[lbo-talk] Re: Gays Flee Iraq as Shia Death Squads Find a New Trget

Yoshie Furuhashi critical.montages at gmail.com
Mon Aug 7 07:48:36 PDT 2006


On 8/7/06, BklynMagus <magcomm at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Dear List:
>
> Yoshie asks:
>
> I'm aware of what's been said about gay rights in Syria, but can you
> show me an organized social force on the Left on the grounds in Syria
> who can replace the Baath Party-led "National Progressive Front" (in
> which the two branches of the Syrian Communist Party have
> participated) on their own, without the empire's assistance, and make
> things better for gay men and lesbians?
>
> Whether or not such a social force exists, queers can never remain silent
> when people are persecuted and oppressed for their sexual behaviors
> (I would say all interested in progressive change, but as history has
> shown sexual rights are disruptive for both the right and the left).

When facts warrant our speaking up, yes, but facts aren't easy to come by, especially when it comes to individual cases in faraway places, alleged by one side and denied by the other side.

I'd recommend that we speak up on the matters that are clearly the case, such as the fact that death penalty exists in Syria, one of the 85 countries that Amnesty International calls "retentionist": <http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/abret.html>; or the fact that "Article 520 of the penal code of 1949, prohibits having homosexual relations, i.e. 'carnal knowledge against the order of nature', and provides for a possible three-years imprisonment" (at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_rights_in_Syria>).

At the same time, we can't have any illusion that our speaking up here makes any difference whatsoever over there. The only people who can change things in Syria fundamentally, for better or worse, are organized social forces in Syria or those who are running the multinational empire. What we say here about Syria or anything else for that matter concerning other countries makes only an analytical difference for us. It would be a different thing if we were running the US government, but that is not the case today. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>



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