femme women's right to defy these conventional gender expectations and live according to their true non-femme selves. Anytime an ironclad gender role or gender expression is imposed across the board, it's going to leave some persons marginalized and cause oppression. Maybe we could agree on the problem being not femininity or masculinity in themselves, but in the oppressive way they're enforced on people whether it suits them or not.

I believe with all my heart that diversity in openness makes for a beautiful world.

The funny part is that while the macro society demands femininity, once you get within the feminist and queer communities, femmes are often placed very much at a disadvantage. As if we get to be the scapegoats for the gender injustices of the macro society. Or whipping girls, in Julia Serano's phrase. Is it hard to see past one's particular oppression to acknowledge that other individuals can be oppressed in different ways?

If non-feminine females naturally exist in the macro society, and suffer oppression because of who they are, is it hard to see that naturally feminine women in feminist and queer communities are likewise made to suffer for who they are? You can argue that that's just tough, because the big oppressor is the patriarchy, and any other oppression becomes small and insignificant in comparison to that.

But femmes don't exactly find shelter or comfort in the patriarchy when we're queer and feminist. We experience it as monstrously oppressive too because we see what it does to women and queer people who we identify with. We need the queer and feminist communities as our haven and solidarity to be able to defend ourselves from the patriarchy too. So it's kind of painful and tragic when the other queers and feminists who we need to be our family turn around and reject us.

You might argue that being femme is inherently taking the side of the patriarchal oppressor. We queer feminist femmes would disagree because our femininity, despite what they say about us, is not a capitulation to the oppressor. On the contrary, we use it subversively. Because if you're queer in sexuality or feminist in belief, there is no way the patriarchy is your friend. We have more consciousness than you might give us credit for. All I'm saying is think twice before starting the femme-bashing. You might be hurting someone who's on your side.

I believe that in feminism and in queer theory, and especially in feminist queer theory, intersectionality is key. Intersectionality allows us to focus in on ending the oppression itself and lay off of each other.

I'm writing this largely with america_divine in mind. His explorations in the subject have opened up much for me to ponder about it. This is just to set out some basic concepts that may not be clear to everyone, especially the older generation of hetero people. In my experience it's been mostly older people who question our use of "queer." It may even come across as shocking to them since when they grew up it was only known as a term of abuse. A hetero gay ally asked me:

"What is the difference between 'queer' and 'gay'? I thought 'gay' was the more up-to-date word for 'queer.'"

So this was my reply to her, and I invite criticism and comments from all.

I know people who feel that the term "gay" is inadequate, since behind it is the implicit duality of gender, which they want to do away with. Actually, "queer" is the up-to-date term these days, for several reasons:

1) To begin with, since it was historically used as a derogatory word for LGBT peoples, we have Reclaimed it and turned it into a defiantly positive self-identification: to take away the power of queerphobes to use it against us, and Reclaim our own power. In this sense, using it is a consciously political act of resistance.

2) It serves as a very useful umbrella term for the entire LGBT spectrum at once, especially for individuals who are more than one of the above at a time, like trans and lesbian at the same time--"queer" covers both at once. In this sense, using it is also a political expression of LGBT solidarity--what's important is that it's a unitary word instead of a collection of separate identities.

3) More particularly, "queer" is used for a focus on blurring or demolishing traditional categories of gender and sexuality: a refusal to categorize oneself as any particular one of the queer identities, rather an identification with the conscious political position that such categories are oppressive and are better discarded. "Queer" is likely to be favored by those who refuse a definite gender not only for themselves, but also in people they are attracted to.

4) As an extension of sense 3, "genderqueer" is an increasingly popular concept nowadays, especially with the young folks who are combining, blending, and undifferentiating various sexuality and gender characteristics at the same time. Androgyny is one form of genderqueer. A more extreme version is called "genderfuck": heightening the contrast between masculine and feminine traits thrown together at the same time in the same person, in order to provoke a radical questioning of their whole premise.

Personally, I identify as a queer woman using senses 1 and 2. I'm in open dialogue with people who come at it from senses 3 and 4.

A Jihad for Love, the film by Parvez Sharma that looks at the lives and struggles of gay and lesbian Muslims, and humanizes them both as gay people and as people of faith, will premiere in Washington, DC at the Landmark E Street Cinema on September 5, 2008.

***ONE WEEK ONLY*** Do not miss the chance to see this one-of-a-kind film that is making headlines around the world! The courageous people in this film have been putting their lives on the line just so the world can get to know them as human beings. A Jihad for Love has been touching hearts and opening minds of viewers everywhere.

Put it on your calendars-- I want to see you all there! It's crucial for the sake of this good cause to get maximum turnout on opening night.

