At 11:30 this morning, in another blow to the rightwing’s power, the Connecticut Supreme Court struck down a law banning same-sex marriage, ruling the state had “failed to establish adequate reason to justify the statutory ban.” Connecticut joins California and Massachusetts, becoming the third state in the nation to establish marriage equality for same-sex couples. Like in the two other states, out-of-state couples will be allowed to marry in Connecticut. You can read the decision here: ELIZABETH KERRIGAN ET AL. v. COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC HEALTH ET AL. (PDF File)

The Advocate reports:

“Oral arguments for the case took place in May of 2007. “Separate institutions for different classes of citizens are now unheard of anywhere in American jurisprudence,” GLAD senior attorney Ben Klein told the high court.  “Our history has taught us that separation serves no other purpose than to mark a class of citizens as inferior.””

Matt Coles, Director of the ACLU’s LGBT Project:

“We won the marriage case in California. No need for hyperbole here; this is big.

Simply having the California Supreme Court say that constitutional principles demand that marriage be open to same-sex couples is an enormous win. This Court has a remarkable history of leadership on civil rights and civil liberties. It made landmark decisions on race and sex discrimination, on freedom of speech and privacy, and on treatment of the disabled and poor people long before the U.S. Supreme Court. No court in America has more authority to say that marriage for same-sex couples is an issue of basic freedom than this one.

And as the New York Times recently pointed out, the California Supreme Court is the most influential state high court in America. If you’d like to read it, here’s the decision. The case was brought by the ACLU, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal and the City of San Francisco. The decision is 4 to 3.

Marriage in California will transform the discussion of marriage nationwide. California has one of the largest economies in the world. Given the state’s economic clout, the fact that California is marrying same-sex couples will put considerable pressure on the rest of the country to recognize those marriages.

Even more important, the rest of the country recognizes that California is America’s cultural trendsetter, that cultural change in California is usually a preview of what is to come in the rest of the United States. Most Americans already believe that marriage for same-sex couples is bound to happen sooner or later. I think marriage in California will help persuade many of them that this is an issue of basic fairness, and that the time for it is now.

This was a prize of inestimable value.

Now, of course, we have to hold on to it. It appears fairly certain that anti-gay forces have gotten enough signatures to put on the November ballot an initiative that would amend the state Constitution and overrule the decision.

That initiative is scary. We lost a different vote on marriage only eight years ago. And our opponents, recognizing that marriage in California is a great prize, will fight with all their might. They’ll put everything they have into this. Which means that to win, we’ll have to raise a great deal of money and run a very smart campaign.

While we can’t discount how difficult and nerve-wracking it will be to fight the initiative, we can win. If ever a state was well prepared for a vote on marriage, it is California. LGBT rights work has been going on there since the 50s, and we’ve been establishing rights for same-sex couples since the 80s.

And we can’t forget how much greater the prize will be if we win. If we win the initiative, marriage in California will have a popular stamp of approval. No more will our opponents be able to call marriage the child of “activist judges” or out-of-control local officials. The court has given us the chance to win marriage for ourselves, and push the fight for full equality ahead by years. We’ve got to rise to meet that challenge.

But let’s not dwell on that today. For today, let’s just revel in one of the greatest wins in our history.

How sweet it is. — Matt”

There are no words to describe this travesty. I’ll try to post more when I find it:

Sunday, March 9th, 2008
Gay Iranian Refugee, EveryOne Group: “United Kingdom is a Danger for all Refugees”, Report will be presented in Europe.
The UK Home Office: ” Gay People can return to Iran, if they’re ‘Discreet’ ”

In an article published on Friday March 7th 2008, in the The Independent, Simon Hughes, leader of the Liberal Democrats and the party’s Shadow Leader in the House of Commons, stated: “The Home Office claims that a gay person can return to Iran and avoid persecution by being “discreet”. All advice suggests that in Iran, to be discreet means that you would have to deny your identity. The punishment for giving in to personal feelings might well be nothing less than torture or death”.

The same theory had was pointed out by the members of the NNRF (Nottingham and Notts Refugee Forum) years ago: “The Home Office claims that if a gay person is less obvious about being gay or lesbian they won’t attract the attention of their persecutors,” writes Richard McCance on the refugees’ association’s website.

The EveryOne Group, that, since its launch, has promoted, along with the Non-Violent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty, and the Nessuno Tocchi Caino and Certi Diritti associations, a campaign in support of its member Seyed Mehdi Kazemi, is going to present a written deposition to the European Union objecting to the UK Home Office’s behaviour towards refugees claiming asylum.

