April 09 - The World Issue
Welcome to our World Special. We’ve collected stories from the far-flung corners of the globe to give you a taste of gay life in other parts of our village. We may think that things are peachy for gay people now, and indeed, they are better than they have ever been, but we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. If Californian voters can force divorces on gay couples, if an activist can be chased out of Nigeria for simply coming out, and if there can be anti-gay honour killings in Turkey then we must not rest. Justice means justice for ALL.
Speaking of justice for all, given the recent failure of a resolution at the UN to decriminalise homosexuality worldwide (voted down by USA, Russia, China and the Catholic Church, and various Islamic countries – also look at our global gay map and read Brian Whitakers’ global gay round up) and given that many of the world’s anti-gay laws are hangovers from the British Empire, we could ask the British Government to lead the way. We call upon the Prime Minister to acknowledge our country’s legacy and issue a symbolic apology to those nations that still have these barbaric, unjust laws in place. This will give fuel to the activists working in those countries to drive their cases forward.
Given that this Prime Minister has just held the first ever reception specifically for LGBT people at number 10, to celebrate LGBT History month, and given the wonderful speech he delivered there about ending discrimination, perhaps he is the man to stretch his hand out to shine a light on these injustices worldwide. To this end, we have set up a petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/gbantigaylaws
I urge you please, if you agree with it, to go and sign it right away.