Members of the Ugandan LGBT community celebrated their annual Pride Uganda festival this weekend, defying strict laws criminalizing homosexuality with up to 14 years in jail. Crowds of Ugandans traveled to the shores of Lake Victoria to walk in the festival’s gay pride parade, which was held at a secluded botanical garden 30 miles outside the nation’s capital of Kampala.
Gay rights activists and allies marched, chanted and danced in the small parade, many waving rainbow flags and wearing colorful masks to conceal their identities. The celebration was part of the five-day Pride Uganda festival, which provided a rare occasion for members of the LGBT community to gather together openly. Many LGBT Ugandans are forced to keep their identities secret, as same-sex relationships are punishable by up to 14 years in prison in the country.
Not everyone was celebrating. The youngest of 20 brothers and sisters, Badru, a man from Kampala, was thrown out of his home because his family discovered he was gay. Homeless, unemployed and born HIV positive, Badru said he has nothing to celebrate about at Pride Uganda: “Today is rights day but I don’t know what I should be celebrating about when I have so many difficulties,” he said. “Pride is meaningless to me.”
Still, many LGBT Ugandans expressed their desire to live as authentically as possible, despite the almost daily threats of homophobic-based violence. Read More
Jamaica: First public gay pride event a symbol of change, 'It felt liberating'
Early August is a special time for Jamaicans. The Emancipendence holidays celebrate both the end of slavery in 1838 and the country’s break away from British colonial rule in 1962. But this year has seen a very different kind of symbolic even, one that for LGBT campaigners in the country marks an equally important moment in the future development of this young nation.
It started not with a proclamation or a flag being hoisted up and down a pole but with a flash mob, an art day and a chance for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jamaicans to show things are changing for the better. PRIDE JA was the first public gay pride celebration in the English-speaking Caribbean, after a similar event had to be canceled due to security concerns in the Bahamas last year.
For those involved in the week’s activities – organised by JFLAG, the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays – it was a chance to be proud and visible. “It felt liberating”, said Nicki who attended the arts performance. “It was safe with no fear. In public, if you express yourself in a particular way or use certain mannerisms you have to be on your guard but this really felt like it was ours.” Read More
Israel: Thousands rally in Israel to protest attack during Pride march
Across Israel, thousands of people took to the streets to protest a week of violence. Yishai Schlissel, an Orthodox Jew who was previously convicted of stabbing three people at a Jerusalem pride parade in 2005, was recently released from prison after serving 10 years for the previous attack. After his release, Schlissel returned to his hometown where he began distributing handwritten pamphlets 'all Jews faithful to God' to risk 'beatings and imprisonment' for the sake of preventing the parade. At this month's parade he stabbed 6 people, killing a teenage girl.
Thousands attended a previously scheduled rally in Tel Aviv's Meir Park meant to commemorate an attack six years ago on a LGBT youth community center that left two dead and wounded 15 others. Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and former Israeli president Shimon Peres attended the rally.
"I cannot believe we have reached such an abyss," Peres said in his speech. "I took before this stage six years ago, mere days after the murders at Barnoar. I am finding it difficult to believe that we are standing on that same stage, once again before the same phenomenon. We have gathered this evening for a war of independence – Israel's independence from insanity and insane people. This is not a disagreement between right and left. This is a profound clash between those with a conscience and those who lack a conscience." Read More
US: A Diplomatic Approach to the Mexican LGBT Community in the USA
In the past few years, the Mexican diplomatic and consular network in the United States, following its long tradition of innovation and dynamism, has began actively engaging with an important segment of its immigrant diaspora: the LGBT community.
There are approximately 11 million people of Mexican origin living in the U.S., creating a unique environment that is permeated by distinct historical, cultural, economic, social and political realities. Consequently, Mexican consulates have gone beyond the traditional services and practices, evolving into dynamic centers that provide wide-ranging services, programs and activities. Those programs engage a wide and specialized network of partners to address issues ranging from immigration, criminal and civil rights, to labor rights, and now represent key allies to maximize our ability to reach out to LGBT communities.
