A shocking video uploaded on Friday by anti-violence campaigners, showed the execution of four men. They were thrown off the roof of a building, during which screams were heard by the crowd of hundreds gathered to watch. Pictures and videos of the victims, who were suspected by ISIS of homosexuality, were uploaded by @Raqqa_Sl, which campaigns against violence in Syria. Some tweets even used the #LoveWins hashtag synonymous with the SCOTUS ruling, to tweet messages about the victims.
At time of publication the YouTube video of the execution had been removed. The group known as Islamic State has reportedly been employing “honeytraps” to coerce men into homosexuality before executing them. Read More
Turkey: Police fire pepper spray at gay pride parade
Although the gay pride parade has happened in peace for at least 13 years in Istanbul, this year the parade was interrupted by police who fired pepper spray and rubber pellets at thousands when they arrived to march. Parade organizers noted, "The use of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, as an excuse to curtail the freedoms of assembly, demonstration, and speech is a clear violation of rule of law. In taking this illegal decision, the Governor’s Office has thus broken the law." And further stated that police were not wearing helmets with their registration numbers, making identifying those responsible for the assault impossible.
"This is happening after the elections because they realize the power of the LGBTI movement," said transgender activist Ruzgar Buski. "Erdogan's government has lost their power and they know the LGBTI community stands with minorities." Read More
Read the Istanbul LGBTI Pride Week Committee full statement here.
South Korea: This is what happened when Christian groups tried to shut down Korea Pride
Tens of thousands of people marched through the South Korean capital in an LGBT pride festival, despite attempts by Christian groups to shut it down. The atmosphere was defiantly jubilant at the parade, the culmination of the three-week long Korean Queer Culture Festival.
Christian groups have been running a campaign for weeks to try to block the parade. In May, they camped out for a week in front of the police station where parade organizers had to apply for a permit and filed a competing request to hold an event in the same place. Police initially responded by canceling the parade citing the conflicting permit applications, but a court ruled that the parade had to be allowed. The Seoul police deployed thousands of officers to keep order between the queer festival — which began in a large grassy plaza in front of city hall — and eight counter protests that entirely surrounded the area. Read More
Egypt: ‘Gay’ Syrian refugee convicted after online ‘entrapment’
US: Conversion therapy group committed consumer fraud, N.J. jury says
A New Jersey jury on Thursday found a non-profit group that provides gay-to-straight conversion therapy guilty of consumer fraud for promising clients they could overcome their sexual urges by undressing in front of other men, pummeling an effigy of their mothers, and re-enacting traumatic childhood experiences.
In the first case in the nation to put the controversial practice on trial, the jury concluded that Arthur Goldberg and Elaine Berk, the founders of Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing in Jersey City and life coach Alan Downing to whom JONAH referred patients, "engaged in unconscionable commercial practices" and misrepresented their services. Read More
Malaysia: Court convicts nine transgender women
An Islamic court in Malaysia has convicted 9 transgender women of violating laws that prohibit “a male person posing as a woman,” Human Rights Watch reported. All women were fined and two were handed jail sentences. The nine women, locally known as mak nyah, were attending a birthday party at a hotel when officials from Kelantan’s Islamic Affairs Department raided the place and arrested them.
In 2014, a Malaysian appeals court struck down the law against cross-dressing in the state of Negeri Sembilan, with the presiding judge calling it “degrading, oppressive and inhumane.” Enforcement of the law has since been suspended in the state, but the state government has appealed the decision to a federal court. Meanwhile, the law against cross-dressing remains in place across the rest of Malaysia’s 13 states and its federal territories. Read More
Morocco: Court sentences two men accused of homosexuality to four months in jail
Two men charged with “violating public modesty” have been convicted and sentenced to four months in jail and a fine of up to around $135. The two men were arrested on June 3 while taking a photograph in front of landmark in the Moroccan capital, Rabat. A day earlier, two activists with the Paris-based feminist organization Femen took a photograph at the same spot while kissing topless with the slogan “In gay we trust” written on their bodies.
A representative of Human Rights Watch who attended their trial reported that the men said they had never been given a chance to read the statements police attributed to them in which they were said to have disclosed being gay.
Their arrest came amidst heightened sensitivity around homosexuality in the country sparked in large part by foreign activists coming to the country to challenge its law against homosexuality, known as Article 489. A Moroccan newspaper reported that 25 people had been arrested for homosexuality since February. Read More
US: In some states, defiance over Supreme Court ruling
More than a dozen states that saw gay marriage bans struck down last week by the U.S. Supreme Court are vowing to protect religious liberty, even though they grudgingly accept that the ruling is now the law of the land.
In the wake of Friday's decision, Texas’s attorney general told county clerks in the state that they have a statutory right to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples if they have religious objections to gay marriage.
In Alabama, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore — a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage — said a new state court order could temporarily delay the practice, only to walk back the remarks.
And in Louisiana, the attorney general contends there is nothing in the Supreme Court’s ruling that renders it effective immediately, raising questions about how soon the state would have to comply.
Many other states across the South and upper Midwest are criticizing the ruling as an encroachment on states’ rights and religious freedom, though most acknowledge they cannot ignore it. Read More
Mexico: Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriages in all 31 states
Mexico's Supreme Court has decided in favor of marriage equality, stating "procreation" was not a purpose for marriage. Therefore, limiting marriages to heterosexual couples amounted to discrimination against other couples seeking marriage.
The court’s decision legalizes same-sex marriage in all of the 31 states of Mexico – which is over 80% Catholic – adding the country to the growing list of Latin American nations that permit it. Since current civil codes will remain temporarily, same-sex couples wishing to marry can obtain injunctions against laws holding up traditional marriage.
The Mexican Catholic bishops’ conference has disagreed with the court’s decision, stating that the family is founded on the marriage between a man and a woman who can procreate and, therefore, guarantee “the survival of society.” Read More
UK: Same-sex marriage bid goes to court in Northern Ireland
The first two gay couples to enter into civil partnerships in the UK will this week mount a High Court challenge to Northern Ireland's same-sex marriage ban, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal.
Grainne Close and Shannon Sickles will be joined by Chris and Henry Flanagan-Kane to seek a judicial review of the ban. Both couples cemented their relationships in civil partnerships a decade ago in Belfast City Hall. But while Northern Ireland was the first place in the UK to recognise civil partnerships, it is now the only part of the UK and Ireland that has not legalised same-sex marriage. Read More
Austria: Votes against gay marriage
The National Assembly of Austria has taken a strong stance against equal marriage. Two days before Vienna Pride, the Assembly voted against a proposed resolution to grant lesbian and gay couples ‘the human right of equal marriage’. Out of 136 representatives, only 26 voted for and 110 against the proposal in a roll-call vote; the Green party, who proposed the resolution, was the only party to fully support marriage equality. Read More
Italy: 100,000 attend Milan Pride in support of marriage equality
On Saturday 100,000 people took part in Milan Pride: walking through the city in support of gay rights in Italy. Dario Davanzo, who manages the event, told La Repubblica: ‘This is the first Milan Pride where we can see such a powerful synergy going on between city and government.’
Participants waved fliers which read: 'Sì’ (‘yes’) in support of the fight for marriage equality in Italy. The streets were said to be ‘dense’ with rainbow flags. The mayor of Milan Giuliano Pisapia marched in the procession and participated by handing out the fliers. He said: ‘We [will] defeat prejudice: and we say "yes" to love and the marriage.' Read More