Two trans women sex workers were attacked on the same night. Migel was attacked in her own apartment by a group of men. She was brutally injured with deep cuts on several parts of her body. The same night, Işıl was attacked by a group of 5 men. She was assaulted and her jaw was broken.
Attacks on trans women are increasing. Last week there were 4 attacks on trans women sex workers in 3 different cities (Istanbul, Izmir and Kocaeli). Read More
Three transgenders were shot dead and six other people were injured after two gunmen ambushed them in the bustling Rialto Chowk on Saturday night.
Ahmed alias Tania, who was among the injured, in her statement told the police that she along with some other transgenders were standing at the corner of a street in Chamanzar Colony when two motorcycle riders brandishing guns reached there and opened fire on them. As a result, two of the transgenders died on the spot and five other people, including three transgenders, injured.
On May 5, the decomposed body of a transgender was found from a greenbelt at Koral. Police said the deceased, Falak Sher alias Bijli, a native of Bahawalpur, was strangled. The motive behind the murder could not be ascertained. Read More
Gambia's notorious dictator Yahya Jammeh recently intensified his anti-homosexual rhetoric, threatening to slit the throats of gay men living in the small West African nation while seeming to claim that the West could do nothing to stop him.
"If you do it [in the Gambia] I will slit your throat — if you are a man and want to marry another man in this country and we catch you, no one will ever set eyes on you again, and no white person can do anything about it," he said to a crowd in the town of Farafeni as he spoke about fostering a healthy atmosphere for the country's youth.
The US and the European Union have both slashed aid to the country in the last year, citing general concerns over continued human rights abuses. Read More
France may have taken the historic step of legalising gay marriage last year, but it appears the landmark social reform came at a cost. The number of reported homophobic acts increased in 2013 by a staggering 78%, according to SOS Homophobie, a homophobia hotline and LGBTQ defense organization.
The cases are striking to Americans because of the widely held fallacy that France is a tolerant society. This is not entirely the case. Religious diversity is tolerated as long as minorities remain quiet. “Laïcité,” the French version of secularism, favors Catholicism and is often used as a cudgel against the Muslim (and in some cases the Jewish) minority.
If there are more reports of homophobia, it is partly because of more homophobic incidents. But it is also because of more reporting of those incidents. For many years French LGBTQ people bought into the notion that France was tolerant. The virulence of the attacks on homosexuals during marriage equality was a revelation to these gays, as were the visible physical assaults on gay men. Read More
Whenever protests are planned and the Egyptian tanks roll into Cairo’s main squares, Mariam takes a longer route to work, the one that avoids the police checkpoints. Her ID carries the name she was born with (a boy’s name) and a number that signals her original gender (male). These details are not easily changed, and they could get her arrested.
“Last time I got stopped, I panicked and pretended I was going to a fancy-dress party. The officers made fun of me but it worked and they let me go,” she says. The policemen ridiculed her for a bit, and called her names, but she played along and once they got bored they let her pass. With dozens of members of the LGBT community in prison on so-called charges of “debauchery”, she does not want to risk it again.
Being gay or transgender is not illegal in Egypt but since the military pushed out the unpopular Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in the summer of 2013, the country has been engaged in a fierce crackdown. Human rights workers say at least 150 LGBT people have been arrested. Read More
Transgender people might be more visible than ever, but across much of Europe having their gender identity recognised by law remains either impossible, or beset by obstacles. The group Transgender Europe has released a report with a wealth of detailed findings about the differing rights of trans people across the continent. The study compared policies and laws for trans people in 22 different areas, including asylum, employment discrimination, hate speech laws, goods and services discrimination, and whether official documents can be changed to register gender identity. Read more
Citizen Weekly has exposed 12 LGBTI activists and leaders. Several were previously in the closet. While some are known internationally as spokespeople for the community, others included a closeted senator and a gospel singer.
Activists fear the newspaper will incite mob violence, similar to when Ugandan activist David Kato was killed after being 'named and shamed' on the front page of a tabloid in 2010. While the front page headline reads: 'TOP GAYS, LESBIANS LIST IN KENYA OUT', the actual article does not call for violence or murder like other past tabloid lists of this nature. Read More
Kenya's deputy president has said there is "no room" for homosexuality in the country’s society, the latest comments from an African government to anger activists and likely annoy Western donors. William Ruto made the remarks at a church service Sunday, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived for talks.
"The Republic of Kenya is a republic that worships God. We have no room for gays," Ruto told a Nairobi church congregation in Swahili, according to an online video posted by Kenyan broadcaster KTN. Speaking to Reuters on Monday, Ruto's spokesman Emmanuel Talam confirmed the deputy president's remarks, adding: "The government believes that homosexual relations are unnatural and un-African." Read More
Moscow policemen disrupted the Rainbow Flashmob dedicated to IDAHO, as reported by participants of the rally in their blogs on social networks. The event of launching colored balloons to the sky was to be held in the Yekaterininskiy Park, but police stopped the rally.
Activist Nikolai Kavkazskiy said “The police brought me to the bus and said that they were not detaining me, but forwarding me somewhere.” According to him, a total of 14 police officers detained LGBT activists, who planned to take part in the celebration. The detainees were taken to the police station, then policemen seized their documents and demanded to undergo fingerprinting. Read More
Manif Pour Tous, a group that came to fame protesting same-sex marriage in France, is becoming a political party. But the group says it doesn’t want to win elections. Instead, they admit that their new status will mean they benefit from tax breaks and donors will be able to make tax-deductible gifts. Manif Pour Tous willcontinue to lobby in the political sphere and will make voting recommendations.
The National Assembly of France passed marriage equality rights in 2013. Read More
She wooed audiences with her performances in popular Bengali sitcom, Tumi Ashbey Bole but gave in to the social pressure created by her same-sex relationship. From a journal left behind, police say social stigma over her same-sex relationship with another TV actress led her to commit suicide.
After the actress Ganguly was linked to learned of her suicide, she also attempted suicide, jumping in front of a running train at Howrah station. However, bystanders rescued the actress. Currently, she is undergoing treatment at a hospital after sustaining minor injuries. Read More
Rachel Bryk jumped off the George Washington Bridge, the bridge between New York and New Jersey, on Thursday night. An eyewitness is believed to have seen the young woman leave her purse on the bridge and jump off into the Hudson River.
Rachel is the 8th trans person in the US to commit suicide in the last 5 months. Also in the last 5 months, 8 trans people have been murdered in the US. Read More