QAIA was just forwarded this letter from NYC queer organizers working in support of Honduran queers. Go, sisters!
The Center's claim that it's "open" break down as the community excluded gets broader and broader. The Center has flatly ignored critiques about its racism, refusing to be accountable to its community, or to present any response at all. This event (on 2/12) will be held instead at the Venezuelan Consulate -- click on the image for details.
------------
Dear Ms. Testone:
This Tuesday, February 12, Pepe Palacios, a leader of the LGBT community in Honduras, will be in New York City to speak as part of a national tour organized by the Honduras Solidarity Network. He will report on the brutal repression against the LGBT community by the illegal coup government, and also about the heroic resistance of the Honduran people. We hope that Pepe's appearance here will raise awareness of the struggle in Honduras for democratic rights and against the U.S.-backed coup regime. We especially hope to win supporters for that struggle among the LGBT community here.
The LGBT Center would have been a natural home for this event. However, during the planning process, we heard about the Center's history for the past two years of denying meeting space to Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and other groups that support the Palestinian people in their struggle against occupation. We were disappointed to learn that the Center, which for so long had been a welcoming locus for the diverse LGBT community, now bars certain parts of the community. This ban on pro-Palestinian groups and individuals amounts to a racist affront to the Palestinian, Arab and in fact all communities of color.
In the light of this terrible, shameful policy on your part, we could not in good conscience hold our event in the Center. And so a representative of the Honduran LGBT community will speak not at the purported center of New York's LGBT community, but rather is being welcomed at the Venezuelan Consulate.
We wanted you to know this, to know that as a consequence of your reactionary ban against QAIA and its chilling effect on LGBT communities of color, New Yorkers will go elsewhere to hear the words of a brave, heroic Honduran gay leader. We expect to have a great, stirring, well-attended meeting. But not on 13th Street. Not while those who support our Palestinian sisters and brothers are barred from your premises.
This Tuesday, February 12, Pepe Palacios, a leader of the LGBT community in Honduras, will be in New York City to speak as part of a national tour organized by the Honduras Solidarity Network. He will report on the brutal repression against the LGBT community by the illegal coup government, and also about the heroic resistance of the Honduran people. We hope that Pepe's appearance here will raise awareness of the struggle in Honduras for democratic rights and against the U.S.-backed coup regime. We especially hope to win supporters for that struggle among the LGBT community here.
The LGBT Center would have been a natural home for this event. However, during the planning process, we heard about the Center's history for the past two years of denying meeting space to Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and other groups that support the Palestinian people in their struggle against occupation. We were disappointed to learn that the Center, which for so long had been a welcoming locus for the diverse LGBT community, now bars certain parts of the community. This ban on pro-Palestinian groups and individuals amounts to a racist affront to the Palestinian, Arab and in fact all communities of color.
In the light of this terrible, shameful policy on your part, we could not in good conscience hold our event in the Center. And so a representative of the Honduran LGBT community will speak not at the purported center of New York's LGBT community, but rather is being welcomed at the Venezuelan Consulate.
We wanted you to know this, to know that as a consequence of your reactionary ban against QAIA and its chilling effect on LGBT communities of color, New Yorkers will go elsewhere to hear the words of a brave, heroic Honduran gay leader. We expect to have a great, stirring, well-attended meeting. But not on 13th Street. Not while those who support our Palestinian sisters and brothers are barred from your premises.
Teresa Gutierrez
Teresa Gutierrez
International Action Center
Teresa Gutierrez
International Action Center
Lucy Pagoada-Quesada
Lucy Pagoada-Quesada
Honduras/USA Resistencia
Lucy Pagoada-Quesada
Honduras/USA Resistencia
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.