Category Archives: Sexual + Gender Minorities

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Kyrgyzstan Feature | LGBT

Kyrgyzstan’s Anti-LGBT Vigilantism

Caught in the orbit of Russia’s anti-LGBT political campaigns, Kyrgyzstan has seen increases in the persecution of its LGBT citizens as the former Soviet state’s realignment with Russia has led to the adoption of some of its most socially conservative policies. Much as in Russia, nationalism and anti-LGBT sentiment have gone hand in hand, with LGBT rights construed by reactionary nationalists as Western encroachment on Kyrgyz values and sovereignty. Amidst a floundering economy, anti-NGO and anti-LGBT bills have found significant support in Kyrgyzstan’s parliament, and though they have yet to be signed into law, police and citizens have used them as excuses to target the LGBT community and antagonize the few advocacy organizations that exist. Coda Story highlights Kyrgyzstan’s politicized homophobia and the stories of victims’ suffering under police extortion and indifference, sexual assault, and relentless threats.

Read:
“‘We’ll cut off your head’: open season for LGBT attacks in Kyrgyzstan” (Coda Story via The Guardian)

Additional reading:
“Kyrgyzstan’s NGO and LGBT Crackdown” (The Diplomat, March 2016)
“LGBT advocates from Kyrgyzstan visit D.C.” (Washington Blade, March 2016)
“Kyrgyz Group Wrecks Day Against Homophobia” (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, May 2015)
“Kyrgyzstan’s Anti-Gay Bill: Just Following in Russia’s Footsteps?” (EurasiaNet, October 2014)

Resources:
Labrys

(Image Credit: Andrew North/Coda Story, via The Guardian)

Ideology + Affiliation, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Jordan News | LGBT & Secular Artists

Jordan reverses ban on Lebanese band with gay frontman
  • Amman Governor Khaled Abu Zeid had announced the cancellation of Lebanese indie rock group Mashrou’ Leila’s concert in Amman, citing lyrics and belief that the band “violates the traditions and customs of the Jordanian society.”
  • Despite the band’s promotion of gender, sexual, and religious freedom, Mashrou’ Leila claimed to have had no problems performing in Jordan before, where they have given three concerts.
  • Although the travel ban was lifted, the reversal arrived too late for the band to play its scheduled concert, though they have indicated they look forward to playing in Jordan in the future.

Read more:
“Mashrou’ Leila: Jordan lifts ban on Lebanese band with gay singer” (BBC)
“Ban on Mashrou’ Leila concert triggers controversy” (The Jordan Times)
“Jordan lifts ban on popular Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila” (The Daily Star and AP)

Additional:
Mashrou’ Leila (official website)

(Image Credit: Hussein Malla/AP, via The Daily Star)

Ideology + Affiliation, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Bangladesh News | LGBT

LGBT magazine editor murdered in Dhaka home as killings continue in Bangladesh
  • Xulhaz Mannan and a visiting friend were hacked to death by a group of youth posing as couriers to gain access to Mannan’s home.
  • Mannan was the editor of Roopbaan, Bangladesh’s only LGBT magazine, and a USAid worker.
  • The murders are the latest in ongoing attacks against minority intellectuals and follow the detention of LGBT activists attempting to march in Bengali New Year festivities.

Read more:
“Editor of Bangladesh’s first and only LGBT magazine killed” (The Guardian)
“LGBT magazine Roopbaan editor hacked to death” (The Dhaka Tribune)
“LGBT activist among two hacked to death in Dhaka” (The Hindu)

(Image Credit: via The Guardian)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Russia Feature | LGBT

Homophobia in the Heartland

As international media attention to the plight of LGBT Russians has waned, advocates have found themselves stretched thin trying to support embattled community members while responding to declining visibility and police intimidation. From ongoing violence against transgender Russians to attacks on private clubs and homes, support organizations like Avers have struggled to create stopgaps for the deteriorating conditions plaguing the Russian LGBT community. A Coda Story report highlights the difficulties the community faces in attempts to organize and resist both ongoing state persecution and everyday threats that burden life in Russia’s hyper-conservative heartland.

Read more:
“Gay clubbing and stoic activism in Russia’s homophobic heartland” (Coda Story, via The Guardian)

Additional:
Russian LGBT Network

(Image Credit: Zuma/Rex Features, via The Guardian)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

China Feature | LGBT

The Silver Lining of Loss for China’s LGBT Community

The recent dismissal of China’s first case challenging the government’s ban on same-sex marriage would seem to be a disheartening moment for LGBT activism, but advocates point to evidence of a changing culture as reason for celebration. Hundreds traveled to Changsha for the ruling, and rights activists say young Chinese are becoming more cognizant of the need to push for legal recognition.

The encouraging developments continue: a 2014 court ruled against a gay conversion clinic, state media coverage of LGBT issues has increased, an anti-trans discrimination case recently became the first of its kind to be heard in Chinese legal history, and LGBT rights advocacy has grown in the country. Despite the legal loss for partnership rights, advocates have enjoyed the increased visibility of their movement for equal rights and hope to convert it into future legal victories and social acceptance.

