Difference between revisions of "Peter Tatchell"
Tom Griffin (talk | contribs) (→Outrage!) |
Tom Griffin (talk | contribs) (→On Iran) |
||
| Line 28: | Line 28: | ||
==Views== | ==Views== | ||
===On Iran=== | ===On Iran=== | ||
| − | + | Tatchell has been critical of the left's approach to Iran: | |
| − | + | ::Iran is a brutal theocratic regime. Only last year a 16 year old girl was executed for so-called crimes against chastity. Where is the left solidarity campaign with Iranian democrats and socialists who are struggling to overthrow this clerical fascist regime? Iranian exiles living in Britain are trying to build solidarity with the underground opposition inside Iran. They get precious little support from the left.<ref>Peter Tatchell, [http://www.petertatchell.net/politics/whatswrongwithleft.htm WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE LEFT?], Solidarity / Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, 5 February 2005, archived at petertatchell.net</ref> | |
| + | |||
| + | In an OutRage! action alert on the execution of two Iranian teenagers in 2005, Tatchell condemned the killings as "just the latest barbarity by the Islamo-fascists in Iran".<ref>[http://www.petertatchell.net/international/iranexecution.htm EXECUTION OF GAY TEENS IN IRAN], petertatchell.net, 27 July 2005.</ref> | ||
| + | |||
| + | This comment was later criticised by Iranian-American gay rights campaigner Mitra Roshan: | ||
| + | |||
| + | ::This language is more in harmony with the "clash of civilizations" rhetoric adopted by the Bush administration than with human rights advocacy. It paints the violence of the Iranian regime as in a class of its own, barbaric and distinct from the presumably civilized violence of the war on Iraq, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo.<ref>Mitra Roshan, [http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/3381 Gays in Iran], ''ZNet'', 16 March 2006</ref> | ||
| + | |||
| + | The 2005 press release defended the Iranian opposition [[National Council of Resistance of Iran]]: | ||
| + | ::The NCRI has played a heroic role in resisting the clerical fascist regime in Iran and campaigning for democracy and human rights. It has been smeared as a “terrorist organization” by the US State Department. The NCRI is no more a terrorist organisation that the anti-Nazi resistance in occupied Europe during World War Two.<ref>Mitra Roshan, [http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/3381 Gays in Iran], ''ZNet'', 16 March 2006</ref> | ||
==Affiliations== | ==Affiliations== | ||
Revision as of 19:50, 31 March 2010
Peter Tatchell is a human rights campaigner.[1]
Contents
Background
Tatchell was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1952. Inspired by gay liberation protests in New York, he came out as gay in 1969. He moved to London in 1971, after refusing to be drafted into the Autralian Army, which was then involved in the Vietnam War.[2]
Gay Liberation Front
In London, Tatchell joined the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). In 1973, he was the GLF delegate to the World Youth Festival, becoming the first person to publicly advocate gay liberation in a communist country.[3]
Bermondsey by-election
Tatchell stood for Labour in the 1983 Bermondsey by-election, in which he was the target of a notorious smear campaign. He recalled the episode in an interview with the Independent in 2006, after it was revealed his Liberal opponent, Simon Hughes had had gay affairs:
- Mr Tatchell said one Liberal member admitted to him that the party was behind the anonymous and illegal campaign leaflet "Which Queen Will You Vote For?", which ridiculed his sexuality and "invited local voters to have a go at me by listing my home address and phone number".
- Mr Tatchell, now a member of the Green Party, said it was "ironic" that Mr Hughes had admitted he was gay. He received "information" to that effect at the time of the by-election but Labour took a decision not to retaliate.[4]
Tatchell said that he had forgiven Hughes for his part in the campaign.[5]
Outrage!
Tatchell was one of 30 people who collectively founded the gay rights group Outrage!, on 10 May 1990.[6]
One of the group's most controversial tactics was 'outing' - revealing the alleged private gay lifestyles of prominent public figures, as the Independent noted in 2006:
- [Tatchell] came in for the strongest criticism when in 1994 he declared his intention to "out" 10 bishops within the Church of England - individuals he claimed were secretly gay or bisexual yet who supported the church's official anti-gay priests policy. Tatchell maintained the 10 were guilty of hypocrisy but his tactics alienated many who were otherwise sympathetic to his cause.[7]
In Easter 1998, Tatchell interrupted a sermon by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey in protest at his attitude to gays and lesbians. He was later fined for "indecent behaviour in a church" under a little-used 1860 statute.[8]
Tatchell attempted a citizen's arrest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in London in 1999, and in Brussels in 2001. On the latter occasion, hhe was badly beaten by Mugabe's bodyguards.[9]
Views
On Iran
Tatchell has been critical of the left's approach to Iran:
- Iran is a brutal theocratic regime. Only last year a 16 year old girl was executed for so-called crimes against chastity. Where is the left solidarity campaign with Iranian democrats and socialists who are struggling to overthrow this clerical fascist regime? Iranian exiles living in Britain are trying to build solidarity with the underground opposition inside Iran. They get precious little support from the left.[10]
In an OutRage! action alert on the execution of two Iranian teenagers in 2005, Tatchell condemned the killings as "just the latest barbarity by the Islamo-fascists in Iran".[11]
This comment was later criticised by Iranian-American gay rights campaigner Mitra Roshan:
- This language is more in harmony with the "clash of civilizations" rhetoric adopted by the Bush administration than with human rights advocacy. It paints the violence of the Iranian regime as in a class of its own, barbaric and distinct from the presumably civilized violence of the war on Iraq, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo.[12]
The 2005 press release defended the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran:
- The NCRI has played a heroic role in resisting the clerical fascist regime in Iran and campaigning for democracy and human rights. It has been smeared as a “terrorist organization” by the US State Department. The NCRI is no more a terrorist organisation that the anti-Nazi resistance in occupied Europe during World War Two.[13]
Affiliations
External Resources
- Website http://www.petertatchell.net
References
- ↑ Guardian, Peter Tatchell, accessed 31 March 2010.
- ↑ About Peter, PETER TATCHELL HUMAN RIGHTS FUNDPETER TATCHELL HUMAN RIGHTS FUND, accessed 31 March 2010.
- ↑ About Peter, PETER TATCHELL HUMAN RIGHTS FUNDPETER TATCHELL HUMAN RIGHTS FUND, accessed 31 March 2010.
- ↑ Andrew Grice, The 'homophobic' campaign that helped win Bermondsey, The Independent, 27 January 2006.
- ↑ Andrew Grice, The 'homophobic' campaign that helped win Bermondsey, The Independent, 27 January 2006.
- ↑ OutRage!, petertattchell.net, accessed 31 March 2010.
- ↑ Paul Vallely, Peter Tatchell: Out and about, Independent, 28 January 2006.
- ↑ Clare Garney, Church protest costs Tatchell pounds 18.60, Independent, 2 December 1998.
- ↑ Peter Tatchell, I tried and failed. It's time someone else arrested Robert Mugabe, The Times, 12 December 2008.
- ↑ Peter Tatchell, WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE LEFT?, Solidarity / Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, 5 February 2005, archived at petertatchell.net
- ↑ EXECUTION OF GAY TEENS IN IRAN, petertatchell.net, 27 July 2005.
- ↑ Mitra Roshan, Gays in Iran, ZNet, 16 March 2006
- ↑ Mitra Roshan, Gays in Iran, ZNet, 16 March 2006
