Men suspected of being gay robbed, stripped and blackmailed in Ghana
Homophobes have continued their aggravated attacks on people they believe to be gay or lesbian in Ghana. This phenomenon of lawless attacks on perceived LGBTI persons has taken a new twist as LGBTI people continue to face widespread attacks and violence against them. On 5 January 5 a group of men were lured to Kasoa, […]
Lithuania’s top court grants residence permits for same-sex foreign spouses
Lithuania’s top court has ruled that foreign spouses of gay citizens must be granted residence permits. The Constitutional Court ruled that denying residency permits to the spouses of gay Lithuanian citizens who had married abroad was discriminatory and a breach of human dignity. ‘The refusal to issue permits cannot be based only on gender identity […]
The hunt for pink dollar
While marriage equality is yet to clear the legislative thicket, advocates are encouraged by the country’s efforts to woo more LGBTQ tourists The Life Partnership Bill still has a long bureaucratic path ahead and an election and post-election uncertainty to endure before it could become law. But its recent approval in the Cabinet was an […]
Royal British Legion launches LGBT branch
The Royal British Legion has launched an official branch for LGBT+ people serving in the Armed Forces. The charity, which provides financial, social and emotional support to veterans, servicepeople and military families, said it is hoping to tackle stigma and isolation by creating the dedicated LGBTQ+ & Allies branch to allow people to connect and […]
Three reasons Thailand is winning on same-sex rights in Asia
Last month, the Thai government supported a bill that would make Thailand the first Asian jurisdiction to allow same-sex civil partnerships (“Thai government approves same-sex civil unions”, December 25). It is significant progress in the battle for sexual equality in Asia, in contrast to the failed referendum on gay marriage in Taiwan. Success for the gay […]
Indian army chief draws flak over ‘no gay sex’ remarks
India’s army chief drew flak on Friday for saying gay sex would not be tolerated among soldiers, months after the country scrapped a colonial-era ban on same-sex relations. General Bipin Rawat said gay sex was unacceptable in his army – one of the largest in the world with more than a million soldiers – drawing […]
First-time father reveals his baby will have two mummies and two daddies
A first-time father has revealed his baby will have two mummies and two daddies. Carl Austin-Behan and husband Simon are expecting a girl in March after conceiving with a lesbian couple who are also their close friends. The foursome have admitted it’s an “unusual set-up” but are thrilled they will be one big family with their daughter splitting her time between the […]
An evangelical group is trying to strip LGBTQ protections from an anti-lynching bill
Congress is finally close to passing a bill that makes lynching a hate crime — but an evangelical group is trying to remove any reference to LGBTQ communities from the legislation. When the Senate unanimously passed the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act in December, it marked an important step in a roughly century-long effort to outlaw […]
More people identify as LGBT as social awareness grows in Japan: study
At least one in eleven people identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to a survey conducted by advertising giant Dentsu Inc., while more than two-thirds of respondents were familiar with the acronym LGBT. Of the 60,000 people aged between 20 and 59 who responded online last October, 8.9 percent self-identified as LGBT individuals, […]
LGBT+ refugees in Kenya accuse U.N. of failing on protection, shelter
It wasn’t long after Joe’s father was shot dead for being gay that the 24-year-old Ugandan college student realized the men from his church would be coming for him next. First came the anonymous phone calls in the dead of night. Then the chilling text messages detailing how he would be “hunted down”. It was […]
Reports surface of fresh anti-gay purge in Chechnya
Activists in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Chechnya are warning of a new gay purge even as Chelyabinsk celebrated a small victory. The Associated Press on Friday cited activist Igor Kochetkov as saying Chechnya has seen a spike in detentions of women and men suspected of being gay since December. His comments came on the back of […]
Regional authorities in China shut down two LGBTI organizations
Regional authorities in China shut down two LGBTI organizations on Tuesday (8 January). The Municipal Affairs Bureau in the southern metropolis Guangzhou labeled the Guangzhou University Rainbow Group and the Guangzhou Gender and Sexuality Education Center as ‘illegal social organizations’. The organizations provided sexual diversity education in universities and support for sexual harassment cases respectively. Authorities claim […]
Fans mourn fatal shooting of openly gay rapper Kevin Fret in Puerto Rico
Fans are mourning the fatal shooting of Kevin Fret, one of Puerto Rico’s only openly urban music artists. The rapper, who was 24, was shot several times as he was riding his motorcycle early Thursday morning in Santurce, Puerto Rico, a neighborhood in the San Juan metro area. Police are still investigating the circumstances surrounding […]
Trans people flock to Malta’s new gender clinic
About 35 people have accessed the services at Malta’s new gender clinic since it opened in mid-November. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health Chris Fearne, said the clinic was opened to allow all people in Malta to have universal health care. The Mtarfa Health Clinic started offering specialized gender services from 14 November, 2018. […]
Israeli Doctors Ban ‘Conversion Therapy’ for Gay People
A ban on conversion therapy by Israeli doctors will help protect gay people from treatments that claim to make them straight, but more work needs to be done with religious groups that support controversial “cures,” activists said on Wednesday. Members who perform conversion therapy could now be expelled from the Israel Medical Association (IMA), which […]
