Scott Long (human rights activist)
Encyclopedia
Scott Long is an American activist in the human rights movement working for the rights of lesbian
, gay
, bisexual, and transgender
(LGBT
) people. He is now a Visiting Fellow in the Human Rights Program of Harvard Law School
. He was until recently Executive Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch
.
, Virginia
. He graduated from Radford University
at the age of 17, and received a Ph.D. from Harvard University
in 1989 at the age of 25. In the same year he moved to Hungary
, and taught at the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest
. He became involved with the nascent lesbian
and gay
movement in Hungary as it emerged during the democratic transition. He organized the first course on sexuality and gender at the Eotvos Lorand University, attended by hundreds of students. He was a founding member of Hattér, a Hungarian LGBT support and advocacy organization.
, Romania
. There, together with a few underground Romanian activists, he became deeply involved in campaigning against Article 200
of the Romanian penal code, a law dating from the Ceauşescu
dictatorship that criminalized consensual homosexual acts with five years' imprisonment. Working independently from any institution, Long visited dozens of Romanian prisons over the following years, interviewing prisoners, linking them to legal assistance, and documenting torture and arbitrary arrest of lesbians as well as gay men. He identified some of the first lesbians and gay men taken up as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International
. His documentation was crucial in persuading the Council of Europe
to strengthen its stand on lesbian and gay issues, and to demand that Romania repeal its sodomy law
. He was a founding member of the Romanian gay and lesbian organization ACCEPT
. His work spearheaded a European campaign and contributed strongly to Romania's eventual repeal of Article 200 in 2001.
In 1993 Long conducted the first human-rights mission to Albania
to meet with gay activists there, and his documentation of arrests and abuses helped lead to the repeal of that country's sodomy law
.
Returning to the United States in 1996, Long accepted a job with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
(IGLHRC)--an NGO working against rights abuses based on sexual orientation
, gender identity
, and HIV
status—first as advocacy coordinator, then as program director. Between 1998 and 2002, he organized an ongoing project bringing many grassroots lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activists from the global South to speak and advocate before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
. Their lobbying brought about an unprecedented commitment by six key U.N. human rights experts in 2001 to work on issues of sexual orientation
and gender identity
.
Long also led IGLHRC's advocacy at the groundbreaking 2001 United Nations
General Assembly
Special Session on HIV/AIDS. IGLHRC was invited to address the session, then blocked by conservative Islamic states and the Holy See
. The crisis led to the first-ever General Assembly vote on a gay/lesbian issue, which resulted in a victory and in IGLHRC's reinstatement.
From 1998, when he led a delegation to the World Council of Churches
's world conference in Harare
, Zimbabwe
, Long was closely involved with sexual rights movements across Africa
. He authored a 300-page report on state-sponsored homophobia
in southern Africa
for IGLHRC and Human Rights Watch in 2003.
Long also co-authored or edited reports on gay
, lesbian
, and transgender
parenting
, and on sexuality
-based attacks on women's organizing. He also wrote a guide to grassroots advocacy at the United Nations
.
In 2002, Long left IGLHRC for Human Rights Watch, the largest U.S.-based human rights
organization, where he was mandated to create a program on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights—the first such program in a major, "mainstream" human rights organization. The program was formally launched in 2004. From 2001, Long had been deeply engaged in combating a crackdown on homosexual conduct in Egypt
. In May 2001, police in Cairo
raided a floating Nile
discothèque called the Queen Boat, arresting dozens of men and staging a show trial for "blasphemy
" as well as "debauchery." Long attended and reported on their trial. In succeeding months, hundreds, possibly thousands of other men were arrested in raids and through Internet
entrapment
. Long spent months in Egypt in 2003 documenting the extent of the crackdown. Working for Human Rights Watch
, he also documented a brutal government assault on anti-war
activists, Islamists, and the political Left
. The bridges he thus built helped persuade parts of Egypt's human rights community to take lesbian and gay issues within their work.
In 2004, together with Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth
, Long launched a report on the Egyptian crackdown against gays, in Cairo
, accompanied and supported by five Egyptian human rights groups. From the day the report was released, arrests for homosexual conduct in Egypt stopped. According to Long, a prominent contact in Egypt's Interior Ministry said, "It is the end of the gay cases in Egypt, because of the activities of certain human rights organizations."
