Saturday, July 31, 2010

House Of Rainbow Fellowship London AUGUST 2010


House Of Rainbow Fellowship Prayer and Praise August 2010.

Thursday 5th August 2010, 6.30pm
House Of Rainbow Fellowship presents a monthly Prayer and Praise evening in London on the first Thursday of the month 5th August, from 6.30pm to 8pm, with an inclusive gospel of Jesus, celebrating the ineffable love of God for all people. Come Just as you are, to an inclusive space to pray and safe space to praise. www.houseofrainbow.org For info Call/text +447507510357, email: church@houseofrainbow.org

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Video: Africa's Last Taboo: must see documentary now on YouTube



Video: Africa's Last Taboo: must see documentary now on YouTube
By Paul Canning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyEFfL9GbRw

Dispatches is UK TV channel Channel 4’s highly successful, sometimes controversial pioneering documentary series that critically covers a vast range of topics and areas.

In a recent episode entitled ‘Africa’s Last Taboo’, Sierra Leonean filmmaker and reporter Sorious Samura traveled across Africa.

In Mtwapa, Kenya, the scene of an attempted pogrom of gays which followed false reports of a 'gay wedding' earlier this year (see our reports), he begins to discover the levels of hate and prejudice that are driven not only by communities, but also religious organisations and governments, and meets some of the young men who have suffered because they are gay.

"They would have burned him alive." "Because he's gay?" "Because he's gay," he is told.

Amazingly Samura asks some of those who participated in the pogrom, "if I was to say to you now I was gay, what would have happened?"

A local Imam and bishop confirm to him that gays should be killed.

The man dragged from the HIV clinic in Mtwapa, Kenya, HIV/Aids clinic - in pictures which went around the world - tells Samura that he had been warned by police that he would be killed.



He says he lives in fear. His mother supports him but his father does not.

Another Kenyan gay man tells says Samura of how he was attacked and had paraffin poured on him.

I heard someone shouting "put a fire on him".
To those who did this he said:

I cannot say anything to him. I think we have no rights, gays have no freedom.
Samura tracks down a riot leader caught on video who says if it is his brother who is gay or "my son, I will burn him."

In an interview with an HIV+ gay male sex worker, who is raising his young sister in a hovel, the common belief of his often married clients is that anal sex is less risky than vaginal sex.

This attack on a clinic providing HIV-focussed services, including to gay men, highlights how same-sex transmission is often treated, or more usually ignored, in much of Africa. "Many [gay men] are dying needlessly", says Samura.

Unfortunately Samura does not report on the follow up work which civil rights groups did following the attempted pogrom. This work shows that such homophobia can be countered by well supported grass-roots work.

Mbale in Uganda, host of a large anti-gay rally in April, is where Fred Wasukira and his then partner Brian were arrested and were held in custody. Samura conducts an astonishing interview with the local police about how they were caught and this results in the policeman interviewed pontificating on the 'use of the anus'. He speaks to the doctor who examined them to prove they'd had sex. The doctor agrees that in doing this he was violating their human rights.

Samura interviews Fred, now in Kampala and staying with his sister. She say that customers in her restaurant have threatened to desert her because of her support for her brother: "they don't want him to touch plates, our drinks or anything."

At a bar in Kampala where gays are accepted and can "queenie around" Samura meets a man who a gay activist has had a crush on. Told by the man that "I've already says no", Samura asks "You're not going to give up?"


The activist, Gerard, tells him about his life in Uganda: "it's about being abused every day."


He attends a Christian rally where Lou Engle, notorious American anti-gay activist, is in attendance alongside numerous white Americans. The Ugandan pastor says that the disavowal by US evangelicals of Uganda's 'kill the gays' bill is 'just for the media'.

Samura confronts the pastor with a former worker for his church who is gay (it's Gerard, the gay activist). He dismisses him saying "homosexuality is a Western colonisation."

