What Have the New Catholic Cardinals Said About LGBT People?

With contradictory statements from Pope Francis regarding equality for LGBT Catholics, The Advocate investigated the 20 new cardinals, only 4 of whom have made statements on LGBT issues. While Archbishop John Atcherley Dew of Wellington, New Zealand has voiced support for acceptance, the others paint a less pleasant picture. Read More 

Church of England evangelical activist, comes out as a lesbian

One of the Church of England’s leading evangelical campaigners announced that she is a lesbian and said she decided to be open after trying various ministries to cast out her sexual orientation.

“God is a God of surprises,” said Jayne Ozanne,  as she took up her new job as director of Accepting Evangelicals, a network of Christians who believe the time has come to move toward the acceptance of loving same-sex partnerships and a positive Christian ethic for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual people. Read More 

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Buddhist leader Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche speaks on Homosexuality

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Speaking to a Bhutanese audience Rinpoche stated: "your sexual orientation has nothing to do with understanding or not understanding the truth. You could be gay, you could be lesbian, you could be straight, we never know which one will get enlightened first."  

He concluded his speech: "Time is changing, and we should be really tolerant, I mean tolerant is even I mean… You should not be tolerating this, actually. You should be respecting it. Tolerance is not a good thing. If you are tolerating this, it means that you think it’s something wrong that you will tolerate. But you have to go beyond that. You have to actually respect this one." Watch his statements here.

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Russia: This Shadowy Group Is Targeting Teachers Who Support LGBT Rights

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A shadowy group identifying itself as the “public ombudsman for children’s rights” turned up at a school in St. Petersburg in what it called a “raid” to demand the dismissal of a teacher supportive of LGBT rights, local media outlets reported.

The group said it showed the school director photos from Maksim Ivantsov’s wall on the Russian social network VKontakte as proof of the teacher’s “propaganda” of “LGBT values.” Ivantsov has spoken out publicly against anti-LGBT discrimination.

Ivantsov is only the latest in a growing list of teachers who have been targeted using the anti-LGBT propaganda law. Read More

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Botswana: BONELA welcomes NACA’s overtures to gays, prostitutes

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The Botswana Network on Ethics Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) has welcomed the decision by the government to spread the HIV/AIDS message to marginalised groups, including the gay community and commercial sex workers. In an interview, BONELA executive director, Cindy Kelemi said her organisation had been calling for such intervention “for more than a decade” but no one had been willing to listen.

“We see it as a milestone that finally government is reaching out to minority groups.  We applaud government for taking such a step,” she said. Read More 

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US: Texas school claims it had the 'right' to expel student for being gay

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The Executive Director of Lutheran High North has responded to a teen who said on YouTube he was forced to move schools for being gay: 'We reserve the right to discontinue enrollment of a current student participating in, promoting, supporting or condoning homosexual activity'

Austin Wallis, a 17-year-old former student at private Christian school posted a video that showed him in tears after he recounted a story of how he was called into his principal's office and told he must delete all social media on which he had revealed his sexuality or leave the school. Read More via Gay Star News

Tanzania: Trans man, wife arrested on gay-sex charges

Police in Tanzania have arrested a trans man and his female partner on suspicion of violating the Tanzanian law against same-sex intimacy.

News of the arrest, and the couple’s photos, were splashed across the local newspaper with the headline, “Beautiful girls arrested for homosexuality.” The arrests came after their neighbors told police that they suspected the two people were married and in a same-sex relationship.  Read More

Ghana: Police arrest suspect in connection to brutal anti gay attack

A man has been arrested in connection with the brutal attack on a Ghanaian events organizer on allegations he was gay. The suspected attacker was arrested by police after a video surfaced showing events promoter, Kinto Rothmans being assaulted and blood dripping from his head. Ghanaian celebrities took to social media to condemn the attack. Singer Efya immediately took to Twitter to express her disgust saying, ‘You can’t beat the gay out of someone… you can’t.’ Read More

UK: Caseworkers ‘must not stereotype’ gay asylum seekers

The Home Office has published new guidance on the treatment of sexual identity issues in asylum claims following last year’s critical report by Borders and Immigration Chief Inspector John Vine.

The guidance states that Home Office caseworkers must conduct “a sensitive enquiry into the development and exploration of the claimant’s sexual identity and the extent to which it is relevant to the assessment of the need for protection. It should not be an enquiry into any explicit sexual activity.” Read More