Later in 2004, Long worked to launch a Human Rights Watch report on homophobic violence and HIV/AIDS in Jamaica
. The report stimulated an intense debate in Jamaica and across the Caribbean
over homosexuality and the region's colonial-era sodomy laws, a furious controversy which continued for over a year. Editorials condemning Jamaica's anti-gay policies appeared in publications such as the New York Times and the Economist
, and filled the Jamaican press as well. For the first time the government suggested a willingness to modify its repressive legislation on consensual sexual acts.
In 2006, Long was the principal author of a report on binational same-sex couples and the discrimination they face in U.S. immigration
law, amid a fierce religious and social backlash against recognition of same-sex relationships in the United States
Long also went to Moscow
in 2006 to support Russian activists, including Nikolay Alexeyev, attempting to organize a gay pride march in the face of an official ban. The ban was part of a general strangling of civil society as President Vladimir Putin
's rule became more authoritarian. Long witnessed and reported on skinhead and police violence against marchers, including a brutal attack on German member of the Bundestag
Volker Beck
.
Long's work produced controversy in 2005 and 2006 after the hanging of two teenagers
in the city of Mashhad
, Iran
. Some gay activists in the West insisted that the youths were hanged not for the rape of a 13-year-old (as initially reported in the Iranian press) but for being gay. Long and Human Rights Watch, while condemning the executions and conducting intensive research on the situation for LGBT people in Iran, maintained that the evidence in the Mashhad
case was inconclusive, and also questioned the attribution of a Western "gay" identity
in culturally complex situations. Long was attacked for an overly-theoretical approach to political activism
. Some questioned whether his work reflected a covertly pro-Islamic stance.
At a time when Islamic states routinely punish consensual homosexuality involving youths with long prison terms, Long also has been criticized for embracing a narrow understanding of gay identity that ignores these attacks on same-sex activity.
Long was Executive Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, and resigned for "personal reasons" in August 2010. His resignation came shortly after HRW and Long offered an apology to Peter Tatchell
for a five-year series of essays by Long in the journal Contemporary Politics which had, among other allegations, alleged that Tatchell had claimed that Asgari and Marhoni had been "wanting the rape". Tatchell accepted the apology, but American journalist for Gay City News
Doug Ireland
had eviscerated Long for years of accusations made by Long against Ireland, Tatchell, Louis-Georges Tin, Arsham Parsi
and Ali Hili.
He is now Visiting Fellow, Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School
.
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, bisexual, and transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
(LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
) people. He is now a Visiting Fellow in the Human Rights Program of Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
. He was until recently Executive Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
.
Biography
Scott Long was born June 5, 1963 in RadfordRadford
-Places:England* Radford, Coventry* Radford, Nottingham* Radford, Oxfordshire* Radford, Somerset* Radford Semele, WarwickshireAustralia* Radford College, CanberraUSA* Radford, Virginia* Radford University, Virginia...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. He graduated from Radford University
Radford University
Radford University is one of Virginia's eight doctoral-degree granting public universities. Originally founded in 1910, Radford offers comprehensive curricula for undergraduates in more than 100 fields, and graduate programs including the M.F.A., M.B.A...
at the age of 17, and received a Ph.D. from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1989 at the age of 25. In the same year he moved to Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, and taught at the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
. He became involved with the nascent lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
and gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
movement in Hungary as it emerged during the democratic transition. He organized the first course on sexuality and gender at the Eotvos Lorand University, attended by hundreds of students. He was a founding member of Hattér, a Hungarian LGBT support and advocacy organization.
Career activities
In 1992 he accepted a Fulbright professorship at the University of Cluj-NapocaCluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. There, together with a few underground Romanian activists, he became deeply involved in campaigning against Article 200
Article 200
Article 200 was a section of the Penal Code of Romania that criminalised homosexual relationships. It was introduced in 1968, under the communist regime, during the rule Nicolae Ceauşescu, and remained in force until it was repealed by the Năstase government on 22 June 2001...
of the Romanian penal code, a law dating from the Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
dictatorship that criminalized consensual homosexual acts with five years' imprisonment. Working independently from any institution, Long visited dozens of Romanian prisons over the following years, interviewing prisoners, linking them to legal assistance, and documenting torture and arbitrary arrest of lesbians as well as gay men. He identified some of the first lesbians and gay men taken up as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
. His documentation was crucial in persuading the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
to strengthen its stand on lesbian and gay issues, and to demand that Romania repeal its sodomy law
Sodomy law
A sodomy law is a law that defines certain sexual acts as crimes. The precise sexual acts meant by the term sodomy are rarely spelled out in the law, but are typically understood by courts to include any sexual act deemed unnatural. It also has a range of similar euphemisms...
