Big corporations have come out to criticize state religious liberty measures in Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina as discriminating against those who aren’t heterosexual, some going as far as to propose boycotting states that enact such laws.
US: Students denied access to LGBT resource websites
The Sioux Falls School District’s internet filter carries an anti-LGBT bias, students say. Students are barred from accessing LGBT resource sites such as “It Gets Better” and “GLADD” on district devices according to Roosevelt High School senior and former city council candidate Briggs Warren.
Students who try to reach these sites are met with a large exclamation point under bold red letters reading, “access denied.” At the same time, conservative sites such as the Family Resource Council and Focus on the Family are accessible, meaning that students are able to reach sites projecting negative views of homosexuality but not those with positive views.
LGBT youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers, according to The Trevor Project, a suicide hotline specific to gay and questioning youth. This makes the blocked sites all the more troubling, according to ACLU executive director Heather Smith.
“Schools that block these resources, intentionally or otherwise, are sending a message that being gay, bisexual or transgender is wrong or shameful,” Smith said in a statement. Read more via USA Today
Israel: Court convicts Gay Pride Parade stabber Yishai Schlissel of murder
A participant in Jerusalem’s pride parade, was convicted on Tuesday of murder, six counts of attempted murder and one count of causing extreme bodily harm.
The Jerusalem District Court’s three-judge panel of Nava Ben-Or, Refael Yacobi and Arnon Darel, wrote that Yishai Schlissel, “in a dark and cruel act, has extinguished the light of her [Shira Banki’s] life,” ending “her dreams and hopes.”
The stabbings garnered across-the-board condemnations, including from Orthodox figures, and drew international attention due to the ferocity of the attack.
Schlissel, who was previously imprisoned for 10 years for stabbing three people at the 2005 Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade, was arrested during the stabbing rampage, just weeks after being released from jail. Read more via The Jerusalem Post
Commonwealth: Toolkit for progress toward LGBT rights in 53 countries
The Commonwealth of 53 nations, formerly the British Commonwealth, can play a positive role in improving the lives of LGBT citizens even though dozens of those countries still have anti-LGBT laws inherited from their former colonial overlords.
So say the LGBT rights advocates at London-based Kaleidoscope Trust, which this week published a “toolkit” of recommendations for pushing ahead toward widespread recognition of the human rights of LGBT people, even in largely homophobic societies.
The toolkit, published in cooperation with the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Commonwealth Equality Network, gives examples of recent progress.
“We have got to move beyond a finger-wagging approach and use the Commonwealth to offer practical support to governments wanting to make positive change to support LGBT citizens,” stated Michael Lake CBE, director of the Royal Commonwealth Society. Read more via 76Crimes
Colombia: Historical decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights published a landmark decision ruling that the Colombian State is accountable for denying Ángel Alberto Duque, a HIV positive gay man, the enjoyment of his right to equality and nondiscrimination when he was denied the pension of his long time partner.
This is the first time that the IACHR rules on issues related to same-sex couples and the second, after Atala Riffo and daughters vs. Chile, on LGBTI rights. The potential impact of this decision on regional jurisprudence and on the international human rights system is enormous.
In 2002, the private pension fund –Colfondos- denied to Mr. Duque the pension of his deceased partner of 10 years, Jhon Óscar Jiménez. A judge ratified the decision arguing that the petitioner was in a same-sex relationship and that the “family had to be protected.”
The Court orders the Colombian State to start paying the pension within three months and retroactively for 13 years plus a US10000 dollar for immaterial injuries. Read more via El Espectador
India: Why terms like ‘transgender’ don’t work for #India’s ‘third-gender’ communities
Indian society, if we can momentarily suppose such a monolithic entity, is far older than the post-Victorian, normative society that defines the modern cultures of the West. People we might consider transgender have existed across societies for as long as they themselves have existed, but in South Asia they have formed distinct communities with histories and mythologies that go back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Age-old texts such as the "Mahabharata" and the "Kama Sutra" refer to eunuchs, and there are tales of gods — even the most powerful of them — who change genders on a whim.
That is partly why the term "transgender" is seldom used in the Indian context. In Indian legalese, the term most commonly employed is "third gender" — as when, two Aprils ago, India's "third gender" was acknowledged by the country's Supreme Court, which stated that "it is the right of every human being to choose their gender." Those wishing to can now indicate that status on government-issued identification and other formal documents, but, more importantly, Indian states were directed to afford special considerations through affirmative action and welfare programs.
