Leave No-one Behind in the Post-2015 Health Agenda

In just a few months' time, the world will agree on a new set of global development goals which are expected to be more ambitious, more rights-based, and more sustainable than the preceding Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Proposed targets like "end the AIDS epidemic", "ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health services" and "achieve universal health coverage", as well as a goal on reducing inequalities, give us a lot of reason for hope. Hope that this time we will get it right and not leave behind people who are marginalised, excluded, stigmatised or even criminalised. These include LGBTI people and other groups most at risk of HIV who can be denied access to life-saving health care for no other reason than their sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status or trait that marks them as "different" from the majority.

Securing universal health coverage (UHC) is a key priority for the WHO. It's depressing to see that, despite the momentum that UHC has been gaining for a solid decade now, it's clear that it has not been reaching the most marginalised. The International HIV/AIDS Alliance has launched Write Us In, a new global campaign to ensure equitable access to healthcare for LGBTI people. Read More

Bangkok: UNAIDS holds civil society meeting on fast-tracking the end of AIDS

UNAIDS convened over 50 civil society leaders from around the globe to develop a plan detailing how the HIV community can best work together to advocate for accelerated, strategic, and equitable international and domestic responses to HIV. 

“Fast-tracking the AIDS response is about political mobilization,” said meeting moderator Chris Collins, chief of the UNAIDS Community Mobilization Division and amfAR’s former director of public policy. “A revitalized AIDS response won’t happen without civil society, and the reach to people who have been left behind has to come from the community.”

The Fast Track strategy calls for an increased focus on funding HIV interventions proven to have greatest impact and delivering them to most-affected key populations—men who sex with men (MSM), transgender individuals, sex workers, and people who inject drugs. Read More

Discriminated and made vulnerable: Young LGBT and intersex people need recognition and protection of their rights

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, a group of UN human rights experts, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe urge Governments worldwide to protect LGBTI young people and children from violence and discrimination.

Laws that criminalize people on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity exacerbate violence and discrimination. This includes ‘anti gay propaganda’ laws that arbitrarily restrict rights to freedom of expression and assembly and threaten the work of LGBT organizations and human rights defenders.  Although it is claimed that these laws protect children, the result is, typically, the exact opposite: they result in violence against children and young activists who speak up against abuses. These and other discriminatory laws go against international human rights standards and should be repealed. Read More

When a man asks people to translate a hate message he's received, their response is unforgettable.

As part of an experiment, a man asks for help translating a Facebook message he has received.
There's a man in Lithuania who speaks only English. The message is in Lithuanian. He can't read it, so he asks some locals to translate it for him. 

As he asks one person after another to translate the message for him, two things become obvious.
1. He's received a message full of hate speech.

2. Translating it for him is breaking people's hearts.

It's nearly more than these people can bear. Watch/Read More

‘Boys Love Manga and Beyond’ defends shifting sexual identities in Japanese media

The academics contributing to “Boys Love Manga and Beyond” come to the defense of the genre known as “boys love,” which first appeared in Japanese manga — involving male-male romantic and sexual relationships — but has now expanded into animation and games. 

Produced primarily by and for females, it has come under increasing attack over the past two decades, initially by gay male activists and later due to changes in government legislation that restricted its availability to minors in Tokyo.

A number of the essays take a dry approach, presenting the historical lineage of the genre — which can be traced back to texts such as “The Tale of Genji” — and meticulously outlining its many subgenres. Remaining chapters, however, present lively discussion that addresses the producers and consumers of boys love media in Japan. Read More 

Margarita, with a Straw: an Indian bisexual coming-out story

“I am naked in this film,” says director Shonali Bose.

It’s Bose’s unwavering commitment to vulnerability that makes her new film, Margarita, with a Straw, both tender and jubilant.

