Nepal's Blue Diamond Society has called for the United Nations to admonish Iran for last week's anti-gay raid. Malaysia Sun elaborates:
[BDS] sent an appeal to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, asking for his intervention to secure the freedom of 80 men arrested by Iranian security forces in Isfahan eight days ago.Expressing deep concern at the crackdown in the conservative Islamic country, BDS said it had received information that the detainees had been severely tortured in Isfahan jail and were in a bad state. "Their lives are in danger…We ask your timely intervention to secure their early release."
Blue Diamond Sociey's a natural ally for gay Iranians, who face very public, increasingly brutal state-sponsored attacks. BDS remains Nepal's singular gay rights organization and has repeatedly come up against the country's Maoist government, which has a less than sparkling gay rights record.
It's not all doom and gloom over in Nepal, however. The country celebrated its first gay beauty contest last night. Zee News reports that 18 cruised the catwalk last night to take win for the Pink Pageants' top slot. We wonder if the contestants dropped into Nepal's first and only openly gay-owned business, The Cutey Beauty Salon.
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Interesting that WalMart is advertising on Queerty.
BDS gesture of support to persecuted sexual minorities in Iran is commendable , but one odd inaccuracy in the piece. Nepal does not have a Maoist government. It had a Maoist insurrection mainly fighting the Monarchy. Recently, after the collapse of the Monarchy, the Maoist have been converted into a politcal party, but it doesn't run the government. True, the Nepal's Maoist Party have some pretty politically antiquated and homophobic views of gays and lesbians (even abducting a a couple of lesbian couples and basically detaining and torturing them to turn them straight). But it appears the main complaint is the tremendous violence Nepali gays (sexual and gender minorities in general) at the hands of the police during monarchal and democratic regimes (check out the bds website). Granted, that appearance might be due to the fact that BDS is more urban, while the Maoist (naturally) have more influence and control in the more rural parts of Nepal. Fact check.
Also, I'm not sure if BDS is the only gay rights organization, if that what the author means by singular. Certainly BDS is the most effective and most recognized one.
Kudos on the coverage, though and congrats to BDS founder and president Sunil Pant for the Felipa de Souza award.