“Mehdi absolutely has to stay in the Netherlands. It has been shown that the United Kingdom operates an out-and-out persecutory policy towards refugees, especially homosexuals” affirm the EveryOne Group’s leaders Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and Dario Picciau. “The Home Office’s statements are serious, and contrary to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is to be hoped that European Authorities urgently intervene in this situation”.

“In 2004, a 29-year-old Zimbabwean, Thando Dube, was at death’s door, following a 33-day hunger strike in a UK detention camp. Her crime? Thando was a lesbian who fled to Britain to escape the well-known persecution of LGBT people in Zimbabwe. “Her asylum claim was refused,” it’s written in the EveryOne Group’s report. “In September 2003, Israfil Shiri, a gay Iranian asylum seeker, died after pouring petrol over himself and setting himself on fire in the offices of Refugee Action in Manchester, after his asylum claim was refused (in the lower and appeal court) and his deportation to Iran, where he would-have-been hanged, had been arranged. In April 2005, 26-year-old Hussein Nasseri shot himself two weeks after his asylum claim was turned down by the Home Office, refusing in this way to let himself be killed by Iranian executioners”.

However, according to the EveryOne Group not only homosexuals suffered from the British Government’s indifference: Burhan Namig, born in 1980, was deported on September 5th 2006 from the United Kingdom - where his asylum claim had been refused because “not at sea” - to Kurdistan, despite falling into a deep depression and attempting suicide. On arrival in Kurdistan, Burhan had a heart attack, as a result of the inhuman treatment received in a British detention centre. In February 2007, at least two Iraqi Kurds were deported in secret from United Kingdom to the North of Iraq on a military plane carrying medicines and other humanitarian supplies, this despite the ongoing violence in Iraq, after American military actions, and despite the Kurdish region in Northern Iraq being subject to continuous terrorist attacks and serious human rights abuses. “We take a robust approach to people who are here illegally” a Home Office spokesperson told IRR (Independent Race and Refugee News Network) last year.

The latest case is that of Ama Sumani, a 39-year-old Ghanaian woman, studying in the UK, who was diagnosed with a malignant tumour that couldn’t be treated in Ghanaian hospitals. Her asylum claim was refused by the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and the woman was removed, against her will, on January 9th 2008, from University Hospital, Cardiff, in a wheelchair, and repatriated. According to the Home Office, this was all carried out with “politeness and dignity”.

“All this demonstrates how the United Kingdom’s and its Home Office’s behaviour represent a danger for all refugees, all the more so for those such as Mehdi Kazemi or the Iranian lesbian Pegah Emambakshs, who face capital punishment because of their homosexuality” conclude Malini, Pegoraro and Picciau. “We ask the Dutch Authorities to immediately grant Mehdi refugee status, to avoid another life being destroyed because of the demonstrable and incontrovertible attitude of the UK to violating refugees’ rights. Finally, we ask the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to look out for the rights of refugees currently in the United Kingdom, who come from nations where they risk persecution, in order to prevent any abuse, violation and/or unjust deportation”.

Il Regno Unito è un pericolo per i rifugiati.
COMUNICATO STAMPA
10 marzo 2008
Rifugiato gay iraniano, Gruppo EveryOne: “Il Regno Unito è un pericolo per i rifugiati”. Un rapporto di denuncia sarà presentato in Europa.
L’Home Office UK: “Un gay in Iran può tornare, basta che sia ‘discreto’”

In un articolo apparso venerdì 7 marzo sul quotidiano “The Independent”, Simon Hughes, presidente dei Liberal Democratici e braccio destro del leader della Camera dei Comuni, ha affermato: “L’Home Office sostiene che una persona omosessuale può tornare in Iran ed evitare la persecuzione rimanendo ‘discreta’. Peccato che in Iran essere discreti significhi rinnegare la propria identità. La punizione per chi non riesca a rinnegare se stesso non è nient’altro che la tortura o la morte”.

La stessa tesi era stata già denunciata dai membri del NNRF (Nottingham and Notts Refugee Forum) anni or sono: “L’Home Office dichiara che se una persona omosessuale sarà meno visibile nell’essere gay o lesbica non attirerà l’attenzione dei persecutori” scrive Richard McCance nel sito web dell’associazione di rifugiati.

Il Gruppo EveryOne, che dall’inizio ha promosso, con la collaborazione del Partito Radicale Transnazionale, Nonviolento e Transpartito e delle associazioni Nessuno Tocchi Caino e Certi Diritti, la campagna per la vita del suo membro Seyed Mehdi Kazemi, depositerà in settimana in Unione Europea un rapporto di denuncia del comportamento dell’Home Office del Regno Unito nei confronti dei rifugiati richiedenti asilo.

