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LGBT Report From The Peoples’ Forum In Phnom Pehn, Cambodia

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Guest post by Ging Cristobal, Asia Project Coordinator

 

The Ninth Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Civil Society Conference/ASEAN Peoples’ Forum, (ACSC/APF), was held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia at the close of March. ASEANis an intergovernmental network formed to establish economic, socio-cultural, and political cooperation as well as regional peace amongst members. The ten member states include: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The forum, which provides civil society activists a space to engage with their respective governments, included lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) issues for the second time this year. Ging Cristobal, Asia Project Coordinator for IGLHRC attended the forum for the second time around and shares about the experience.

 

The Struggle Continues for LGBTIQ Rights in the ASEAN Peoples’ Forum

 

For LGBTIQ activists the ninth convening of the Forum was an uphill climb compared to their first engagement last year. Fewer civil society organizations and individuals participated this year, as many were protesting the process of the Cambodia organizing committee. They claimed the Cambodian committee failed to be transparent in the organizing process and did not adequately consult with the regional committee. Allegedly, this affected not only how local organizers ran the convening but also hindered civil society groups and non-governmental organizations in other ASEAN countries from seeking funds to participate in the event.

Another hurdle was that government-initiated non-government organizations didn’t attend the civil society led forum. These organizations, with cordial partnerships with governments from their countries, led a separate meeting also in Phnom Penh a day ahead of the grassroots-initiated convening,

Lastly, the deadline is fast approaching for the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights to bring forward the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration at the ASEAN Plus Summit in November 2012. To ensure that sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) not be included in the final draft, Brunei, Burma and Malaysia, asserted a strong opposition to Thailand’s recommendation to include sexual identity. LGBTIQ activists must give visibility to this bleak scenario and get support from mainstream civil society organizations to push for the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the final ASEAN Human Rights Declaration.

The LGBTIQ Caucus Meeting

Rainbow Community Kampuchea (RoCK), a local LGBTIQ group in Phnom Penh, initiated an LGBTIQ Caucus meeting days before the opening of the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN Peoples’ Forum. The caucus meeting was a venue for exchange of information on strategies regarding LGBTIQ rights work between young activists from Cambodia and groups from ASEAN countries. Despite RoCK’s non-attendance of the forum out of protest, they still provided an opportunity to LGBTIQ activists from Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar-Burma, Vietnam, Thailand and Philippines attending the forum to meet, plan and strategize. I facilitated a workshop for the regional involvement of LGBTIQ activists in the forum and we came up with strategies and pertinent information for the statement released after the Sexual Orientation Gender Identity workshop.

Everyone agreed that our issues would be presented during open discussion in each workshop attended by LGBTIQ activists, particularly caucuses and workshops involving children, youth, health, migrant workers, women and the ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights.

The three recommendations presented during last year’s convening were still the unanimous call by LGBTIQ activists in ASEAN countries. We decided to adhere to these recommendations and add a call for the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the final ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights for our 2012 Caucus Statement. We gathered endorsements of the LGBTIQ statement from civil society organizations from both the LGBTIQ community and mainstream groups beyond those in attendance. Thirteen LGBTIQ groups signed the statement with support from international groups such as the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Association (ILGA-Asia). The statement was also by fifteen allied groups.

The Value of Self Determination Rights: Equality, Democracy and Diversity of Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity (SOGI) in ASEAN Values (The SOGI Workshop)

 The SOGI workshop was made possible by the Center for Cambodian Human Rights (CCHR) with Hem Sokly at the helm, and the co-conveners: International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Arus Pelangi and HerLounge from Indonesia, and The Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment from Vietnam.

Getting to the workshop was a bit like “The Amazing Race”:  due to the absence of a detailed layout of room assignments and the logistical nightmare that the venue was not in one building, conference participants had to search for the room assignments, either using the elevator or taking a 5-minute walk under the scorching sun to another building. Nonetheless it was a lively and effective meeting.

