Australia: Queensland Government moves to expunge convictions for gay sex under historic laws

Men convicted under Queensland's historic homosexuality laws may soon have their crimes cleared, with the Palaszczuk Government taking steps to expunge historic convictions for gay sex. The sunshine state decriminalised homosexuality in 1990, but anyone charged under the laws, which made consensual homosexual acts illegal, still hold criminal convictions.

The Government has referred the issue to Queensland Law Reform Commission to consider how convictions can be removed from a person's criminal record.

Alan Raabe, 61, was one the 460 men to be convicted under the laws in Queensland. He said he has never been able to pursue his dream of teaching due to his conviction. When asked how he felt about the prospect of his conviction being expunged more than three decades later, he started crying. Read more via ABC 

Botswana: Good leadership is about people – Festus Mogae

Festus Mogae served as president of the southern African country of Botswana from 1998 to 2008. He is the recipient of several international awards, including the 2008 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. In an interview the former president shared his thoughts on gay rights, the reform of the UN Security Council, the right to protect civilians in humanitarian crises and the fight against HIV/AIDS. 

In my long interaction with LGBT groups and extensive research, I have come to the realisation that we are limited in our knowledge and must be open to new discoveries. I have been converted; I used to hold the same beliefs as my counterparts.

President Mugabe has said that he hates homosexuals and is on record as saying they are worse than pigs and dogs. That is still his position. Leadership is not always about you, it is about people and often circumstances. I call upon African leaders to open up to second generation rights.  Read more via the UN

Botswana: LGBTI in Africa, from victims to victors

by Katlego K Kolanyane-Kesupile, ARTivist, writer, digital artist, and performer, as well as a Global Shaper. Her awards include being named 2015 Queen’s Young Leaders Award Highly Commended Runner Up.

Historically speaking, pride parades have been portrayed as festivals where athletic bodied, barely clad men gyrate to up-tempo music on glittery floats; and when night falls the festivities become a seething cornucopia of lust and drug use. This has been veiled as a chance for LGBTI+ people to celebrate life and “be free”.

Freedom, however, has many different applications. Anyone expecting such frivolous displays at the Joburg People’s Pride (which you can follow on Facebook and Twitter) would be in for grave disappointment, as was evident in the November 2015 march through down-town Johannesburg, South Africa. To anyone asking: “Can you really take the sex out of Pride and change what it means – especially in Africa?” My response is a big fat “YES!” and I’ll tell you why.  Read more via World Economic Forum

Canada: Calgary Young Queer Church hopes to offer safe place to worship

A project to offer a safe place for young LGBT Christians opened its doors in Calgary Sunday evening at the Parkdale United Church. Pace Anhorn, director of Young Queer Church and trans, says his faith background is complicated.

"Since I became a Christian at 14 there was always this desire, this passion inside of me for authentic living," Anhorn explained.

"It was like, the church needs to change, there is something that we need to do to revolutionize what we are doing so people can come in and go, I am accepted just as I am, and I long for that and all of the churches I went to, I didn't find that," he said. Young Queer Church hopes to change that.  Read more via CBC 

Israel: Orthodox parties skip swearing in of first openly gay parliamentarian

Members of both Ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties in the Israeli Knesset (or parliament) decided not to show up to the swearing-in of the country’s first openly gay lawmaker. Amir Ohana, who was sworn in before his partner and two children, represents the centre-right Likud party.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also the head of the Likud party, welcomed the new MK. "The first impression is the most important, and we were all deeply impressed with your speech. I'm happy to receive you to our ranks. You carry with you an exceptional responsibility - the welcome you received brings together this fractured house. It's a great responsibility and a great opportunity," the prime minister said.
 
"Amir is the first representative of the LGBT community who was elected in open primaries while who he is was completely out in the open, and he was elected by thousands of voters in the Likud primaries," Netanyahu noted.  Read more via Ynet News 

Catholic: Pope Francis explains ‘who am i to judge?’ quip

Pope Francis has reiterated his relatively tolerant stance towards LGBT people, offering new details about a 2013 incident where he responded to a question about gay priests by saying “who am I to judge?”

In a new book, Pope Francis is quoted talking to an Italian journalist about the famous quip, which triggered a firestorm of media coverage and speculation over whether the pontiff would alter the Catholic Church’s firm opposition to same-sex relationships. The book cites Francis as he clarifies his theological justification for taking a more tolerant stance towards LGBT people.

“On that occasion I said this: If a person is gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person?” the pope says in the new book, The Name of God is Mercy. “I was paraphrasing by heart the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it says that these people should be treated with delicacy and not be marginalized.”

