The highest honor we hand out is "The Shirley" named after the late, great Shirley Chisholm. It's such an honor that this is only the second time this year we're handing it out.
Who's receiving it?
US House Rep Jared Polis.
Why?
Last Sunday a Denver Post's editorial cited him: "Killing of gay Iraqis shouldn't be ignored: We applaud Rep. Jared Polis for his efforts last week to shine the spotlight on the killings of homosexuals in Iraq."
Polis is speaking out for Iraq's LGBT community and not just here in the US. He made a trip this month to Iraq and, while there, raised the issue repeatedly including in a letter to Patricia A. Butenis (Charge d'Affaires ad interim of the US State Dept) [PDF formart warning] which Polis made public here:
Dear Ms. Butenis:
Over the past week, I have become aware of egregious human rights violations against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Iraqis being carried out by Iraqi government officials from the Ministry of the Interior called "Magaweer al-Dakhilya." The information I received was derived from two separate testimonials of gay and transgender Iraqi men that were detained, tortured and sentenced to death for being members of an allegedly forbidden organization in Iraq called Iraqi LGBT. One of these individuals was able to escape, while the other was subsequently executed by Iraqi Ministry of Interior Security Forces.
While I do not know if these executions are being sanctioned at the highest levels of the Iraqi government, it is nonetheless disturbing that government officials and state-funded security forces are involved in the torturing and execution of LGBT Iraqis.
Even more disturbing was that the United States government appears to be largely unaware that the executions of gay and transgender Iraqis have been able to occur in Iraq given the enormous American presence. After reaching out to State Department officials in Washington, I was disappointed by their unwillingness to seriously consider these allegations and examine the evidence given to our office by international human rights watchdog organizations.
I urge you to use every channel at your disposal to properly and promptly investigate these grave human rights violations. Please know that I will continue to monitor this situation and hope to be of assistance in this investigation."
The United Nations, the White House and the US State Department have been silent throughout all of the targeting, all of the assaults, all of the murders. (Yes, one State Dept staffer spoke this week but it completely contradicts what another said earlier this month, see last Friday's "Iraq snapshot.") At his Congressional website, Polis is quoted stating, "The United States should not tolerate human rights violations of nay kind, especially by a government that Americans spend billions of taxpayer dollars each year supporting. Hopefully my trip and letters to US and Iraqi officials will help bring international attention and investigation to this terrible situation and bring an end to any such offenses." And hopefully in the next few weeks we'll hear the White House and the State Department following Polis' lead in condemning these attacks. For now he stands alone.
And that's how you earn a Shirley. By showing the bravery and determination that were hallmarks of Shirley Chisholm's life and remain her legacy.
[See Marcia's "Jared Polis" for more.]