Amnesty LGBTQI+ Meetup in Brisbane

Amnesty International’s next LGBTQI meetup in Brisbane will be on the 21st of November at 6:30pm. The focus of the meeting will be Write4Rights, were activists write in support of brave people who fight injustice even though they know they will lead to their persecution.

 

At the meetup people will be writing in support of Xulhaz Mannan, the founder of Bangladesh’s first LGBTIQ magazine, who was murdered in April 2016 by men with machetes in front of his elderly mother.

 

As part of the campaign, volunteers throughout Queensland will be standing with brave people like Xulhaz, by asking Bangladesh’s authorities to bring people responsible for these kind of hate crimes to justice.

 

Despite Xulhaz’s killers being seen on CCTV footage and plenty of eyewitness testimony, no action has been taken against the attackers. Authorities have gone as far to shift the blame to the victim, quoting their laws against marriage equality, and effectively using them to justify his murder.

 

Rebecca Buttenshaw, an Amnesty volunteer says “Being a member of the LGBTIQ community anywhere in the world is not an easy thing. But being from Australia, it is impossible to imagine the bravery and sacrifice that it took for Xulhaz to stand against his oppressors.”

 

“I know action taken here in Brisbane will not come at the same cost paid by Xulhaz, but Write4Rights lets people in places like Bangladesh know that they are not alone, they are not wrong for being different and they have not been forgotten.”

 
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