The Indian Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in favour of same-sex marriage this week.
As part of a set of petitions issued by two same-sex couples, the New Delhi court will hear arguments for the recognition of same-sex marriage on Friday (6 January).
The lead petition, filed by gay couple Supriyo Chakraborty and Abhay Dange, has argued that denying LGBTQ+ citizens the right to marry is an affront to their right to equality.
Currently, India does not officially recognise same-sex marriage, but allows couples to engage in an “unregistered cohabitation.”
This effectively means that same-sex couples aren’t legally permitted to inherit assets or adopt. It can also complicate hospital visits if one-half of the couple is under strict visitation rules when hospitalised.
The petitioners have argued that, since inter-faith heterosexual couples are protected via Supreme Court rulings, then LGBTQ+ couples would naturally follow.
The second petition, filed by Parth Phiroze Mehrotra and Uday Raj, argues that barring LGBTQ+ couples from marriage equality violates several articles of the constitution.
“If the petitioners, as a same-sex couple, enjoyed access to the civil institution of marriage, they would not face untold practical difficulties, both vis-a-vis each other and their children,” the petition read.
“The denial of the fundamental right of marriage to persons like the petitioners is a complete violation of constitutional law.”
As part of the 6 January hearing, the Indian government is expected to voice its opinion on both petitions, as well as its current position on same-sex marriage.
Indian government unlikely to support same-sex marriage
Prime minister Modi’s government previously declared that same-sex couples in India “cannot claim a fundamental right for same-sex marriage” during a similar hearing in 2021.
It clarified its stance to the Delhi High Court, where it said that LGBTQ+ couples do not deserve the same rights as “traditional” heterosexual couples.
“Living together as partners and having a sexual relationship by same-sex individuals is not comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, wife and children,” the government told the High Court.
While the government’s position is unlikely to change, a shift in public perception toward LGBTQ+ couples could see a victory for petitioners in a similar fashion to the decriminalisation of same-sex relationships in 2018.
It’s almost four years since Paul fled Uganda and travelled to Kenya to claim asylum.
Life at home wasn’t easy for Paul. He had known he was gay for some time, but he kept his sexuality a closely guarded secret – especially from his parents.
It wasn’t just that he feared not being accepted, he was afraid he would be subjected to violence if they knew he was gay.
When they eventually discovered the truth, Paul’s home life took a dramatic turn for the worse. He knew he had to get out.
“My parents wanted to kill me,” Paul tells PinkNews.
He would ultimately like to make his way to the UK or Canada so he can live his life openly as a gay man, but advocacy groups have told him there’s a serious backlog of cases due to the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine.
LGBTQ+ refugees have been assaulted in the camp
Life in the camp is tedious and even dangerous. “Homophobia and transphobia rates are very high. I’ve been assaulted several times. For instance, some refugees pushed me into a ditch and my leg was dislocated. I was cut in the neck by a refugee because of being a homosexual.”
In the camp, Paul has struck up a friendship with other LGBTQ+ people who are seeking asylum. They do their best to band together and keep each other safe, but it’s not always possible. Many have been assaulted and some have experienced sexual assault, Paul says.
“Everything is really very horrible for us… The food we are given is very little.”
He also says there are issues with access to medication and adequate shelter – he knows of people who have contracted malaria or pneumonia after sleeping outside so they can get away from others who hold homophobic or transphobic views.
What sustains Paul is his friendship with other LGBTQ+ refugees. They look out for each other, they’ve even launched a fundraiser of their own so they can pay for vital supplies.
They are now calling on the international LGBTQ+ community to offer their support for queer refugees and people seeking asylum.
“Please help us find a solution for all the suffering of LGBTQI refugees in Kakuma,” he says.
“We are also calling on the European Union to please continue with the work they’re doing. They’ve been doing some advocacy for LGBTQI people in Kenya. Please continue with that advocacy so we can get assistance as queer people in Kenya at large.”
LGBTQ+ refugees are often disbelieved
The Kakuma refugee camp was first set up in 1992 following the arrival of the “Lost Boys of Sudan”, according to the UNHCR. The camp, and a separate integrated settlement, had a population of 196,666 people at the end of July 2020.
