COMMONWEALTH RAPPED FOR IGNORING HOMO-ABUSE

Gay rights campaigner and Green Party human rights spokesperson Peter Tatchell has accused Commonwealth leaders of a “systematic, persistent failure to condemn homophobic discrimination and violence.”

He’s urged Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma to speak out against “widespread homophobic persecution that exists in most Commonwealth member states, in violation of the Commonwealth principles of equality, non-discrimination and human rights”, in particular Uganda’s new Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which proposes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and “serial offenders.”

“Anti-gay persecution in Commonwealth countries includes discriminatory laws that criminalise same sex relations, with maximum penalities ranging up to life imprisonment. Many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Commonwealth citizens are at risk of arrest, torture, rape, imprisonment and extra-judicial murder,” said Tatchell.

He has written to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, urging him to speak out against the victimisation of lesbian and gay people at the up-coming summit meeting of the 53 member states of the Commonwealth association of nations taking place in Trinidad and Tobago this weekend, 27 – 29 November.

You can read the letter here.