Kenya: Gay Ugandans regret fleeing

Hundreds of people in Uganda's LGBT community have fled the country to escape homophobia and persecution. But many are now stuck in Kenya where the situation is not much better. Even the UNHCR - the very group tasked with protected LGBT people - has admitted its own staff are hostile. The deputy head of protection for UNHCR told me that staff have said that as Christians they could not work with, or talk to, a gay man.

Some of the Ugandans I spoke to also told me this discrimination from UNHCR staff has led to delays in determining their refugee status, making them live with uncertainty about their future.

"In Uganda we were unsafe and here it's the same," said Blessed, not his real name.
He was a church pastor in Uganda and fled to Kakuma 18 months ago after his name was published in a local newspaper, which said he was gay. He received death threats and had to leave his family behind. "I don't know if I will ever see them again," he said.
"First I have to survive being here and then maybe one day I can entertain that thought."

The Ugandans have to sleep in shifts - taking it in turns to guard their compounds at night, after an attempt this year to burn it down. And that is not the only threat they have received. A few weeks back, hate leaflets were circulated around the camp asking people not to mix with the LGBT community there.   Read more via the BBC 

Iran: This gay man sold a kidney to escape to Turkey

There was only one way Danial could think of to get out of Iran: He would have to sell his kidney. Danial risked his life to get to Turkey, trusting that the refugee system would look after him when he got there. Instead, it was just the beginning of his problems. 

His situation felt hopeless. His mother had confronted him about being gay one December morning in 2013. By noon he had fled the family home, taking nothing but the clothes on his back and 50,000 rials — about $2 — in his pocket. 

“I had no way forward, no way backwards — I just wanted to escape from that place,” Danial said. For most Iranians, getting to Turkey would be as simple as buying a plane ticket, which can cost less than $200; a few hundred LGBT Iranians make this trip every year because it’s an easy jumping-off point to a new life in the West. Iranian passport holders don’t need a visa to enter Turkey, and the United Nations fast-tracks LGBT refugees for resettlement because it considers them especially vulnerable.

But Danial couldn’t get an Iranian passport. He was the son of an Afghan. 

Read more via Buzzfeed
 

Activist outed as a 'top gay' by a Kenyan tabloid answers your questions

Lawyer Eric Gitari shares his experiences of being harassed, publicly shamed and fighting for LGBT rights. In May a leading Kenyan tabloid, Citizen, ran a picture of Eric Gitari and nine of his compatriots on their front page. The news splash? They were were being outed as “top gays”.

Life in Kenya is not easy for the LGBT community, who have to contend with daily stigma, the threat of mob violence and lengthy prison sentences. Gitari, who is a lawyer and human rights activist, is undeterred by this and recently secured a major legal victory for the community.

After a long fight, Kenya’s high court ruled that his organisation, the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, could be formally registered in Kenya. This paved the way for similar organisations also supporting the community to follow suit.

Shortly afterwards, Citizen ran their front page. The next battle on Gitari’s hands is a lawsuit he has filed against the state over forced HIV testing and anal examinations, which the government says can determine men’s sexuality. Read more via the Guardian

Ukraine: Stop harassing us over oppressed minorities --- we're too busy fighting Russia

Though it's not commonly known, Ukraine's LGBT community played a significant role in the Maidan revolution which toppled the unpopular government of Viktor Yanukovych some two years ago. Careful not to upset or alienate conservative nationalist elements at the Maidan, LGBT protesters made a tactical decision not to promote their cause openly. According to EU Observer, the LGBT community refrained from brandishing its own slogans and banners lest it provoke homophobic violence. The Observer remarks that "during the revolution, the LGBT community behaved courageously, but also pragmatically: it didn't champion the rights of the gay minority in order not to split Maidan into liberal and illiberal factions."

In the wake of Maidan, however, many within the LGBT community feel betrayed by the very revolution which they helped to spearhead. In Ukraine, all the current talk is about repelling Vladimir Putin and Russian-backed separatists, rather than adhering to liberal-minded values. It's a rather ironic coda to the Maidan, which was initially driven forward by pro-Western and progressive aspirations. Judging from recent events, however, it would appear that Maidan's liberal credo was rather superficial and merely skin deep.

