Fear and Loathing

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Dozens of anti-gay Russian nationalists swarm three gay rights activists

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Two young women and a man campaigning for gay rights in Russia were met with about 100 nationalist protesters on Sunday, who threw tomatoes and shouted anti-gay abuse. 

Dozens of nationalists gathered in the southern city of Lipetsk over the weekend to oppose a rally of three gay rights activists, a news report said.

Two young women and a man met Sunday in Lipetsk and walked to the city's central Sobornaya Ploshchad, where their demonstration for LGBT rights had been expected to take place, local news site LRNews reported. The rally was greeted by about 100 nationalists and conservative activists, as well as police officers deployed to prevent violence, the report said.

One of the rally participants, who gave her name as Reida Linn, said she and her friends wanted to draw public attention to “fighting homophobia, discrimination and violations of the Constitution and of the rights of LGBT people,” LRNews reported. Read More

Jamaica: Unchecked Homophobic Violence

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

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Jamaican Coalition Wants Buggery Punished Severely

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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

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Amnesty International launches report "Rule by Law: Discriminatory Legislation and Legitimized Abuses in Uganda."

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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

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Thousands demonstrate in France to defend "traditional family values"

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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

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Teen's Suicide Highlights Struggle of LGBT Colombians

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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

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Uganda judge received death threats for striking down anti-gay law

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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

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Egyptian men arrested declared ‘not gay’ after exam, will appear in court in November

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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

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Chad becomes 37th African state to seek ban on homosexuality

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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