Two Indonesian men have been arrested for having gay sex.
The university students had their rooms raided by residents in Aceh, the only region of the Muslim-majority country where Shariah law is in effect and gay sex is illegal.
Condoms and mobile phones belonging to the 21 and 24-year-old were handed over to police.
Indonesian gay man gets caned for having sex (Getty)
If found guilty, the men face being sentenced to 100 lashes at a public caning.
Marzuki, head of the Aceh Provincial Sharia Law Department, told local reporters that one of the men had ‘confessed’ to the charges.
Gay men in Indonesia being led to be lashed 83 times (Getty)
Marzuki said then that residents in the local area had been suspicious of the men because they of their apparent intimacy, and deliberately set out to catch them having sex.
While homosexuality has never been illegal in Indonesia, attitudes towards LGBT people have become steadily more extreme across the country in recent years despite a growing gay population.
The Indonesian Psychiatrists Association classifies homosexuality, bisexuality and being transgender as illnesses.
The raid on salons was called “operasi penyakit masyarakat,” which translates as “community sickness operation”.
The police chief in Aceh said his officers also humiliated the trans women “by way of having them run for some time and telling them to chant loudly until their male voices came out.”
A bill with the support of most of the country’s main political parties is making its way through the legislative process.
Amendments have been accepted by the House of Representatives, but the whole Parliament must sign off on the bill before it makes its way to the President’s desk.
(Getty)
Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch said the new law “will create new discriminatory offences that do not exist in the current criminal code.
“It will slow down Indonesia’s efforts to develop their economy, society, knowledge [and] education … if law enforcement agencies are busy policing morality.
“It’s sounding like the Acehnese sharia code,” he added.
Comedian Eddie Izzard has been appointed to the Labour Party’s governing body.
The comedian and political activist, who previously identified as a transvestite but has since started using the umbrella term “transgender”, has vowed to become one of the first trans people elected to Parliament.
Earlier this year he failed to win election to the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee, just missing out to candidates from the party’s hard left Momentum faction.
However, this week he landed a spot on the body after all, as Momentum director Christine Shawcroft stepped down over an anti-Semitism scandal.
Eddie Izzard sits on a bench (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)In a statement Izzard said: “Although this isn’t the manner in which I had hoped to join the NEC I’m honoured to step up and represent Labour members at the heart of our Party.
“This is a very important time for the Labour Party and we must stamp out completely the stain of anti-Semitism from a minority of members.
“It has no place in our Party. I have campaigned against hate my whole life and will continue to do so wherever it rears it’s ugly head. We must make amends and repair the damage with the Jewish community as Jeremy Corbyn has promised to do.
“We must get past this, for the good of the people Labour seeks to represent. We must unite our Party around the platform of hope that Jeremy Corbyn has built so that we can kick out this terrible Tory government and build a Britain for the many not the few.”
The comedian had missed out in January’s election to the NEC, picking up 39,508. The three available spots went to the Momentum-backed candidates, who picked up 65,163, 62,982 and 68,388 votes respectively.
The NEC is a crucial body that effectively controls Labour Party rules and policy.
Izzard previously vowed: “I’ll continue to do all I can to campaign for an open and welcoming Labour Party and to campaign with fellow Labour activists across the country to help Labour win the next election and put Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.”
He added: “This election has been an opportunity to talk about some of the important issues facing our Party and country, and I’m proud to have run a positive, energetic campaign with ideas on how to open up politics and give excluded groups in society more of a voice in our Party and country.”
(Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)
Izzard had said previously: “Being an actor and performing stand-up is what I do for a living, but being an activist has been part of me for a long time.
“I have always fought for the campaigns that I believe in, even when they are unpopular or I’ve been advised against it.
“I came out in 1985, joined the Labour Party in 1995 and I have now campaigned for LGBT rights, for the Labour Party, for Europe and have run marathons for charities for many years.
“I have campaigned against racists and fascists all over our country and around the world and I want all of our members to feel welcome in the Labour Party.”
(Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)
Izzard has pledged to make Labour more diverse.
“I have been a Labour Party activist for many years,” he said in a video, “now I’m standing for an open and welcoming Labour Party to get people from many different backgrounds into the Labour Party, and to fight this narrow minded Tory government.
“To get the Labour Party in, winning at the next general election and Jeremy Corbyn as the Prime Minister.
“I have the energy and the drive to represent labour party members on the NEC.
“I believe in doing politics differently and I want people from diverse and different groups to be part of the Labour Party and part of our political system.”
The ambitious comic had previously teased a run as the Labour candidate for Mayor of London – but given the incumbent Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan is hugely popular, it’s highly unlikely there’ll be a vacancy in the post anytime soon.
In an interview in the Guardian, Izzard – who identifies as transgender – suggested he now plans to run for Parliament instead at the next election, currently scheduled for 2021.
He said: “The plan was always to run [for office] in 2020, though Theresa May has changed that with her failed power grab. So now it’s the first general election after 2020.”
The star added that he would give up performing entirely if elected.
The comic said: “I would. It’s like [former MP] Glenda Jackson; she gave up acting for 25 years to concentrate on it, then she turns up back as King Lear.”
In the same interview, Izzard opened up about coming out as trans.
The comic explained that coming out as trans was by far one of the scariest things he could do, and in turn that made other obstacles less threatening.
“I think coming out as transgender allowed me to put myself in other terrifying situations and work them out once I was in them.
“I knew I would get through the bad, terrifying bit – and there was a lot of that when I was a street performer – and eventually get to a more interesting place.”
Izzard sometimes presents as male and sometimes as female.
Eddie Izzard (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)
Opening up about his gender in 2016 during a marathon challenge, he said: “I use it as a badge of identity – I am a transgender guy who came out 31 years ago.”
The star went on to explain that he often identifies as female and male – but that he felt society should not become so “obsessed” with gender.
“I’ve got boy genetics and girl genetics. We get obsessed by it in humanity. We’ve been obsessed for 5,000 years of civilisation and people are still being murdered – in Uganda they were trying to sentence people to death.
“If you look at a tiger, you go ‘ooh, tiger!’, we don’t go ‘girl tiger’ or ‘boy tiger’. We are obsessed by the genders because we grow up in one gender or another. No other animal is obsessed by our gender – they don’t give a monkeys about our gender.”
Izzard added that sexuality and gender identity should not matter, but rather what you do in life should be what defines a person.
“No matter what sex or sexuality, how you self-identity, or who you fancy, matters not one whit – what do you do in life? What do you make? What do you add to the human existence? That’s what’s matters.
“It all comes back to Nelson Mandela: Try and put something into the world, and leave something positive.
“The confidence that it has given me, coming out 31 years ago in 1985, is immense – but it was a very hard journey. Very hard.”
Costa Rica’s governing party won a big presidential election victory Sunday as many voters rejected an evangelical pastor who had jumped into political prominence by campaigning against same-sex marriage.
The head of the Supreme Electoral Council, Luis Antonio Sobrado, said that with 95 percent of ballots counted Sunday night, Carlos Alvarado of the ruling Citizen Action Party had 60.8 percent of the votes in the runoff election. His opponent, Fabricio Alvarado of the National Restoration party, had 39.2 percent. The two men are not related.
Fabricio Alvarado rose from being a political unknown to the leading candidate in the election’s first round in February after he came out strongly against a call by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for Costa Rica to allow same-sex marriage. Carlos Alvarado, a novelist and former labor minister who finished second in February to get the final spot in the runoff, spoke in favor of letting gays wed.
A prominent anti-trans activist has been suspended from Twitter after a series of ‘transphobic’ comments.
Venice Allan, a 43-year-old from South London, had gained notoriety for her anti-trans views on social media.
Allan has been a prominent figure in the backlash to streamlining the process of gender recognition for trans people and has been incredibly vocal with her anti-trans stance.
