US: Everything you need to know about the gay discrimination wars in 2015

The fight over gay rights continues in conservative corners of the country, where legislators are advancing laws that would, intentionally or not, ensure that gay people can be refused service, fired or evicted simply for being gay.

There are no national laws protecting against these forms of discrimination, so the matter has been left up to individual communities. A growing list of cities, for instance, are passing gay anti-discrimination ordinances, which has raised the ire of their more conservative state houses.

In this year’s legislative session, similar bills in several states are striking back against gay rights.  Read More

South Africa: Gay MP holds hands with partner at State of the Nation Address

Openly gay MP Ian Ollis has responded to the social media buzz sparked by him holding his boyfriend’s hand at the State of the Nation Address (SONA). Ollis was photographed arriving outside Parliament hand in hand with partner Adriaan Roets. The proud display of same-sex affection at a high profile official state function has been praised by the LGBT community.

Ollis, a DA MP, said that he was surprised by the fuss. “I didn’t realise that holding hands was such a ‘thing’,” he said. 

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Trinidad and Tobago: ‘Adoption law must deal with same-sex, disabled issues’

Persons who are disabled, gay and who choose to have a child through surrogacy should be included in the laws with respect to adoption. These were the views expressed by Independent and Opposition senators at the Senate sitting as they debated The Adoption of Children (Amendment) Bill, 2014. 

Opposition Senator Shamfa Cudjoe said that we live in modern times where same-sex couples are treated equally in other countries with respect to adoption and the legislation should also reflect this.  Read More

US: Members of congress object to free-trade deal with countries criminalizing LGBT people

Five out LGBT members of Congress objected to the inclusion of two countries with anti-LGBT laws that include punishment of death by stoning, in a free trade deal that the Obama administration is currently seeking to fast-track it for adoption.

A letter sent to the president, the members asked why Malaysia and Brunei are part of a trade deal called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which also includes several other nations in Asia and Latin America.

Labor unions and other advocacy groups have long voiced concern that TPP could set too low a bar for signatories, but the pact became a serious concern for LGBT-rights groups last spring after the sultan of Brunei imposed a version of sharia law with death penalty for homosexuality along with other sexual offenses. Read More

France: President calls for tougher laws on anti-gay and anti-Semitic hate speech

French President Francois Hollande has vowed to introduce tougher penalties for racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic crimes in the wake of last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris.

Speaking at a dinner hosted by the country’s Jewish community, the President called for “faster, more effective sanctions” against hate speech and added: “I want such speech to come under criminal law rather than press laws.”  Read More

Kazakhstan: Senate approves ‘gay propaganda’ draft bill

The Senate of Kazakhstan has approved a draft law outlawing promotion of “non-traditional sexual orientation”. The bill, similar to the infamous Russian bill, is intended to protect children from harmful information. Although homosexuality has been legal in Kazakhstan since 1998, it is still widely frowned upon in society.

Aldan Smayil, member of Kazakhstan’s lower parliament, said: “The draft provides a ban on information products depicting cruelty and violence, provoking children to life-threatening acts, including suicide, containing scenes of pornographic, sexual and erotic nature, promoting non-traditional sexual orientation.

On presenting the draft, Mr Smayil said it’s intent was “to protect children from information that kills the feeling of warmth and humanity, which is harmful to the health and psyche, promotes violence and is, in short, spiritually devastating to the younger generation.” Read More

Ireland: Warning over homophobic ‘catfish’ attacks

Members of Cork’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual community have been warned to take safety precautions when meeting online dates after reports of orchestrated attacks by assailants using websites and dating apps to attract their victims.

James Upton, auditor of UCC’s LGBT society, said that he was aware of a rise in physical and verbal homophobic attacks against the group’s members in the past six months. He said he believes it is a backlash against the LGBT community as the upcoming Marriage Equality referendum approaches.

