<< International News
12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 11-17, 2017
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Putin agrees to investigate Chechnya’s anti-gay purge by Heather Cassell
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ussian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly bowing to international pressure to investigate the detention of gays in Chechnya. Gay Times reported May 8 that Putin told Russia’s human rights ambassador, Tatyana Moskalkova, that he would personally approach the prosecutor-general and the interior minister in Chechnya, following growing international pressure for him to help bring an end to an anti-gay purge. This is the first time that Putin has acknowledged and commented on the persecution of gays in Chechnya after more than a month of outrage from LGBT activists. “I will talk with the prosecutor general [and] the minister of internal affairs so that they [can offer you] support in the issue,” Putin told Moskalkova, according to Russian-controlled media outlet RIA Novosti. A little more than a month ago independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta broke the news about the arrest and detention of an estimated 100 men suspected to be gay in Chechnya. The newspaper also alleged that three men were killed by authorities. However, the Russian LGBT Network estimates as many as 20 men have been killed, reported the Human Rights Campaign. Additionally, Chechen police have instructed parents to kill their gay children, according to media reports. On May 5, reports surfaced that a 17-year-old gay teen was pushed off the ninth floor of a building by his uncle with his family’s support, reported Gay Star News. An unidentified survivor told the media outlet that the persecution of LGBT people in the region isn’t uncommon and has been happening since 2009.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) pleaded with President Donald Trump to take action. In a May 5 letter she asked that Russian LGBTs be allowed to seek refuge in the U.S. “While the United States demands that Russia stop these vile abuses, we must also provide a lifeline for refuge and resettlement for the innocent LGBT Russians being brutalized and murdered because of who they are and who they love,” wrote Pelosi. The Trump administration has been relatively quiet about the atrocities happening in Chechnya with the exception of a statement last month from the State Department that expressed concerns about what is happening in Chechnya. Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also spoke out against the anti-gay purge. AllOut is petitioning Putin, urging him to investigate the allegations. Sign the petition at https://tinyurl.com/ ChechnyaLGHTDetentionPetition.
SF to turn out for IDAHOT
San Francisco LGBT activists will gather on International Day Against
Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia Wednesday, May 17 to celebrate the past year’s wins and protest ongoing atrocities. A custom-made 10-foot pink triangle will serve as the backdrop at Harvey Milk Plaza as LGBT activists continue to pressure Russia to act against Chechnya, according to a May 8 news release from Gays Without Borders. Patrick Carney, who co-created the giant pink triangle installed on Twin Peaks over Pride weekend, will speak about the significance of remembering the LGBT Holocaust victims. Carney is one of several speakers who will be at the rally, Gary Virginia, with Gays Without Borders, wrote in an email. The activists will hold a moment of silence in honor of the victims in Chechnya. In turn the protesters will also demonstrate against the ongoing murders of transgender individuals and urge resistance against President Donald Trump’s threats to the LGBT community in the U.S. The rally will also celebrate the release from prison that day of Chelsea Manning, the transgender former Army intelligence analyst. Manning, 29, was convicted of leaking secret information to WikiLeaks. She had the bulk of her 35-year prison sentence commuted by President Barack Obama days before he left office in January. She began her transition during her seven years in prison. IDAHOT was created in 2004 to bring attention to the violence LGBT individuals face around the world. Code Pink San Francisco is also a co-sponsor of the event.
Respite center
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During the monthly Castro Merchants meeting Thursday, May 4, Sheehy said the site he has in mind once housed an HIV clinic and used clothing store at the corner of Church Street and Duboce Avenue. “It would be a place for people to go so they are not on the streets,” said Sheehy. “Would you rather have people injecting in front of your businesses or in a respite place?” Surveyed if they would support seeing such a facility open in their neighborhood, the Castro business owners at the meeting overwhelmingly indicated they would. Daniel Bergerac, president of the business association, voiced support for having a place in the neighborhood that could serve both young and adult homeless people. “A respite center, I think, needs to serve all ages,” he said. Sheehy told the B.A.R. that the “driving force” for the respite center idea has been the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District. At the merchant meeting last week CBD Executive Director Andrea Aiello noted that data from the Castro Cares initiative has found most of the homeless in the neighborhood are in their 20s and 30s and don’t want to stay in the city’s shelters. “This would maybe be a place where people can go inside and get off the street,” she said. The location Sheehy is eying was vacated several years ago by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation following a rent dispute with its
Rick Gerharter
Supervisor Jeff Sheehy
landlord, Maitri Compassionate Care, a nonprofit that operates a hospice on the building’s second floor. AHF had divided the ground floor retail space into a traditional storefront and a health clinic area with its own entrance. Last year, a sex offenders’ rehab clinic had signed a lease with Maitri to relocate there. But it dropped its plans due to vehement neighborhood opposition. Sheehy acknowledged that placing his respite center idea there could be a hard sell with the neighbors but that would not deter him. “If people don’t like it, they can not vote for me,” said Sheehy, who will go before voters in June 2018 to serve out his predecessor’s term and run again that November for a full four-year term. Michael Colbruno, a consultant for Maitri, told the Bay Area Reporter there has been “active interest” in the retail space and the agency is reviewing several
letters of interest from potential tenants. But he did not respond when asked if the nonprofit would entertain leasing it for the purpose of a respite center. Sheehy stressed that the respite center proposal is just one idea he is pursuing to address homelessness. He is particularly focused on finding more housing for the estimated 1,500 homeless youth in the city, of which 43 percent identify as LGBT. One idea put forth by the city’s youth commission that he supports is doubling the number of beds for people under 25 years of age, which now stands at 558. “We need residential behavioral treatment beds,” said Sheehy.
