© Frank H. Jump
September, 2012:
Tom’s Tavern – Salt – Flatirons in Background – Boulder, CO
© Frank H. Jump
© Frank H. Jump
- Flatirons – Wikipedia
- New beginning for Tom’s Tavern site – Colterra chef’s ‘Salt’ to possibly open next week – By Alicia Wallace Camera Business Writer Posted: 08/28/2009
Gay Life in EGYPT by George Tenreiro
Gay life in Egypt is harsh and dangerous. Egypt’s population is mostly Muslim and its society and politics are heavily influenced by Muslim attitudes and teachings which are intensely intolerant toward gays. Consensual sex between same-sex individuals is not expressly criminalized in Egyptian law, “but it is a serious taboo” where “gay men are vilified by the press and public.”
Worse still, starting in 2000 or so, Egypt began exploiting the “Public Order & Public Morals” to arrest, charge, torture, and sentence gays to prison and hard labor. The charges tend to be based on references to “debauchery” or some similar “moral” allegation.
LGBT life was arguably getting slightly better in the 1990’s. Then in 2000, an Egyptian gay couple was arrested and charged with “violation of honor by threat” and “practicing immoral and indecent behavior.” These two arrests were widely covered and became a media sensation and led various Egyptian public figures to demand that Egypt “execute homosexuals or send them to mental institutions to be reformed.” Soon after these demands, Egypt began a very organized and public crackdown on homosexuality initially by way of police raiding private parties attended by Egyptian gay men.
The first of these raids took place in 2001 when the police stormed a private boat party in Cairo. There, the police arrested fifty-two Egyptian gay men who would become known worldwide as the “Cairo 52.” Despite intense pressure by international governments and human rights organizations, twenty-three of the Cairo 52 were sentenced to prison with hard labor. Subsequent raids and arrests have continued In 2003, police set up checkpoints in a popular cruising area in downtown Cairo and arrested 62 men. In 2004, a 17-year old male student was sentenced to a 17-year prison sentence (with 2 years of hard labor) simply for posting a personal profile on a gay dating site.
A 2004 Human Rights Watch (“HRW”) report entitled “In Time of Torture” stated that HRW knew of at least “179 men” charged “under the law against ‘debauchery,’” but HRW suspected the true number of defendants charged with this crime was much, much greater. And HRW nevertheless reported that hundreds of others above the 179 men charged were known to have been harassed, arrested, and/or tortured simply based on their sexuality. According to HRW, police “routinely torture men suspected of homosexual conduct, sometimes to extract confessions and sometimes simply as a sadistic reminder of the burden of shame their alleged behavior incurs.”
It is too early to tell whether the recent revolution that toppled the Hosni Mubarak’s regime will usher in greater acceptance of the LGBTI community. Keli Goff of the Huffington Post and others remain skeptical that better days lie ahead and note that a “big question mark remains regarding what this new era in Egypt will mean for gays and lesbians.”
The Unites States Department of State recognizes that country conditions for the LGBTI community in Egypt remain hostile. In its Country Conditions Report for the year 2011, the United States Government found that Egypt “allows police to arrest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons on charges of ‘debauchery,’” and that “[g]ay men and lesbians faced significant social stigma in society and in the workplace, impeding their ability to organize or publicly advocate on behalf of the LGBT community.”
Not surprisingly, gay life in Egypt has gone back to being mostly underground. Gays are forced to find solace on the Internet and secluded places away from public view. They understand that they will face intense hostility if they are even perceived to be gay, let alone if they are caught displaying any sort of same-sex intimacy. Like so many other Middle East (and African) countries, Egypt persecutes its LGBTI community in stark and unequivocal ways, and it does so, ironically, in defense of morality.
The conditions are so brutal that most gay Egyptians who make it to the United States will be eligible for asylum so long as they (i) have a clean criminal record, (ii) have not married a member of the opposite sex, and (iii) file within the one-year filing deadline. But (again) every case is different and it is important to discuss asylum with an experienced asylum attorney to determine whether it is a viable option. This is so even if you do not meet the three forgoing factors (e.g., 1-year filing deadline), because waivers and exceptions may be available depending on the particular circumstances of your case.
I am able to represent clients in all 50 states, and will be glad to speak with anyone who has questions regarding gay asylum at no charge.
George Tenreiro
BALDASSARE & MARA, LLC
570 Broad Street, Suite 900
Newark, New Jersey 07102
Office: 973.200.4066; Fax: 973.741.2482
E-Mail: gtenreiro@mabalaw.com
Admitted in New Jersey and New York
References:
- United States Department of State, “2011 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt” at page 31, available at:http://www.state.gov/
documents/organization/ 186635.pdf . - Gender Across Borders, “Popular Uprisings: Marriage Equality and Gay Rights in Egypt” (February 24, 2011), available at: http://
www.genderacrossborders.com /2011/02/25/ popular-uprisings-marriage- equality-and-gay-rights-in -egypt/ . - LGBT Asylum News, “Egyptian dissident a double outsider” (June 10, 2010), available at:http://
madikazemi.blogspot.com/ 2010/06/ egyptian-dissident-double-o utsider.html . - Gay Middle East, “For gay Egyptians, life online is the only choice” by Liam Stack (May 18, 2007), available at: http://
www.gaymiddleeast.com/news/ article137.html . - Human Rights Watch, “In Time of Torture” (February 29, 2004), available athttp://www.hrw.org/sites/
default/files/reports/ egypt0304_0.pdf . - El Akhbar, “Egyptian Teenager Sentenced for Gay Internet Posting” (February 25, 2004), available at http://
www.gaymiddleeast.com/ country/egypt.htm . - BBC News, “Egypt crackdown on homosexuals” (March 6, 2002), available at:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/
hi/programmes/ crossing_continents/ 1858469.stm .