Human Rights Commission warns Depok’s policies produce potential for anti-LGBT discrimination
State-sanctioned discrimination in Indonesia against the LGBT community and individuals saw a sharp increase towards the end of last year as officials in a number of cities and regions — particularly parts of highly conservative regions in West Sumatra and West Java — publicly denounced the protected minority group, led anti-LGBT activism parades and passed various […]
How stigma prevents Delhi’s gay men from getting tested for HIV
When the news broke that India’s Supreme Court had struck down a colonial-era law making gay sex illegal, the reaction in Delhi was jubilant, with public celebrations erupting across the capital. Fast forward four months and HIV/Aids charities are finding the old stigma and prejudice against members of the LGBT+ community are stubbornly refusing to go away. Although attitudes towards gay relationships have […]
Inspired by her daughter, this first-time author is shining a light on LGBT Muslim teen experiences
Four weeks before the release of her debut novel, author Sabina Khan tweeted she hadn’t been sure anyone would read her story when she first began writing. “I wasn’t sure if anyone would want to read about the struggles of a Muslim lesbian from an immigrant family,” Khan, 50, wrote. Her fears, so far, have been proven […]
Pushed to Fringes of Indian Society, Delhi’s Trans Women Face Constant HIV Threat
Boby has lost track of the precise number of times she has been gang-raped. She thinks it is between eight and 10. “Every time it has been without condom,” she says. “Every time I was badly beaten.” As a trans sex worker in India’s capital city Delhi, the smiling, unabashed 25-year-old lives under a constant threat of […]
For LGBTI People in Lebanon, They Go Through Their Own Stonewall
It is reported that on the night of June 28, 1969, transgender revolutionary Sylvia Rivera, infuriated and exhausted with the way the queer community had been treated, took off her shoe and flung it at the heads of the NYPD officers arresting her community during their raid of the Stonewall Inn. The events of that night […]
Biggest Ever LGBTI Asian Contemporary Art Show Heading to Bangkok
A Hong Kong-based charity that uses art to fight sexual-orientation discrimination is taking the largest ever LGBT Asian contemporary art exhibition to Bangkok in November. “Spectrosynthesis II” is the expanded second edition of a similar exhibition that the Sunpride Foundation co-presented at Taipei’s Museum of Contemporary Art in 2017. Patrick Sun Kai-yit, the founder of Sunpride, […]
Two Thirds of Teachers Have No Training on LGBTI Issues, Says Survey
More than two thirds of teachers in Scotland have no recent grounding in LGBT+ issues, according to a new survey. The results of the research, released by Scotland’s government to TES following a Freedom of Information request, found that 70 percent of teaching staff had receiving no training on LGBT+ issues in the last five years. Over 300 […]
Evangelical Activists Want LGBTI People Excluded from Anti-lynching Bill
Evangelical activists are pressing Republican lawmakers to strip protections for LGBT+ people from an anti-lynching bill. The Justice for Victims of Lynching Act cleared the US Senate on December 20 in a rare unanimous vote. The bill would allow lynchings—bias-motivated mob killings without legal authority—to be charged as a federal hate crime for the first time.
Out gay Nigerian prepares online help for others
Nigerian gay man Dan Yomi is gearing up to launch an online project that he hopes will help other gay people deal with issues relating to their sexual orientation, including coming out. Yomi who currently resides in the U.K., was the first black Student Union president at Bournemouth University when he came out as gay last year […]
Bisexual poverty is overlooked by the LGBT+ community
Poverty is one of the main issues facing bisexual people. Yet it is a problem that is seriously overlooked. Bisexual people are the “invisible majority” of the LGBT+ community. Despite being the largest group under the rainbow flag by some measures, our needs and our marginalization are often ignored. Abuse from both the gay and […]
Colorado swears in the United States’ first ever openly gay governor
Jared Polis on Tuesday (8 January) was sworn in as governor of Colorado. With his inauguration, he became the state’s first Jewish governor and the country’s first openly gay governor. Polis made history on 7 November when he won his race in the midterm elections. He ran opposing Republican candidate Walker Stapleton, who took 44.9% of the votes, […]
Marriage equality campaigners urge UK govt. to extend rights to Northern Ireland
Campaigners said they will increase the pressure on Westminster to spread marriage equality to all parts of the UK. Stephen Donnan, a campaigner with LGBTI rights group Love Equality, spoke to the Belfast Telegraph . ‘While the UK legalized same-sex marriages in 2015, Northern Ireland still only has civil unions. This includes same-sex couples who were […]
New asylum policy has big ramifications for Nogales, Sonora
Four months after fleeing their home in El Salvador, the six members of the Meneses family arrived in Nogales, Sonora on Dec. 25 with documents ready to ask for asylum in the United States. After his family was targeted by anti-LGBT groups in their home country, 27-year-old Javier Meneses said, he found the help of […]
Same-sex marriages top number of church marriages
The number of same-sex marriages topped the number of marriages done in church, based on the Saipan Mayor’s Office records for January through September 2018. Saipan Tribune learned over the weekend that the Saipan Mayor’s Office has been recording more same-sex marriages compared to church marriages in the first three quarters of 2018, mirroring the […]
Our lives, Our rights
Have you ever felt excluded from the society and from your own family? Have you ever been discriminated by your classmates based on your gender? If you haven’t, you’re fortunate. But at least try to put yourself in the shoes of those who have, or maybe offer a listening ear. This is what the participants […]