Queers aren’t welcome, redux
The World Federation of the Deaf recently voted to host their 2027 global conference in the United Arab Emirates.
There were important considerations involved. Such as the UAE’s commitment to fund 100 people to attend the WFD. The WFD conference, like many other conferences hosted by deaf organizations, has traditionally been expensive to attend between registration fees, travel costs, and the such. More so when conferences tend to be hosted in Europe/U.S., which given local economies, are expensive for many who aren’t from Western Europe/U.S.
There are many deaf people living outside the United States and Europe. There have been calls for WFD conferences to be hosted outside of the U.S. and Europe in face of complaints that WFD (among other deaf run organizations and conferences) is U.S./Eurocentric. Locating such conferences outside of U.S./Western Europe broadens participation by making conference sites more affordable to travel to, more accessible in terms of distance for some regions, and reduces problems with visas. My understanding was that was a significant attraction for this year’s conference in South Korea. Visas being less of a barrier. Visas have been historically problematic in the past for those hailing from South America, Africa, and Asia.
Hosting the conference in the UAE, one posits, would result in fewer travel and economic barriers while opening up the WFD conference to a broader population who have long been/felt excluded from participation in WFD and other global deaf spaces. I’m sure there were other benefits considered in wanting to host the conference in the UAE. The above is noble enough.
However.
Yes. There’s a However. During the voting process, it turned out that the UAE will not allow LGBTQIA+ topics to be presented. Abigail Gorman of the UK asked these questions of the UAE delegation. Will queer people be welcome? Will queer topics be allowed on the program. The response from UAE was “respect for cultural differences” but no. Absolutely not. You can watch the exchange here.
The WFD Board withdrew its recommendation of UAE as a site upon verifying that LGBTQIA+ topics would not be allowed and in fact is apparently legally not allowed by UAE. After learning this fact:
The General Assembly voted for UAE anyway.
Folks were upset. Disappointed. Angry. Gobsmacked. Check out Twitter. Probably Facebook too although I’m not really there. The Daily Moth covered the news, which you can watch here.
The British Deaf Association (BDA) and Deaf Australia both issued letters condemning the decision and asking for a change in venue. ASLIUK, the UK’s association of sign language interpreters, also issued a statement on Twitter. Letters are linked.
The WFD Board released a statement.
Here’s my .002.
First: from the WFD website itself.
The first sentence affirms what I, too, believe: Human rights are universal, indivisible, and interconnected. Emphasis mine.
Furthermore, they belong to all people regardless of gender….or any other status such as disability or deafness. (Maybe an explicit inclusion of sexuality needs to be made here). Emphasis mine.
You can’t advocate for human rights half-way or half-hearted. It’s all or nothing. because those systems (racism, sexism, cissexism, heterosexism, ableism, audism, classism, anti-Semitism, etc) work together in tandem. Given the UAE’s track record on human rights, generally, I’m surprised it was even considered as a site for a human rights conference.
We are stronger when we work together toward a common goal.
And it’s especially important that we dig in and unify. Because in this day and age, not only in the U.S. but across the globe, there is a growing backlash against equity and human, civil, and legal rights across the board. Many groups are being attacked. Jewish people, queers, trans folk, women, leftists, you name it. By the time you get through the list of all the groups being attacked and rights being rolled back, you’ll hit what, 80% of all deaf people across the globe. So we start with excluding queers and trans folk. Who’s next?
I went through this in 2012 when the NAD invited Governor Daugaard of South Dakota, a Child of Deaf Adults (Coda) to their national conference. After months of intense lobbying from various people, including myself, Daugaard was suddenly “unable” to attend. He had a policy track record that was basically anti-woman, anti-Muslim, and anti-LGBTQIA. Intersectional politics matter. Bobbie Beth Scoggins, the president of the NAD back then, kept saying it was so important that we have political allies to advance deaf people’s human, civil, and legal rights. I asked: why were we fawning over some two-bit politician from one of the least politically influential states in the U.S.? Is it worth alienating half of your membership and the next generation of deaf people who have more progressive views? Huh.
Then again recently with the Florida Association of the Deaf statement, which I wrote about. Again, intersectional politics matter.
I don’t really wish to dissect this whole thing and do the emotional labor of arguing why the General Assembly is wrong in its selection. I think it’s obvious. Despite all the perks (attracting the regional crowd, diversifying the WFD experience and participation, funding for people who could not otherwise afford attendance, fewer visa and travel barriers), do we sell out our commitment to human rights? Can we look global political leaders in the eye and say “yes we want you to be committed to our human rights agenda even though we’re a little wishy-washy ourselves”? Can we look to various marginalized communities and ask them to be in solidarity with us even though we aren’t in solidarity with them? Do we want second-class status for some deaf people within deaf organizations and spaces? Should equity and justice be contingent upon material or political interests? Where will that line land? Starting with queers then who’s next? Then next? Until who’s left?
Here in the U.S., the NAD excluded Black Deaf people from membership (until 1964) and would not advocate for Black Deaf people’s right to education because they feared a loss in standing and political power if they upset deep-rooted white supremacy and white people in power. That hurt our overall progress because of a lack of understanding on how racism and audism are intertwined, how prejudice toward signed languages were rooted in racist logics, and left us with deep wounds that we have yet to recover from as a national community.
It has been about 25 years since I read that psych study as a freshman at Gallaudet but apparently deaf people are twice as likely to identify as LGBTQIA in contrast to the general nondeaf population. That number is probably higher today. Despite that, deaf communities and its organizations continue to exclude and marginalize queer deaf people. There’s clearly work to be done on that front.