In a time when Islam is under tremendous attack from within and without, Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma has dared to go where the silence is loudest. In the world's first feature documentary to explore the complex global intersections between Islam and homosexuality, Parvez enters the many worlds of Islam by illuminating multiple stories as diverse as Islam itself. The film travels a wide geographic arc presenting us lives from India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa and France. We meet men and women whose pursuit of love has brought them into conflicts with their countries, families and even themselves. Such is the quandary of being both homosexual and Muslim, a combination so taboo that very little about it has been documented. Produced by Sandi DuBowski (Trembling Before G-d).

See Love Jihadi, the director's blog, for many amazing stories of the film's reception around the world. Sample post: "Such an amazing discussion in the cinema last night- an Imam (ours), two Rabbis and two Christian priests and yes the show was a sell out! People were remarkably engaged and moved. Clearly this film is touching people in ways I had not even imagined possible."

(This is so very right on. Thank you, Chumbawamba.)


Up behind the bus stop in the toilets of the street
There are traces of a killing on the floor beneath your feet
Mixed in with the piss and beer are bloodstains on the floor
From the boy who got his head kicked in a night or two before

No! Homophobia--the worst disease
Love how you want to love and love who you please
No! Homophobia--the worst disease
Love how you want to love and love who you please

In the pubs and clubs and burger bars, breeding pens for pigs
Alcohol, testosterone, and ignorance and fists
Packs of hunting animals roam across the town
And they find an easy victim and they punch him to the ground

No! Homophobia--the worst disease
Love how you want to love and love who you please
No! Homophobia--the worst disease
Love how you want to love and love who you please

The siren of the ambulance, the deadpan of the cops
Chalk to mark the outline where the boy first dropped
Beware the holy trinity: church and state and law
For every death the virus gets more deadly than before

No! Homophobia--the worst disease
Love how you want to love and love who you please
No! Homophobia--the worst disease
Love how you want to love and love who you please

"History, Vision, Legacy" is the theme for this year's Annual Capital Pride Week Interfaith Service. It will be held on Tuesday, June 10th at 7:30 PM in the sanctuary of the Foundry United Methodist Church at 1500 16th Street NW, Washington D.C. 20036 (at P St. NW) That's just across the street from the DC Jewish Community Center.

The featured speaker will be Reverend Archene Turner. Music will be provided by the Jubilee Singers, a choral group from All Souls Unitarian Church.

The Celebration of The Spirit Coalition and its predecessor organization WAGLIA have been convening this service for more than 20 years. Bet Mishpachah, Dignity, al-Fatiha, and the DC Radical Faeries are among the founding member organizations. A few years ago it was recognized as an "official" event of the Capital Pride Celebration. This brought an awareness to the wider GLBTQ community that the faith traditions are an integral part of our community. In addition, it demonstrated to the rest of the world that those so called "religious-right" organizations that oppose us do not have monopoly on faith and traditions. The proceeds of the collection at this year's service will be used to continue and extend the awareness of these two points.

NEW YORK DECLARES "A JIHAD FOR LOVE"! FIRST SEVEN DAYS: $22,287!

EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT AT NEW YORK'S IFC CENTER.

"POWERFUL!" - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

"HEARTFELT!" - Nathan Lee, The New York Times

"PROVOCATIVE!" - Jim Ridley, Village Voice

"Lifts the veil of secrecy...frankly brave!" - National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation

"CRITIC'S PICK! Brave...Eye-opening!" - Sara Cardace, New York Magazine

"REVEALING and moving!" - Wall Street Journal

"Passionate, essential...both haunting and inspiring!" - S. James Snyder, New York Sun

Fourteen centuries after the revelation of the holy Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad, Islam today is the world's second largest and fastest growing religion. Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma travels the many worlds of this dynamic faith, discovering the stories of its most unlikely storytellers: lesbian and gay Muslims.

Produced by Sandi DuBowski (Trembling Before G-d) and Sharma, A Jihad for Love was filmed in 12 countries and 9 languages and comes from the heart of Islam. Looking beyond a hostile and war-torn present, it reclaims the Islamic concept of a greater Jihad, whose true meaning is akin to 'an inner struggle' or 'to strive in the path of God' - allowing its remarkable subjects to move beyond the narrow concept of Jihad as holy war.

81 minutes, Digital/Video, Color, English, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Hindi, Turkish & French w/English subtitles

The DC premiere is September 5, mark your calendars. I want to see you all there, friends.

( read more... )

from
http://www.meemgroup.org/

What is Meem?