The meeting, called ‘Transgenderism and the War on Women’, was hosted in the House of Commons by the group ‘We Need to Talk UK’ and attended by a PinkNews journalist.
On March 22, it appeared that Allan’s Twitter account, with over 2500 followers, had been suspended.
The exact reason for Allan’s suspension is yet unknown, however, Twitter states that they suspend accounts for impersonation, spam, and abusive behaviour.
Twitter says: “we may suspend an account if it has been reported to us as violating our rules surrounding abuse.
“When an account engages in abusive behaviour, like sending threats to others or impersonating other accounts, we may suspend it temporarily or, in some cases, permanently.”
Many Twitter users sympathetic to Allan’s anti-trans point of view took to the micro-blogging site to show their support for the self-titled radical feminist.
(Photo: @jan_olier / Twitter)
“Without her, Twitter is a less safe space for women xx,” one wrote, referring to the ‘female’ sex chromosomes XX.
One wrote: “Her whole profile was a mass of bullying and transphobic posts.”
Labour party women’s officer Lily Madigan tweeted a celebratory gif after it was revealled that Allan had been suspended.
(Photo: @LilyMadigan / Twitter)
Earlier this year Allan was suspended from the Labour party over a series of memes on social media targeted at prominent transgender women.
Her social media feeds frequently feature transphobic memes and statements, which have included posts targeted at trans celebrities such as Paris Lees.
Theresa May has refused to condemn Downing Street staff who allegedly outed a whistleblower as gay – putting his Pakistani family in danger.
Prime Minister Theresa May’s special adviser Stephen Parkinson came under fire over the weekend after he put out a statement via Downing Street revealing the sexuality of former Brexit campaigner Shahmir Sanni, who had come forward to expose alleged irregularities in the Vote Leave campaign.
Mr Sanni, who volunteered for the supposedly-independent BeLeave group, named Mr Parkinson as one of the Vote Leave officials who secretly guided their campaign in violation of electoral rules.
In his official statement released via Downing Street’s press office, Mr Parkinson hit back by revealing that he had been in a relationship with Mr Sanni at the time, claiming he had only provided advice to him as his boyfriend.
Shahmir Sanni and Stephen Parkinson
Mr Sanni says the public revelation has forced him to come out to his family in Pakistan, where homosexuality is illegal and strongly taboo – and has left his relatives living in fear of their safety.
Pressed over the issue in Parliament today, Theresa May failed to condemn Mr Parkinson’s actions, and claimed the message circulated by Downing Street was actually a “personal statement” from the adviser – drawing cries of “disgrace” from Labour MPs.
Responding to a question from Labour’s Ben Bradshaw, she said: “Any statements issued were personal statements… they were personal statements… they were personal statements that were issued.
“I of course recognise the importance of ensuring that we do recognise that for some, being outed as gay is difficult because of their family and circumstances. What I want to see is a world where everyone is able to be confident in their sexuality and doesn’t have to worry about such things.”
MPs heckled the PM repeatedly as she claimed the message was “personal”, pointing out that it had been sent via email by Kirsty Buchanan, Downing Street’s Head of Broadcast media, from an official Downing Street email address.
There was no suggestion on the email that it was not an official communication from Downing Street’s press office.
Mr Bradshaw said: “How is it remotely acceptable that when a young whistleblower exposes compelling evidence of lawbreaking by the Leave campaign, implicating staff at Number 10, one of those named issued an officially-sanctioned statement outing the whistleblower as gay and putting his family in Pakistan in danger?
“It’s a disgrace, Prime Minister, you need to do something about it.”
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LGBT rights organisation Stonewall has branded the breach of privacy “inexcusable” and dangerous.
It said: “This public disclosure of Sanni’s sexuality was made without his consent. The severity of this breach of confidence cannot be underestimated.
“Telling someone about your sexuality or gender identity must always be a personal decision. No person has the right to take that decision away.
“Publicly outing someone robs that person of the chance to define who they are in their own terms if they even want to. In extreme cases – as in this one – it can also put the lives of that person and their loved ones in danger.