President of the Center for Cambodian Human Rights, Ou Virak, opened the event by reiterating   support for sexual orientation and gender identity rights. Following Ou, five speakers shared how their activism emphasized the need to assert equality, democracy and pride as an LGBTIQ person living in Asia. Hem Sokly shared how LGBTIQ rights groups challenge the way culture discriminates against LGBTIQ people in Cambodia. Thilaga Sulathireh spoke of the legal struggles and continued fight for the right to association and freedom of expression brought about by the banning of Seksualiti Merdeka’s events on LGBTIQ rights in Malaysia. Yasmin Lee from the Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines (STRAP) revealed the challenges and the success of their group in fighting for their right to be recognized as transgender women in the Philippines. Loan Vu and Teddy from ICS Center in Vietnam detailed the need for a support group like the Parent and Friends of Lesbian and Gay people in Vietnam (PFLAG) and how it can be replicated in other ASEAN countries. Lastly, Aung Myo Min from Human Rights Education Institute of Burma presented the realistic scenario of SOGI in relation to the Asian Human rights Declaration and the workshop theme – that the ASEAN values in the ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights will always be weak and incomplete if issues of sexual orientation and gender identity are denied their rightful place in the declaration.

Press Conferences

After the SOGI workshop we took part in two press conferences – the first with representatives from other workshops in the forum. Vien Tanjung of HerLounge from Indonesia presented the four recommendations from the SOGI workshop. The second press conference focused solely on Sexual Orientation Gender Identity.  With Vien Tanjung and King Oey of Arus Pelangi from Indonesia and Yasmin Lee from the Philippines I introduced the demand for the inclusion of SOGI in the ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights. The other three speakers then presented the SOGI statement. It was teamwork at its finest since the media was unaware that it was an impromptu effort on our part while we were waiting for other LGBTIQ activists to arrive.

An Inclusive Drafting Committee

Another strategy that was effective following last years’ involvement in the forum was the need to have an LGBTIQ activist on the Drafting Committee of the conference to ensure that issues concerning SOGI and LGBTIQ rights be retained. King Oey from Indonesia and Ryan Sylverio proved to be experts on this as they managed to negotiate and make sure that this goal was achieved.

Success!

LGBTIQ presence in the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN Peoples’ Forum was a success! The momentum and visibility of SOGI rights were maintained and strengthened by the increased number of allies from mainstream civil society organizations who clearly see LGBT rights as human rights. This growing alliance will be important in the months ahead.

Realistically, there are strong efforts from countries such as Burma, Malaysia and Brunei to make sure SOGI will not be in the final declaration. But as I’ve stated publicly:  “We may not be successful in the inclusion of SOGI in the ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights but we want to make sure that SOGI is in the hearts and minds of every activist. We want to be sure that in all programs and advocacies you do, you make SOGI a part of it. Then we can say we did more than simply have SOGI on paper.”

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News

Trump Team Pushing ‘Utter Propaganda’ on Deportations to Create ‘Climate of Fear’: Experts

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January 24, 2025

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The Trump administration’s long-promised “largest mass deportation operation” in U.S. history, which was announced to begin “on day one,” has so far resulted in what some experts and immigration advocates suggest are an average number to mild increase in arrests and deportations. Activists, experts, and journalists are working to provide context to the White House’s claims of its own effectiveness.

“The White House said immigration agents have arrested 538 undocumented immigrants with criminal records and deported ‘hundreds’ more,” The Washington Post reported Friday. “Those numbers, if accurate, would be relatively modest for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge operations — a possible indication that the Trump administration’s show of force has so far outpaced the government’s capacity to deliver on the president’s lofty goals.”

Ahead of his inauguration on Monday, the media was awash with reports that President Trump’s mass deportation of undocumented immigrants would start Tuesday, the day after he was sworn into office, and one day after it was originally supposed to. Chicago was identified in reports as the first city to be targeted by Trump’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities.

“ICE will start arresting public safety threats and national security threats on day one,” Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan said, according to the BBC. “We’ll be arresting people across the country, uninhibited by any prior administration guidelines.”

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But Homan, who served as acting director of ICE during Trump’s first administration, then served up a curious claim: “Why Chicago was mentioned specifically, I don’t know.” He went on to suggest that the “leaked” Chicago details could be putting the safety of federal agents at risk.

“What was leaked in Chicago was more specific, what was happening, and that raises officer safety concern,” Homan said, according to The Hill.

Homan on Fox News had promised a “big raid” across the country, BBC had reported, and “has previously said Chicago will be ‘ground zero’ for the mass deportations.”

The mass arrests and deportations, despite appearing to be average, were heralded by the media.

Wednesday night, Fox News host Jesse Watters posted video to his Facebook page, declaring, “FOX NEWS ALERT: The largest mass deportation operation in American history is underway, and Primetime has exclusive photos of ICE’s first arrests.”

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Numerous media outlets blared that the Trump administration on Thursday arrested 538 undocumented immigrants.

And yet, according to a former Capitol Hill staffer, President Joe Biden’s average was often higher.

