Tunisia invokes sharia law in bid to shut down LGBT rights group
One of the Arab world’s most visible advocacy groups defending the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people is facing closure following legal threats by the government. Association Shams has been officially operating in Tunisia since 2015, helping the country’s LGBT community repeal article 230 of its penal code, a French colonial law, […]
Spanish election: Anti-LGBT Vox party makes political breakthrough
The far-right Vox party won just over 10 percent of the vote in Spain’s general election. Vox will take 24 of the Congress of Deputies’ 350 seats following the Spanish election, held on Sunday (April 28). Its success marks the first time that a far-right party will sit in parliament since the 1975 death of […]
Hopeful signs for LGBT people in the Caribbean
In the Caribbean, homophobia remains a problem, but LGBT people are seeing increased signs of public acceptance, including politicians coming out in support of their LGBT constituents. In St. Lucia, the National Security Minister said it is time to review the nation’s buggery laws. In St. Kitts & Nevis, a young person asked ministers about […]
Riyadh Khalaf: ‘Homophobia begins from a lack of education’
Riyadh Khalaf is standing on St Stephen’s Green when he is approached by two young women. “Are you Riyadh K?” asks one, referring to his YouTube handle. The two young women are Norwegian, on holidays in Dublin. After gamely chatting to them for a few moments, Khalaf volunteers to take a photo with one of […]
Trans women march for their rights in conservative Indonesia
Adhe Jengker marched among 4,000 others at the Women’s March in Jakarta Saturday. A tall trans woman in her late 20s, Jengker carried a poster that said “The Future is Non-Binary.” She came with five other women from the trans community, hoping to raise more awareness about trans women in an increasingly conservative Indonesia. “I […]
Taiwan set to get gay marriage despite Christian opposition
MAINLY Buddhist Taiwan, with a population of around 24 million, would have become the first country in Asia to legalise gay marriage following a 2017 ruling by the island’s Constitutional Court that to deny gay and lesbian couples the right to marry violated the constitution. But aggressive interference in Taiwan’s affairs by US-based Christian groups […]
A Gay Atheist Plots to Save His Catholic Country
A dozen Virgin Mary figurines decorate Robert Biedron’s office in Warsaw, picked from about 400 or so he’s gathered from across the world. Some show her smiling or suffering, some with dark or pale skin and others skinny, plump or even pregnant. Such a collection might not be unusual in Poland, a devout bastion of […]
New hub for queer and trans youth is ‘first of its kind’ in Regina, says UR Pride Centre
A new space in downtown Regina will be a hub for queer and trans youth — one that organizers hope will help combat problems like depression and underemployment amongst this population. On Friday, the federal government announced $218,000 over the next 14 months for the new space, which will be operated by the UR Pride […]
Gay club in central Ukraine raided by police
A popular gay nightclub in central Ukraine has been raided by police, with eyewitnesses claiming officers “behaved in a homophobic way.” Potemkin club in the city of Dnipro was raided at 1am on April 20. At the time there were around 30 people in the venue, alongside staff members. A published report of the incident […]
Abandoned: traditional festival of male beauty in Niger
Festival in Niamey, Niger, has promoted traditional men’s fashion, local couturiers’ skills and masculine beauty. It has also been a place for social minorities and artists in the Central Sahel region to express themselves and to display their talent for creative, artistic fashion. The fifth Arou Sogha Festival was planned for this week (April 27) […]
Report: Eight LGBTI Nicaraguans killed during anti-government protests
A report from Nicaragua indicates eight LGBTI people have been killed during anti-government protests that began in the Central American country last April. The report notes a gay man was one of three people who were killed on April 19, 2018, the day after protests against the government of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, […]
Foreign Minister denies saying gay sex ban is a ‘silly’ issue in Singapore
Singapore’s Foreign Minister has denied ever labelling a discussion around the country’s gay sex ban as ‘silly’. Queer man, YuZhou Lee attended a Singapore government forum in San Francisco at the weekend. The forum aimed to attract expats in the technology sector back home to Singapore. Minister Vivian Balakrishnan spoke at the event. The event […]
How Poland’s attacks on LGBT rights strengthened the Polish LGBT movement
In late February, the mayor of Warsaw issued a declaration combating discrimination against LGBT people by providing better sex education in schools and creating a city shelter for LGBT individuals kicked out by their families. This brought a furious backlash from Poland’s governing populist Law and Justice party and other social conservatives ranging from soccer […]
Armenian MPs call for transgender activist Lilit Martirosyan to be burned alive after high-profile speech
Armenia’s first registered transgender woman has received death threats after making a speech in her country’s national assembly. Lilit Martirosyan became the first member of her country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community to take to the parliamentary podium, speaking out against discrimination at a session of its committee on human rights. Martirosyan expressed […]
Brazil must not become a ‘gay tourism paradise’, says Bolsonaro
Brazil’s far-right president, the self-declared homophobe Jair Bolsonaro, has been accused of inciting hatred towards LGBT people after declaring the South American country should not become a “gay tourism paradise”. “If you want to come here and have sex with a woman, go for your life,” Bolsonaro reportedly told journalists in the capital, Brasília. “But […]
Multinationals see benefits in Taiwan same-sex marriage
