Reuters

A judge in a Nigerian court on Tuesday threw out a case against 47 men charged with public displays of affection with members of same sex, ending what had widely been seen as a test of the country’s laws banning same-sex relationships. The Nigerian law banning gay marriage, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, and same-sex “amorous relationships,” prompted an international outcry when it came into force under former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014. The men were arrested in a police raid on a Lagos hotel in the city’s Egbeda district in 2018. Police said the men were […]

The gruesome killing on Saturday of a second transgender woman in northern Mexico has unnerved the local transgender community and amplified calls for greater protections in the Latin American nation. The murder of Leslie Rocha in the border city of Ciudad Juarez came days after a transgender civil society group staged a protest there to demand greater protection. Those demands were sparked by the murder late of Ciudad Juarez-born transgender activist Mireya Rodriguez Lemus, whose body was found earlier this week in Aquiles Serdan, a town in the northern Chihuahua state. Related NBC OUT Philippine president pardons U.S. Marine convicted […]

A Saudi court has sentenced a Yemeni blogger to 10 months in prison, a fine of 10,000 riyals ($2,600) and deportation for a social media post supporting equal rights for people in same sex relationships, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). The group said Mohamad al-Bokari fled Yemen in June 2019 and was living as an undocumented migrant in Saudi Arabia when he was arrested on April 8 for a Twitter video that drew online condemnation from Saudis and calls for his arrest. In the video, seen by Reuters, Bokari was asked by one of his Twitter followers for his […]

Hundreds of Thai LGBTQ activists and allies raised rainbow flags on Saturday evening as they called for democracy and equal rights, the latest in a series of youth protests calling for the government to step down. Several youth-led demonstrations have sprung up across the country since last week, when thousands of Thai activists defied a coronavirus ban on gatherings and staged one of the largest street rallies since a 2014 military coup. The activists on Saturday danced and sang and performed stand-up comedy sketches making jabs at the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army chief who ousted […]

 Jewish community leaders in Warsaw on Tuesday voiced their opposition to the “dehumanizing” language they say is being used against LGBTQ (lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender and queer) people in Poland’s presidential election campaign. Gay rights have been thrust into the spotlight during the campaign for the June 28 election. President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the right-wing ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), views what he calls LGBTQ “ideology” as an invasive foreign influence that harms traditional values in the devoutly Catholic nation. “We have observed politicians… cynically undertake to foment hostility and hatred towards LGBT persons,” the Board of […]

 A Polish prosecutor has charged an IKEA manager with religious discrimination for firing an employee who called homosexuality “an abomination” on the company’s internal website. The employee at IKEA’s Krakow store was fired last year after quoting passages from the Bible referring to homosexuality on the company’s intranet and refusing to remove his comments, a spokesman for the Warsaw prosecutor’s office said. IKEA said it was co-operating with the prosecutor to try to resolve the matter promptly. “As an employer, we will provide all the help and support to our charged employee,” said a spokeswoman from Ingka Group, which owns […]