We asked attendees at Sydney’s annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Fair Day what LGBT issues meant the most to them, with one catch: they couldn’t answer marriage equality. These are the topics people wished got more attention. Read More
Navajo Nation: Tlingit and Haida tribal council adopts statute allowing same-sex marriage
In a unanimous vote Friday, the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s Executive Council adopted a new statute that allows same-sex couples to marry under tribal law.
“We are pleased to expand our Tribal Court to meet the needs of our tribal citizens,” said Tribal Court Chief Justice Debra O’Gara in a prepared statement. ”Our court can now be utilized by tribal citizens for the happy occasion of marriage without discrimination and regardless of gender.” Read More
Sex redefined: The idea of two sexes is simplistic.
Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that. As a clinical geneticist, Paul James is accustomed to discussing some of the most delicate issues with his patients. But in early 2010, he found himself having a particularly awkward conversation about sex.
Sex can be much more complicated than it at first seems. According to the simple scenario, the presence or absence of a Y chromosome is what counts: with it, you are male, and without it, you are female. But doctors have long known that some people straddle the boundary — their sex chromosomes say one thing, but their gonads (ovaries or testes) or sexual anatomy say another. Parents of children with these kinds of conditions — known as intersex conditions, or differences or disorders of sex development (DSDs) — often face difficult decisions about whether to bring up their child as a boy or a girl. Some researchers now say that as many as 1 person in 100 has some form of DSD. Read More
US: Everything you need to know about the gay discrimination wars in 2015
The fight over gay rights continues in conservative corners of the country, where legislators are advancing laws that would, intentionally or not, ensure that gay people can be refused service, fired or evicted simply for being gay.
There are no national laws protecting against these forms of discrimination, so the matter has been left up to individual communities. A growing list of cities, for instance, are passing gay anti-discrimination ordinances, which has raised the ire of their more conservative state houses.
In this year’s legislative session, similar bills in several states are striking back against gay rights. Read More
South Africa: Gay MP holds hands with partner at State of the Nation Address
Openly gay MP Ian Ollis has responded to the social media buzz sparked by him holding his boyfriend’s hand at the State of the Nation Address (SONA). Ollis was photographed arriving outside Parliament hand in hand with partner Adriaan Roets. The proud display of same-sex affection at a high profile official state function has been praised by the LGBT community.
Ollis, a DA MP, said that he was surprised by the fuss. “I didn’t realise that holding hands was such a ‘thing’,” he said.
France: President calls for tougher laws on anti-gay and anti-Semitic hate speech
French President Francois Hollande has vowed to introduce tougher penalties for racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic crimes in the wake of last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris.
Speaking at a dinner hosted by the country’s Jewish community, the President called for “faster, more effective sanctions” against hate speech and added: “I want such speech to come under criminal law rather than press laws.” Read More
Jamaica: Harrison-Henry Vows To Defend Rights Of All
Arlene Harrison Henry, who was appointed recently as Jamaica's first female public defender, has indicated that her mission is to defend the rights of all citizens, especially the vulnerable groups in society.
"The LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexual, and transgender) group is also a delicate matter in our country, but they, too, are entitled to equality, representation, and equal protection of laws," she said.
Henry added: "The bottom line is I won't be partial, and if I encounter someone from that group whose rights have been breached, I will be defending them just the same, and every sector in society will be represented." Read More
Pivotal time for trans people as rigid notion of gender challenged
For Kate Bornstein, the American author and pioneer gender activist, this is a pivotal time in history for transgender people as the rigid concept of two sexes is challenged by a growing number of individuals who don't conform to either. Some even suggest the notion of gender as we know it, the categorization of individuals as either male or female, might become obsolete altogether.
"Most college students are okay with the idea of someone who defines themselves as not a man or a woman," said Bornstein, 66, who was born a man but had a sex change operation in the 1980s. "That's very different from their parents or even their older siblings," she said. Now gender non-conformity, also known as genderqueer, and transsexuality are far more visible. Read More
Eight in ten Vietnam gays see positive change toward them
Nearly 80% of LGBTI Vietnamese say society had changed positively toward them over the last five years, according to a new survey. The most voted changes were confidence to be themselves, government recognition and LGBTI activities. Read More
Vietnam: The 71-year-old mother who fights for gay rights
All heads turned when Thi took the stage to speak about her youngest son's struggle with being gay and to promote support for gays and lesbians. The conference, organized by by Ho Chi Minh City-based activist group ICS, gathered supporters for and families of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) people.
A farmer, Thi said she could only learn about the community from her son because she did not know how to access the Internet to study and there was no LGBT support group in her hometown. Read More
Buddhist leader Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche speaks on Homosexuality
Speaking to a Bhutanese audience Rinpoche stated: "your sexual orientation has nothing to do with understanding or not understanding the truth. You could be gay, you could be lesbian, you could be straight, we never know which one will get enlightened first."
He concluded his speech: "Time is changing, and we should be really tolerant, I mean tolerant is even I mean… You should not be tolerating this, actually. You should be respecting it. Tolerance is not a good thing. If you are tolerating this, it means that you think it’s something wrong that you will tolerate. But you have to go beyond that. You have to actually respect this one." Watch his statements here.
Botswana: BONELA welcomes NACA’s overtures to gays, prostitutes
The Botswana Network on Ethics Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) has welcomed the decision by the government to spread the HIV/AIDS message to marginalised groups, including the gay community and commercial sex workers. In an interview, BONELA executive director, Cindy Kelemi said her organisation had been calling for such intervention “for more than a decade” but no one had been willing to listen.
“We see it as a milestone that finally government is reaching out to minority groups. We applaud government for taking such a step,” she said. Read More