How The Father Of Soviet Pornography Became A Crusader Against “Gay Propaganda”

The story of Vladimir Linderman's transformation from anti-Kremlin sexual radical to moralist crusader who many Latvians suspect of being a Kremlin agent isn’t really about how Linderman changed his mind about homosexuality. Rather, he says his story is about how many people living in the former Soviet Union went from being desperate to escape Moscow’s rule to yearning for its patronage. It is also a tale of how Putin used that desire to co-opt some of his most committed enemies and convince many living in the former Communist world that what once seemed so exciting about the West is now what is most terrifying about it.

“I was the father of the sexual revolution, and now I’m becoming the father of the sexual counterrevolution.” Read More

US Capital, Washington D.C. bans gay conversion therapy of minors

The D.C. Council on Tuesday voted to take a final step this year for gay rights, banning conversion therapy that seeks to turn gay teenagers into heterosexuals.

The unanimous council vote puts the District in the rare company of only California and New Jersey to ban the practice. It also raises the possibility that after legal challenges to bans in those states recently failed that similar efforts may proceed elsewhere. Read More

Gay asylum seekers fear arrest for reporting rape in Papua New Guinea

An asylum seeker on Manus Island says he has been raped twice in detention in the past four months, but fears going to the police because he has been told he will be jailed for being homosexual. Mohammad* has reported the assaults to camp security, but lives in fear of further attacks: months after being raped – on two separate occasions by two different men – the man is still living in the same compound as his alleged attackers.

Other gay asylum seekers in the detention centre say they are regularly sexually harassed and assaulted, and have contemplated suicide if they are forced to live in the PNG community. In an interview from detention, Mohammad told Guardian Australia he is regularly sexually assaulted by fellow detainees, but is too scared to report the attacks because homosexuality is illegal in Papua New Guinea and he has been told by camp authorities he will be jailed. Read More

Rise in number of violent homophobic crimes being reported to UK police

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

My gay life in Nigeria – Isolation, danger, & fear

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

Uganda Report of Violations based on Sex Determination, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

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

Two out of five gay Nepalis harassed on public transport

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

When Coming Out Is a Death Sentence: The Rising Tide of Violence Against LGBT Iraqis

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

Militants Stone to Death Two 'Gay Men' in First Homosexual Execution

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 Passes Stringent 'Jail-the-Gays' Law

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

Uganda plans to pass new version of anti-gay law by Christmas

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