US: Unraveling the truth behind gay mormon youth and suicide

While there are conflicting reports regarding numerous suicides involving LGBT Mormon youth, there's no question that there's been an increase of suicidal teens and twenty-somethings following the Church's new antigay policy. Instituted in November, the new rules label any Mormon in a same-sex marriage as an "apostate," which could include excommunication from the church, and bars children of all same-sex couples from being baptized. 

Three months on, the mental effect on Mormon youth is becoming clearer. "Therapists have seen an uptick in clients who reported suicidal thoughts," the Salt Lake Tribune reported recently. "Activists have been bombarded with grief-stricken family members seeking comfort and counsel."

But many say the repercussions from November are much more serious. Wendy Montgomery, co-founder of Mama Dragons — a supportive group of Mormon women with LGBT children — says nearly three dozen queer and questioning youth have taken their lives since the new rules went into effect. Montgomery has been told 32 young Mormons have committed suicide recently, reports the Deseret News.  Read more via the Advocate 

UK: Transgender baptisms offered at Greater Manchester church

Transgender baptisms are to be offered for the first time in the UK by a church in Greater Manchester. The New Chapel Unitarian and Free Christian in Denton, Tameside, agreed the move at its annual general meeting.

Jean Clements, the church's worship leader, proposed the change after meeting a couple who had a transgender child. The church was moved to make a change in order to help those in the same situation. Mrs Clements said: "I felt saddened by the fact that this family were being shunned by many mainstream churches.

New Chapel stressed it is for other Unitarian Chapels within neighbouring districts "to decide for themselves whether they wish to offer similar services". Read more via BBC 

Netherlands: Gay Syrian refugee's hope of new life tested by Dutch camps

Omar had long dreamt of escaping discrimination in Syria, and drawn by exuberant images of the Gay Pride march in Amsterdam he hoped to find a new life in the Dutch city after fleeing war at home. But four months after arriving in the Netherlands, the 20-year-old was shocked to find himself the victim of insults, taunts and intimidation from his fellow travelling companions.

"Coming to the Netherlands, which is the country of freedom and expressing yourself, and being bullied there as a gay person, it was completely crazy," he said.

He is among more than 54,000 refugees who made it to the Netherlands in 2015, crossing by boat to Greece and then flying to Holland in September on a fake Spanish passport. "It was surprising that those people, after making a long journey, tiring journey, after they get there, they’re still capable of bullying and harassing me," he said.

Omar's experience has not been unique, as gay refugees have found themselves caught between the conservative cultural outlook of refugee families, and the more tolerant Dutch attitude.  Read more via AFP 

Turkey: Meet three LGBT Syrian refugees who fled ISIS brutality

Millions of people have fled Syria due to the civil war, the rise of the Islamic State’s self-styled caliphate and the brutality of the Assad regime, desperate to escape regime barrel bombs, Islamic State sadism and persecution by other intolerant, hardline groups. And for Syria’s LGBT citizens, the threat of violence within ISIS-controlled regions is even greater.

Under ISIS rule, even those simply suspected of being gay have been publicly tortured and executed. The Islamic State’s penal code for those accused of engaging in sodomy dictates death is the penalty “for both the receiver and the giver,” Vocativ deep web analysts have found.

Even before the horrors of the Islamic State’s persecution of gays became a daily reality, Syrians were largely intolerant of any variation on “traditional” sexuality. In addition to being abused at home, Louay says he faced dangers on the street in his home city.

“I grew up with this curly blond hair and green eyes … I was the cutie in my family,” he says. By the time he was a teenager, when he could no longer conceal his sexual orientation, his looks and demeanor made him the subject of ridicule and beatings. He was also accused of being a “prostitute,” he says. “My life was in danger.”   Read more via Vocativ

Central America: Report documents anti-trans violence

A new report indicates transgender women in Central America remain particularly vulnerable to discrimination and violence. The Latin American and Caribbean Network of Trans People, which is known by the Spanish acronym REDLACTRANS, and its affiliate organizations in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama began collecting data last March.

The report indicates the life expectancy of trans women in El Salvador is less than 35 years because of rampant violence. REDLACTRANS’ report also notes that police in Panama and other Central American countries routinely target trans women for abuse and other mistreatment. Many trans women also engage in sex work or so-called “survival sex” because of a lack of employment opportunities.

The report also notes trans women in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama frequently lack formal education and access to health care because of their gender identity. “[The report’s] primary objective is to generate documented evidence about the violence suffered by our trans counterparts in the region,” reads the report. 

The report contains a series of recommendations that includes the passage of laws that “recognize and guarantee the right of trans people to freely exercise their gender identity.” Read more via Washington Blade 

US: Trans woman killed in Texas shooting

In a statement issued on Tuesday that identified Monica Loera, 43, by her birth name and used masculine pronouns, the Austin Police Department said Loera was shot around 3 a.m. local time on Jan. 22. She was taken to hospital, where she later died.

“She was funny, [and] beautiful,” a close friend told the Chronicle. “I never saw her as David, I saw her as Monica. She loved Madonna and she loved to cook.”

Loera’s death, which was Austin’s first homicide this year, comes after a spate of trans homicides in 2015, with at least 22 transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals killed. “It took only three weeks for the initial quiet of 2016 to be shattered by the murder of another trans person,” said Nell Gaither, president of Trans Pride Initiative, in a statement. Nineteen of the victims were individuals of color, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, which documented the deaths.

