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Lesbian Activist Lepa Mladjenovic Selected For Ann Klein Award

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Mladjenovic is recognized for a lifetime of courageous work on behalf of women, girls and LGBT persons in Serbia and the Balkan Region, with special recognition for her work against fascism and extreme nationalism 

Serbian feminist lesbian Lepa Mladjenovic was announced  the winner of the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s Anne Klein Women’s Award this past week.  The award ceremony will take place in Berlin on 1 March 2013. The prize money is 10.000 €.

Lepa Mladjenovic is the second winner of the Anne Klein Women’s Award–an award that embodies the work and legacy of Klein, who was a dedicated lawyer and openly lesbian politician in Germany.  Klein had been a pioneer of feminist causes who had served as the first feminist Women’s Senator in Berlin’s state government. The prize is annually awarded to women who have shown exemplary commitment for making gender democracy a reality.

Mladjenovic  is the first openly declared person in Serbia, who emerged in the late 1980s during the same period that Slobodan Milosevic emerged  nationally as he led Serbs into a series of genocidal wars that resulted in the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

“I am proud and happy to receive it in the name of lesbian solidarity in the world,” said Mladjenovic.  “This award is  sisterly heritage of  Anne Klein who was a great feminist lesbian in Germany, born in 1950 who died of cancer in 2011, active  to end all kinds of discrimination of women and specially to end sexual violence.”

Mladjenovic co-founded numerous organizations in Serbia, all feminist oriented.  Among them include Arkadia, the first LGBT organization in Serbia an its spinoffs, including Gayten LGBT and Labris; Serbia’s “Women in Black” an anti-fascist and anti-nationalist organization that employs civil non-violent disobedience, chiefly known and respected for its opposition to Serbian regieme during the 1990s when it engaged in several genocidal-ridden wars in the Balkans.

She also founded Belgrade’s Autonomous Women’s Center that  established the first domestic violence help hotline in Serbia and provides counseling to women who are victims of domestic violence, as well as workshops and educational programs to women and lesbians.

The statement of the Anne Klein jury in recognition of Mladjenovic’s work:

”Lepa Mladjenovic is a Serbian intellectual and activist campaigning for peace and human rights. She is especially committed to women’s rights and the rights of people whose sexual orientation and gender identity does not conform to majority norms. Focal points of her work are sexual political violence in war and peace, prevention of violence, and trauma work. For her commitment she has become well known far beyond the borders of Serbia and the region.”

Barbara Unmüßig, co-president of the Heinrich Böll Foundation and head of the jury points out:

”Lepa Mladjenovic is an exceptional personality, combining political courage with intellectuality, as well as actual counselling of traumatised women with political lobbying and scientific research. Repeatedly, Lepa Mladjenovic has put herself in great danger. To campaign for the rights of homosexuals in Serbia one has to be fearless. Severe discrimination and the hostility of large parts of the people as well as state authorities are an everyday reality for homosexuals in the region.”

Unmüßig adds: “The Anne Klein Women’s Award is a clear political statement against homophobia in Serbia and many other countries in that it supports, by means of actual solidarity, the work of Lepa Mladjenovic and her Serbian fellow campaigners for the rights of lesbians.”

Charlotte Bunch, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University:

I am very pleased that Lepa Mladjenovic has been awarded the Anne Klein Award as a recognition of the important lesbian feminist work and vision that she has represented locally and globally for over two decades.   Hers is a unique and highly influential voice among feminists and LGBT activists globally, especially coming from an authoritarian state, where civil society is often suppressed – yet she has remained irrepressible.  A critical dimension of her work has been her openness as an “out” lesbian and feminist working in areas – like anti-war activism and sexual violence counseling where this was not always visible or even welcomed.  Nevertheless, Lepa has managed not only to gain respect in this process but also to show the inter-relationship of LGBTQ oppression with other issues of domination and power.  She has demonstrated, acted upon, and taught the meaning of the intersectionality of gender, race, class and sexuality in daily life.”

Milan Djuric, Coordinator at Gayten, LGBT, Belgrade:

Lepa’s award is wonderful and so deserved. Her recognition is important for all of us in Serbia.  As Audre Lorde said: “I am not like my sister, I am my sister.”  Lepa is my sister.  Over the years I have had my doubts as we have lived through so many difficulties.  But in recognizing Lepa’s shining example– all of the difficulties have really served its purpose. She is always there–working on behalf of our Roma neighbors, of LGBT persons and for women.  Wherever she is–in her apartment, which has served as a center for help and assistance.  What is really wonderful about Lepa’s politics is that she works to heal through the SOS help line established by Gayten LGBT and changing and reforming institutions.  She has always put her life at risk–especially during the 1990s when she was the only open lesbian activist in Serbia.”

Congratulations to Lepa Mladjenovic from The New Civil Rights Movement!

Photograph of Lepa Mladjenovic courtesy of the Heinrich Boll Stiftung Foundation

Tanya L. Domi is the Deputy Editor of the New Civil Rights Movement blog.  She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and teaches human rights in East Central Europe and former Yugoslavia.  Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi was a nationally recognized LGBT civil rights activist who worked for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force during the campaign to lift the military ban in the early 1990s. Domi has also worked internationally in a dozen countries on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights and gender issues.  She is chair of the board of directors for GetEQUAL.  Domi is currently writing a book about the emerging LGBT human rights movement in the Western Balkans.

