- Scott Long (human rights activist)
Scott Long (born
June 5 ,1963 inRadford ,Virginia ) is a prominent activist in the human rights movement working for the rights oflesbian ,gay ,bisexual , andtransgender (LGBT ) people. He is currently Executive Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program atHuman Rights Watch . [cite web |url=http://www.hrw.org/doc/?t=lgbt |title=Human Rights Watch website, LGBT Section |accessdate=2006-12-26 |last= |first= |authorlink= |date=2006-00-00]Biography
Scott Long was born
June 5 ,1963 inRadford ,Virginia . He graduated fromRadford University at the age of 17, and received a Ph.D. fromHarvard University in1989 at the age of 25. In the same year he moved toHungary , and taught at theEotvos Lorand University inBudapest . He became involved with the nascentlesbian andgay movement in Hungary as it emerged during the democratic transition. He organized the first course on sexuality and gender at theEotvos Lorand University , attended by hundreds of students. He was a founding member of Hattér, a Hungarian LGBT support and advocacy organization. [cite web |url=http://www.hatter.hu/ |title=Hattér |accessdate=2006-12-26 |last= |first= |authorlink= |date=2006-00-00]Career activities
In
1992 he accepted aFulbright professorship at the University ofCluj-Napoca ,Romania . There, together with a few underground Romanian activists, he became deeply involved in campaigning againstArticle 200 of the Romanianpenal code , a law dating from the Ceauşescu dictatorship that criminalized consensual homosexual acts with five years' imprisonment. Working independently from any institution, Long visited dozens of Romanian prisons over the following years, interviewing prisoners, linking them to legal assistance, and documenting torture and arbitrary arrest of lesbians as well as gay men. He identified some of the first lesbians and gay men taken up as prisoners of conscience byAmnesty International . His documentation was crucial in persuading theCouncil of Europe to strengthen its stand on lesbian and gay issues, and to demand that Romania repeal itssodomy law . He was a founding member of the Romanian gay and lesbian organizationACCEPT . His work spearheaded a European campaign and contributed strongly to Romania's eventual repeal of Article 200 in2001 . [cite web |url=http://www.france.qrd.org/assocs/ilga/euroletter/35-Romania.html |title=Report on the Symposium Homosexuality: A Human Right? |accessdate=2006-12-26 |last=Tanaka |first=Jennifer K. |authorlink=Jennifer K. Tanaka |date=1995-05-31]In 1993 Long conducted the first human-rights mission to
Albania to meet with gay activists there, and his documentation of arrests and abuses helped lead to the repeal of that country'ssodomy law .Returning to the United States in
1996 , Long accepted a job with theInternational Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC )--anNGO working against rights abuses based onsexual orientation ,gender identity , andHIV status--first as advocacy coordinator, then as program director. Between1998 and2002 , he organized an ongoing project bringing many grassroots lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activists from theglobal South to speak and advocate before theUnited Nations Commission on Human Rights . Their lobbying brought about an unprecedented commitment by six keyU.N. human rights experts in2001 to work on issues ofsexual orientation andgender identity .Long also led
IGLHRC 's advocacy at the groundbreaking2001 United Nations General Assembly Special Session onHIV/AIDS . IGLHRC was invited to address the session, then blocked by conservative Islamic states and theHoly See . The crisis led to the first-ever General Assembly vote on a gay/lesbian issue, which resulted in a victory and in IGLHRC's reinstatement.From
1998 , when he led a delegation to theWorld Council of Churches 's world conference inHarare ,Zimbabwe , Long was closely involved withsexual rights movements acrossAfrica . He authored a 300-page report on state-sponsoredhomophobia in southernAfrica for IGLHRC and Human Rights Watch in2003 .Long also co-authored or edited reports on
gay ,lesbian , andtransgender parenting , and on sexuality-based attacks on women's organizing. He also wrote a guide to grassroots advocacy at theUnited Nations .In