“Outing someone ignores the many valid reasons a person may have for not choosing to be open about their sexuality to every person in their life. Concerns about personal safety to fears about discrimination at work or in their place of worship all play a part in someone’s decision to come out.
“Some LGBT people are not out because of a real need to protect themselves. We do not live in a world that is accepting of everyone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Not only does the world still have a long way to go, so does Britain, as this irresponsible indiscretion shows.”
It added: “What has happened to Shahmir Sanni is inexcusable. Outing someone can put lives at risk. We will always stand with and support all LGBT people, whether they are out or not.
“No LGBT person should ever have to live in fear that someone might tell the world about their sexuality or gender identity before they are ready. Only that person will know if they are comfortable and ready to come out.
“That choice and decision must always be respected.”
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Mr Sanni’s fellow whistleblower Chris Wylie called for Parkinson, who is Political Secretary to the Prime Minister, to resign.
Mr Wylie said: “Absolutely he should resign. He should resign for his actions in outing someone and endangering his family, and also for the fact he worked on a programme that resulted in cheating in the referendum.”
He added: “The Prime Minister’s office outed my friend. Number 10 Downing Street labelled ‘official statement’ to journalists around the world outing Shahmir Sanni, whose family in Pakistan had to take security measures for their own safety.
“He was forced to come out to his mum in the middle of the night because Downing Street decided it was appropriate for the government to out someone.”
In his statement, Mr Parkinson had said: “Shahmir became an occasional volunteer for Vote Leave and other Leave campaigns, and we began a personal relationship.
“We subsequently dated for 18 months, splitting up — I thought amicably — in September 2017.
“That is the capacity in which I gave Shahmir advice and encouragement, and I can understand if the lines became blurred for him, but I am clear that I did not direct the activities of any separate campaign groups.”
Mr Sanni responded via an outraged statement through his solicitors.
He said: “It’s sad that Stephen feels he can’t tell the truth about cheating in the Referendum.
“I think he understands why I had to do the right thing and let people know what really happened.
“But I never imagined that he, with the help of Number 10, would choose to tell the world I am gay, in a last desperate attempt to scare me.”
He added: “This is something I’ve never told most of my friends or family, here or in Pakistan, some of whom are having to take measures to ensure their safety.
“He knew the danger it would cause, and that’s why he did it.
“My coming out should have happened at a moment of my choosing – not his or the Government’s.
“Some things are more important than politics and I hope that one day he agrees.”
In a subsequent statement, Mr Parkinson said: “I have seen the statements issued by Shahmir and his lawyers, and am saddened by them.
“They are factually incorrect and misleading.
“My statement to Channel 4 News and The Observer was issued in my personal capacity and was solely a response to the serious and untrue allegations made against me by Shahmir, Chris Wylie, and others.
“It would be surprising if Shahmir, Mr Wylie, or those advising them thought I would be able to defend myself against those allegations without revealing my relationship with Shahmir. Sadly, the allegations they have chosen to make are so serious that I have been compelled to do so.
“I cannot see how our relationship, which was ongoing at the time of the referendum and which is a material fact in the allegations being made, could have remained private once Shahmir decided to publicise his false claims in this way.”
Despite Mr Parkinson claiming his statement was issued in a “personal capacity”, several journalists have come forward with proof that the statement ‘outing’ Mr Sanni was directly released via the Downing Street press office.
Guardian writer Carole Cadwalladr shared a screenshot which shows the statement was sent via email by Kirsty Buchanan, Downing Street’s Head of Broadcast media, from an official Downing Street email address.
She wrote: “This is absolutely indefensible. Number 10’s press office outed a 24-year-old man against his will. Think about it. This was sanctioned and approved by Theresa May’s government.”
Marc Lange and Carl Blea, possible hate crime survivors (Photo: Provided by the family)
A man and his husband were walking through Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, while on vacation. They’d had a night of dancing and were heading back to the condo where they were staying when they heard a man shout something and shoot at them.
