UK
New Iran Protest Over Treatment of Gays at London Embassy
|
|
||||
|
The online petition
mentioned in this article is open for anyone in the world to "sign". UK Gay News asks
you to remember the plea that came from gays in Iran just a few days ago:
“Please do not leave us alone”
and click
HERE to sign the petition, which closes on
Tuesday morning (October 4).
|
LONDON, October 1 – A new protest outside the Iranian Embassy in London is to be staged next week. UK gay human rights group Outrage!, which last July broke the news to the world of the execution of two gay teenagers, has joined forces with UK gay lifestyle monthly axm to spearhead a further demonstration at the Embassy on Tuesday (October 4). This weekend, Britain’s gay community is being mobilised by axm magazine and a wider press campaign, as well as through a grass roots campaign across the London gay scene and gay web message boards. The aim of the protest is to put pressure on Iran, not least by gaining the widespread press and broadcast media coverage that has so far eluded this ongoing tragedy. To this end, high profile figures and celebrities are being canvassed for support through both statements and their presence at the rally. Already, statements of support are coming in from people as diverse as Little Britain star Matt Lucas, boy-band Westlife and League Of Gentlemen member Mark Gatis, with the likes of Scott Cappurro and Josh Rafter confirmed to attend on the day. Axm and UK Gay.com are working hard to build a large attendance at this protest and will hand over a petition signed by over 1,500 axm magazine readers so far. The events in July, when Iran’s clerical regime executed two teenagers, apparently for committing the ‘crime’ of homosexuality, have shocked and mobilised axm readers who are travelling from as far afield as Scotland, Cornwall and Yorkshire to attend the protest on Tuesday. “The shocking images of the executed Iranian teenagers have galvanised our print and online readers, with well over 1,500 people signing our petition in a ten day period,” said Matthew Miles, the editor of axm. “As LGBT people in the West finally gain most of the rights we deserve, it seems we are proving that there is such a thing as a global gay community by focusing on the struggle for equality in more hostile parts of the world. “Protest is only a step but, as organisations such as Amnesty International and Outrage! have proved, it can and does bring change and that’s why, along with Outrage!, axm magazine will be protesting against the Iranian Government from 1pm on Tuesday 4th October,' he added. ■ The Iranian Embassy is at 16 Prince’s Gate, London, SW7 1PT Getting there: The Embassy is near the Royal Albert Hall, by the junction of Kensington Road and Exhibition Road. Nearest underground stations are South Kensington and Gloucester Road. ■ This week, Bay Windows, the gay weekly for the Boston area, has joined New York’s Gay City News in asking why American gay organizations are do relatively little about the worrying state of affairs in Iran. “More than likely, the inaction on the ongoing anti-gay human rights abuses in Iran stems from plain old apathy,” writes Laura Kiritsy in Bay Windows under the headline: Death of activism – Where’s the outrage over Iran's treatment of gays? She takes a similar line to that of Doug Ireland in asking why aren’t the Amercan gay human rights groups outraged and doing something (IGLHRC’s Failure to Stand Up to Anti-Gay Iran). LINKS
axm website
|
|
Posted: 1 October2005 at 10:00 (UK time)