The White House on Friday posted an image to social media, declaring, “Deportation Flights Have Begun.”

Immigration experts, activists, and journalists pushed back hard.

“Deportation flights were taking place under Biden too. What’s new is the military aircraft,” noted The Bulwark’s Sam Stein. CNN’s Brian Stelter added, “Also new: The PR strategy.”

PR appears to be a major focus.

The Washington Examiner’s DHS reporter, Anna Giaritelli, quickly corrected the record on the White House’s above social media post: “DHS official authorized to speak with media said this is not a deportation flight — these are roughly 80 Guatemalans who were arrested AT the southern border recently and are being REPATRIATED. That is legally not a deportation.”

Immigration activist Thomas Cartwright, who, according to The Washington Post “tracks ICE deportations for the immigrant advocacy group Witness at the Border,” pointed to this data, and also challenged the White House’s narrative.

“Theater of the absurd,” he charged. “The only thing new about this is subjecting people to transport on a cargo plane rather than charter and the LOWER number of people on the plane – 75-80 compared to the average for ICE deportation flights to Guatemala of 125. In 2024 there were 508 deportation flights to Guatemala and in 2020 – 2023: 247, 184, 369, and 470, respectively. The 508 in 2024 represents just under an average of 10 deportation flights per week to Guatemala. Counting this flight there have been only 5 this week through Thursday.”

Immigration attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, also responded to the White House’s post: “This is utter propaganda and you have to make sure not to fall for it. There were dozens of deportation flights every single week over the last year and before that. Deportation flights never stopped. If they try to claim otherwise, they are lying to the American people.”

Reichlin-Melnick also blasted White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in response to another of her posts on immigration. “Are these people seriously trying to suggest the deportation flights have not already been going on? They’re lying to you. The Biden administration had already ramped up deportations from the border to a higher level than it was under the Trump admin.”

And pointing to Cartwright’s data, he noted, “In 2024, ICE carried out an average of 4.27 deportation flights per day (which includes weekends and holidays) The normal weekday total was above 6 deportation flights a day, per @thcartwright. Deportation flights never stopped. This is propaganda.”

Meanwhile, The New York Times’ Hamed Aleaziz on Friday afternoon told MSNBC that the Trump administration is really going “on the offensive when it comes to putting out pictures of ICE deportations from the White House Twitter account, from Tom Holman being on several new spots, talking about deportations, it is front and center. And I think it’s an effort to show that President Trump is fulfilling this promise of mass deportations.”

He says their goal is they “want people to be uncomfortable. They want there to be a climate of fear. And ultimately, maybe people will decide that they want to leave this country voluntarily?”

See the social media posts above or at this link.

READ MORE: Danish MP Follows Profane Message to Trump With Warning to Greenlanders on US Civil Rights

 

Image via Reuters

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‘Not Good’: Trump Proposes ‘Getting Rid of’ FEMA, Conditioning California Aid on Voter ID

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January 24, 2025

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President Donald Trump intensified his attacks on the Federal Emergency Management Agency during a visit to Hurricane Helene-damaged parts of North Carolina on Friday, announcing he is planning on reforming or “getting rid of FEMA,” and proposed an unprecedented move to condition disaster relief on the passage of a voter ID law by California’s lawmakers, “as a start.” Trump’s trip, which will include travel to California later Friday, appears designed to target the emergency management agency, which he has been criticizing for months.

In what appeared to be scripted remarks, Trump later elaborated that he would “sign an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think frankly, FEMA’s not good. I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to go and, uh, whether it’s a Democrat or Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time.”

“Calling FEMA and then FEMA gets here and they don’t know the area,” Trump claimed. “They’ve never been to the area and they want to give you rules that you’ve never heard about, they wanna bring people that aren’t as good as the people you already have,” he alleged.

“FEMA turned out to be a a disaster. And you could go back a long way, you could go back to Louisiana, you could go back to some of the things that took place in Texas. And it turns out to be the state that ends up doing the work. It just complicates it. I think we’re gonna recommend that FEMA go away. And we pay directly and we pay a percentage to the state, but the state should fix it.”

RELATED: Is Trump Using Project 2025 to Eliminate FEMA?

In his wide-ranging remarks, President Trump also claimed that “rather than going through FEMA,” disaster relief aid to California and North Carolina “will go through us,” meaning, through his administration. FEMA is a federal government agency under the wide umbrella of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The president nominates the HHS Secretary, a cabinet level official, and the FEMA administrator.

And Trump appeared to say that he will assign Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley to manage financial aid to North Carolina, removing FEMA from the state.

