LGBT Jamaicans are vulnerable to both physical and sexual violence and many live in constant fear, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. They are taunted, threatened, fired from their jobs, thrown out of their homes, or worse: beaten, stoned, raped, or killed.
The 86-page report, “Not Safe at Home: Violence and Discrimination Against LGBT People in Jamaica,” documents 56 cases of violence in which victims reported they were targeted because of their actual or perceived sexual identity. Read More
Jamaican Coalition Wants Buggery Punished Severely
The Coalition for a Healthy Society is urging Jamaican courts to increase punishment for the crime of 'Buggery' which has a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Committee member Delroy Chuck quizzed the Coalition on whether it would accede to some flexibility in law in respect to what he described as private morality. "If two males live together, do you believe it is the business of the State to investigate what they are doing within the confines of their bedroom?" Chuck questioned.
Head of the Coalition Dr Wayne West said if he had been asked the question five years ago he would have been inclined to support the position "because I have no intention of peeping into anybody's bedroom". However, West quipped, "when your neighbour's house is on fire you better take note of it". He argued that what is taking place in the bedroom is now being forced on persons in the public square. Read More
Amnesty International launches report "Rule by Law: Discriminatory Legislation and Legitimized Abuses in Uganda."
This report documents the human rights impact of three pieces of legislation: the Public Order Management Act, the Anti-Pornography Act, and the Anti-Homosexuality Act: in particular, the impact that these laws have had on the ability of civil society to organise, on discrimination against women, and on the lives of people who are or are believed to be LGBTI. Read the report here
Egypt: New legal guide for LGBT communities
In response to Egypt’s ongoing crackdown on LGBT people, Egyptian activists and legal experts have drawn up a guide on how LGBT people can reduce their chances of being arrested and how to act if they are arrested. Read More
Thousands demonstrate in France to defend "traditional family values"
Protesters took to the streets in Paris and Bordeaux to demonstrate against medically assisted procreation techniques for lesbian couples and surrogacy. According to Ludovine de la Rochere, president of Manif Pour Tous that organised the demonstration, such techniques must be "fought at all costs.” Manif pour Tous fought against the adoption of same-sex marriage in France last year. Read More
216 gay murders in Brazil this year
Homophobia is not a crime in the country even though it has the highest LGBTI murder rate in the world. The data was collected by the Gay Group of Bahia from January to 29 September and is based on police records and news reports as there are no official statistics. Read More
Teen's Suicide Highlights Struggle of LGBT Colombians
Two photos — one haunting, the other simply poignant — published separately last weekend by two Spanish-language news groups tell the story of Colombian society's urgent need to reconcile its religiously conservative culture with acceptance and respect for its LGBT men, women, and children.
The first photo is of a handsome young Colombian who committed suicide recently, after his teachers and school administrators allegedly harassed him because he was gay. The second shows his mother, Alba Reyes, with solemn eyes narrowed to a point of focus that only mothers of lost children know. Read More
Uganda judge received death threats for striking down anti-gay law
President Museveni signalled he is having second thoughts over tough anti-homosexuality legislation, arguing the impoverished east African nation needed to consider the impact on trade and economic growth. Saying he only signed off on the anti-gay law earlier this year because he wanted to protect children and stop people being “recruited” into homosexuality, he now worries the law could lead to a trade boycott which would hurt Uganda.
A Ugandan judge has revealed she has received death threats after annulling the anti-gay law earlier this year. Solomy Bossa Balungi has said she has received numerous attacks from the public after she helped with the ruling the Anti-Homosexuality Act must be nullified.
On 1 August, the Constitutional Court found speaker Rebecca Kadaga had acted ‘illegally’ in rushing the anti-gay legislation through parliament. Read More
Egyptian men arrested declared ‘not gay’ after exam, will appear in court in November
A group of Egyptian men arrested on the accusation that they are gay were subjected to invasive medical exams intended to show whether they engaged in homosexual activity. Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat ordered the men detained and “physically examined” after an online video emerged showing the men attending what appeared to be a same-sex marriage ceremony on a Nile riverboat. They are set to appear in court on November 1st.
Egypt's LGBT community began a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #stopjailinggays. Read More
Chad becomes 37th African state to seek ban on homosexuality
Chad government ministers voted to make same-sex relations a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison and 50,000-500,000 Central African francs.
The decision was condemned by human rights groups as another setback in the struggle for gay rights on the continent. Chad’s penal code is more than half a century old and does not explicitly mention homosexuality. The cabinet claims the measure is intended to “protect the family and to comply with Chadian society”. Read More
Kyrgyz Parliament Proposes Criminal Liability for Protection of LGBT People's Rights
The gay divide
THERE was a teenager in Arizona in the 1970s who “could no more imagine longing to touch a woman than longing to touch a toaster”. But he convinced himself that he was not gay. Longing to be “normal”, he blamed his obsession with muscular men on envy of their good looks. It was not until he was 25 that he admitted the truth to himself—let alone other people. In 1996 he wrote a cover leader for The Economist in favour of same-sex marriage. He never thought it would happen during his lifetime. Yet now he is married to the man he loves and living in a Virginia suburb where few think this odd.
The change in attitudes to homosexuality in many countries—not just the West but also Latin America, China and other places—is one of the wonders of the world (see article). This week America’s Supreme Court gave gay marriage another big boost, by rejecting several challenges to it; most Americans already live in states where gays can wed. But five countries still execute gay people: Iran hangs them; Saudi Arabia stones them. Gay sex is illegal in 78 countries, and a few have recently passed laws that make gay life even grimmer. The gay divide is one of the world’s widest (see article). What caused it? And will tolerance eventually spread? Read More