“Mehdi deve assolutamente rimanere in Olanda. E’ provato che il Regno Unito porta avanti una vera e propria politica persecutoria nei confronti dei rifugiati, specie se omosessuali” dichiarano i leader del Gruppo EveryOne Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro e Dario Picciau. “Le affermazioni dell’Home Office sono gravissime, e contrastano con la Dichiarazione Universale dei Diritti Umani. E’ auspicabile un urgente intervento degli organismi europei al riguardo.”

“Nel 2004 una ventinovenne dello Zimbabwe, Thando Dube, stava per morire dopo 33 giorni di sciopero della fame in un centro di detenzione del Regno Unito. La sua colpa? Essere lesbica, cosa che l’aveva indotta a fuggire nel Regno Unito con la speranza di evitare la persecuzione in Patria. Anche a lei l’asilo è stato rifiutato” si legge all’interno del rapporto del Gruppo EveryOne. “Nel settembre del 2003 il 29enne omosessuale Israfil Shiri si è dato fuoco negli uffici dell’immigrazione di Manchester, dopo che gli era stato negato l’asilo come rifugiato omosessuale (sia in primo grado che in appello) ed era stata fissata la deportazione in Iran, dove lo attendeva l’impiccagione. L’anno dopo, nell’aprile 2005, il 26enne gay Hussein Nasseri si è sparato due settimane dopo che l’asilo gli era stato rifiutato dall’Home Office, rifiutandosi così di cadere nelle mani dei boia iraniani”.

Ma secondo il Gruppo EveryOne non sono solo gli omosessuali a fare le spese dell’indifferenza del Governo Britannico: Burhan Namig, classe 1980, è stato deportato il 5 setttembre 2006 dal Regno Unito – dove gli era stato negato l’asilo perché “non a rischio” – verso il Kurdistan, nonostante versasse in grave crisi depressiva e avesse minacciato il suicidio. Arrivato in Kurdistan, Burhan ha avuto un attacco di cuore, conseguente al trattamento disumano ricevuto in un centro di detenzione britannico. Nel febbraio 2007, almeno due curdi iracheni sono stati deportati dal Regno Unito al nord dell’Iraq di nascosto, su un aereo militare contenente medicine e altri aiuti umanitari. Questo nonostante l’escalation di violenza in corso Iraq, in seguito all’intervento americano, e nonostante la regione curda del nord del Paese sia soggetta a continui attacchi terroristici così come a pesanti abusi dei diritti umani. “Teniamo una linea dura con le persone che sono presenti illegalmente sul nostro territorio” ha detto l’anno scorso un funzionario dell’Home Office UK in risposta ad alcune domande dell’IRR (Indepedent Race and Refugee News Network).

Ultimo il recente caso di Ama Sumani, 39enne ghanese trasferitasi per motivi di studio nel Regno Unito, dove le era stato diagnosticato un mieloma maligno per cui necessitava di continue cure ospedaliere non sostenibili nel suo Paese d’origine. L’asilo le è stato rifiutato dall’Home Office Secretary Jacqui Smith e la donna è stata prelevata di forza, il 9 gennaio 2008, dall’ospedale universitario di Cardiff, in sedia a rotelle, e rimpatriata in Ghana. Secondo l’Home Office, ciò è avvenuto “con cortesia e dignità”.

“Tutto questo dimostra quanto il Regno Unito e il comportamento del suo Home Office siano pericolosi nei confronti di tutti i rifugiati, a maggior ragione per coloro che, come Mehdi Kazemi o la lesbica iraniana Pegah Emambakhsh, sono attesi in Patria dalle peggiori torture e dalla pena capitale per la propria omosessualità” concludono Malini, Pegoraro e Picciau. “Chiediamo all’Olanda di concedere a Mehdi l’immediato status di rifugiato, al fine di evitare che un’altra vita si spezzi a causa della documentata e pervicace attitudine a violare i diritti dei profughi che è ormai caratteristica di un Paese europeo come il Regno Unito. Chiediamo infine che l’Alto Commissariato ONU per i Rifugiati vigili sui diritti dei profughi che si trovano attualmente sul territorio del Regno Unito e provengono da nazioni in cui rischiano di essere perseguitati, affinché si interrompa la catena di violazioni e di inique deportazioni”.

A funny parody about how absurd it would be if the tables were turned! Hypocrisy is often easily exposed by shiftly switching the parties to the conflict in the rhetoric and seeing if it makes any sense at all. As someone who was raised Christian, I know that progressively minded religious and spiritual folks often greatly outnumber the small, isolated, yet vocal groups of intolerant bigots. We need to elevate those moral voices and drown out the bigoted ones!