London Chanel, a 21-year-old transgender woman, was stabbed to death in North Philadelphia. Chanel is the eighth transgender woman of color (the 10th over all) killed in the United States this year — a trend that anti-violence advocates have called an epidemic. And as in many of the cases, Chanel was misgendered in early reports. Read More
US: Wisconsin Trans Teen Bullied for Femininity Dies by Suicide
Just days after teen Cameron Langrell announced to friends and classmates online that she identified as a transgender girl, switching her Facebook gender identifier to "female," the 15-year-old took her own life.
The artistic freshman had faced incessant bullying at Horlick High School. Now, Cameron's parents are calling on officials to be more proactive about bullying to stave off the kind of harassment their child endured. "There needs to be more within the school, not just some outside resource," Jamie Olender, Cameron's mother.
Meanwhile, Langrell's death is the tenth reported suicide of a trans youth in the U.S. this year, in an "epidemic" that trans advocates say sees far more casualties than make headlines. An additional nine trans people have been murdered since January. Read More
Turkey: Two trans women brutally attacked in Istanbul
Two trans women sex workers were attacked on the same night. Migel was attacked in her own apartment by a group of men. She was brutally injured with deep cuts on several parts of her body. The same night, Işıl was attacked by a group of 5 men. She was assaulted and her jaw was broken.
Attacks on trans women are increasing. Last week there were 4 attacks on trans women sex workers in 3 different cities (Istanbul, Izmir and Kocaeli). Read More
Pakistan: Four transgenders killed in week
Three transgenders were shot dead and six other people were injured after two gunmen ambushed them in the bustling Rialto Chowk on Saturday night.
Ahmed alias Tania, who was among the injured, in her statement told the police that she along with some other transgenders were standing at the corner of a street in Chamanzar Colony when two motorcycle riders brandishing guns reached there and opened fire on them. As a result, two of the transgenders died on the spot and five other people, including three transgenders, injured.
On May 5, the decomposed body of a transgender was found from a greenbelt at Koral. Police said the deceased, Falak Sher alias Bijli, a native of Bahawalpur, was strangled. The motive behind the murder could not be ascertained. Read More
Gambia: President Yahya Jammeh Threatens To Slit The Throats Of Gay People
Gambia's notorious dictator Yahya Jammeh recently intensified his anti-homosexual rhetoric, threatening to slit the throats of gay men living in the small West African nation while seeming to claim that the West could do nothing to stop him.
"If you do it [in the Gambia] I will slit your throat — if you are a man and want to marry another man in this country and we catch you, no one will ever set eyes on you again, and no white person can do anything about it," he said to a crowd in the town of Farafeni as he spoke about fostering a healthy atmosphere for the country's youth.
The US and the European Union have both slashed aid to the country in the last year, citing general concerns over continued human rights abuses. Read More
France: Is Homophobia Really on the Rise in France?
France may have taken the historic step of legalising gay marriage last year, but it appears the landmark social reform came at a cost. The number of reported homophobic acts increased in 2013 by a staggering 78%, according to SOS Homophobie, a homophobia hotline and LGBTQ defense organization.
The cases are striking to Americans because of the widely held fallacy that France is a tolerant society. This is not entirely the case. Religious diversity is tolerated as long as minorities remain quiet. “Laïcité,” the French version of secularism, favors Catholicism and is often used as a cudgel against the Muslim (and in some cases the Jewish) minority.
If there are more reports of homophobia, it is partly because of more homophobic incidents. But it is also because of more reporting of those incidents. For many years French LGBTQ people bought into the notion that France was tolerant. The virulence of the attacks on homosexuals during marriage equality was a revelation to these gays, as were the visible physical assaults on gay men. Read More
Egypt: How distaste of LGBT people in Egypt has turned into state-sponsored persecution
Whenever protests are planned and the Egyptian tanks roll into Cairo’s main squares, Mariam takes a longer route to work, the one that avoids the police checkpoints. Her ID carries the name she was born with (a boy’s name) and a number that signals her original gender (male). These details are not easily changed, and they could get her arrested.
“Last time I got stopped, I panicked and pretended I was going to a fancy-dress party. The officers made fun of me but it worked and they let me go,” she says. The policemen ridiculed her for a bit, and called her names, but she played along and once they got bored they let her pass. With dozens of members of the LGBT community in prison on so-called charges of “debauchery”, she does not want to risk it again.