The film’s 19-year-old protagonist Laila (played by Kalki Koechlin, above) lives at home with two loving parents and an annoying little brother. She is mildly bored with school, writes lyrics for a band, and has an unrequited crush on the lead singer. But that’s where any resemblance to a John Hughes sleepover flick ends.

Laila has cerebral palsy and lives in India. A creative writing scholarship propels her across the globe to New York City where she discovers snow, central heating and her nascent sexuality. Read More

This LGBT Activist Shamed Her Trolls By Posting Their Pictures Online

This is Elena Klimova. She runs a support group for Russian LGBT teens online called Children-404, where she posts letters from young people about coming out and dealing with discrimination. 

The group’s name is a reference to the “page not found” online error and Russia’s law banning “gay propaganda” among minors. One of its slogans is “LGBT Teens: We Exist.”

Klimova gets lots of hate mail for supporting LGBT teens. Yesterday, she posted some of it, with photos of her detractors, in an album called “Beautiful People And The Things They Say To Me” on the Russian social network VKontakte. Read More

Original 'X-Men' Character Iceman Comes Out As Gay

Original "X-Men" member Iceman is set to make a big revelation this week: he's gay.

The iconic character makes the surprise declaration in the All-New X-Men #40, which is available in stores and online April 22. Pages from the new book show an intimate conversation between a young Iceman, or Bobby Drake, and pal Jean Grey.

"There are thousands, if not millions, of stories of people who, for many different reasons, felt the need to hide their sexuality," he said. "The X-Men, with the conceit of time travel, give us a fascinating platform in which to examine such personal journeys. This is just the first little chapter of a much larger story that will be told.” Read More

Making the pen give LGBT might

In a move to help make journalism as practiced in the Philippines more sensitive to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, Outrage Magazine has launched the Pink Ink.

Pink Ink is in line with the #HateWatchPH, which aims to: 1) document LGBT-related hate crimes happening in the Philippines, and 2) empower LGBT people to report, and/or do something when such crimes happen; and 3) form partnerships with like-minded organizations to eradicate – not just curb – LGBT-related hate crimes. It has numerous components as it attempts to help develop would-be journalists while they are still in campuses, and provide support to already professional media practitioners.  Read More

Canada: Gay Olympians honoured at 2015 Bonham Centre Awards Gala

Pioneering out Olympians were honoured April 23 for their contributions to  LGBT inclusion in sports. The Bonham Centre and the Canadian Olympic Committee hosted this year’s Gala. The awards recognize individuals or groups that have made a difference in the field of sexual diversity education. Mark Tewksbury, Greg Louganis and Marnie McBean will be recognized as people who have made a difference in the world of sports.

“These are people that were coming up through sport at a time when there was no safe space at all,” says Brenda Cossman, director of the Bonham Centre.

Mark Tewksbury, who won Olympic gold in the 100 metres backstroke in 1992 for Canada, says that was the case for him. “There wasn’t really space to talk about it with anybody. There’s been a massive shift in sport,” he says. “It’s not a non-issue, but the issue has advanced.” Read More

US: Olympian Bruce Jenner Interview Breaks Twitter Record as Most Social Friday Telecast of All Time

Bruce Jenner, the Olympic gold medalist and member of the Kardashian family, ended months of speculation when he announced during a television special that he identified as a woman and was transitioning to female.

The announcement made him among the highest-profile people to publicly come out as transgender. For the purpose of the interview, Mr. Jenner said he preferred the pronoun “he,” and Ms. Sawyer called him Bruce. He said that he had been undergoing hormone therapy for a year and a half but had not made up his mind about reassignment surgery. He declined to provide the name he might use during or after his transition, citing privacy concerns.

According to Nielsen Social, a total of 8.1 million people in the US saw one or more of the 972,000 tweets sent about the 2-hour special, “Bruce Jenner – The Interview” The tweets were sent by 403,000 people and viewed 139 million times, making Jenner’s official declaration that he is a transgender individual who identifies as a woman the top worldwide trend on Friday.  See more of Jenner's interview here