Saudi Arabia: Authorities reportedly fine school more than $25,000 over “emblems of homosexuality”

A school in Saudi Arabia has been fined more than $25,000, with authorities claiming the rainbows on its building were “emblems of homosexuality,” according to a Twitter account associated with the agency that enforces the country’s religious law. The tweet, from the Saudi Society Channel, also showed that the Talee al-Noor International School has been repainted. The Saudi Society Channel is one of the Twitter accounts associated with the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the agency that enforces Islamic law in the country.

Homosexuality and trans people are routinely punished by flogging in Saudi Arabia, and the country’s authorities are among the most aggressive in the region in targeting LGBT people online and on mobile hookup apps. In July of 2014, a 24-year-old man was sentenced to 450 lashes and three years in prison for soliciting sex with other men on Twitter, according to a US State Department human rights report, & 35 men alleged to be gay were arrested this April in a raid. Read More 

Croatia: messages LGBT youth on the walls as a driver of positive change

In order to familiarize the wider community with the inequalities in the society towards marginalized communities and to encourage an environment for positive change, the group Info Zone, led a program to explore marginalized youth. 

Dealing with the problems of the lack of adequate family support and / or support the environment, issues of prejudice, discrimination, labeling, obstacles to the exercise of their own desires, ambitions and dreams, difficulty in continuing education or employment the project included three focus groups: young LGBT people, young people without adequate parental care, and young people with disabilities.

Speaking in a focus group for the LGBT community in which he participated, activist Mirjana Lolić reveals some simple messages that have derived from it: Fear and shame are not the same, Silence is the biggest problem, should have equal rights, BUT .., pride is what is after all stripes ascend, lesbophobia, Advanced minorities contribute to the development of civilization. Read More

Germany: Green Youth Munich leader, involuntary hero of CSD-Parade

As board member of political youth group 'Grüne Jugend München,' Marcel Rohrlack, 18, speaks out for LGBT rights and marriage equality, but also minimum wage, housing, and environmental issues. After attending Munich's annual pride event--Christopher Street Parade--Rohrlack and a friend were attacked and beaten by a group a five men. Documenting his injuries on Facebook, Rohrlack urged an end to violence. Read More 

Kenya: 19 school students suspended for supporting LGBT rights

A group of Kenyan high school students from St. Mary’s Kibabi Boys High School in Bungoma County – were sent home, pending an investigation by the school into the allegations against them, after anti-gay students accused them of being gay. The teenagers were taking part in a group debate regarding gay rights – an issue no doubt heightened by the upcoming visit of US President Barack Obama.

After the school boys vocalised their own support for gay people, their opponents accused them of being homosexuals themselves, and they were subsequently asked to leave school. They will be allowed to report back to the school next week with their parents to hear the verdict against them. The school’s principal, Mathew Namunwa, has warned that if any of the students are discovered to have participated in homosexual acts, they would be given counselling.

Namanuwa confirmed that there had been a debate the previous week between the pro and anti-gay pupils, which led to divisions among the peers. He said those accused of being gay are suspected to have been practising “it” with the school’s youngest and most vulnerable students. Read More via Pink News 

Kenya: African LGBTIQ youth speak out

Young African LGBTIQ activists from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda attending the Fifth Changing Faces Changing Spaces conference in Kenya gathered together to discuss issues affecting LGBTIQ youths in Africa. The participants shared our collective observations that the voices of young LGBTIQ Africans are quite often not heard even within LGBTIQ spaces.

There is the erroneous belief that young people lack the ability and capacity to organize due to lack of professional experience as well as misconception about their ability for self-determination around their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. These among other factors have silenced the voices of young LGBTIQ Africans in the struggle for LGBTIQ rights in the continent.

We, young LGBTIQ Africans are a huge part of the movement and in so many instances lead organizations that are not necessarily youth focused but are at the forerun in the struggle for LGBTIQ rights in our regions and countries. We have proven to be a driving force of the movement in Africa; both as leaders and as beneficiaries and are changing the notion that young people are being “recruited” into homosexuality in Africa. Read More 

Russia: Video shows what it’s like for two men to walk around Moscow holding hands

A video of two men experiencing verbal and physical abuse as they hold hands on the streets of Moscow is going viral, with more than 1 million views since it was posted to YouTube Sunday. Passersby shout expletives and anti-LGBT slurs at the men as they walk around the city. In one shot, the pair are pushed by an aggressive man. No one comes to help them.

Filmed in the style of this viral video documenting one woman’s experience of street harassment while walking through New York, the footage has clearly been edited but captures numerous insults. The two men in the video say they are not gay but staged a “social experiment” to spark discussion of LGBT rights in Russia.

