Canada gets LGBT expert

  • by Heather Cassell
  • Tuesday November 22, 2016
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Randy Boissonnault special adviser on LGBTQ2 issues.

The Edmonton Center Member of Parliament will develop and oversee Canada's LGBT policies, starting with implementing suggestions from one of the country's leading LGBT organizations Egale Canada. In June the group issued "The Just Society Report," which examines various types of discrimination LGBTs face.

Boissonnault, a 46-year-old gay man, said in a November 15 statement that it was an "honor and a privilege to be named to this role."

"I will work hard with the prime minister and the LGBTQ2 community to advance and protect their rights and address historical injustices they have endured," he stated.

Trudeau noted the progress on LGBT rights in Canada, including the recent repeal of Section 159 of the Criminal Code that criminalized anal sex for minors, except for married opposite couples, reported the Washington Blade. The legal age for consent is 16.

"We have made great strides in securing legal rights for the LGBTQ2 community in Canada �" from enshrining equality rights in the charter to the passage of the Civil Marriage Act," Trudeau said in a statement following the announcement.

Boissonnault's appointment comes nearly a year and a half after Randy Berry's appointment as the U.S.' first-ever special envoy for the human rights of LGBTI persons. The United Nations' first-ever LGBT expert, Thailand's Vitit Muntarbhorn, was appointed September 30.

 

HBO doc about Castro daughter

HBO will premier a documentary focused on Mariela Castro and Cuba's LGBT rights movement.

Castro is the daughter of President Raul Castro and the niece of former president Fidel Castro.

Cuba has emerged at the forefront of the Caribbean's LGBT rights movement during the past several years due to the passionate campaign of Mariela Castro, a straight ally.

During the Cuban revolution LGBT people were persecuted and even placed in labor camps as unfit to serve in the revolution, as Luis, a gay man who served in the labor camps tells his story about how the revolution ruined his life in Mariela Castro's March: Cuba's LGBT Revolution .

Subjects in the film are only referred to by their first names.

"They are the stories of people who suffered greatly because of the discrimination," said Emmy-winning director Jon Alpert about the people who participated in the film. The 67-year-old filmmaker declined to state how he identifies.

However, times are changing for Cuba's LGBT community in large part due to Castro's constant campaigning from the streets of Havana to the mountains where the Cuban revolution was born. She passed pro-gay legislation as a member of Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power.

The 40-minute documentary premieres November 28 at 9 p.m. Pacific Time on HBO.

The film follows another documentary about Cuba, Patria o Muerte: Cuba, Fatherland or Death, which looks at modern day Cuba through the eyes of artists, activists, bloggers, writers, musicians, and everyday people who lived through political unrest and economic inequality. That film will be shown at 8 p.m., Pacific Time, according to an HBO news release.

Alpert follows Castro leading up to Cuba's annual march on the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. He also speaks to LGBT Cubans who were affected by the institutionalized and systematic homophobia during the revolution and the social prejudice that continues to affect LGBT Cubans daily. The film also shows LGBT Cubans' response to Castro's work on their behalf.

While life continues to be difficult for LGBT Cubans in a very macho culture, Castro has made headway, utilizing a multitude of political tools. The film shows her charismatic leadership as she changes people's hearts and minds one person at a time. As director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education she proposed and passed legislation to protect LGBT individuals.

However, not everyone is happy with her work. The film also shows instances where Castro faces challenges from men who simply aren't swayed by her and insist that LGBT people are sick.

Castro knows that she's fighting an uphill battle and that there are still many changes that need to be made, but she believes the community and she will win. The film doesn't address how much she was influenced by her mother, the late Vilma Espin Castro, who was a feminist and sexual education advocate who began working to change perceptions of LGBT people in the 1970s.

Castro briefly tells the story of her turning point from being homophobic to fighting for LGBT rights when a close friend of hers who was gay died by suicide.

Alpert hopes viewers will learn something about Cuba and the LGBT community from the film.

"I think that we can all learn from people who are different from us. I think that it's important that we learn from people who are different from us whether they are in the United States or in Cuba," said Alpert.

 

African leaders defeated in attempt to suspend UN LGBT expert

The attempt by representatives from some African countries to suspend the U.N.'s independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity failed this week.

The aforementioned Muntarbhorn was appointed to the newly created position, charged with investigating violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. He started work November 1.

Latin American and Caribbean nations, who supported the appointment of the expert, introduced an amendment to get rid of the paragraph in the African-backed resolution calling for a delay in implementing the Human Rights Council resolution and suspension of the expert's activities.

Some Western countries lent support to the Latin American and Caribbean nations.

The amendment was adopted 84-77. There were 12 abstentions by the assembly's human rights committee.

The amended resolution was then voted on again and approved 94-3 with 80 abstentions without reference to suspending Muntarbhorn's position.

The amendment will now have a final vote from the 193-member General Assembly in December.

African leaders �" and possibly other member state leaders from China, the Middle East, and Russia �" who oppose the resolution could attempt to block it again.

At least 76 countries criminalize homosexuality and some uphold life in prison to the death penalty.

Global LGBT and human rights leaders lobbied the General Assembly's Third Committee hard to defeat the Africans' resolution. A statement about the need for all countries to respect the authority of the Human Rights Council and to vote in favor of the independent expert was endorsed by 850 organizations from 157 countries around the world.

"The Third Committee's vote affirms that the right to be protected from violence and discrimination applies equally to LGBT people," Boris Dittrich, LGBT rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a news release Monday. "It also respects the integrity of the Human Rights Council as the U.N.'s top human rights body, to ensure that mechanisms are in place to protect rights not just in theory, but in practice."

OutRight Action International, which has consultative status at the U.N., also praised the move.

"We are encouraged by this voting result and in the confirmation that states believe in the mechanisms of the Human Rights Council. It is vital that the integrity of the Human Rights Council remains intact and is not further undermined in the Third Committee," OutRight Action International Executive Director Jessica Stern said in a news release.

 

Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at Skype: heather.cassell, or [email protected].

 

For a review of Mariela Castro's March: Cuba's LGBT Revolution see the arts and culture section.