German authorities refused two gay refugees asylum because they consider Uganda a safe place to live for LGBTI people despite the violence they have suffered at home.
Arkansas Legislature Passes Bill Allowing LGBT Discrimination
The Arkansas legislature gave its final thumbs-up Friday to a bill that will block cities and counties from enacting antidiscrimination laws that protect LGBT people. The Arkansas House of Representatives voted decisively, 57-20, for SB202, with seven members voting present. Having already cleared the state Senate Monday, the bill now heads to the governor’s desk.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson told BuzzFeed News in a statement he will let the bill take effect. By neither vetoing nor signing the legislation, he said, “I am allowing the bill to become law.”
The bill’s sponsor, Republican State Sen. Bart Hester, said this week that he sponsored the measure to create consistent policies across Arkansas that will attract business, and because he was infuriated that cities were attempting to expand civil rights laws for LGBT people. Read More
Inside The Last-Ditch Conservative Campaign To Target LGBT Americans
In this progressive climate, the battle has shifted to the state level, where conservatives are waging a last-ditch campaign to target LGBT Americans. Two months into 2015, the volume of legislation that allows religion to be used for discrimination is already higher than the total for 2014.
The legislation introduced so far tends to fall into three broad categories: bills that could facilitate discrimination on the basis of religious freedom, bills that specifically target officials who marry same-sex couples and bills that would allow anyone to refuse to recognize a couple's marriage based on religious beliefs. Read More
US: Lawmakers introduce bill to promote LGBT rights worldwide
The International Human Rights Defense Act, spearheaded by Sen. Edward Markey and Rep. Alan Lowenthal would appoint a special envoy within the U.S. Department of State to coordinate efforts to prevent discrimination and advance the rights of LGBT people worldwide.
“With the rights of the LGBT community under attack around the globe, we must stand hand-in-hand with them in the struggle for recognition and equality everywhere," Markey said. Read More
Nepal: Government ready to amend anti-gay legal provisions
Minendra Rijal, Nepal's minister for information and communication, has said the government is ready to amend discriminatory legal provisions against sexual minorities.
However, Rijal said equality could not be achieved through legal advancement and policies only, but also required changes in society's attitudes and behavior: 'I urge the community to stand up and take a lead.' Read More
Poland: Transgender politician to run for President
Poland’s first openly transgender lawmaker, Anna Grodzka, plans to run for President. There are currently no openly transgender heads of state in the world, meaning that Grodzka – who is already the world’s only elected transgender MP – would make history again if successful. Read More
Dominican Republic: Advocates, officials to launch LGBT tourism campaign
Members of the Center for Integrated Training and Research, a Dominican advocacy group known by the Spanish acronym COIN that has fought the AIDS epidemic in the country and throughout the Caribbean for more than two decades, will meet with representatives of the Dominican Ministry of Tourism and Tourism Police to promote LGBT tourism and gay rights in the Caribbean country. Read More
Colombia: LGBT advocate participates in peace talks
The head of a LGBT Colombian advocacy group took part in peace talks between his country’s government and a rebel group. Caribe Afirmativo Director Wilson Castañeda was among the six Colombian human rights advocates who participated in a meeting between representatives of President Juan Manuel Santos’ government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
“We do not want a post-conflict period to generate closets where people are once again stigmatized, made invisible and continue living in fear,” he said, noting LGBT Colombians should be explicitly included. “As Colombians we hope to leave the closet behind, to be able to live without fear of difference.” Read More
Scholarly research on children with gay or lesbian parents
An overview of research literature finds that children of gay parents fare no worse than children whose parents identify as straight. Taken together, this research forms an overwhelming scholarly consensus, based on over three decades of peer-reviewed research, that having a gay or lesbian parent does not harm children. Read More
Transgender kids aren't confused about their identities
Transgender youngsters identify as much with their genders as do non-transgender children, a new study says. The findings indicate that transgender children are not confused or delayed in their understanding of gender, as some have suggested, write the researchers in Psychological Science.
The children were asked different types of questions that have been shown in other studies to be measures of implicit gender identity. When the researchers looked to see if the transgender children’s responses mirrored those of non-transgender kids - known as cisgender children - they found that transgender boys’ responses mirrored cisgender boys’ answers. Transgender girls responded the same as cisgender girls. Read More
Gay and Bi Men Account for 75% of All Syphilis Cases
At the end of 2014 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its sexually transmitted disease surveillance data for the previous year, showing the rates for primary and secondary syphilis, increased by an alarming 10 percent.
“This second year of double-digit increases of syphilis rates is completely unacceptable and also significantly intersects with our HIV epidemic,” says William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors. “This continues to affect populations already disproportionately impacted by all STDs, including HIV, most notably gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM).” Read More
LGBT health issues receive paltry funding
A new report shows that foundation funding for LGBT health totals less than 0.5 percent of all health funding, and funding for HIV/AIDS is drastically out of proportion. The report was issued by Funders for LGBTQ Issues to coincide with an LGBT Health Funding Summit.
The report shows that of the nearly $3 billion that foundations invested in health issues annually, less than 0.5 percent is given to LGBT communities. The report covers the years 2011 to 2013.
Also, only 21 percent of U.S. funding for HIV/AIDS targeted LGBT communities despite the fact that gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men account for 64 percent of new HIV infections. Read More