Some of the world’s largest companies said on Wednesday that plans to grant equal marriage to LGBT+ couples in Taiwan – the first place in Asia to do so – would boost the island’s economy. Taiwan’s parliament is expected to vote by late May, a deadline set by the constitutional court when it ruled in […]
“Pride” Film Tells True Story of a 1984 LGBT Group
On April 23, the film “Pride” showcased for an audience of approximately 100 people in Flex Theatre in the HUB-Robeson Center at 7 p.m. Directed by Matthew Warchus and based on a true story, the film focused on the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) alliance. The group formed in 1984 and supported British […]
Polish leader: LGBT rights an import that threatens nation
The chairman of Poland’s conservative ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has called the LGBT rights movement a foreign import that threatens the Polish nation. Kaczynski, Poland’s most important politician, also said “everyone must accept Christianity” and that questioning the powerful Roman Catholic in Poland is unpatriotic. The positions that Kaczynski took Wednesday in a lecture on […]
New IRA claims responsibility Northern Ireland lesbian journalist’s death
Members of the New IRA apologized for last week’s killing of prominent lesbian journalist Lyra McKee by one of its volunteer members in a statement to the media Tuesday. McKee was shot in the head April 18 while covering a raid on “dissident republican activity” near a police SUV in Derry (also known as Londonderry). […]
Trans voters use correct identity in Indian general election for first time
Members of Delhi’s transgender and non-binary community have voted for the first time under their correct identity in India’s general election. The Indian election—which takes place from April 11 until May 19—is the first to be called since a landmark ruling by the country’s Supreme Court gave legal recognition to trans and non-binary people in […]
ANTI-GAY KUWAITI ACADEMIC CLAIMS SUPPOSITORY “CURE” FOR HOMOSEXUALITY
A homophobic Kuwaiti academic claimed on Scope TV in March that she invented a cure for homosexuality based on Islamic medicine. “I discovered therapeutic suppositories that curb the sexual urges of boys of the third gender as well as the fourth gender, which is butch lesbians. They have excessive sexual urges,” said the anti-gay and […]
Exposed: How Malaysia fosters anti-LGBT bias, violence
In Malaysia, a wide range of government-sponsored programs spread misinformation about LGBT people, which leads to anti-gay discrimination and violence. After human rights defender Numan Afifi described those abuses to the U.N. Human Rights Council in March, he was investigated by police. He explained to the police that he had presented a statement from a […]
Facebook has quietly removed three bogus far-right networks in Spain ahead of Sunday’s elections
Facebook has quietly removed three far-right networks that were engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior intended to spread politically divisive content in Spain ahead of a general election in the country, which takes place on Sunday. The networks had a total reach of almost 1.7 million followers and had generated close to 7.4 million interactions in […]
India opens health clinic run entirely for and by LGBT people
India has opened the doors to its first health clinic run entirely for and by LGBT+ people. The healthcare centre, located in Mumbai, employs LGBT+ receptionists, pharmacists, and counsellors to provide the most comfortable experience for its patients. Vivek Anand, CEO of the Humsafar Trust, who opened the clinic in February spoke about its importance […]
How a gay student’s suicide after being outed is helping Japan’s LGBT community speak up
The name of a gay student who died after being outed may remain known to only a small number of people – his immediate family, friends, classmates, and the university where he studied – because even in death, his privacy is considered important in Japan. But his death four years ago is changing the legal […]
Condoms: A controversial idea for fighting HIV in Jamaican prisons
The doubling of HIV cases in Jamaica’s prisons has resurrected the debate on formally offering condoms to curb the spread of sexually transmitted infections, with a clergyman being the loudest advocate that contraceptives be introduced. A Sunday Gleaner report revealed that a 2018 study conducted by the National Family Planning Board (NFPB) showed that the […]
Supreme Court to Decide Whether Landmark Civil Rights Law Applies to Gay and Transgender Workers
The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would decide whether the Civil Rights Act of 1964 guarantees protections from workplace discrimination to gay and transgender people in three cases expected to provide the first indication of how the court’s new conservative majority will approach L.G.B.T. rights. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said the […]
Malaysian police investigate LGBT activist over UN speech
Malaysian Police are investigating LGBTI rights activist, Numan Afifi, after he reported on the LGBTI rights situation at a UN Human Rights Council session last month. Police asked Afifi to visit a police station this Friday (26 April) to give a statement, according to a Facebook post. ‘I will not bow down to these acts […]
Soldier reveals how he faced the South Korean military’s gay witch hunt
A soldier has detailed what happened to him after he was caught up in South Korea’s hunt for gay people in the military. While same-sex activity is legal in the country, the military bans it under Article 92-6. The law says it is in order ‘to keep the military community sound’. However, South Korea has […]
Chechnya: Islam + tribal honor = danger for gays
In Chechnya, traditional leaders feel threatened by society’s free access to information online, by empowered and independent women, and by the very existence of queer people. The complex and challenging situation with human rights in the North Caucasus region has been attracting the attention of international organisations for some time, particularly in relation to the […]