PinkNews understands that there are around 800 refugees in the camp who are LGBTQ+.
Staff in Kakuma have been given sensitivity training, but queer refugees can still face discrimination from other refugees and asylum seekers in the camp. Public attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people in Kenya are not kind, and punitive laws make life harder for the queer community.
For refugees like Paul, getting to countries like the UK or Canada is the ultimate goal so they can live openly in a culture that accepts homosexuality.
But that’s not always an easy feat. Daniel Sohege is the director of Stand For All, an asylum advocacy group based in the UK. He says LGBTQ+ people are often not believed by government officials when they apply for asylum on sexuality or gender identity grounds.
“One of the common ones is that they’re asked why they can’t just pretend not to be LGBTQ+,” Sohege tells PinkNews.
“It’s a prevalent attitude within certain elements of government and it has been for decades – it’s not just the Conservatives.
“There’s a culture of disbelief within the Home Office – they want people to prove that they are LGBTQ. We’ve seen cases of them saying, ‘well you’re not in a relationship so you’re not LGBTQ.’
“How do you prove to somebody that you are LGBTQ in a way they will believe?”
That’s one of the reasons PinkNews launched the LGBTQ Refugees Welcome campaign. The initiative is raising funds for Micro Rainbow, a charity that provides safe housing for LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum, and for OutRight Action International’s LGBTIQ Ukraine Emergency Fund, which distributes money to activists on the ground in Ukraine.
The series started last week with the story of Irene and Hanna, a lesbian couple who fled Ukraine after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Over the course of six weeks, PinkNews will report on the personal stories of people seeking asylum and refugees to illustrate the painful realities they often face that force them to flee their homes, from familial violence to anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
But that’s not all – the series will also show how a person’s life can change radically when they’re granted asylum. When they can get to safety, LGBTQ+ people have the chance to thrive.
Please give what you can to the PinkNews LGBTQ Refugees Welcome campaign on GoFundMe. Through GiveOut, we will be directly donating to OutRight Action International’s LGBTIQ Ukraine Emergency Fund, helping the activists and organisations on the ground in Ukraine and surrounding countries to support the needs of LGBTQ+ people turning to them for life-saving help.
You can also donate directly to Paul and other LGBTQ+ refugees in the Kakuma Camp here.
Growing up, Nyasha knew she was different from her peers.
By the time she was just eight or nine years old, she knew with certainty that she was a lesbian. The problem was that she was living in Zimbabwe, where homosexuality is not accepted.
Once her family found out about her sexuality, she started suffering the consequences. Throughout her childhood and teenage years, Nyasha was subjected to the abusive practice known as “corrective rape” by her uncle.
Corrective rape is essentially a form of conversion therapy – the idea is that a person’s sexuality can be changed through sexual assault.
She got away from her family when she married a man in her early 20s, but the marriage failed when he found out she was a lesbian too. She was sent back to live with her family once more, and an already bad situation immediately became even worse.
“At the age of 23, I had my daughter on my hand back home, and my uncle – who was used to raping me – tried to do it again.
“I hit him back so thoroughly, then I got hit by my cousins that were staying at home. That’s when my mother came, she didn’t take any action or do anything.
“I decided it was high time for me to leave.”
Nyasha’s story is just one that PinkNews is sharing this holiday season as part of the LGBTQ+ Refugees Welcome campaign. The series will put a spotlight on the painful realities LGBTQ+ people across the world face that force them to leave their homes, from familial violence to anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
Lesbian refugee had to leave her daughter in Zimbabwe
Leaving Zimbabwe was a painful and terrifying decision for Nyasha, but she knew she had no other choice. By the time she fled, she had endured years of sexual violence. Even worse, her entire family knew of the abuse she was being subjected to – and nobody stopped it.
“My mom knew, my family knew, and they were OK with it because it was perceived to try to make me straight,” she says.
What made the decision to flee even more painful for Nyasha was that she couldn’t take her three-year-old daughter with her. She left her child in Zimbabwe and made the journey to South Africa. There, she got a job working for a fast food company, and her bosses helped her with her asylum papers.