It was 2:30 a.m. and the bullet struck Carl Blea, going through his thigh, the Palm Springs Desert Sun reported. His husband, Marc Lange, said that the two were lucky as Blea acted quickly and tried to pull the two to safety.
Speaking by phone from the hospital, Lange confessed he feared they would both be dead if they didn’t act so fast. The two both believe that they think they were the target of a hate crime because they are gay. Lange went on to call it “a random act of hatred.” Despite local news reports claiming it was a robbery, he said he’s told the police what happened multiple times.
Local news even reported that there was a struggle between the gunman and the couple, but Lange said that he’s concerned local authorities are attempting to cover up the incident because it would hurt tourism. The city is a popular beach town for American travelers.
“We never uttered a word to [the gunman],” Lange said.
“This was not a robbery went bad. It was a hate crime as Carl Blea and I were walking hand in hand,” Lange later wrote on Facebook. “We never spoke to the man who shot us. He yelled at us and then pulled out a gun and shot at us. This is not correct. We told 3 different set of police officials the same story. There were no witnesses, the street was empty.”
An anti-gay pastor who based his campaign on opposing same-sex marriage has a strong lead in Costa Rica’s Presidential election.
The Central American country’s Presidential battle has been largely defined by a battle over same-sex marriage, with fringe evangelical Fabricio Alvarado Muñoz receiving a surge in support after running an aggressive anti-gay marriage campaign – besting a string of traditional candidates to make the run-off against centrist candidate Carlos Alvarado Quesada.
Alvarado Muñoz has vowed to withdraw Costa Rica from a pan-American human rights treaty that could require it to provide recognition to same-sex couples, while his opponent says the country should respect the human rights of LGBT people.
Fabricio Alvarado, presidential candidate of the National Restoration party (Photo by EZEQUIEL BECERRA/AFP/Getty Images)
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Ahead of next month’s run-off election between the two candidates, polling suggests that Alvarado Muñoz has built a lead.
An Opol poll this week has Fabricio Alvarado Muñoz on 36.5 percent, while his rival Carlos Alvarado Quesada is on 27.7 percent of the vote.
CID Gallup poll found a smaller lead, with Alvarado Muñoz maintaining a 4.5 percent lead.
The key to the election will likely be voters who backed other candidates in other rounds, with a massive 35.8 percent still undecided or not planning to vote.
With less than two weeks until the April 1 election, however, the two candidates do not have long to make their pitches.
The court had found Costa Rica is in violation of its treaty obligations under the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) by not providing marriage equality.
The human rights court has jurisdiction over 16 countries, and six of them – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay – signed a statement welcoming the news.
While Alvarado Quesada has said that Costa Rica should accept the ruling and “advance the agenda of equality”, Alvarado Muñoz has pledged to revoke the treaty altogether rather than comply.
Costa Rican frontrunner presidential candidate, Fabricio Alvarado, of the National Restoration party (Photo by JORGE RENDON/AFP/Getty Images)
Following his strong performance in the first round, he declared the results a victory for the “traditional family”.
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The candidate said: “We propose the sovereignty of the family as the fundamental basis of society.”
“Costa Rica has sent a message to traditional parties – never again will they meddle with the family.”
Meanwhile, his rival Carlos Alvarado Quesada had stood firm over his commitment to human rights laws.
He said: “The Costa Rica of the 21st century requires a government that knows how to move forward with vigor, love, happiness (and) the agenda of equality.”
While there has been much pan-American solidarity around the court ruling, notably the US has shied away from pressing Costa Rica over the issue, and recently refused to take part in a statement welcoming the ruling.
The US was the only member of the Organization of American States (OAS) LGBTI Core Group that refused to sign on to a statement supporting the court’s opinion.
The seven nations that signed the statement are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay.
Fabricio Alvarado, presidential candidate of the National Restoration party (Photo by EZEQUIEL BECERRA/AFP/Getty Images)
The statement says: “Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay, as members of the OAS LGBTI Core Group, welcome the Advisory Opinion of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights reiterating that sexual orientation and gender identity are protected categories under the American Convention on Human Rights and affirming that States have the responsibility to recognize, guarantee and protect the rights that derive from a family bond between persons of the same sex.
