Netherlands: Gay Refugees Face Death Threats, Abuse In Netherlands

The Dutch parliament is calling on the country’s government to offer emergency housing for gay refugees, who for months have been subject to death threats, intimidation and other forms of harassment at temporary shelters, LGBT activists say.

Members of parliament voted in favor of a motion earlier this week, requesting that the government “provide the possibility of separate and safe housing for LGBT and other vulnerable groups, if noted that their security can’t be guaranteed."

Philip Tijsma, public affairs manager at an LGBT rights organization called COC Netherlands, called the motion a breakthrough. It calls for exactly what the refugees facing abuse asked for: a safe place: “What’s the use of having a roof over your head if you’re too afraid to leave your room because of all the bullying and harassment?”

Here’s a look at some of the numbers behind the violence gay refugees face as they seek safety in the Netherlands. Read more via Vocativ 

North Korea: Meet the asylum seeker who learned what homosexuality is, and came out as gay

A gay defector from North Korea has revealed he had no idea what homosexuality was until he left the country. The reclusive Asian country is renowned for its secrecy, warmongering, and the oppressive rule of the Kim dynasty, currently headed by 33-year-old Kim Jong-un, who claims to have cured AIDS and hangovers.

Given the country’s appalling human rights abuses, LGBT rights are seldom on the radar – but the country’s officials are no stranger to homophobia, hitting out at the gay man heading a UN human rights panel as a “disgusting old lecher” in 2014.

North Korean citizen Jang Yeong-jin had never even heard of homosexuality, and was confused to find he “felt no sexual attraction” to his wife. It was only after escaping the country and fleeing to South Korea that he realised he was gay – and came to terms with who he is. Jang, who has recently written a memoir, A Mark of Red Honour, opened up about his experiences in an interview with the European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea (EAHRNK)  

Read more via PinkNews
 

Peru: Police use water cannons against LGBT activists

Peruvian police used water cannons against a group of activists who staged an LGBT rights protest. More than two dozen people gathered in Lima’s Plaza de Armas to take part in the protest that was described as “kisses against homophobia.” Sin Etiquetas, a Lima-based LGBT website, posted pictures to its website that show same-sex couples kissing and holding hands in the street with armored police trucks in the background. Other pictures show officers confronting the protesters. 

George Liendo of Promsex, a Peruvian LGBT rights group, said that that authorities have banned protests of “any kind” in the square. Although religious processions, cultural events and other demonstrations routinely take place without incident. “They (the police) are obligated to protect the LGBTI community, as it is a population that is particularly susceptible to violence,” said Liendo. Read more via Washington Blade

Germany: LGBT groups plan shelters for gay refugees amid attacks

The Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany (LSVD) says several incidents of discrimination and physical assaults against gay refugees have been reported in the past year. "Berlin officials identified 95 cases in the German capital alone between August and December 2015, mainly in refugee homes," Markus Ulrich from the LSVD told NBC News.

Now LGBT communities in Berlin, Nuremberg and other major cities are now planning to set up special shelters exclusively for gay and lesbian refugees. "We have been alerted to a growing number of insults and violent acts against queer refugees, including cases of rape," Marcel de Groot, manager of Berlin's gay counselling centre, Schwulenberatung, said.

The support organization estimates that "between 5 and 10 percent of the 70,000 refugees that arrived in Berlin last year were gay, lesbian or transsexual," he added. Schwulenberatung has had to find emergency accommodation for up to 70 people, mostly gay men, in private Berlin homes because "they had strong fears in the refugee shelters or became victims of attacks," de Groot said.

Social workers and volunteers believe that the estimated number of unreported cases could be even higher. "Many homosexual refugees do not trust police," said de Groot, because authorities in their home counties "often persecute them for their sexual orientation." Read more via NBC

Austria: Government issues cartoons, behavior guides to ‘explain’ gay people to refugees

The Austrian government is issuing a cartoon guide to refugees to explain Western views of homosexuality and consent. The country’s interior ministry started drawing up the leaflets following mass sexual assaults in Cologne, Germany, over the New Year.

Amid allegations that some of the men involved in the attacks were refugees, the country has drawn up the leaflets to introduce ‘Western values’ to those fleeing the Syrian conflict. A cartoon graphic from the leaflets features two men kissing and two women kissing with a big green tick. A picture of a man groping a woman has a red cross through it.  Read more via PinkNews 

Netherlands: Gay Syrian refugee's hope of new life tested by Dutch camps

Omar had long dreamt of escaping discrimination in Syria, and drawn by exuberant images of the Gay Pride march in Amsterdam he hoped to find a new life in the Dutch city after fleeing war at home. But four months after arriving in the Netherlands, the 20-year-old was shocked to find himself the victim of insults, taunts and intimidation from his fellow travelling companions.

"Coming to the Netherlands, which is the country of freedom and expressing yourself, and being bullied there as a gay person, it was completely crazy," he said.

