TransNews Annex

Elton urges global gay rights - Observer

Worldwide Pride

Elton urges global gay rights

Jamie Doward, social affairs editor
Sunday July 3, 2005
The Observer

Elton John calls today for the government to do more for gay rights, in the way it has campaigned to alleviate poverty in Africa.

In an article in The Observer, he writes: 'I want our government, which has presided over many positive changes for gay people here in the UK - an equal age of consent, partnership rights, the abolition of the rightly reviled Clause 28 - to ensure that ending violations of gay people's fundamental human rights around the world becomes an explicit issue in its diplomatic relations with other countries.'

The singer, renowned for his commitment to HIV charities, argues that people power can change governments' attitudes to gay issues.

'I strongly believe that when thousands of us refuse to look away and stay silent we make a difference to what politicians do and say.'

Writing after yesterday's Gay Pride event in London, he says: 'The sheer force of our numbers will ultimately help to end the suffering from extreme poverty and extreme prejudice all over the world.

'There are many parts of the world where such a celebration could not take place, because basic human rights are not respected and people face threats, attacks, prosecution and even possible execution just because of their sexuality.'

The Gay Pride event saw some 30,000 people march down Park Lane for what is believed to have been the biggest celebration of gay culture in Britain.

A record 48 floats joined the procession, which ended on Victoria Embankment. Among those taking part were 100 officers from the Gay Police Association.

The parade was addressed by Live 8's Bob Geldof, actors Ian McKellen and Stephen Fry and Pride chief Jason Pollock.

An estimated 200,000 people watched the event, with 15,000 going on to Trafalgar Square for a rally.


Comment: Make prejudice history - Elton John

Comment: Make prejudice history - Elton John

Comment
Make prejudice history

The worldwide repression of homosexuals is a disgrace that our leaders must address urgently

Elton John
Sunday July 3, 2005
The Observer

From the stage of the Live8 concert in Hyde Park yesterday, I could feel the crowd's great anticipation that the G8 leaders really will act to make poverty history this week. We have never before had such an intense focus on the suffering of the world's poorest people, and the feeling that this is a unique historical opportunity to relieve this suffering is palpable.

The world's leaders at Gleneagles are aware that they will be made to answer for it if they do not make big commitments to end poverty. I hope that what comes out of the G8 meeting also sends an unambiguous message to all governments that respect for human rights is as essential as poverty reduction to ensuring people all over the world have a better life.

As the Live8 players took to the stage, central London was also host to a huge Gay Pride march, our annual celebration of lesbian, gay and bisexual people's 'out and proud' lives. There are many parts of the world where such a celebration could not take place, because basic human rights are not respected and people face threats, attacks, prosecution and even possible execution just because of their sexuality.

Amnesty International has established that around 80 countries still have laws that criminalise sex between same-sex consenting adults. In some states, these laws are vigorously enforced.

In Saudi Arabia, for example, four men were recently sentenced to 2,000 lashes and two years' imprisonment after attending a 'gay wedding'. A further 100 men who attended the event were imprisoned and face 200 lashes each. The human body cannot usually withstand being flogged more than 50 times, so the punishment will be administered up to 50 lashes at a time at intervals of two weeks. These punishments could take place any day now.

Article 76 of the Jamaican Offences Against the Person Act punishes the 'abominable crime of buggery' with up to 10 years' imprisonment with hard labour. Homophobic violence, including beatings by whole crowds, rape, torture and even murder, is rife in Jamaica. Once a person's homosexuality becomes known to family or community, they are at serious risk.

Several Jamaican men have been granted asylum in the UK because the authorities recognise the risks they face if sent back. Those who campaign for gay rights often become a special target for attack. Brian Williamson co-founded Jamaica's first gay rights organisation, the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-sexuals and Gays, in 1998.

A brave campaigner, he determinedly took to the airwaves, appearing on television and radio phone-ins to champion gay rights and calling for tolerance. He was brutally murdered for this in his own home just a year ago.

Alongside these extreme human-rights violations, gay people in dozens of countries are routinely denied their basic rights: to freedom of association, freedom of speech, the right to be free from persecution, the right to education.

