Scott Long

Scott Long (born June 5, 1963, in Radford, Virginia) is a US-born activist for international human rights, primarily focusing on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

Scott Long was born June 5, 1963, in Radford, Virginia.

He graduated from Radford University at the age of 18, and received a Ph.D. in literature from Harvard University in 1989 at the age of 25.

In 1990 he moved to Hungary, and taught literature at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest.

He became involved with the emerging lesbian and gay movement in Hungary as it developed during the democratic transition.

He organized the first course on sexuality and gender at the Eötvös Loránd University.

In 1992 Long accepted a senior Fulbright professorship teaching American studies at the University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

There, together with a few underground Romanian activists, he became deeply involved in campaigning for LGBT rights in Romania, including campaigns 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.

One of the first cases he investigated was that of Ciprian Cucu and Marian Mutașcu, two young men – respectively 17 and 19 – who had become lovers.

Jailed for months, the two were tortured brutally.

Soon after Marian Mutascu committed suicide.

Long visited their home towns, interviewed family members, and confronted the arresting officer and prosecutors.

Information he provided persuaded Amnesty International to recognize the two men as prisoners of conscience, the first time the organization had taken up the case of a couple jailed for their sexual orientation.

The international pressure Long helped create won the two their freedom.

Long was an outspoken voice on LGBT rights within Romania, participating in a controversial Bucharest conference on "Homosexuality: A human right?"

In 1993 Long conducted the first-ever mission to Albania to investigate the state of LGBT rights and to meet with gay activists there, and his documentation of arrests and abuses helped lead to the repeal of that country's sodomy law.

organized in 1995 by the Dutch Embassy and UNESCO – the first public discussion of LGBT human rights in the country.

He was a founding member of the Romanian gay and lesbian organization Accept.

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.

Returning to the United States in 1996, Long accepted a position with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) — a NGO combating rights abuses based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and HIV status — first as its advocacy director, then as program director.

He continued to work with activists in Romania, returning to the country in 1997 for additional research.

During that research, he learned of the imprisonment of Mariana Cetiner, a woman given a three-year sentence for attempting to have sex with another woman.

Long later testified to the U.S. Congress that

"I interviewed Mariana in prison. She had enormous bruises; she had been physically and sexually abused by the guards. The prison doctor told us, 'After all, she is different from other women. You can hardly expect the guards to treat her as if she were normal."

Long documented Cetiner's story and persuaded Amnesty International to adopt her as a prisoner of conscience, the first time the organization had taken up the case of a lesbian imprisoned for her sexual orientation.

Later that year, he wrote Public Scandals: Sexual Orientation and Criminal Law in Romania, a detailed study jointly published by IGLHRC and Human Rights Watch – the first report on LGBT issues ever issued by the latter organization.

In Bucharest in 1998, Long met with Romanian president Emil Constantinescu, who "promised to pardon all those incarcerated under Article 200 and to give priority to the repeal of the discriminatory article."

Long specifically lobbied for Mariana Cetiner, who was promptly freed on the president's order.

Between 1998 and 2002, he organized a project bringing many grassroots lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activists from the global South to speak and advocate before the then United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

Long also gave UN bodies extensive information and analyses on abuses against LGBT people.

This lobbying brought about an unprecedented commitment by key U.N. human rights officials to work on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.

His work spearheaded a European campaign and contributed strongly to Romania's eventual repeal of Article 200 in 2001.

In the next three years, according to political scientist Clifford Bob, Long "enthusiastically and skillfully" pushed the Romanian government toward full repeal of Article 200, which was finally achieved in 2001.

He founded the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, the first-ever program on LGBT rights at a major "mainstream" human rights organization, and served as its executive director from May 2004 - August 2010.

He later was a visiting fellow in the Human Rights Program of Harvard Law School from 2011 to 2012.

Journalist Rex Wockner called Long "arguably the most knowledgeable person on the planet about international LGBT issues."

David Mixner called him "one of the unsung heroes of the LGBT community."

Long's blog, A Paper Bird, which focuses on global politics and sexuality, has been acclaimed as "must-read," "indispensable," and "brilliant."

Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, praised Long's "exemplary dedication and diligence," saying that "His articulate and relentless defense of LGBT rights everywhere is unparalleled, and his tremendous efforts on this front have been a guiding voice for justice and equality."