 

 

 

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News

‘Assassination of Political Rivals as an Official Act’: AOC Warns Take Trump ‘Seriously’

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April 25, 2024

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Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is responding to Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Donald Trump’s claim he has “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution because he was a U.S. president, and she delivered a strong warning in response.

Trump’s attorney argued before the nation’s highest court that the ex-president could have ordered the assassination of a political rival and not face criminal prosecution unless he was first impeached by the House of Representatives and then convicted by the Senate.

But even then, Trump attorney John Sauer argued, if assassinating his political rival were done as an “official act,” he would be automatically immune from all prosecution.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, presenting the hypothetical, expressed, “there are some things that are so fundamentally evil that they have to be protected against.”

RELATED: Justices’ Views on Trump Immunity Stun Experts: ‘Watching the Constitution Be Rewritten’

“If the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person, and he orders the military, or orders someone to assassinate him, is that within his official acts for which he can get immunity?” she asked.

“It would depend on the hypothetical, but we can see that could well be an official act,” Trump attorney Sauer quickly replied.

Sauer later claimed that if a president ordered the U.S. military to wage a coup, he could also be immune from prosecution, again, if it were an “official act.”

The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols, a retired U.S. Naval War College professor and an expert on Russia, nuclear weapons, and national security affairs, was quick to poke a large hole in that hypothetical.

“If the president suspends the Senate, you can’t prosecute him because it’s not an official act until the Senate impeaches …. Uh oh,” he declared.

RELATED: Justices Slam Trump Lawyer: ‘Why Is It the President Would Not Be Required to Follow the Law?’

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted the Trump team.

“The assassination of political rivals as an official act,” the New York Democrat wrote.

“Understand what the Trump team is arguing for here. Take it seriously and at face value,” she said, issuing a warning: “This is not a game.”

Marc Elias, who has been an attorney to top Democrats and the Democratic National Committee, remarked, “I am in shock that a lawyer stood in the U.S Supreme Court and said that a president could assassinate his political opponent and it would be immune as ‘an official act.’ I am in despair that several Justices seemed to think this answer made perfect sense.”

CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen, a former U.S. Ambassador and White House Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform under President Barack Obama, boiled it down: “Trump is seeking dictatorial powers.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

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Justices’ Views on Trump Immunity Stun Experts: ‘Watching the Constitution Be Rewritten’

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April 25, 2024

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Legal experts appeared somewhat pleased during the first half of the Supreme Court’s historic hearing on Donald Trump’s claim he has “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution because he was the President of the United States, as the justice appeared unwilling to accept that claim, but were stunned later when the right-wing justices questioned the U.S. Dept. of Justice’s attorney. Many experts are suggesting the ex-president may have won at least a part of the day, and some are expressing concern about the future of American democracy.

“Former President Trump seems likely to win at least a partial victory from the Supreme Court in his effort to avoid prosecution for his role in Jan. 6,” Axios reports. “A definitive ruling against Trump — a clear rejection of his theory of immunity that would allow his Jan. 6 trial to promptly resume — seemed to be the least likely outcome.”

The most likely outcome “might be for the high court to punt, perhaps kicking the case back to lower courts for more nuanced hearings. That would still be a victory for Trump, who has sought first and foremost to delay a trial in the Jan. 6 case until after Inauguration Day in 2025.”

Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern, who covers the courts and the law, noted: “This did NOT go very well [for Special Counsel] Jack Smith’s team. Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh think Trump’s Jan. 6 prosecution is unconstitutional. Maybe Gorsuch too. Roberts is skeptical of the charges. Barrett is more amenable to Smith but still wants some immunity.”

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Civil rights attorney and Tufts University professor Matthew Segal, responding to Stern’s remarks, commented: “If this is true, and if Trump becomes president again, there is likely no limit to the harm he’d be willing to cause — to the country, and to specific individuals — under the aegis of this immunity.”

Noted foreign policy, national security and political affairs analyst and commentator David Rothkopf observed: “Feels like the court is leaning toward creating new immunity protections for a president. It’s amazing. We’re watching the Constitution be rewritten in front of our eyes in real time.”

“Frog in boiling water alert,” warned Ian Bassin, a former Associate White House Counsel under President Barack Obama. “Who could have imagined 8 years ago that in the Trump era the Supreme Court would be considering whether a president should be above the law for assassinating opponents or ordering a military coup and that *at least* four justices might agree.”

NYU professor of law Melissa Murray responded to Bassin: “We are normalizing authoritarianism.”

Trump’s attorney, John Sauer, argued before the Supreme Court justices that if Trump had a political rival assassinated, he could only be prosecuted if he had first been impeach by the U.S. House of Representatives then convicted by the U.S. Senate.

During oral arguments Thursday, MSNBC host Chris Hayes commented on social media, “Something that drives me a little insane, I’ll admit, is that Trump’s OWN LAWYERS at his impeachment told the Senators to vote not to convict him BECAUSE he could be prosecuted if it came to that. Now they’re arguing that the only way he could be prosecuted is if they convicted.”

