World
State Department releases 2021 human rights report
Anti-LGBTQ persecution, violence remains commonplace around the world
The State Department’s annual human rights report that was released on Tuesday notes anti-LGBTQ persecution and violence remains commonplace in many countries around the world.
The report notes consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in Jamaica and dozens of other countries. Iran and Afghanistan are two of the handful of nations in which homosexuality is punishable by death.
The report specifically cites the case of Alireza Fazeli Monfared, an Iranian man whose relatives killed in in May 2021 after they discovered he was gay and non-binary. The report also notes the Taliban regaining control of Afghanistan in August 2021 “increased fears of repression and violence among LGBTQI+ persons, with many individuals going into hiding to avoid being captured by the Taliban.”
“Many fled the country after the takeover,” reads the report. “After the takeover, LGBTQI+ persons faced increased threats, attacks, sexual assaults, and discrimination from Taliban members, strangers, neighbors and family members.”
The report includes statistics from Associação Nacional de Travestis e Transexuais, a Brazilian transgender rights group, that indicate 80 trans people — most of whom were Brazilians of African descent who were younger than 35 — were reported killed in the first six months of 2021. The report also cites Cattrachas, a lesbian feminist human rights group in Honduras that noted 17 “violent deaths of LGBTQI+ persons” in the country between January and August 2021.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken pointed out to reporters there are more than 1 million political prisoners in 65 countries. These include Yoav de la Cruz, a gay Cuban man who was sentenced to six years in prison last month after he livestreamed the first anti-government protest that took place on the island on July 11, 2021.
The report notes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s continued efforts to rollback LGBTQ rights, which include a decree his government issued on Aug. 6, 2021, that restricted the sale of children’s books with LGBTQ-specific themes. The report also includes incidents of anti-LGBTQ violence, discrimination and hate speech in Poland.
This report focuses on 2021, and does not include details of human rights abuses that Russian forces have carried out against Ukrainian civilians during the ongoing war in their country. Blinken nevertheless criticized Russia throughout his remarks.
“In many years running, we have seen an alarming recession in democracy, in rule of law, respect for human rights in many parts of the world,” said Blinken. “In the time since releasing our previous report, that backsliding has, unfortunately, continued. In few places have the human consequences of this decline have been as stark as they are in the Russian government’s brutal war on Ukraine.”
Blinken also described human rights as “universal.”
“People of every nationality, race, gender, disability and age are entitled to these rights, no matter what they believe, who they love, or any other characteristics,” he said. “This is especially important as a number of governments continue to claim, falsely, that human rights need to be applied based on global context. It’s no coincidence that many of the same governments are among the worst abusers of human rights.”
The report also notes LGBTQ rights advances around the world.
The Botswana Court of Appeals in November 2021 upheld a previous ruling that decriminalized homosexuality in the country. The report also notes the European Commission sanctioned Hungary over its efforts to curtail LGBTQ rights and Poland in response to so-called “LGBT-free zones.”
‘We do not claim a moral high ground’
President Biden in 2021 released a memorandum that committed the U.S. to promoting LGBTQ rights abroad.
The White House last June named then-OutRight Action International Executive Director Jessica Stern as the next special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ rights abroad. The State Department on Monday began to issue passports with “X” gender markers.
The State Department released its report less than a month after Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law his state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Lawmakers in dozens of other states across the U.S. have introduced similar measures and others that specifically target transgender children.
“We’re not trying to pretend that these are not issues that we are grappling with here in the United States,” said Acting Assistant Secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Lisa Peterson in response to the Washington Blade’s question about the release of the report against the backdrop of anti-LGBTQ measures in the U.S. “This report, because it is very clearly focused on the rest of the world, we do dig in on other countries. We do not have a mandate to do a report on our own circumstances.”
“The universal nature of human rights also means that we have to hold ourselves accountable to the same standards,” said Blinken. “Even as this report looks outward at countries around the world, we’ve acknowledged from day one of this administration that we have challenges here in the United States.”
“We take seriously our responsibility to address these shortcomings and we know that the way we do it matters; together with citizens and communities, out in the open, transparent, not trying to pretend problems don’t exist, or sweeping them under a rug,” he added.
Peterson echoed Blinken before she took reporters’ questions.
“We can’t be credible advocates for human rights abroad if we don’t live up to the same principles at home,” said Peterson. “We do not claim a moral high ground, but we do, in the words of our Constitution, resolve to form a more perfect union, which means that we must continue to address the many human rights challenges in our own country.”
Egypt
Egyptian authorities refuse to allow gay cruise to dock in country
Scarlet Lady earlier this week blocked from visiting Turkey
Egyptian authorities have refused to allow a gay cruise to dock in the country.
The Scarlet Lady, a Virgin Voyages ship that Atlantis Events chartered, was to have docked in Alexandria, a port city on the Mediterranean Sea. The Washington Blade obtained a letter that Atlantis Events President Rich Campbell sent to passengers on Thursday, hours before the cruise was to have arrived.
“Early this morning, we were informed that Scarlet Lady has been denied entry into Egyptian waters and, as a result, will no longer be able to call in Alexandria today,” he wrote.
“I know how much this visit meant to so many of you,” added Campbell. “We successfully sailed a similar itinerary last year, so we were surprised by this unfortunate decision.”
