U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Health and Human Service Secretary Alex Azar joined representatives from the anti-LGBT countries of Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, and Uganda on Thursday to launch the anti-LGBT/ anti-abortion “Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family.”
Pompeo and Azar have been working for at least a year and a half to mobilize Thursday’s signing of the Geneva Consensus seeking to reverse the Obama administration’s U.S. foreign policy which supported reproductive rights and LGBT equality.
The anti-LGBT agenda of the declaration reaffirms that “the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state.” Hungary’s Minister of State for Family, Youth and International Affairs Katalin Novák denounced international forces that she charged were trying to “weaken the traditional family” through a “culture of indoctrination and preaching”, “gender ideology,” and sex education.
Novák added that the right-wing anti-LGBT governments of Hungary and Poland are playing a leading role in promoting and strengthening the “traditional family.” Uganda’s health minister, Jane Aceng, criticized international pressure to support policies that “may be contrary to our values” and called for “due respect for our values and sovereignty.”
The Geneva Consensus Declaration event was a culmination of the Trump administration’s intensive efforts to build opposition to any international recognition of LGBT rights and a woman’s right to choose an abortion. Pompeo and Azar have been working on developing this new coalition for about a year and a half.
This brings the number of known arrests to 85 people who have been caught up in a massive crackdown on LGBT people since several young people waved a rainbow flag at a Cairo concert in September.
No law criminalizes homosexual conduct in Egypt. Instead, the government uses Law 10 of 1961 to prosecute suspected gay men. The law forbids prostitution and “debauchery,” and carries up to three years in prison and three years of supervised daily release.
Law 10 of 1961 prohibits inciting, soliciting, or maintaining premises for debauchery or prostitution. Article 9, for example, imposes:
– Punishment by imprisonment for a period not less than three months and not exceeding three years and a fine not less than 25 LE [Egyptian pounds, approximately $1.40 today] and not exceeding 300 LE in the Egyptian administration and not less than 250 Lira and not exceeding 3000 Lira in the Syrian administration or one of these two punishments applies in the following cases:
(a) Whoever lets or offers in whatever fashion a residence or place run for the purpose of debauchery or prostitution, or for the purpose of housing one or more persons, if they are to his knowledge practicing debauchery or prostitution.
(c) Whoever habitually engages in debauchery or prostitution.
It also permits that:
– Upon the apprehension of a person in the last category, it is permitted to send him for a medical examination. If it is discovered that he is carrying an infectious venereal disease, it is permitted to detain him in a therapeutic institute until his cure is completed.
Members of the Parliament of Egypt are vocally supportive of the government’s repression of the LGBT community, and some hope to see it increase. They have floated two new bills, one that will strengthen the existing debauchery and prostitution law by lengthening sentences and including messages on electronic media, and another that will outlaw homosexuality and increase sentences to five years. International human rights groups have condemned the bills.
The United Nations recently condemned crackdowns in Indonesia and Azerbaijan, as well as in Egypt. Even in Lebanon, perhaps the most gay-friendly Arab country, the police target the LGBT community. In Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, homosexual acts are punishable by death.
MP Ryad Abdel Sattar on Wednesday introduced to the parliament’s speaker Ali Abdel Aal a draft law entailing five main articles of the criminalisation of homosexuality.
The draft law would pave the way for strict punitive measures against the LGBT community in Egypt, in addition to restricting the presence of LGBT People inside Egyptian society, Abdel Sattar said in media statements dedicated to local outlets.
The ‘Criminalisation of Homosexuality’ law has received approval from a number of the parliament’s members who asserted their readiness to approve it — the draft law is expected to be discussed inside the parliament after being reviewed by the speaker Ali Abdel Aal. – Pink Sixty
The “Arab Spring” uprising that toppled Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2010 brought some respite for the city’s embattled LGBT community, whose members were able to socialize more openly at house parties and bars. And while homosexuality is not at this time a criminal offense in Egypt gay men and lesbians have been arrested at an alarming rate and charged with the crime of “Debauchery” at an alarming rate over the past year.
The first article defines homosexuality as any person engaging in sexual intercourse with someone of the same sex.
The second article clarified that any person engaging in homosexuality in a public or private place should be subjected to punitive action that should be no less than one-year and not exceeding three years in jail. It added that in case those jailed homosexual people repeated having sex after being freed, then the punitive action should be five years in jail.
The third article highlighted that any “supporter” of homosexuality or someone who calls for the acceptance of homosexuality, even if he or she is not a “practitioner of homosexuality,” should be jailed for no less than one year or no more than three years.
