Category Archives: Sexual + Gender Minorities

Gender, Sexual + Gender Minorities

France News | Gay Men

France opens blood donation to gay men with qualifications
  • Fulfilling a campaign promise of President François Hollande, the French health ministry announced it will relax the 1983 law banning gay men from donating blood.
  • Men who have abstained from sex with other men for at least 12 months will be allowed to donate blood, while men who have not had sex with men or have had sex in the context of a monogamous relationship for four months can donate plasma.
  • Rights groups cautiously praised the development, acknowledging the continued profiling of gay men through the ongoing restrictions, which will be reviewed in 2017.

Read more:
“Ouverture progressive du don de sang aux homosexuels à partir de 2016” (Le Monde)
“France to lift ban on gay men giving blood” (AFP via Yahoo! News)
“France to Lift Ban on Gay Men Donating Blood” (The New York Times)

(Image Credit: Noah Seelam/AFP)

Gender, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Argentina News | Transgender Women

Argentinian president calls for investigation after murder of trans activist
  • Trans rights activist Diana Sacayán was found dead in her apartment, the victim of a fatal stabbing that police believe may have been perpetrated by an acquaintance of Sacayán.
  • Sacayán had led both the International Association of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals (ILGA) and the Anti-Discrimination Liberation Movement (MAL) in Argentina, and had been personally issued her new national identity card with her correct gender identity by President Cristina Kirchner.
  • With Sacayán’s death the third for transwomen in a month, President Kirchner called for local police and national security forces to investigate as a part of a broader push to tackle the high rates of gender-based violence in the country.

Read more:
“Matan en Flores a una dirigente trans de una puñalada” (La Nación, in Spanish)
“Hallan muerta a la activista trans Diana Sacayán en Argentina” (teleSUR, in Spanish)
“Argentine President Demands Inquiry into Trans Activist’s Death” (teleSUR English)

(Image Credit: La Izquierda Diario, via teleSUR)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

France News | Intersex

French court rules in favor of establishing third gender option for intersex individual
  • A French court has for the first time allowed for the establishment of a third gender option for an individual’s legal status, ruling in favor of a 64-year-old intersex individual to change their status from male to “neutral gender.”
  • The judge ruled that the gender assigned to the individual at birth was “pure fiction” and that the creation of a third option was not the recognition of a third gender, but of the impossibility of ascribing binary gender to individuals who present with both male and female sexual characteristics.
  • A 2011 legal memorandum outlined administrative guidelines for intersex newborns, allowing for a one- to two-year deferral of gender assignment on a newborn’s birth certificate if the child presents as intersex, while Europe’s main human rights authority recently spoke out against surgical gender assignment for intersex newborns.

Read more:
“Une personne de «sexe neutre» reconnue par l’état civil” (20 minutes, in French)
“Le sexe « neutre » reconnu pour la première fois en France” (Le Monde, in French)
“French court recognises third gender for first time” (France24)

(Image Credit: Luca Sartoni, via Le Monde)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

UK Feature | LGBT British Asian

At the Intersection: Queer & British Asian

The UK has made major strides in LGBT political rights in recent years, but the social acceptance of gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals has struggled to keep up. DESIblitz takes to the streets to survey British Asian perspectives on their community’s evolution regarding LGBT rights. Tackling religion, education, and the factors at work in the cultural politics of immigration and integration, interviewees present the complexity of acceptance and homophobia in British Asian families.

Read more:
“Is being Gay acceptable in British Asian society?” (DESIblitz)

(Image Credit: via DESIblitz)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Southeast Asia Feature | LGBT

LGBT in Southeast Asia

The Huffington Post has launched a series exploring the state of LGBT life in Southeast Asia, a region whose climate ranges from the liberal gender norms of Thailand to the Sharia-driven sexual persecution of Brunei. Some activists argue that countries like Singapore’s success in an exclusive focus on economic development to the detriment of human rights has provided an alternative model to the Western liberal-democratic tradition for countries like China and Russia. Writers explore endemic violence, the effects of limited civil society on advocacy, and some nations’ burgeoning acceptance and recognition of the need for political protection.

