'Subtle' promotion of anti-gay UAE Perhaps it's a little late in the piece, being the eve of the first race for the America's Cup, to burst into print about something that has been troubling a few LGBT New Zealanders over the past couple of months. New Zealand is doubtless heading into a couple of weeks of saturation media frenzy as some of our most brilliant sailors try to take back the cup which the upstart Swiss Alinghi team pinched off us a few years back. And high profile, front and centre of all this media coverage both here and overseas, flapping on the spinnaker of 'our' yacht, painted on the side of the hull and even built into the very name of the vessel will be the name ‘Emirates'. Our challenge for the Cup is run by team called Emirates Team New Zealand, and every mention of it, every image of the New Zealand yacht, and its sailors, promotes the interests of the UAE. This is not a moan about nationalism or some such. It's a reflection on the unfortunate status of our fellow gay, lesbian and transgender brothers and sisters in the United Arab Emirates. And the Trojan horse method by which New Zealand has been led into supporting a country which aggressively victimises, brutalises, and even leaves open the option of killing, its homosexual citizens. The United Arab Emirates is a formal, federal grouping of several tiny but oil-rich states in the Middle East, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ras al-Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain, Ajman, Fujairah and Sharjah. The government of Dubai is the 100% owner of Emirates Airlines, which our sailor's expertise and our fervour for the 2007 America's Cup series promote. Any success garnered by the hard work of sailors and support staff, every extra seat sold on the highly profitable and expansionist Emirates Airlines, benefits Dubai and by extension the UAE. According to the most recent financial reports available to GayNZ.com, The Emirates Group annually pays its owner, the government of Dubai, a dividend of not far off $US100m. Emirates Airlines is a major component of Emirates Group. In the UAE, allowing for some minor variations between individual states, federal and sharia laws, sexual relations outside of a traditional (read: heterosexual), marriage is a crime. Punishments range through fines, jail time, deportation, right up to the death penalty. Dubai itself imposes imprisonment of up to 10 years for consensual anal sex. Think these may be just old medieval laws and penalties which have no bearing on these surely more enlightened times? Think again. As recently as 2005, GayNZ.com reported on the shocking Dubai police raid of a private party which resulted in the arrest over a dozen men for the crime of homosexuality and in a few cases, cross-dressing. While the law provided for the statutory penalties listed above, a Dubai Interior Ministry official additionally recommended that people convicted of sodomy should be given hormone treatments as a "cure." Following international concern, the Dubai government quickly retracted the 'straighten them up with a dose of hormones' statement. Then, in a less-reported double twist only truly cynical politicians could love, it suggested that such bizarre treatments might be made optional, at the discretion and direction the court, with the stinger that being bunged full of powerful drugs of no relevance and possibly serious adverse effects could, quid pro quo, reduce the prison sentences of the convicted men. Thankfully the Dubai/UAE court does not appear to have eventually made any reference to hormone treatments, but news reports have suggested that some of the convicted men have been given some type of psychiatric testing. Adding insult to injury, the private party was often inaccurately and salaciously described in official statements and UAE media reports as a "gay wedding", and one of the arresting police officers was subsequently investigated for vindictively distributing to friends, family and acquaintances pictures he had taken of the raid, outing the victims and ratcheting up the level of public ridicule into the bargain. The most recent USA State Department report on human rights, published in March last year, details anti-gay abuse around the world. It included the collective United Arab Emirates in its “ten worst places in the world to be homosexual”. Sadly, the predominantly Muslim Middle East region is massively over-represented on the list, which we've included with condensed notes at the end of this editorial. It's a small world and here in New Zealand we are increasingly aware that the fairly consistent equality in law, and the measure of public understanding many thinking kiwis have of our homosexuality and cultures, are so remote a possibility in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates as to be an utterly unreachable dream for its gay, lesbian and transgender citizens. Their leaders force them to live in daily fear of their