She had dreams of bringing her daughter to South Africa so they could live their lives together, but her hopes were dashed when she found out that doing so could result in her asylum application being terminated. She was told that officials wouldn’t believe she was a lesbian if they found out she had a daughter.
For years, Nyasha lived out her life in South Africa. She was safe, but the distance from her daughter – and the impact that had on their relationship – was a constant thorn in her side.
Finally, a year ago, Nyasha wrote a letter to her daughter in which she laid out the truth for her in crystal clear detail. She explained why she was no longer able to be at home, and she told her daughter why she had no choice but to flee.
Before long, Nyasha’s daughter – now grown up – made the journey to South Africa so they could be together. They’re now living together in Cape Town, and they’re building the relationship that was robbed from them so many years before.
“It’s been a rollercoaster, I won’t lie,” Nyasha says. “I’m now getting to make up for 15 years. It’s a long time. I’m getting to know her, what she likes, what she doesn’t like.”
Nyasha is more than her trauma
In the background, Nyasha has become involved with an organisation called the Dream Academy, an initiative that offers classes to those who need them.
“I was broken – very, very broken,” Nyasha says as she reflects on her life before she came into contact with the Dream Academy.
A lot of things have been taken away from me.
“I had never been loved before, but when I came into the family of the Dream Academy, I felt embraced. It made me want to do more. It gives you the passion to say, ‘Who’s the next person who needs me to carry them, to listen to them and tell them everything’s going to be OK?’”
“A lot of things have been taken away from me. Love, material things, my whole being was taken away from me. But when I was able to be in the Dream Academy, reclaim myself and be myself, I now know that no one can really take anything away from me and I can be the person that I want.
“Now I wake up every morning and tell myself, you’re beautiful. I tell myself, today you’re going to reach your highest peak. Before, I never loved myself that much – I just saw my scars. I thought when people looked at me all they saw was the rape, what I’ve been through.
“But now I’m stronger, and I’m ready to give love to the world.”
It’s because of people like Nyasha that PinkNews launched the LGBTQ+ Refugees Welcome campaign. The initiative is raising funds for Micro Rainbow, a charity that provides safe housing for LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum, and for OutRight Action International’s LGBTIQ Ukraine Emergency Fund, which distributes money to activists on the ground in Ukraine.
But that’s not all – the series will also show how a person’s life can change radically when they’re granted asylum. When they can get to safety, LGBTQ+ people have the chance to thrive.
PinkNews wants to show how living without the threat of violence or persecution can help queer people build beautiful, kaleidoscopic lives – but they can only do so if they’re given the proper support.
Spain’s parliament recently passed a bill that makes it easier for people to change their legal gender.
The bill allows people older than 16 to legally change their gender without medical supervision or a judge’s approval. It removes the previous requirements that applicants provide a doctor’s diagnosis of gender dysphoria and additional proof that they have lived as their gender identity and undergone hormone treatment for the past two years.
The bill requires minors below the age of 13 to still get a judge’s authorization before legally changing their gender. Minors below the age of 16 will still need parental or legal guardian approval before being allowed to change their gender.
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The bill also bans conversion therapy, promotes LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections, and calls for additional efforts to improve trans women’s lives.
It passed the parliament in a 188-150 vote and is now headed to the country’s Senate where it’s expected to pass.
While the bill was sponsored by the far-left Unidas Podemos (United We Can) party, Conservative party members said they worried that the bill would give legal cover for trans individuals who wanted to assault cisgender women in bathrooms and other facilities.
However, Spain’s Equality Minister Irene Montero threw water on these worries, saying, “No man needs to impersonate women to rape women, to sexually assault women. Trans people do not put us (cis) women at risk.”
“It is wage inequality, women’s care burden, and sexist male aggressors that put as at risk,” she added.
During the parliament’s vote, dozens of trans rights activists gathered in front of the building to listen to the debate on their phones, the Edge Media Network reported. Other trans activists viewed the legislative session from the parliament’s public gallery.
After the law passed, activists outside cheered and hugged each other while some burned blue, white, and pink smoke flares, mimicking the colors of the transgender movement, Reuters reported.
