Human Rights Watch ain't monkeying around with Turkey.

The international non-profit today blasted the nation's government for an April raid on gay group Lambda Istanbul. On April 7th, Turkish officials reportedly raided Lambda's main base on grounds that the group "facilitates prostitution, acts as a go-between [and] provides a place for [prostitution]." Then, ten days later, Lambda was in court defending itself against the government's immorality charges. Now, HRW's coming out to fight for the gays.

Said activist Scott Long:

What’s really immoral is the Istanbul authorities’ campaign against Lambda Istanbul for protecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. The government should reform laws that allow officials to harass groups like Lambda Istanbul in order to guarantee everyone’s human rights.

The government, we're sure, couldn't care less…

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would approve.

The Iranian president became an international laughing stock last year after claiming Iran doesn't have gays like the Western world. And, according to a Human Rights Watch report, he's right!

Michael Petrelis passes on word that gays, queers and other so-called deviants make nary an appearance in HRW's last four reports on the Middle Eastern nation. Of course, we all know Iran's got some homos, because we sporadically hear accounts of public executions. The government deems these people sexual criminals, often claiming they abused a teenage boy or another despicable act.

Many activists see this as a not-so-subtle code for queer, but the hazy boundaries of these deaths may explain HRW's hesitancy. As the non-profit's Scott Long wrote in 2006:

For eight months, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has researched a report on abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Iran, interviewing dozens in Iran and the diaspora, trying to separate fact from rhetoric and rumor. As a prominent Iranian dissident said last week, “We need cases!” — documentation, not speculation.

And, unfortunately, dead bodies don't count as documentation. If only those dang Iranians kept better records of their monstrosities!

Human Rights Watch had some harsh words for the United States government yesterday. Our government's accused of turning a blind eye to Uganda's misuse of HIV/AIDS funds, a blissful ignorance HRW's Scott Long calls "dangerous":

When the US funds abstinence-only programs in Uganda, it tells people that LGBT people’s sexualities are dangerous and must be denied. Supporting prejudice with cash is an approach with deadly consequences for all.
…
US politicians and pocketbooks underwrite hatred in Uganda. The US has no business lending an aura of respectability to policies that undermine human rights and public health.

Long and his activist friends want the United States to take a stronger stand against the African nation's homophobic politics. Or, rather, a stand - period.