2002 , Long left IGLHRC for Human Rights Watch, the largest U.S.-basedhuman rights organization, where he was mandated to create a program on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights--the first such program in a major, "mainstream" human rights organization. The program was formally launched in2004 . From 2001, Long had been deeply engaged in combating a crackdown on homosexual conduct inEgypt . [cite web |url=http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=&id=22 |title=groundbreaking step by major UN working body |accessdate=2006-12-26 |last=Levy |first=Sydney |authorlink=Sydney Levy |date=2002-08-19] In May 2001, police inCairo raided a floatingNile discotheque called theQueen Boat , arresting dozens of men and staging a show trial for "blasphemy " as well as "debauchery ." [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1655961.stm |title=Egypt jails men in gay sex trial |accessdate=2006-12-26 |last=Salah |first=Heba |authorlink=Heba Salah |date=2001-11-14] Long attended and reported on their trial. In succeeding months, hundreds, possibly thousands of other men were arrested in raids and throughInternet entrapment . Long spent months in Egypt in2003 documenting the extent of the crackdown. [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2852927.stm |title=Egypt jails men in gay sex trial |accessdate=2006-12-26 |last= |first= |authorlink= |date=2003-03-15] Working forHuman Rights Watch , he also documented a brutal government assault onanti-war activists,Islamist s, and the politicalLeft . The bridges he thus built helped persuade parts of Egypt's human rights community to take lesbian and gay issues within their work.In
2004 , together with Human Rights Watch executive directorKenneth Roth , Long launched a report on the Egyptian crackdown against gays, inCairo , accompanied and supported by five Egyptian human rights groups. From the day the report was released, arrests for homosexual conduct in Egypt stopped. According to Long, a prominent contact in Egypt's Interior Ministry said, "It is the end of the gay cases in Egypt, because of the activities of certain human rights organizations." [cite web |url=http://cllcanuck.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html |title=Sleepless in CLL |accessdate=2006-12-26 |last=Long |first=Scott |authorlink=Scott Long |date=2006-07-01]Later in 2004, Long worked to launch a Human Rights Watch report on homophobic violence and HIV/AIDS in
Jamaica . The report stimulated an intense debate in Jamaica and across theCaribbean over homosexuality and the region's colonial-era sodomy laws, a furious controversy which continued for over a year. Editorials condemning Jamaica's anti-gay policies appeared in publications such as theNew York Times and theEconomist , and filled the Jamaican press as well. For the first time the government suggested a willingness to modify its repressive legislation on consensual sexual acts.In
2006 , Long was the principal author of a report on binational same-sex couples and the discrimination they face in U.S.immigration law, amid a fierce religious and social backlash against recognition ofsame-sex relationships in the United StatesLong also went to
Moscow in 2006 to support Russian activists, includingNikolai Alexeyev , attempting to organize a gay pride march in the face of an official ban. The ban was part of a general strangling of civil society as PresidentVladimir Putin 's rule became more authoritarian. Long witnessed and reported on skinhead and police violence against marchers, including a brutal attack on German member of theBundestag Volker Beck . [cite web |url=http://washingtonblade.com/2006/redpride/index.cfm |title=MoscowPride '06 |accessdate=2006-12-26 |last= |first= |authorlink= |date=2006-05-27]Long's work produced controversy in 2005 and 2006 after the hanging of two teenagers in the city of
Mashhad ,Iran . Some gay activists in the West insisted that the youths were hanged not for the rape of a 13-year-old (as initially reported in the Iranian press) but for being gay. Long and Human Rights Watch, while condemning the executions and conducting intensive research on the situation for LGBT people in Iran, maintained that the evidence in theMashhad case was inconclusive, and also questioned the attribution of a Western "gay" identity in culturally complex situations. Long was attacked for an overly-theoretical approach to politicalactivism . Some questioned whether his work reflected a covertly pro-Islamic stance.At a time when Western states routinely punish consensual homosexuality involving youths with long prison terms, Long also has been criticized for embracing a narrow understanding of gay identity that ignores these attacks on same-sex activity. [cite web |url=http://www.guidemag.com/content/index.cfm?ID=250 |title=Pictures at an Execution |accessdate=2007-03-25 |last= |first= |authorlink= |date=2005-10-01]
Long is Executive Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch.
References
ee also
*
Homosexuality laws of the world External links
* [http://www.hrw.org/ Human Rights Watch Main Page]
* [http://www.iglhrc.org/site/iglhrc/ International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission]
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