“We are making progress on rights as a country,” Montero said during the pre-vote debate. “We want all LGBTI people to be able to be themselves, without closets.”
Spain began allowing trans people to change their gender identity on official documents starting in 2006, but first required proof of gender-affirming surgeries. In July 2019, Spain’s Constitutional Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to prevent people under the age of 18 from changing their legal gender.
Soon, though, it will be banned for everyone, as the country just passed a new law banning sex outside of marriage, and same-sex marriages are not legal in the country.
The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you.
The law will not take effect for three years but will apply to both locals and foreigners.
The ruling against the soldiers reportedly stated that “The defendants’ acts of committing deviant sexual behavior with the same sex was very inappropriate because as soldiers, the defendants should be an example for the people in the defendants’ surrounding environment” and declared that their “actions were very much against the law or any religious provisions.”
The sentence is part of a larger crackdown on LGBTQ+ people in the country.
“This has been the increasing pattern among the Indonesian armed forces and police in recent years,” said Amnesty International Indonesia director Usman Hamid, “where [service] members were being fired or taken into court just for who they are, who they love, who they like.”
An Indonesian mayor recently called for increased raids against LGBTQ+ people. In Aceh province (the one place where homosexuality is currently banned), gay and trans prisoners face 100 lashes as punishment for being themselves.
Ireland has been ranked the worst place in the EU for accessing trans healthcare, with the system being “bogged down by waiting times” cited as an area of concern.
Transgender Europe (TGEU), a network of more than 200 trans-rights organisations, found of 27 EU member states, Ireland had the worst provision of healthcare for trans people, with Malta coming out on top.
The countries, laid out on a colour-coded map, were ranked by six criteria, with Ireland scoring just one point out of a potential 12.
The countries were ranked on the types of trans healthcare available, if a psychiatric diagnosis is required before hormonal treatment or surgery, waiting times, if any group is excluded or made to wait longer to access trans healthcare, and the ages of those allowed hormones and puberty blockers.
Ireland’s single point was given for the provision of trans healthcare, however, it scored worst in the EU on waiting times.
TGEU claimed that in Ireland, trans people could expect to wait “between two-and-a-half and 10 years from requesting to see a specialist in trans healthcare to seeing one”.
TGEU said in a statement: “Access to trans-specific healthcare varies widely in the EU.
“For instance, Malta has implemented a model of healthcare that is grounded in self-determination and based on informed consent… In Ireland, the system is bogged down by waiting times of over seven years to see a healthcare professional.”
“At the same time, the need for trans-specific healthcare and the very existence of trans identities are also facing growing attacks from anti-gender and anti-rights groups,” TGEU said.
“This constitutes a real threat to the delivery of accessible, affordable, and quality depathologised trans-specific healthcare and risks undoing the decades of progress that the community has fought hard to achieve.”
Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin (TIPD) told PinkNews in a statement: “We are not shocked by the news that Ireland has the lowest score in Europe for trans healthcare. Trans people have been saying this for years. Trans healthcare is only getting worse.
“With only one clinic in Ireland for trans adults, the current waiting list to be seen is estimated to be six years or more. When you’re finally seen, you’re put through a dehumanising and humiliating assessment and asked invasive questions.
“Trans people have reportedly been denied HRT due to numerous reasons, such as having a diagnosis of autism, ADHD, or a personality disorder, for being on social welfare or not answering those highly sexualised questions ‘the right way.’”
TIPD added that due to “failures” of trans healthcare provision, trans people are left with the alternatives of private clinics, crowdfunding, receiving care abroad, or even “self-administering” hormones purchased online.
“Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin advocates for the implementation of an informed consent-based model and for gender-affirming care to be GP-led,” the group added.
“Trans people should be empowered to make decisions about their transition themselves.”
Chilean President Gabriel Boric on Wednesday launched his government’s first LGBTQ and intersex rights campaign that seeks to reduce discrimination against the country’s queer community.
According to the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh), a Chilean LGBTQ and intersex rights organization, hate crimes against the community have increased this year by 66 percent. Five people have also been murdered because of their sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression.
Boric during his campaign against José Antonio Kast, a far-right former congressman, pledged to promote LGBTQ and intersex rights and policies during his administration. The #LivingWithPride campaign is part of these efforts.