The fourth article paid attention to media coverage to parties organized by homosexual people, stipulating that any representatives of the media that “promotes” LGBT parties would be jailed for three years.
The United Nations has said it is worried over the growing trend of arrests of LGBT people across the Muslim world.
“We are deeply concerned about a wave of arrests in Azerbaijan, Egypt and Indonesia of more than 180 people perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender,” said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.
Amnesty International reports that at least 11 men have since been arrested, and one man has been sentenced to six years in jail after Egyptian media launched a critical campaign against those who raised the rainbow flag at a Mashrou’ Leila concert, a popular Lebanese alternative rock band whose lead singer is openly gay.
Six of the Egyptian men arrested for “promoting sexual deviancy” and “debauchery” on social media will be subjected to anal examinations ahead of their October 1 trial.
Amnesty said the Forensic Medical Authority was due to subject the six men to anal examinations to determine whether they have had homosexual sex.
Judicial sources said any defendant accused of “debauchery” or “sexual deviancy”, a euphemism for homosexuality in Egypt, is subjected to a medical examination based on an order from the Public Prosecutor.
“Allegations of torturing or insulting those medically examined are lies not worth responding to. The examinations are carried out by a forensic doctor who swore to respect his profession and its ethics,” one judicial source said.
“The fact that Egypt’s Public Prosecutor is prioritizing hunting down people based on their perceived sexual orientation is utterly deplorable. These men should be released immediately and unconditionally, not put on trial,” said Najia Bounaim, North Africa Campaigns Director at Amnesty International.
Egypt’s Muslim religious establishment is voicing its support for the government’s moves against homosexuals.
“Al Azhar will stand against calls for sexual perversion the same way it has stood against extremist groups,” a preacher at the 1000-year-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning said in his Friday prayers sermon.
Although homosexuality is not specifically outlawed in Egypt, it is a conservative society and discrimination is rife. Gay men are frequently arrested and typically charged with debauchery, immorality or blasphemy.
The judge ruled that they would also be subject to police supervision following the completion of their prison sentence.
The sentence was met with uproar from the families of the defendants, who demonstrated outside the courthouse in downtown Cairo and were cleared by police. The defendants, who had denied the charges, stood silent in the court room cage as the verdict was read, one of them holding up a copy of the Koran. […]
The men were first charged in September when a public prosecutor’s statement said that the images were “humiliating, regrettable and would anger God”, concluding that they constituted a criminal act. The prosecutor ordered the coroner to carry out physical examinations as part of the investigation.
During the minute-long video two men are seen exchanging rings before kissing each other aboard a Nile felucca. The pair are surrounded by cheering friends. Meanwhile a cake featuring the pair’s faces is also present in the film.
While Homosexuality is not explicitly outlawed in Egypt, Egyptian police have long made the lives of homosexuals a living hell. In 2001, 21 men were handed three-year jail sentences after cops raided a so-called ‘gay party’ on the Queen Nile boat.
Meanwhile 14 men were arrested at a sauna in Cairo’s El-Marg district in October last year and have since been charged with a variety of offences linked to so-called “indecent behavior.” In November, nine men were arrested on similar charges at a private party in 6th October City.
The BBC is reporting that seven Egyptian men have been arrested and will be charged with inciting debauchery and spreading images that violate public decency after a video the men surfaced showing them celebrating on a Nile river boat at what appeared to be a gay wedding.
During the minute-long video two men are seen exchanging rings before kissing each other aboard a Nile felucca. The pair are surrounded by cheering friends. Meanwhile a cake featuring the pair’s faces is also present in the film.
In the hours following the clip’s release, many Egyptians took to social media in support of the couple.
The men could face charges of inciting debauchery and spreading images that violate public decency..
The prosecutor general also ordered for the men to be forced to undergo forensic exams before calling for their trial to be fast tracked to “safeguard the values of society and implement justice.”
A statement released by state news agency MENA described the video as showing “a devilish shameless party.” The prosecutor said the video dates back to April.
While Homosexuality is not explicitly outlawed in Egypt, Egyptian police have long made the lives of homosexuals a living hell. In 2001, 21 men were handed three-year jail sentences after cops raided a so-called ‘gay party’ on the Queen Nile boat.
Meanwhile 14 men were arrested at a sauna in Cairo’s El-Marg district in October last year and have since been charged with a variety of offences linked to so-called “indecent behavior.” In November, nine men were arrested on similar charges at a private party in 6th October City.
