July 18th, 2008
The United States has repealed their ban on HIV-positive visitors and immigrants yesterday as part of a larger bill designed to combat AIDS through research and education.
Since 1987, any HIV-positive, non-US citizen was disallowed into the country, even to visit. This bizarre policy was later codified by congress in 1993, requiring another act of congress to overturn it. Fifteen years later, that has finally happened.
The bill’s journey wasn’t without some strange twists of its own. Senator Elisabeth Dole attempted to amend the bill to be named after the late Jesse Helms, who originally introduced the traveler ban with horrific anti-gay sentiment. That motion was defeated, which is good. Otherwise who knows what wacky law names they’d have next? The Dick Cheney Firearm Prohibition Law… The DDT-Growth Hormone Food Safety Law…
July 16th, 2008
Italy’s Ministry of Transport has been found guilty of discrimination after they told a gay man that he must re-take his drivers test due to a “sexual identity disturbance.”
Danilo Giuffrida, a 26 year old from Catania, Italy, was told that if he didn’t take his drivers test a second time, his license would be revoked. After successfully passing the drivers test for a second time, Danilo’s license was renewed for one year instead of the ten years for heterosexuals.
Imagine that. I didn’t think my driving was so inherently dangerous. Though, really, if the Ministry of Transport wants to think that being gay is a disability, that’s not too bad of a trade-off for one of those parking tags.
July 14th, 2008
The Lambeth Conference meeting of Anglican bishops, a once-a-decade event in the worldwide Anglican community, has banned one of their own Bishops, Gene Robinson, from attending because he is gay.
Robinson is the first openly gay U.S. Episcopal bishop. While his appointment was controversial within the Anglican community, he is decidedly a bishop. His banning has prompted an appeal from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who called it a mistake to disinvite Robinson, and pleaded with the Anglican community to unite itself.
Conference organizers justified Robinson’s ban by saying his invitation would have become the focus of the event.
July 11th, 2008
Here’s a story that’s getting weirder: Guy Earle, the Toronto comedian who responded to some lesbian hecklers by going on a massive, anti-lesbian tirade and snapping one of their sunglasses in half is now facing a human rights complaint over the incident. He’s holding a benefit gala on the 19th to raise funds for a legal defense.
The evening of comedy includes several stand-up comedians, most notably Linda Ellis, a lesbian comic. (No, there’s no Michael Richards—but can you imagine?)
Now, I’ve previously slapped Mr. Earle for his bizarre and violent response to the hecklers, but I gotta say this human rights complaint won’t go very far. I’m not sure how much I can comment on the whole situation without having been there, but I’d have a really hard time dismissing the context of a late-night comedy club. Guy Earle was dumb and should feel ashamed for his personal attacks, but he’s a raunchy comedian and the complainants were hecklers. Surely they can see the irony in this.
Earle deserves serious denunciation, just not from the state. (Well, OK, maybe a teeny fine to replace the sunglasses. Finding a good pair is hard!)
July 9th, 2008
Canada is all set to deport Jane Okojie, a bisexual Nigerian woman, because the Immigration and Refugee Board did not believe that her sexuality would be an issue in her home country. Homosexuality is illegal in Nigeria, and those suspected of being gay can be jailed or worse.
Jane said that she is terrified, claiming that she was already detained in Nigeria after authorities discovered she was bisexual:
In Nigeria things are very bad for lesbians and gay people. If you are a bisexual or lesbian or gay you can be stoned to death and you can be sentenced to prison for many many years. The government doesn’t care.
Since arriving in Canada, Jane has given birth to a daughter who is now 18 months old. If deported, Jane will have to bring her daughter out of the country as well.
Canada has an atrocious record of deporting gay refugees to countries where homosexuality is illegal. While Jane has been granted a temporary stay due to the removal of her immigration lawyer, the Immigration and Refugee Board has already refused Jane’s refugee status and has rejected a stay based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
July 7th, 2008
The Court Challenges Program, a means to ensure that unconstitutional laws could be challenged by those who otherwise couldn’t afford it, was scrapped by the Federal Tories in 2006. The program, which cost a pittance, was cut largely due to lobbying from anti-gay groups who were angry that the program was helping to strike down laws that illegally infringed upon gay rights.
Due to an out-of-court settlement with the Federation de Communautes Francophone et Acadienne du Canada, the program appears to be making a comeback. Sadly, it’s not without some major changes to fit in with the ideological reasons why the program was cut in the first place.
The first change is the name: It’s now called the Program to Support Linguistic Rights. The second change is exactly what the name implies: It’s exclusively to support linguistic rights, and not the rights of everyone. This means that there still will not be a way to challenge illegal laws that infringe upon minority rights without having deep pockets.
Helen Kennedy, a spokesperson for the gay rights group Egale, expressed disappointment in the replacement:
[The Tories] are ranking minorities. How do you place precedence of one group over another?
This is really a problem and I think that we’ve seen a slow, subtle erosion of LGBT rights since the Tories came to power. This is a very subtle way of denying us access to the justice system.
In 2007, opposition leader Stephen Dion vowed to ressurrect the Court Challenges Program as it existed before it was cut.