Boric’s first gesture towards the queer community was to appoint Marco Antonio Avila, a gay man, as his government’s education minister and Alexandra Benado Vergara, a lesbian woman, as Chile’s next sports minister. Ávila and Benado arrived at La Moneda, the Chilean presidential palace, with Boric on March 11 when he took office.
“President Gabriel Boric Font’s government has implemented a series of measures that seek to advance in safeguarding the rights of LGBTQ+ people,” Women and Gender Equity Undersecretary Luz Vidal Huiriqueo told the Washington Blade in an exclusive interview after the government launched the #LivingWithPride (#VivirConOrgullo in Spanish) campaign.
Vidal said “one of the relevant lines of work that the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity has developed since we took office … seeks to highlight the structural difficulties experienced by people of the LGBTIQA+ community, move towards state representation, since there is currently no institutionality that welcomes this community.”
“This is why we have taken the mandate to welcome this population, within the legal possibilities that govern the ministry,” Vidal emphasized to the Blade.
Vidal said “the gender mainstreaming network that has been reactivated with our government has opened a door to the organizations of the LGBTIQA+ community in all portfolios.”
“The advisors in charge of gender mainstreaming do not understand gender in a binary way, they have the conviction that we must also develop public policies for the LGBTIQA+ community.” she told the Blade.
Boric directed the Women and Gender Equity Ministry and his administration’s sociocultural coordinator to create and lead an “LGBTIQA+ Roundtable,” which includes organizations, activists and members of the LGBTQ Congressional Caucus to work to implement their demands because Chile thus far does not have a government institution that specifically addresses queer rights.
“The roundtable’s objective is to generate and prioritize, together with the LGBTIQA+ community, guidelines for the development of public policies on the matter, from an intersectoral perspective,” said Vidal. “More than 35 civil society organizations from all over the country, representatives of the Legislative Branch and different (Executive Branch) portfolios have participated.”
Vidal stressed “this space of constant linkage with social organizations has allowed us to know the reality that social organizations of the LGBTIQA+ community live when linking with State agencies.” She also noted “the experience has been successful, being a valuable space that will allow us to build a work path for the design of gender equality public policies relevant to the LGBTIQA+ community, to improve their lives and eradicate gender-based violence and hate crimes against the community.”
The roundtable has been meeting once a month since May. It’s last 2022 meeting will take place this month, and it will resume its work next year.
Vidal told the Blade that transgender women can now use her ministry’s public policies.
“We consider trans women as part of the diversity of women, which implies that they can access the different benefits of the National Service for Women and Gender Equity (SernamEG), which is the executing body of the ministry’s programs,” she said.
Another initiative Vidal highlighted is the incorporation of a “social name” section in the public employment pages for those who have not yet legally changed their name. This option allows people to identify themselves as trans or nonbinary.
The Education Ministry “has developed a participatory process for the design of the Bill on National Policy on Education on Affectivity and Comprehensive Sexuality. It has also made it possible for students, mothers, fathers, parents, guardians and education workers to participate in what Vidal described as “non-sexist” education workshops.
Trans men in India are often made to feel invisible – but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist, and that they can’t thrive.
In 2014, India’s Supreme Court ruled that trans people should be recognised as a “third gender”, and that they should not be denied fundamental human rights.
However, some still struggle to access education, healthcare, and employment. In 2019, a law was passed to prohibit discrimination in these areas, but requires trans people to provide proof of gender-affirming surgery before they can gain legal recognition, something activists have said goes against the 2014 ruling.
The law also makes abusing trans people a crime punishable by up to two years in prison – but this is a much lesser penalty than those given to other abusers, and violence and hate crimes remain pervasive.
In many conversations around trans people in India, trans men are omitted. They are often invisible, and isolated – many are forced to leave their families due to the stigma and prejudice that continues to persist.
But despite this, trans men emerge strong. These three have earned prominent positions in public and private sectors, breaking barriers and opening the doors of education and employment to the community, to help them lead a life of dignity and respect that they rightly deserve.
Adam Harry was 11 years old when he took his first flight.