“The Court’s Opinion constitutes a valuable contribution to the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Human Rights System, as it reminds States of their obligations regarding guaranteeing and protecting the rights of LGBTI persons across the region.
“Furthermore, the Court understood that a person’s full autonomy to establish a permanent and marital bond is derived from the principle of human dignity, and that such a bond deserves equal rights and protection regardless of the sexual orientation of the parties.
“Likewise, the Advisory Opinion reaffirms the rights of transgender people by affirming that the change of name, image adjustment, as well as the rectification of sex or gender references, in registers and in identity documents so that these are consistent with self-perceived gender identity, is a right protected by the American Convention. As a consequence, States are obliged to recognize, regulate and establish the appropriate procedures for such purposes.
“Without prejudice to the sovereign right of all States to adopt policies and legislation in a progressive manner and to evolve on this matter at their own pace, we agree with the Court’s view that lack of consensus on respecting the rights of certain groups that are characterized by their sexual orientation or their gender identity or expression cannot be considered a reason to deny or restrict their human rights or perpetuate historical or structural discrimination against them.
“The aforementioned members of the Core Group are optimistic that this Advisory Opinion will provide elements for States to drive legislative, administrative and public policy reforms through which progress is made in the protection and guarantee, under equal conditions, of the rights of LGBTI people.”
Simon Lokodo, the Minister of State for ‘Ethics & Integrity’, likened LGBTQ+ people to paedophiles in the statement in which he warned people would be apprehended.
He said: “We are aware that there are inducements, including money, being offered to young people to promote the practice.
“We wish to emphasise that whereas the promotion of homosexuality is criminalised under the Penal Code, there is no violence against the LGBT community in Uganda – contrary to some claims made loosely by proponents of this movement.”
Despite emphasising the lack of violence, organisers of the Pride officially cancelled it out of fear of physical harm.
“It is with very heavy hearts and deep-felt sadness that we announce the cancellation of Pride Uganda 2017.
“Following the Police raid and interruption of the Pride parade last year, extra precaution was taken in organising this year’s festival,” the statement read.
Despite the last Pride being “officially” cancelled, many Pride-goers still went to the event but they were broken up by police and some were arrested, including organiser and executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), Frank Mugisha.
Any hope for a Pride event in 2017 was completely dashed after Lokodo promised “arrest, even violence”.
Living conditions for LGBTQ+ people are reportedly getting slightly better in the country, with activists reporting fewer people being “arrested, put in police cells and tortured”.
Activist Isaac Mugisha, from Uganda, told The Daily Beast that he and other LGBTQ+ activists were now trying to work with straight allies to ensure Pride events could go ahead without being raided.
“The momentum is now so different to 2015. Then just a handful of LGBTS gathered. Now we are looking at hundreds of people wanting to gather for a Pride event,” Isaac Mugisha said.
Ugandan men hold a rainbow flag reading “Join hands to end LGBTI genocide” at Ugandan Pride 2014 (ISAAC KASAMANI/AFP/Getty Images)
Frank Mugisha (who is not related to Isaac) added that “things are not looking so bad so far.
“Learning from last year our idea is to start planning early for Pride 2018.
“Our visibility is still very important to us, and we are hoping to have Pride this year, and a much bigger event,” he said.
However, he explained that it is still a very real fear that a Pride event could be raided by police.
“Even with the efforts to sensitize states’ institutions and lawmakers there is still so much discrimination and violations of LGBT persons going on here,” he said.
Some LGBTQ+ activists argue that the country is no safer than two years ago.
Adrian Jjuuko, executive director of Human Rights and Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), said: “From my perspective, I do not think any progress has been made, particularly in LGBT organizing. To the contrary, the situation seems to be worsening since 2016.”