Read more:
“Being LGBT In Southeast Asia: Stories Of Abuse, Survival And Tremendous Courage” (The Huffington Post)

(Image Credit: Associated Press, via The Huffington Post)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Malaysia News | Transgender

Challenge to ban on cross-dressing dismissed by Malaysian high court on technicality
  • Malaysia’s Federal Court rejected the challenge to the state of Negeri Semblian’s ban on cross-dressing, overturning a lower-court decision striking down the ban.
  • The case brought by three transgender individuals was dismissed by the court on a technicality, saying the case should have first been taken up by the Federal Court.
  • The rejection comes as Islamic conservatism increases in the Malay-majority country, with Shariah law a difficult hurdle for gender and sexual minorities to clear.

Read more:
“Court of Appeal wrong to declare religious law unconstitutional, rules Federal Court” (The Malaysian Insider)
“Transgender case: Federal Court overturns Court of Appeal’s decision” (Astro Awani)
“Malaysia court upholds ban on cross dressing by transgender Muslims” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Olivia Harris/Reuters)

Gender, Nationality + Migration, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Global News | LGBT Ugandan Women

Ugandan LGBTI rights activist wins “Alternative Nobel Prize”
  • Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, a Ugandan lesbian, won the International Right Livelihood Award, known informally as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.”
  • Nabagesera has won recognition for challenging anti-gay activity through legal challenge, including suing a tabloid that had published the names of suspected LGBT individuals as well as the Minister of Ethics for violations of LGBT advocates’ freedom of assembly.
  • She is also the founder and executive director of LGBT rights charity Freedom & Roam Uganda.

Read more:
“Ugandan gay rights activist wins Right Livelihood Award” (Deutsche Welle)
“Ugandan gay rights activist wins ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’” (PinkNews)
Right Livelihood Laureate: Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera

Religion + Belief, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Kenya News | LGBT Christians

Open-Door Ministry

While Kenya has been under fire for its unwelcoming and at times dangerous attitudes towards its LGBT citizens, pockets of haven and inclusion have sprung up, particularly in Kenya’s urban centers. In a brief feature, Voices of America highlights a minister and lesbian Christian in Nairobi who are bucking resistance in providing and occupying spaces of union between the church and the LGBT community.

Read more:
“Kenyan Church Welcomes LGBT Members” (Voices of America)

(Image Credit: R. Ombuor/VOA)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Argentina News | LGBT

Argentina lifts ban on blood donations from LGBT individuals
  • After more than a decade of petitioning, LGBT advocates saw another major rights victory in the country as the Ministry of National Health ended its ban on LGBT blood donation.
  • The change specifically targets the pre-donation medical history questionnaire that singled out LGBT individuals for discrimination through questions about gender identity and sexual history.
  • Health officials hope the development will assist in promoting awareness of voluntary donation in an effort to increase its pool of blood donors.

“El cambio de paradigma de grupos de riesgo por el de prácticas de riesgo vuelve a posicionar a la Argentina a la vanguardia mundial en materia de igualdad y no discriminación”

Translation: “The paradigm change from at-risk groups to at-risk practices again positions Argentina in the global vanguard in matters of equality and non-discrimination.”

Read the full story at La Nación (in Spanish).

(Image Credit: via La Nación)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Europe News | LGBT Refugees

European LGBT groups provide assistance to LGBT and other refugees
  • As Germany has become the destination for many refugees and migrants, the Lesbian and Gay Federation has opened a center in Berlin for LGBT refugees.
  • LGBT groups and individuals in Macedonia, Slovenia, Hungary, and elsewhere have also provided support and services to refugees passing through, including LGBT refugees fleeing violence in Syria and Iraq.
  • Syrian gay man Subhi Nahas spoke to ISIS’s persecution of gender and sexual minorities at a U.N. Security Council meeting in August, calling on more active response to provide escape for LGBT individuals from the region.
“For my compatriots who do not conform to gender and sexual norms, the 11th hour has already passed. …They need your help now.”
Read the full story at the Washington Blade.
(Image Credit: Jure Poglajen, via The Washington Blade)
Sexual + Gender Minorities