“We can’t tell our members not to go on these sites, but we issue a word of caution about meeting people from them, they could be catfished,” he warned. Read More

Europe: This is what trans people are forced to go through in 34 countries

A video has been released showing some of the hurdles trans people to go through to gain access to legal gender recognition. Transgender Europe released the clip to raise awareness of some of the archaic regulations that govern gender – with some countries still regarding trans people as mentally ill.

For most trans people in Europe, it is either impossible or very difficult and humiliating to get a passport or other identity documents with their correct name and gender. In fact, 34 countries in Europe still do not allow a trans person to change their name and registered gender without invasive and abusive requirements that violate their human rights. Three of the worst requirements are being forced to undergo sterilisation and other medical interventions, being forced to get a divorce (if married), or having to receive a diagnosis of mental illness, despite not being mentally ill, or a ‘psychological opinion’. Watch the two-minute short here 

Russia: Police raid the lesbians who trolled leading anti-gay politician

Being gay is dangerous business in Russia, but it’s especially risky when you troll the country’s leading opponent of gay rights. 

Lesbian club owners were flying to St. Petersburg, when they spotted Vitaly Milonov, a lawmaker famous for initiating Russia’s crackdown on LGBT rights. Not fans of his politics, the girls photographed themselves kissing in front of Milonov, and tweeted the images, creating a viral sensation. Milonov didn’t find the stunt very amusing, however. He called the girls “crazy little morons” and said he was “ashamed for their parents, who raised such idiots.”

Two days later, an anti-gay online community based in Moscow published a call to get Infinity closed down. Community members were encouraged to appeal to Roskomnadzor, Russia’s state-run media watchdog, and federal anti-drug agents, based on claims that Infinity opens its doors to minors and operates as a center for illegal drug use. The anti-gay group makes no secret of why it targeted club Infinity, citing the “kissing selfies” incident with Milonov on the airplane.

Police raided the club this week, citing the owners provocation. Read More

Cameroon: Defenders of the rights of LGBTI persons face homophobia and violence

In a report presented in Douala, The Observatory, Human Rights Defenders Network in Central Africa, Maison des droits de l’Homme au Cameroun, and AMSHeR deplore that threats and physical assaults against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersexual human rights defenders in Cameroon have reached alarming proportions over the last few years.

Testimony and information compiled during a fact-finding mission in 2014 indicate that increasing numbers of extremely serious violations are being committed, in some cases leading to murder, and that nothing is being done to prosecute the perpetrators.  Read More

Middle East: Gay men biggest scapegoats of the Arab Spring

The men arrested last December in a bathhouse raid in Cairo were paraded in front of cameras and dragged naked to waiting police cars. But the real torture did not start then. A judge acquitted the men of “debauchery” but the ruling hardly set them free. Not in that society.

In Syria, accusations of homosexuality have been used as a tactic by the government to tarnish the reputation of popular opposition figures since the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011.

In areas controlled by the terrorist group known as the Islamic State across Syria and Iraq, gay men are thrown off buildings as punishment. The local communities gather to watch the executions. When throwing one man from the seventh floor failed to end his life, his community stoned him to death.

In Egypt, following a year of constant and increasing arrests and entrapment of gay men, the Egyptian government reintroduced the anal test. A torturous and invasive medical practice, it’s supposed to determinate the sexual orientation of a person based on the shape, flexibility and size of his anus. As if. Read More

Egypt: Seven arrested in latest raid for charges of homosexuality

Egyptian police arrested seven people for “debauchery,” the charge routinely used against men accused of homosexuality, according to a report in the Egyptian tabloid Al-Youm el-Saba.

This is the first highly publicized arrest of allegedly gay or trans people since the January acquittal of 26 men arrested in a raid on a working-class bathhouse that was featured in a television broadcast purporting to tell “the whole story of the dens for spreading AIDS in Egypt.” 

Major General Magdy Moussa of the Morality Police told Al-Youm el-Saba that the seven arrested Thursday were part of a “network for practicing debauchery” and had been targeted through social media. Read More