(New York, NY) - Sixty Canadians living with HIV were barred from entry into the U.S. The Canadians were to attend the North American Housing and HIV/AIDS Research Summit in Washington, D.C. from Jun 2 to 5. Housing Works together with the National AIDS Housing Coalition (NAHC) and the Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN), co-sponsors of the Summit, expressed outrage over barring the Canadians, which is contrary to U.S. policy that foreigners living with HIV would no longer be barred from entering the country.

(New York, NY) -Three international human rights organizations, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), ARC International, and the International Gay and Lesbian Association, after submitting a joint recommendation to include sexual orientation and gender identity as grounds for non-discrimination to a committee of independent experts overseeing states' compliance with the United Nations Conventions on Economic, Social and Cultural Right; received word on May 25 that the UN body had adopted in General Comment No. 20 the meaning of equality in the treaty.

According to General Comment No. 20, Non-Discrimination in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 2, para. 2), Introduction and basic premises, states that: "Discrimination undermines the fulfilment of economic, social and cultural rights for a significant proportion of the world's population. Economic growth has not, in itself, led to sustainable development and individuals and groups of individuals continue to face socio-economic inequality, often because of entrenched historical and contemporary forms of discrimination." The actual section of General Comment No.20, Item 32 states:

(New York, NY) - Without any hint that there might have been tremors at the top, H. Alexander Robinson's resignation, as executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), effective May 28, reverberated throughout the national Black gay community.

Robinson's resignation became known from a statement on the organization's Website and carried the euphemism that he "will be moving on to other opportunities," which suggested there is more to this than has been revealed. H. Alexander Robinson

Robinson was with the Coalition for five years, said the organization's Board president, Kylar Broadus, Esq., an assistant professor of business law at Lincoln University of Missouri and an attorney with the Transgender Law and Policy Institute. "Robinson has contributed significantly to the development of the community over the last five years," Broadus said in the release.

(New York, NY) - In an era of large corporate bankruptcy filings involving billions of dollars in debt, the recent announcement by the New York State Black Gay Network (NYSBGN) that it was filing for Chapter 7 seems inconsequential in comparison. Of consequence, added to the nearly $260,000 in debt, is the loss of confidence and the sense of betrayal of the Black gay community by one of their own.

L to r, Gary English, interim executive director, NYSBGN conferring with Tokes Osubu, executive director, GMAD

At a Town Hall meeting held at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center on May 21, Leo Rennie, a community consultant invited six members of the community to form a panel to ostensibly address and dispel the rumors and stories swirling around the closure of People Of Color in Crisis (POCC) in Brooklyn and the move by Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD) to new offices in Brooklyn. The forum which began half an hour later than its scheduled 7:00 p.m. start, was called to order by Rennie who reminded the assembled audience of close to 150 men and women, of the reason for the meeting, introduced the panelists, which included Tokes Osubu, executive director, GMAD; Gary English, interim executive director, NYSBGN; Cary Alan Johnson, executive director, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission; this writer representing GBMNews.com; Manuel Rivera, chair, Consumer Advisory Board, Gay Men's Health Crisis; Nathan "Seven" Scott, a life coach; and Traci Gardner as the moderator. After setting the ground rules, advising the audience to hold questions until after the panelists had made their opening presentations, Gardner indicated that Osubu would begin.

(New York, NY) - As New York's Governor David Patterson (D) stridently and defiantly, declared, "It's time to take a stand," at a press conference, he referred to the abolitionists' fight against slavery and drew parallels between the struggle for civil rights and same-sex legal recognitions. The Governor, throwing down the gauntlet and daring the state legislature, especially State Senators, who had refused to pass the marriage equality bill when it was presented to them in 2007, called on the Senate and Assembly to pass the marriage equality bill and make same-sex marriage legal in New York.

(New York, NY) - Cary Alan Johnson, executive director, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) sent a letter to Wijdan Salim, Minister of Human Rights of Iraq. In the letter, Johnson implored Salim to take "specific measures to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Iraqis and prevent hate crimes against those perceived to be gay," which was to coincide with the Minister's impending Washington, D.C. visit, and is in response to reports of violent crimes against Iraqi's suspected of being gay. IGLHRC has collaborated with the Washington, D.C.-based Council on Global Equality to bring the matter to the attention of U.S. government officials, with whom Salim is expected to meet next week.

(New York, NY) - As pressure mounts against Jamaican reggae singers who promote homophobic violence against gays and lesbians, one more artist has been barred from performing in Canada.
Jamaican reggae singer Sizzla Kalonji, who supposedly said no to gay rights, had his upcoming show at the Paramount Concert Theatre in Toronto, Canada cancelled by the authorities at the Canadian Embassy in Jamaica.