Nepal News | LGBT

New Nepal constitution enshrines rights of LGBT citizens
  • Along with wide-ranging inclusion of vulnerable classes, gender and sexual minorities were identified as being entitled to political protections.
  • The constitution is the first to be approved since the 2008 abolition of the Nepalese monarchy.
  • Marriage is not defined in the constitution, but a special tribunal called upon by the Supreme Court has recommended the extension of marriage rights to sexual minorities.
“The nation’s leadership has affirmed that its LGBT citizens deserve the constitutional right to live their lives free from discrimination and fear.”
Read the full story at the Washington Blade.
Sexual + Gender Minorities

Global News | Intersex

UN declares intersex genital surgeries a human rights violation
  • Intersex advocates and NGO leaders convened in Geneva for a UN Human Rights Council meeting to discuss intersex surgeries, infanticide, and discrimination against intersex people.
  • The recognition follows a 2013 report calling on nations to end the medical practice affecting the estimated 1 in 2,000 born with ambiguous sex traits.
  • Some in the medical community bristled at the comparison of the surgery to torture, arguing that the declaration inhibits doctors’ research into and understanding of intersex patients.

“Physicians constantly say to me that lawsuits and laws are not the way to change medical practice. …And I say, I agree with you, but if you will not change your practices — then that’s what it’ll take.”

Read the full story at BuzzFeed News.

(Image Credit: M. Spencer Green/AP, via BuzzFeed)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

El Salvador News | LGBT

El Salvador toughens punishments for hate crimes against LGBT individuals
  • The country’s lower chamber approved changes that will see those convicted of identity-based homicide against LGBT individuals facing up to 50 years in prison.
  • The changes increase the maximum penalty for hate crimes–which also include racially, ethnically, and religiously based targeting–by 20 years.
  • Gender continues to lag behind other protected classes, however, with those convicted of homicides against women facing 20 to 30 years of imprisonment.

“We have made a lot of progress in the democracy (of the country). This is a significant step toward the recognition of rights in the LGBT community.”

Read the full story at teleSUR.

(Image Credit: EFE, via teleSUR)

Gender, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Japan Research | Gay & Bisexual Male Youth

Bullying among Gay & Bisexual Teenage Males in Japan

A research team at Takarazuka University in Japan conducted a wide-ranging study on the experiences of gay and bisexual men in Japan, with participants ranging in age from 11 to 71.  Researchers found high levels of identity-driven bullying experienced by teenage boys, which they connected to negative reactive behaviors including truancy and self-harm.

1,096

Number of gay and bisexual teenage boys in the study

44%

Percent of teenagers reporting having been bullied for their sexual identity

23%

Percent of teenagers who engaged in truancy

18%

Percent of teenagers who engaged in self-harm

41% (2015) vs. 63% (2005)

Percent of teenagers who reported never having learned about homosexuality in school

30% (2015) vs. 23% (2005)

Percent of teenagers who reported being taught negative information about sexual minorities

Full survey sample: ~20,000
Survey conductor: Takarazuka University

Read the news story at The Ashai Shimbun.

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Italy News | LGBT

Venice mayor says no Pride parades for city during his tenure
  • Recently elected mayor Luigi Brugnaro was elected on a center-right ticket and has made his opposition to LGBT rights clear previously.
  • Rights group Arcigay, which hosts numerous Pride events throughout Italy, condemned the statement, having last hosted a parade in Venice just last year.
  • Brugnaro’s statement is the latest in anti-LGBT moves to come from his office, including a blanket ban on books featuring same-sex couples from Venice schools.

“There will never be a gay pride in my city. … Let them go and do it in Milan, or in front of their own homes.”

Read the full story at the Guardian.