Meem is a community of and for LBTQ women in Lebanon. LBTQ is defined as women who self-identify as lesbian, bisexual, transgender (including male-to-female and female-to-male), queer, in addition to women questioning their sexual orientation. We believe in diversity.

Meem is based on values of equality, support, confidentiality, and respect. The group was created on the idea that women should be encouraged to empower themselves and each other through mutual support. We are a closed, private group, not out of fear, but because we work hard on guarding the safety and security of our members. We believe in empowerment through self-organizing.

Our goal is to create a safe space in Lebanon where lesbians can meet, talk, discuss issues, share experiences, and work on improving their lives and themselves. In a nutshell, Meem is a group of really cool women who look out for each other and work on making Lebanon a better home for lesbians. Oh, and we are really cool :)

Membership in Meem is restricted only to LBTQ women who are Lebanese (anywhere in the world) or living in Lebanon (of any nationality). These restrictions are there because a support group needs to remain focused. Meem started with 4 members and today has 129 members.

We are, however, working on providing support services for lesbians all over the Arab world, and we do welcome emails and inquiries from anyone, regardless of gender, sexuality, and geography.

What does the name "Meem" stand for?

The name "Meem" is derived from the Arabic letter "m" which stands for مجموعة مآزرة للمرأة المثلية "majmouaat mou’azara lil-mar’a al-mithliya" (a support group for lesbian women). In Arabic, the letter looks like this:
م

The letter "meem" as an initial for the word lesbian (mithliya) also symbolizes the anonymity of lesbians in the Arab world. Plus, we love how the logo combines the Arabic letter with the female symbol :)

Give them your support and encouragement!-- J.Hy

The other day I got with Equality Virginia for their annual Lobby Day. Picture several hundred of us talking with Virginia state delegates and senators about the issues that matter to us. This year in the Virginia legislature, we have an extraordinary first: There is no pending legislation that EV opposes. In other words, no anti-LGBT bills. There are only LGBT-positive bills this session which Equality Virginia is supporting. What a long way we've come in a few short years!

I was there all day, left at 6 AM, got back at 9 PM. We Northern Virginians formed a small group going to offices of our region's state senators and delegates to talk about the legislation we want to pass this session. Things are looking a bit brighter in Virginia. Some legislators like Senator Ken Plum and Delegate Tom Rust were so happy to see us, our lobbying was basically just a group hug. Equality Virginia is nonpartisan, and amazingly we even have a number of Republicans on our side. For example, Republican Rust has recently posted a 100% good voting record on our issues, and he has become a co-patron of HR 1493, the state employment nondiscrimination bill, which includes gender identity along with sexual orientation. Senator Cuccinelli is one Republican who is a rabid hardcore rightwing fundie, dead set against us, very insulting and bigoted. We met with not him in person but with his legislative aide, who disagreed respectfully and not confrontationally; we had a really decent, in-depth, intelligent conversation. When we walked out of there, a transsexual woman I know from Northern Virginia said it was a good thing she didn't see Cuccinelli in person... hinting darkly...

We attended a session of the Senate and watched bills being passed. Senator McEachin spoke from the floor to call for a welcome to Equality Virginia up there in the gallery. We stood and the Senate applauded us.

On the way to our group photo on the front steps of the Capitol that Thomas Jefferson built, we passed an equestrian statue of George Washington with flowers planted around it. Brilliant purple and blue flowers thriving in the middle of winter though the wind was bitterly cold and below freezing. The flowers were pansies. One of our lesbian members remarked: "Notice the only ones who are TOUGH enough to take it are the PANSIES!" We all laughed and I told her that witticism was going in my blog, it was too good not to pass along. She was so happy I told her that.

I told other women how I'm a fan of Pam's House Blend, and the younger ones agreed, saying how much they love and admire Pam, while some older ones were like "What is a... blog?"

We were based in the Library of Virginia which has this enormous lobby. In the evening all the delegates and senators who came to the reception to support us, several dozen of them, were gathered on the steps to be thanked by Dyana Mason, the head of EV. And this one woman who lobbied with us, a straight ally, broke down and cried with tears of joy to see this happening. To think that only a few years ago politicians would not have given us the time of day—but here they were en masse standing up and being counted for us. Demonstrating real political courage! And at that point Governor Kaine walked in and everyone cheered. At the reception they served a ton of pesto, which was a great delight for me, I esteem pesto as much as gourmets do caviar.

On the whole, things are looking really positive for EV. We had a good year in 2007 and may be looking at another good year. I think our excellent recent advances are entirely the result of good planning and organizing by the leaders of EV, kudos to them.

You wouldn't believe how many compliments I got on my purple outfit! Women telling me they should take style lessons from me. A remarkable number of EV women were wearing purple that day.

