Thursday, September 16, 2004
This article, by Peter Tatchell of the UK group Outrage!, appeared on the web site http://www.petertatchell.net/international/palestine2.htm
The views expressed in this article underline one of the problems which confronts a Palestinian state which at the moment has no democratically elected government. Homophobia in Muslim states is well known and well acknowledged and is one of the issues which we , as gays, lesbians and transgender people, will still have to confront on the global stage.
SUPPORT PALESTINE, CHALLENGE HOMOPHOBIA
Peter Tatchell deplores the Left’s failure to speak out against the torture and murder of gays by the Palestinian authorities
Tribune - London - 25 June 2004
Is there a revival of old-style 1970s leftist homophobia? It seems so. Diverse sections of the left - including individual members of the Socialist Workers Party, Respect and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) - are questioning the right of the queer activist group OutRage! to fight back against the officially-sanctioned persecution of queers in the Palestinian-controlled areas of Gaza and the West Bank.
According to the PSC, OutRage! is “attempting to defame” the Palestine solidarity movement and is “damaging the cause of solidarity with Palestinians”. In particular, it objected to OutRage! revealing how PSC officials and stewards had attempted to silence criticism of Palestinian homophobia.
Members of OutRage! joined the PSC demonstration in London on 15 May, supporting an end to Israel’s human rights abuses of the Palestinian people.
Contrary to claims by the PSC, we did not stage a "counter-demonstration". We were there in solidarity with the Palestine liberation struggle. Our placards said, "Israel: Stop persecuting Palestine".
But we also called for an end to the torture and murder of lesbians and gays by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Our placards additionally read, "Palestine: Stop persecuting queers".
It was never our intention to disrupt the PSC rally or create a commotion. We had a small, low-key presence. Our aim was to raise awareness. We wanted to alert supporters of Palestine, in the hope they would help us pressure the Palestinian leadership to halt its oppression of queers.
What turned a minor presence into a major incident was the repressive response of the PSC organisers and stewards. They surrounded us, ordering us to the back of the demonstration. When we refused, they blocked out our placards with their own, obscuring our message. PSC officials also shouted us down, preventing us talking with journalists and other protesters who wanted to find out more about the suffering of queers in Palestine.
The PSC now denies this intimidation and censorship took place. But it was filmed by a Channel 4 documentary maker, Darren Lewey, and photographed by four professionals, including the respected left-wing and pro-Palestine photographer Paul Mattsson. They all corroborate OutRage!’s version of events.
In a bid to deflect criticism, the PSC has issued a statement saying it opposes homophobia. Fine words. But what has it actually done to challenge the violent homophobia of the PLO, Hamas and PA? I wrote to the PSC nine years ago, asking them to urge the PLO to stop killing queers. The PSC did nothing. I emailed the PSC office six weeks ago requesting dialogue. They never replied. The PSC accuses OutRage! of damaging solidarity with the Palestinians. That’s right PSC, blame the people who defend the victims, and let the oppressors off the hook. It is the PLO's and PA’s homophobia that is damaging solidarity, by dividing gays and straights – both here and in Palestine. While the PSC ignores the persecution of Palestinian queers and their pleas for help, OutRage! does not. We heard their appeals for solidarity and acted. Astonishingly, the PSC letter in the Morning Star completely ignores the issue of PLO and PA violence against lesbians and gays. It offers not a word of sympathy to the victims of Palestinian homophobia, and makes no offer to raise the issue with the Palestinian authorities. The PSC is in deep denial. Yet again we seem to have a so-called progressive movement implying that queer lives are expendable for the sake of the greater good of a revolutionary struggle.
There is no doubt that Palestinian queers are the victims of barbaric homophobic violence. This is confirmed by the independent Israeli human rights groups B'Tselem and the Association for Civil Rights, and by the Israeli gay organisations, Aguda and Open House.
Two senior PLO officials have admitted to me privately that the arrest and abuse of queers is sanctioned by the Palestinian leadership. Officially, the PLO refuses to discuss the matter. I have tried several times over the last 20 years to quietly and diplomatically raise this issue with PLO leaders. They have rejected all overtures and attempts at dialogue. That is why OutRage! had to protest. To do nothing would be collusion with homophobic tyranny.
