For several weeks now, the global financial and market problems have hit crisis-point: banks and lenders have collapsed; those that haven’t have either been bought over by competitors, or have had to rely on the intervention of the State. Ireland has now been joined by at least one other state in recession.
[e.g. link, link and link. See also haveyoubeenlivingunderarock.com]

Many economic experts – on TV, radio and the web – have expressed the view that our situation is unprecedented, and that quite frankly no-one knows what will happen after this. Unbridled free-marketeering, and lack of regulation reminiscent of nineteenth-century laissez-faire commerce, has proved unsustainable. Capitalism is eating itself. The post-Cold War world – in the “developed” nations, at least – don’t seem to know what to be doing. (Keep your eye on China.) It could be that history is in the making.

So, when economic systems are being undermined by their own processes, and entities from global banking corporations to citizens and consumers are now struggling to make ends meet, where does that leave gay rights? And human rights in general?

Human rights have been threatened for some time, especially in recent years – most notably with the United States openly dismissing fundamental human rights, including the few absolute rights that exist (I’m thinking of the absolute prohibition on torture).

The human rights of LGBTs, however, are very much under attack. They have long been the subject of dispute – even in respected organisations such as Amnesty International, when they first arose for inclusion as a specific thematic area of campaign work. In 2005, the world saw the Vatican (or Holy See) join forces with the Organisation of Islamic Countries at the UN in lobbying against a proposal from Brazil which called for the respect of human rights irrespective of sexual orientation. Quite the issue for “inter-faith dialogue”, no?

Before and since we have seen religious groupings – today, very well-funded and well-organised – lobby against, speak in the media against, and act violently towards LGBT people. For example, evangelical religious groups in Europe receiving support from their counterparts in the USA; Iona Institute types capitalising, for want of a better word, on their media connections to set out their agenda un-opposed; attacks on peaceful gatherings and on activists and ordinary LGBT people; politicians have spoken out to condemn LGBT people and our relationships. See, for example, Poland, Moscow, Riga, Sarajevo, Iran, Kenya, Uganda, Lithuania, Italy, and (almost) at the EU level.

Let’s face it: us queers are at the bottom of the human sociological heap, so when times get tough, just where exactly will we find ourselves?

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