Read more:
“China court refuses to allow gay marriage in landmark case” (The Guardian)
“Despite Court Ruling, China Gay Rights Movement Makes Gains” (The New York Times)
“Guizhou court hears China’s first-ever case on transgender discrimination at the workplace” (Shanghaiist)
“China rights: Gay people pledge not to enter into sham marriages” (BBC)

(Image Credit: Darwin Zhou/EPA, via The Guardian)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Bangladesh News | LGBT

Four LGBT activists detained in Dhaka after attempting to join new year festivities
  • The four members of Roopbaan, a Bangladeshi LGBT rights group, were arrested for attempting to join Bengali New Year processions under suspicion of illegal assembly.
  • The four were released after their families arrived to retrieve them, when police reportedly told their families they were gay.
  • Roopbaan had attempted to arrange a “rainbow rally” weeks earlier but police had denied permission after fundamentalists issued threats of violence.

Read more:
“Bangladesh: Police Detain LGBT Members at Pahela Boishakh Rally” (BenarNews)
“Boishakh ‘rainbow rally’ cancelled” (Dhaka Tribune)
“Four gay activists freed in Bangladesh” (Firstpost)

(Image Credit: AFP via BenarNews)

Health + Ability, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Ireland News | LGBT & HIV

HIV testing in Ireland expands into gay bars
  • The Panti Bar, run by LGBT and poz activist Panti Bliss (drag persona of Rory O’Neill), is set to begin offering 30-second HIV tests to patrons.
  • HIV infection rates rose 160% in Ireland between 2005 and 2015, including a record high of 182 new cases in 2014.
  • With trained counselors on site and the ability to register positive individuals with Ireland’s treatment and counseling program, the Panti Bar will be the first expansion of HIV testing out of clinical settings in Ireland, with similar programs to follow in Cork, Limerick, and other parts of Dublin.

Read more:
“Dublin drag queen turns pub into HIV-Aids testing centre” (The Guardian)
“Rory O’Neill on living with HIV: ‘Most gay guys don’t understand how far things have changed and how different it is’” (Independent.ie)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Colombia News | LGBT

Colombia’s Constitutional Court opens door to marriage equality in 6-3 ruling
  • The Court voted against a proposal to establish marriage as between “one man and one woman” and declared that public employees could not refuse to perform same-sex weddings.
  • Colombian couples won their first partnership rights in 2007 and, in 2015, adoption without full marriage rights, which the Court had ordered the legislature to enact by 2013 in a 2011 ruling.
  • Colombia will join Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and parts of Mexico in permitting marriage for same-sex couples in Latin America.

Read more:
“Colombia’s highest court paves way for marriage equality in surprise ruling” (The Guardian)
“El matrimonio igualitario gana espacio en América Latina” (teleSUR, in Spanish)
“Una década de lucha de los LGBT por la igualdad” (El Espectador, in Spanish)

(Image Credit: John Vizcaino/Reuters, via The Guardian)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

U.S. News | LGBT

Mississippi governor signs sweeping anti-LGBT bill into law
  • House Bill 1523 allows for businesses and government workers to set religiously based workplace policies and refuse service to LGBT and unmarried cohabitating individuals on religious grounds, including public accommodations, adoption, foster care, counseling, and marriage certificate registration.
  • Governor Phil Bryant claimed the law didn’t conflict with federal laws but merely provided protection for persons who for religious reasons wished to refuse service to LGBT customers and clients.
  • The bill declares the government cannot discriminate against such “persons,” which includes a “sole proprietorship, or closely held company, partnership, association, organization, firm, corporation, cooperative, trust, society or other closely held entity.”

Read more:
“Mississippi Governor Signs Sweeping Anti-LGBT Bill Into Law” (BuzzFeed News)
“LGBT couples can be refused service under new Mississippi law” (The Guardian)
“Religion law adopted in Mississippi over gay rights protest” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Rogelio V. Solis/AP, via BuzzFeed News)

Gender, Sexual + Gender Minorities

U.K. News | LGB

Scotland becomes first country to have out sexual minorities comprise majority of political party leaders
  • Kezia Dugdale, leader of the Scottish Labour party, came out quietly in an interview with the Fabian Review, mentioning her relationship with another woman.
  • Dugdale joins the leaders of the Scottish Conservative, Scottish Green, and UKIP Scotland parties as an out politician.
  • At 34, Dugdale is also the youngest leader of the Labour party and discussed how her relative youth has affected perceptions of her leadership capabilities.

Read more:
“The long road: interview with Kezia Dugdale” (Fabian Review)
“The Scottish Labour Leader Just Came Out And No One Batted An Eyelid” (BuzzFeed News)
“Kezia Dugdale: Scottish Labour leader announces she is in a same-sex relationship” (The Independent)

(Image Credit: Mark Runnacles/Getty Images, via BuzzFeed News)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

U.S. News | LGBT

U.S. federal judge rules Mississippi ban on same-sex adoption unconstitutional
  • Judge Daniel P. Jordan III found that the law interfered with gay and lesbian citizens’ equal protection under the law in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision overturning same-sex marriage bans.
  • Judge Jordan argued that Mississippi’s Department of Human Services couldn’t interfere with the “rights and responsibilities intertwined with marriage.”
  • The ruling came as the Mississippi Senate passed an extensive religious freedom bill, sending one of the most expansive anti-LGBT bills introduced after the establishment of the nationwide right to marry to the governor’s desk.

