Why One of the Biggest LGBT Orgs Has Stopped Supporting ENDA: Hobby Lobby reverberates in the LGBT community

It’s not just about birth control. When the Supreme Court ruled last week that closely held corporations like Hobby Lobby wouldn’t have to cover the cost of contraception because of sincerely held religious beliefs, it didn’t take long for many to see the coming storm. If companies are allowed to treat women differently in access to health care, after all, what’s to stop them from discriminating against LGBT individuals based on the same religious grounds?

In the fight over LGBT rights, the Hobby Lobby decision is already beginning to do three things: embolden supporters of so-called religious freedom bills in several states; encourage the push for a religious exemption in executive protections for LGBT employees; and put backers of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) in a position where they feel they have to withdraw support.  Read More

Heat Crime: LGBTQ politics for a changing climate

Climate change is a queer issue. The effects of climate change have a direct and unique impact on the lives of the LGBTQ  The details of an individual's sexual orientation seem at first to be as far removed from the concentration of atmospheric CO2 as the butterfly's wings from the hurricane. But butterflies can cause hurricanes, and understanding this connection is mandatory for those of us in the hurricane's path.community and must not be ignored. Op-ed for Huffington Post. Read More 

Pressure on South Africa to host talks to end gay persecution

Rights groups across the continent now accuse South Africa of stalling on the crucial meeting to follow up on a United Nations report titled Discriminatory Laws and Practices and Acts of Violence Against Individuals Based on Their Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. "It is essential for policymakers and gatekeepers to have a dialogue with civil society on this issue," says Tendai Thondhlana, spokesperson for African Men for Sexual Health and Rights (Amsher), based in Johannesburg. "In some countries, governments say violence against sexual minorities doesn't exist. It is up to us to show them the evidence."  Read More

Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Act struck down by court

The Constitutional Court nullified the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014 for having been passed by Parliament without the required quorum of at least one third of all legislators. In a unanimous ruling, the panel of five justices blamed the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga for acting illegally by abdicating her constitutional responsibility of ascertaining whether there was quorum in the House before the Bill was passed into law. 

The ruling does not mean that the court nullified the content or substance of the law. The Bill can be easily returned to Parliament and passed again, with the required quorum. This petition involved a group of pro-gay activists who sued the government challenging the passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Read more from Uganda 
In depth coverage at Buzzfeed

LGBT activist confronts Nigerian president during Washington visit

A gay Nigerian activist who sought asylum in the United States confronted President Goodluck Jonathan over the country’s recently passed anti-LGBT law at a dinner in the president’s honor hosted by business groups in Washington on Wednesday. Micheal Ighodaro left Nigeria in 2012 after his ribs and hand were broken in an attack in the capital of Abuja and is now a fellow at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York. “If you think the law is unconstitutional, you have the right to go to court,” the activist says President Goodluck Jonathan told him. Read More

Nepal drafts new laws to recriminalize gay sex, stall same-sex marriage recognition.

It’s a dramatic reversal for Nepal whose Supreme Court ruled in 2007 to ensure broad protections for LGBTI people. Today, the LGBTI community faces fresh opposition as the law ministry under law and justice minister of the ruling Nepali Congress is seeking to enact punitive laws to recriminalize gay sex.  Read more

Uganda HIV nurse continues to languish in Kampala jail

Melbourne brought an update from Rosemary Namubiru, the HIV+ nurse charged with criminally negligent behavior for using an intravenous needle, that she had accidentally pricked her finger with, on a child. The child was not infected and HIV/Aids activists condemned the trial. Read More

Scottish dentist sacked for failing to reveal HIV positive status

Health chiefs said the dentist had to be suspended over "dishonest conduct" when he failed to disclose his HIV status and caused an infection scare. More than 10,000 patients who visited the surgery were tested after they were told there was a "very slight" risk they had been exposed to the virus. The ban preventing HIV positive NHS staff from performing certain medical procedures was scrapped in England, Wales and Scotland last year. Healthcare workers with HIV face no restrictions but must be on a register and monitored every three months by doctors to ensure they are on the correct treatment and that their viral load is undetectable.  Read More

UNAIDS launches the Gap Report

In the first report of its kind, the UNAIDS Gap report emphasizes the importance of location and population through an in-depth regional analysis of HIV epidemics and through analysis of 12 populations at higher risk of HIV. It analyses the reasons for the widening gap between people gaining access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, and people being left behind. It shows how focusing on populations that are underserved and at higher risk of HIV will be key to ending the AIDS epidemic. Read More

Creating a global organization to oppose marriage equality

The National Organization for Marriage is continuing to work towards the creation of an International Organization for Marriage, NOM President Brian Brown said.

A planning meeting was held around last year’s March for Marriage, convening members of groups opposed to marriage equality from around 70 countries to begin working to that goal. This year’s march does not feature the international speakers that last year’s did, perhaps because of the pending U.S. Supreme Court ruling on state bans on same-sex marriage.

Although “we have our hands full here in the U.S.” at the moment, Brown said, the group was “definitely” still working to establish “an organization that focuses on uniting people of different faiths and different backgrounds internationally” to oppose same-sex marriage.  Read More