The PSC implies that OutRage! has no right to campaign in solidarity with Palestinian queers, arguing that “Palestinian lesbians and gay men must be allowed to determine for themselves how they wage that struggle”. We agree. That is why Outrage!, unlike the PSC, is not ignoring their desperate pleas for help. They have asked for solidarity and we are showing it, which is more than can be said of the PSC. I have supported the Palestinian struggle for national liberation for 30-plus years. Freedom for Palestine must be freedom for everyone – straight and gay. Unless we challenge the abuse of queer human rights now, homophobia will become entrenched in a new Palestinian state. If the PLO and PA get away with persecuting queers, perhaps they will be emboldened to trample on the rights of other Palestinians too. Pressuring them to respect queer rights will surely help create a stronger human rights culture and that will benefit all Palestinians. OutRage! values the work of the PSC. We will continue to support its efforts to help secure a free Palestine. We hope that in return the PSC will work with us to pressure the PLO, Hamas and the PA to abandon their homophobia and create a truly liberated nation based on human rights for all.Peter TatchellOutRage!
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The views expressed in this article underline one of the problems which confronts a Palestinian state which at the moment has no democratically elected government. Homophobia in Muslim states is well known and well acknowledged and is one of the issues which we , as gays, lesbians and transgender people, will still have to confront on the global stage.
SUPPORT PALESTINE, CHALLENGE HOMOPHOBIA
Peter Tatchell deplores the Left’s failure to speak out against the torture and murder of gays by the Palestinian authorities
Tribune - London - 25 June 2004
Is there a revival of old-style 1970s leftist homophobia? It seems so. Diverse sections of the left - including individual members of the Socialist Workers Party, Respect and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) - are questioning the right of the queer activist group OutRage! to fight back against the officially-sanctioned persecution of queers in the Palestinian-controlled areas of Gaza and the West Bank.
According to the PSC, OutRage! is “attempting to defame” the Palestine solidarity movement and is “damaging the cause of solidarity with Palestinians”. In particular, it objected to OutRage! revealing how PSC officials and stewards had attempted to silence criticism of Palestinian homophobia.
Members of OutRage! joined the PSC demonstration in London on 15 May, supporting an end to Israel’s human rights abuses of the Palestinian people.
Contrary to claims by the PSC, we did not stage a "counter-demonstration". We were there in solidarity with the Palestine liberation struggle. Our placards said, "Israel: Stop persecuting Palestine".
But we also called for an end to the torture and murder of lesbians and gays by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Our placards additionally read, "Palestine: Stop persecuting queers".
It was never our intention to disrupt the PSC rally or create a commotion. We had a small, low-key presence. Our aim was to raise awareness. We wanted to alert supporters of Palestine, in the hope they would help us pressure the Palestinian leadership to halt its oppression of queers.
What turned a minor presence into a major incident was the repressive response of the PSC organisers and stewards. They surrounded us, ordering us to the back of the demonstration. When we refused, they blocked out our placards with their own, obscuring our message. PSC officials also shouted us down, preventing us talking with journalists and other protesters who wanted to find out more about the suffering of queers in Palestine.
The PSC now denies this intimidation and censorship took place. But it was filmed by a Channel 4 documentary maker, Darren Lewey, and photographed by four professionals, including the respected left-wing and pro-Palestine photographer Paul Mattsson. They all corroborate OutRage!’s version of events.
In a bid to deflect criticism, the PSC has issued a statement saying it opposes homophobia. Fine words. But what has it actually done to challenge the violent homophobia of the PLO, Hamas and PA? I wrote to the PSC nine years ago, asking them to urge the PLO to stop killing queers. The PSC did nothing. I emailed the PSC office six weeks ago requesting dialogue. They never replied. The PSC accuses OutRage! of damaging solidarity with the Palestinians. That’s right PSC, blame the people who defend the victims, and let the oppressors off the hook. It is the PLO's and PA’s homophobia that is damaging solidarity, by dividing gays and straights – both here and in Palestine. While the PSC ignores the persecution of Palestinian queers and their pleas for help, OutRage! does not. We heard their appeals for solidarity and acted. Astonishingly, the PSC letter in the Morning Star completely ignores the issue of PLO and PA violence against lesbians and gays. It offers not a word of sympathy to the victims of Palestinian homophobia, and makes no offer to raise the issue with the Palestinian authorities. The PSC is in deep denial. Yet again we seem to have a so-called progressive movement implying that queer lives are expendable for the sake of the greater good of a revolutionary struggle.
