جريدة الراي - محليات - ابتهال الخطيب لـ «الراي» رداً على «زوبعة» الانتقادات: هذا ما قصدته بزواج المثليين... ومفاخذة الرضيعة! - - 08/02/2010

جريدة الراي - محليات - ابتهال الخطيب لـ «الراي» رداً على «زوبعة» الانتقادات: هذا ما قصدته بزواج المثليين... ومفاخذة الرضيعة! - - 08/02/2010

«حلم» بوقف التمييز العلمي ضدّ المثليّة الجنسيّة | جريدة الأخبار

«حلم» بوقف التمييز العلمي ضدّ المثليّة الجنسيّة | جريدة الأخبار

الناشطة الكويتية ابتهال الخطيب مع اعطاء المثليين حقوقهم وتؤيد المواقع الإباحية! | وطن

الناشطة الكويتية ابتهال الخطيب مع اعطاء المثليين حقوقهم وتؤيد المواقع الإباحية! | وطن

البنتاجون يتخذ خطوات جديدة بشأن خدمة المثليين في الجيش | أخبار عالمية | Reuters

البنتاجون يتخذ خطوات جديدة بشأن خدمة المثليين في الجيش | أخبار عالمية | Reuters

Man beaten by sheikh sues Swiss

A man who claims he was whipped by a UAE sheikh is taking Switzerland to the European Court of Human Rights after Swiss courts acquitted his attacker.

Silvano Orsi says Sheikh Falah al-Nahyan used a belt to beat him after he rejected a gift of a bottle of champagne at a hotel in Geneva in 2003.

He was initially convicted of actual bodily harm, but was acquitted by Switzerland's highest court last month.

Mr Orsi says the later ruling infringed his human rights and was a cover-up.

Last year, Sheikh Falah, the brother of UAE President and Abu Dhabi ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, was found guilty of the attack on Mr Orsi at the La Reserve hotel and ordered to pay a fine of 10,000 Swiss francs (£4,930, $9,820).

But in October, his lawyers successfully argued at the Swiss Federal Tribunal that under Swiss law the offence of actual bodily harm could only be proved if it was carried out with a "dangerous object".

The metal-buckled belt their client used to whip Mr Orsi did not qualify and so the conviction was overturned, Mr Orsi said.

At the time of the incident it was reported that Sheikh Falah's lawyers had said it happened because their client was offended by Mr Orsi's suggestion that the champagne was a sexual advance.

Mr Orsi, a US citizen, argues that the Federal Tribunal's verdict breached his human rights, guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights, which Switzerland has ratified.

He says that he was the victim of global politics, because neither the US or Swiss governments wanted to annoy the United Arab Emirates.

"They are demonstrating their apparent willingness to ignore my human rights as an American in order to protect the newly proposed US-UAE 123 nuclear technology agreement that is currently before the US Congress," Mr Orsi told the BBC.

Sheikh Falah could not immediately be reached for comment. He has maintained his innocence in the past.

حلم تنتفض ضد السياحة في إسرائيل العنصرية

في حرب تموز 2006 فتحت جمعية «حلم» اللبنانية المعنية بالدفاع عن حقوق المثليين والمثليات أبواب مقرها لاستقبال النازحين إلى بيروت من المناطق التي قصفها الطيران الإسرائيلي. ولم يتوانَ الشباب الناشطون في الجمعية عن المساعدة في أعمال الإغاثة طيلة فترة الحرب. هكذا تحوّلت الجمعية وشبابها إلى الدفاع عن كلّ تمييز أينما كان. ومن هنا جاء استنكار الجمعية لإقامة رابطة شركات السفر الدولية للمثليين والمثليات مؤتمراً من أجل تعزيز السياحة الترفيهية الخاصة بالمثليين في تل أبيب، الشهر المقبل.

وقالت حلم في بيان لها إنّ النضال من أجل حقوق المثليين يقع في صُلب النضال من أجل حقوق الإنسان، ولذلك فإنّه من غير المقبول أن يقام المؤتمر في دولة تنتهك بممارساتها العنصرية والعدائية حقوق السكّان الأصليين، وطالب البيان بإلغاء المؤتمر وكل النشاطات المتعلقة بالترويج للسياحة في «إسرائيل الفصل العنصري».

واعتبرت «حلم» أنّ حقوق الإنسان مترابطة ترابطاً وثيقاً وأي انتهاك لحق منها «هو انتهاك لحقوقنا جميعاً». وأضاف البيان أنّ الاحتلال الإسرائيلي للأراضي الفلسطينية يمارس أشد أنواع القمع بحق الفلسطينيين. واعتبر أنّ انخراط المثليين والمثليات في لبنان في حملة الإغاثة في حرب 2006 وفّر لها زخماً كبيراً، معززاً فرص نجاحها بالوصول إلى مجتمع خال من التمييز، «وهذا هو المثال الذي نتوقّع أن تعطيه منظمات المثليين والمثليات حول العالم، لا أن تتحوّل إلى بوق لنظام عنصري ودولة استعمارية».

Transgender belly dancer helps launch Arab gay initiative in Sweden

Dressed in a flashy black belly-dancing outfit, Nancy is a hobby transgender dancer from Iraq, ready to take to the stage with full make-up and skinny high heels. She is preparing to entertain more than 200 other Arab gays, lesbians and transgender people in Stockholm, Sweden.