Winding Your Way Down Staple Street – New York Hospital – TriBeCa
CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE – Instagram Collage © Frank H. Jump
IN 1894, New York Hospital built the House of Relief, a downtown clinic, on Jay from Hudson to Staple, with an ambulance entrance facing Staple. In that year The New York Herald noted that the hospital was sending its ambulance out as often as seven times a day, sometimes on emergencies involving sunstroke, ”which so often occurs in the lower part of the city,” perhaps because of the large number of men working outdoors on the docks.
In 1907 the hospital built an annex across Staple Street (replacing the saloon/row house at Jay and Staple) as a stable and laundry, connecting it at the third-floor level using a pedestrian bridge. Although Staple Street was then just an industrial alley, the hospital had the architects Robertson & Potter design a handsome little building with a terra cotta plaque bearing the ”NYH” monogram on the Staple Street side. The monogram is still there. – Christopher Gray, NY Times – February 18, 2001
Elsewhere on the Internet:
- Staple Street traverse at dusk – NY Through The Lens – NYC Photography
- Tales of Old Tribeca: The Hospital on Hudson Street – By Oliver E. Allen
LANDMARK WEST – Fading Ads Slideshow & Lecture October 3rd @ 6PM – New York Society for Ethical Culture
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Tenth Annual openhousenewyork® Weekend — October 6 & 7, 2012 – Walking Tours @ 11AM in Chelsea & Tribeca
Fading Ads of New York City
Meeting on the SE corner of Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) & West 22nd Street
For the Fading Ads of Chelsea Walking Tour on October 6th @ 11AM
Where Frank Jump will also be selling autographed copies
of his book Fading Ads of New York City (History Press)
Meeting on the NW corner of Chamber & Hudson Streets (Bogardus Plaza)
For the Fading Ads of TriBeCa Walking Tour on October 7th @ 11AM
Photo credit Frank Jump
For over 20 years, author and photographer Frank Jump has been documenting fading advertisements of New York City. Visible, but less often seen, these ads cling to brick facades like forgotten relics of a bygone era. For Jump, fading ads are metaphors for survival and outliving expected lifetimes, a topic that is very personal to him. Don’t miss this chance to reposition your perspective to these ads hidden-in-plain-sight!
Listen to a podcast of Jump’s conversation with Leonard Lopate from WNYC.
All of these tours will be featured as part of the 2012 OHNY Weekend, October 6 & 7, 2012. All listing details for the Weekend will go live on our website in late September. Please check back then for specific dates, times and information about advance reservations, if required.
American Radiator Company Building new home to Scientology Denver – Dianetics & Homophobia
© Frank H. Jump
© Frank H. Jump
© Frank H. Jump
© Frank H. Jump
The American Radiator Company Building, now home of the Church of Scientology of Denver, was originally constructed in 1916. It stands in the heart of the Ballpark Neighborhood Historic District in Lower Downtown, one block from Coors Field.
The building is among the finest examples of late 19th and early 20th century industrial architecture that proliferated in Denver as the city evolved into a major capital of the American West. It further epitomizes the trend of historic preservation that began in the 1980s and revitalized Lower Downtown into a thriving hub of the city.
After acquiring the landmark building, the Church meticulously preserved its historic features during renovation. Today the heritage of the American Radiator Company Building is fully intact—from the neoclassical marble entrance, terra cotta highlights and rooftop parapet, to the ornamental window grilles and oak-paneled entry hall.
Dedicated as the home of the Church of Scientology in June 2012, the landmark remains both a tribute to Denver’s past and a signpost to its future. – Scientology Denver
- Can the Rockies learn from their new neighbor, the Church of Scientology? – Westword – Wednesday, Jun 20 2012
- American Radiator Company Building – Denver Public Library – Digital Collections
Scientology views of homosexuality are based on the writings of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology. His statements about homosexuality have given rise to assertions from critics that Scientology promotes homophobia. These allegations are disputed by some Scientologists.
L. Ron Hubbard’s son Quentin Hubbard was homosexual. According to Atack (author of A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed), L. Ron Hubbard had repeatedly announced that his son Quentin would succeed him after his death, but Quentin died of an apparent suicide in 1976. – Wikipedia
Stranger than fiction.
Pacific Express Stables – Francis J. Fisher Building – National Register of Historic Places – Denver, CO
© Frank H. Jump
© Frank H. Jump
© Frank H. Jump
© Frank H. Jump
© Frank H. Jump
National Registry of Historic Places:
Courtesy of History Colorado http://www.historycolorado.org/ CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE
Taken 1983 – Denver CO – History Colorado
Taken 1983 – Denver CO – History Colorado – CLICK FOR FULL PDF
PACIFIC EXPRESS STABLE/
FRANCIS J. FISHER BUILDING
CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE – PDF @ historycolorado.org link
The two-story red brick commercial style building was constructed in 1888 and used as a stable for the Pacific Express Company until circa 1910. The company delivered railroad freight and housed the company’s wagons on the first floor, with the horses at basement level and their hay and grain stored on the second. In 1913, Francis J. Fisher bought the building and remodeled it into a warehouse for his specialty building supply business. – Creating Your Community – Denver Public Library
