“NewsWrap"
for the week ending April 18, 2009
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,099, distributed 4-20-09)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley]


Reported this week by DonnaAnn Ward and Christopher Gaal


  Jamaica’s major LGBT civil rights group � and an expatrriate former leader � are criticizing calls on both U.S. coasts for gay peoplee to boycott the island nation and its products.
A group in New York City led by activist Wayne Besen launched a boycott of Jamaica this week at the Stonewall Inn - birthplace of the modern day LGBT rights movement.  Jamaican-made Red Stripe beer and Myers’ Rum were dumped into the sewer.
A similar action was held in San Francisco, led by activist/blogger Michael Petrelis and Supervisor Bevan Duffy.  The actions on each coast protested the high rate of violence against LGBT people in the Caribbean nation � fueled by several so-called dancehall singerss whose music celebrates killing gays � and the government’s failuure to address the problem.


  But in Kingston, the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians All-Sexuals and Gays, or J-FLAG, issued a statement this week asking why the U.S. activists had not consulted with them first.  The group said that a boycott “is not the most appropriate response at this time... In our battle to win hearts and minds,” the statement continued, “we do not wish to be perceived as taking food off the plate of those who are already impoverished.  In fact, members of our own community could be disproportionately affected...”
Program manager Jason McFarlane, who signed the statement, called the boycott against Red Stripe beer, in particular, “misguided.”  He said that the company that markets Red Stripe stopped sponsoring questionable music festivals last year, and "unequivocally distanced itself from the hostility and violence typical of Jamaican music towards members of the LGBT community."


  Gareth Henry, a former J-FLAG leader who fled to Canada in fear for his life, supported the idea of a boycott in his adopted country last year.  But he said he decided against such an effort after hearing from colleagues on the island.  He criticized Petrelis for using his since-recanted words in promoting the boycott, calling it “outrageous and counter productive.”
Petrelis told the “Bay Area Reporter” that he had reached out to Jamaican gays, but that “the dialogue was very limited.”


  Consensual adult same-gender sexual activity is punishable by up to 7 years in prison under a Jamaican law dating back to British colonial rule.  The current government has flatly refused to consider its repeal.
J-FLAG says that more than 30 gay men, and at least 2 lesbians, have been murdered on the island since 1997.  In most of the
cases the killers have never been brought to trial.  One man is currently serving a life sentence for the notoriously brutal murder of J-FLAG leader Brian Williamson in 2004.
Some global human rights groups have called Jamaica the most homophobic country in the world.


  Iraq may be challenging that dubious title.  As we reported last week, at least 25 young men and boys suspected of being gay have been brutally murdered during the past 2 months in Sadr City, the slum neighborhood of Baghdad.  A “BBC” report this week puts the number at more than 60 since December.  Some had the word “pervert” written on their chests.  The killings are being attributed to death squads encouraged by anti-gay rhetoric of local Shiite religious leaders, and “honor killings” by family members ashamed of the victims’ perceived sexual orientation.  Murders have also been reported in Basra, Najaf and Karbala.


  In what appears to be an escalation of organized anti-gay actions in the area, signs posted around Sadr City this week by a group calling itself the Brigades of the Righteous listed alleged homosexuals by name and threatened to kill them.  According to a report by “Agence France Press,” the posters say "We will punish you, perverts."  Residents said that those named on the list have gone into hiding.


  Amnesty International wrote to Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki this week demanding “urgent and concerted action” by his government to stop the wave of killings.
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission sent a letter to the Iraqi Minister of Human Rights, Wijdan Salim, asking her to take “specific measures to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Iraqis and prevent hate crimes against those perceived to be gay.”
The Iraqi government has thus far failed to respond to the appeals or take any visible action to combat the violence.