Ugandan President Museveni signed the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill in February 2014. The law called for repeat offenders to be sentenced to 14 years in prison and to make it a criminal offence not to report someone for being gay.
Peter* had set up a Skype account just to speak to PinkNews.
Even though it has been six months since he left Russia to embark upon a new life in Belarus, he has to be cautious, and won’t tell me his real name.
Since Russia’s gay propaganda law came into action in 2013, a spate of attacks against the country’s LGBT+ community have a affected the gay, bi and lesbian community’s right to an education, a job, and even the right to their life.
An according to Peter, even sharing a post advocating for gay rights can result in your arrest.
“Everyone knows everything about you. You can go to jail just for reposting stuff on social media,” he said.
The story of exile began for Peter* when the Russian’s neighbours began to gossip about Peter and his boyfriend.
Living in a small Russian town near Moscow, the 32-year-old found that news quickly spread about his sexuality.
St. Petersburg LGBT demonstration, 2013 (OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP/Getty Images)
“People in the city saw us and the gossips told everyone around the city. After that everyone in the community knew,” he said.
Although he had lived in his hometown for as long as anyone could remember, his life as a gay man started to become difficult as pressures from religious groups and the government mounted.
“Everyone knows me everywhere. In the city when I worked, everyone knew, no matter where I went or no matter what I did,” he said.
Since the introduction of the gay propaganda law, the little protections LGBT+ Russians had have now dissipated.
In order to survive, Peter started to take lower paid work as a programmer, as his sexuality was used as a bargaining chip for him to take lesser paid work.
“I couldn’t find work or live my life normally. There’s a forum where gay freelancers and programmers are listed. Everyone in the community online and offline knew me,” he said.
“I wasn’t beaten, but I was discriminated against. I identify as gay, and I’ve never hidden it. That’s why there were problems. There’s a website that writes about every programmer and freelancer there, and they outed me. After that, it was even hard to get work through unofficial channels.
“I would get lower paid work, when I could,” he added.
The stress of not being able to find paid work was compounded by the hostile reactions Peter faced from his family, which left him with no other options: he would have to move.
“My family knew about my sexuality, and were incredibly negative about me. One of the main reasons I left Russia was because I had so little support from my family there,” he said.
The pressure started to take its toll on Peter and his boyfriend.
After moving to a different city in the hope that life would improve, the relationship started to fall apart.
First, we lived together in a different city first, and moved together. But it may have been a different city, but the same attitudes remained. We couldn’t get work, and we were scared of being attacked. That’s when my boyfriend left me, and said “I don’t need this.” It’s really hard, and not everyone can manage to keep a relationship going under that pressure,” he said.
Now alone, Peter decided to ask a friend for advice on how to escape Russia, and decided to enter Belarus.
The post-Eastern Bloc nation of Belarus lies to the left of Moscow.
The landlocked country, which shares borders with Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, is home to 9.5 million people – 800,000 more people than in London.
Around 8.3% of the country is made up of Russian migrants, and Russian is spoken as the country’s official language.
With its close ties to Russia, it was a feasible place for Peter to flee.
“You can access Belarus without a VISA or passport,” he said.
“It takes about two days to get to Belarus on the train. It took another three days on the car so we could get away from the border. You can go to Belarus without even a passport – it’s easier to enter even than Ukraine, which made the decision for me,” he said.
But unfortunately for Peter and other Russian LGBT+ asylum seekers, it shares a lot of the same hostilities.
“When I got there, friends took me in and helped me out. They even helped me with money and work when I first arrived. In Belarus, it’s more tolerant than in Russia,” he explained.
“I still can’t work properly, but at least I know I won’t be killed here. It’s not so tolerant, it’s old-fashioned, but they won’t kill you, like what happened in Russia,” he added.
Apart from with a small group of friends, Peter now lives his life in the closet, disclosing his sexuality only when he feels it is safe.
“If anyone found out about my sexuality, they might get aggressive, or even start a fight. There is not one way people react. There are only two ways, but in Russia, there’s just one: aggression all of the time. Some people are really easy about it here, some people are ridiculously aggressive. But in comparison to Russia, it’s a lighter load to bear,” he added.