Campbell noted “both the Atlantis and Virgin Voyages teams worked tirelessly to make this call in Alexandria a possibility.”
“This news came as a surprise to all of us, and we’re just as disappointed as you are,” he said.
The 10-day cruise left Athens on July 5. It is scheduled to end in Trieste, Italy, on July 15.
The ship had been scheduled to dock in Kusadasi, a Turkish resort town on the Aegean Sea, and Istanbul earlier this week. Turkish authorities refused to allow it in the country.
Former Tempe, Ariz., Mayor Neil Giuliano, who is an LGBTQ+ Victory Institute board member, is among those on the cruise.
“Just a few hours before arriving in Alexandria, Egypt — a city founded by and named for one of the ancient world’s best-known homosexuals — government authorities rescinded permission for our ship of 2,000 gay men to enter Egypt,” wrote Steve May, who is also on the ship, on Thursday in a Facebook post.
Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331 B.C.
“As with Turkey, we have been sent away not because of what we did, but because of who we said we are,” said May. “‘I am what I am’ is too much liberty for some to bear. So it was in the United States as well not long ago, where even I ended up as a convicted homosexual after a military trial in 2001 for saying ‘I am gay.’ This is just a reminder that for all the progress we have made, our freedom is never secure — for any of us, regardless of who or how we love. Back to Europe!”
Discrimination and persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity is commonplace in Egypt. The Egyptian Football Association, along with the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran, objected to playing in the World Cup’s “Pride Match” that took place in Seattle on June 26.
Netherlands
Dutch prime minister scheduled to open World Pride human rights conference
Rob Jetten is country’s first openly gay head of government
Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten is scheduled to open this year’s World Pride Human Rights Conference in Amsterdam.
Organizers in a July 1 press release said Jetten will open the conference on Aug. 5. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema; South African Deputy Minister for Women, Youth, and People with Disabilities Steve Letsike; former Venezuelan National Assemblywoman Tamara Adrián; and Graeme Reid, the independent U.N. expert on LGBTQ and intersex issues, are among those who are also expected to participate in the gathering that will end on Aug. 7.
Jetten, 39, in February became the Netherlands’s first openly gay prime minister.
His centrist D66 party won the country’s elections last October. Geert Wilders’s far-right Party for Freedom narrowly lost.
Jetten took office after he formed a coalition government that includes the center-right Christian Democrats and the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy.
World Pride will take place in Amsterdam from July 25-Aug. 8.
Turkey
Turkish authorities refuse to allow gay cruise to dock in country
Atlantis Events-chartered ship included stops in Kusadasi, Istanbul
Update: Egyptian authorities on Wednesday blocked the ship from docking in Alexandria, a port city on the Mediterranean.
Turkish authorities have refused to allow a gay cruise to dock in the country.
The Scarlet Lady, a Virgin Voyages ship that Atlantis Events chartered, departed Athens on Sunday. The 10-day cruise is scheduled to end in Trieste, Italy, on July 15.
The ship had been scheduled to dock in Kusadasi, a Turkish resort town on the Aegean Sea, on Tuesday. It was then slated to sail to Istanbul on Wednesday.
Officials in Aydin Province in which Kusadasi is located on June 28 posted a statement on X that confirmed the decision not to allow the Scarlet Lady to dock in Turkey.
Authorities noted the “groups” behind the cruise are “known for behaviors that do not align with the structure of our society and our moral values.” The June 28 statement also says the scheduled docking “caused great discomfort in various segments of our society.”
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Atlantis Events in a statement on its website said the company has “been informed by the Turkish authorities that Atlantis will not be permitted to dock in Kusadasi or Istanbul during this voyage.”
“As a result, we have had to alter our sailing itinerary somewhat,” it reads.
The statement notes the cruise will now stop in Alexandria, Egypt, and Crete.
“Both ports have excellent opportunities for exploration and enjoyment and have been favorites of ours for years,” it reads.
(Discrimination and persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity is commonplace in Egypt. The Egyptian Football Association, along with the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran, objected to playing in the World Cup’s “Pride Match” that took place in Seattle on June 26.)
Patti LuPone, who is performing on the cruise, sharply criticized the Turkish government over its decision.
“The Atlantis cruise I am performing on next week, has been banned from entering Turkey,” she said on her Facebook page on July 2. “A ship — a magnificent ship — full of well-heeled gay men. And me. Denied entry to Turkey simply because of who is on board. I am furious, but I am sailing, as the ship will make other ports of call. I am ready to perform for all the wonderful men on this Atlantis cruise, who deserve so much better than this.”
Atlantis Events CEO Rich Campbell told the Washington Post that his company’s cruises have visited Turkey more than a dozen times over the last two decades.
“We’re there to shop, be great tourists, spend money,” he said. “It’s always a culturally respectful group.”
Campbell further noted Turkey could lose at least $1 million in tourism revenue over its decision.
“The bigger damage to Turkey is when you start picking and choosing who’s allowed to enter, and your economy depends on tourism, you’re creating a standoff between tourists and yourself,” he told the Post. “And you run the risk of alienating a lot of potential tourists.”
The Washington Blade on Monday reached out to Campbell for additional comment.
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