There is no doubt that Palestinian queers are the victims of barbaric homophobic violence. This is confirmed by the independent Israeli human rights groups B'Tselem and the Association for Civil Rights, and by the Israeli gay organisations, Aguda and Open House.
Two senior PLO officials have admitted to me privately that the arrest and abuse of queers is sanctioned by the Palestinian leadership. Officially, the PLO refuses to discuss the matter. I have tried several times over the last 20 years to quietly and diplomatically raise this issue with PLO leaders. They have rejected all overtures and attempts at dialogue. That is why OutRage! had to protest. To do nothing would be collusion with homophobic tyranny.
The PSC implies that OutRage! has no right to campaign in solidarity with Palestinian queers, arguing that “Palestinian lesbians and gay men must be allowed to determine for themselves how they wage that struggle”. We agree. That is why Outrage!, unlike the PSC, is not ignoring their desperate pleas for help. They have asked for solidarity and we are showing it, which is more than can be said of the PSC. I have supported the Palestinian struggle for national liberation for 30-plus years. Freedom for Palestine must be freedom for everyone – straight and gay. Unless we challenge the abuse of queer human rights now, homophobia will become entrenched in a new Palestinian state. If the PLO and PA get away with persecuting queers, perhaps they will be emboldened to trample on the rights of other Palestinians too. Pressuring them to respect queer rights will surely help create a stronger human rights culture and that will benefit all Palestinians. OutRage! values the work of the PSC. We will continue to support its efforts to help secure a free Palestine. We hope that in return the PSC will work with us to pressure the PLO, Hamas and the PA to abandon their homophobia and create a truly liberated nation based on human rights for all.Peter TatchellOutRage!
Click here to return to the International Index
Monday, September 13, 2004
This letter was sent to the Australian Jewish News (AJN) on Sunday 12 September 2004. The AJN doesn't print my letters any more - they don't like any of my politics, be they about Israel/Palestine, same sex marriage or gay issues. So, they get published on my blog and on my web pages, providing me with soem outlet, however limited!
Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, MelbournePO Box 1675Preston SouthVic 3072Phone:(03)9471 4878email: josken@zipworld.com.auweb: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken
Dear Marsha (Foxman)(Sydney AJN 6 August 2004), you were given a right of reply to my letter (which I was denied because your letter was published in the Sydney AJN and not the Melbourne one, and a friend in Sydney alerted me to it) about being gay in a straight, hetero world, and you use the anti-semitic attack by saying, in effect, “some of my best friends are homosexuals.” Homosexuals don't “shove their homosexuality in your face”, they are working towards equal human rights which you hetero religious homophobic bigots take as your god-given rights.
Homosexuals are abused, bashed and murdered on a daily basis, poofter is a term of abuse used everywhere all the time, and homophobes forget that gays, lesbians and transgender people are human beings, no different from yourself. Young people learning about their sexuality and surrounded by messages of hate commit suicide when they find they can no longer live with the pressures around being homosexual, and they find they have nobody to turn to for help or advice, particularly if they live in regional or rural areas.
We are around you everywhere, even no doubt within your own family and circle of friends, and we demand equality. We demand equal rights under the law, the provision of which you so derisively call gay rights. We are not second class citizens and are tired of being treated as such by the homophobes in the Australian communty. Anti-discrimination and anti-vilification laws were passed to give some protection to homosexuals in a world riddled with hate fired by religious zealotry such as yours.
Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidary Melbourne
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Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, MelbournePO Box 1675Preston SouthVic 3072Phone:(03)9471 4878email: josken@zipworld.com.auweb: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken
Dear Marsha (Foxman)(Sydney AJN 6 August 2004), you were given a right of reply to my letter (which I was denied because your letter was published in the Sydney AJN and not the Melbourne one, and a friend in Sydney alerted me to it) about being gay in a straight, hetero world, and you use the anti-semitic attack by saying, in effect, “some of my best friends are homosexuals.” Homosexuals don't “shove their homosexuality in your face”, they are working towards equal human rights which you hetero religious homophobic bigots take as your god-given rights.
Homosexuals are abused, bashed and murdered on a daily basis, poofter is a term of abuse used everywhere all the time, and homophobes forget that gays, lesbians and transgender people are human beings, no different from yourself. Young people learning about their sexuality and surrounded by messages of hate commit suicide when they find they can no longer live with the pressures around being homosexual, and they find they have nobody to turn to for help or advice, particularly if they live in regional or rural areas.