The setting is the Stockholm headquarters of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL). The occasion is the launch of Arab Initiative, the first Arab LGBT rights group in Europe.

Nancy has been in Sweden six years now. She lives with her Iraqi family in a Stockholm suburb and hides her preferred gender identity and hobby from her family.

“I was a hobby trans even back in Iraq. I believe most of my friends back then were bisexuals, they just refused to admit it, even if I had a relationship with them,” Nancy says, as she keeps watch of the entrance to the RFSL party premises.

She lets a fellow Iraqi in, and kisses him on both cheeks. Turning around, Nancy says her family would never accept her lifestyle and explains how she has to stay out with other Iraqi friends when she’s in town dressed up as the person she prefers to be.

“However, people here are more open to accepting a transgender belly dancer than in the Middle East.”

Ali, who started the Arab Initiative, takes some time off from serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks to members and their friends to speak about the purpose of the organization.

“Our aim is to create new bridges between European and Arab cultures, spread information about the Arab world in Sweden, support LGBT people with an Arabic background, and hopefully to bring more tolerance and understanding of their issues and defend their rights in Sweden and abroad,” he says.

“We as Arabs are discriminated against in general as an immigrant group, and then we are discriminated against again amongst our own minority for being gay,” he adds.

Ali and his peers have received funding from the European Union, which supports several LGBT organizations for immigrant minorities around Europe.

Since its establishment last May, the Arab Initiative has held parties, partaken in two Pride festivals, arranged three film showings, and four seminars.

“We have been making connections with LGBT groups in the Middle East, promoting ourselves locally through word of mouth, and standing up for LGBT rights against media producers who portray this particular group in a negative way.”

Ali adds that it is not a political organization, but mostly a place for Arab LGBT people to find support and meet their peers.

Karin Båge, head of RFSL in Stockholm, says that her group was contacted by the Arab Initiative. RFSL quickly gave the group full access to its premises, skills, and contacts.

The difficulties faced by gays in Iraq was brought into sharp relief this week as Human Rights Watched published details of a murderous militia-led campaign against homosexuals in the Middle Eastern country. In response, RFSL called on the Swedish government to halt all deportations to Iraq of people who have sought asylum on the basis of sexual orientation or gender.

"We urge Sweden to investigate the possibility of evacuating homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people who are at risk of being subjected to 'sexual cleansing'," RFSL chairperson Sören Juvas wrote in a press release on Monday.

Sa’ad Ibrahim, 37, is an Iraqi citizen who was granted asylum last May after being threatened with death due to his sexual orientation.

“One day in 2006, I received a call between 8 and 9 in the evening when I had arrived home from work. A friend of mine told me that another friend of ours had disappeared. So we asked around and after ten days we found out that his dismembered body had been found. Three of my friends were killed this way. I am the only one alive in my previous circle of friends,” Sa’ad tells The Local.

He had previously received written threats in his ladies’ shoe shop in a conservative Shiite district of Baghdad, where he was told he was a “fag” and that “God hates fags."

“Around 9.30 to 10 at night there were six people asking about me around the corner. I got the message to leave before they made it to my shop: I escaped through the back door and left everything behind me. I went far away to my uncle’s place where I stayed for the next five months. Every day I would imagine myself torn to pieces.”

He made his way to Sweden through a smuggling network, using up all the money he had managed to gather. When he came to Sweden he was devastated and lonely, he says.

“Now I am very happy because here I am able to mingle and mix with all sorts of people. I met an Iranian man who became my boyfriend. I fell in love with him, as he took me to the Pride festival, which turned my life around 180 degrees. I was totally amazed by the energy of the festival.”

Meanwhile, it was time for Nancy to mount the stage and wow the crowd with her belly dancing shakes to Arabic music. Swedes, Arabs, Africans and people of other ethnicities, men and women, straight and gay, gathered around the stage and clapped to the rhythm – a sight unseen in any Arab country.

اطلاق كتيّب "احبهم...و لكن

قامت جمعية العناية الصحية وجمعية "حلم" بالتنسيق مع التحالف العالمي لمكافحة السيدا وفي إطار برنامج التوعية لفئة الرجال ذوي العلاقات الجنسية مع الرجال ...بإنتاج دليل "احبهم... ولكن

وقد تمّ اطلاق هذا الدليل، الذي يتوجه إلى الأهل الذين لديهم ابناء مثليين او مثليات الجنس ليزوّدهم بالمعلومات العلمية ويناقش المواقف الأفضل للتعامل مع هذا الواقع، خلال لقاء جمع ممثلين عن منظمات الأمم المتحدة ومن الوزرات المعنية ومن المؤسسات الاجتماعية والصحية التي تهتم بالشباب كما وجمع اللقاء أختصاصيين في مجال علم النفس والعمل الإجتماعي مع عدد من الاهل ومن المهتمين بموضوع المثلية الجنسية وذلك في فندق بادوفا سن الفيل صباح الثلاثاء 15 ايلول 2009

وتضمّن اللقاء نقاشات عن المثلية الجنسية، من حيث الواقع والتحديات، اضافةً الى التطرق للدليل من ناحية انتاجه ومحتوياته وكيفية استخدامه ووضع خطة مستقبلية بهدف ايصاله الى المعنيين