  Elsewhere, the 13th annual National Day of Silence was observed by hundreds of thousands of students across the U.S. on April 17th.  Young people from more than 6,000 middle schools, high schools and colleges registered as participants this year.  They refuse to speak, but hand out information explaining that they are in solidarity with LGBT people forced into silence because of bullying and other forms of anti-queer harassment on campus.
It was sadly ironic that the date of this year’s Day of Silence coincided with what would have been the 12th birthday of Massachusetts youngster Carl Walker-Hoover.  While he hadn’t identified as gay � and it would be somewhat unusual for someone that young to do so � thee sixth grader hanged himself last week after suffering months of homophobic abuse at school.  According to GLSEN � the Gay, Lesbiann and Straight Education20Network, which sponsors the Day of Silence �� it was at least the fourth suicide of a middle school-aged child linked to bullying.
The parents of an Ohio high school student sued school officials earlier this month in connection with their bullied son’s suicide.  
17-year-old Eric Mohat came home from classes one day in March of 2007, put a gun to his head, and pulled the trigger.  In a federal lawsuit, his parents allege that he regularly “was called ‘gay,’ ‘fag,’ ‘queer’ and ‘homo’,” and that the school did nothing to stop the abuse.


  GLSEN says that nine out of ten students perceived to be LGBT experience bullying on campus.  More than a third reported missing at least one day of school in the previous month out of fear for their personal safety.
Rightwing Christian groups, including the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, and the Liberty Council called on parents to keep their children out of school on the Day of Silence.  In a joint statement, they said “the implicit purpose” of the event was “to undermine the belief that homosexuality is immoral.”
But U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan acknowledged the Day of Silence on the day of the event in a broader statement about student safety.  “Today, many Americans will honor the Day of Silence, called for on behalf of victims=2
0of harassment and bullying around issues of sexual orientation, including a recent suicide who would have turned 12 today,” he wrote.  “[W]e must all acknowledge our collective role and responsibility in preventing student deaths and ensuring that our schools and universities remain safe havens of learning.”


  In other U.S. news, a bill to expand the rights of same-gender couples under an existing domestic partnership law in the state of Washington easily passed the House this week.  It would give registered same-gender domestic partners all the state rights and benefits of married couples.  The Senate approved the measure by a wide margin in March, and Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire has said she’ll sign it into law.
The bill expands on 2007 legislation to specifically reference domestic partnerships in all remaining areas of state law where marriages are mentioned, including labor, employment rights, pensions, and public employee benefits.


  The Maryland General Assembly this week approved a measure that will exempt registered same-gender domestic partners who co-own a home from paying state inheritance tax when property changes hands.
Current state law exempts spouses, children, parents, siblings, grandparents, stepchildren or stepparents from paying state inheritance tax when property changes hands. All others pay a 10 percent tax on the property's value.  The measure, which had already passed the Maryland Senate by a comfortable margin, adds domestic partners to the list of exemptions.  Democratic Governor Martin O’Malley has said he intends to sign it.


  But Nevada’s Republican Governor Jim Gibbons has vowed to veto a domestic partnership measure that would grant some marriage-like rights to same-gender couples.  A bill to do that was introduced this week in the Nevada legislature.  Gibbons told the “Las Vegas Review-Journal” that “I just don’t believe in it.”
The bill’s fate in the legislature is uncertain.  Nevada voted for Barack Obama in the last presidential election.  But the state remains mostly rural and conservative.


  On the heels of marriage equality being established in Iowa by its Supreme Court and in Vermont by the state legislature, New York’s Democratic Governor David Paterson introduced a marriage equality bill this week.  It mirrors legislation that passed the Democrat-controlled state House in 2007, only to languish in the Senate, then controlled by the Republicans.  But the November elections gave Democrats control of both legislative bodies.  New Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith re-affirmed his support for the legislation, but said he wants to be sure there are enough votes to pass it before bringing the bill up for debate.


  And finally, a new U.S. national gay Republican group has been formed by defectors who
think the Log Cabin Republicans � the country’s original gay GOP group � has become too liberal.
Among the founders of GOProud � “G-O-P-R-O-U-D”  � is former Log Cabin Political Director Christopher Barron.  He told “Politico.com” that "Log Cabin ... is basically indistinguishable from any other gay left organization... If your main issue is hate crimes or (discrimination protections) or marriage, you're probably not a Republican."