Jun 15th, 2010

Below is a statement from Arab queer organizations. You can help by writing a letter to the US Social Forum or emailing them.

We, the undersigned queer Arab organizations, are appalled by the US Social Forum’s decision to allow Stand with Us to utilize the event as a platform to pinkwash Israel’s crimes in the region. Stand with Us is cynically manipulating the struggle of queer people in the Middle East through its workshop entitled “LGBTQI Liberation in the Middle East.”

Stand with Us is a self-declared Zionist propaganda organization which describes itself as “an international education organization that ensures that Israel’s side of the story is told in communities, campuses, libraries, the media and churches through brochures, speakers, conferences, missions to Israel, and thousands of pages of Internet resources”
(http://bit.ly/b9eAc4).

Stand with Us has no connection with the LGBT movement in the Middle East apart from ties to Zionist Israeli LGBT organizations, yet it claims to speak for and about our movements. It has no credibility in our region, and as organizations working in and from the Middle East, we condemn its attempt to use us, our struggles, our lives, and our experiences as a platform for pro-Israeli propaganda.

Since Israel’s brutal wars on Gaza and Lebanon in 2006 and particularly after the recent unprovoked attack on the flotilla of activists going to Gaza, the Israeli government has found itself increasingly marginalized by international condemnations and weakened through the growing success of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. To remedy this, it has launched a massive PR campaign using organizations such as Stand with Us to convince the world that Israel is not a brutal settler-colony state, but rather a free democracy where human rights in general, and LGBT rights in particular, are respected and upheld. Stand With Us deceptively uses the language of LGBT and women’s rights to obscure the fact that institutionalized discrimination is enshrined within the state of Israel.

Our struggle is deeply intertwined with the struggle of all oppressed people, and we cannot accept that we are being used as a tool to discredit the Palestinian cause. Stand with Us would have everyone believe that the Palestinian cause is an unworthy one because of the homophobia that exists within Palestinian society, as if homophobia does not exist elsewhere, and as if struggles for justice are predicated on some sort of inherent “goodness” of the oppressed, rather than on the principles of freedom, justice, and equality for everyone, everywhere. Stand with Us would have us all compartmentalize our beliefs, lives, and identities so that solidarity with the queer struggle would preclude solidarity with others.

While Stand With Us is quick to point out the oppression of queer Palestinians under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, it conveniently forgets that those same queers are not immune to the bombs, blockades, apartheid and destruction wrought upon them daily by the Israeli government, and that Israel’s multi-tiered oppression hardly makes a distinction between straight and gay Palestinians.

We refuse to be instrumentalized by anyone, be it our own oppressive governments or the Zionist lobby hijacking our struggle to legitimize the state of Israel and its policies, thus providing even more fodder for our own governments to use against us. If you want to learn about our movements and struggles, engage with us, rather than with those who will use us as pawns in Israel’s campaign to pinkwash its crimes.

The inclusion of Stand With Us at the USSF is an egregious oversight on the part of the forum. We ask the forum to justify this inclusion given that it violates its own principles of anti-racism, uniting oppressed communities, prioritizing marginalized voices, and opposing US foreign policy. The USSF should be held accountable to its own standards. We look forward to hearing its plans to address the situation.

Helem, Lebanese Protection for LGBT
Al-Qaws, For Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society
ASWAT, Palestinian Gay Women
Palestinian Queers for BDS, pqbds.wordpress.com

Helem Launches two case studies on institutional discrimination against gays and lesbians in Lebanon: Higher Education and Health Services

Helem would like to invite you to attend the launching of two case studies on institutional discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Lebanon:

“The Rights of Gays and Lesbians to Universities” (Arabic) – Tamam Mroue

This study sheds light on the situation of gays and lesbians in Lebanese universities based on studies on protocols, internal rules and curricula at each university, as well as studies on publications outsourced by the university. The case study also reviews various sources and books on academic education in regards to the issue of homosexuality, as well as conducts a thorough investigation with students and instructors.

The study emphasizes in its conclusion the result of institutional discrimination on gays and lesbians in universities, and the importance of combined work by human rights organization in the civil sector to change the current situation of gays and lesbians in universities. The study also looks into the situation of gays and lesbians at Lebanese schools and the necessary changes that need to be made to school curricula.

“Homophobia in Clinical Services in Lebanon: Physicians Survey” (English) – Dr. Faysal El Kak

This study investigates the level and type of homophobia found at clinical services in Lebanon and explains the reasons behind it through studies and statistics done on a group of doctors in Lebanon, based on their educational background, their monitoring of new information and research in their field of work, and their opinions and practices concerning gays and lesbians.

The study points out that discrimination in clinical services isn’t the sole product of doctors and practitioners, but also the result of the health services as a whole in Lebanon that promotes homophobia and prejudices towards gays and lesbians

Place: Beirut Theater, Ain Mreisseh, Beirut

Time: Monday, 8th of March, 2010 at 6:30 pm

(Open to the public)

Beirut – November 6, 2009 – Helem, the first gay and lesbian organization in the Arab World, and Meem, a support group for lesbian women in Lebanon, are holding on Monday, November 9, 2009 at the American University of Beirut (AUB) a seminar on sexuality entitled “One Day One Struggle”.

The event will take place between 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM at AUB’s West Hall.

Heading the panel will be experts and activists who will address the challenges facing sexual and bodily rights in Lebanon. The speakers will be:

- Rasha Moumneh (Human Rights Watch)
- Dr. Faysal El Kak (National Reproductive Health Programme Consultant)
- Hiba Abbani (Helem)
- Nadine Mouawad (Feminist Collective)

The gathering is in association with the Women’s Rights Club and the Health Sciences Expertise Club at AUB.

The seminar is part of the international campaign “One Day One Struggle” organized by the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR), an international solidarity network of progressive NGOs and premier academic institutions in the Middle East, North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, working to promote sexual and bodily rights as human rights in Muslim societies.

As part of this historic campaign, over 20 organizations will hold simultaneous actions and events in 11 countries to promote and assert that sexual and reproductive rights are universal human rights based on the inherent freedom, dignity and equality of all human beings.