“We thought that it’s strange, that in USA if two guys have a walk holding hands, it would be not a big deal. So we wanted to see the same situation in Russia.” The men, who post footage of their “pranks” and “social experiments” under the name ChebuRussiaTV online, said they were surprised by the aggressive public reactions they received while filming. Read More 

France: Swimmer suffers broken nose in anti-gay attack

World champion swimmer Mélanie Hénique, 23, and two female friends were attacked by four men as they left a restaurant in Amiens, northern France. The men hurled insults and hit the women, after which the ladies sought emergency healthcare. 

Hénique said she ‘fully accepts’ her homosexuality but preferred to keep her private life private. However, she felt it was her duty to make public the facts, ‘if only to help all those who dare not complain. It happens too often...I have been insulted, but have never been hit,’ she continued, without wanting to specify the ‘violent’ homophobic slurs.

Hénique had to postpone training after the attack and was a forced to withdraw from the French Open over the weekend. She won bronze in the 50m butterfly at the world championships in 2011 and has been selected to compete again at the 2014 world championships in Kazan, Russia in August. Read More 

Turkey: UN rights office urges authorities to tackle anti-LGBT violence and discrimination

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed deep concern over attacks and incitement to violence against LGBT people in Turkey, a UN spokesperson said today.

After listing recent disturbances, he said the Office is “further concerned about allegations that in the [Ördek case], police officers trivialized the attack, used discriminatory language, tried to dissuade the victim from filing a complaint, and did not provide protection from additional threats by the alleged perpetrators.”

“We call on the Turkish authorities to take active measures to combat homophobic and transphobic violence and discrimination, to uphold the rights of LGBT people to peacefully assemble and express themselves and to ensure that LGBT victims of crimes are treated with respect and dignity and have access to protection mechanisms and effective remedy,” Mr. Colville said. Read More 

Turkey: No place is heaven for trans people, hell is everywhere for sex workers

Founder and chairperson of the Red Umbrella Sexual Health and Human Rights Association Kemal Ördek was robbed and raped in their home in Ankara. A police officer at the police station reacted by saying “Enough with this tribe of Lot.” 

It has been three days since the attack. At the police station the assailants threatened Ördek by saying, “We know where you live now. They’ll release us anyway and you’ll have to deal with the consequences.” The assailants are free and they continue to harass Ördek on their cell phone.

We met with Kemal Ördek when they arrived at Istanbul for Pride Week and discussed sex workers’ rights struggle. Ördek explains that, as long as it does not include violence, threat, or coercion, sex work needs to be legalized, which would lead to a decrease in sexually transmitted infections since sex workers would be able to freely access healthcare without being discriminated: “Everything starts at legal recognition and guarantees. The current atmosphere of dismissiveness needs to be addressed; dismissiveness also means precarity.” Read More

Turkey: Posters threatening gays with death appear in capital

An Islamist group has pinned posters to walls and posts in Turkey's capital Ankara threatening gays with death, adding to concerns over growing intolerance against homosexuals in the country. The appearance of the posters in Ankara comes just over a week after police prevented Istanbul's annual gay pride march - a successful tradition over the past 13 years - from going ahead, using tear gas and water cannon against activists who showed defiance. 

"Should those who engage in ugly behavior and adhere to the practice of the people of Lot be killed?" read posters that appeared in the Turkish capital overnight, referring to Lot, who features in the Old Testament and the Quran. Many Muslims believe that the decline of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah stemmed from the sexual preferences of their inhabitants.
  
A hitherto low-key Islamist group called the "Young Islamic Defense" claimed responsibility for the poster campaign through a Twitter account @islamimudafaa, saying it was trying to "respond to the immoral actions" of lesbians, gays and bisexuals. Read More

Paraguay: Married gay activist’s meeting with Pope was ‘very productive’

In a historic first, a married gay activist met with Pope Francis on Saturday — and walked away with a sense that the pope genuinely believes “dignity is for everyone.”  Simón Cazal, executive director of Paraguay LGBT group SomosGay, was among a delegation of 1,600 Paraguayan civil society leaders and members who met with the Holy See in Asunción.

 Although the pope did not directly address LGBT issues during his speech, Cazal told the Blade the pontiff “did mention others in which they are included.” “The pope’s speech was very productive,” Cazal added. “The local church insisted on talking about the family and other conservative issues… [But] he distanced himself from this discourse and highlighted diversity in its place.”   

The Paraguayan Episcopal Conference last month invited Cazal and other LGBT rights advocates to attend the meeting, though Cazal was the only one to accept the invitation.  Read More