[Foundation-l] [Wikimania-l] Wikimania 2008 will happen in Alexandria, Egypt

[Ben Yates]

Not being able to get married sucks, but it doesn't remotely compare
to being dragged away, imprisoned, and tortured.

"I used to think being gay was just part of my life and now I know it
means dark cells and beatings. It is very, very difficult to be gay in
Egypt.

I'll tell you something. Some things that happen in your life you can
forget. And there are some things that you can never forget, even for
one minute. You forget the good times; you may have been happy in a
moment, and you forget. But the black days you can't forget. If it's
inside you, you remember every minute. And [the day I was tortured]
was a very black day in my life. … It hurts me to remember.

I don't sleep at all. If I sleep I would dream about the trial. If I
have to go back to prison, I will kill myself. What do they want from
us? I have no one to talk to, no one to ask. No one who can
understand. What do they want from us? Why do they want our lives?"

—Ziyad (not his real name), a defendant in the "Queen Boat" trial,
interviewed by Human Rights Watch in 2003.

On 10/13/07, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> Ben Yates wrote:
> > Look -- our own governments didn't treat GLBTs so well til recently
> > (see: forcing Allen Turing to take estrogen; turning a blind eye to
> > gay bashings; etc.).  This is an open wound -- it's not shrill or
> > "politically correct" to have serious issues with shrugging your
> > shoulders about a foreign system that your predecessors at home fought
> > desperately against.
> And some people in US government would like a constitutional amendment
> to insure that a marriage is between one man and one woman.
>
> Ec
>
>
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-- 
Ben Yates
Wikipedia blog - http://wikip.blogspot.com