PRE PRIDE/Gay City News: June 11, 2009

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JUNE 11- 24, 2009VOL. EIGHT, ISSUE 12

NICHOLAS LEICHTER DANCE

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CRIME

Porn BustsDismissed; NewSuit Vs. NYC

BY DUNCAN OSBORNE

T

he criminal cases against threemen arrested for prostitution inan Eighth Avenue porn shop weredismissed on June 2, with the Manhat-tan district attorney saying the arrests were justified, but that the chargescould not be proven at trial. “After fully investigating this matter, the peoplehave determined that there was proba- ble cause to arrest this defendant,” saidC. Andrew Cliver, the assistant district attorney handling cases at the MidtownCommunity Court, referring to one of thethree men. “However, we have concludedthat it would be difficult to prove beyonda reasonable doubt.”Cliver used identical language whenmoving to dismiss the case against theother two men. All three were bustedlast year in Unicorn DVD by undercov-er cops in the Manhattan South ViceEnforcement Squad. Cops arrested fivemen there altogether. The dispositionof one case is unknown. The fifth manmissed a recent court date and a war-rant was issued for his arrest. The five were among at least 30 men who were arrested on prostitution charg-es by vice cops in at least six porn shops

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COMMUNITY

Marriage theBuzz in Queens

BY WINNIE MCCROY

A

n estimated 40,000 New York-ers gathered under sunny skieson Sunday, June 17 for the 17th Annual Queens Pride Parade and Festi- val in Jackson Heights. The mood wascelebratory, and on a day hot enough tomelt the tar off the streets, the only thinghotter was the buzz about the fight for marriage equality in New York.“I think this year’s Queens PrideParade is even more festive and energet-ic than ever. People are very hopeful andexcited about the prospect of marriageequality, and you can certainly feel that in the air,” said out lesbian City CouncilSpeaker Christine Quinn, who marchedat the front of the parade with a cadreof supporters from the New York City Council. The parade stepped off at 89th Street,traveling down 37th Avenue to 75thStreet, where participants poured intothe Pride Festival area. Prominent amongthe marchers were the three grand mar-shals — Queens-Brooklyn Congressman Anthony Weiner, Reverend Pat Bum-gardner of the Metropolitan Community Church, and Hector Canonge, founder of Cinemarosa, the borough’s queer film

SENATOR TOM DUANE RALLIED LAST WEEK WITH DEMOCRATS; WHAT’S THE NEXT STEP?

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

A

fter three days of State SenateDemocrats and Republicans war-ring over the validity of a June 8parliamentary maneuver in which theGOP appears to have grabbed controlof the chamber, the situation in Albany remains chaotic — with the Senate inlockdown, a renegade Democrat claim-ing to have spirited a key to let his new Republican friends in the door, and talk of a second coup that would remove QueensSenator Malcolm Smith not only from therole of majority leader, but also as head of the Democratic caucus. As Smith threatens to go to court June11 to block the GOP putsch, one stun-ning question moved to the fore — Is TomDuane, the out gay Chelsea Democrat,thinking about joining Pedro Espada, Jr., of the Bronx and Hiram Monser-rate of Queens in supporting Republi-can Dean Skelos of Long Island as themajority leader? On the morning of June10, the New York Times speculated that Duane might be doing precisely that, inan effort to advance key legislative goals — marriage equality legislation already approved by the Assembly, as well asGENDA, the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, and the anti-bully-ing Dignity for All Students Act (DASA), which also only require Senate approvalto be enacted. CityHallNews.com elabo-rated considerably on the same themethat morning, reporting that Duane hadskipped key Democratic gatherings sincethe GOP coup, dropped out of sight (his

QUEENS P. 6BUSTS P. 11

Amidst Chaos, Where Is Tom?

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GLOBAL TRANS PUSH

Louis-George Tin picksup new cause

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NEW HAMPSHIRE WIN

Guv, legislators bridgereligious qualms

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HONORING BOOK BIGS

Lambda Literary Society,Publishing Triangle fetes

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In this issue:

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GAY CHRISTOPHER STREET

BY DOUG IRELAND

M

ay was an historic month for the transgen-dered around the world, as the issue of trans-phobia was inscribed on the global LGBT agenda thanks to new initiatives from the InternationalDay Against Homophobia (IDAHO). The effort includesa global petition campaign in favor of rights for thetransgendered aimed at the United Nations, the WorldHealth Organization (WHO), and governments aroundthe world, which has already resulted in major changesin the status of the gender-variant citizens of severalcountries. These initiatives came from the fertile mind of the brilliant French academic Louis-Georges Tin, president of the Paris-based International Committee for IDAHO, which he founded. Tin is the father of the Declarationto the United Nations in favor of the universal decrimi-nalization of homosexuality, which has already beensigned by the governments of 66 nations, including theObama administration. The declaration was presentedto the United Nations General Assembly last December (see this reporter’s Mar. 20-Apr.1, 2009 article, “U.S. Joins Global Gay Effort,” and his Dec. 24, 2008-Jan.7, 2009 article, “An Historic Day at the UN,” which arelinked on the online version of this story at gaycitynews.com). Tin, who is also a star of the emerging French black civil rights movement, hopes to repeat the success of the UN decriminalization declaration with IDAHO’sglobal transgender position. “In 2010, the World HealthOrganization is to conduct a review of its list of mentaldisorders,” Tin told Gay City News by telephone fromParis. “That’s why this year we changed the name of IDAHO to the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, and launched our global online peti-tion campaign for transgender rights.” The new petition, entitled “Reject Transphobia,Respect Gender Identity,” includes a call for the WHOto stop considering trans people as mentally disor-dered; for the UN’s human rights bodies to examinethe human rights abuses they face around the world;and for governments to adopt the Yogyakarta Principlesin favor of LGBT rights. The declaration also seeks toinsure that transgendered people benefit from healthcare, including the right to gender reassignment if they wish it, and the right to adapt their civil status to their preferred gender. (See sidebar for the complete text of this petition.)IDAHO is celebrated every year in more than 60countries around the world on May 17, the anniversary of the day in 1993 when the World Health Organizationremoved homosexuality from its list of mental disor-ders.“The gay movement owes an enormous debt to thetransgendered, because we must not forget that trans-

