Pacific Islands: Petition to support LGBTI

Momentum is gathering for greater equality for LGBTI people in the Pacific Islands, especially because the situation is deteriorating there.

A coalition of LGBTI advocates have come together to start a petition to push nations in the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) to create policies which would force member states ‘to support full inclusivity, equity and equality for all people of the Pacific’.

PIF is the region’s political and economic policy organisation. It 18 member states are; Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

The coalition has timed the petition with this year’s PIF forum in September. Nauru will host the forum and is one the few countries in the region to have decriminalized homosexuality. Nauru’s President Baron Waqa who decriminalized homosexuality is the current PIF chair. Read more via Gay Star News