READ MORE: Biden Campaign Hammers Trump Over Infamous COVID Comment

Attorney and former FBI agent Asha Rangappa warned, “It’s worth highlighting that Trump’s lawyers are setting up another argument for a second Trump presidency: Criminal laws don’t apply to the President unless they specifically say so…this lays the groundwork for saying (in the future) he can’t be impeached for conduct he can’t be prosecuted for.”

But NYU and Harvard professor of law Ryan Goodman shared a different perspective.

“Due to Trump attorney’s concessions in Supreme Court oral argument, there’s now a very clear path for DOJ’s case to go forward. It’d be a travesty for Justices to delay matters further. Justice Amy Coney Barrett got Trump attorney to concede core allegations are private acts.”

NYU professor of history Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert scholar on authoritarians, fascism, and democracy concluded, “Folks, whatever the Court does, having this case heard and the idea of having immunity for a military coup taken seriously by being debated is a big victory in the information war that MAGA and allies wage alongside legal battles. Authoritarians specialize in normalizing extreme ideas and and involves giving them a respected platform.”

The Nation’s justice correspondent Elie Mystal offered up a prediction: “Court doesn’t come back till May 9th which will be a decision day. But I think they won’t decide *this* case until July 3rd for max delay. And that decision will be 5-4 to remand the case back to DC, for additional delay.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Doesn’t Care if Pregnant Women Live or Die’: Alito Slammed Over Emergency Abortion Remarks

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Justices Slam Trump Lawyer: ‘Why Is It the President Would Not Be Required to Follow the Law?’

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13 hours ago

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April 25, 2024

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Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court hearing Donald Trump’s claim of absolute immunity early on appeared at best skeptical, were able to get his attorney to admit personal criminal acts can be prosecuted, appeared to skewer his argument a president must be impeached and convicted before he can be criminally prosecuted, and peppered him with questions exposing what some experts see is the apparent weakness of his case.

Legal experts appeared to believe, based on the Justices’ questions and statements, Trump will lose his claim of absolute presidential immunity, and may remand the case back to the lower court that already ruled against him, but these observations came during Justices’ questioning of Trump attorney John Sauer, and before they questioned the U.S. Dept. of Justice’s Michael Dreeben.

“I can say with reasonable confidence that if you’re arguing a case in the Supreme Court of the United States and Justices Alito and Sotomayor are tag-teaming you, you are going to lose,” noted attorney George Conway, who has argued a case before the nation’s highest court and obtained a unanimous decision.

But some are also warning that the justices will delay so Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump will not take place before the November election.

READ MORE: ‘To Do God Knows What’: Local Elections Official Reads Lara Trump the Riot Act

“This argument still has a ways to go,” observed UCLA professor of law Rick Hasen, one of the top election law scholars in the county. “But it is easy to see the Court (1) siding against Trump on the merits but (2) in a way that requires further proceedings that easily push this case past the election (to a point where Trump could end this prosecution if elected).”

The Economist’s Supreme Court reporter Steven Mazie appeared to agree: “So, big picture: the (already slim) chances of Jack Smith actually getting his 2020 election-subversion case in front of a jury before the 2024 election are dwindling before our eyes.”

One of the most stunning lines of questioning came from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who said, “If someone with those kinds of powers, the most powerful person in the world with the greatest amount of authority, could go into Office knowing that there would be no potential penalty for committing crimes. I’m trying to understand what the disincentive is, from turning the Oval Office into, you know, the seat of criminal activity in this country.”

READ MORE: ‘Doesn’t Care if Pregnant Women Live or Die’: Alito Slammed Over Emergency Abortion Remarks

She also warned, “If the potential for criminal liability is taken off the table, wouldn’t there be a significant risk that future presidents would be emboldened to commit crimes with abandon while they’re in office? It’s right now the fact that we’re having this debate because, OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] has said that presidents might be prosecuted. Presidents, from the beginning of time have understood that that’s a possibility. That might be what has kept this office from turning into the kind of crime center that I’m envisioning, but once we say, ‘no criminal liability, Mr. President, you can do whatever you want,’ I’m worried that we would have a worse problem than the problem of the president feeling constrained to follow the law while he’s in office.”

“Why is it as a matter of theory,” Justice Jackson said, “and I’m hoping you can sort of zoom way out here, that the president would not be required to follow the law when he is performing his official acts?”

“So,” she added later, “I guess I don’t understand why Congress in every criminal statute would have to say and the President is included. I thought that was the sort of background understanding that if they’re enacting a generally applicable criminal statute, it applies to the President just like everyone else.”

Another critical moment came when Justice Elena Kagan asked, “If a president sells nuclear secrets to a foreign adversary, is that immune?”

Professor of law Jennifer Taub observed, “This is truly a remarkable moment. A former U.S. president is at his criminal trial in New York, while at the same time the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing his lawyer’s argument that he should be immune from prosecution in an entirely different federal criminal case.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Blood on Your Hands’: Tennessee Republicans OK Arming Teachers After Deadly School Shooting

 

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