. He was a founding member of the Romanian gay and lesbian organization ACCEPT
ACCEPT
ACCEPT is the primary nongovernmental organization advocating for the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in Romania. It is based in Bucharest and also acts as the Romanian representative at ILGA-Europe...
. His work spearheaded a European campaign and contributed strongly to Romania's eventual repeal of Article 200 in 2001.
In 1993 Long conducted the first human-rights mission to Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
to meet with gay activists there, and his documentation of arrests and abuses helped lead to the repeal of that country's sodomy law
Sodomy law
A sodomy law is a law that defines certain sexual acts as crimes. The precise sexual acts meant by the term sodomy are rarely spelled out in the law, but are typically understood by courts to include any sexual act deemed unnatural. It also has a range of similar euphemisms...
.
Returning to the United States in 1996, Long accepted a job with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission is a US-based international non-governmental organization that addresses human rights violations against lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, intersexuals, transgender people and people with HIV/AIDS...
(IGLHRC)--an NGO working against rights abuses based on sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
, gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
, and HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
status—first as advocacy coordinator, then as program director. Between 1998 and 2002, he organized an ongoing project bringing many grassroots lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activists from the global South to speak and advocate before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006...
. Their lobbying brought about an unprecedented commitment by six key U.N. human rights experts in 2001 to work on issues of sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
and gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
.
Long also led IGLHRC's advocacy at the groundbreaking 2001 United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
General Assembly
United Nations General Assembly
For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:* General Assembly members* General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...
Special Session on HIV/AIDS. IGLHRC was invited to address the session, then blocked by conservative Islamic states and the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
. The crisis led to the first-ever General Assembly vote on a gay/lesbian issue, which resulted in a victory and in IGLHRC's reinstatement.
From 1998, when he led a delegation to the World Council of Churches
World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches is a worldwide fellowship of 349 global, regional and sub-regional, national and local churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service. It is a Christian ecumenical organization that is based in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland...
's world conference in Harare
Harare
Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...
, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, Long was closely involved with sexual rights movements across Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. He authored a 300-page report on state-sponsored homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
in southern Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
for IGLHRC and Human Rights Watch in 2003.
Long also co-authored or edited reports on gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, and transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
parenting
Parenting
Parenting is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood...
, and on sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
-based attacks on women's organizing. He also wrote a guide to grassroots advocacy at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
.
In 2002, Long left IGLHRC for Human Rights Watch, the largest U.S.-based human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
organization, where he was mandated to create a program on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights—the first such program in a major, "mainstream" human rights organization. The program was formally launched in 2004. From 2001, Long had been deeply engaged in combating a crackdown on homosexual conduct in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. In May 2001, police in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
raided a floating Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
discothèque called the Queen Boat, arresting dozens of men and staging a show trial for "blasphemy
Blasphemy
Blasphemy is irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy...
" as well as "debauchery." Long attended and reported on their trial. In succeeding months, hundreds, possibly thousands of other men were arrested in raids and through Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
entrapment
Entrapment
In criminal law, entrapment is conduct by a law enforcement agent inducing a person to commit an offense that the person would otherwise have been unlikely to commit. In many jurisdictions, entrapment is a possible defense against criminal liability...
. Long spent months in Egypt in 2003 documenting the extent of the crackdown. Working for Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, he also documented a brutal government assault on anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
activists, Islamists, and the political Left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
. The bridges he thus built helped persuade parts of Egypt's human rights community to take lesbian and gay issues within their work.
In 2004, together with Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth
Kenneth Roth
Kenneth Roth is an American attorney and has been the executive director of Human Rights Watch since 1993.-Background:Kenneth Roth, a graduate of Yale Law School and Brown University, was drawn to human rights causes through his Jewish father's experience of fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938...
