Australia: These are the queer refugees the government has locked up on a remote pacific island

Mohsen is one of more than 1,300 asylum seekers that Australia has sent, since 2012, to what is called the Manus Island detention center. It’s a facility for single men and teenage boys; several hundred women and families are being detained 1,300 miles to the east on the island nation of Nauru. They were all captured at sea while trying to reach Australia by boat from Indonesia, under a policy that even the UN secretary general has personally pleaded with the Australia’s prime minister to bring to an end.

Canberra calls this the “Pacific Solution” to the problem of people attempting to get to Australia by boat. Those it cannot force back into international waters it holds in camps outside its borders in an attempt to prevent them from asserting the right to asylum on its territory.

There’s an added fear for queer asylum seekers like Mohsen. They worry about being targeted by others in the camp, who are mostly from Iran and other countries where homosexuality is criminalized, including Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. They also are afraid of Papua New Guinea’s police force because the country’s laws punish homosexuality with up to 14 years in prison. “This place is no better than Iran,” Mohsen said. “I wish I had died on that boat 100 times a day.” 

Read more via Buzzfeed

 

India: Supreme Court refers plea against Section 377 to five-judge Bench

Moved by arguments that a person cannot be branded a criminal for his sexuality, the Supreme Court referred a batch of petitions challenging Section 377 of IPC, a colonial era law criminalising consensual sexual acts of LGBT adults in private, to a five-judge Constitution Bench for in-depth hearing. A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur and Justices Anil R. Dave and J.S. Khehar gave full credence to arguments that the threat imposed by Section 377 amounts to denial of the rights to privacy and dignity and results in gross miscarriage of justice.

Giving an indication that the Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of Section 377 with new eyes, Chief Justice Thakur told senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing for petitioner Naz Foundation, that the new Bench would not limit itself to the narrow confines of the curative law and conduct a comprehensive hearing of the arguments placed for the protection of the dignity and rights of the LGBT community.

With this, what had seemed to have been the last strand of hope for the decade-old legal fight for LGBT rights has suddenly transformed into a full-fledged battle cry with the Supreme Court indirectly accepting that its past decisions upholding Section 377 IPC needs a thorough relook. Read more via the Hindu

Oral sex can raise risk for head and neck cancer by seven times

Oral sex can spread viruses that can cause head and neck cancers, according to a new study. The research shows a strong connection between the human papillomavirus (HPV), which can be spread through oral sex, and head and neck cancer. The virus can raise the risk of getting head and neck cancer by as much as seven times, and maybe by far more, scientists say. The study involved nearly 97,000 people in two studies, according to the researchers.

HPV accounts for 70% of head and neck cancer, according to experts. It is so prevalent that by 2020 it is predicted to beat cervical cancer as the main cancer caused by HPV.

Head and neck cancers were long thought to have been caused by smoking and drinking. But a sharp rise in the number of cases led doctors to speculate that there may be another cause, and the new study is the first to show conclusively that HPV-16 precedes the development of those cancers. The research, conducted by scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, was published in 'JAMA Oncology'.   Read more via the Independent 

UK: PrEP, plus increased testing and treatment, could prevent nearly half of HIV infections in gay men by 2020

A new British mathematical modelling study published in The Lancet HIV has found that adding pre-exposure prophylaxis for gay men at high risk of HIV to relatively modest increases in HIV testing, and immediate treatment for those diagnosed, could substantially cut the number of gay men infected by 2020. The researchers conclude that without these interventions, the number of gay men acquiring HIV is unlikely to decrease by 2020, even if the UK achieves the ‘90-90-90’ target of 73% of all people with HIV virally suppressed by this time.

The study, which was funded by the UK Health Protection Agency (now Public Health England) also finds that behavioural changes such as reducing the number of regular sexual partners could also make substantial inroads into HIV incidence but are less powerful as individual interventions.

It finds that increases in sexual partner numbers or condomless sex would substantially reduce the effectiveness of PrEP, testing and treatment, but even a complete cessation of condom use would not totally negate the effect of other interventions: only this, combined with a decrease in HIV testing, would do so. 

Read more via AIDSmap
 

Philippines: No longer dodging the AIDS crisis

HIV infection rates are raising fears that the Philippines will be faced with a public health crisis that it has long escaped. Since the Philippines reported its first case of HIV in 1984, the island nation has had one of the lowest rates of infection in the world; less than 1% of its 100 million population has been infected with the virus that causes AIDS. But that may be changing.

Globally, new HIV infections have fallen dramatically in recent years, according to UNAIDS, the United Nations’ program to combat the disease. But in the Philippines, more than 20,000 new HIV infections were reported from 2010 to 2015 — more than four times as many as had been recorded in the 26 years before that.

