pride in colombo

it's hard to imagine that a place as lovely, complex, diverse and friendly as sri lanka has banned homosexuality and queer spirits. the laws still prohibit people from being open about their Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgendered-Queer (LGBTQ - did i cover most non-hetero sexualities?) sexuality, to the point of intimidation, humiliation, harassment, even imprisonment and torture. while the country promotes tourism and does little about the rampant prostitution, sex trade, paedophilia and human trafficking it seizes LGBTQ people from the lives they should lead, depriving them of essential human rights. for instance in the mid-1990s a lesbian conference here was shut down with participants being socially persecuted, even subjected to death threats. it's not an isolated incident but occurs quite often throughout asia and the developing South. it seems countries which preach uber-masculinity and patriarchy, a system with impossible ideals, stereotypes, practices and networks of power, is most conducive to threatening and masking people who live as multiply gendered. what is this lunatic normative system? how and why does this system prevail? how and why does it coincide with systems of violence, and why are the historically most violent countries, particulary in this region (afghanistan, bhutan, china, fiji, indonesia, iran, nepal, pakistan, samoa, to name a few), also the most irrational and unaccepting of LGBTQ sexualities?

perhaps people who are seen as outside the mainstream, just through their existence, question and rupture the very foundations of what is the staus quo, what is pushed as 'normal', what derives itself from the subjugation of a select, special group of people. it is the same seething system and political process that attempts to control men and women's bodies and minds, to put them into dichotomous categories, to blame the victim, and to maintain the administration of haves and have nots. it is the same system whereby women are seen as property, only as baby-producing machines who can then clean up after she is raped and tortured. if people were freer to live their lives in ways that do not hurt anyone or themselves i guess it would create too much compassion, happiness, tolerance, diversity and overall wellbeing...no? i cannot understand any partiarchal-hetero-ethnocentric system that perpetuates and thrives on the unhappiness and torment of any group of people, seen as a minority, deemed as outcasts and threats to 'morality'. how we define these values is completely subjective not to mention utterly irrelevant when we live in an age of accelerated globalisation and exchange of ideas/information/cusoms. how are we supposed to move ahead and get past differences in order to achieve full on human rights and wellbeing enhancement? eh?

this week is pride week in sri lanka (mainly with events in colombo), which celebrates when the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality as a defined mental disorder and which highlights the living experiences of LGBTQ people. not many people have come out in sri lanka, even friends who are gay do not come out to everyone, not even to their family. as a straight person living, working, breathing, existing among many different people, i can support the cause to abolish ignorance on LGBTQ issues. it is an area where even human rights advocates with whom i work, do not even address the rights of LGBTQ nor sex workers nor people living with HIV. it;s a complete paradox to separate causes like that when one should be working to achieve humanism in a holistic manner.

one film i saw during the pride extravaganza, 'dangerous lives: coming out in the developing world', narrated by janeane garofolo, addressed the volatility and discrimination for LGBTQ people in the south. one shocking case, that i remember amnesty international and other human rights groups worked on around the turn of the millennium, was the cairo 52. cairo had become a gay mecca in recent times, like a bangkok, miami, kuala lumpur, but faced a massive legislative crackdown on gay culture, classifying LGBTQ, particularly men, as sodomists and sons of the devil. it is extremely difficult to experience queer life in muslim countries because it is seen as religious blasphemy, going against god's will, jilting the status quo. in this case, police cracked down on a queer nile river cruise, arresting 52 guys and subjecting them to unjustifed detainment, lack of access to legal resources, corrupt trials, abusive and squalid imprisonment for several years, immense torture and other injustices. after LGBTQ activists from around the world erupted a large scale campaign, the imprisoned were eventually liberated. an odd thing is that, with all the gay activists in the US lobbying, the liberation came after the US senate bullied egypt and threatened economic or trade barriers (and prevented the sale of its weapons to egypt, which goes to fight the kinds of people that US wanted to liberate) due to their violation of human rights. so is the arms and free trade, with such political and economic leverage, actually beneficial to gay people in developing countries? still trying to wrap my head around this one.

despite being freed from prison, the GTBQ guys were still subjected to discrimination, threats and harassment in their daily lives, forcing them to closet their existence. many of the 52 were able to seek political asylum in the north, and although they could connect with gay communities there they were forced into exile and to be away from the people and countries they love. in other circumstances, such as in sri lanka, lesbians are often thought to be mentally unstable and that they can be 'cured'. there are numerous cases around the world (e.g. colombia) where lesbians have been raped, tortured and killed by police and armed forces, with their families also subjected to violence, with the belief that men can fuck the lesbianism out of them. they are seen as contrary to what hetero men believe to be about women, that they should be made inferior and under their control. a lesbian with a happy partner, child, family and friends is a more powerful person who does not need the utility of men, who can manage their lives based on functionality better than how the status quo dictates. truly saddening and unfathomable. wot more can we do to eradicate these brutal hierarchies? who determines what is fair, just, moral, 'norml'?

one unfortunate aspect that is not discussed enough within this movement, at least from the developing countries' perspectives, is HIV and AIDS. sex and sexuality remain taboo subjects in the much of the south, so the promotion of safe sex and preventative methods against spreading HIV is generally absent from discussion and advocacy. you do see some HIV discussion within LGBTQ movements but most people in sri lanka, for instance, do not address the health concerns of this sexually and fluids-transmitting virus. LGBTQ and HIV do not necessarily go hand in hand, but there is so much misconception and ignorance about both and when talking about one it is important to raise the other. for instance, in another documentary about male sex workers in india, i suppose because the nature of their work and the taboo of being GBTQ, most sex workers do not think or discuss about HIV. some men are not tested, despite the proactive measures to make affordable testing available. many sex workers have wives, children, families to support and do not want their families to know about their work. so they may face stigma in getting tested. many sex workers think that HIV is only a disease from westerners, the poor, or that if they get HIV it is god's will/karma. or they think that if they only sleep with rich or upper caste men they will not get it. there are so many myths that these sex workers believe or follow in order to convince themselves that their means of work and economic prospects are not dangerous, wrong or risky. it may be easier to believe they are impervious because they are already crusading for awareness about homosexuality. but it can be seen as a falseity if you are open to yourself about one aspect of your sexuality by masking other risky, underground aspects, such as the vulnerability to HIV. again, it seems to be that it would disrupt their way of existence and job prospects, their means of survival. a really devastating, contradictory tragedy.

so i guess one way to bridge these two issues more successfully in the developing south would be to tackle the stigma permeating from religious and zealous nationalistic beliefs. in many cases throughout african countries and india HIV educators have used depictions from religion and spiritual cosmologies to get the point across about how to protect oneself from HIV and STI by using condoms and by being cautious about sexual encounters. by bringing up issues related to sexuality, that it is not just a tool for procreation, and getting people talking about sex more openly (in a non-exploitative, non-objectifying way) it can close the gap of ignorance to a better informed, healthy, happy, sexually satiated public. praps. in addition, people need to get off their arse and become activated on human rights and social justice causes!!! even if it just means writing a letter or calling your respectful bastard parliamentarian.