After a pointless hour's discussion, where the pastor says tells him he should be imprisoned, Gerard says:

Whether they like it or not, we exist. Whether the laws are here or not, we shall be here.
In Malawi he asks human rights activist Dunker Kamba outside the trial of Stephen Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga about the idea that homosexuality is 'un-Africa'. Says Kamba, how come we have a traditional word for a homosexual from before the British colonialists imposed a law?

Samura visits Tiwonge in prison and comes away moved and shocked. He speaks with gay men, who are disguised, in Malawi. "Everybody's afraid, we are living undrground", he is told.

Malawi's our home. Where we are supposed to live? But it seems as if we are somewhere where it is not our home.

We want to be free.
He visits Tiwonge after his release. Tiwonge says when the pardon was announced that the other inmates "lifted me up in the air. They were dancing, some were crying."

Asked about his challenge to Malawi's attitude to gays Tiwonge says:

Everyone is born free. Freedom is for everyone and should not be limited.

I cannot change. I won't change. I'll be this way until I die.

Samura wrote for Channel Four about his experiences making Africa's Last Taboo and the prevailing attitude towards sexuality in Africa.

According to an old African proverb, or should I say according to conventional wisdom, 'a child doesn't just get up and walk, it will first of all learn to crawl' – and the same goes for every race on earth.

There's a lot of talk in the Western media and even classrooms today about sexual attitudes but in Africa we still find the word 'sex' extremely difficult to mention, let alone discuss. Even now as a full grown man with my own children, I cannot talk about sex, or menstruation or even childbirth with my old man because to him all these are taboos, and he gets really angry whenever I try to.

There are a lot of things my dad and his mates would not entertain, but the one thing that makes them go mad even today is when somebody tries to talk to them about gay and lesbians. 'They are devils, evil bastards or nasty animals not fit to be amongst human beings'. These are just some of the words my father and his friends would use to describe gay people and this was exactly how my friends and I, and millions more across Africa, were brought up to view homosexuals.

Somehow we used to be a bit tolerant towards girls, because it was always rumoured that girls in boarding homes tend to have sex with each other, but we always concluded that this was something they would outgrow.

I was one of those who would tease and provoke you until you broke if we suspected you had gay tendencies. We would perhaps set you up to fight with girls we believed could beat you up – and once you lost that fight we would then start giving you all sorts of female names – but that was as far as it would go. We just had no way to talk about it to our parents, even when found two boys having sex, or dressing or behaving like girls. We would simply refer to them as dirty.

But we never even knew the word 'homosexual' existed. For me and for most of my friends, the word 'gay' or 'homosexual' only made it into our vocabularies when we were in our mid or late teens.

So it was a real challenge for me personally to make this film. It was really tough to confront some of the men who were now standing up against gay men in my continent because I knew exactly where they were coming from and what they would think about me – and it wasn't long before respectable men like Bishop Oyet in Uganda started questioning my sexuality. I spent a lot more time off camera answering questions about my sexuality than I spent interviewing some of the characters in the film.

We found out in some of these countries we filmed that, on top of coping with the rejection by their communities, it was pressure from religious leaders that has made it more difficult for gay and lesbians to come out about their sexuality in Africa – and not only African religious leaders either. We found American Christian preachers who had come over to help their African brethren in their fight against homosexuality. We also found out that not only has this homophobia led to a lack of sexual education but it also plays a significant role in the increasing prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

There is no doubt that this topic is clearly one of the last few taboos that still remains in Africa. As the Western world was some 30 years ago, the people of Africa are still on a journey of understanding, learning to crawl before they can walk.
The documentary can be viewed on Youtube.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

What Is Happening About Town?



What is happening about town?