According to a blog-styled Website, OutAroad.com, Sizzla and his management team's visa applications were denied because the entertainer refused to sign documents agreeing not to perform or use lyrics that are anti-gay or promotes violence against gays and lesbians. Other artists, such as Beenie Man and Canadian "2G" Sanusi were slated to perform in a dancehall/reggae show titled, "Knock Out Knight" at the Toronto club, Fusion Nightclub.

But conflicting reports from the Website stated that the cancellation of Sizzla's performance left many fans angry with the promoters for giving in to the accusations from the gay community. The Website however claimed that Sizzla had apologized to his fans and that while he was approved to perform in Canada, the visa denials were due to some inefficiency and lateness in submitting paperwork to the Embassy. The site goes on to state that Sizzla is all about being positive, unity and has called for an end to the violence. But, while many of the comments on the page were written in Jamaican patois, several spewed hatred and virulence, and at least one agreed that Sizzla should be banned.

(New York, NY) - Muted, low-key and elegant were the words that best described the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) annual "Celebration of Courage" awards, held for close to 200 invited guests on Monday, Mar 30 at NYU's Kimmel Center. The awards honored a Lebanese gay and lesbian organization, a technology corporation and presented to one of the organization's own, an appreciation for work done.

Four social service agencies received a total of $475,000 to combat rising and alarming rates of HIV infection in people over 50.

(New York, NY) - On Mar 30, the MAC AIDS Fund announced in a press release that it was granting $150,000 to the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA), $150,000 to Gay Men's Health Crisis (GHMC), $150,000 to Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) and $25,000 to the GRIOT Circle; as a collaborative effort to fight HIV/AIDS in the senior lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community (LGBT).


 

(New York, NY) Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD) is moving from its home in Manhattan to Brooklyn, and in so doing it is supposed to be taking over of People of Color in Crisis (POCC) which has seen a crisis in its operations, since scandal rocked the agency last summer.

(New York, NY) - Letters, petitions and resolutions are stoking fires that seem to be building to a confrontation between Gay Men's Health Crisis (GHMC) Board of Directors and its Consumer Advisory Board (CAB).

At a meeting on Thursday, Mar 12, close to 60 people, members of CAB, gathered in the ninth floor board room of the GMHC building on West 24th Street, for their monthly meeting and to discuss among other items, the rejection of five candidates, one of whom would have been selected to assume a representative position on the agency's Board of Directors.

In a letter, distributed to all the members at the CAB meeting, dated Mar 9, from Odell Mays, chair of GMHC's Board of Directors, to Manuel Rivera, CAB chair; said that while he [Mays] reaffirms his commitment as a community activist who has worked in the AIDS community for years and as an advocate for representation, that with regard to a CAB designated seat on the Board, "…my position has been pretty consistent. I do not feel that the agency is best served by having any designated seats…"


 

(New York, NY) - Fresh from an outpost office as the senior specialist for Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, Cary Alan Johnson, newly appointed executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), spoke exclusively with GBMNews.com on Mar 6, 2009 about assuming this position, the challenges it brings, and his expectations for himself and the organization.


 

Cary Alan Johnson

(New York, NY) - As the saying goes, three times is a charm. And, a charm event is what the organizers and sponsors of Verve achieved when the production graced the halls of the Brooklyn Ethical Society for Culture (BESC), on Friday, Mar 6, 2009.

Begun as an example of a higher level of entertainment for the sophisticated crowd at last summer's New York Black Pride, Verve has evolved into a fundraising event that is more about promoting social interaction in an upscale environment with appropriate entertainment for and among mature same gender loving (SGL) people, than about raising money. 

One of Verve's key organizers and producers, Germono Toussaint Bryant, who is also an account manager with Blur Advertising and a part of Well Entertainment, said that surveys conducted revealed that there was a dearth in upscale and sophisticated entertainment for LGBT adults.  He recalled that at Verve's premier presentation, called "Pride Slam Jam," the performers represented, indicated a high quality in entertainment and included Nhojj, Sean, ButtaFly Soul, Calvin Davis, Kenya Solas, and Cordell McCleary, whose work was a testament to the need to entertain a mature audience. And, to show openness, through out the various iterations of Verve, he said, the performers were a mixture of gay and straight.

At this Verve's third presentation, close to 100 people - men and women, ages ranging between mid-20s to 50s, were smartly dressed mainly in business casual wear, though some wore suits - mixed and networked at a getting-to-know-you reception where wine and food was provided in a conservatory styled room that looked out through large glass French windows to Prospect Park and to snow covered lawns, and was followed by a program emceed by Buttafly Soul, who with a mixture of comedic sketches and impromptu a cappella singing, kept the audience laughing as he introduced the feature performers Chester Gregory, Nhojj and Dy'ari (pronounced Diary). "We want to give this group of people a chance to socialize with each other before live entertainment," said Bryant.

