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15 Dec 2011 - NPWJ News Digest on on LGBTI rights
Articles
Bulawayo mayor should have rejected gift from homosexuals
by Dosman Mangisi, Bulawayo, 14 Dec 2011
If an apparition stretches its hand to greet you, withdraw yours. Bulawayo Mayor, Councillor Thaba Moyo did not see it coming.
It is with great shock to learn that a "man of honour", Clr Moyo, stretched his hands to receive dumped painted drums by gays who are trying to buy their way into our society. He has shown himself a complete failure.
If Bulawayo was all that dirty, as a man of honour, he could have just ordered the responsible department to look for empty drums in companies and simply paint them and make them rubbish bins. He was going to come up with more than 200 of them.
Senate blocks reappointment of ambassador to El Salvador
By Ted Barrett, CNN, 13 Dec 2011
Senate Republicans on Monday blocked President Obama's choice to be ambassador to El Salvador after raising questions about whether her former boyfriend was a spy for Cuba. Republicans also were concerned that Mari Carmen Aponte wrote a commentary about gay pride that offended some citizens in the conservative Catholic country.
Aponte is serving in the post temporarily as a recess appointment that expires at the end of the year. Efforts by the White House and congressional Democrats to defend and promote Aponte to a permanent position fell short when the Senate voted along party lines against her.
Republicans block appointment of US ambassador to El Salvador over pro-gay rights article
By James Park, Pink News, 13 Dec 2011
Last night, the US senate blocked president Barack Obama’s nominee to be ambassador to El Salvador after Republicans expressed outrage at an article she wrote in support of gay rights and unfounded rumours that an ex-boyfriend was a Cuban spy.
Mari Carmen Aponte, a Washington based lawyer has served as a ‘recess’ appointed temporary ambassador to El Salvador since last September. Her temporary appointment was due to run out at the end of this year.
The Challenge of Promoting Gay Rights in Africa
The Atlantic, 09 Dec 2011
On December 6, in a presidential memorandum and a speech by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Geneva, the Obama administration announced that it will use all diplomatic means to promote gay rights around the world. In effect, the administration is trying to establish a new international norm, much as the Carter administration tried to do with respect to human rights.
In sub-Saharan Africa, homophobia is widespread. Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, for example, have used it to whip up public support and to distract attention from bad governance. In Uganda, there is legislation under consideration that could include the death penalty for homosexual acts. In Zimbabwe, the Anglican Church's alleged sympathy for homosexuality was part of the pretext for, in effect, the seizure of the property of the country's largest church and for official castigation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Paradoxically, Mugabe's attack has led to an Anglican revival in Zimbabwe--even though the population is probably as homophobic as elsewhere in Africa. (Notably, Mugabe's chief presidential rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, has recently publicly supported gay rights.)
UK Government Launches Plan for Trans Equality
By Steve Williams, Care2, 09 Dec 2011
The action plan, called Advancing Transgender Equality: A Plan for Action, spells out the British government’s pledge to tackle various issues facing the trans community, from anti-trans bullying in schools, to ensuring better medical care, and also amplifying the voice of the trans community in general.
From the Ministerial foreword by Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone and Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities Theresa May:
Transgender people, from transsexual to non-gendered, want to be able to participate in and make their contribution to society and the economy.The Government, employers and public services have a role in enabling this to happen and addressing the barriers that prevent them from doing so.
Malawi to review homosexuality ban after US aid threat
by David Smith, The Guardian, 09 Dec 2011
Move comes after Barack Obama told US agencies to consider local gay rights when making foreign aid allocation decisions.
Malawi is to review laws banning homosexuality in response to public opinion, according to reports.
The move comes just days after the US announced it would use foreign aid to pressure countries to decriminalise homosexual acts.
America currently gives Malawi about $200m (£128m) per year, with most going to healthcare.
Malawi was condemned by Barack Obama and international activists last year after jailing two men who underwent the southern African country's first gay "marriage".
Gays' Rights Not Country's Domestic Agenda, Says Defense Minister
AllAfrica, 09 Dec 2011
Liberia's Defense Minister, Brownie J. Samukai has said prioritizing the rights of gays is not what he referred to as the domestic agenda of Liberia. The Liberian Defense Minister's comments come in the wake of recent statements emanating from certain western countries and their leaders that countries in Africa must ensure that gays and lesbians are not discriminated against. The US has publicly declared it will fight discrimination against gays and lesbians abroad by using foreign aid and diplomacy to encourage reform. A memo from the Obama administration directs US government agencies to consider gay rights when making aid and asylum decisions. Similar policies already exist for gender equality and ethnic violence.
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President Jacob Zuma Must Use Visit to Halt Nigeria's Anti-Human Rights Bill
By Kenneth Mubu, AllAfrica, 08 Dec 2011
According to reports, Nigeria's parliament is in the process of approving legislation which is seen as a crackdown on the human rights of homosexuals.
The bill outlaws gay marriage, bans public displays of affection between homosexual couples and makes organisations advocating for gay rights illegal.
President Jacob Zuma is set to visit Nigeria on Saturday. He must use this as an opportunity to urge his Nigerian counterpart, President Goodluck Jonathan, to veto the bill on the grounds that it violates fundamental human rights.
Gay rights: Africa, the new frontier
By Farouk Chothia, BCC, 07 Dec 2011
Gay rights appear to have become a new frontier in diplomatic relations between Western powers and African governments, with the US and UK warning they would use foreign aid to push for homosexuality to be decriminalised on the socially conservative continent.
Addressing an audience of diplomats in Geneva, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton called for the rights of gay people to be respected.
"Gay people are born into and belong to every society in the world," Mrs Clinton said.
"Being gay is not a Western invention. It is a human reality."