• Thursday 22nd July 3 to 4pm I will be at Voice for Africa Radio Station 94.3fm doing a Live Interview, this will be broadcast in to the London Area. Tune in.
• Saturday 24th July- 11am to 4pm Volunteers Open day at the Rukus Federation, this is a Black LGBT archiving event at Kairos in Soho. You can arrive anytime. FREE entry
• Saturday 24th July 6pm Nigerian film “The Fake Prophet” by Teco Benson, cost from £10. You can see the trailer at - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBfZQqTh2Fw, Call ticket hotline 0845 313 8391
• Sunday 25th July , St Barnabas Anglican church is having a special service at 10am followed by a BBQ, all are welcomed, St Barnabas Road London E17, FREE entry
• Saturday 31st July Quiz night 6.30pm at the Stoke Newington Methodist Church, if you are interested we can form a team for House Of Rainbow and or just enjoy the event. £10 per person
• Saturday 31st July from 10pm/midnight, The Victoria Bar Party, one of the local night clubs in Walthamstow, 186 Hoe Street London E17, £5 before midnight.
• Tuesday 3rd Aug, 6 to 10.30pm I will be on a Panel discussion at a national event in Bethnal Green organised by Big UP. FREE entry
• Thursday 5th Aug is the next House Of Rainbow Fellowship at 6.30-8pm, tagged Sing, Clap and Dance in East London, FREE entry
• Saturday 7th Aug is the Gay Pride in Brighton
• Saturday 14th Aug is the UK Black Gay Pride in London. I have been asked to lead a workshop and I am hoping to get tickets for the group. Talk soon and have a great day. visit website: www.ukblackpride.org.uk/ or email us on: info@ukblackpride.org.uk

For more information please call +44(0)7507510357 or visit www.houseofrainbow.org

Saturday, July 17, 2010

UK Supreme Court upholds LGBT Asylum seekers

UK Supreme Court upholds LGBT Asylum seekers must not be sent back to countries with risk to their lives.

The Justice for Gay Africans [JfGA] Society heartily welcomes the ruling by the Supreme Court that gay men and women should not be sent ‘back to live discretely’ in countries with homophobic laws.

This ruling is a landmark and goes a long way to ensure that LGBTI people have a fair hearing when seeking safety in the UK from perceived or known persecution in their home country. As the Home Secretary has welcomed this ruling, implementation should be immediate and loopholes checked against as recent researches, like the 'No Going Back' by the Stonewall highlighted a high level of ignorance, disbelief & sheer hatred by immigration staff who handle these cases.

From many indications, it is disheartening to see and know that many ordinary individuals do not know nor understand this grave wickedness carried out by their government through an immigration system riddled with staff who show no humane compassion towards vulnerable people who run here for safety from persecution and forceful lifestyle.

“This is great news. It is consoling to know that someone really cares and recognises the dangers of asking people to ‘go back [to homophobic countries] and live discretely’ hence living a lie for the rest of their lives. The discretion test case confirms that majority of people of this country [UK] are compassionate and understands that ‘living discretely’ contravenes the idea of freedom by all ramifications. We now hope that the government will implement this recommendation sincerely and that other countries bound by the 1951 Convention will follow this excellent judgement”, says Godwyns Onwuchekwa of JfGA.

We have a strong belief in the coalition government to make good this opportunity to improve the image of the UK as a country with respect and support for human dignity and liberty.



NOTE FOR EDITORS (Please circulate amongst your contacts)

Justice for Gay Africans Society (JfGA) is a pressure group based in London and founded by LGBT people of Black and African origin. Our mission is to use civil approaches to bring a change of attitude in black and African people in UK, Africa and other black countries where homosexuality is criminalised and homophobia is rife. We also aim to keep the insecure and inhuman state of treatment of LGBT people in these countries on the top of agenda of the international communities.

For more information, please visit www.jfga.org.uk or email info@jfga.org.uk



Godwyns Onwuchekwa

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

BBC Radio World Service with Revd Rowland Jide Macaulay


"A BBC Radio World Service Interview with Rev Jide

Click Here to listen http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p008grqh "

Broadcasts
Wed 7 Jul 201012:32BBC World Service.Wed 7 Jul 201016:32BBC World Service.Thu 8 Jul 201000:32BBC World Service.Thu 8 Jul 201004:32BBC World Service.Sat 10 Jul 201005:32BBC World Service.Sat 10 Jul 201020:05BBC World Service.Sun 11 Jul 201002:05BBC World Service.Sun 11 Jul 201011:32BBC World Service.Sun 11 Jul 201023:05BBC World Service

Jide Macaulay was born into a devout Pentecostal Christian family in Lagos, Nigeria. His father is a well-known theologian.