Iraq Prisoner Amnesty To Exclude Gays

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

(Baghdad) The Iraq government is considering the release of some 5,000 prisoners but a spokesperson said it would not include terrorists or homosexuals.

The Iraqi government has about 20,000 people in custody, while the U.S. military holds about 25,000.

Homosexuality itself is not illegal in Iraq, but police regularly arrest gays on other charges often trumped up.

The amnesty bill drafted by the Shiite-dominated government falls far short of Sunni demands. About the only thing on which the two sides agree is that imprisoned gays not be freed.

The amnesty would cover less than a quarter of the total number of people held in Iraqi prisons, and none of those held by the American military.

Sunni parliamentarians have criticized the bill for its limited scope. They have argued that most prisoners are charged with terrorist crimes, rendering it ineffective. Some also fear referring the bill to Iraq's gridlocked parliament will actually delay prisoner releases.

The total number of gays being held is not known. And, they may be the lucky ones, according to some LGBT activists.

Death squads imposing strict Islamic law are reportedly responsible for the murders of hundreds of gay men across Iraq.

Last year the leader of an exiled Iraqi LGBT rights group told a London conference on homophobia that that militias blamed for the murders of hundreds of gay men and women are sanctioned by the government and the US-led coalition is doing little to stop the killings. (story)

Ali Hili said that the Badr and Sadr militias - the armed wings of the two main Shia parties that control the government of Iraq - are routinely rounding up men and women, primarily in Baghdad, suspected of being gay. The men and women are never heard from again.

Five members of Hili's own group were taken away in November of 2006. About a dozen members of Rainbow For Life, another Iraqi LGBT group also have been seized and are presumed dead.

Another 70 have been threatened with kidnapping Rainbow For Life has said.

In 2006 the Iraq government strongly criticized a U.N. report on human rights that put its civilian death toll in 2006 at 34,452, saying it is "superficial" because it included people such as homosexuals.

©365Gay.com 2008

Friends can send Donations to IRAQI LGBT:
The immediate urgent priority is to Support and Donate Money to LGBT activists in Iraq in order to assist their efforts to help other Lesbians, Gay, Bisexuals and Trans gender Iraqi's facing death, persecution and systematic Targeting by the Iraqi Police and Badr and Sadr Militia and to raise awareness about the wave of homophobic murders in Iraq to the outside world.
Funds raised will also help provide LGBTs under threat of killing with refuge in the safer parts of Iraq (including safe houses, food, electricity, medical help) and assist efforts help them seek refuge in neighboring countries.
Please make donation by clicking on [Make Donations] button on the top right side of our weblog:

http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/

IRAQI LGBT

I just got this in e-mail from Parvez & Sandi on how their film is doing in the Muslim world ( some heartwarming stories follow... )

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/

Pam's House Blend is my major site for up-to-the-minute political LGBT news and commentary. Highly intelligent, confrontational, and informative, plus a really fine community of progressive hearts and minds has been growing there. Pam is a lesbian woman of color down South who REALLY tells it like it is. And she has lots of like-minded writers contributing. The blog is fast-paced, always something new, always current, vital, and alive. I feel at home there.

Pam's iconic image is of an always-steaming coffee cup, which is right on--hot, black, tasty, and mentally stimulating.

The hate crimes measure, which passed the House earlier this year, has been stripped from the National Defense Reauthorization Act in the Senate.

What can you expect when the major lobbying group behind it, the Human Rights Campaign, has already proven themselves to be untrustworthy when it comes to supporting LGBT people's causes, and unwilling to put up any fight at all for equal rights? By supporting the deletion of gender identity protection from ENDA, by failing to stand up for the principles they claim to believe in, they've demonstrated that LGBT causes can easily be discarded with impunity. Comments at Pam's express feelings, shared by many of us, of exasperation at "this religiously obsessed redneck backwater nation of ignorant bible thumpers."

More choice comments:
"Dems have seen that we won't stand up for ourselves and our community.

When the "leadership" provided by our major lobbying group involves breaking commitments it's already made, backtracking on principles that had already been established by the community, conspiring with Dems to steal our money for the sole purpose of perpetuating their political existence, cowering in fear based on what's sold to us all by know-nothing media windbags as "what's realistic", and then allowing the bottom to drop out of even that pathetic goal with all the resistance of a wet noodle--this is the natural result."

"It has been said that 'Well behaved women never make history.' Well, we behaved... It was never political good sense, ENDA and the Hate Crimes Bill are both dead, as some LGBT activists have been predicting for weeks."

"We need more than the original ENDA. Beyond the purely trans issues, the community as a whole needs to demand, and demand loudly equal rights, and by that I mean complete equality with straights and demand it now. We must never again settle for less."