In Namibia, even in schools, a place where tolerance and understanding should be fostered, children routinely face discrimination and abuse from students and teachers because of their sexuality. For many, this environment is so unbearable that they are forced to leave school and forgo their right to education. It is hardly surprising that this atmosphere of hatred is fostered in schools when former President Nujoma makes such statements as: 'Homosexuality deserves severe contempt and disdain from the Namibian people and should be uprooted totally as a practice.' He is not alone in his beliefs. In Uganda, President Museveni is notoriously outspoken with his anti-gay campaigns: 'I have told the Criminal Investigations Department to look out for homosexuals, lock them up and charge them.'

Many politicians, from Africa to Asia and Latin America, proclaim that homosexuality is 'not part of our culture', an imported 'European perversion' that needs to be eradicated. 'Those who want to [continue with homosexual activities] must pack up and go back to Europe,' was how President Nujoma put it.

In Colombia, paramilitaries and armed groups have made it their business to target gay people for 'social cleansing' as part of their policing of communities.

In addition to these daily violations, such discrimination undermines the excellent work being undertaken to combat the HIV/Aids epidemic. In Uganda, for example, a radio station was recently fined US$1,000 for broadcasting a talk show that featured sexual-rights activists discussing the need for HIV/Aids services for men who have sex with men.

This is just a snapshot of the discrimination that gay and lesbian people face across the globe today. We need to shine a light on these human-rights violations. Amnesty and its members are doing this work, and it is one of the reasons I became a patron of the organisation.

We hear often that the UK government is committed to the promotion and protection of human rights around the world, and that it makes respect for human rights a condition of many of its foreign relations.

I want our government, which has presided over many positive changes for gay people here in the UK to ensure that ending violations of gay people's fundamental human rights around the world becomes an explicit issue in its diplomatic relations with other countries.

I strongly believe that when thousands of us refuse to look away and stay silent, we make a difference to what politicians do and say. The sheer force of our numbers will ultimately help those who are suffering from extreme poverty and extreme prejudice all over the world.

UK: London Shows Its Pride - 365Gay.com

London Shows Its Pride
by Peter Moore 365Gay.com London Bureau
Posted: July 3, 2005 12:01 am ET


(London) More than 300,000 people celebrated LGBT Pride in the British capital on Saturday with a massive parade. The march was culmination of two weeks of pride events.

As gay civil rights groups, men in leather, club boys and drag queens were getting ready to set off from Trafalgar Square they had a surprise visit from Bob Geldof.

His Live 8 concert to draw attention to poverty in African was just getting under way across town and Geldof had a message for gays.

"Between what you people are doing and the people in the park are doing and the people around the world, we are going to stop one vast oppression of a vast minority - that's what we are going to do today," Geldof told marchers.

Elton John used Pride day to urge the Blair government to take a stand against worldwide homophobia.

"I want our government, which has presided over many positive changes for gay people here in the UK - an equal age of consent, partnership rights, the abolition of the rightly reviled Clause 28 - to ensure that ending violations of gay people's fundamental human rights around the world becomes an explicit issue in its diplomatic relations with other countries," he wrote in an op-ed piece for The Observer.

Of Gay Pride Day, Elton wrote that the there is a link between poverty and hate.

"The sheer force of our numbers will ultimately help to end the suffering from extreme poverty and extreme prejudice all over the world.

"There are many parts of the world where such a celebration could not take place, because basic human rights are not respected and people face threats, attacks, prosecution and even possible execution just because of their sexuality."

"I strongly believe that when thousands of us refuse to look away and stay silent we make a difference to what politicians do and say."

Saturday's parade featured more than 40 floats. Marchers made their way along Park Lane, through Westminster, past the Houses of Parliament and along Victoria Embankment.

At a rally following the parade, actor Sir Ian McKellen, London mayor Ken Livingstone and gay rights activist Peter Tatchell addressed the crowd.

