{"id":15910,"date":"2020-10-20T13:04:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T13:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/?p=15910"},"modified":"2020-10-29T13:18:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T13:18:11","slug":"despite-corona-mauritius-marches-for-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/despite-corona-mauritius-marches-for-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite the COVID-19 pandemic: Mauritius marches for love"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is a rare sight this year: the queer community in Mauritius defied the COVID-19 pandemic and the queer-hostile mood in the country by organising one of the world&#8217;s very rare pride events. With good reason: the queers have an important demand.<\/p>\n<p>The organisation Collectif Arc-en-Cieland (CAEC), which has been campaigning for equal rights for queer people in the country for around 15 years, organised the parade, in which more than 500 people took part &#8211; some of them wearing face masks, although Mauritius is now considered practically Coronavirus-free thanks to strict measures taken in spring.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Forbidden Love in Mauritius<\/h2>\n<div class=\"video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Eski to tann mwa? (Do you hear me?)\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S8lbuJBA0oU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The motto of the march was in the national language Morisyen, a Creole language based on French: &#8220;Eski to tann mwa?&#8221;, which translated means &#8220;Do you hear me?&#8221;<br \/>\nWith this, the organisers and visitors of the event wanted to draw attention to their important demand. The event was a protest against the notorious section 250 of the penal code, which criminalises sex between men. There is no corresponding regulation for sex between women.<\/p>\n<p>Men who are proven to have had sex with other men are threatened with up to five years in prison &#8211; an intolerable situation for the local queer community. The head of CAEC, Anjeelee Kaur Beegun, said that the criminalisation of same-sex activities is used by opponents of the community to stigmatise and threaten them.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-wrap\">\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><script async=\"1\" defer=\"1\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/de_DE\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;version=v8.0\" nonce=\"sFyHEqP0\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-post\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/media\/set\/?set=a.2748165642124337&amp;type=3\" data-width=\"750\">\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/media\/set\/?set=a.2748165642124337&amp;type=3\" class=\"fb-xfbml-parse-ignore\">\n<p>A BIG thank you to everyone for marching with us and for making the 15th March for Equality a huge success!!!\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08#MarchForEquality #CollectifArcEnCiel #CAEC #EskiToTannMwa #LGBTQ #LGBTQRights #HumanRights<\/p>\n<p>Gepostet von <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/collectifarcenciel.org\/\">Collectif Arcenciel<\/a> am&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/media\/set\/?set=a.2748165642124337&amp;type=3\">Mittwoch, 14. Oktober 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We hope that through this march we will be able to raise awareness among decision-makers and the general public of the harsh reality of LGBT+ people and force them to be more sensitive to it&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Mauritius: Unfortunately not a dream for everyone<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-15914 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/mauritius-5401160_1920-615x345.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"615\" height=\"345\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/mauritius-5401160_1920-615x345.jpg 615w, https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/mauritius-5401160_1920-215x122.jpg 215w, https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/mauritius-5401160_1920-165x93.jpg 165w, https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/mauritius-5401160_1920-768x431.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/mauritius-5401160_1920.jpg 1050w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 615px) 100vw, 615px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Mauritius is a small island state in the Indian Ocean, about 1000 kilometres east of the coast of Madagascar. The country is a paradise when you look at it &#8211; unfortunately it is not yet a paradise for the queer community. Transgender people cannot have their gender reassigned, and there is no legal recognition of homosexual couples.<\/p>\n<p>In 2008, an anti-discrimination law was passed on the basis of sexual orientation, but not gender identity &#8211; a significant success all the same, says Beegun. She promises, however, that they would continue to fight for true equality. Homo- and transphobia are still widespread, the activist said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is a rare sight this year: the queer community in Mauritius defied the COVID-19 pandemic and the queer-hostile mood in the country by organising one of the world&#8217;s very rare pride events. With good reason: the queers have an important demand. <a href=\"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/despite-corona-mauritius-marches-for-love\/\"><\/p>\n<p><i class=\"showAllLink\">more&#8230;<\/i><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":15917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[21,1,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15910"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16050,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15910\/revisions\/16050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}