Category Archives: Sexual + Gender Minorities

Sexual + Gender Minorities
Twenty arrested in Morocco, accused of homosexuality, and two more sentenced to four months in prison
  • According to the Aswat Collective, an LGBT rights group, the twenty–mostly gay men and transwomen–were arrested in the resort town of Agadir and will be charged with “incitement to corruption.”
  • Despite its relatively progressive stance on homosexuality compared to its other Middle East and North African neighbors, Morocco has been cracking down on the LGBT community in recent months.
  • The arrests occur as two men have been sentenced to four months in prison for having engaged in public displays of affection in Rabat, the Moroccan capital. (via Le Figaro)

“The Moroccan authorities reaffirm their position through this campaign of oppression and arrests targeting homosexuals, while the country is having an intense debate relative to the decriminalization of homosexuality.”

More on this story at NewNowNext.

(Image Credit: via NewNowNext)

Sexual + Gender Minorities
World’s smallest country legalizes same-sex marriage
  • The Pitcairn Islands, a British overseas territory, has opened up marriage rights to all of its 56 residents, regardless of sex-pairing.
  • The Pitcairns were colonized at the end of the 18th century by British naval mutineers and the Tahitians who accompanied them.
  • With all residents adherents to Seventh-Day Adventism, Pitcairn Islanders built a strictly conservative society that has only recently begun to loosen.

Read the full story at NewNowNext.

(Image Credit: via NewNowNext)

Sexual + Gender Minorities
Taipei becomes second Taiwanese city to recognize same-sex partnerships
  • The registration is the gateway for partners to represent each other in hospital, court, and police institutions in the Taiwanese capital.
  • Couples still lack inheritance rights and identification via household registration and ID cards.
  • Kaohsiung became the first city in Taiwan to recognize same-sex partnerships in May.

More on this story at Gay Star News.

(Image Credit: Facebook photo, via Gay Star News)

Sexual + Gender Minorities
South Korean court rules LGBT march can proceed as planned following the police’s injunction against the event
  • Police had earlier denied the necessary permits to the Korean Queer Cultural Festival as a result of permit applications filed by conservative Christian activists to block the event.
  • Last year’s march saw conservative activists disrupting the parade through route blockage and protesting.
  • Organizers expect around 20,000 to participate in the march.

“This court’s decision in relation to the police’s unjust notice prohibiting assembly is important. … Within a democratic country, built on civil society, the guarantee that society can use their voice has a deep meaning.”

More on this story at BuzzFeed.

(Image Credit: Simon Williams-Im via Flickr, via BuzzFeed)

Sexual + Gender Minorities
Transgender Egyptians face a difficult life in a society with few rights for its LGBT members
  • While homosexuality is universally condemned in Egypt, the transgender community has seen a glimmer of recognition through the government’s uneven acceptance of gender reassignment surgery for those diagnosed with “gender identity disorder” and approved by imams.
  • Even with that possibility, transgender individuals are subject to arrest, police and community violence, and employment exclusion, driving many into sex work to make a living.
  • Since the military coup in 2013, the trans community has faced deteriorating security as the government has enforced conservative, gender-rigid Islamic values in the citizenry.

“When I was five I knew I was different. … By 15, I was depressed. I thought I was a deviant according to Islam, that I was someone unacceptable to society.”

More on this story at GlobalPost.

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Sexual + Gender Minorities
Organizers say this year’s Pink Dot SG, Singapore’s major annual LGBT event, was largest ever
  • Around 28,000 participated in Saturday’s seventh-annual event at Hong Lim Park.
  • The organizers hope that the growing numbers indicate growing acceptance in conservative Singapore and hope to expand into a larger venue in the near future.
  • Since its founding in 2009, Pink Dot has expanded to other major East Asian cities, including Taipei, Hong Kong, and Okinawa.

More on this story at Channel NewsAsia.

(Image Credit: Photo: Goh Chiew Tong, via Channel NewsAsia)

Sexual + Gender Minorities
Colombia adds itself to the list of countries eliminating medical examination requirements for legal gender identity recognition
  • The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior effected the change last Friday, removing the physical and psychiatric
  • Individuals now only need to submit their civil registry form, a copy of their ID card, and a sworn declaration to a notary public to register their identity, after which point the notary will have five days to complete the registration.
  • Subsequent changes to gender identity can only be made after a decade and can only be made twice in one’s lifetime.

“Judges used to order bodily inspections to determine if people had physically changed their sex, or demanded a psychiatric exam to know if the applicant had gender dysphoria. … Both exams were profoundly invasive of privacy rights and were rooted in unacceptable prejudice. The construction of sexual and gender identity is an issue that doesn’t depend on biology.”

More on this story at Americas Quarterly.

Sexual + Gender Minorities
Slovak LGBTI activists postpone Pride and turn to new initiatives to promote visibility and equality
  • Citing the hostile environment that has emerged following conservatives’ failure to generate sufficient turnout in the February referendum on same-sex marriage, adoption, and education rights, organizers have canceled this year’s Rainbow Pride in Bratislava.
  • In lieu of the event, nearly 40 NGOs are supporting the establishment of a platform sharing the stories of same-sex and unmarried heterosexual couples and children born outside of marriage.
  • The initiative comes as rights groups have become frustrated with the government’s lack of commitment to a timeline for the establishment of legal protections for same-sex couples.

“Slovakia needs to hear the life stories of LGBTI people, their parents, children, friends and colleagues. … Thus, we are going to collect your stories, in collaboration with the Life Partnership platform, which we will then be able to bring to all people in Slovakia.”

More on this story at The Slovak Spectator.