Russia and Egypt: An Interesting Sense of Outrage
Charles Karel Bouley
“The United States criticizing Russia over gay rights is like Rwanda criticizing the Darfur over genocide… “
Yes, that is what I said when asked by a listener about President Obama’s condemnation of Russia over their stringent anti-GLBT laws.
“And spare me your concern for Egypt; our Revolution took eight years and cost many thousands of lives, they’ve only been at this two years. AND, in Iraq, each day, 25-50 die with almost 1,000 civilians dead in July and who was screaming about that? We did that! That is OUR fault!”
Yes, I finished with that. Because it’s how I felt at the time.
I know what’s going on in Russia is horrific. But what’s going on in Mississippi or Alabama or any one of 29 states where a person can still be fired for being gay, even if it’s just alleged is also horrible. And it’s horrible that GLBT youth can not hear a positive message about being gay in Russia, but there are school districts and states trying to do the same here. Yes, Conversion Rape (raping a “suspected” lesbian to convert her and not being punished for it) is horrific and has been reported in Russia. But sending someone away to Gay Rehab (conversion therapy), forcing thoughts and images upon them, making them betray their very soul, well, that’s a form of violation as well and can scar people for just as long and it’s practiced in almost every state in the U.S.
Yes, a Russian newscaster saying gay hearts should be burned or buried if the organs are donated after a death is just wrong, but so is the FDA and American Red Cross refusing blood donations from gay men when blood has been tested for HIV and Hepatitis for decades now that’s also appalling. Russian gay youth being attacked by skin heads and the perpetrators going unpunished is horrific, but GLBT youth are attacked by religious ideology in the U.S. daily and end up killing themselves in record numbers as well, dying without any repercussion to those that led them to it.
And let’s not forget that in 37 states the battle for marriage equality still rages where GLBT Americans have to beg legislators, or even worse, voters, to approve their love and unions and grant them equal protection under the law. Disgusting. England has gay marriage, Uruguay for the love of all things holy, but the fight rages here? ENDA is not the law of the land. And it’s only been in the last five years that DOMA or DADT have disappeared; two flawed and horrific breaches of law and Constitution that were the law of the land for years without much uproar.
The fact is this country is nowhere near where it needs to be for GLBT equality, safety and harmony in society. Yes, we are moving forward. But we are still very, very backwards.
Snowden pissed off President Obama, and Putin flipped him off by granting him asylum. So, the president tries to embarrass Putin on GLBT rights, having rainbow flags thrown in his face in countries he visited after the uproar. Celebrities called for a boycott of the Winter Olympics.
And now, a few weeks out, there’s a new scandal, Egypt has erupted, Glenn Greenwald’s partner has been harassed (who knew an openly gay man broke one of the biggest stories in the recent past!) and the athletes are preparing for Sochi. Mark Leno from Calif. (D-Senator 11th District) called for Calif. to stop investing pension funds in Russia in protest. I can’t find one story on the progress of that or if that has died.
And Russian GLBT youth are still suffering and dying, and while their American counterparts do have it better in many areas, it’s no picnic here either. It’s a daily battle outside of the Calif. or New York bubbles for gay men and women in America; a battle to stay employed, a battle to be in love and be recognized, a battle not to throw it all in as a youth because of institutionalized bigotry, and we may have a name for them now, but hate crimes still happen just like skin heads attacking Russians.
No, President Obama, when it comes to the GLBT community in America you have been better than any recent president in tone, but not in substance. DOMA was bad law. It wasunconstitutional. It had to be undone and I’m glad it was, but you don’t get credit for repealing something that should have never been enacted (shame on you Bill Clinton). As for Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, when the Army needed bodies during the Civil War, they let in blacks. Why? Equality? No, they needed bodies. Our military at the time was waging war on two fronts with exhausted soldiers. It needed (needs) bodies. It also makes those people pledge valor, honor, dignity, pride, allegiance to Country so it is incongruous that it would also ask them to cover up or lie about who they are so again, glad it’s gone, but it benefitted the country more than the gays in general.
No, President Obama, you want street cred over here to criticize others? Make Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) the law of the land by making it a legislative priority and make it illegal in every state to fire a GLBT person for simply earning a living. Have a congressperson introduce legislation to simply grant marriage equality, period, all 50 states and let’s get this bigotry out in the open on the Senate or House floor. Stop doing half-measures and get the job done.
And as for Egypt, well, look at the Iraq Body Count. Just this past Monday, August 19, 14 people died. Seven in bomb attacks in Mosul, three by IEDs in Tuz, one by gunfire in Basra, one in Kirkuk, another IED death in Baquba with an AED death in Mahaweel. So far, in August, 495 civilians have been killed in Iraq violence. And we did that. We broke that country apart and now it is the Humpty Dumpty of the Middle East; nothing is going to put it back together again.
