Brazil: Rio de Janeiro prisons seek to protect transgender inmates

Brazil’s penitentiaries are notorious for rampant overcrowding and violence endured by all inmates. But advocates say few prisoners are as vulnerable as transgender people, who are often singled out for taunting, physical, and sexual abuse. In Rio de Janeiro, new regulations aim to curb such abuse within the state’s 52 penitentiaries. Advocates have hailed the rules that ban discrimination against transgender prisoners and protect their gender identities while behind bars.

“In Brazil, even regular prisoners are an invisible to society at large. Transgender prisoners are doubly invisible and vulnerable,” said Claudio Nascimento, who heads the Rio Without Homophobia advocacy group, which lobbied for the new rules. The rules allow transgender inmates to be known by their common, rather than only their legal names. They guarantee access to conjugal visits and let transgender people who identify as female decide whether to serve their sentences in a women’s facility.

Rio’s new measures were adopted amid an outcry over the brutal beating in April of a trans woman at a detention center in neighboring Sao Paulo state. Police are investigating allegations that officers tortured Veronica Bolina after graphic photos of her went viral online. In images taken before her detention, Bolina is striking, with cat eyes, prominent cheekbones and flowing hair. After, she’s unrecognizable, her hair roughly shorn, her face a patchwork of lesions, & her eyes swollen shut. Read More 

UK: Powerful Ministry of Defense campaign aims to challenge sexual assaults

A campaign launched by the Ministry of Defence aims to tackle the issue of rape in the armed forces. The campaign features a number of soldiers – both male and female – who are the victims of sexual assault. The posters aim to disspel the idea that ‘not saying no’ is enough – with the slogan “Don’t Kid Yourself! Without consent it’s rape”.

One of the posters features someone speculating: “He’s gay, he would have been gagging for it.” Others feature heterosexual pairings, with one soldier remarking of a woman: “Yeah, she just lay there, but I had fun.” Army chief General Sir Nick Carter launched the campaign after a survey found a shocking 40% of women in the armed forces have received unwanted comments of a sexual nature in the past year. 

An Army spokesperson said: “The Consent Campaign, which has been endorsed by Rape Crisis and Stonewall, is the latest in a number of internal initiatives that the Army has launched to ensure all of its employees act lawfully and treat each other in a way that is consistent with our values and standard.” Read More 

India: Government's Census recognizes transgenders as third gender

After being counted as 'males' by the Indian Government's Census department for decades, the transgender community for the first time found mention in a survey report released by the National Crime Records Bureau. In its new report of 2014, the NCRB recorded the deaths and suicides of the transgender community, making it the first time that transgenders have been recognised as a separate category in an official survey undertaken by the ministry of home affairs.

Transgender activists believe that induction of a third category in a National level survey marks a new beginning. However, there were some who said that in India where there is very little awareness about the rights of transgenders, categorising the community for the first time in NCRB survey might not be the ideal start.

"It seems like a good step but for people to recognise us as a people with equal rights, we would have preferred other concrete steps instead of featuring in a survey about deaths," said Rudrani, a Delhi based transgender activist.

"Another reason for suicide can be the lack of opportunities faced by the community be it in getting an education or jobs," said Rurani. The data provided by NCRB corroborated Rudrani--Out of the 16 people who allegedly committed suicide four were un-employed, two were self employed while profession of 10 others falls under "other professions". The economic status showed that 12 of them earned less than 1 lakh rupees.  Read More

South Korea: This man’s story explains the emergence of South Korea’s anti-LGBT movement

Jonah Lee, a round-faced 63-year-old with a swoop of graying hair, once spent his days running gay bars and drag clubs in Korea and Japan in the ’70s and ’80s. His flagship, Hot Love, was a hit in both Seoul and Tokyo. Today, Lee is known for something else entirely. He claims, through a ministry he started in the Korean capital in 1994, to have counseled more than 1,200 people seeking to “escape homosexuality.”

Lee’s story — from gay entertainment pioneer to the leading spokesperson for Korea’s ex-gay movement — was made possible by the trajectory of many of South Korea’s Christian churches, which have grown exponentially since Lee first became a Christian almost 40 years ago. Today, many of Korea’s most important Christian leaders have come to preach homosexuality as an existential threat. These churches believe their movement is doing more than just saving people from sin; they believe they are saving the nation itself.

Lee’s path to ex-gay leader is a story in miniature of how homosexuality rapidly went from an almost invisible issue in South Korea to one that is now bringing tens of thousands of shouting protesters to the streets. Read More 

Sister Monica’s secret ministry to transgender people

Sister Monica lives alone in a small house at the edge of a Roman Catholic college run by a community of nuns. She doesn’t want to reveal the name of the town where she lives, the name of her Catholic order, or her real name. Sister Monica lives in hiding, so that others may live in plain sight.