“Trump also said FEMA would not be involved in further relief efforts and instead suggested that Whatley, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein (D), and a trio of Republican House members would be working with the White House directly because the agency ‘hasn’t done the job,'” The Independent reported.

“I wanna see two things in Los Angeles,” Trump also told reporters late Friday morning, “voter ID so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state. Those are the two things. After that, I will be the greatest president that California ever has ever seen.”

“I want the water to come down and come down to Los Angeles and also go out to all the farm land that’s barren and dry,” Trump claimed. This week the President appeared to suggest that water runs only north to south.

READ MORE: Danish MP Follows Profane Message to Trump With Warning to Greenlanders on US Civil Rights

“So, I want two things,” Trump repeated, “I want voter ID for the people of California. They all want it. Right now you have no, you don’t have voter ID. People want to have to voter identification. You wanna have proof of citizenship. Ideally, you have one-day voting, but I just want voter ID to start, and I want the water to be released, and they’re gonna get a lot of help from the U.S.”

Trump later responded to a reporter’s question about his remarks on ending FEMA, calling the agency “a very big disappointment” that costs “a tremendous amount of money.” He alleged, “they end up in arguments if they’re fighting, all the time over who does what, it’s just it’s just not a good system.”

“I think it’s, I think when there’s a, uh, when there’s a problem with the state, I think that that problem should be taken care of by the state. That’s what we have states for. They take care of problems, and a government can handle something very quickly,” Trump said, appearing to not mention the scope of FEMA’s actions, responsibilities, and resources.

Jordan Weissmann, reporter for Yahoo Finance covering federal agencies, offers this explanation on California water: “The water issue Trump is fixated on doesn’t really have anything to do with the wildfires. It’s a fight between Central Valley farmers and Northern California farmers and environmentalists about who gets more fresh water.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: Trump’s J6 Pardons Are ‘High Crime’ and ‘Abuse of Power’ Legal Expert Says

 

Image: Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and Franklin Graham in North Carolina Friday, via Reuters

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Danish MP Follows Profane Message to Trump With Warning to Greenlanders on US Civil Rights

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15 hours ago

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January 24, 2025

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President Donald Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland from Denmark isn’t going over well with some Danes, including one of Denmark’s politicians who used vulgarity to express his opposition earlier this week, and is now citing a century-long historical record to issue a warning to Greenlanders on America’s refusal to grant full voting rights to its citizens in U.S. territories.

Anders Vistisen, a Danish Member of the European Parliament, reminded Trump earlier this week that “Greenland has been part of the Danish Kingdom for 800 years,” and “is not for sale.”

“Let me put it in words you might understand: Mr. Trump. f*** off,” Vistisen said.

Thursday night on CNN, Vistisen, a member of a right wing populist party, expanded his battle against Trump’s aspiration to annex Greenland.

READ MORE: Trump’s J6 Pardons Are ‘High Crime’ and ‘Abuse of Power’ Legal Expert Says

Addressing what he called the “argument that America can make a great deal,” an apparent reference to Donald Trump, Vistisen said, “we actually have some historical precedence for this. A hundred years ago we sold you what you call the U.S. Virgin Islands. Today, that territory still doesn’t have voting rights for your presidential elections.”

“That place doesn’t have a voting member of your parliament, the Congress — or the House of Representatives, and the Senate, and when I visited, when we had the hundred years commemoration, there was not a great lot of enthusiasm about the way the U.S. is handling that.”

“So I think if the Greenlandic people are looking carefully at this and they are looking on the U.S. overseas territories,” Vistisen continued, “looking at how Indigenous people are treated in the U.S., it’s very hard to make a compelling argument that they will have a better deal from the United States than what they have within the Danish realm, the kingdom of Denmark, where they have full voting rights in the Danish parliament are actually are overrepresented, and as you clearly stated, they have a very beneficial agreement, economically with Denmark.”

The Atlantic’s David Frum, a former Bush 43 White House speechwriter, responded to Vistisen’s remarks.

“In 1917, Denmark (legally neutral but sympathetic to the Allies) sold the [Virgin] islands to the USA to prevent Germany from seizing them for a submarine base. Also, the islands were economically desperate, and war-isolated Denmark could not aid them. As part of the deal, the US guaranteed Danish sovereignty over Greenland. Another reason that seizing Greenland would be an act of US bad faith,” Frum wrote.

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: Is Trump Using Project 2025 to Eliminate FEMA?

 

Image by Elekes Andor via Wikimedia Commons and a CC license

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