Paula Ettelbrick - After the New Jersey court ruling on gay marriage last week, this question has come again to the political fore in the U.S. There, an increasingly successful gay rights movement battles a Republican political-religious alliance in an epic conflict. Around the world gays are viscously persecuted. It is critical that opposition to same-sex marriage does not add fuel to the fire which leads to the arrest, torture and death of homosexuals around the world.
After the New Jersey court ruling on gay marriage last week, this question has come again to the political fore in the U.S. There, an increasingly successful gay rights movement battles a Republican political-religious alliance in an epic conflict. Around the world gays are viciously persecuted. It is critical that opposition to same-sex marriage does not add fuel to the fire which leads to the arrest, torture and death of homosexuals around the world.
Let's take a look around the globe to see where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights stand. Europe has far exceeded any other region of the world in its support for the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. This support extends to same-sex relationships in that nearly every Western European country has some policy addressing the rights of lesbian and gay couples. The Netherlands, Belgium and Spain offer full marriage. The Scandinavian countries spearheaded the movement in the late 1980's and early 1990's with full domestic partnership recognition, which the United Kingdom and France have essentially extended as well. Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, and Croatia are among the other European countries that have extended certain limited policies to same-sex couples.
Outside of Europe, Canada allows gay marriage, Uruguay recently extended full domestic partner benefits, the South African Constitutional Court issued a New Jersey-style decision a year ago, Israel and New Zealand have taken some steps forward, and a debate on the issue is active in Taiwan. Local laws on domestic partnership have been passed in Brazil, Argentina, and in virtually every major city in the United States.
At the same time, political leaders across the globe are using same-sex marriage to fight back against the small gains of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Political leaders in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and the United States have seized on the issue to promote public fear of the "homosexual agenda." In Africa, leaders call on citizens to resist "Western decadence" and "un-African practices." In Nigeria, where LGBT people face abuse, a bill to imprison anyone who engages in or performs a same-sex marriage has been introduced. That same bill further targets LGBT by prohibiting the registration of gay organizations and any public expression of an amorous relationship between two women or two men. The police in the United Arab Emirates raided a private party of gay men. The police claimed the men, presumed to be gay, were performing marriage rituals. In Tanzania and Uganda, laws were recently passed to criminalize same-sex marriage. Federal bans against same-sex marriage have been enacted in Australia, Honduras, Vietnam and the Philippines, and violent reactions to gay pride demonstrators led the Latvian Parliament earlier this year to vote to amend the constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
With the exception of Australia, governments have not called for same-sex marriage. Rather, the issue is used to halt the growing effort of LGBT fighting human rights violations around the world. Governments exploit fear and issue distracting calls to resist the imposition of Western sexual mores to deny the human rights of LGBT and perpetuate abuse of them.
The fact is that torture, abuse, and even death are still real issues for LGBT in so many parts of the world. Police abuse against gays occurs regularly in Nepal, Venezuela, India, Peru, and Uganda. Laws allowing executions of gay people exist in Iran, Nigeria and elsewhere. Arbitrary arrests occur from Cameroon to Russia and Poland. Regular homophobic violence erupts in Jamaica.
It is critical that the concerns raised about same-sex marriages not be used as an excuse for stigmatizing LGBT people and permitting the violation of their human rights throughout the world.
Paula Ettelbrick is the Executive Director of International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and a Professor at NYU Law School.
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