In September of 2014 the webinar “An overview of HRC and Understanding Ways to Better Protect LGBT Immigrant Families and Individuals” was presented to consular staff with specific material to take into account the particular characteristics of Mexican consulates. The presentation addressed what it means to be LGBT, statistics about LGBT immigrants, their ethnicities, immigration and civil status, and the benefits that were available to same sex-couples at the time. Read More
Uganda: Facing the mediterranean
For the last five decades, Kenya and Uganda have had an unofficial pact of providing a passageway for each other’s escapees. This started with the 1971 Idi Amin overthrow of Milton Obote, which saw a mass exodus of Ugandans into Kenya and elsewhere in the world. The other mass exodus happened in 1986. The second Milton Obote government was overthrown by Brigadier Bazilio Olara-Okello and General Tito Okello. Following the post–coup chaos, the Yoweri Museveni–led National Resistance Army (NRA) seized power.
The story is different in 2015. There is no military takeover in Uganda and Kampala has not fallen. Yet today there are growing numbers of Ugandan refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya. The shift in circumstance is that these particular Ugandans, mainly in their 20s, say they are running away from home because of their sexuality and whom they choose to love.
According to official UNHCR documents, the present crisis began in 2014 when a handful of Ugandan escapees showed up at UNHCR in Nairobi and at Kakuma refugee camp in Northern Kenya. They were all seeking asylum, citing the passage of the 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda as one of their reasons for fearing for their safety. Read More
UK: ‘I’m a bisexual homoromantic’: why young Brits are rejecting old labels
The gay-straight binary is collapsing, and it’s doing so at speed. The more people who are out, the more normal it becomes. Combine that with the seemingly unstoppable legislative reinforcement of equal rights and it seems less “abnormal”, less boundary-busting, to fall in love or lust with someone of the same gender.
In fact, the word queer, once the defiant reclamation of a homophobic slur, has become a ubiquitous term. While the young people I spoke to were largely resistant to the word “bisexual”, even if they are sleeping with both men and women, they used “queer” easily and freely. “Among our callers and our volunteers, more people are identifying as ‘queer’, particularly among younger generations,” says Natasha Walker, of the LGBT+ Helpline. “In the past, people were fighting for the right to be able to define themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* etc. Although this is very much still the case, there is also a definite shift towards an acceptance of people as they are – label or no label.”
Moving beyond the need to identify as one thing or the other feels utopian in many respects, and it acknowledges that for many people, sexuality is not an either/or decision. But it also relies on an idealised vision of an open-minded and kind society, which is true for the privileged world of, say, celebrities, but is not always the case elsewhere. Casual homophobia has not been erased by semantic optimism. Read more
UK: 1 in 2 young people say they are not 100% heterosexual
Invented by Alfred Kinsey in the 1940s, the Kinsey scale plots individuals on a range of sexual dispositions from exclusively heterosexual at 0 through to exclusively homosexual at 6. Asked to plot themselves on a 'sexuality scale', 72% of the British public place themselves at the completely heterosexual end of the scale, while 4% put themselves at the completely homosexual end and 19% say they are somewhere in between.
With each generation, people see their sexuality as less fixed in stone. The results for 18-24 year-olds are particularly striking, as 43% place themselves in the non-binary area between 1 and 5 and 52% place themselves at one end or the other. Of these, only 46% say they are completely heterosexual and 6% as completely homosexual. Read More
UK: Universities are failing to tackle sexist and homophobic 'lad culture'
"Lad culture” that can result in sexual harassment is being allowed to fester at British universities because of a lack of action by institutions, the National Union of Students (NUS) has warned. Sexist or homophobic behaviour linked to heavy alcohol consumption is often rife at universities across the country, a study by the organisation found, with staff and student unions failing to take action on campuses.
