RMT FIGHTS FOR INTERNATIONAL LGBT RIGHTS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2012 :: RMTnews 28 T he RMT annual general meeting agreed a motion this year to support campaigns against homophobia around the world. Conference highlighted a speech by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on March 7 2012 calling on all countries around the world to decriminalise consensual same- sex relationships and end discrimination against LGBT people. It is still the case that in 76 countries being gay is illegal, and in 10 of these, punishable by death or life imprisonment. LGBT people around the world are victims of violence, such as targeted killings, violent assaults and torture. For instance the Russian city of St Petersburg has recently passed a law making it illegal to speak in public about being LGBT. Across Africa, parliaments are advocating laws that would further penalise, even execute, gay people. In Iraq, religious militias have brutally murdered hundreds of gay men and young men perceived to be gay. The Iranian theocratic regime criminalises and oppresses homosexuality. Conference reiterated that human rights are for all people, in all countries and it was necessary to build solidarity links with LGBT rights campaigners and trade unionists around the world. R MT activists staged a demonstration outside the Zimbabwean Embassy this month in solidarity with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers in Zimbabwe. President Robert Mugabe continues to denigrate and spearhead attacks on LGBT Zimbabweans and vows not to allow the inclusion of LGBT rights in Zimbabwe’s new constitution. On August 11 police raided the Harare office of the advocacy group Gays and Lesbian Zimbabwe (GALZ) without a warrant after the group issued its LGBT Rights violations report and a briefing on the draft constitution. Forty- four members were brutally beaten with batons and fists, any requiring medical treatment. Nine days later, police officers returned, occupied the offices for six hours, confiscating computers, documents, and advocacy materials. A protest letter was delivered to the embassy signed by general secretary Bob Crow and numerous union activists demanding President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai stop attacks on LGBTs, honour Zimbabwe’s human rights obligations and include equality and human rights for all people in Zimbabwe’s new constitution, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. The Zimbabwe demonstration follows a protest at the Danish Embassy in September. RMT LGBT activists delivered a petition letter protesting the impending deportation of Fernanda Milan, a transgender woman from Guatemala. Fernanda fled from Guatemala in 2009 to escape persecution and seek safety and asylum in Denmark. However, she was recently informed that Danish law does not recognise gender identity as a motive for persecution despite a 2011 European Directive that specifically mentions gender identity. Fernanda was due to leave Denmark on September 17, but at the eleventh hour the Refugee Board decided to reopen her case. Activists report that as many as 12 transgender people have been murdered in Guatemala this year and more have simply “disappeared”. FIGHTING FOR INTERNATIONAL LGBT RIGHTS CAMPAIGNING FOR LGBT RIGHTS