But, similar to other post-Eastern Bloc LGBT+ asylum seekers from Russia, Peter is concerned that time is not on his side, and a move out of the country is essential to his survival.
“I try to hide my sexuality now, but as I am facing a small community just like before, it’s only a matter of time before people find out,” he said.
“I am working to save money to get out of Belarus. I want to go to the EU, an English-speaking country, where people are more tolerant,” he said.
LGBTQ community protest against discrimination in Ecuador with “public kiss” demonstration (Photo by JUAN CEVALLOS/AFP/Getty Images)
LGBTQ+ people are being forced into “gay cure” rehab clinics and subjected to rape and beatings in Ecuador.
Campaigners in the country have called on the government to investigate into over 100 clinics in which they believe human rights violations are being carried out against LGBTQ people.
Ecuadoran LGBTQ people demonstrate in front of the government palace in Quito against human rights abuses of gays in 1998.
(Photo by GUILLERMO LEGARIA/AFP/Getty Images)
An estimated 200 clinics are operating in the country.
Four people have come forward so far to tell of the horrifying abuse they were subjected to between 2014 and 2016 under the guise of “rehab”.
The victims say that they were beaten, placed in solitary confinement, chained to their beds for days at a time, force-fed concoctions of medicines and raped as a “corrective” measure by fellow patients and staff.
Some were also forced to wear makeup and high heels.
Ane Barragan, a coordinator at Causana Foundation, who have campaigned against gay “cure” therapy for over a decade, said that the treatment LGBTQ people were put through in an attempt to “convert” them was some of the worst they had known.
They added that it was an issue because the clinics in which the “conversion therapy” was happening were not be regulated or monitored.
It is believed that most of the victims are being admitted to the clinics by their parents under the guise that they are entering drug or alcohol rehab clinics.
Treatment costs $1,500 a month and they are usually held against their will for at least three months.
Cayetana Salao, of the LGBTQ rights group Taller de Comunicacion Mujer, said: “Corrective therapy, in mostly private and clandestine alcohol and drug addiction clinics, continues in Ecuador. It’s a reality.”
They added that of the six cases investigated by the state since 2012, no one has been found guilty or punished for the alleged violations.
“We call on the judiciary to move these cases forward and hold those people responsible to account,” Salao added.
(Photo: NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images)
Ecuador is one of three countries, alongside Malta and Brazil, which have banned the practice.
Homosexuality was legalised in 1997, and same-sex civil unions have been legal for over a decade.
Numerous raids were carried out on the “gay cure” clinics between 2012 and 2015 under the guidance of former health minister Carina Vance, who is openly gay.
The crackdown saw over 116 clinics raided and over 100 clinics shut down as a result.
However, within months the clinics had re-opened under different names.
Vance explained that the clinics “have a lot of power” and it is a “lucrative” business with lots of “economic interests”.
“There are families using these so-called services and this has to do with a prevalent, a very homophobic … a sexist society,” Vance said. “Cultural change is very difficult to produce.”
Maria Jose Espin, head of technical management at the health ministry’s regulatory agency, ACESS, said that these “establishments do not exist”.
“There are no de-homosexualization clinics. They shouldn’t exist,” she said.
She was sent to a “conversion” clinic 10 hours away from her home.
She said: “I’d told my family two months before that I was a lesbian and they’d been threatening me ever since.
“I was full of fear. I knew the principal ‘therapy’ at these clinics was rape.
“They told me I was bad, I was hurting my family, I was being manipulated by my girlfriend, that God made woman for men.
“I knew the same would happen to me if I didn’t comply.
“So I did everything they asked me, everything I could to survive until I could escape or someone saved me,” she said.
Ms Constante said she has not spoken to her family since.
“The first time I saw my father, at my work, I was terrified, I ran away and hid. They’ve never said sorry, never shown any regret. I’m still scared and I don’t trust them,” she added.