Rodney Croome, of the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group, was in New York in late June to speak at the rally to mark the 25th anniversary of Stonewall. During his stay he participated in several meetings and had discussions with a range of gay and lesbian activists. TOM FLANAGAN of Green Left Weekly spoke to Croome about the people he met and struggles he became acquainted with.
A highlight of the trip, according to Croome, was meeting Juan Pablo Ordonez, a Colombian gay and lesbian rights activist. Ordonez received this year's Felipa da Souza Award. (Felipa da Souza was executed by the Portuguese in Brazil in 1591 for having sex with other women. Each year the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission gives this award to individuals and organisations in recognition of their work for lesbian and gay rights.)
Ordonez was nearly assassinated a couple of years ago because of his activism in Colombia. He had to flee to the United States where he sought asylum. Ordonez told Croome that while the Western media's attention is focused on the Colombian drug barons, they tend to ignore the rife corruption of the Colombian government and the police and the military violence against Colombians. An example of this is the violence directed against the so-called "disposable people".
Ordonez is the founder of Proyecto Dignitad (Project Dignity), which tries to defend the human rights of the urban poor including street kids and transsexuals. Croome read a passage from the group's newsletter.
"The Spanish word desechable refers to anything that is disposable: paper plates, plastic forks, yesterday's newspapers — things you would toss in the trash without a moment's hesitation. But in Colombia, desechable is also used to refer to people — the indigent outcasts of Colombian society.
"Hundreds of thousands of such people inhabit the major cities; they are the targets of scorn and violence from a population that sees them as a blight on society.
"Limpieza social or social cleansing is the euphemism used by paramilitary groups and police who want to rid society of "deviants", the victims of social catastrophes such as homelessness and drug addiction.
"They dispose of these target groups literally. In night-time raids, homeless people, transvestites, gays and lesbians, prostitutes and drug users, the mentally ill and street children are rounded up, tortured and murdered by death squads.
"The victims, often whose identity papers have long since been confiscated, are utterly powerless. They die a nameless death. The atrocities are never investigated and the murderers are never brought to justice.
"International human rights groups have little contact with the victims and so cannot collect specific information in order to force the Colombian government to take action. Many such groups have simply ignored the problem.
"Proyecto Dignitad is a new organisation whose aim is: to stop this violence; to give the marginalised urban poor of Colombia a voice to empower the targeted communities to organise and fight for their own survival; and to make clear to Columbian society that no human life is disposable.
"Working closely with several other human rights groups, Proyecto Dignitad has begun collecting eyewitness accounts of social cleansing violence. This will be compiled into a report detailing the harsh realities of life and death for Colombia's underclass."
Whereas the US provided asylum for Ordonez, Croome made the point that it is often not so welcoming to others in need, as David Harris from the National Coalition for Haitian Refugees explained to him.
Harris told Croome the story of how a friend, along with thousands of others, had escaped from Haiti. They were rounded up by the US Coast Guard and taken to the US base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where they were tested, without their consent, for HIV.
Everyone who tested positive, including Harris' friend were taken to a large corrugated-iron hall with a public address system. Over the PA, came a message, in Creole, which went something like this: "Your blood is tainted with the virus that causes AIDS. For this reason you will not be considered for political asylum in the US; you will be taken back to Haiti". That was the end of the message.
"I just couldn't believe this," Croome said. "No consent, no counselling, no recourse, they were just all shipped back to Haiti." It was stories like this that prompted Harris to became involved in advocacy work on behalf of Haitian refugees.
Croome also attended a meeting between lesbian and gay activists and non-government human rights organisations in the US. "My impression was that parts of our community are entering the mainstream very effectively. There's still quite a bit of homophobia in those organisations which came to the surface during that meeting. But, nonetheless, its an inevitable process that NGOs will be taking up gay and lesbian rights more and more.
"I guess that we can sit back in the West, or the North, and ask whether it's a good or a bad thing — us becoming more mainstream. Its important that NGOs take up gay and lesbian rights because the situation for people in the Third World is just horrendous. They really need organisations to advocate for them, because if they advocate for themselves they get shot."