Some of the UK’s biggest police forces have recorded a rise in the number of violent homophobic crimes this year, according to new figures.
Hundreds of assaults on gay and lesbian people have been reported to police so far in 2014 – including more than 300 in London alone. Gay rights charities said that while it was encouraging that more people were reporting hate crime, many victims felt silenced by abuse on the street. Read More
Ethan Regal* tells his personal story of living in Nigeria as a gay man: "Gay people in Nigeria were invisible – constantly hiding. I know about gay men being raped and the gang rape of a lesbian – all by straight men.
This isn’t about sex or sexual orientation. It’s all about power, violence and malicious homophobic abuse. Early this year, suspected gays in the northern part of Nigeria were reportedly caught and stoned to death. The consensus is that homosexuals deserve it, and that the country needs to be cleansed." Read More
The impetus behind the Uganda Report on Violations Based on Sex Determination, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation is the conviction that no violation of rights or dignity based upon an individual’s actual or perceived sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation should go undocumented or unacknowledged.
By setting stringent evidentiary standards, and by erring on the side of caution when considering cases for inclusion in this report, the research team has been able to demonstrate conclusively that human rights violations against sexual minority groups are in fact taking place in Uganda. Read More
More than one-third of LGBTI Nepalis have reported discrimination or abuse in three or more public settings, according to a recent study.
'While Nepal is often cited as a progressive country in Asia having guaranteed equal rights and recognition of sexual and gender minorities through a landmark Supreme Court verdict in 2007, Nepal’s progress in protecting the rights of these minorities and implementing the verdict has been limited,' said Edmund Settle, UN Development Program policy advisor. Read More
Joint briefings by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, MADRE, and the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq published last week expose targeted violence against LGBT Iraqis. Long a persecuted group, LGBT Iraqis experience high levels of violence that is based on the stigma Iraqi society places on differences in sexual orientation and gender expression, and a broad intolerance of those differences. Read More
Members of terror group Islamic State (Isis) have stoned to death two men in Syria after alleging they were gay. According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), this is the first execution that the militants have carried out against homosexuals.
Activists on social media said that the dead men were opponents of IS and that the group had used the allegation as a pretext to kill them. Read More
Gambia President Yahya Jammeh passed a brutal new anti-gay law calling for life sentences for "aggravated homosexuality." Days after the bill was passed many groups, including the European Union and US State Department have come out against the action, saying they are "deeply concerned."
Amnesty International recently reported that under the new law Gambian security forces were allegedly torturing people arrested in raids, threatening them with rape and pressuring them to confess to homosexual acts.
However, Gambian Foreign Minister Bala Garba Jahumpa has rebuffed criticism and stated the government will not allow acceptance of gay people to be a pre-condition for receiving aid "no matter how much aid is involved." He vowed not to engage with any ‘ungodly’ gays because they are ‘detrimental to human existence.’ Read More
Drafters of a revised anti-gay law want parliament to pass it in time to be a "Christmas gift" for Ugandans, a lawmaker said last week. "This bill is inconsistent with fundamental freedoms and human rights ... accepting it would be a display of weakness rather than leadership," said Asia Russell, Uganda-based director of international policy at Health GAP, an HIV advocacy group. Read More
The European Parliament voted for a report defining its input into the global future development policy. The report contains strong wording on LGBTI rights and sexual and reproductive health and rights. According to the Parliament, development policy should pay particular attention to “the protection and respect of the rights of migrants and minorities, including LGBTI people and people living with HIV.” Furthermore, the Parliament prioritises “universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.”
The report comes at a time of an increase in anti-LGBTI legislation, most recently in Gambia. Attempts by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) to delete paragraphs on sexual and reproductive health and rights, were defeated by a wide margin. Read More
In 2010, Tiwonge Chimbalanga, a transgender woman, was imprisoned in Malawi for getting engaged to a man. Pardoned and freed, she now lives in exile in South Africa. The international campaign to secure her pardon and resettlement in South Africa represented a triumph for the global cause of LGBT rights. But for Chimbalanga, who unexpectedly found herself on the front lines of an intensifying battle over these rights in Africa, there is little sense of victory. Mark Gevisser reports on an uneasy triumph for the global LGBT rights movement. Read More
A new study indicates that same-sex attraction may have evolved to benefit society. Diana Fleischman, MD, and a research team at the University of Portsmouth in England have published preliminary research in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, which provides evidence that the purpose of sex extends beyond procreation — it also forms bonds between people that are beneficial to survival. Thus, sex between people of the same gender may have played a crucial role in forming alliances and friendships that have benefited humanity throughout its history. Read More