Leading the procession of activists Friday at United Nations’ Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza are, from left, Brendan Fay, Kelebohile Nkhereanye and the Rev John Denaro. In the background are Barbara Mohr, Scott Long and the Rev. Edgard Danielson-Morales. Human rights pioneers such as Roger Casement and Dag Hammarskjöld (whose pictures are being carried) were also honored during the vigil. Photo: GRCC.
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By Trenton Straube
Friday, August 10, 2007
Like many gays and lesbians across the globe, Brendan Fay would sit at his computer daily and read grim news about suffering and inequality, tales of blood in the streets, of discrimination, hatred, torture and executions.
When Russian activists were attacked earlier this summer simply for asking to have a Pride march, reports and images from Moscow reached Fay’s computer as the events unfolded. The reports marked a turning point for the Irish activist living in New York City, and Fay decided to take action.
Fay joined other activists across the globe to plan a weekend of international vigils that would focus on LGBT human rights. In New York, a vigil took place Friday afternoon at the United Nations’ Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza. Religious leaders, U.N. officials and other activists joined the vigil.
“We refuse to be silent in the face of torture, discrimination and executions in Iran, of beatings on the streets of Moscow, of Lithuanian authorities preventing the rainbow flag from being carried on the streets of Vilnius. We refuse to be silent when many LGBT and HIV positive refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants arrive on the shores of the U.S. only to encounter discrimination and closed doors,” Fay said.
Similar events took place in Caracas, Cologne, Mexico City, San Diego, San Francisco, Stockholm, Vancouver, Warsaw and Washington.
But the vigils were more than a symbolic statement. “We are asking for the implementation, endorsement and support of the Yogyakarta Principles,” Fay said. “Basically we’re beginning a campaign to have activists across the world make The Yogyakarta Principles a priority.”
Last November, experts on international human rights laws met in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to draft a set o principles that spell out the protections of human rights based on sexual orientation and gender identity. They were launched in Geneva in March of this year.
The goals of the principles are two-fold, explained Scott Long, the director of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “One is to lobby governments to take them up,” Long said. Governments can use the principles as guides for their internal and foreign policies. Long cites the Netherlands and Sweden and examples of countries that use the principles as a valid guide when funding non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Basically, if an NGO doesn’t follow the principles, it doesn’t receive funding.
Another goal of the principles is to give activists a specific and viable demand. “The principles give a tool for grassroots LGBT activists around the world to put pressure on their governments, to say, ‘Look, here is what a body of international legal experts say you need to do,’” Long explained.
Long added that the principles also put pressure on the United Nations to make these issues a part of the basic human rights agenda.
So how would the United States score on the Yogyakarta Principles?
“Very badly,” according to Long. “In area after area of United States life, there’s discrimination we don’t recognize,” he said, ticking off a list of areas that includes employment, housing, healthcare and same-sex partner immigration rights.
“And internationally, the United States promotes policies that promote homophobia,” added Long. He cites the mandate that one-third of U.S. monies spent on AIDS prevention abroad has to be spent on abstinence instead of condoms. “If it’s abstinence, then it leaves gay people out completely,” he said.
Long spoke about the Yogyakarta principles at the U.N. vigil organized by Brendan Fay. They were joined by Kelebohile Nkhereanye of Less AIDS Lesotho; the Rev. John Denaro, an Episcopal pastor of St Mark’s Church in the Bowery; Barbara Mohr of Dignity NY; the Rev. Edgard Danielsen-Morales, assistant pastor of Metropolitan Community Church NY and John Maynard, who played the pipes. Gilbert Baker, creator of the rainbow flag, made a wreath for the U.N vigil.
“It’s worth drawing attention in New York to international human rights,” Baker said of the vigil, which took place the same weekend of Sweden’s National Pride Festival.
The U.N. vigil was also a chance to honor past human rights activists, such as Dag Hammarskjöld. The Swedish diplomat was the second secretary general of the U.N. and died in 1961 under mysterious circumstances in a plane crash. Recent biographies assert that Hammarskjöld was a closeted gay man.
“I’m moved to recall Roger Casement,” said Fay, referring to the turn-of-the-century Irishman. “In his own time, he responded to human atrocities against people in Africa and Latin America.” The vigil also marks the 1916 execution of Casement (the release of Casement’s controversial personal journals, called “The Black Diaries,” revealed florid homosexual activities, though some critics claim the journals were forged).
Images of both Casement and Hammarskjöld were carried during Friday’s vigil.
Long said that events such as the U.N. vigil help U.S. citizens focus on and learn from international movements. He points out that nations less advanced in many ways than the United States offer their citizens protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. “In South Africa, sexual orientation is protected in constitution,” Long said. “In Brazil, there is a nationwide program called Brazil Without Homophobia to address affects of prejudice across county. Now those are two conservative countries. Why have they been able to go so much farther than we have, and what can we learn from their struggles?”
“This vigil reflects a spirit of global responsibility among gay activists worldwide,” Fay said. He added that the Internet has played a vital role in connecting activists worldwide.
Long agreed that the Internet can play a role in connecting ordinary folks and in getting information out. But, he cautioned, there are downsides. “It gets harder to check the accuracy of information the faster it moves,” he said. “We in the United States are in a world were information is available freely. But in China, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, web sites that deal with LGBT issues are blocked. Owners of them in China can be arrested or even jailed. So we shouldn’t congratulate ourselves for all this information that’s moving at the speed of light.”
For activists like Brendan Fay, though, the web has been instrumental. “We’re no longer isolated from each other,” Fay said. “News can come from streets of Moscow and we can have responses around the world. To me it’s very moving.”
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