Feeling betrayed again. :(

Three Iraq safe houses forced to close

No funds to pay rent or utility bills

30 gay people left to fend for themselves

London and Baghdad – 6 November 2007

Three out of five gay safe houses in Iraq are closing down, due to a lack of funds to pay their rent and utility bills.

The refuges were set up two years ago, to provide a place of safety for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (lgbt) Iraqis who have fled homophobic threats and attempts to kill them by religious fundamentalists and death squads.

“Iraqi lgbt has made a huge effort to keep all of its five safe houses running, to provide refuge for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Iraqis who have fled homophobic violence and threats to kill them,” said Ali Hili, founder and coordinator of the human rights group, Iraqi lgbt.

“Many of the people we helped have been targeted by the Iraqi police and by Shia militia and other fundamentalist factions.

“Because of a lack of funds, three safe houses have had to close their doors. This decision will break a lot of hearts, but we have no other choice. We don’t have the financial support to sustain these refuges.

“Over 30 gay residents who we cared for in these three safe houses now have to take their chances in a country where religious militia regularly seek out gays and execute them.

“Several months ago, two lesbians working with Iraqi lgbt were assassinated in the safe house they were running in Najaf, along with a young boy the women had rescued from the sex industry.

“We feel deserted by the international gay community. Few people seem to care about our fate.

“Many brave lgbt Iraqis assisted our efforts. We would like to acknowledge their exceptional commitment.

“Sabah, Gada, Sana and Mona are four lesbians who dedicated their time and energy to provide food, cleaning and support to people in the safe houses in their area. We’d also like to thank Hasan , Safa , Jawad, Laith , Gasaq and Rami,” said Mr Hilli.

“The world has let us down so badly,” said Sabah, a 29 year old lesbian, who worked as a carer and ran a safe house in the south of Iraq.

“Nowadays, we don’t dare be seen in the neighbourhoods where we used to live. It is too dangerous for anyone known to be gay or to have had a homosexual past,” said Safa, a gay man in the city of Ammara, where he has been hiding for the last eight months from the police and Shia death squads. Safa fled his hometown of Najaf because he was known to be gay and feared assassination.

“Iraqi lgbt is doing amazing, heroic work,” said Peter Tatchell of the UK-based lgbt organisation, OutRage!

“Its members inside Iraq are taking huge personal risks to protect the victims of homophobic persecution. Their efforts are truly inspirational. I urge the international lgbt community to rally round and raise the funds needed to sustain the remaining two safe houses. Please give generously,” he urged.

Meanwhile, Iraqi lgbt blames the western invasion and occupation of their country for unleashing religious fanaticism and causing the current homophobic killing spree:

“Much of the world failed to oppose the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and to prevent what has turned out to be the worst western intervention catastrophe in modern history,” added Mr Hili.

“The Iraqi gay community feels badly let down in our moment of need.

“Are gay people in the United States, Britain and Australia aware of what their governments have done to our country? Their armies invaded and occupied our land, destroyed the infrastructure of government, and created the chaos and lawlessness that has allowed religious fundamentalism to flourish and to terrorise woman and gay people.”

“Violence against gays has intensified sharply since late 2005, when Iraq's leading Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a fatwa, or religious decree, which declared that gays and lesbians should be ‘killed in the worst, most severe way possible.’

“Since then, lgbt people have been specifically targeted by the Mahdi Army, the militia of fundamentalist Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, as well as by the Badr organisation and other Shia death squads. Badr is the military arm of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is one of the leading political forces in Baghdad’s western-backed ruling coalition,” said Mr Hili.

Can you make a donation to help Iraqi lgbt sustain its magnificent efforts?

The UK-based gay human rights group OutRage! is working with Iraqi LGBT to support its work. Iraqi LGBT is coordinated by Ali Hili from the safety of London UK. The group does not have its own bank account. Operating an Iraqi LGBT bank account in Baghdad would be suicide. For this reason, it has to operate its finances from London. All the group’s members in London are Iraqi refugees seeking asylum. Their lack of proper legal status makes it difficult for them to open a bank account in the UK. This is why Iraqi LGBT is asking that cheques be made payable to “OutRage!”, with a cover note marked “For Iraqi LGBT”, and sent to OutRage!, PO Box 17816, London SW14 8WT, England, UK. OutRage! then forwards the donations received to Ali Hili and Iraqi LGBT for wire transfer to activists in Baghdad.

More information:

Ali Hili 079 819 594 53 (from abroad +44 79 819 594 53)

Blog: http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/

Email: iraqilgbt@yahoo.co.uk

Photos of some of the LGBT victims are available here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/outrage/sets/72157600042494571/
NB: Sorry, we do not have high resolution versions.