Read more:
“Mississippi Same-Sex Adoption Ban Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Rules” (BuzzFeed News)
“Federal judge overturns Mississippi’s adoption ban on same-sex couples” (The Guardian)
“Mississippi Senate Passes Sweeping Anti-LGBT Religious Freedom Bill” (BuzzFeed News)

(Image Credit: Dominic Lipinski/PA, via The Guardian)

Health + Ability, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Mozambique Feature | LGBT & HIV

LGBT Mozambicans’ Struggle for Healthcare Visibility and Protection

Despite the decriminalization of homosexuality in Mozambique in June 2015, LGBT Mozambicans, particularly those living with HIV, are still struggling for health security in the nation. While international organizations have stepped in to provide support, domestic clinics continue to discriminate while attempting to contain the country’s HIV infection rates, one of the highest in the world. Advocacy groups have begun working to create guidelines for the testing and treatment of the LGBT population as the continued exclusion of the highest-risk population has exacerbated the public health crisis.

Read more:
“Mozambique’s enduring discrimination leaves gay men untreated for HIV” (The Guardian)

Additional:
Lambda (Mozambique LGBT advocacy group)
“Dispatches: Mozambique’s Double Speak on LGBT Rights” (Human Rights Watch, January 2016)
“Mozambique decriminalises gay and lesbian relationships” (BBC, July 2015)

(Image Credit: LambdaMoz, via The Guardian)

Ideology + Affiliation, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Saudi Arabia News | LGBT & Mistaken Identity

Saudi man arrested in Jeddah for flying rainbow flag
  • The doctor was arrested by the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Saudi Arabia’s religious police, for displaying the international symbol of LGBT pride.
  • The man claimed to be unfamiliar with the meaning, having purchased the flag online because his children enjoyed it, and was later released on bail after an investigation and the removal of the flag.
  • His arrest comes as Saudi authorities have announced that “soliciting homosexual acts” via social media will be punishable by death.

Read more:
“Saudi man arrested for flying Pride flag above home” (Middle East Eye)
“Saudi man arrested for flying ‘pretty’ rainbow flag, had no idea it represented gay pride” (Al Bawaba)
(CNN Arabic) طبيب يرفع علم “المثليين” على منزله بجدة.. والقتل تعزيراً قد تصبح عقوبة الشواذ المجاهرين إلكترونياً

(Image Credit: via Al Bawaba)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Myanmar Feature | LGBT

Burmese, LGBT, and at the Threshold of a New Era

With a non-military political party now leading Myanmar for the first time in decades, Burmese citizens are looking forward to democratic reforms to make the political process more inclusive of its diverse population. Historically, LGBT security in Myanmar has been minimal to nonexistent: colonial-era anti-homosexuality laws are still on the books and arbitrarily exercised, police extortion is rampant, trans individuals are targeted for violence and fetishization, and widespread conservative attitudes promote anti-LGBT discrimination. But now that newly empowered politicians have made promising (if vague) expressions of support for diversity and burgeoning advocacy groups have begun generating visibility and awareness, the LGBT Burmese community has expressed hope that the first signs of a more secure future have appeared.

Read more:
“Snapshot: LGBTI rights in Myanmar” (The Star Observer)
“The brutal reality transgender women face under Myanmar’s ‘darkness law’” (Mashable)
“Gay People In Myanmar Can’t Live Openly. Here’s Why” (The World Post)
“Myanmar’s transgender people not just chasing rainbows in fight for equality” (The Guardian)
“LGBT group to battle homophobia in Myanmar with information” (mizzima.com via Gay Asia News)
“Myanmar LGBT film festival raises visibility, challenges taboos” (Washington Blade)

(Image Credit: Joshua Carroll/Mashable)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

U.S. News | LGBT

Georgia governor announces veto of anti-LGBT bill
  • Republican Georgia governor Nathan Deal announced he would veto House Bill 757, a bill introduced to protect faith-based organizations from anti-discrimination lawsuits.
  • Governor Deal’s announcement came in the wake of boycott threats from businesses and prominent entertainers as well as national backlash over the passage of a more extensive anti-LGBT bill in neighboring North Carolina.
  • Some Georgia senators have announced their intention to attempt an override, although successful veto overrides are rare in Georgia’s history.

Read more:
Transcript: Governor’s remarks on HB757 (Georgia Office of the Governor)
“Georgia Governor Rejects Bill Shielding Critics of Gay Marriage” (The New York Times)
“Georgia Governor blocks anti-gay law after boycott threats” (PinkNews)
“Senators calls for override of Deal veto of religious liberty bill” (The Atlanta Journal Constitution)

(Image Credit: David Goldman/Associated Press, via The New York Times)