“It may be a new year, but it’s looking like, unfortunately we’re telling the same horrific story,” said Beverly Tillery, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project. Read more via Buzzfeed

Brazil: The four latest known trans murders

A trans woman identified as ketelen C. Alves, 23, was shot twice in the early hours of Saturday (23) in a sex work location next to the Ministry of Finances (Sefaz) headquarters.

Another transwoman, Bruna Sousa A. C. de Menezes, 23, who was also in the sex trade was murdered by several unidentified individuals. The crime occurred on the night of Saturday 23, in the Pauzanes Sector. So far no suspects have been identified.

Another trans woman (transvestite as media insists) was killed on Sunday evening. According to Police, Dani R. M. S. Pereira, 20, was picked up by the rescue unit of the Fire Department, after being hit in the chest by a gun shot. The victim was taken to the North Emergency Unit (UPA), but was dead on arrival. In the police report, witnesses told the investigating officers the young woman was a transgender sex worker.

News of the fourth victim news was found on social media (FB) and states that Michely Fernandes, 30, a sex worker trans woman was shot to death on the 26th January.  No police report have been found on this murder nor anything in the media, so no more information is available at this time. 

 Read more via Planet Transgender
 

UK: One in six people have witnessed LGBT hate in the last year

Today marks 71 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi concentration camp responsible for the genocide of over a million people, including those who identified as LGBT. As part of their continued mission to learn from the past and prevent it repeating itself, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust has conducted a study to find out the current state of discrimination in Britain.

17% of respondents said they have witnessed a hate crime based on sexual orientation in the last year, while just over one in ten have seen an incident based on transgender identity. In total, 27% of people have witnessed a form of hate crime in the last year, and more than two thirds of those people said they regretted not challenging it.

The research focused on five characteristics that are often subject to hate crime – race or ethnicity, religion or beliefs, sexual orientation, disability, and transgender identity. It found that younger people were more likely to challenge hate crime, with 17% of 16-24 year-olds having intervened in hate incidents, compared to 13% of 25-34 year-olds, and just 7% of those aged 35-44. 

Read more via Gay Times
 

Saudi Arabia: ‘Married’ gay couples arrested in raid

Saudi security authorities have arrested four gay men in the capital Riyadh after they raided the flat where they were living as married couples. Acting on tips about the men living together after they held wedding parties attended by other homosexuals, members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the religious police, headed to the flat in Al Quds neighbourhood, Saudi news site Sabq reported on Tuesday, citing sources close to the Commission.

Homosexuality and cross-dressing are socially taboo and legal offences in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Reactions from social media users to the raids mostly touched on the need to mete out tough punishment to those found to be involved so that it would act as a strong deterrent. Some users even suggested that those who took part in the party be secluded for five years in remote areas.

Lawmakers have been pushing for a crackdown on homosexuality, including the adoption of tougher immigration measures against expatriate homosexuals, including their prompt deportation. Read more via Gulf News 

UK: Straight couple lose court bid to have civil partnership

Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan from London were told the Civil Partnership Act 2004 - the precursor to same-sex marriage being legalised in the UK - only applies to “two people of the same sex”. Earlier this month they argue to the High Court that everyone should be treated equally by the law, regardless of their sex or sexual orientation.

But Mrs Justice Andrews ruled that “just as the UK was under no obligation to extend marriage to same-sex couples, it has never been under an obligation to extend civil partnership to heterosexual couples”. Speaking after the ruling was announced, Steinfeld said a civil partnership “captures the essence of our relationship and values”.

“Civil partnerships are a modern social institution conferring almost identical legal rights and responsibilities as marriage, but without its history and social expectations,” she said. “We don’t think there is sufficient justification for stopping us or other opposite-sex couples from forming civil partnerships.” The couple, who campaigned for equal marriage laws, now must decide whether to take their case to the Court of Appeal, or the European Court of Human Rights.  Read more via Buzzfeed 

Australia: Politicians should not ignore public vote on marriage

Politicians should think very carefully before they “snub their nose” at the Australian people by refusing to implement their viewpoint on same-sex marriage, Liberal minister Steve Ciobo said today, after a conservative senator said he would not be bound by the result of a national plebiscite.

Following a marathon six-hour government party room meeting in Canberra last August, Tony Abbott announced it would be for “the people to decide” whether to repeal the 12-year-old law defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

However Eric Abetz, a former member of Tony Abbott’s cabinet, expressed his view that the plebiscite’s result should not necessarily sway MPs to vote in parliament one way or another. Mark Dreyfus, the opposition legal affairs spokesman, said Senator Abetz had made a “mockery” of the plebiscite and recommitted a Labor government to legislate same-sex marriage.

“This absurd notion makes a complete joke of our democratic process and renders a $160 million national plebiscite totally pointless,” Mr Dreyfus said. Read more via Guardian Australia 

Lithuania: Refusal to recognise same-sex marriage for residence permit

Lithuania has refused to issue a temporary residence permit to the husband of a Lithuanian man. The country’s Migration Department refused to issue the permit to the Belarusian man who married his husband in the Netherlands.

The men have the option to appeal the decision within 14 days at a regional court. The Migration Department consulted with the Interior Ministry before making the decision, said the Department’s interim head Evelina Gudžinskaitė.

“The Ministry of the Interior responded that same-sex marriages are not allowed in Lithuania and such a marriage is not recognised in Lithuania,” she said. Foreign nationals can apply for residence permits on the basis of family reunification in Lithuania. A marriage does not have to have taken place in Lithuania to be recognised, but this is the first time where a same-sex marriage has been considered by the Department. Read more via Pink News