Witness to a Genocide in the Making
AS A GAY VIDEO HISTORIAN, I hate being late, because documenting the “before” is just as important as the actual event and the aftermath. So I was pissed off…More
Browsing: International
Blog Posts
Saudi Arabia: Shari’a Law Meets Reality
THE FOLLOWING is based upon my personal observations of Saudi Arabian society as an English language teacher over a four-year period. Throughout my time in Saudi I lived in…More
Bangladesh: Activism Struggling to Be Born
Bangladesh is overwhelmingly Islamic (at ninety percent of the population), and there is little tolerance for homosexual behavior, which can be subject to brutal punishment.
MoreFrance v. the UK: Two Paths to Marriage Equality
THE FRENCH like to make fun of the British, joking about their repressed ways in matters of the heart. But when it came time to debate same-sex marriage, it was France that betrayed a deeply conservative streak in sometimes violent protests, while the British showed themselves to be modern and tolerant.
MoreIsrael: Equal Rights As Workaround
As in the United States, where ten states and the District of Columbia have marriage equality, Israel has marriage equality of an indeterminate nature, but in a different way. Same-sex couples in Israel cannot get married on Israeli soil. But if they travel abroad to marry in jurisdictions that allow them to, the Israeli government will then register their marriages in Israel.
MoreMalawi: Churches Stand in the Way
EARLY IN 2010, a legal trial in Malawi made international news when two individuals were sentenced to fourteen years in prison for holding a traditional engagement ceremony or ‘chinkhoswe.’ The couple were a transgender woman named Tiwonge Chimbalanga and a man named Steven Monjeza, whose act of mutual devotion was deemed an ‘unnatural offense’ under Malawi’s highly ambiguous criminal code …
More
India: Male Privilege Is the Problem
New Delhi witnessed an event last November that’s becoming increasingly commonplace in India. It was the 5th edition of the Delhi Queer Pride Parade. … The first such gay pride parade in India took place in 2003. …
This development in India over the last couple of decades reflects the increasing willingness of gay people to come out into the open. …
However, not all segments of the community have come out to the same extent.
Visual Art for an Invisible Subculture
IN 2012, a Cuban friend who is an accomplished gay artist was able to visit the United States for the first time for a few months. Because Americans generally get their impressions of Cuba from either government propaganda or leftist sympathizers of the Cuban regime, I wanted to get the views of a nonpartisan independent Cuban with no particular axe to grind. I asked him to discuss life in Cuba near the end of his visit. For security reasons, he cannot be further identified. …
More
A Cuban Art Exhibit to Remember
ONE OF THE MOST prestigious art galleries in Havana is La Acacia, is placed in a highly touristic zone of the city. An unusual art show took place in that gallery from January 18 to February 28 of this year called Sex in the City, a collective exhibition of homoerotic Cuban art.
MoreSpain: Bones of Contention
… POET AND PLAYWRIGHT Federico García Lorca was one of the hundreds of thousands of people executed by Franco’s forces during the Spanish Civil War. Today he has grabbed such a powerful hold on Spain’s cultural imagination that a photograph of his face is used as the logo for the city of Granada’s tourism industry.. …
More