The mayor of Seoul, South Korea, has apologized for failing to proclaim a new civil rights charter that includes LGBT protections, and agreed to establish a panel to discuss ways to end discrimination, according to a coalition of activist groups. The LGBT coalition, called Rainbow Action, decided to end a six-day sit-in at Seoul City Hall after meeting with Mayor Park Won-soon last week. The sit-in began when Won-soon and the Seoul Municipal Government declined to proclaim the charter on World Human Rights Day as originally scheduled, saying the LGBT protections had caused "social conflict." Read More
Living Dangerously: What It’s Like to Be Gay in Iran
It is possible to be gay and live under a repressive regime that is always threatening to out you, or worse. But it's a lot like walking a tightrope: scary and fraught with risks
Saeed was 20 years old when he sat his father down and told him he was gay. Trembling, he recounted how, as a child, he hid cutouts of male underwear models from foreign magazines under his pillow, and would gaze at them for hours when he was alone. His mother, sitting speechless in a chair next to her husband, went pale.
A retired colonel in the Iranian Air Force, Saeed’s father looked at him with a straight face, not moving a muscle. “Affirmative,” he said. He had spent three decades in the military, and had been shaped equally by its rigorous discipline and his religious upbringing. “I always knew you were different from my other children. I always used to say that to your mom. Right?” he said, turning to his wife, then added: “Saeed, this is your nature. This isn’t your choice. You should have told us earlier.”
Saeed burst into tears, relieved. His mother took his hands and nodded, “What can we do to help?” Read More
Cuba’s Gay Rights Evolution
Mariela Castro, the daughter of the current president, Raúl Castro, has led the charge on legislative and societal changes that have given rise to an increasingly visible and empowered community. In the process, she has carved out a rare space for civil society in an authoritarian country where grass-roots movements rarely succeed. Some Western diplomats in Havana have seen the progress on gay rights as a potential blueprint for expansion of other personal freedoms in one of the most oppressed societies on earth. Read More
Chinese Court Sides With Gay Man in ‘Conversion’ Suit
In a victory for gay rights advocates in China, a Beijing court ruled on Friday that a Chinese clinic must pay compensation to a gay man who sued it for giving him electric shocks intended to change his sexual orientation and stating that homosexuality is not a mental illness. Read More
UCCP approves LGBT policy statement, stresses ‘Let Grace Be Total’
The United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) approved “Let Grace Be Total,” a policy statement on lesbians, gays, bisexual, and transgender people in its 10th Quadrennial General Assembly and 66th Founding Anniversary. “This affirms that all of us regardless of any category are under the grace of God. The statement means that LGBTs should not be discriminated but should be unconditionally accepted in the fellowship and membership of the Church,” says Bishop Reuel Marigza, UCCP General Secretary. Read More
Jamaica: Church Members Upset Over Priest's Embrace Of Gays In Worship Service
A decision by the Reverend Father Sean Major-Campbell to openly embrace and show love to members of the lesbian, gay and transgender community during a service at the Christ Church in Vineyard Town, Kingston, caught members of the congregation by surprise, with some saying afterwards that they felt betrayed by their spiritual leader. Read More
Egypt reduces sentence for eight men over gay marriage video
An Egyptian appeals court has reduced the jail terms for eight men sentenced last month on charges relating to their appearance in an online video purporting to show the country's first gay marriage ceremony.
The court cut the sentences - on charges of spreading indecent images and inciting debauchery - from three years each to one year, judicial sources said. Read More
UK trans people banned from voting unless they provide previous name
Trans people are furious at the UK government's new electoral registration system, forcing them to provide a previous name in order to be eligible to vote.
The new online voter registration system means that trans individuals cannot register to vote unless they provide false information or they out themselves publicly with no guarantee their data will be protected under the Gender Recognition Act 2004. Read More
Taiwan rejects progressive trans policy
This past week, the Ministry of Interior decided to not adopt the recommendation from the Ministry of Health and Welfare that transgender individuals wishing to change their genders should not have to go through psychiatric evaluations nor be subjected to surgery removing their sex organs. The MOI asserted that there is room for discussion on this issue because of the human rights of the transgender individuals, but it also warned that social order and harmony must be maintained.
Transgender activists, including the Intersex, Transgender and Transsexual People Care Association, are understandably upset that a policy recommendation that would have been one of the most progressive in the world in terms of gender transitioning (most jurisdictions that do not mandate surgery still require psychiatric evaluations) is not being adopted. Read More
EU report reveals alarming reality trans people
The EU Fundamental Rights Agency presented the largest comparative study on the experiences of trans people in all 28 EU Member States. The FRA calls the results “alarming”, but highlights that legal frameworks and good policies have a positive impact on trans people’s lives. The FRA study was launched at an event organised by the Intergroup on LGBTI Rights and Transgender Europe. The study takes a closer look at results of the nearly 7000 trans respondents of the EU LGBT Survey. Read More
US: Michigan House Just Passed a Bill with Truly Devastating Results for Gay People
What if you were evicted because you were gay, but there was nothing you could do about it? Denied service at a restaurant because you're a devout Sikh? Refused Plan B at the only drug store in town because the pharmacist on duty is an evangelical Christian?
The state’s House of Representatives passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) this week, and if it passes the Senate it would enable those with “deeply-held religious beliefs” to withhold basic services from LGBTI people, inducing life-saving healthcare and medication. Read more
Report: Anti-LGBT Violence Has Increased In Russia Since “Propaganda” Ban
A new report from Human Rights Watch details rising violence against LGBT people in Russia since the country adopted a ban on “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” among minors in 2013. The research comes on the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments that his country has been unfairly labeled as anti-LGBT.
The Human Rights Watch report, based on dozens of interviews with Russian LGBT individuals and activists conducted in 2013 and 2014, paints a starkly different portrait. Read More