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 AIDS Declaration Islamic Nations Demand: Keep High Risk Groups in Closet Cairo Gay Disco Crowd-52 Men-Charged with Sodomy |
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By Jack Nichols
 New York, New York--Gay men and lesbians lost this week's bitter battle for what one diplomat called "The Soul of the United Nations" when language identifying certain AIDS risk groups, namely men having sex with men (gays), sex workers and intravenous drug users, were disallowed in the world organization's tardy declaration of war on the virus that causes AIDS.
Muslim nations including Egypt, Iran, Syria, Libya, Pakistan, Malaysia refused to countenance mentions of such risk communities, claiming that public admissions that such communities exist are insults to religious sensibilities in their Muslim cultures. Nassim, the U.K.-based editor of Iran's Homan, a lesbian and gay activist newsmagazine, http://www.homan.cwc.net was outraged by these stances of socially-conservative Muslim governments where, political observers note, theocratic notions masquerade as democratic ones. In nations such as Iran, for example, known same-sex lovers may choose between four cruel methods to assure their deaths.
Criticizing Muslim influences at the U.N., Michelangelo Signorile, in his Gay.Com column, said: "Terms that were used in previous drafts of the document were exorcised simply because of religious bigotry. Instead of referring to 'men who have sex with men' in outlining groups most affected by AIDS, for example, the final resolution now only discusses those at risk due to 'sexual practices.' " U.N. diplomats who voted for the declaration said: "It was a necessary compromise needed to save the entire document that - albeit without referring to vulnerable groups - remains an important blueprint." Scott Long, speaking for The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission noted: "Such a decision on language guts the whole declaration - not only by excluding specific mention of gays and lesbians but by excluding mention of other vulnerable groups." More than 22 million people throughout the world have died from complications due to AIDS and another 36.1 million are infected with the HIV-virus. Egypt: Vicious Persecution of Gay Disco Dancers Egypt, the nation that internet news feed provider Scott Miller says "led the change in language that made gays invisible in the U.N." is guilty of yet another shameful crusade against 52 of its suspected gay citizens. "Gays have been rounded up in Egypt," explains Miller, "and face the possibility of 5 years in jail. What is their essential crime? Being gay, of course." The reputedly gay Egyptians, jailed in May after being targeted at a discotheque on the Nile, have been officially charged with sodomy. Prosecutor General Maher Abdel-Wahid told reporters: "(The files of the) 52 men were transferred to a state security court in connection with charges of abusing religion to spread extremist ideas verbally and in writing...and practicing sodomy," Three photographers, originally counted among those arrested, were set free. For some time they'd been watching the gay men frolic and had provided photographic "proof" of what Egypt's theocratic officials eagerly treat as foremost sex crimes. The reputedly gay men imprisoned were also said to have distorted the Islamic scriptures, to have behaved immorally and to have caused offenses to monotheistic believers, especially by praying incorrectly. Two of the accused, men believed by the prosecution to be immoral ringleaders, were served with additional charges. |
