DISCRIMINATION ‘Hall of Shame’ shows reach of

Human Rights Watch recognizes moved to strip public libraries of books by five notorious anti- public or gay authors, promising to “dig a officials around the globe big hole and dump them in and bury them.” NEW YORK, N.Y. — As people in more “Sodomy laws and surveillance, censor­ than 50 countries marked the International ship and silencing, inequality and official dis­ Day against Homophobia May 17, Human crimination, arrest and torture, are realities Rights Watch named to a “hall of shame” for many LGBT people on every continent,” five public officials who have actively pro­ said Long. “Homophobia has a global reach.” moted prejudice against LGBT people in Watch also pointed to their countries. The group also pointed to five countries that have made exemplary five recent advances that give hope for a progress in combating rights abuses based future free of hatred and homophobia. •on or :

Faces of anti-gay hate: Alabama State Rep. Gerald Allen, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, Minister Rita Verdonk of the Netherlands and Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. “This ‘hall of shame’ does not claim to • Brazil, where a landmark government include the worst offenders, but it highlights campaign for a “Brazil without public officials who have failed in their basic Homophobia” supports LGBT groups in duty to respect human rights for all,” said the struggle for equality; Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, •Fiji, where in August the High Court ruled Bisexual, and Rights Program at that the country’s was uncon­ . “The abuses these offi­ stitutional holding that, “What the consti­ cials have caused or countenanced symbolize tution requires is that the law acknowl­ the daily, invidious forms of homophobia that edges difference, affirms dignity and countless people face around the world.” allows equal respect to every citizen as The public officials named to the “Hall of they are.” Shame” for their actions in 2005-2006 were: • , where a decade of domestic and • Senior Superintendent of Police Ashutosh international pressure led to the repeal of a Pandey of Lucknow, India, whose agents sodomy law and to the passage of broad used the to entrap four men and antidiscrimination protections. jailed them under his country’s colonial- • South , where a Constitutional Court era sodomy law. ruling in December opened equality in • Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk of the civil marriage for gay and lesbian couples Netherlands, who sought to deny asylum for the first time on the Afi'ican continent. to LGBT Iranians, threatening to deport • Spain, where in the wake of marriage them back to a country that imposes the , equality, parliament is debating a bill to death penalty on homosexual conduct. give transgender people expansive rights • President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, to legal recognition of their gender identi­ who supports a law imposing five years of ty, based on a psychological evaluation and imprisonment on anyone who is involved without making surgery a prerequisite for in a lesbian and gay organization or publi­ those rights. cation, publicly supports lesbian and gay LGBT groups in more than 50 countries people’s rights or even publicly displays a celebrated the International Day against “same-sex amorous relationship.’ Homophobia, an initiative launched in 2005 • Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who vowed to commemorate the date on which the to ban Russia’s first-ever lesbian and gay World Health Organization removed homo­ Pride parade, claiming he had to protect sexuality from its roster of disorders in the ri^ts of “the majority.” 1990. This year, it was endorsed by a resolu­ • Alabama State Rep. Gerald Allen who tion of the European Parliament. I JUNE3.2006*Q-NOTES 7