In everyday usage, however, terms such as "hijra," "kothi," "kinnar," "shiv-shakti" and "aravani" are more common, depending on which region of the country one is in. Read more via Washington Post
UK: Prison chaplains ‘routinely hand out anti-gay leaflets’ to inmates
A review has found that government-appointed prison chaplains have routinely distributed homophobic literature to prisoners. The review was ordered last year by Secretary of State for Justice Michael Gove over concerns surrounding Muslim chaplains in UK prisons.
The Times newspaper reports that “it uncovered misogynistic and homophobic leaflets, hate tracts encouraging the murder of apostates and ultra-conservative Islamic literature preaching contempt for basic British values”.
It also found that the literature made available to inmates went through little or no scrutiny for suitability, meaning that potentially extremist material was able to be included. Read more via Pink News
Uganda: Anti-LGBT persecution increased law
A new report from the Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) indicates persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity increased after the country’s president signed an anti-gay law in 2014.
The report documents 264 “verified cases of human rights abuses against LGBTI Ugandans” between May 2014 and Dec. 31, 2015. Forty-eight of the 264 cases of anti-LGBT persecution involved violence, which included “torture by the state.”
President Yoweri Museveni in February 2014 signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act under which those convicted of repeated same-sex sexual acts faced life in prison.
“When the president signed the law the citizens felt they were more empowered and they had a right to actually take action against the LGBTI people,” SMUG Research and Documentation Officer Richard Lusimbo said. Read more via Washington Blade
US: After North Carolina’s law, trans suicide hotline calls double
Anti-transgender bathroom laws like North Carolina’s HB2 are not just inconvenient for transgender people. They may also be life-threatening.
Greta Gustava Martela, co-founder of Trans Lifeline, a crisis hotline for transgender people, said that their call volume has “nearly doubled” since North Carolina restricted the use of public bathrooms based on birth certificate gender markers.
The spike in calls to the Trans Lifeline is sadly unsurprising. Dr. Seelman cautions that we cannot yet “interpret causality” from the data but believes that it should still act as a warning to lawmakers who seek to restrict bathroom use for transgender people.
“We know that stigma and lifetime discrimination influence suicide rates, whether we’re talking about transgender people or another marginalized group,” she told The Daily Beast. “Policies like HB 2 are not solving a problem—they are actually making things worse.” Read more via The Daily Beast
US: President Obama says anti-LGBT laws ‘Should be overturned’
The laws are "wrong," Obama said
President Obama said laws that have been passed in North Carolina and Mississippi targeting the LGBT community are “wrong and should be overturned” in a Friday joint press conference with the British Prime Minister David Cameron in London.
The president said U.K. travelers would be welcome in both states despite the laws, an assurance that follows a travel advisory from the U.K. Foreign Minister’s office issued in response to the two measures. “You should come and enjoy yourself,” President Obama said. “I think you would be treated with extraordinary hospitality.”
But he added, “I also think that the laws that have been passed there are wrong and should be overturned.” Read more via Time
Canada: Intersex filmmaker on growing up not knowing what you are
When Alec Butler was born in 1959 it was assumed Alec was female. But after being brought up as a girl, Alec - now an award-winning writer and film-maker - realised they were intersex, someone whose anatomical, hormonal or genetic sex is neither completely male nor female.
I was about 12 when it really hit. I started to grow a beard and I had a period. So it was really confusing for me. My parents were a little freaked out.
They took me to some doctors, but no-one knew about being intersex in the small town where I grew up in Canada. One doctor said, "We're going to have to put her in a mental institution until she learns how to dress like a girl and put on makeup." This was at the age of 12, when even most genetic girls aren't being forced to do that. Luckily my parents were outraged and they said, "We're not going to do that. We're just going to love you, and you can choose how you want to be." That was a gift. Lots of intersex kids don't have that. Read more
Norway: Bishop says to avoid same-sex marriage, no more civil weddings
A Norwegian bishop said the country's clergy will no longer officiate at civil weddings, after the predominant Lutheran Church's governing synod voted to conduct gay marriages in Norway.
Bishop Bernt Eidsvig of Oslo told Catholic News Service that he would have to seek permission from the Vatican, but added, "It's clear we must distinguish our own church marriages from others."
"This is a matter of liturgy, so it doesn't necessarily reflect roader change in our society's moral values. But politicians may now get aggressive toward churches who resist these weddings, so the best option is for us to stop conducting marriages on the state's behalf." Read more via Boston Pilot