(Image Credit: The Slovak Spectator)

Nationality + Migration, Sexual + Gender Minorities
Uneven law enforcement in Japan regarding same-sex union recognition for immigrants and Japanese nationals causes concern for some
  • Although same-sex unions are not legally recognized in Japan, some immigrant couples have reported both partners being able to enter the country, with one listed as the dependent of the other, opening up a host of benefits.
  • Legal professionals have clarified that while a “designated activities” dependent visa is an option for a same-sex spouse, spousal visas are not currently an option for same-sex couples.
  • Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward announced in March that it would begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but these are not federally recognized and businesses are not required to recognize them.

“We have been together over 15 years and became civil partners in 2012. We are considering changing this to a marriage, an option that only became possible in December 2014. I have heard of same-sex couples applying for a visa to stay in Japan with both being non-Japanese and getting visas to support this application, but they are being quiet about it for political reasons, it seems. But if it is the case of Japanese and non-Japanese, (the government) won’t do this.”

More on this story at The Japan Times.

(Image Credit: Mustapha Mokrane, via The Japan Times)

Sexual + Gender Minorities
Arkansas judge rules marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples must be recognized by state administration after suit filed by couples denied recognition
  • The Department of Finance and Administration (under Director Larry Walther) had refused to recognize two gay couples’ marriage in tax and medical insurance processing, prompting the suit.
  • The State defense relied on a belief that Judge Chris Piazza did not have the authority to apply the clarifying order he released on May 15, 2014, opening up marriage licenses to same-sex couples retroactively to his original ruling on May 9.
  • The state ended its issuance of licenses to same-sex couples once Pizza’s ruling was appealed on May 16 and is now waiting on the pending Supreme Court decision.

“With shameless disrespect for fundamental fairness and equality, Director Walther insists on treating the marriages of same-sex couples who received marriage licenses … as ‘void from inception as a matter of law.’”

More on this story at Arkansas Online.

(Image Credit: Arkansas Online)

Sexual + Gender Minorities
Mexico’s Supreme Court paves way for nationwide marriage equality, though battles remain
  • Being the fifth of its kind from the Court, the ruling last Wednesday on a case from the state of Colima has crossed the threshold necessary for it to be considered “generic jurisprudence,” or binding on all national judges.
  • While most of Mexico’s 31 states have seen rulings in favor of same-sex marriage, they have typically been applied only to the plaintiff couples.
  • However, the ruling only applies to judges, so were registrars to refuse to issue a marriage license to same-sex couples, the couples would have to sue in order to gain the license and federal judges would have to rule five times in order to nullify local marriage code fully.

“The law of whatever federal entity that, on the one hand, considers the goal of marriage is procreation and/or defines marriage as celebrating the union of a man and a woman is unconstitutional.”

More on this story at BuzzFeed.

(Image Credit: Justine Zwiebel for BuzzFeed News with research assistance from Rex Wockner)

Religion + Belief, Sexual + Gender Minorities
Gay Christian activist prompts some evangelical leaders to reexamine their anti-gay stances
  • As churches struggle to contend with rapidly growing acceptance of LGBT individuals, Matthew Vines approaches religious leaders on a theological level about the durability of their opposition.
  • Vines has spoken with prominent organizations like Focus on the Family and at the high-profile evangelical conference Q Conference about the spiritual damage done by absolutist stances on homosexuality.
  • His strategy is to provide context for biblical assertions and identify potential allies within the church setting.

“God intended marriage to be about more than ‘plumbing,’…Marriage ideally should be about permanent, mutual, self-giving, self-sacrificing love.”

More on this story at The New York Times.

(Image Credit: Monica Almeida/The New York Times)

Sexual + Gender Minorities
Ireland’s gender identity bill moves away from medical to self-declarative model for legal recognition for transpeople.
  • The change in the bill applies to those over the age of 18 seeking to legally change their gender.
  • The bill also removes a “forced divorce” clause dissolving a marriage if one of the partners transitions.
  • In allowing for self-declaration, the bill hopes to separate civil registration and medical treatment considerations for trans individuals.

“Throughout the drafting of this Bill, I have listened carefully to the views of individual citizens, representative groups and public representatives. It is essential that this important legislation is in line with international best practice.”

More on this story at PinkNews.

Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief, Sexual + Gender Minorities
Turkey’s parliamentary elections sees AKP lose majority, pro-minority Kurdish HDP win representation for the first time, and numerous victories for minority candidates.
  • While the AKP won the largest parliamentary share with 41%, HDP crossed the threshold of representation with around 13% of the vote, winning 80 seats in the parliament.
  • While the HDP has largely been defined by the Kurds it represents, it also opened up to all those marginalized by the party in power, including women, religious minorities, LGBT citizens, and other ethnic minorities.
  • The new parliament will see a record 96 women and its first Yazidi and Roma MPs, and the HDP also put forth the first openly gay candidate for office.
  • The momentum for the HDP grew out of 2013’s Gezi Park demonstrations, where protesters rallied against the government’s perceived encroachment on the country’s secularism.

“Turks and Kurds are well ahead of the political leaders of the country, and they have a lot of expectations of the democratic process that they have well bought into…This is a very impressive outcome. It shows that Turkey is going through an important political maturing process, and that an increasing number of people are interested in a pluralistic society.”

More on this story at The Guardian.

(Image Credit: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Sexual + Gender Minorities
Clashes erupt between marchers and ultra-right nationalists at Pride march in Kiev.
  • Nine (including five police officers) were injured among the 300 marching in the parade.
  • The march was only the second of its kind in Ukraine’s post-Soviet era.
  • President Petro Poroshenko had stated earlier that while he would not be attending, the marchers were constitutionally guaranteed the right to march and should not be disrupted.

More on this story at VICE.

(Image Credit: Roman Pilipey/EPA, via VICE)