Kuya

[Milkster]

For those of you who don’t know I work in the Australian Court System. Today, I stumbled upon an interesting application before the Refugee Review Tribunal of Australia, from 2007.
The case involved a lesbian applicant from Mongolia who was seeking protection from the Australian Government on the basis of her sexuality. No doubt she would have heard about the amazing freedom non-heterosexual Australians have to express their sexuality.
The applicant was initially refused a protection visa “on the basis that [she was not] a person to whom Australia has protection obligations under the Refugees Convention.” Upon appeal the application was granted.
I found myself wondering: Would she be shocked when she discovered just how racist Australian society is? Will she be shocked at the apathy our non-heterosexual communities have towards the achievement of their own rights? Will she be shocked at how homophobic our desperate desire for hetero-normative bliss has made us?
From reading the evidence presented (and accepted) to the Tribunal, it would appear that Mongolia has a population of about 2.5 million, not quite enough to encourage a critical mass of non-heterosexuals to create a supportive “out of the closet” community. Instances of violent and non-violent discrimination towards openly non-heterosexual individuals are common. Nevertheless, the internet has helped to encourage community members to seek more and more equality.
Some of the evidence quoted the website of Mongoldyke (a website for Mongolian Lesbians no-less!). Read the following passages because they will challenge you to who we once were ourselves:

You don’t have to live your life feeling ashamed of yourself, of you sexual orientation and/or gender identity that does not conform with your birth gender identity, thinking that you are the only “freak” among so-called “normal” people. Everywhere around the world, from Alaskan icebergs to African forests, we, the homosexuals and genderqueers, or people living beyond the gender hierarchy, exist, have existed, and will exist.

You are not alone. We are aplenty, and have a history as well as a culture attributable to our existence. Since the Ancient civilizations of Greece, Rome, India, China, and the Ancient Mongolian Tribes, we have been forming our communities and niches within the heterosexual society.

In the context of cultural globalization and other recent phenomena, we have re-discovered our right to exist without shame and ostracism. From the ‘60s and ‘70s of the last century, we have been fighting for and have been granted, one by one, recognition of our humanity, of our right to exist in our differences. Legally, we have been granted non-discrimination based on our sexual orientation.

The longer we are silent, the longer we are meek and disjointed, the more shall we be the victims of anti-LGBT violence, thereby losing our sisters and brothers one by one either to death or to other countries.

Another thing we must constantly be aware of is discrimination within our own communities.

Amazing stuff. To see the language coming out of fledgling non-heterosexual rights movements is INSPIRING and fills me with JOY. This language, this sense of pride, appears to have been forgotten here in the West, where we have become complacent in our rights (even though we still DO NOT have equality!!!).
Why is this? How can you become so apathetic when the fight has still not been won? The facts that homophobic language has spread throughout our communities, and that hetero-normative ideals are unconsciously accepted as good and proper, makes me mourn for the loss of our pride.
It’s astounding that members of our community can be ridiculed and derided for pointing out clear instances of internalized homophobia and racism expressed within a hetero-normative paradigm that simply does not fit who we are as a people.
Even the fledgling movement in Mongolia is aware of our need, as a people, to be “constantly aware of discrimination within our own communities.”
Why have we, in the West, forgotten these simple truths? Our selfish, gratuitous, egocentric love of the superficial, and our refusal to contemplate who we are and what we are doing on this earth as non-heterosexuals, is doing more damage to our community than any bible-bashing red-neck from the middle-of-buttfuck-nowhere ever could.

How do you feel about this opinion piece? The internalized homophobia he/she is referring to is the preference of masculine gay males over their feminine counterparts, the racism is easy enough to decipher.

[Linliel]

Just a note: Australia is particularly strict about refugees generally. It's not something I'm very proud about, but there's a pretty terrible undercurrent of general xenophobia about people Australians feel are trying to take advantage of Australia's riches. They're generally fine with migrants with qualifications etc. but refugees? Nope. It stems from all the "boat people" that come from Indonesia and they've basically tarred "asylum seekers" with the same brush.

So I guess my point is about the Australian part - it must have been a pretty tough situation for them to grant this woman asylum under appeal, and the fact that they did it for sexual orientation reasons is pretty progressive for Australia, where there still isn't any form of gay marriage and gay couples have only recently gained equal "de facto" status to hetero couples.

[Blarg]

plus they have those silly accents

[Linliel]

What are you talking about? I don't have an accent.

[Day]

gtfo of spam faggot

[Kuya]

i'll read it later

[Rocl]

kuya

i want to see where your sig/avatar are from i dont know why i've never asked

[Kuya]

you mean place or from the entire picture

[Rocl]

can i get both?

[Rocl]

or i guess w/ place i can find entire picture but I DIGRESS

[Antithesis]

can i get both?

Whore.

[Kuya]

i don't know where it's from, rocl

[Kuya]

it's probably from that meme series involving talking shark & friends

[Rocl]

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr....BfniSCpOmEo%3D

[Rocl]

I AM GETTING CLOSER

[Rocl]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4cZ7iEAmTr...00/Grumpy1.jpg

nope can't find it

[Kuya]

oh yea, i forgot it was 4 panels

[Kuya]

I hear a fish

[Rocl]

I want to eat a fish

[Kuya]

I also want to eat a fish