Protesters Kiss-In At Madrid Burger King After Gay Couple Is Kicked Out

Over 100 people participated in a gay kiss-in at a Burger King franchise in Spain after a same-sex couple was reportedly kicked out of the restaurant for kissing. A security guard had asked two gay men, ages 18 and 19, to leave the Burger King in Madrid's Plaza de los Cubos last month after a patron who was eating there with his kids complained about them kissing, according to El Pais.

“He said to us that we couldn’t do things like that. That there were children around," one of the men told the publication, adding that the pair ultimately left the restaurant because they did not want to cause trouble. Arcópoli, a Madrid-based LGBT rights group, organized the event.  Read More

The hidden and the hunted: Uganda's war on gay men

Reporter Jonathan Heaf takes an intimate view on the lives of Ugandan gay men in the wake of the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) - or the "Kill The Gays Bill", as it has become known - passed by the Parliament of Uganda:

There must be no distinguishable markings on the outside of the building. Nothing indicative of what happens within. The room is airless and empty. Michael Bashaija slumps between his boyfriend - an older man named Apollo - and a lawyer, knees wide apart, on a green plastic garden chair that is cracked and worn.  Read More 

Living Dangerously: What It’s Like to Be Gay in Iran

It is possible to be gay and live under a repressive regime that is always threatening to out you, or worse. But it's a lot like walking a tightrope: scary and fraught with risks

Saeed was 20 years old when he sat his father down and told him he was gay. Trembling, he recounted how, as a child, he hid cutouts of male underwear models from foreign magazines under his pillow, and would gaze at them for hours when he was alone. His mother, sitting speechless in a chair next to her husband, went pale.

A retired colonel in the Iranian Air Force, Saeed’s father looked at him with a straight face, not moving a muscle. “Affirmative,” he said. He had spent three decades in the military, and had been shaped equally by its rigorous discipline and his religious upbringing. “I always knew you were different from my other children. I always used to say that to your mom. Right?” he said, turning to his wife, then added: “Saeed, this is your nature. This isn’t your choice. You should have told us earlier.”

Saeed burst into tears, relieved. His mother took his hands and nodded, “What can we do to help?” Read More 

Egypt reduces sentence for eight men over gay marriage video

An Egyptian appeals court has reduced the jail terms for eight men sentenced last month on charges relating to their appearance in an online video purporting to show the country's first gay marriage ceremony.

The court cut the sentences - on charges of spreading indecent images and inciting debauchery - from three years each to one year, judicial sources said. Read More

UK trans people banned from voting unless they provide previous name

Trans people are furious at the UK government's new electoral registration system, forcing them to provide a previous name in order to be eligible to vote.

The new online voter registration system means that trans individuals cannot register to vote unless they provide false information or they out themselves publicly with no guarantee their data will be protected under the Gender Recognition Act 2004. Read More

EU report reveals alarming reality trans people

The EU Fundamental Rights Agency presented the largest comparative study on the experiences of trans people in all 28 EU Member States. The FRA calls the results “alarming”, but highlights that legal frameworks and good policies have a positive impact on trans people’s lives. The FRA study was launched at an event organised by the Intergroup on LGBTI Rights and Transgender Europe. The study takes a closer look at results of the nearly 7000 trans respondents of the EU LGBT Survey. Read More

Report: Anti-LGBT Violence Has Increased In Russia Since “Propaganda” Ban

A new report from Human Rights Watch details rising violence against LGBT people in Russia since the country adopted a ban on “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” among minors in 2013. The research comes on the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments that his country has been unfairly labeled as anti-LGBT.

The Human Rights Watch report, based on dozens of interviews with Russian LGBT individuals and activists conducted in 2013 and 2014, paints a starkly different portrait. Read More

Philippines: Closure of gay bars “to end AIDS” looms in Baguio

Health officials asked the city government on Wednesday to close down gay bars to prevent the spread of the dreaded disease AIDS, which showed an upsurge in the past several months. Dra. Celiaflor Brillantes, head of the social hygiene clinic, said 80 percent of the 60 AIDS cases in the city have been traced to men having sex with men and returning overseas workers, who got infected abroad.

“We have to close down the gay bars and strictly regulate the operation of nightspots in order to prevent the further increase of individuals contracting the dreaded disease,” Brillantes said. Read More

Gay teen in hospital after neo-Nazi attack in Madrid

A gay teen was hospitalized after he and his boyfriend were attacked by Neo-Nazis in Madrid. The pair, aged 17 and 23, were attacked by nine men and a woman all dressed in black Neo-Nazi attire including military-style boots.

The gay couple were sitting on a bench in front of the Temple of Debod with a friend, holding hands, when they were approached by the group at around 9pm. They were asked whether they were 'fags' or 'fascists' before they were attacked. Read More

ISIS says it threw 'gay' man off rooftop then stoned him to death

The Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on Tuesday posted photographs appearing to show extremists throwing a "gay" man off a rooftop and then stoning him to death.

"The Islamic court in Wilayet al-Furat decided that a man who has practised sodomy must be thrown off the highest point in the city, and then stoned to death," read a statement accompanying the images. Read More

Gay Hero of Sydney Hostage Crisis Died a Second Class Citizen

The 16 hour siege of a Lindt coffee shop in Sydney, Australia ended when hostages attempted to flee while hostage Tori Johnson charged the terrorist. Tori Johnson was 34. He managed the Lindt Chocolate Café for two years. Employees and customers all said he was a good man, a kind man. He was also a gay man.

Author James Peron discusses Johnson and other heroes of recent terrorist attacks across the globe who happen to be gay. Read More

Swiss film festival dismisses controversial TV reporter Mona Iraqi

The organisers of a Swiss film festival have sacked their Egyptian representative, Mona Iraqi, because of her role in a recent police raid on a Cairo bathhouse which resulted in the arrest of 26 people. Iraqi, the presenter of an investigative current affairs programme, has been strongly criticised by rights activists for informing the police of alleged homosexual activity at a Ramsis bathhouse and precipitating a police raid.

On 7 December police raided the building and arrested 26 men, stripping them naked and rounding them into police vans. Pictures posted by Iraqi on her official Facebook page show her at the scene, filming events with her mobile phone. After the raid, Iraqi wrote on her Facebook page that “our program was able to break up a place for perversion between men and to catch them flagrantly in the act … My God, the result is beautiful.” Read More