Being gay or transgender is not illegal in Egypt but since the military pushed out the unpopular Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in the summer of 2013, the country has been engaged in a fierce crackdown. Human rights workers say at least 150 LGBT people have been arrested. Read More
Europe: The Best And Worst Places In Europe To Be Trans
Transgender people might be more visible than ever, but across much of Europe having their gender identity recognised by law remains either impossible, or beset by obstacles. The group Transgender Europe has released a report with a wealth of detailed findings about the differing rights of trans people across the continent. The study compared policies and laws for trans people in 22 different areas, including asylum, employment discrimination, hate speech laws, goods and services discrimination, and whether official documents can be changed to register gender identity. Read more
Hong Kong: Gay woman challenges Hong Kong in landmark trial
Hong Kong bills itself as Asia's World City, a cutting-edge metropolis that effortlessly fuses the traditional and the modern. But on the subject of rights for sexual minorities, gay rights activists say the city is firmly stuck in the past. The High Court will hear a landmark judicial review challenge by QT, a British lesbian woman who is accusing the Immigration Department of discrimination.
She moved to Hong Kong in 2011 when her partner accepted a technology job. The couple are in a civil partnership in the UK and she applied for a dependant visa, granted to the husbands and wives of expatriates working in Hong Kong. Such a visa allows the bearer to work, to access public medical services and provides a path to permanent residency. But applications to the Immigration Department proved unsuccessful, because officials refused to recognise her UK-registered civil partnership. Read More
European Court of Human Rights: “Gender Identity” Protected Against Discrimination
In Identoba and Others v. Georgia, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) clarified that all trans people are protected against discrimination on grounds of gender identity under art. 14 of the Convention (ECHR). This is an important and awaited step.
On the occasion of IDAHOT in 2012, Georgian activists held a peaceful march in Tbilisi. When counter-demonstrators were attacking them, brutally assaulting and beating them, the police failed to protect the activists adequately. Therefore, the ECtHR condemned Georgia for degrading and inhuman treatment in a discriminatory manner.
The court says clearly that especially in a homo- and transphobic society the state has a “compelling positive obligation” to protect the LGBT community against such (foreseeable) discriminatory inhuman and degrading treatment and if such attacks happen it has to unmask the discriminatory motive behind the violence and brutality. For the whole LGBT community this is a significant judgment. Read More
Zambia: High Court confirms acquittal of HIV activist, Paul Kasonkomna
Paul Kasonkomona was arrested after he appeared on a MuviTV programme where he spoke about the need to recognise the rights of vulnerable groups such as LGBT persons and sex workers in order to comprehensively address the HIV pandemic. Kasonkomona was charged under section 178(g) of the Penal Code with the idle and disorderly offence of soliciting in a public place for immoral purposes.
After his initial acquittal, the State appealed, arguing that it was justifiable to limit the right to freedom of expression where persons expressed their views on the rights of LGBT persons. However, High Court Justice Mulongoti confirmed the 2014 ruling that the State did not present sufficient evidence on all the elements of the offence.
“The judgment of the High Court is important because it confirms that it is not unlawful to lobby for law and policy reform and for the protection of the rights of marginalised groups,” says Anneke Meerkotter, from SALC. “It in unacceptable that the State doggedly pursued criminal prosecution of a human rights activist when they never had any evidential basis for such persecution.The outcome of this case is a victory for freedom of expression in Zambia.” Read More
Australia: Victorian government announces $400K funding for LGBTI seniors program
The Victorian Government has just announced $402,000 in funding over three years for Val’s Cafe, a program that promotes and advocates for the health, wellbeing and social inclusion of older LGBTI people.
Val’s Café is named after a Melbourne coffee lounge established by Val Eastwood that became a gay-friendly meeting place in early 1950s, during a time when LGBTI people faced persecution. The project was established in 2009 to work with aged-care facilities and help providers understand the histories and experiences of their older LGBTI clients.
“LGBTI seniors shouldn’t have to get back in the closet as they grow older,” Equality Minister Martin Foley said with the announcement.
The project now has 450 members and 5000 monthly online visitors to its website. It has provided support to more than 4000 staff across the aged-care sector, with the goal of ensuring that LGBTI Victorians can be respected for who they are as they grow older. Read More