Recently, many conservative Ukrainians seem to be falling back on a common refrain: don't resort to criticism of our country's internal politics, for such "divisive" tactics will only serve to embolden Vladimir Putin. Though these claims rely on a dubious and false equivalency, such arguments seem to be gaining some traction, as my own experience may attest. What is more, political elites have desperately sought to outmaneuver the LGBT community by playing the nationalist card. Read more via Huffington Post

Zambia: Trans woman convicted, faces 15 years to life

A trans woman in Mongu, western Zambia, was found guilty last week of permitting a man to have carnal knowledge of her “against the order of nature.” In Zambia, that is a crime punishable by a prison sentence of 15 years to life under Section 155 (c) of the Zambian Penal Code. 

Hatch Bril, 27, pleaded innocent to the sodomy charge, which was filed after taxi driver Abraham Chilemu, 19, complained to police about Bril, saying that she had deceived him into sex. Bril said that Chilemu had forced her to have sex with him, but the magistrate rejected that account. 

Bril’s clothing was entered into evidence — bracelets, makeup, a bra, leggings, and hair extensions. On the basis of those and photos of Bril taken by Chilemu, the magistrate concluded that Chilemu was deceived by Bril into believing that Bril  was a woman. Bril was forced to undergo an anal examination — a procedure that LGBTI activists categorize as a form of torture and criticize as an unreliable indicator of whether anal intercourse took place.

Chilemu apparently was a willing participant in the encounter, but does not face criminal charges. Read more via 76crimes 

The ugly myth about transgender people opponents of a Houston civil rights law used to win

Opponents of LGBTQ rights in Houston used a big, ugly myth to take down a law that would simply ban discrimination in certain settings. Opponents of the ordinance fell back on age-old, desperate tactics to try to combat the law, using what's widely known as the bathroom myth. You can see it in the advertisement by Texas Values Action, which shows a trans woman using the locker room that corresponds to her gender identity — and posing some sort of danger to other women in the facilities.

This is a tactic that has been used time and time again — not just against LGBTQ efforts, but against the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have established equal rights for women. The idea is that men will somehow take advantage of equal rights laws to disguise themselves as women and attack women in bathrooms.

HERO would not have protected people who commit crimes in bathrooms — they could still be prosecuted. And business owners would have been able to deny a customer they believe to be a man entrance to a women's bathroom. What business owners wouldn't have been able to do under HERO is deny trans people entrance to a bathroom in a way that's clearly discriminatory — by, for example, using a slur or insulting a person's gender identity. Read more via Vox

Western Balkans and Turkey: New EU accession reports

The European Commission’s published its annual progress reports on accession states’ progress towards EU Membership. The reports include important and extensive information on the situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people in those 7 countries. 

The European Commissioner responsible for Enlargement, Johannes Hahn, presented the 2015 progress reports. In his speech the Commissioner emphasised that the reports have “a strong focus on fundamental rights, including freedom of expression and fighting discrimination, notably against the LGBTI community and Roma”. Read more via Intergroup on LGBT Rights 

Russia: New bill orders fines, arrest for public coming out as gay

State Duma lawmakers Ivan Nikitchuk and Nikolay Arefyev want to amend the Russian Administrative Code with a new article listing “public expression of non-traditional sexual relations” as a violation.

“I think that the problem is acute and urgent because it concerns the social diseases of our society and the moral upbringing of the younger generation. Unfortunately, the mechanism suggested in the 2013 law ‘On the protection of children against the information that harms their health and development’ has proved to be ineffective and this prompted us to develop new measures,” Nikitchuk said in comments with Izvestia daily.

