When we talk about the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Uganda, it tends to always be in terms of religion-based oppression, violence and murder. However, are the voices that often rise to the top when same-sex attraction in Uganda is discussed truely representative of religious leaders as a whole in this African nation? This is the question documentary photographer Daniella Zalcman sought to explore through her new portrait series "Faces of Faith." Read More
Nigerian archbishop defends gays, criticizes Western intervention
Earlier this year, Nigeria adopted a law that hands out 14-year sentences to anyone entering a same-sex union and bans public displays of affection between homosexual couples. At the time, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama announced the Church’s support for the legislation. But now the archbishop said the Church only supported the elements of the law that set out that marriage is between a man and a woman.
“We are not supporting the criminalisation of people with different sexual orientations,” Archbishop Kaigama stressed. “We would defend any person with homosexual orientation who is being harassed, who is being imprisoned, who is being punished.” Read More
Uganda judge received death threats for striking down anti-gay law
President Museveni signalled he is having second thoughts over tough anti-homosexuality legislation, arguing the impoverished east African nation needed to consider the impact on trade and economic growth. Saying he only signed off on the anti-gay law earlier this year because he wanted to protect children and stop people being “recruited” into homosexuality, he now worries the law could lead to a trade boycott which would hurt Uganda.
A Ugandan judge has revealed she has received death threats after annulling the anti-gay law earlier this year. Solomy Bossa Balungi has said she has received numerous attacks from the public after she helped with the ruling the Anti-Homosexuality Act must be nullified.
On 1 August, the Constitutional Court found speaker Rebecca Kadaga had acted ‘illegally’ in rushing the anti-gay legislation through parliament. Read More
Rainbow Sudan seeks LGBTI rights in Sudan
The LGBTQI community of Sudan rarely appears in the media, but Sharon Wagiella of SOGI News recently interviewed a leader of that community’s anti-AIDS, pro-human rights group Rainbow Sudan, which was founded on Feb. 5, 2012. Read excerpts from that interview: here
Thailand Hits Party Scene To Combat HIV Rates Among Gay, Bisexual Men
Bare-chested male models strutted through the glitzy ballroom in Bangkok to the beat of house music while dozens of young gay men waited anxiously, working up the nerve to have a blood test. Once touted as an HIV success story, Thailand is now faced with infection rates in its gay population comparable to those in Africa's AIDS hotspots. Read More
Egyptian men arrested declared ‘not gay’ after exam, will appear in court in November
A group of Egyptian men arrested on the accusation that they are gay were subjected to invasive medical exams intended to show whether they engaged in homosexual activity. Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat ordered the men detained and “physically examined” after an online video emerged showing the men attending what appeared to be a same-sex marriage ceremony on a Nile riverboat. They are set to appear in court on November 1st.
Egypt's LGBT community began a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #stopjailinggays. Read More
India government asks Supreme Court to clarify pro-trans ruling
The government says transgender rights should not be extended to gay people and asked the Supreme Court to clarify the definition of transgender so that it would not include gay people.
In April the Supreme Court recognized transgender people as a third sex and a socially and educationally backward class, entitled to education and employment quotas as well as the rights to marriage, adoption, divorce, succession and inheritance. The same court recriminalized homosexuality in December last year. Read More
Study finds more gay men now die of suicide than HIV
New research suggests that suicide has surpassed HIV as a leading cause of death among gay and bisexual men in Canada. The study examines suicide and HIV-related mortality data from Statistics Canada, the Canadian Community Health Survey and other sources from 2000 to 2011. Read More
Gay Conversion Therapy: A bigger Threat to Africa than Scott Lively
Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma was the original researcher to expose the ties between U.S. right-wing evangelicals and the anti-LGBTQ legislation in Uganda, and has testified before Congress and the United Nations. He is the author of "Globalizing the Culture Wars" and "Colonizing African Values," and appears as an expert voice in the 2013 documentary God Loves Uganda. He argues that pseudoscience is the biggest threat to African equality. Read More
From Diagnoses to Dignity -- Barriers to Health Care for Transgender People
Dorian Wilde, an activist from Malaysia, was thrilled to be invited to the World Professional Association of Transgender Health symposium in Bangkok, but his journey to Thailand was fraught. His experience is not unique - to him, to Malaysia, or to air travel. Transgender people everywhere face extraordinary barriers when attempting to access services, including the most essential, such as health care.
From being labelled as having a disorder to shouldering the burden of some of the highest rates of violence and HIV infection in the world, the perils of daily life for transgender people are multi-layered and can inflict substantial harm, experts and activists say. Read More
Inclusive sex education is vital – and British schools aren’t delivering it
Why isn’t there a mandatory requirement to teach children about sexual health and diversity, including LGBT, in the same way as other curriculum subjects?
One in three gay men diagnosed with HIV in 2012 were in their teens or early 20s, yet more than three-quarters of gay and bisexual young people receive no information at school about same-sex relationships or gay safer sex. These failings border on child neglect, and have prompted a coalition of LGBTI, sexual health and HIV campaigners to petition British leaders for change. Read More
HIV, Aging, and LGBT people: A Metamorphosis
Aging with HIV can be especially difficult. Older adults with HIV report high levels of isolation, yet few community spaces embrace their full identities as older people, people with HIV and, in most cases, given the epidemic's prevelence, LGBT and people of color. Additionally, medical research has found multiple health concerns related to aging with HIV—and the psychological dimensions of living with HIV, or a new diagnosis, can spur its own storms. Read More