He loved the experience so much that he decided to become a pilot when he grew up. His parents, from the southern Indian state of Kerala, took out a loan to send him to a flying school in South Africa. But they were less supportive when he came out as trans.
“I was born in a conservative, middle-class, Muslim family, and growing up, it was extremely difficult for me to express my identity because I wasn’t even allowed to wear a pair of jeans at home,” he tells PinkNews.
“During my school days, I didn’t have the vocabulary to express my identity, especially in Malayalam, which is my mother tongue.”
“When I was in the ninth grade, I came across an article about the [2014 Supreme Court ruling on trans rights] and then I read more articles about transgender people in India. That is when I started exploring my identity and I realised that I am a trans man.”
After Adam came out, his family stopped funding his education.
“I was home-bound for a year, which was extremely tumultuous,” he says.
“My family believed that I could be cured and took me for conversion therapy.”
After this traumatic experience, Adam decided to flee. After one failed attempt, he got out of the family home on his second try.
“I got the freedom to be myself. But it came with its own implications. I didn’t have anything. But later, I found myself a shelter and worked at a juice bar.”
Adam was able to get a private pilot licence, and funding from the Kerala state government to finish his studies and get a commercial licence.
“The real struggle began when I enrolled in aviation in India,” Adam explains.
“I was forced to hide my identity during my medicals. They didn’t have any proper guidelines for transgender people and because of that I was declared unfit to fly for six months [because of his hormone replacement therapy].”
After Adam spoke out and shared his story with the world’s media, new guidelines were issued.
They state that any individual who identifies as transgender must have completed more than five years of gender-affirming hormone therapy to be declared medically fit. They must also pass a further mental health screening that all aspiring pilots are required to undertake.
Adam is closer to piloting his first commercial flight than ever before. But he will still have to undergo a psychological and psychiatric evaluation from an endocrinologist, and an examination to check if he has undergone surgery within a year of application.
“There are still many obstacles that I and so many transgender people face even today,” he reflects.
“Society needs to treat everybody equally, regardless of their gender, caste, or colour. There’s a lot of work that’s needed to be done in terms of the progress of the LGBTQ+ community in India. We need proper guidelines including education, employment, and health.”
Krishna Panchani, a government official based in Gujarat, came to terms with his identity when he was in the seventh grade.
“I realised that the sex I was assigned at birth didn’t match with my inner self – I felt different,” he tells PinkNews.
“I’ve struggled a lot to come to terms with my identity both in the past and even today. My family didn’t accept me in the past, and they don’t want to accept me even today.”
Tired of “being policed”, Krishna left the family home and eventually took a job as a principal in a government school in a remote village. But because of his appearance, he says, people looked at him “with aghast”.
“The people in the village would stare at me and talk about me. Some people also thought that a person like me would ruin their children if I taught them. When some officers from outside came for a visit, they said my dress code wouldn’t work because it didn’t come across as ‘civilised’. But, I decided not to give up.”
Tired of the transphobia around him, Krishna decided to confront the system.
“I read all the books about rules and regulations and I realised that it was mentioned nowhere that you had to follow a certain dress code. I took that and challenged them – and I won. The government accepted me and they said: ‘We see your work, the clothes you wear don’t matter.’ But despite that, people continued to talk about me behind my back.”
Today, Krishna says he has “good status” in society, with a good job and a loving partner.
He adds: “I am different, but I am not wrong. People need to accept us with an open heart and need to treat us like everyone else. Include us in the mainstream, don’t sideline us. We all have the same heart, then why treat us differently? We also have dreams, desires, and hopes and we deserve to fulfil them. If we get wider support, our struggles will slowly fade away which will in turn make our lives easier.”
Jay Anand, a musician based in Bangalore, had grappled with his gender since the age of four.
As a child, he would go to sleep every night imagining how life would be if one day he woke up as a boy.
“I was in a relationship at the age of 13 and that was my first time accepting who I am in front of another individual,” he tells PinkNews.
Jay socially transitioned in 2020. Before that, for the first decade of his career, he lost countless gigs because he didn’t conform to the idea of a “female-fronted act – someone who would doll up”. He also missed important networking opportunities because of his own inhibitions about being visible in public.