We spent trillions all told, and for what? We illegally occupied the country, deposed the dictator that was keeping the peace (and no, he was NOT a nice man), invaded, forced something on them they didn’t really want to buy, and then left. Now, the Chinese buy up to 60 percent of the oil from the country and we have $4/gallon gas, thousands of Americans with PTST, lost limbs or lost lives and up to 125,000 dead civilians.
Move in to Afghanistan and Pakistan and just talk drones and we’ve killed over 3,000 from the sky, and the CIA has said up to 25 percent of those people are unknown to us, or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That means we’ve killed 750 civilians with drones (a conservative estimate), including over 100 children.
But we are going to condemn the revolutionary process of Egypt and be outraged at the violence?
In 2012, 131 people were murdered in Oakland, Calif. There’s been 58 murders to date in 2013. Over 21,000 people have died in the U.S. from gun violence since the Newtown tragedy and estimates say gun deaths will surpass auto deaths in the U.S. this year, and we can’t even get sensible legislation passed, let alone be outraged enough to actually do something about it.
The fact is, the Russian gay issue was made an issue because of mounting tensions with Russia, including Snowden, and Egypt is an issue because we support their military, they are the gateway to the Middle East and support Israel in so much as they don’t attack them. We need Egypt to keep relations in the Middle East which we need for, say it with me, oil. The only reason anyone cares about a “Stan” country or the MIddle East is oil. Wait, and Israel. And we should care about both, but again, the outrage over this particular situation in Egypt… really?
There’s a lot be be angry about across the world. But there’s also a lot to be angry about right here. A lot. And we can’t keep acting like sectarian violence isn’t happening in the streets of America. Religious right, Muslim Brotherhood, what’s the difference? Republicans refusing to legislate, a country in decline, a nation that excels at two things, incarcerating and killing prisoners but fails at everything else from education to equality, well…
In the 24-hour news cycle there’s room for us to be involved, and care about, many issues: including Egypt and Russia. But let’s be sure we know why we are involved, why we care. And then let’s make sure that as we throw stones, our house is not made of glass. Because Moscow or Mississippi anti-gay sentiment, laws and oppression are everywhere and hurts just as much to the person experiencing it regardless of geography. And make no mistake,the GLBT community still bears the brunt of hatred and hate crimes in America today. And the argument that, “well, you have it better here than there,” doesn’t make what’s going on here right. It’s a false equivalent.
And as for Egypt, what’s going on is horrific, from killing of journalists, rapes going on in the crowds going unreported, people dying for a simple political affiliation, revolution is indeed messy. Like France supported us, we must support the spirit of freedom and independence that burns in Egypt and throughout the world, but we must never forget that we can’t share freedom or independence if all Americans are not secure in their own.
And let’s not forget the horrors of Iraq. Let’s not forget the terrors that still exist in Afghanistan, the death, the violence. It’s a legacy we created and we seem to have left the Iraqis to die without so much as a blip on our nightly news.
——————–
Charles Karel Bouley, known on-the-air as Karel, is an American talk radio host and author. He is chiefly known for his two stints of work on KGO radio show in San Francisco, California. Prior to working for KGO the first time, Bouley was the first openly gay radio talk show host on KFI in Los Angeles. Karel is a high profile blogger for The Huffington Post, and his editorials have also appeared in The Wall Street Journal. He was also an editor and columnist for The Advocate.com, and a celebrity photographer for Billboard Magazine.
To listen to Chale’s podcast or The Karel Show live daily please visit his website, or get the App for iOS or Android
*Reprinted with the permission of Charles Karel Bouley
“Hey! I’m a journalist here!” he yelled. ” I’m going! I’m going! I’m going! I’m going! … I’m hit,” he said. “I just got beat rather badly by a gang of thugs. I’m now in a marketplace near our hotel where people are cowering in buildings.” He paused. “I mean, these people are not screwing around. They’re going to clear that square, tonight, ahead of any protest, on Friday. The government clearly does not want this to get any bigger.”
Openly gay ABC News reporter Miguel Marquezgot caught up in and was beaten while covering the Egypt-inspired protests in Bahrain. While Miguels sexuality had nothing to do with this incident it should be noted that Bahrain is extremely intolerant to homosexuals and just last week 127 gay men were arrested at a “depraved and decadent” party Tweet
Russia and Egypt: An Interesting Sense of Outrage