(New York, NY) - The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and the Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) issued a joint statement condemning a seminar intended to attack the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Uganda.


 

Using religion as a cover, a three-day seminar opened on Thursday, Mar 5, 2009, in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, and featured Americans known in the U.S. for their dehumanizing of LGBT people and supporting the belief that homosexuality is curable. In a press release, Hoosein Alizadeh, communications director for IGLHRC said that the speakers included Scott Lively, Don Schmierer, and Caleb Lee Brundidge. Alizadeh said that Brundidge is affiliated with the Extreme Prophetic Ministry in Phoenix, AZ, Schmierer is on the board of the "ex-gay" organization, Exodus International, and Lively is well known for his belief that the Nazi holocaust never happened. According to Cary Alan Johnson, IGLHRC's newly installed executive director, the American religious right is finally showing its hand and revealing the depth of its support for homophobia in Africa. "This seminar will increase violence and other human rights abuses against LGBT people, women and anyone who doesn't conform to gender norms. This newest form of colonialism is deplorable and must be stopped," said Johnson. The seminar was hosted by the Family Life Network (FLN), a Ugandan non-governmental organization started in 2002 that claims to be committed to restoring Ugandan family values and morals, opposes access to safe and legal abortions, the use of condoms, and promotes abstinence-only programming as its approach to HIV prevention.

(New York, NY - Feb 16, 2009) - While all the talk and concentration is on collapsing economies and a global financial crisis, in some countries, one of the most pressing issues for members of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities is simply maintaining one of their basic human rights - their freedom. 

On Dec 19, 2008, 12 days after the conclusion of an international conference on HIV/AIDS in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, eight men, ages 21 to 28-years-old were gathered at Diadji Diouf's house, when on a tip from a neighbor, all the men in the house, including Diouf, were arrested by the police. Less than one month later, on Jan 8, 2009, these nine men were charged, tried and sentenced under two specific Penal Codes: "engaging in acts against the order of nature," which is punishable by imprisonment of between one and five years and a fine of 100,000 ($200) to 1.5 million CFA francs ($3,000); and for forming an association of criminals.  They were each sentenced to eight years, the maximum under the "acts against nature" charge and three years for being automatically guilty of the first charge, thus branding them as criminals. The trial and sentencing of the nine men was conducted according to a standard penal code and not Sharia or Islamic law.

The arrest and imprisonment of these nine men has attracted very little U.S. media interest. Except for human rights organizations, such as the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and UNAIDS, the implications of the Senegalese government's about face has sent shock waves throughout that country and reverberated in LGBT communities and countries around the world. Providing some perspective on the impact of the Senegalese government's actions and not relying entirely on reports from sources outside of the country to supply details and context, Professor Cheikh Niang, of the Department of Social Anthropology and Environmental Sciences at the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, said that to most of the vocal population, the arrest and imprisonment of the nine men is justified. Some in Senegal, he said, think the sentences are not severe enough and while others feel sorry for the men, only a few dare to openly express their views.

(New York, NY) - David, Dexter, and Mike (names changed to protect their identities) are three young men with stories, who like many people gravitate to New York City, as moths to a flame, in search of their dream, fame and fortune, or a new life. What does a young Black gay man do, where does he go and to whom does he turn, when he finds himself homeless in a big city?


 

What is the allure for a straight Black Jamaican woman to make a documentary of the struggles gay men and women in Jamaica? Aside from a purely altruistic perspective to do good, this is a documentary that opens the door to greater discussion of acceptance in a predominantly homophobic environment that has consistently resisted addressing the issue of homosexuality.

Taboo Yardies, as a documentary taking its name from the un-discussed and forbidden, and common reference to people from Jamaica, captures interviews from several Jamaicans representing different segments of the island’s society	Salena Blake
The documentary includes comments made by the Prime Minister Bruce Golding in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), with religious leaders, including Bishop Zachary Jones, M.Div., founder, Brooklyn, NY-based Unity Fellowship Church in Christ; Thomas Glave, assistant professor of English and Africana Studies, State University of New York, Binghamton; and award winning poet and spoken word artist Stacyann Chin. It focuses attention on the persecution of homosexuals in Jamaica in contravention of sections of the country’s Constitution, which provides rights to all its citizens. Some other people involved with the project are former NYC Councilor Una Clarke, Ken Reeves, mayor of Cambridge, MA, Kenny Chang, one of the first gay Jamaican artists, and many women from Flatbush, Brooklyn. Produced by MayNov Productions, a film, documentary and media company led by Selena Blake; the Taboo Yardies trailer begins with, "...the voices of those who don speak up and out...," contrasts sharply with one scene where four men are playing dominors in the yard and one says, "...anytime you're a faggot, yuh gon get beaten..."