Peter Tatchell, OutRage! 020 7403 1790

White man speaks with forked tongue:
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3543
This post by Autumn Sandeen at Pam's House Blend reveals the whole story of how they lied and betrayed the nation's LGBT activism.

A scant two months ago HRC promised to support the trans-inclusive ENDA bill HR 2015 - now they've reneged on their position and made those of us who were persuaded to ally with them on this campaign to regret now being made to look like fools in retrospect by their duplicity.

Kathy Padilla writes: "It's time to call for Joe Solmonese and David Smith to resign. They outright lied to us in the Philadelphia community just 3 weeks ago on this very subject. It's time to stop supporting organizations that lie to our faces. All of you were on the conference call, all of you received Joe's email assurances that HRC was firm in their policy."

I feel sickened by the betrayal.

I liked this comment to http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3548 -
"If we are going with parts why not just leave out gay men?
I mean when he talks about getting parts passed isn't lesbian more accepted then gay men? Shouldn't we be focusing on parts that can pass like that? I mean a lot of men I know think the lesbian part is hot and a turn on. I'm sure it would be ok to leave the gay men out to get it passed."

Pam's House Blend has become my favorite queer politics blog - the firstest with the mostest of the latest updates to what's going on. The best way I know to keep informed on these issues.

Breaking: HRC signs letter to Capitol Hill supporting original ENDA

"Although we believe that the bill's sponsor, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), and the House Democratic Leadership have a sincere desire to protect the LGBT community from discrimination, we believe the process and strategy that has been adopted is a mistake. That mistake is compounded by moving forward with a markup tomorrow."

Actually, HRC signed onto that statement in company with a bunch of other organizations in the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights. A few days late, but they eventually got it right. I held off throwing out my equal-sign stickers until they clarified their position.

Further:
It seems the massive outcry from the citizens has caused the House leadership to hold off on their filthy scheme. Today Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, and Tammy Baldwin issued a statement that they will wait a few weeks before moving ahead on it. I learned this from Kathleen's comments to the above news at Pam's.

"I am guessing that the outrage of the LGBT was heard, and it will go forward later this month T inclusive."
--HappyCat

"My guess is that Pelosi is experiencing cognitive dissonance between what Mr. Frank is saying and what every GLBT organization on the planet is saying."
--kathygnome

"My guess is that this latest retreat owes in large part to the good offices of Tammy Baldwin, who did not agree to last week's trans exclusion and held out on the original ENDA from the inside."
--Hypatia

"Don't mean to be a persickity kind of quasi-attorney again, but...
...note the phrase in the letter

'...we write to express our opposition to the strategy and process by which the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (HR 3685) is to be considered in the House of Representatives.'

Note that there is no comment in that letter saying that the organizations will oppose any ENDA bill that doesn't include transgender protections -- They just oppose the congressional strategy."
--Autumn Sandeen

"This is good news
Let's face it: this is good news. The message was heard loud and clear - we're in this together."
--Clark414

Press Release from Out@Work - thanks to kara_h for posting this in dcdykes

Help Us Raise The Voice Of Working Class LGBT Folks
Picket House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at HRC National Gala In Washington,
DC- Oct. 6

Congressman Barney Frank and the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi,
are attempting to scuttle a trans-inclusive Employment
Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) by introducing a separate bill covering
sexual orientation only, as well as a token bill on gender identity.

The only major LGBT group that has not come out against this betrayal
is HRC, which will be holding its 11th Annual Gala next Saturday in
Washington, DC. Congresswoman Pelosi is the keynote speaker for the
dinner.

Only a few weeks ago, HRC leader Joe Solomonese pledged at a major
transgender conference that HRC would outright oppose any federal
anti-discrimination legislation that did not include gender identity.
You can watch the video here. Demand that he keep his word!

We've been kicked to the curb. Join us on the curb to picket the
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and demand an ENDA covering gender
identity. As labor unionists we won't sell out any part of our community.

We call on all LGBT and allied organizations that support gender
identity inclusion in ENDA to join us.

Meet at 4:15 p.m.; Picket begins at 4:30 before the Major Donors
Reception and continues through the General Reception beginning at 6 PM.

Location:
Washington Convention Center
801 Mount Vernon Place, NW
(near 9th St & Mass Ave)
Washington DC

For more information contact:
Jeremy Bishop
Executive Director
Pride At Work, AFL-CIO
202-637-5014
jbishop@aflcio.org

Join us on the streets and ask our friends and allies not to cross the
line!