今週の本棚：鹿島茂・評 『Ｗｏｍａｎ 女性のからだの不思議 上・下』＝ナタリー・アンジェ著

今週の本棚：鹿島茂・評　『Ｗｏｍａｎ　女性のからだの…』＝ナタリー・アンジェ著

　◇『Ｗｏｍａｎ　女性のからだの不思議　上・下』

　（綜合社／集英社・各１９９５円）

　◇少子化日本を勇気づける？「女の一生」学

　歴史家のミシュレは五〇歳のとき、二二歳の女性と再婚したことから、若妻の肉体の神秘、とりわけ月経と排卵と受胎のメカニズムに魅せられ、『女』を執筆することになる。

　生物学専門の科学ジャーナリストの著者は、胎内にいるのが娘であると知った瞬間、「二枚の鏡が向きあった部屋に立っているような」感覚に捉えられた。娘はバナナほどの大きさの胎児だというのに、「一生分の卵をすでに抱えていたのだ」。

　これをきっかけに、生物学の知識を総動員した「女の一生」の再検討が始まる。女とはいったいどんな生命体なのか？　これが著者が投げかけた根源的な問いである。

　たとえば、起源の性は雄か雌かという問題。著者はジェーン・カーデンというスーパーモデルのような「女性」を例にあげる。ジェーンは胎生初期にはＹ染色体（男となる染色体）を持っていたため、アンドロゲンが放出され、原始的な子宮と卵管の消去が促されるはずだったが、ここで何かが起こった。いや起こらなかった。というのも、アンドロゲンを受け止めるＸ染色体のアンドロゲン受容体遺伝子が働かなかったからである（オス化にもＸ染色体が必要なのだ！）。その結果、ジェーンは女の子への道をたどったが、「外性器の小さな突起は、大陰唇と陰核と短い行き止まりのトンネルになった」。これがアンドロゲン不応症である。もちろん、子宮も卵巣もないので月経はなく、妊娠もしないが、外見的にはスーパー女である。つまり「きれいな肌、つややかな髪、豊かな胸、すらりとした長身。（中略）モデルや女優にはアンドロゲン不応症の人がいる」。

　ここから導かれる結論はこうだ。「ジェーン・カーデンのケースでわかるように、胎児は女性化プログラムがアンドロゲンに妨害されないかぎり、女性になる準備をほぼ整えている。生殖原器は指示がなければ外陰になり、膣も少なくとも部分的に形成される」

　しかし、だとすると、男のペニスは女のクリトリスの変形進化物ということになるのか？　対比は胚の時期なら正しいが全体としては正しくない。なぜなら、クリトリスには尿道もないし、射精もせず、役割は女性にオーガズムを与えるだけだからである。

　では、クリトリスは進化適応なのか、それとも不適応なのか？　著者は諸説を吟味した後、古代ギリシャのガレノスの唱えた「妊娠には女性のオーガズムが不可欠」という説が、超小型カメラによる最新の研究で復活したことを指摘する。すなわち「男性の射精直後に女性がクライマックスに達すると、子宮への門戸である子宮頸部が驚くべきはたらきをする。リズミカルに脈動しながら魚の口のように伸びて、戸口のところに排出された精液を吸いこむ」のであり、「自然選択は満足させることを目指す男に向いている」。

　このようにして、子宮と月経、乳房と母乳、女性ホルモンと欲望など、女性特有の器官と現象が進化という俎上に乗せられて比較検討されるが、中でなるほどと思ったのが、閉経という人類特有の現象（他の哺乳類は死ぬまで子を産む）の問題である。

　閉経の謎については、ジョージ・Ｃ・ウィリアムズの「おばあさん仮説」というのがある。人間の子供は育てるのに手間がかかるので、女性が死ぬまで生殖能力を持っていたら、子供は置き去りにされて死んでしまう。閉経はこの危険を回避するために生まれたプログラムであるというものである。

　これに対しては、古生物学から、有史以前の地層から閉経後の女性の人骨は発見されず、女は卵を打ち尽くしたときに死んでいたという反論がなされ、「おばあさん仮説」は揺らいだ。ところが、ここにきて「おばあさん仮説」が復活したのである。タンザニアのハッザという狩猟採集民を調査したホークスという学者が、母親が妊娠・授乳中に、おばあさんが食糧を採取して子供の世話をする場合には、子供の体重が増えることを実証したのである。そればかりではない。「年をとった女性は、頭がやわらかく戦略的で、援助する相手を自分の子供や孫に限定しない。一族のなかで助けが必要な子供の誰にも手を差し伸べる」。つまり、閉経を迎えた女性がいることで、一族全体の遺伝子は適応度を拡大し、進化が加速したということだ。年寄りが生まれ、子供が生まれ、人間は頭がよくなったのだ。