“I prefer that homosexuals come to confession, that they stay close to the Lord, and that we pray all together,” Francis also says, in a possible reference to the Church’s historical stance that same-sex relationships are sinful. “You can advise them to pray, show goodwill, show them the way, and accompany them along it.” Read more via Think Progress 

Romania: Priests push for gay marriage ban

The days following Christmas have been a good opportunity for Orthodox priests across Romania to encourage parishioners to back a campaign for a change to the constitution outlawing same-sex marriage. Dozens of people attending the cathedral in Timisoara, in western Romania, queued to sign the initiative, after their Bishop, or Metropolitan, encouraged them to do so during the Christmas mass. Priests in the Iasi region, while blessing people’s houses for the Epiphany Day used the occasion to ask them to back amendments to the fundamental law, according to media reports. 

Clergy want to gather at least 500,000 signatures in order to organise a referendum proposing that the constitution describe marriage as a consensual relationship between a man and a woman alone. Currently, the constitutional article use only the words “between spouses” when referring to the marriage partners.

Church leader Patriarch Daniel said that Orthodox believers “must support the Church’s effort to protect the natural, traditional and universal family, and resist some new family models that consider the natural woman-man union only one model among others”. More than 85% of Romania’s population of 19.5 million belong to the Orthodox Church. Read more via Balkan Insight

Anglican: Archbishop Welby says sorry to LGBTI community for hurt and pain caused by Episcopal suspension

The archbishop of Canterbury has apologised for the “hurt and pain” the Anglican church has inflicted on LGBT people as he attempted to defend the  decision to sanction the liberal US church  for allowing same-sex marriage. Justin Welby’s remarks came at the end of a week-long summit of the world’s Anglican leaders, in which he sought to soothe divisions caused by the decision on Thursday to uphold a “traditional doctrine” of marriage as “between a man and a woman in faithful, lifelong union”.

Dozens of gay rights activists, many of them refugees from African countries, descended on Canterbury Cathedral to chant “Shame on you” where the 38 primates of the Anglican communion had been meeting to resolve deep divisions over gay rights. 

The US Episcopal church has been banned from representation on key bodies and barred from voting on issues relating to doctrine or strategy for three years. However, it will remain a member of the Anglican communion. Liberal Anglicans responded to the de facto sanctions and the reaffirmation of traditional biblical teaching on marriage with anger and dismay. At the other end of the spectrum, hardline conservative Anglicans said the statement was a step in the right direction but did not go far enough in forcing US liberals to repent.  

 Read more via the Guardian
 

Canada: World's first chair in transgender studies

At The University of Victoria in Victoria, B.C. Prof. Aaron Devor, an internationally recognized sex- and-gender expert, will work with researchers, community activists and students to advance study into a broad range of topics that affect the lives of transgender individuals.

The professor has been appointed to what's believed to be the world's only chair in transgender studies hopes the research will clear away the myths and improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in society. Read more via CTV News

Jamaica: Homosexual acts are illegal, guidance counsellors cannot break law

The Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) says it cannot call for guidance counsellors to be better trained to deal with gay students as buggery remains illegal. Norman Allen, who heads the union that represents guidance counsellors, made the comment in reaction to reports that several of the approximately 800 guidance counsellors in schools are refusing to help students identified as gay or lesbian.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday,  Opposition Spokesperson on Education Senator Kamina Johnson Smith wrote: “I am really surprised at the reasoning here....To be clear – while buggery is unlawful, the state of homosexuality is not, nor is the state of being confused.” Read more via Jamaica Gleaner

New Zealand: Grammar School tacitly acknowledges homophobia

Tacitly acknowledging that it has a culture of homophobia amongst students and possibly some staff, Auckland Grammar School has responded in an up-beat manner to allegations of on-going homophobia at the prestigious and high-achieving school.

Its brief response, which does not deny the allegations or address any of the specifics of multiple claims which are being voiced, comes after a number of gay pupils and ex-pupils posted criticisms the school's culture abuse and homophobic slurs.

Headmaster Tim O'Connor has acknowledged it is "the school’s core responsibility and an on-going exercise to promote attitudes and behaviour in its students that reflect the School’s values. This includes teaching young men sensitivity towards and acceptance of the rights of others in our diverse society." Read more via Gay NZ

US: Groundbreaking school for LGBT students to open

A first-of-its-kind private school in Georgia aimed at attracting LGBT youth and teachers is being established in Atlanta for students who feel bullied or not accepted in traditional schools. Pride School Atlanta is a k-12 institution designed to be an alternative for LGBT students, though the school is open to any student who believes they’re not getting the support they need for “being different.”

It is part of a small but growing group of schools popping up nationally geared toward educating LGBT youth, who feel disenfranchised from public education. Pride School would be the first of its kind in the Southeast and, according to advocates, a significant development for the LGBT movement.

Nearly 9 in 10 LGBT students report experiencing harassment within the last school year, and three in 10 report missing a class because they felt unsafe, according to rights group Georgia Equality. The group was among other advocates who lobbied state lawmakers to create legislation to reduce bullying in schools.

“I think right now what a lot of (LGBT) students face is separate but equal education in the public schools,” he said. “Because if you can’t go to the bathroom all day and you can’t use the locker room and you’re bullied in the classroom and the teachers aren’t standing up for you, you don’t have a full seat at the table.” Read more via AP