We can make a difference and turn this around. Join us.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spread the word and fill the streets- tell your friends and family to
join us! Tell-a-friend!

If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for Pride
At Work.

A Message from Iraqi LGBT - an organization based in the UK
Gay People in Iraq Suffering Intense Persecution

Since the US invasion of Iraq, Gay people in Iraq have suffered particularly intense persecution. Violence against all the gay community has intensified sharply since late 2005, when Iraq's leading Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, issued a fatwa (religious decree) which declared that gays and lesbians should be "killed in the worst, most severe way." Since then, LGBT people have been specifically targeted by the Mahdi Army (the militia of fundamentalist Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr) as well as by other militant death squads. There are even credible reports of gay men being arrested and executed by the Iraqi police. The United Nations and the US State Department have issued reports documenting some of the more recent killings. It is impossible to document precisely how many gay, trans gender and lesbian have been killed in Iraq as a result of their sexuality, but we have specific knowledge of hundreds of cases, and every LGBT individual in Iraq is currently in severe danger.

Since 2006, Friends of Iraqi LGBT has been trying to help by funding safe houses in Iraq for individuals, who have come to the attention of the death squads and who have consequently had to flee their homes. We have also been providing financial assistance to assist LGBT individuals in particularly dangerous areas of Iraq to move to relatively safer parts of the country, or even to seek refuge abroad.

Now, however, we are facing a critical situation regarding funding. The need is rising, and unless more financing can be raised immediately, a number of safe houses will have to close by the end of this month, putting dozens of vulnerable people at risk of execution.

We are therefore appealing to you for a donation. Any amount, no matter how small, could save a life. For example, the cost of funding the rent on a safe house is approximately £900 a month - £400 for rent (typically paid three months in advance), £200 for the salaries of two armed guards (an essential part of the security arrangements) and £300 per month for gas, fuel for electricity generators, food, clean drinking water, hygienic supplies and the like. Additionally, most of the safe houses are terribly short of essentials like bedding and cooking utensils. Each safe house typically looks after 10-12 individuals at a time, so you can see that the cost of protecting a life in Iraq is really very small.

We currently fund five safe houses with guards, but several of these will have to shut imminently unless we can step up our funding. Moreover, we have recently been receiving daily requests for new assistance from various cities in Iraq, and most of the time we are unable to help because of lack of funds. Ideally, we would also like to pay for HIV medicines for a number of positive Iraqis, but at the moment we are not able to afford this.

You can help make a difference in this tragic situation by making a donation via the Friends of Iraqi LGBT website: http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/

Found at Queer Muslim Revolution

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,2163210,00.html

Hearts and minds
A controversial film about gay Muslims is more a labour of love than a call to arms, finds Jeremy Kay

From the Guardian

Early on in the More4 documentary A Jihad for Love, which receives its much anticipated world premiere at the Toronto International Film festival on Sunday, a Muslim man and his two daughters are enjoying a coastal drive in South Africa. It's a happy scene, yet the easy banter belies the hardship this family has endured. The man, Mushin Hendricks, is a former imam who was cast out by his community when he declared his homosexuality. The girls' mother has since remarried, and when Hendricks asks them what they would do if he were arrested, the answer comes without hesitation. The elder child, combining filial love with the lessons of her Islamic education, says she would ask that officials spare him a protracted death by stoning, and kill him with the first rock.

Dignity and despair are woven tightly together in A Jihad for Love, a six-year endeavour by Indian film-maker Parvez Sharma that explores Islam and homosexuality. Without a distributor in the US, the film is one of the hottest tickets at the festival, and nobody knows what will happen at the first public screening. The film-makers are hoping it will be received respectfully and inspire an open-minded dialogue. That would certainly accord with Sharma's approach in making the $2m documentary, which eschews the shock-and-awe school of investigative reporting in favour of a compassionate portrait of devout Muslims struggling to reconcile their faith and sexuality.

"All the people in my film are coming out as Muslims," says the 34-year-old film-maker. "Islam is the heart of this film. They are proud to be gay, but fundamentally they're coming out as Muslims and saying they're as Muslim as anybody else, and their Islam is as true and fundamental as anybody else's."

Each of the men and women profiled in A Jihad for Love is courageous, defiant and resourceful. Mazen was one of the Cairo 52, a group arrested in May 2001 aboard a floating gay nightclub on the Nile. He was beaten, forced to stand trial twice on "habitual debauchery" charges, and sentenced to a total of four years in prison, where he was raped. He eventually moved to Paris, where we see him no longer afraid to reveal his face, making friends, moving into his own flat, and calling his mother in Egypt to say he misses her.