He is among more than 54,000 refugees who made it to the Netherlands in 2015, crossing by boat to Greece and then flying to Holland in September on a fake Spanish passport. "It was surprising that those people, after making a long journey, tiring journey, after they get there, they’re still capable of bullying and harassing me," he said.

Omar's experience has not been unique, as gay refugees have found themselves caught between the conservative cultural outlook of refugee families, and the more tolerant Dutch attitude.  Read more via AFP 

Turkey: Meet three LGBT Syrian refugees who fled ISIS brutality

Millions of people have fled Syria due to the civil war, the rise of the Islamic State’s self-styled caliphate and the brutality of the Assad regime, desperate to escape regime barrel bombs, Islamic State sadism and persecution by other intolerant, hardline groups. And for Syria’s LGBT citizens, the threat of violence within ISIS-controlled regions is even greater.

Under ISIS rule, even those simply suspected of being gay have been publicly tortured and executed. The Islamic State’s penal code for those accused of engaging in sodomy dictates death is the penalty “for both the receiver and the giver,” Vocativ deep web analysts have found.

Even before the horrors of the Islamic State’s persecution of gays became a daily reality, Syrians were largely intolerant of any variation on “traditional” sexuality. In addition to being abused at home, Louay says he faced dangers on the street in his home city.

“I grew up with this curly blond hair and green eyes … I was the cutie in my family,” he says. By the time he was a teenager, when he could no longer conceal his sexual orientation, his looks and demeanor made him the subject of ridicule and beatings. He was also accused of being a “prostitute,” he says. “My life was in danger.”   Read more via Vocativ

Italy: Poor turnout for Rome anti-gay union protest

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Rome's Circus Maximus arena to protest against a civil unions bill for same-sex couples, a hot-potato issue for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government.

But while organisers had been hoping to attract one million people and authorities had prepared for 500,000, journalists at the scene estimated the numbers to be in the tens of thousands. Official numbers were not immediately available.
   
"Without limits, our society will go mad!" organiser Massimo Gandolfini told the "Family Day" rally, as grandparents, parents and children held up banners reading "Wrong is wrong" in the capital's ancient Roman chariot racing stadium.  

 Read more via The Local
 

Italy: Thousands march for gay rights

A bill, which the Senate will start examining on Thursday, is the first to get to parliament. If approved, the draft legislation will enable same-sex couples to commit themselves to one another before a state official, to take each other's names and, in certain circumstances, adopt each other's children and inherit each other's residual pension rights.

"The first time I marched with these slogans, it was 10 years ago, and I was pregnant. I hope this time it works," said bank worker Costanza Tantillo, who joined the Rome protest with her partner and their two children, nine-year-old Beatrice and Ludovico, four.

Two women who marched nearby held up a sign that read: "Stella and Paola, we've been together for 30 years and you still don't acknowledge us." Protests had been planned for 90 towns and cities across Italy, under the slogan "Wake up Italy! It's time to be civil."  Read more via The Local 

Australia: These are the queer refugees the government has locked up on a remote pacific island

Mohsen is one of more than 1,300 asylum seekers that Australia has sent, since 2012, to what is called the Manus Island detention center. It’s a facility for single men and teenage boys; several hundred women and families are being detained 1,300 miles to the east on the island nation of Nauru. They were all captured at sea while trying to reach Australia by boat from Indonesia, under a policy that even the UN secretary general has personally pleaded with the Australia’s prime minister to bring to an end.

Canberra calls this the “Pacific Solution” to the problem of people attempting to get to Australia by boat. Those it cannot force back into international waters it holds in camps outside its borders in an attempt to prevent them from asserting the right to asylum on its territory.

There’s an added fear for queer asylum seekers like Mohsen. They worry about being targeted by others in the camp, who are mostly from Iran and other countries where homosexuality is criminalized, including Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. They also are afraid of Papua New Guinea’s police force because the country’s laws punish homosexuality with up to 14 years in prison. “This place is no better than Iran,” Mohsen said. “I wish I had died on that boat 100 times a day.” 

Read more via Buzzfeed

 

SA: Community to march over horror murder of lesbian matriculant

The horrific murder of a young lesbian woman who had just passed matric has left the LGBTI community in the Vaal Triangle up in arms. Cedric Davids, from the Young Communists’ League, said the body of Motshidisi Pascalina was discovered in an open field near her home on 18 December.

According to Davids, who spoke to Pascalina’s mother, the young woman suffered brutal injuries and disfigurement: “They tied her up – her neck and arm were tied up. They removed her eyes, breasts and vagina and set her alight,” he said. “She had just matriculated last year,” Davids added.

The YCL, together with activists from Vaal LGBTI, are holding a march to the Mafatsana Police Station to protest against crimes against LGBTI people and the perceived inaction by the local authorities.

“This is not the first crime reported against the LGBTI in the area. There are also two rape cases which have not seen the perpetrators being brought to book,” said Davids. “We are not going to allow people to harm other females because of their gender identity and sexual expression.” Read more via Mamba Online