We are around you everywhere, even no doubt within your own family and circle of friends, and we demand equality. We demand equal rights under the law, the provision of which you so derisively call gay rights. We are not second class citizens and are tired of being treated as such by the homophobes in the Australian communty. Anti-discrimination and anti-vilification laws were passed to give some protection to homosexuals in a world riddled with hate fired by religious zealotry such as yours.
Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidary Melbourne
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
The tragedy of the South African AIDS crisis is that people like Anonymous are afraid of putting their names to letters because they would be held up, quite rightly, to the ridicule they deserve, and they continue writing such appalling misinformation which people read and possibly believe! This response has so much rubbish in it that one can't really take it seriously. The ignorance is appalling as is the tragedy that this person refuses to get educated on the subject about which he/she is writing!
TOPIC: Aids
Anonymous wrote:
Letter Subject: AIDS and ostriches: response
Letter date: 2004-08-31 13:38:05
"This exacerbates the HIV/AIDS crisis because, without education in the community, there is a widespread belief amongst many men that having sex with a virgin will protect them from acquiring HIV/AIDS."Sadly, as a scientist you seem prone to scare people and play to the gallery. Nothing you have said has any scientific value. It merely tells us that you have no ability to view things critically from a scientific perspective. What you enjoy doing is to rely on the media to make up your mind.Even if it was AIDS that was killing people, does it eliminate the need to research further to understand other possibilities that might exist.Does this mean because people are dying that research has to stop and people fed often toxic drugs? Surely, if yours is intended as scholarsly research in order to save lives, then it failsYou quote a newspaper report, rather than research. Research was done in South Africa which placed the rate of HIV sufferers to be less than 12%. This report contradicts one that is often quoted and which placed infection rates at 20% of the population. This was based on reports from neonatal clinics in KZN, which is not representative of the population.Further research has indicated that those who are circumcised are likely to be less affected by HIV compared to those who are not. Further research in Africa pinpoints a certain group of prostitutes exposed to HIV but are not positive even after engaging in unprotected sex.So, it is clear that exposure does not immediately lead to infection, and infection does not always lead to HIV.There are people who make a living out of lies, and you are one of those. I do agree with the use of ostrich to describe your attitude to further scholarship on the subject.You sound like one of those hired by the drug manufacturers and whose salary depends on feeding people toxic material so you can make profits. You could not care less what happens afterwards.While there are people who once believed that raping a virgin will reduce the chance of infection, it is not something that is as widespread as you claim.Once again, you rely on unverified data. If you were my doctor, I would seriously consider my life options.
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TOPIC: Aids
Anonymous wrote:
Letter Subject: AIDS and ostriches: response
Letter date: 2004-08-31 13:38:05
"This exacerbates the HIV/AIDS crisis because, without education in the community, there is a widespread belief amongst many men that having sex with a virgin will protect them from acquiring HIV/AIDS."Sadly, as a scientist you seem prone to scare people and play to the gallery. Nothing you have said has any scientific value. It merely tells us that you have no ability to view things critically from a scientific perspective. What you enjoy doing is to rely on the media to make up your mind.Even if it was AIDS that was killing people, does it eliminate the need to research further to understand other possibilities that might exist.Does this mean because people are dying that research has to stop and people fed often toxic drugs? Surely, if yours is intended as scholarsly research in order to save lives, then it failsYou quote a newspaper report, rather than research. Research was done in South Africa which placed the rate of HIV sufferers to be less than 12%. This report contradicts one that is often quoted and which placed infection rates at 20% of the population. This was based on reports from neonatal clinics in KZN, which is not representative of the population.Further research has indicated that those who are circumcised are likely to be less affected by HIV compared to those who are not. Further research in Africa pinpoints a certain group of prostitutes exposed to HIV but are not positive even after engaging in unprotected sex.So, it is clear that exposure does not immediately lead to infection, and infection does not always lead to HIV.There are people who make a living out of lies, and you are one of those. I do agree with the use of ostrich to describe your attitude to further scholarship on the subject.You sound like one of those hired by the drug manufacturers and whose salary depends on feeding people toxic material so you can make profits. You could not care less what happens afterwards.While there are people who once believed that raping a virgin will reduce the chance of infection, it is not something that is as widespread as you claim.Once again, you rely on unverified data. If you were my doctor, I would seriously consider my life options.
