Groups affiliated with far-right Ukrainian nationalists have launched online campaigns threatening LGBT activists after an LGBT rights march was attacked.
“For the first time I am afraid for my and my boyfriend’s lives,” LGBT activist Dmitry Pikakhchi said. “Considering the number of these posts, the number of participants [of the group] and the radicalism — I think that the danger is more than real.” Pikakhchi said he was especially worried about a group called Zero Tolerance hosted on the Russian-owned social network VKontakte, which is the dominant social network in much of the former Soviet Union. The group, which has more than 2,800 followers, has posted a photo album of at least a dozen people the group’s moderators say are LGBT activists.
“These degenerates do not deserve to live,” said one person who posted to page. Another wrote, “Homothugs will be destroyed.” Read More
Turkey: LGBTI activists say 'You can murder f*gs, there is no penalty for that'
Seven trans women were assaulted in Istanbul in the last month. Kıvılcım Arat of Istanbul LGBTI said: “It is the government, which avoids producing legislation [against hate crimes] and which issues press statements that point people out as targets, who is responsible for the increase in assaults.”
Kıvılcım Arat, member of the board of directors of Istanbul LGBTI [sic] tied the high number of assaults during the month to the statements by government authorities. While they have avoided issuing statements regarding LGBTIs up until now, government authorities have begun bringing the issue to the forefront as the elections are approaching. Arat reminds us of the statements by President Erdoğan, “We do not put forth homosexual candidates,” and by Prime Minister Davutoğlu, “Homosexuals caused the destruction of the tribe of Lot.”
“Ever since the HDP [which has an LGBTI candidate and actively campaigns for LGBTI rights] started its election campaign, statements by government authorities about LGBTIs have encouraged people to commit hate crimes. Read More
Sri Lanka's foreign minister threatened with arrest after UN vote
Sri Linka's Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera should be arrested for voting in favor of gay rights at the UN, an MP has said.
Wimal Weerawansa, leader of the National Freedom Front, said the minister had violated the country's penal code by voting against a Russia resolution calling for the withdrawal of partner benefits to gay and lesbian UN employees. Read More
Gambia: EU anger over expulsion of top diplomat
The European Union was 'astonished' when EU representative Agnes Guillaud was expelled from Gambia without explanation, said a spokeswoman. Guillaud had 72 hours to leave the country. The EU has been critical of The Gambia's human rights record, particularly regarding its laws penalising homosexuality. Last year the EU blocked nearly $15m in aid to Gambia.
President Yahya Jammeh has governed the small west African nation with a firm hand since he came to power in a coup 20 years ago. He has crushed dissent and faces mounting international criticism over issues ranging from human rights to his stated belief that he can cure Aids. The president has also implemented tough measures against Gambia's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. He has called gay people "vermin" and has threatened to slit their throats.
The EU summoned the Gambian ambassador to seek an explanation for the expulsion, officials said. Read More
Australia: Domestic violence in gay and transgender community neglected
Domestic violence rates among LGBTI Victorians mirror the broader community but support services are not equipped to provide adequate help, a leading research centre has reported. Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria is calling for better-targeted training for family violence support services and the justice system.
The research centre's submission to the Royal Commission into Family Violence said too many abuse victims in the LGBTI community suffer in isolation.
"Generally services are indicating they haven't thought about [the LGBTI community] much or aren't confident," submission author Dr Horsley said. She said support services needed specific training in dealing with the LGBTI community. Read More
UK: Bisexuals still face discrimination from the National Health Services and LGBT services
With the legalisation of same sex marriage in Britain and Ireland given the green light over the past few years, it’s easy to assume attitudes toward the LGBT community are becoming more accepting. Yet despite this, a portion of bisexual people are still experiencing discrimination.
Almost half of bisexuals claim to have experienced biphobic comments while accessing mainstream services, a new report launched by the Equality Network found. Biphobia was most commonly experienced within NHS and LGBT services. The research is said to be the first UK-wide research report on bisexual people’s experience of services. The study revealed 66% respondents felt they had to pass as straight and 42% felt they had to pass as gay or lesbian while accessing services.