, Long launched a report on the Egyptian crackdown against gays, in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, accompanied and supported by five Egyptian human rights groups. From the day the report was released, arrests for homosexual conduct in Egypt stopped. According to Long, a prominent contact in Egypt's Interior Ministry said, "It is the end of the gay cases in Egypt, because of the activities of certain human rights organizations."
Later in 2004, Long worked to launch a Human Rights Watch report on homophobic violence and HIV/AIDS in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. The report stimulated an intense debate in Jamaica and across the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
over homosexuality and the region's colonial-era sodomy laws, a furious controversy which continued for over a year. Editorials condemning Jamaica's anti-gay policies appeared in publications such as the New York Times and the Economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
, and filled the Jamaican press as well. For the first time the government suggested a willingness to modify its repressive legislation on consensual sexual acts.
In 2006, Long was the principal author of a report on binational same-sex couples and the discrimination they face in U.S. immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
law, amid a fierce religious and social backlash against recognition of same-sex relationships in the United States
Long also went to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in 2006 to support Russian activists, including Nikolay Alexeyev, attempting to organize a gay pride march in the face of an official ban. The ban was part of a general strangling of civil society as President Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
's rule became more authoritarian. Long witnessed and reported on skinhead and police violence against marchers, including a brutal attack on German member of the Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
Volker Beck
Volker Beck
Volker Beck is a German politician. He is a sitting member of parliament for the Green Party in the Bundestag. Beck served as the Green Party Speaker for Legal Affairs from 1994–2002, and as the Green Party whip in the Bundestag since then...
.
Long's work produced controversy in 2005 and 2006 after the hanging of two teenagers
Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni
Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, were Iranian teenagers from the province of Khorasan who were publicly hanged in Edalat Square in Mashhad, northeast Iran, on July 19, 2005. They were executed after being convicted by the court of having raped a 13-year old boy. The case attracted...
in the city of Mashhad
Mashhad
Mashhad , is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia Muslim world. It is also the only major Iranian city with an Arabic name. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Its...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. Some gay activists in the West insisted that the youths were hanged not for the rape of a 13-year-old (as initially reported in the Iranian press) but for being gay. Long and Human Rights Watch, while condemning the executions and conducting intensive research on the situation for LGBT people in Iran, maintained that the evidence in the Mashhad
Mashhad
Mashhad , is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia Muslim world. It is also the only major Iranian city with an Arabic name. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Its...
case was inconclusive, and also questioned the attribution of a Western "gay" identity
Cultural identity
Cultural identity is the identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as one is influenced by one's belonging to a group or culture. Cultural identity is similar to and has overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, identity politics....
in culturally complex situations. Long was attacked for an overly-theoretical approach to political activism
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
. Some questioned whether his work reflected a covertly pro-Islamic stance.
At a time when Islamic states routinely punish consensual homosexuality involving youths with long prison terms, Long also has been criticized for embracing a narrow understanding of gay identity that ignores these attacks on same-sex activity.
Long was Executive Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, and resigned for "personal reasons" in August 2010. His resignation came shortly after HRW and Long offered an apology to Peter Tatchell
Peter Tatchell
Peter Gary Tatchell is an Australian-born British political campaigner best known for his work with LGBT social movements...
for a five-year series of essays by Long in the journal Contemporary Politics which had, among other allegations, alleged that Tatchell had claimed that Asgari and Marhoni had been "wanting the rape". Tatchell accepted the apology, but American journalist for Gay City News
Gay City News
Gay City News is an award-winning, free weekly newspaper based in New York City that focuses on local and national issues relating to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. It was founded in 1994 as Lesbian Gay New York, later LGNY, and was sold to Community Media LLC in 2002,...
Doug Ireland
Doug Ireland
Doug Ireland is an American journalist and blogger who writes about politics, power, media, and also about gay issues. He is the U.S...
had eviscerated Long for years of accusations made by Long against Ireland, Tatchell, Louis-Georges Tin, Arsham Parsi
Arsham Parsi
Arsham Parsi is an Iranian LGBT Human Rights activist who lives in exile in Canada. He is the founder and head of the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees .-Career:...
and Ali Hili.
He is now Visiting Fellow, Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
.