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HUMAN RIGHTS

Trans Rights Go Global

Anti-homophobia leader launches gender identity push

IDAHO’S TRANSGENDERRIGHTS DECLARATION

Reject Transphobia, Respect Gender Identity: An Appeal to the United Nations, the World Health Organization and theStates of the World

Every day, people who live at variance to expected gender normsface violence, abuse, rape, torture, and hate crime all over the world,in their home as well as in the public arena. Though most cases of vio-lence never get documented, we know that in the first weeks of 2009alone, Trans women have been murdered in Honduras, Serbia, and inthe USA. Trans men are equally victims of hate crimes, prejudice, anddiscrimination despite their frequent social and cultural invisibility.The basic human rights of Trans people are being ignored or deniedin all nations — be it out of ignorance, prejudice, fear, or hate, andTrans people overwhelmingly face daily discrimination, which resultsin social exclusion, poverty, poor health care, and little prospects ofappropriate employment. Far from protecting Trans citizens, States andInternational bodies reinforce social transphobia through short-sightednegligence or reactionary politics:Because of the failure of national law and social justice, in far toomany States Trans people are being forced to live a gender which theyexperience as fundamentally wrong for them. In most countries, anyattempt to change one’s gender can lead to legal sanctions, brutal mis-treatment, and social stigma.In other countries, legal recognition of gender change is subjectto sterilization or other major surgical intervention. Trans people whocannot or do not wish to submit to this cannot obtain legal recognitionof their preferred gender, and are forced to “come out” whenever theycross a border, run into a police patrol, apply for a new job, move into anew home, or simply want to buy a mobile phone.Contributing factors include that current International health clas-sifications still consider all Trans people as mentally “disordered.” Thisoutdated vision is insulting and incorrect and is used to justify daily dis-crimination and stigmatization in all aspects of Trans people’s lives.Recently though in some countries with very different social andcultural contexts significant legal advances have been made. Followingin the wake of bold judicial decisions, State action has led to increasedacceptance of Trans people within their society. This demonstrates thatunderstanding and progress is possible.Currently Trans people everywhere in the world rise up to reclaimtheir human rights and freedom. They carry an unanimous messagethat they will no longer accept to be labeled sick or treated as non-human beings on the basis of their gender identity and gender expres-sion (such as transvestite, transsexual, transgender, and other culturalidentities related to cross-gender dressing and living).

This is why we ask:The WHO

. to stop considering Trans people as mentally disorderedand to promote access to adequate health care and psychological sup-port, as desired by Trans people.

The United Nations Human Rights bodies

to examine thehuman rights abuses that Trans people face around the world and totake action to combat these abuses.

The States of the World

to adopt the international YogyakartaPrinciples and ensure that all Trans people benefit from appropriatehealth care, including gender reassignment if they so wish; be allowedto adapt their civil status to their preferred gender; live their social,family, or professional lives without being exposed to transphobic dis-crimination, prejudice, or hate crimes and that they are protected by thepolice and justice systems from physical and non-physical violence.

We call on the UN, the WHO, and the nations of the world, inadopting these measures, to refuse transphobia and welcome the right of their citizens to live fully and freely in their preferredgender, assumed as an expression of cultural freedom.

You can sign this online petition by clicking on http://idahomopho- bia.org/wp/?page_id=28&lang=en.

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“I want to build a District Attorney’s office that’s definednot by how we handle the big,high profile cases, but by how wehandle the tens of thousands of cases each month that won’t everget written about—cases that don’t involve infamous acts or famouspeople, but whose outcomes mat-ter every bit as much.“I’ll never forget that as yournext DA.”— Cy Vance

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genders, transvestites, and other gender dissidents were in the forefront at Stone- wall and have greatly contributed to our movements since,” Tin said. The IDAHOpresident also reported that there werea lot of negative reactions to IDAHO’sdecision to adopt transdender rights asits theme this year. “Sometimes it’s beena very violent reaction,” Tin said, add-ing: “A journalist who’s the specialist inLGBT questions for one major Frenchmedia outlet practically reproached mefor having chosen this theme because,she told me, ‘When I raised it in our edi-torial meeting, everyone laughed, and while I can write about homophobia, if I write about transphobia they’re goingto kill my article.’ I responded that whilethis was going on, transphobia is kill-ing transsexuals. We need to emphasizetransphobic violence, because today murders of the transgendered are toooften treated the way murders of homo-sexuals were treated 15 or 20 years ago,as obscure crimes without motivationsor only minimal references to the gen-der status of those killed, so the victimsdie and the witnesses to their deaths areafraid to speak.”However, the IDAHO transgender rights petition has already won concreteresults in France and the Netherlands. After a year-long lobbying campaign led by Tin, last year the French government officially endorsed IDAHO and agreedto use its six-month term in the rotat-ing presidency of the European Unionlast year to launch the campaign for theUN declaration on decriminalization of homosexuality. (See this reporter’s May 22-28, 2008 article, “France Fights for Decriminalization,” which is linked onthe online version of this story at gayci-tynews.com). This year, IDAHO’s petition for trans-gender rights was published in full inFrance’s newspaper of record,

Le Monde,

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Louis-Georges Tin, IDAHO’s founder, has taken on trans-gender rights as his next global campaign.

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