Needle exchange services could be offered
The vacant commercial space could also double as a needle exchange site, said Sheehy, where intravenous drug users could drop off their used syringes and pick up
The IDAHOT rally in San Francisco will take place from 6 to 7 p.m. at Harvey Milk Plaza, Market and Castro streets. Participants of IDAHOT events globally will post actions on social media using the hashtags #IDAHOT and #IFED2017 to inspire and encourage others to raise their voices. For more information, contact Virginia at (415) 867-5004.
Trikone to hold rights workshop
Trikone, the South Asian LGBT organization, is hosting a “Chit, Chaat, and Chai: Know Your Immigration Rights” interactive workshop Saturday, May 20 from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at API Equality Northern California, 17 Walter U. Lum Place, San Francisco. The workshop is being led by two Bay Area-based immigration attorneys, Aliya Karmali and Aradhana Tiwari. Participants will learn how to respond to immigration officials at key points where they are most-likely to interact with them, such as airports, borders, in the workplace, and at home. The workshop is supported by the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women and Transgender Community. The event is accessible and near BART. Reserve a space by May 15 at http://www.bit.ly/TrikoneKYR.
Bermuda legalizes same-sex marriage
Bermuda’s supreme court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage May 5. The current marriage act is “inconsistent with the provisions of the Human Rights Act as they constitute deliberate different treatment on
clean ones. He pointed out that AHF’s former clinic space, which was separated from the clothing store and had its own entrance on Church Street, could work for such a use. He noted that across the street from the vacant storefront, at the bikeway behind the Safeway shopping center, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation sets up a needle exchange station Tuesdays from 6 to 8 p.m., which has elicited complaints from nearby residents. Sheehy suggested it might be preferable for the agency to instead operate a harm reduction center similar to the one it has on Sixth Street, which he visited last week. “Bringing that inside might make the neighbors happier than they are now,” said Sheehy, a gay man who is HIV-positive and a longtime AIDS advocate. “This might allow us to provide a broader array of services to people.” He clarified that he is not proposing for there to be a supervised injection facility at the site, noting that such a use is currently not allowed under state law. A bill that would permit such facilities is currently before state lawmakers, and San Francisco supervisors have asked the city’s health director, Barbara Garcia, to convene a task force to look at how and where to set up supervised injection sites in the city. For the time being, Sheehy said he is only looking at moving the current weekly needle exchange program indoors and perhaps expanding its hours so intravenous drug users have a place in the area to discard their used needles other than on the street.
the basis of sexual orientation,” said Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons. “In so doing the common law discriminates against same-sex couples by excluding them from marriage and more broadly speaking the institution of marriage,” she continued, reported the Royal Gazette. The courthouse roared with applause, according to media reports. “The ruling today is more than me and pieces of paper. It’s more than any of that, it is what it means for Bermuda moving forward,” said Winston Godwin, a Bermudian and one of the men who launched the court case. However, not everyone is applauding. Anti-same-sex marriage group Preserve Marriage in Bermuda was critical of the ruling, calling out Simmons for deciding to “redefine the institution of marriage,” an unidentified representative said in a statement from the organization to the Gazette. The decision came to the British territory after a long court battle waged by Godwin and his Canadian fiance, Greg DeRoche, after the men attempted to register to marry, but were denied by the registrar-general. The two men argued that the Human Rights Act took precedence in Bermuda. Just a year ago Bermudians voted against same-sex marriage 69 percent to 31 percent. Homosexuality was decriminalized in Bermuda in 1994. Following the ruling, the two men told reporters that they planned to resubmit their marriage application. The new law goes into effect immediately. t Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at Skype: heather.cassell, or oitwnews@gmail.com.
“It would be great if we could use that space to have a respite center and get other services into there like needle exchange,” said Sheehy. “It is already happening around the corner.” Asked if he would support seeing a safe injection site open in the Castro should the state law pass and the city task force recommend it, Sheehy replied those are “too many ifs” for him to take a position at this time. Rafael Mandelman, a gay man and attorney who has filed to run against Sheehy next year, told the B.A.R. he supports the harm reduction model but would need to hear first from the community before he could back a safe injection site opening in the Castro. “I support safe injection sites as a way to reduce deaths from overdoses, and I would far prefer to have folks shooting up in a safe facility than on a sidewalk, or in a park, or at a Muni station, as we all see far too regularly,” said Mandelman. “But I would want to see a specific location and proposal and be confident neighbors wouldn’t be impacted.” Gary McCoy, a former Castro resident who supports safe injection sites and pushed for the creation of the city’s advisory group looking at the issue, told the B.A.R. that opening one in the Castro would likely face opposition. “It is definitely going to take support from the community, but I think it is possible,” said McCoy. “Every neighborhood in the city should do its fair share. The time is right for the neighbors to come together to support these advocacy and outreach initiatives.” t