As a child, Jide loved church more than playing with his friends.

But around the age of 11, he began to become aware that he was different from other boys.

Much to his horror, he realised that he was gay.

In conversation with Michael Ford, Jide recalls the inner conflicts he went through as a teenager and a young man, in a country where it is almost inconceivable that anyone can be both a committed Christian and homosexual.

We hear how he learnt to embrace his orientation after a failed marriage.

Leaving behind the deep shame he had felt, he founded a church for gay and lesbian people in Lagos: the House of Rainbow.

Driven out of the country by death threats, Jide now continues his ministry to African gay and lesbian Christians from his home in London, through a vibrant "virtual" church. He has become a well-known voice in Africa and beyond.

Monday, July 5, 2010

OPEN LETTER TO HOMOPHOBES - THE TRUTH


Open Letter to Homophobes.

Far too many people play God and dehumanize Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Trans, and Intersex people throughout the world, in every culture, race, background etc.

The discrimination is so bad that it leaves many LGBTI people wondering and asking questions. This letter to Homophobes is being reproduced to answer many questions people have asked me.

Both heterosexuals and homosexual people, People of all faith have claimed that homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstance.

The following is an open letter to all Homophobes...(I also pray and hope that gay people will learn that they are children of the living God.)

Dear Homophobes,

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your bigoted rhetoric, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, they are clobbered with Leviticus 18:22 which clearly state it to be an abomination...End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighbouring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odour for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problems are my neighbours. They claim the odour is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbour who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2. Clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination?

7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

The Other Child of the living God.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Press Release:Pan Africa ILGA Publishes Gay Map


Press Release: Pan Africa ILGA publishes Gay Map.

38 countries still criminalize same-sex relationships between consenting adults in Africa, four with death penalty.


The map was launched together with the 4th edition of the State-Sponsored Homophobia published by ILGA, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. The report is a collection of legislation criminalising consensual sexual acts between persons of the same sex in private over the age of consent*. Maps are available in French, English, Portuguese and Spanish. http://ilga.org/ilga/en/article/1161



ILGA is a world-wide network of national and local groups, with more than 700 member organizations from every continent and representing 110 countries, dedicated to achieving equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people, wants to name and shame the States which at the end of the first decade of the 21st century still treat their LGBTI citizens like lesser persons, unworthy of consideration. The unworthiness rests entirely on these States, for theirs is the shame of depriving a significant number of their citizens of dignity, respect and the enjoyment of equal rights.



*Laws relating to such acts in public, with under aged persons, by force or by any other reason are not included. Nor does it include countries where such acts are legal.



Linda RM Baumann, Co-Secretary General, Pan-Africa ILGA
Thirty-eight countries in Africa have laws criminalizing homosexuality, some with death penalty, and many more with harsh jail sentences. By far, it’s the continent with the worst laws on the books when it comes to homosexuality and other sexual minorities, a phenomenon which is in part rooted in bad colonial-era laws and political situations, religious autonomy, strong negative belief in cultural and family values, and the evil of patriarchy.”

Rev Rowland Jide Macaulay, Co-Secretary General, Pan-Africa ILGA
“The struggle against HIV/AIDS is also undermined by criminalization of same sex relationship. The Human Rights Committee has noted that laws criminalizing homosexuality “run counter to the implementation of effective education programmes in respect of HIV/AIDS prevention” by driving marginalized communities underground. Some homosexuals respond to stigmatization by moving away from their countries, communities, families; others build supportive networks outside their communities; while others struggle to keep it a secret by pretending to be heterosexual”



Pan-Africa ILGA is the African region of ILGA. Pan-Africa ILGA counts with 64 members groups in the region.



For more information on State Sponsored Homophobia and legislations affecting LGBTI people, ILGA and Pan-Africa ILGA activities around the world and at the United Nations, please contact:



Steave Nemande, Regional Coordinator for Pan Africa ILGA:

steavenemande@ilga.org