Now in her early 70s and semiretired because of health problems, she remains committed to her singular calling for the past 16 years: ministering to transgender people and helping them come out of the shadows. “Many transgender people have been told there’s something wrong with them,” she said. “They have come to believe that they cannot be true to themselves and be true to God. There is no way we can pray, or be in communion with God, except in the truth of who we are.” Read More

Spain: Bishop reverses decree that transgendered person may not serve as godparent

Over 36,000 signed a petition against Bishop Rafael Zornoza Boy of Cádiz and Ceuta after he decreed that Alex Salinas could not serve as godparent to their nephew because Alex is transgender. 

Bishop Rafael Zornoza Boy of Cádiz and Ceuta said that the parish priest was "kind and understanding" in conveying to Alex Salinas, who identifies as a man, that while he cannot serve as a baptismal sponsor because of canonical requirements that a sponsor live in accordance with the faith, he could spiritually encourage and help the child in living the faith. A transgendered Spanish legislator called for a study of whether the diocese's decision violates national hate-crimes legislation.

Following the backlash, Bishop Zornoza Boy has reversed his decision. Read More

Switzerland: Catholic bishop in ‘death to gays’ storm

Vitus Huonder, the controversial Catholic bishop of Chur in eastern Switzerland, has once again attracted criticism for quoting homophobic Bible passages and denouncing non-traditional family models att the “Joy in Faith” forum in the German city of Fulda. In his address, titled “Marriage – a gift, sacrament and order”, Huonder quoted various passages backing up his views. He also slammed gender theory, divorce, sex education and gay marriage. Regarding homosexuality, the bishop quoted from the book of Leviticus, including: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” 

In response to applause, he continued: “Both of these passages alone suffice to clarify unambiguously the church’s position on homosexuality”. In his opinion, the passages had implications for the definition of marriage and the family. “There is no diversity when it comes to marriage and family models,” he said. “Even speaking of family diversity is an attack on the Creator.” 

Swiss gay organisation Pink Cross said it was “shocked and angry” by Huonder’s comments, calling for a “public apology for the latest gaffe”. Pink Cross said it was looking into how such hate speech could be prosecuted, pointing out that representatives of the church do not live in a legal vacuum.  

The bishop later released a statement saying he regretted that his comments had been misunderstood and interpreted as contemptuous towards homosexuals. Read More

Israel: Jerusalem’s chief rabbi visits victim of gay pride parade stabbing

A few hours before Shabbat in Israel, Jerusalem’s Chief Rabbi Aryeh Stern posted an arresting photograph on his Hebrew Facebook page. In it, the ultra-Orthodox cleric, in his full rabbinic regalia, is holding the hand of a victim of Jerusalem pride parade attack. Six people were initially reported as wounded, including a sixteen-year-old girl who who later died. The alleged assailant, Yishai Schlissel, was an ultra-Orthodox man who had previously served 10 years in prison for a similar crime in 2005.

At the hospital, Stern said, “The person that committed this sinful act is a criminal in every way, and his intention to kill Jews is something which is terrifying.”

Other ultra-Orthodox figures have also sharply condemned the attack. “The Torah of the Jewish people is the Torah of life, and the value of life is above everything,” said Moshe Gafni, head of ultra-Orthodox UTJ party. “The attempt to kill & injure is something severe which we utterly reject. [It] is opposed by Judaism, morality, Jewish law, and our path since we have been a people.” Read More  

Nigeria: NOSTRINGS PODCAST

NOSTRINGS PODCAST is a Nigerian weekly LGBTIQ podcast that operates in the form of a traditional radio program; it is the first of its kind in Nigeria. It showcases the experiences of the Nigerian LGBTIQ community. Check it out

Israeli drag queens show off in new flight safety video

Israeli art student tasked with branding an airline, so she decides to create Priscilla Airlines for the Trans community.

Flight safety videos, the ones you watch before takeoff, have turned into amusing works of art in recent years. So much so, that people all over the world watch the successful videos on YouTube, which garner millions of views. Now forget everything you have seen, and watch the flight safety video for "Priscilla Airlines". 

OK, so maybe it's not a real airline, but we are in fact talking about a final project by a visual communications student named Elia Chechick, from the Bezalel arts school in Jerusalem. Read More

Omar Sharif Jr. Featured on Arabic TV News

The interview is being hailed as the first time many people in the Arab world have heard directly from a gay person

“I think the best thing that I could do in life is to live openly and authentically and happily, and if I'm doing that, I know I'm making them happy because that’s all they would want for me," actor and activist Omar Sharif Jr. recently said on an Arabic TV news program. "They would want me to be happy. That’s what grandparents should want for their grandchildren.”

The interview took place on presenter Jaafar Abdul Karim Arabic news program Shabab Talk, and Sharif Jr. tells Out that he was impressed by how the program turned out. Read More 

How La Nogalera came to be Torremolinos’ gay hot-spot

THE year was 1962. Spain was bowed in submission under the oppressive rule of General Franco. Freedom was a rare commodity, homosexuality a crime that dared not speak its name. Across the country, gay men and women were being thrown into prison and publicly lambasted for their sexuality.

But one corner of the Costa del Sol didn’t buy into the dictator’s harsh regime.

Sticking two fingers up to Fascism, Torremolinos offered Europeans the chance to live the free life they desired. Read More