Because You Are, Therefore I Am: African leaders discuss sexuality, religion, and equality

Leaders from Botswana, Cameroon, Lesotho, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe gathered for a historic consultation. Rev. Dr. Kaypa Kaoma and I worked with leaders from the World Council of Churches and Dr. Gerald West, University of KwaZulu-Natal in organizing this consultation.

We are committed to changing the narrative in Africa from persecution of LGBTI persons and their families to acceptance. We are committed to making change happen in faith communities, theological schools, universities and in civil society.  

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Chad becomes 37th African state to seek ban on homosexuality

Chad government ministers voted to make same-sex relations a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison and 50,000-500,000 Central African francs. 

The decision was condemned by human rights groups as another setback in the struggle for gay rights on the continent. Chad’s penal code is more than half a century old and does not explicitly mention homosexuality. The cabinet claims the measure is intended to “protect the family and to comply with Chadian society”.  Read More

Israel warns public about dangers of ‘ex-gay’ therapies

Israel’s Health Ministry has formally adopted the recommendations of its country’s Council of Psychologists and the Israeli Psychological Association against so-called reparative therapies aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation - issuing a public warning against them on Sunday. Read More 

Xiao Zhen on Trying to End ‘Gay Conversion Therapy’ in China

A man going by the pseudonym Xiao Zhen is the first person in China to file a lawsuit against a clinic offering “gay conversion therapy,” to change sexual orientation that medical experts criticize as ineffective and harmful. With the help of the Beijing LGBT Center, Xiao Zhen has sued the Xinyupiaoxiang Counseling Center, as well as Baidu, China’s Internet search engine, for posting the ads that led him there. Read More

The Free and Equal campaign is 1 year old… 1 billion rising

A year ago, the United Nations Human Rights Office launched an unprecedented global public education campaign for lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender rights: Free & Equal. This inspiring video tells the story of what happened next. 

Serbia Gay Pride march returns after four years

Serbia's first Gay Pride march for four years has been held in the capital Belgrade, amid huge security, including special forces and armoured vehicles. Authorities had cancelled the event every year since marchers were attacked in 2010 - nine years after Gay Pride was first held in Belgrade.

Earlier in September a German LGBT rights speaker was treated in hospital after being beaten in Belgrade. In response to the attack, Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said: "We will not allow this kind of thing to remain unpunished."  Read More

The gay divide

THERE was a teenager in Arizona in the 1970s who “could no more imagine longing to touch a woman than longing to touch a toaster”. But he convinced himself that he was not gay. Longing to be “normal”, he blamed his obsession with muscular men on envy of their good looks. It was not until he was 25 that he admitted the truth to himself—let alone other people. In 1996 he wrote a cover leader for The Economist in favour of same-sex marriage. He never thought it would happen during his lifetime. Yet now he is married to the man he loves and living in a Virginia suburb where few think this odd.

The change in attitudes to homosexuality in many countries—not just the West but also Latin America, China and other places—is one of the wonders of the world (see article). This week America’s Supreme Court gave gay marriage another big boost, by rejecting several challenges to it; most Americans already live in states where gays can wed. But five countries still execute gay people: Iran hangs them; Saudi Arabia stones them. Gay sex is illegal in 78 countries, and a few have recently passed laws that make gay life even grimmer. The gay divide is one of the world’s widest (see article). What caused it? And will tolerance eventually spread?  Read More

The Closeted Continent

38 out of 55 African nations have laws punishing sodomy. And things may get worse before they get better.

The progress for LGBT equality has been powered by an increasingly potent global gay rights movement driven by major international organizations like Human Rights Campaign and the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission, as well as smaller grassroots gay groups that have sprouted up (or, in some cases, chosen to work underground for fear of activists' safety) in many dozens of countries worldwide.

Elsewhere in the world, though, signs of momentum in the global gay rights struggle are fueling a determined effort to slam the closet door though legal measures, harassment, and violence. Read More 

After new UNAIDS poll: Way clear for PM to revisit gays issue

The path is now clear for Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to “very easily” go back to Parliament and amend the Equal Opportunity Act to protect people from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation. So said attorney Douglas Mendes following the launch of the results of a UNAIDS poll that showed a majority of T&T citizens are against discrimination.

He said amending the act would send a clear message to the population, the region and the international community that T&T did not discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation.  Read More

Gay activists on front line of Hong Kong protests

Thousands of protesters sit peacefully on the streets of the Causeway Bay shopping district. The chants of 'Leung Chun-ying, ha toi [step down]' quieten down as gay singer Anthony Wong starts to perform.

Tommy Chen, spokesperson for LGBTI rights group Rainbow Action, says there can be no equality for LGBTI people without democracy: ‘The queer community actually understands this quite well, so that’s a reason the queer community in Hong Kong has been involved in the social movement for over 10 years,’ he said. The group is a member of one of the protest organizers Civil Human Rights Front, which Chen said had a 'disproportionately high' number of LGBTI volunteers and organizers. Read More

Smithsonian Preserves LGBTQ History for a Post-Homophobic Future

Earlier this month, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History announced that it would be adding hundreds of new objects to its existing LGBTQ collection, including a tennis racquet from transgender trailblazer Renée Richards, the diplomatic passport of Ambassador David Huebner (the first openly gay ambassador confirmed by the Senate), and memorabilia from the groundbreaking NBC sitcom Will & Grace.

And now, thanks to a great documentary short produced by MSNBC, those of us not in Washington finally have an opportunity to check out the new materials.  Read More