UK: Young gay, bisexual men six times more likely to attempt suicide than older counterparts

Conducted by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and funded by Stonewall, the study found gay and bisexual men under the age of 26 were six times more likely to attempt suicide or self-harm compared to men in that group aged over 45. They were also twice as likely to be depressed or anxious. The researchers say the results reinforce the importance of mental health interventions reaching those who need them most, as well as people who actively seek help.

The study is the first to examine the mental health differences within gay and bisexual men in the UK. Using data from the Stonewall Gay and Bisexual Men's Health Survey, the researchers analysed responses of 5,799 gay and bisexual men aged 16 and over living in the UK. Depression, anxiety, attempted suicide and self-harm were examined against a range of life factors. Age, ethnicity, income and education were all found to have a large impact on mental health.

Black gay and bisexual men were twice as likely to be depressed and five times more likely to have attempted suicide than the white majority. Men in the lower wage bracket were more likely to be depressed, anxious, attempt suicide or self-harm. Those with lower levels of education were twice as likely to experience one of those issues compared to those with degree level education, only in part due to earning a lower wage. Read more via Science Daily 

Australia: LGBT youths are turning to Facebook to find a safe place to live

Increasingly, LGBT youth are turning to “Queer Housing” groups on Facebook to find housemates they trust will be accepting. The groups have cropped up across Australia’s biggest cities and beyond – Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Albury-Wodonga.

Admins say they fill a crucial gap between underfunded emergency service providers and generic house-hunting websites, where LGBT people might end up with people who seem friendly but don’t accept their sexuality or gender.

Adelaide woman Shaylee Leach started the Queer Housing Adelaide group after experiencing “secondary homelessness” – bouncing between friends without a stable roof over her head.  The higher rates of mental illness and unemployment experienced by LGBT people can make house hunting difficult.  Read more via Buzzfeed

South Africa: Student movement splinters as patriarchy muscles out diversity

It was a shocking series of images: a young woman - Thenjiwe Mswane - being violently handled by a group of young men. Mswane was part of a largely feminist and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexed, queer and asexual (LGBTIQA+) student group. They had gathered at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand to protest against the exclusion and marginalisation of groups and members of the #FeesMustFall movement from a recent campaign. She was attacked by other members of the #FeesMustFall movement after she'd confronted them with her group's concerns.

In 2015 South Africa's student movement was an impressive force. But cracks are appearing along party political, ideological and class lines. More recently the question of gender, and the equality of LGBTIQA+ individuals, have come to the fore.

A strident fringe at universities, with limited but vocal support off campuses, asserts that addressing the equality of women and the marginalisation of LGBTIQA+ people is a "distraction" from the unity of black struggle and that it must wait until after some mythical revolution. Others, also enjoying some support in wider society, insist that the equality of women and LGBTIQA+ people must be part of any genuinely radical action.  Read more via the Conversation

Albania: Supporting the 5th Tirana Gay (P)Ride

The most important LGBTI pride event in Albania marks this year its 5th anniversary and many courageous Albanians from Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia are sending their public support through photos of the hashtag ‪#Kurajo (meaning Courage).

Aleanca LGBT and ProLGBT, two main organizations for LGBTI rights in the country are posting each days these photos which in turn are becoming viral in social media.

“A photo might be nothing, for some people”, wrote in her Facebook Xheni Karaj, a lesbian activist, “but for us a photo means great hope that one day we will finally live a free life without prejudices, without forcing ourselves into double lives and without hiding the person we love! And courage is the thing not only us as LGBTI need, but also our allies”.  Read more and watch via Historia Ime

International Humanitarian Organization releases first-of-its-kind glossary of terminology for LGBT individuals

Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration (ORAM) has released a first-of-its-kind glossary of terminology to assist humanitarian professionals to communicate with people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. The 124-page glossary, “Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression: Essential Terminology for the Humanitarian Sector” contains the most appropriate and culturally sensitive terms for communicating with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in five languages.