Along with India and Pakistan, the Philippines is seeing new infections and AIDS-related deaths sharply rise among men who have sex with men and among transgender women, sex workers and people who inject drugs.  

 Read more via LA Times

 

India’s first LGBT radio taxi service announced

The initiative by Wings Travels and Humsafar Trust will have taxis chauffeured by the LGBT community members, and is expected to start functioning in 2017.

India’s first radio taxi service for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) community, Wings Rainbow, was flagged off on Wednesday. The initiative by Wings Travels and Humsafar Trust will have taxis chauffeured by LGBT community members, and is expected to start functioning in 2017. On Wednesday, five volunteers from The Humsafar Trust, an LGBT rights organisation, signed up to drive radio cabs.

Under the pilot programme, five members of the gay and transgender community will apply for a learner’s licence, and complete their training in getting the All India Driver’s Licence. Read more

US: Young Hollywood’s Public Coming Out

Teen celebrities and YouTube stars live more publicly than ever, wielding social media to tell the world their coming out stories. For my partner and I—neither of us particularly ancient—coming out was awkward and messy. For a rising generation of social media stars just a few years younger than us, it’s a polished production.

Coming out videos are one of the most popular genres of videos on YouTube. According to a report published on the YouTube Trends blog, there were over 36,000 videos on the platform as of last February, 9,600 of which had been posted within the last year. For some of the most popular vloggers, like Aaron and Austin Rhodes, the view counts are in the millions.

Last October, when YouTube star Trevor Moran came out as gay, he racked up a million views and generated a dozen headlines. Shane Dawson’s bisexual coming out video attracted 7,000,000 views and an official note of congratulations from the Human Rights Campaign. Ingrid Nilsen’s “Something I Want You to Know (Coming Out)” surpassed it with 13,000,000 views. 

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South African Toya Delazy wins international LGBT music award

Ground-breaking South African pop star Toya Delazy has won an international LGBT music award in New York.

Delazy was on Sunday announced as the winner of Best International Song for her 2014 track Forbidden Fruit at the 9th Out Music Awards.

The video for the song, from the album Ascension, features same-sex couples kissing and was seen as a major statement by the star on sexual equality and freedom.

Delazy, one of a handful of openly gay or lesbian musicians in Africa, told Mambaonline in 2014 that Forbidden Fruit “tells the story of someone discovering themselves, someone who cannot compromise on what they desire, and also exposing Africans to pan sexuality; making them understand that it’s something that exists.”  Read more 

Australia: This new drama puts LGBT teens at the forefront

Soaps like Home and Away and Neighbours have been a staple on Australian television for decades. Now, a groundbreaking new drama with LGBT teens at the forefront is hoping to find a home among the gum trees.

With a fresh Aussie cast, strong community backing, and a pilot launched on YouTube just last week, Subject to Change has picked up fans already. But now, its creators are looking for a network or streaming service to back the show – and bring episode two to life. Fundamentally, Subject to Change is about the trials and tribulations of high school. It stars three unlikely best friends: neat freak Ben (Aiden Debono), who likes guys, but can’t tell anyone; obnoxious, tomboyish Karly (Maryann Wright), obsessed with soccer and music; and Evie (Katy Avery) who is caught up with body image, bullying, and boys. 

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Olympic body changes transgender guidelines

Transgender athletes look set to compete at the Olympic Games for the first time without first having to undergo gender reassignment surgery. 

Medical chiefs at the International Olympic Committee have recommended the change allowing transgender athletes to take part in this summer's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro as well as other international events.

Transgender athletes have been allowed to compete at the Games since 2004 but only after surgery, having undergone a minimum of two years hormone therapy and being legally recognized as their changed gender.

Headed by Professor Ugur Erdener, the IOC medical hearing's findings said that, "it is necessary to ensure in so far as possible that trans athletes are not excluded from the opportunity to participate in sporting competition," while still ensuring "the guarantee of fair competition."
The hearing concluded that insisting on surgery "may be inconsistent with developing legislation and notions of human rights."

Read more via CNN

IGM = "Harmful Practice" + "Violence": UN reprimands France + Ireland over Intersex Genital Mutilations

StopIGM.org warmly welcomes the historic, binding 2016 "Concluding Observations" of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) for France and Ireland.

This marks the first time that the Committee reprimanded two States over IGM practices at once, again recognising non-consensual, medically unnecessary, irreversible, cosmetic genital surgeries and other procedures on intersex children as a "harmful practice" and as "violence against children".

We particularly appreciate that the Committee specifically called on Ireland to "adopt legal provisions in order to provide redress to the victims of such treatment, including adequate compensation", and for France invoked the Joint General Comment No. 18 (2014) and No. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on harmful practices, which also contain detailed stipulations regarding legislation and access to justice and redress for survivors, and highlight the necessity of developing a holistic policy. Read more via StopIGM.org