Write a commentInspirational Worldwide Human Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell will be in Newry next month as guest speaker at the third Pride in Newry Festival.
Pride in Newry takes place from the 25th to the 30th of August and Peter will be the Keynote Speaker on the concert stage at McClelland Park on the 30th, following the Pride Parade.
Commenting on Peter Tatchell's visit to Newry Rory Rafferty, Chairman of the Newry Rainbow Community who organise the festival said "We look forward to giving Peter a very warm welcome to Newry City. Peter has probably done more than anyone for gay and human rights in GB in the last 20 years. He has unflinchingly exposed the depth of homophobia that still haunts our world.
"His most recent campaign is to promote the enforcement of international human rights law, which is not only long overdue it is very much needed.
"Pride In Newry is a wonderful and shared celebration of equality and diversity, recognising that our society is travelling the right direction and becoming ever more tolerant and accepting of difference.
"It is also an opportunity to remind all of us that while much has been done, there is much more still to be done, and this truism is regrettably apt in our Province in the narrow minded prejudice which opposes Marriage Equality, adoption rights, and upholds the blood donation ban on gay men.
"Northern Ireland remains out of step with the remainder of the UK by continuing to oppose these and other basic human rights causing the ludicrous situation whereby the current health minister, while taking tax revenue from the LGBT community is continuing to squander millions of tax pounds defending an indefensible position while simultaneously arguing for a reintroduction of prescription charges to help pay for medical treatments because money is tight."
Mr Rafferty concluded "Peter Tatchall will certainly energise and elucidate the debate around these human rights issues, and more, and he will set the struggle for LGB&T equality in a worldwide context."
Australian born Peter who lives in London since the 1970's has been championing and highlighting Human Rights and LGBT issues virtually all of his life. He has campaigned against the death penalty, supported Aboriginal rights, campaigned against dictatorships including Pinochet’s Chile, Saddam’s Iraq, the Shah’s and Khomeini’s Iran, and Brezhnev’s Soviet Union. He fought hard to defend the rights of HIV sufferers in the 80's and along with others helped persuade the ANC to include an anti gay discrimination ban in their post apartheid constitution. He formed the Peter Tatchell Foundation to promote and protect human rights.
In the 90's he became a thorn in the side of church and government when he helped found OutRage campaigning endlessly against hypocrisy and homophobia.
In 1999 he performed a Citizens Arrest of Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe on charges of torture and other human rights abuses although he and his OutRage campaigners were arrested (with all charges later dropped) while the President was "given a police escort to go Christmas shopping at Harrods" Several years later he was beaten unconscious while trying to make another Citizens Arrest of Mugabe.
At present he is supporting LGBT activists in more than 70 countries that outlaw lesbian and gay relations with punishments from flogging to execution. Closer to home he is campaigning endlessly for action against homophobic hate crimes and bullying in schools.
Tomorrow Wednesday at 10 Downing Street he is asking the government to speak out against Commonwealth Homophobia in the wake of the Commonwealth Games
42 of the 53 member countries of the Commonwealth criminalise homosexuality, with penalties up to life imprisonment in at least seven member states - plus the death penalty in parts of northern Nigeria and rural Pakistan, and the scheduled introduction of death by stoning in Brunei.
We are urging:
1. David Cameron to speak out against Commonwealth homophobia and transphobia before and during the Commonwealth Games - and to declare his support for non-discrimination, in accordance with Article 7 of the Commonwealth Games
2. Glasgow 2014 organisers to make a statement of equality and inclusivity - including a specific welcome and support for LGBTI athletes, officials and spectators
3. LGBTI athletes to come out - if it is safe for them to do so
4. The UK to grant asylum to LGBTI athletes and officials who have a well-founded fear of persecution if they return to their home countries.
For more information about this years Pride in Newry Festival go to www.prideinnewry.com