The lawmaker also told reporters that he considered homosexuality to be a “grave danger for any normal person and for humanity as a whole” because it can affect children and grandchildren and prevent them from reproduction. “In a biological sense, failure to reproduce is the same as death and this makes homosexuality a deadly danger for humanity,” Nikitchuk said. Read more via RT

US: The mob of screaming parents who want their kids kept ‘pure’ of LGBTI sex ed

Omaha Public Schools has not revised its sex education classes for 30 years. So there’s nothing about ‘sexting’ or bullying over sexual orientation and gender identity. This curriculum goes back to a time where no sitting President had even uttered the word ‘AIDS’ in public.

Updating it is a no-brainer. Omaha parents agree. In a survey of 1,500 parents, 97% supported almost all the proposed changes. The only drop in support was about discussing sexual orientations, gender concepts and relationships. 25% of the parents were against kids being given that information. But that means the majority are in favor.

A group of healthcare professionals, educators, and reproductive rights activists were prepared to vocally support the new curriculum in front of the Omaha Public School board. Nebraskans for Founders Values, Christ Community Church and other mega churches had recruited their supporters to show up brandishing signs, pasting stickers all over the auditorium and yelling. Read more via Gay Star News 

UK: Trans group branded ‘child abusers’ for teaching kids about gender

The Mail on Sunday has criticized transgender non-profit group Gendered Intelligence – for teaching children about gender. 

The Mail said that it had “seen footage of Gendered Intelligence conducting workshops with primary classes”, in which founder Dr Jay Stewart explained to children he was a man, despite being assigned female at birth. It added that “thousands of pupils” had the “controversial classes” – claiming that children were “encouraged to explore their gender identities”.

Comments on the article were shockingly hostile, with one popular comment claiming: “The people who advocate this kind of policy aught (sic) to be prosecuted for child abuse.”

The group spoke out against factual inaccuracies, writing: “There are some misconceptions in the article – mainly the alluding to Gendered Intelligence encouraging young people to become trans, which of course is not true. Dr Jay Stewart said: “It’s so important to teach children in schools that they can be anything that they want to be, regardless of the gender that they have been given at birth." Read more via PinkNews

India: 4 arrested for attacking Andheri-based youth 'for being gay'

What was meant to be a casual smoke break for a 22-year-old man, ended up being one of the most traumatic experiences of his life after he was sexually and physically assaulted by strangers for 'dressing and talking like a gay person'. However, Andheri resident Divyaroop Ananda turned his trauma into his strength. He is now an icon within the LGBT community for not only standing up for his rights, but also mustering courage to register a police complaint against his molester and assaulters.

Fearing social stigma attached with the LGBT community and those supporting it, Divyaroop's near and dear ones tried to dissuade him from filing a police complaint against the accused. But he mustered courage to approach the police after seeking help from the Humsafar Trust.

“There have been several cases wherein homophobia has led to attacks on members of the LGBT community. Besides, the victims of such attacks are scared of the social stigma attached to their sexuality, the unwillingness of the society to accept them and discrimination by police. This deters them from registering complaints,” said Sonal Giani, advocacy manager at Humsafar Trust.

“It's not just about the society's mindset, but the bigger challenge is to encourage people from the LGBT community to overcome their anxiety and approach police. Divyaroop's courage, as well as the understanding exhibited by API Shashikant Padave and officers from Khar police station is exemplary and is sure to encourage others as well,” said Giani. All four accused were produced in the court on Thursday, where they managed to secure bail. Read more via Mid-Day

Uganda: Activists warn about ‘alarming’ spate of trans bashings

LGBT rights group Sexual Minorities Uganda issued a stark warning today, after eight reported transphobic attacks in less than a week. SMUG, one of the few LGBT rights groups in a country where homosexuality is illegal and trans people are persecuted, called for the community to remain vigilant.

According to the group, the spate of attacks have included mob beatings, home invasions and death threats – and that in least one instance, the victim ended up in the back of a police van while the attackers were allowed to go free. It notes that “reports from victims include being punched in the face outside their homes, having bottles thrown at them, and being threatened with the removal of teeth and testicles, as well as death threats”.

Pepe Julian Onziema, Programme Director at SMUG, said: “More than ever LGBT people should be on alert 24/7. Avoid walking alone especially in the night and going to LGBT unfriendly places for their own safety."  Read more via PinkNews