innate sexuality being used to destroy their lives. Financial realities meant that Team New Zealand couldn't raise locally the huge funds needed for the America's Cup challenge, and Emirates Airlines stepped in. It's a business arrangement which - at that simple level - is working well for our sailors, our national sporting fervour and the United Arab Emirates/Dubai, as owners of Emirates Airlines. But every time that 'Fly Emirates' message is so vividly carried to the world courtesy our yachties, my feelings of national pride suffer with increasing unease. There's probably bugger-all we homosexual New Zealanders can do about this situation. Any meaningful concern we, individually or as a community, voice at this late stage would surely have no impact on Team New Zealand or the intensely homophobic UAE politicians and lawmakers. Given the rather shameful way our elected leaders have taken to regularly kow-towing to the human rights-averse Chinese government, it would be optimistic to predict any support from that quarter. Even the apparent ease with which representations by gay and lesbian MPs to our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, asking him to protest Nigeria's viciously homophobic proposed law changes, seem to have got lost between someone's in tray and the 'Action' file, is discouraging. But, as you follow the coming saturation coverage of the America's Cup races, remember that the governments, politicians and religious leader of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates are right now benefiting phenomenally from the international publicity, brand awareness and cashflow boosted by Emirates Team New Zealand, while they happily lock away, victimise, psychiatrically abuse or even kill their homosexual citizens. The ten most anti-gay nations according to the USA State Department, March 2006. (Readers may ponder the reasons that China and Russia were not included.) 1) Uganda In July 2005, the government of Uganda approved a constitutional amendment banning equal marriage rights for gays. Consensual homosexual sex can be punished by life in prison. 2) Iran People with HIV face discrimination in employment and at school. Intercourse between two men is punishable by death and homosexual acts that do not involve intercourse are punishable by 100 lashes. Two young men, at least one a minor, were executed in Mashad in July 2005, some claim, for being gay. Two more men were executed for being gay in November 2005. 3) Egypt While Egyptian officials claim that homosexuality is not illegal, Human Rights Watch say that it is. Egyptian law prohibits fujur, which courts have interpreted to mean "homosexual relations between men." Rights groups have documented hundreds of cases in which gay men were arrested and tortured. In such cases men are subjected to abusive anal examinations. 4) Saudi Arabia Some gays who are convicted of homosexuality are flogged with 2,000 lashings, according to Amnesty International. In recent years gay men have been beheaded in public squares for the crime of consensual homosexual sex. 5) Nigeria Homosexuality is outlawed in the Nigerian penal code and Muslim law. However, in northern states under Muslim law the punishment can be death; in the civil penal code homosexuality can carry up to a 14-year prison sentence. A proposed new law, supported by many mainstream church leaders, would forbid same-sex marriage, prohibit gays from assembling anywhere and even prohibit gays from petitioning the government. It would also allow prosecution of newspapers that publish information about same-sex relationships and religious groups that allow same-sex unions. Those who violate this proposed law could be sentenced to five years in prison. 6) United Arab Emirates Civil and Muslim law criminalise homosexuality in the UAE. Last November, 26 gay men were arrested and variously reported as being given hormone treatments, psychiatric therapy and jail sentences. 7) Cameroon In a recent case last May, seventeen men were arrested for homosexuality. Twelve were charged and detained. The suspects were given a "medical examination" to find evidence of homosexual conduct. 8) Poland Right wing groups attempted on several occasions to disrupt Gay Pride marches. In 2005 Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski, who is now Poland's president, denied Gay Pride groups the right to march because he "would not allow the promotion of gay culture." However, the marchers braved considerable hostility to assemble anyway and spoke about discrimination they faced. 9) Nepal While homosexuality is not criminalized, government authorities harass and abuse gays and transgender people. In April, police attacked eighteen transgender women who were on their way to a festival. 10) India Violation of India's sodomy law is punishable by up to ten years in prison. This sodomy law is often used to harass and detain AIDS prevention workers and gays. JayBennie - 22nd June 2007