Queer Notes: May-June 2017

April 30, 2017

From the May-June 2017 issue of News & Letters

by Elise

 

The Nile Valley region of Egypt and Sudan has two organizations working for Queer rights thanks to Azza Sultan, a Muslim, Nubian, Sudanese feminist Lesbian. Bedayaa is the first Queer rights organization to report human rights abuses of LGBT people in the Nile Valley. Mesahat Foundation for Sexual and Gender Diversity works to erase social and cultural barriers to full human rights for Queer people through storytelling, documentary filmmaking, creating tools for Queer activists. It published LGBT Voices From Sudan.

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Donald Trump rescinded the “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Order” after promising that LGBT federal workers would retain all their current rights. Federal contractors no longer need demonstrate a three-year record of not discriminating against their workers on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who opposed protecting senior LGBT people from job and public services discrimination, proposed removing LGBT seniors from the National Survey of Older Americans Participants Act. The Act helps determine distribution of government funding for seniors. To fight this removal go to https://actionnetwork.org/letters/trump-administration-erasing-lgbt-elders and write your comment by May 12.

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In the Netherlands, after two gay men in Arnhem were violently assaulted for holding hands, straight male politicians supported the couple by holding hands in public. Male staff members of the Dutch mission to the UN in New York held hands as they walked to a protest against homophobia. Four teenaged boys were arrested for the assault.

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Chechen men are being detained in concentration camps. Many are being killed because of “their nontraditional sexual orientation, or suspicion of such,” as reported by Novaya Gazeta. Ramzan Kadyrov, who rules Chechnya through Russian arms, denies the reports, claiming there are no Gay Chechen men to detain or execute.

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