In most of the world’s languages, terminology related to the lives of LGBT individuals is limited and often times pejorative. Only a small handful of languages contain substantial culturally appropriate lexicons. This phenomenon is largely a function of the cultures in which these languages developed; until very recently, sexual and gender diversity was taboo in virtually all of the world’s cultures. 

“The development of this ground-breaking glossary of LGBT terminology in five distinct languages is designed to benefit the work of humanitarian and refugee professionals around the globe,” continued Grungras. “By providing professionals with this helpful field guide, it will allow them to better address issues unique to LGBT people, encourage truthful self-disclosure and will hopefully create a greater awareness and understanding of the perspectives of those LGBT people with whom they interface with on a daily basis.”   Read more via MileHighGay

South Africa: Imaginative gay rights campaign launched

Scalabrini Centre, a migrant rights and resources organisation, officially launched its ‘Let’s Face It’ campaign in March as part of an effort to promote gay and lesbian rights and highlight emerging hate crimes legislation. They’ve cited the 20th anniversary of South Africa’s Constitution, the first to recognise gay rights, as a fitting time to take up the issue.

In a photo-campaign they call “Pop Up Pride,” starting on Human Rights Day, the Human Rights team at Scalabrini has been taking a rainbow cutout of Africa around various areas in Cape Town.

The board contains information about gay and lesbian rights and why it isn’t Un-African, an idea they say is commonly used to oppose the rights of people with different sexual orientations on the continent. Read more via GroundUp

Spain: 'Imagine Madrid without gays' metro advert sparks row

Madrid locals have been criticizing a poster in the city's metro which asks the public to imagine the city without gay people. The poster, which features shots of the empty streets of the Spanish capital, features the slogan: "Imagine Madrid without gays". 

Rather than the "imagine Madrid without gays" (wouldn’t it be great) as many people have inferred the poster is actually trying to say imagine how terrible Madrid would be without its gay population. The message appears to be a little too subtle, however, and the public have reacted strongly.

"I understand the main goal of the add is to attract attention but this has been done in such an ambiguous way that any homophobic person would feel good about it - 'Let the gays go far away this would be a calmer and nicer city without them," Rion Blake, who tweeted about the advert said.  Read more via the Local

Xulhaz Mannan: A friend, an ally, a fellow Rainbow conspirator

I had been trying to avoid it for hours last night but couldn’t escape it any longer, as it was all over social media. “Xulhaz Mannan, 35, the editor at Bangladesh’s first LGBT magazine Roopbaan, along with Tonoy Mojumdar, a fellow activist, was hacked to death.” Many news reports read like this and all I was left wondering was how to process that piece of information. I had come to believe that in this digital age, only things related to the internet could be hacked; not people. I went back to the countless Facebook conversations where I and Xulhaz had talked about our mutual struggles, discussing the intersections within our work while envisioning a trans-national South Asian Queer solidarity. 

Read more via Galaxy

Bangladesh: 'Anyone could become a target’: wave of Islamist killings

There is an eerie feeling out on the streets of Bangladesh. To some of the city’s academics, activists and gay community, Dhaka now feels more dangerous than a war zone, after a spate of machete attacks by Islamist groups, including the murder last week of the founder of Bangladesh’s first magazine for the gay community.

At least 16 people have died in such attacks in the past three years, among them six secular bloggers, two university professors, an Italian priest, two other foreigners working in the development sector, and a prominent gay activist.

“I am more worried now here than I ever was in Afghanistan, where the threats were more of an existential nature,” says a gay American who has spent time in the war-torn country and now lives in Bangladesh. He asked not to be named.

Among his friends to have died were Xulhaz Mannan, a prominent activist – founder of Roopbaan, the country’s only magazine for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community – and Mannan’s friend, Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy. Six to seven assailants pretending to be from a courier company forced their way into Mannan’s apartment and hacked the two men to death last week.

Homosexuality is illegal in Bangladesh and many members of the gay community were already living in fear of being identified. Now they also have to fear for their lives – and the murders have in effect outed many young people by forcing them to change their daily routine.  Read more via the Guardian