Gay activists gathered at the epicenter of gay activism, Harvey Milk Plaza, to protest the executions of gay men and women in Iraq. In that country, gays are persecuted on a regular basis, and coming out is often a ticket to assassination and/or torture.
Often this isn't done directly by the government, but by militias working for fundamentalist clerics–but the government does nothing to stop them.
This is a terribly tragic, and anyone who wants to help can donate to a London based group that aims at helping gay Iraqi's. The group, Iraqi LGBT, is run by Ali Hili who told Pink News, "Since establishing the safe houses project in 2006 we have provided refuge for dozens of gay people who were being hunted by death squads. We have also assisted people to escape from Iraq to neighbouring countries, where we have established resettlement projects."
– Andy
These activists in SF should be demanding that our president demand the Iraqi government denounce these blood thirsty criminals. We need to do less whining and complaining and hold our president’s feet to the fire over this issue. This is infuriating and degrading to gay people all over the world when Obama is silent. Why does he flair up over human rights issues for all but gay people.
In President Obama’s defense (and I’m an Independent), we have to keep asking ourselves if we, the US, are the world’s police? Atrocities continue regardless of religious beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, etc. I think Obama is doing a good job thus far, but it is not his place to intervene in the cultural beliefs of another society no matter how difficult it is for us (the west) to accept. We protest the abuses of Muslim women, and everything that’s in our core that we believe to be right and wrong. It’s not that Obama is not in it for fighting for gay rights. His concerns are much broader and inclusive for ALL people. I would certainly afford him the time to address the issues, but he has a broken economy to fix, and the morale of Americans to boost. Just give the guy some time.