For LGBTQ Russians, Too Much and Too Little Law

 In recent weeks, Russian authorities have shown their unwillingness to enforce legislation when LGBTQ life is involved. Anti-gay activist Timur Isayev is alleged to have gotten 29 teachers fired for being gay by collecting and sending “evidence” to their employers. 

What recent weeks have really shown is that there is both too much and too little law for LGBTQ citizens and residents of Russia. Their lives are legislated, but they are not protected. Russian officials put the gay community under a microscope while drafting discriminatory laws, but turn away from them when it comes to enforcing pre-existing ones that are intended to protect the lives of all Russians.  Read More

Twelve Young Men Arrested in Nigeria for Holding a 'Gay Wedding'

Fariq Maidguri, 18, and Abba Mohammed, 25, who was not caught, are accused of attempting to hold a ceremony for their relationship. The suspects, most of them teenagers, were arrested by the Islamic state police Hisbah on the outskirts on the northern city of Kano. In the northern Nigerian states, under Sharia law, homosexuality is punishable by death. 

“As you can see from their appearance and the way they looked, there is every element of homosexuality in them. We have arrested 12 of them, but Abba Mubammed escaped arrest and maybe we would have arrested more,” Shiekh Aminu Daurawa told newsmen. Faruq Maiduguri however told pressmen that he was only celebrating his birthday, denying the allegations that he was wedding his gay partner. Read More

Gambian Man Accused Of Homosexuality Bore Signs of Torture, May Be Executed

Alieu Sarr, accused of being gay man, was arrested some weeks ago by the country's widely feared National Intelligence Agency, the NIA. He  has been hospitalized amid tortures he suffered in the hands of state agents, according to witnesses. Sarr was among the dozens of alleged homosexuals recently rounded up by the NIA.  

"Landlords, bar, restaurants, and hotels owners, amongst others, should also take responsibility to monitor extra activities that happen in their environment. The act is illegal and we will leave no stone unturned to ensuring that it is not practiced in The Gambia. Whoever is caught will face prosecution," the pro-government Daily Observer reported. Read More 

Uganda: 9 gay men threatened by mob, arrested by police

Nine young gay men have been released after being held in police custody for five days in western Uganda.Without knowing it, the men had put their lives in jeopardy by visiting an STI screening clinic, which attracted the attention of a homophobic mob.

Police at first detained the men on Jan. 15 to protect them from the mob, which threatened to beat or kill them. Once they were in custody, police began considering filing sodomy charges against them. Read More

Jamaica: Woman chopped viciously, allegedly by neighbour after she is assumed to be a lesbian

A young woman was chopped by her neighbour who believed her to be a lesbian because she lives with another woman.

Questioned as to whether there was any truth to the assumptions, she responded: "But me being a lesbian or not being a lesbian has nothing to do with me being chopped and that's what this is about. My sexuality has nothing to do with it, whether or not I am straight or gay, people can assume; I have nothing to say, no comment on that."  Read More

Two Transgender Women Of Color Killed Within Nine Days

Two transgender women of color who were killed within a week and a half this month — one in Virginia and another in Texas — are highlighting a trend amid a national epidemic of transgender homicides: police and media misgendering the victims as men. One article in Virginia also hit a nerve with LGBT advocates by dwelling on prostitution, even though prostitution had no apparent connection to the homicide. Read More

Twitter Users in France Convicted For Inciting Violence Against LGBT Community

In France, three Twitter users have been fined for using the hashtag #BrûlonsLesGaysSurdu, or “Let’s burn the gays.” It is the first time France has handed down court convictions for anti-gay tweets.

The case was brought by the French LGBT charity Comité IDAHO, which filed a complaint against the three Twitter users, accusing them of inciting hatred and violence on the basis of sexual orientation. The group called the convictions a “significant victory.”  Read More 

Graphic Photos On Twitter, ISIS Members Record and Tout Executions of Gay Men

The attacks, which also include the stoning of an adulterer, appear to have taken place in Mosul and were distributed by ISIS social media accounts.

These are obscene images. They depict two men thrown from the roof of a building as a crowd watches them fall to their deaths, and they purport to show the Islamic State (or ISIS) carrying out public executions before an audience in Iraq’s Nineveh province.

The two victims’ alleged crimes? They are believed to be gay. Read More

Germany's call to action: Western embassies should take in persecuted homosexual

The sentences for eight men charged with attending a homosexual wedding in Egypt have been reduced. Volker Beck of the German Green Party told DW that the West should do more to help persecuted homosexuals.

DW: An Egyptian appeals court reduced the sentences for eight men, who are in prison for allegedly attending a gay wedding. The court did not rescind the sentence and the men must stay in prison for another year. They had been sentenced to three years for "publishing obscene pictures." What do you make of the court decision?

Volker Beck: We have seen since the fall of the Islamist regime that the government is trying to show that it can be just as conservative and homophobic as the previous government. The court sentences are completely disproportionate. They are not based on any Egyptian law because homosexuality per se is not punishable in Egypt.

 Read More

In Depth: Dashed Hopes in Gay Ukraine

Ukrainians thought that, post-Maidan, their country would start to look more like Europe. But for members of the LGBT community, things may have even gotten worse. 

“I believe we are in between two evils: Russian homophobic culture and Ukrainian homophobic intolerance,” says Olena Semenova, an LGBT activist.

The Ukrainian gay and lesbian community is large and vibrant, especially in Kiev, where gay clubs and bars operate in relative peace. But many of its members prefer to remain closeted. Homophobia in Ukraine is pervasive and deep-rooted, sharing many parallels with Russia’s. Read More

Church members charged with beating gay man

For Matthew Fenner, a crowd of parishioners gathering around him in a church sanctuary after a prayer service was a sign of trouble. Within minutes, he said they began to berate him because he was gay. One woman told him he was "disgusting." Then for two hours, they pushed and hit Fenner, screaming at him as they tried to "break me free of the homosexual 'demons,'" he said in a police affidavit. 

Nearly two years later, five Word of Faith Fellowship church members have been indicted for kidnapping and assault in connection with Fenner's beating. But the case has opened new wounds in the rural North Carolina community where the church has been a lightning rod of controversy.  Read More

Op-ed: An Open Letter to Mainstream LGBT Organizations That Have Remained Silent on Black Lives Mattering

Why did we feel the need to write this open letter to mainstream LGBT organizations with a reference to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act?  Because it illuminates the dangers of focusing on one type of identity-based violence -- the violence that impacts LGBT people -- while willfully ignoring the police and vigilante violence that impacts Black queer- and trans-identified people, as well as all Black people:

Mike Brown's bloodied and lifeless body was left on a hot Missouri street for 4.5 hours; the world bore witness to video clips of Eric Garner uttering his final words, "I can't breathe!", as a police officer choked him to death. Read More