Maryam is a Moroccan lesbian in Paris whose lover lives in Egypt. The teachings of her faith mean she still believes she deserves to be punished for her sexuality, and it was only recently that she was able to use the term "lesbian" for the first time. "Each of the characters you see on the screen had to negotiate that relationship with the camera," Sharma says. "It has taken me years to get to know them and earn their trust."

Sharma himself had a secular upbringing in India, where "Islam was all around me". As a gay man, he was acutely aware of his country's stance on homosexuality. "And as long as I wasn't marching around and proclaiming it, things were fine. India is a culture that tolerates same-sex behaviour between men and women, but it can't be in-your-face."

After graduating from university in India and working at the Star News channel/NDTV in Asia and the BBC, he arrived in the UK to study for his masters degree - he holds three - in broadcast journalism at the University of Wales. Then he moved to the east coast of the US in late 2000, and everything changed. "My whole religious identity and the colour of my skin became an issue," Sharma says. "After 9/11, I was caught up in a climate that made gay Muslims like me a triple minority: we were facing condemnation for being gay as we had done from our own communities; we were targeted and ostracised because of the way we looked; and even within gay communities, we were regarded as exotic outsiders.

"Those forces came together and I felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to start a discussion of Islam that hadn't been heard before. I feel I was called upon to make this film. This was very necessary for my being a Muslim and a gay man."

Sharma compiled 400 hours of footage from a dozen countries ranging from Iraq to Pakistan to the UK. The nature of the work placed him at considerable personal risk. He adopted hardcore guerrilla film-making tactics, pretending to be a tourist in one country, a worker for an Aids charity in another. Wherever he went, he asked friends to keep copies of footage and destroy the tapes once he had successfully smuggled the masters out of the country.

Sharma admits he thought long and hard about the title of the film, and is very clear about its message. "A very loud minority has hijacked my religion and its pulpits. To see Islam depicted every day as a faith of violence is very frustrating to me. It's something many Muslims face today: do they go with the Islam being preached by a violent minority, or do we seek the fundamentals of this religion, in which we are taught not to harm any human life? Jihad represents a life struggle, and I call myself a jihadi with pride, and so do all the others in this film. Our struggle is one of faith and understanding".

· A Jihad for Love will receive its UK premiere at the Sheffield Documentary festival, which runs from November 7-11.

Hey, when's the DC premiere gonna be? --J.Hy

Serves 'em right.
Of all the commentary I've read on this today, Pam goes right for the nitty gritty.
http://www.pamspaulding.com/weblog/2006/10/hypocritical-senators-closet-bit-dust.html

"Craig represents a textbook case of hypocrisy. He also voted "yes" on the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. It should be noted that when the first openly gay member of Congress, Gerry Studds, died on Saturday, he left behind a legal spouse, Dean Hara (they married in Massachusetts). However, because of DOMA, the federal benefits normally due to a spouse have been denied to Hara.

Glenn Greenwald has pulled a ton of righty indignation from the past over the Clenis. These are the same people braying now about "privacy" for Craig. Too f*cking bad.

'As should be painfully obvious, the issue with Larry Craig — or with pointing out the wildly promiscuous recreational-drug-aided sexual behavior of Rush Limbaugh, or Newt Gingrich's multiple, overlapping broken marriages — isn't to apply our moral standards to their private lives, but is to apply their own publicly claimed moral standards, as well as the core tactics of the GOP, to document that they live in utter contradiction to the sexual morality they relentlessly embrace for political gain…'

'...Watching Bush followers angrily objecting to the use of sexual behavior and homosexuality for political gain — or listening them oh-so-solemnly lament how the Good People are being driven away from politics because of the personal, invasive treatment to which they are subjected — is about as jaw-droppingly astonishing as any spectacle one can fathom. This is a political movement built upon claims of moral superiority in the sexual and private realms. It is truly difficult to express the level of contempt and scorn that is merited when the most fervent supporters of that same political movement pretend to be offended and angry when it is revealed that the lives being led by their political leaders are grossly inconsistent with the sexual and moral values they claim to monopolize.'

These wingers can bleat about the Dem slime machine all they want, but they need to look in the mirror."

Closeted homophobes Haggard, Foley, Allen, Craig... These sorts of stories are starting to look awfully familiar! Who's next? They so richly deserve to fall into the traps they've built for others. We call gloating rights.

Looking beyond the justifiable Schadenfreude of the moment to a more positive future for America-- isn't it high time by now for this country to seriously reassess the insanity of denying equal rights to our LGBT citizens-- throw all the closet doors wide open-- finally bring about equality for all-- and join the 21st century? We can start by passing the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act and ENDA--now, not later.

P.S. CRAIG = Closeted Republican Admits: "I'm Gay"