In what appears to be a volte face, the government of Senegal, on Dec 19, 2008 (some accounts claim Dec 16 and others Dec 22) arrested nine local men and less than a month later tried and sentenced the men to eight years imprisonment. This draconian action, which some suggest is part of a pattern, occurred 12 days after the conclusion of the ground-breaking International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA), which was held in Dakar, Senegal from Dec 3 to 7, 2008.

 

According to the BBC-Country profile, the Republic of Senegal is a predominantly Muslim country, which through the leadership of its pro-democratic president Abdoulaye Wade, is held up as one of Africa's advancing democracies - with an established multi-party system and a tradition of civilian rule. But, recent government actions have puzzled many in the country and in the international community. The ICASA conference, which was sponsored by many of the international agencies, accepted Senegal as one of the most HIV/AIDS aware and progressive African countries. At the conference, officials representing the Senegalese government, in speeches and presentations publicly joined with and pledged to the 8,000 HIV and AIDS professionals, public health leaders, scientists, clinicians, community and political leaders to support and meaningfully address HIV in populations of gays, and men who have sex with men (MSM).

Senegal's hardline President Abdoulaye Wade

Yet, contradicting this openness, the December arrests finds some of its roots in a previous case in February 2008 when 11 men were arrested and jailed on suspicion of being gay. With pressure from international aid, relief, HIV, and AIDS organizations, along with foreign countries, the Senegalese government released the men. As a case, those arrests sparked a retributive vigilance from many of the Senegalese people against the LGBT community, seen as the basis for later arrests.

(New York, NY - Feb 11, 2009) - Capitalizing on new media and trends to expand and increase viewers beyond the confines of a room with four walls, a photography artist uses his Web page on the World Wide Web as his own gallery to exhibit some of his creations.


 

Wings of Glory  -  Black is Beautiful, Gay is Good!

After trying unsuccessfully to obtain gallery space to show his work and realizing that he could attract more attention by showing his work online, a Brooklyn, NY-based photographer modified a free Web-hosting site to put up photographs in an exhibition titled, Black is Beautiful, Gay is Good, as a commemoration of Black History Month, for the world to see. A self-taught Haitian-born American photo-artist cum photojournalist, Ocean Morisset, 39, represents in his online exhibition 25 photographs of different views of Black gay life.   Ocean Morisset He captures and provides contextual explanations for each of the photographs which depict: lesbian and male couples at gay rights protests and summer celebrations; cultural Kwanzaa and award celebrations; frozen for all time single Black gay men and women entertaining crowds or standing silently in grief, holding on to images of loved ones, Dwan Prince and Rashawn Brazell, killed by hatred and ignorance; images of intimate embraces, held and shared, between Black male and female couples, emphasizing the comfort each feels with the other; and portraits of Black men who have been influential in their own way, in society, from the Black Elder series, Bill Stewart, Anthony Jenkins, and Eugene Compson.

Gay Youth  -  Black is Beautiful, Gay is Good!

(New York, NY) - Sweeping like a tsunami across the world, from the wind swept, sere plains of Southern Sudan is the combined work of one man, who through an autobiography, a hip-hop CD and a documentary, tells the story of his lost childhood, as a child soldier in an adult war.

In the film, War Child, Emmanuel Jai is a little boy, no older than five or six years old, forcibly separated from his family and sent on a dangerous river trip to join the militia who were at war. The boat was over crowded and sank claiming 360 little lives, but Jai, one of 56 who survived, began a long trek, walking with the hope of reaching Ethiopia. Instead, he was caught up in a war and for his survival was forced to shoot and kill indiscriminately, and resorted to eating vultures that fed on human cadavers.

War Child, as a book was released Feb 3 and as a film has received 15 official international film festival selections, such as from the Berlin and Edinburgh International Film Festivals and five awards, including the Tribeca International Film award 2008 Cadillac Audience Award Winner and the Bergen International Film Festival, Norway, 2008 Best Documentary Award. It was also an opening film for the Capri International Arts Festival in Italy.

Screening of the film begins with a live performance by Jai on Thursday, Feb 12. It runs until Feb 22, at the Faison Firehouse Theater, located on 6 Hancock Place, off 124th Street, between St. Nicholas and Morningside avenues.

Jai, who is lithe and wiry, muscular and dark - sun burnished under the Sudanese sun, shining Black skin, mop-head-looking funky dreads; today stands before audiences worldwide, wearing baggy faded blue jeans and a T-Shirt, the paleness of the bead and shell necklace in stark contrast against his Black skin singing one of his signature songs, whose lyrics and rhythms pulsate with the deep bass that is uniquely African.

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