Policies to tackle the issue are lacking in almost half of UK universities, with just 51 per cent having a formal policy on sexual harassment. Just one in 10 had a policy that covered the display of sexist and discriminatory material on campus. Misogynistic jokes, so-called “rape banter” and pressures to engage in sexual behaviour are an increasingly common problem affecting students, and NUS Women’s Officer Susuana Amoah claimed violence and discrimination were making the education system “inaccessible for many students, not just women”. Read More
US: From South Carolina to North Dakota, churches cut ties with Boy Scouts
With the Boy Scouts of America having lifted its blanket ban on openly gay adult leaders, some churches that sponsor scout troops are cutting ties with the organization — even though the BSA’s new policy does not require any church-affiliated troop to accept gay leadership.
The First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in South Carolina sent a letter to parents last week announcing it would no longer sponsor a scout troop, ending a nearly 50-year relationship. The letter, from church member and scout leader Buddy Lever, noted that homosexuality goes against the church’s beliefs, and that staying with the BSA might eventually force to accept gay leaders.
Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic bishop of North Dakota has ordered churches in his diocese to end any affiliation with the BSA: “I cannot permit our Catholic institutions to accept and participate directly or indirectly in any organization which has policies and methods which contradict the authoritative moral teachings of the Catholic Church.” Churches within the diocese sponsor 8 Boy Scout troops and Cub Scout packs, and they will now look for alternatives. Read More
US: Boy Scouts ends ban on gay leaders
The Boy Scouts of America ended its blanket ban on gay leaders , following an executive board vote that capped off several months of quick movement on the issue. “The national executive board ratified a resolution removing the national restriction on openly gay leaders and employees,” Boy Scouts President Robert Gates said in a video announcing the news. Under the new policy, however, individually chartered troops — many of which are backed by churches — will be allowed to continue the ban.
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is deeply troubled by today’s vote,” the church said in a statement. “The admission of openly gay leaders is inconsistent with the doctrines of the Church and what have traditionally been the values of the Boy Scouts of America.”
“While this isn’t a complete victory, it’s an enormous step forward,” said Brian Peffly, who was kicked out of the Boy Scouts this spring because he is gay. “We so much closer to getting back to being about what scouting is all about, going on camping trips and teaching how to build fires and tie knots and lash poles together and build stuff,” he said, “and learning to be a good leader and good friend and good citizen in the midst of all that.” Read More
Australia: ACL calls for defunding of school anti-LGBTI bullying program
National anti-bullying campaign, Safe Schools Coalition Australia (SSCA) has come under attack for supposedly "sexualising" children and promoting "queer sex" by the Australian Christian Lobby. The ACL urged the federal Education Minister to stop the organisation's $8 million funding. ACL Queensland director Wendy Francis stated SSCA promotes “radical sexual experimentation,” saying: “Children have the right to their innocence. The political ideology carried by this program denies children this right.”
Speaking in her capacity as a trans* and youth advocate, journalist Kate Doak said that SSCA’s fundamental goal is to provide educators with material and resources to combat bullying of LGBTIQ students. “Whether we like it or not, LGBTIQ youth exist, and by providing resources that help both teachers and students to create more inclusive schools, programs like SSCA are ultimately saving lives by letting kids know that it’s okay to be themselves.”
The ACL did not condemn Catholic Church dioceses for distributing anti-same-sex marriage booklets to school children across Australia last month. Read More
Vietnam: Hundreds of transgender people who had reassignment surgery request new identification
Nearly 600 transgender people in Vietnam who underwent sex reassignment surgery have proposed having their names and identification papers changed in accordance with their reassigned gender. The information was announced by a representative of the Maternal and Child Health Department under the Ministry of Health.
The ministry has also suggested adding transgender people’s identification adjustment to a draft amendment to the Civil Code. According to the ministry’s staff, current regulations do not allow the modification of transgender people's identification. The only exception is for people who have a gender which is different from their looks due to defects in chromosomes or genitals.
Studies presented at a seminar on trans people at Ho Chi Minh City University last year showed that it is usually hard for young transgender people to access social and health services as well as land jobs because they do not have appropriate identification. Trans people face significant challenges because their appearance differs from the image on their ID card. Read More