　確信的なフェミニストを自認する著者だけあって、全体的に、議論が女性優位に傾きすぎるきらいはあるものの、党派的な硬直性はなく、男性でも興味をもって読み進めることができる。少なくとも、少子化社会を迎えて老人が激増する日本のような国にとって希望の持てそうな議論であることはたしかだ。

　しかし、おばあさんには未来はあっても、おじいさんには？　「若者に必要とされたら、経験者はシャベルをもって手伝いにいくものなのだ」。この言葉は果しておじいさんにも適用されるものなのだろうか？（中村桂子、桃井緑美子訳）

毎日新聞　2005年7月3日　東京朝刊

単行本／翻訳単行本
WOMAN　女性のからだの不思議　（上）　　
ウーマン　ジョセイノカラダノフシギ
著者：ナタリー・アンジェ 　
訳：中村　桂子 　
訳：桃井　緑美子 　

■ISBNコード： 4-7777-1004-1
■判型／総ページ数： 四六判／224ページ
■定価： 1,995円（税込）
■発売年月日： 2005年5月26日
■発行元： 綜合社

自分のからだをどこまで知っていますか。
卵→幼児→少女→思春期→成人→出産。生物進化の過程で、女性のからだはどのように進化したのか。驚くほど巧みで機能的なシステムのすべてを、わかりやすく紹介する楽しいからだ入門。


単行本／翻訳単行本
WOMAN　女性のからだの不思議　（下）　　
ウーマン　ジョセイノカラダノフシギ
著者：ナタリー・アンジェ 　
訳：中村　桂子 　
訳：桃井　緑美子 　

■ISBNコード： 4-7777-1005-X
■判型／総ページ数： 四六判／232ページ
■定価： 1,995円（税込）
■発売年月日： 2005年5月26日
■発行元： 綜合社

からだの不安がみるみる消えてゆく。
母親→中年→更年期→閉経→おばあさん。更年期障害なんかこわくない。元気なおばあさんは人類の未来をひらく。美しさの秘密の裏に蓄えられた知恵とは。かならず役立つからだの話が満載の女性の百科事典。

中日春秋 (中日 2005/07/03朝刊)

中日春秋 (中日 2005/07/03朝刊)

　重い訴えだ。「私たちは病気として扱われている。人間として扱われていない」

▼一日から神戸市で開催中の第七回アジア・太平洋地域エイズ国際会議。共催のＮＧＯを代表してあいさつしたインドネシアの女性はエイズウイルス（ＨＩＶ）に感染していることを明かし、そう語った（共同通信）。依然なくならない差別や偏見なのだろう

▼ある取材を思い出す。名古屋でホステスとして働き、ＨＩＶ感染が分かって長女を出産した後、やっかい払いされるように帰国した十九歳のタイ人女性。彼女の貧しい故郷で話を聞いた。売春宿にも放り込まれた日本での生活の回想や、偏見や差別を恐れて親にも感染を明かさないと語る姿には、胸ふさがるばかりだった

▼実家から離れた場所で取材し、食堂に入ったときのことだ。彼女が手渡してくれた料理の皿を受け取るのに一瞬ためらいを覚えて、がく然とした。偏見を悲しみ恐れる彼女の言葉にうなずいていながら、自分もどこかで偏見や差別の気持ちを抱いていたのかと。人の心に簡単に巣くうものだと痛感した

▼国際会議で関係者はＨＩＶ流行が「爆発的になる瀬戸際まで来ている」と危機的状況を訴えた。予防に力を入れればこの五年でアジア・太平洋地域では六百万人の新規感染が防げて、今まで通りなら千二百万人が感染するとも。予防とケアは無論、「人間として」という冒頭の訴えを切実に考えたい

▼「頑張って生きる。赤ちゃんがいるから」と語ったタイの女性の言葉がよみがえる。病魔を抱えても懸命に生きる人たちがいる。