More than a quarter of those asked claimed to have experienced prejudice even when accessing LGBT services. One respondent reported they had “heard lots of negative comments about bisexual people and dismissal of the need to include bisexual people”. Another respondent reported being told that “bisexuals are ‘confused’ and not as good as ‘real gays’”. Read More
South Africa: African academics challenge homophobic laws
A Western import. Unnatural. Contagious. Un-African. All of these arguments and more have been invoked to support the numerous laws criminalizing homosexuality in Africa. But now African academics have used scientific evidence to argue against such laws and to urge African nations to abandon them.
In a report published by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), the academics, most of whom are scientists, make the case that laws criminalizing homosexuality have no basis in science and hamper efforts to prevent and treat HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (see go.nature.com/q3rr4k).
Partly because those arguing in favour of criminalising sexual and gender diversity have made explicit appeals to science, this report examines the extent to which science supports any of the arguments that proponents of these new laws make. Drawing on recent scientific evidence and, where possible, on systematic reviews, the report seeks to provide an up-to-date overview of the state of the current biological, socio-psychological, and public health evidence and assess how this supports, or contests, the key arguments made in favour of new laws. Read More
Russia: Police hold gay activists at unauthorised rally, including Pride parade organizer
Russian police held around half a dozen activists for attempting to stage an unauthorised gay pride rally in central Moscow, AFP journalists witnessed. Police officers detained the activists and loaded them into waiting vans as around 30 nationalist counter-demonstrators in camouflage clothing and football fans hurled eggs at the activists and attacked them.
Several religious counter-demonstrators were also detained by police as a large crowd of Russian and international journalists looked on.
"Arrested and beaten at 10th Moscow Pride. We are arrested! They probably broke my left hand finger," leading gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev wrote on Twitter, posting a photo of himself in detention. Alexeyev, a prominent LGBT activist and lawyer and main organizer of Saturday's gay pride parade in Moscow was sentenced to 10 days in jail for "disobeying police orders" by a city court Monday. Read More
US: Transgender people are more visible than ever, but it's still legal to discriminate against them in most states
Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair cover was met with an outpouring of love and acceptance. Though Jenner's coming out marks a huge moment for trans visibility, daily discrimination and violence is still the norm for thousands of transgender Americans. The rate of violence against trans women, especially trans women of color, is alarming -- according to a 2013 report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, 72% of victims of anti-LGBTQ homicide were transgender women, and 89% of victims were people of color.
It's not surprising there are so many health and safety issues in the trans community -- in many places there aren't laws to protect them from housing or workplace discrimination, and hate crime legislation is nonexistent or doesn't include trans people as a protected group. Read More
Cuba: Murders of gays raise question of hate crimes
During the events surrounding the annual celebration of IDAHOT in Cuba, it emerged that a young transsexual had recently been killed in the city of Pinar del Río near the western tip of this Caribbean island nation. While efforts to combat discrimination against LGBT are stepped up in Cuba, this segment of the population remains vulnerable to harassment and violence – and even death.
Violent crime is generally surrounded by silence in this island nation of 11.2 million people, and killings of LGBT individuals are no exception. The 1987 penal code does not specifically recognise hate crimes, or sexual orientation and gender identity as aggravating circumstances in murders.
National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX) said the number of murders of MSM in 2013 and 2014 was high. At that time the issue came to the forefront because of the deaths of two high-profile openly gay cultural figures, who died in strange circumstances, according to activists. Read More
US: Transgender Woman Stabbed To Death In Philadelphia
London Chanel, a 21-year-old transgender woman, was stabbed to death in North Philadelphia. Chanel is the eighth transgender woman of color (the 10th over all) killed in the United States this year — a trend that anti-violence advocates have called an epidemic. And as in many of the cases, Chanel was misgendered in early reports. Read More
US: Wisconsin Trans Teen Bullied for Femininity Dies by Suicide
Just days after teen Cameron Langrell announced to friends and classmates online that she identified as a transgender girl, switching her Facebook gender identifier to "female," the 15-year-old took her own life.
The artistic freshman had faced incessant bullying at Horlick High School. Now, Cameron's parents are calling on officials to be more proactive about bullying to stave off the kind of harassment their child endured. "There needs to be more within the school, not just some outside resource," Jamie Olender, Cameron's mother.
Meanwhile, Langrell's death is the tenth reported suicide of a trans youth in the U.S. this year, in an "epidemic" that trans advocates say sees far more casualties than make headlines. An additional nine trans people have been murdered since January. Read More