“However, over the years, I have become a little less afraid of being myself in front of everyone and having hard conversations,” he says.
Now, Jay is a successful musician – he even recorded a song for a Netflix movie,Looop Lapeta. He’s taken control of his own life, and he wants others to be able to do the same.
“We have had enough of allowing people to make decisions for us,” he says.
“Experts need to work in collaboration with individuals to formulate better policies, practices, frameworks, and healthcare for trans people — I hope for that change in the future.
“And it’s time we stop waiting around for someone to do it for us. LGBTQ+ individuals need to come together and make it happen. And I will tell you, this has already begun.”
Aditya Tiwari is an award-winning writer and queer activist. He tweets at@aprilislush.
Fabu Olmedo is so nervous about clubs and restaurants in Paraguay that before a night out she often contacts one to make sure that she’ll be let in and won’t be attacked or harassed.
Olmedo doesn’t know if she can go out in public safely because daily life is hard for transgender people in the capital, Asunción. Now, a new group of allies in Latin America is trying to make life better by changing minds in this socially conservative and often highly religious region.
Founded in 2017, the Latin American Movement of Mothers of LGTB+ Children lobbies governments to eliminate prejudical laws and better enforce existing bans on violence and discrimination.
It’s a difficult fight that will require patience and a years of effort but the mothers are working together to help others in their position, and function as a refuge for LGBTQ children whose families are not as supportive.
“It’s all about recognizing the strength and power that we have as mothers to accompany our kids and help other families,” said Alejandra Muñoz, 62, of Mexico City. Her son Manuel came out 11 years ago and suffered so much bullying at school that he spent recesses with the teachers.
“He’s constantly at risk of being yelled at or worse in the street because of his sexuality,” she said.
Olmedo, 28, said that in July she was barred from an Asunción nightclub with her friends.
“Many times they let you in but there are violent people inside,” Olmedo said.
The Latin American Movement of Mothers of LGTB+ Children held its first in-person meeting in early November in Buenos Aires, where they attended the annual massive gay pride march on Nov. 5.
“Our main battle is to make sure our children enjoy the same rights in all of Latin America,” said Patricia Gambetta, 49, the head of the Latin American Movement of Mothers of LGTB+ Children, which has members in 14 countries and the goal of expanding to all the countries in the region.
The work of the mothers is often made more complicated by the enduring power of the Catholic Church, which teaches that gay acts are “intrinsically disordered.” The increasingly popular evangelical faith also often preaches against same-sex relationships.
There are stark differences in the acceptance of sexual minorities across Latin America. Argentina and Uruguay have been regional pioneers in marriage equality and transgender rights. Other countries in the region have yet to institute protections for the LGBTQ population.
Marriage equality became law in all of Mexico’s states last month. Honduras and Paraguay both ban same-sex marriage. In Guatemala, a conservative congress has repeatedly tried to pass legislation that would censor information about LGBTQ people. In Brazil, at the federal and state level there are bills and laws that either ban, or would ban, information about sexual orientation and gender identity, said Cristian González Cabrera, LGBT-rights researcher for Latin America and the Caribbean at Human Rights Watch.
And laws often fail to tell the full story.
“Irrespective of what legal regime a youth finds themselves in, prejudice and discrimination in the region continue to be commonplace,” González Cabrera said.
Vitinia Varela Mora said that her daughter, Ana María, decided to hide her lesbian identity after seeing other gay students bullied at her school in Tilarán, Costa Rica, which is about 124 miles (200km) from the capital, San José. She came out to her mother at 21.
In some countries, mothers who try to help their children deal with discrimination suddenly find themselves the subject of scrutiny.
Claudia Delfín tried to seek help in government offices for her transgender twins, who were facing bullying and discrimination in their school in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, when they were 16.
“They told me to go to church and look for a better path. They practically sent me to pray,” Delfín said.
Varela Mora of Costa Rica says it took her around two years to accept her daughter after the girl came out as a lesbian in what hit her mother like “a bucket of cold water.”
“There’s a lack of education, no one prepares you for this,” Varela Mora said. Now she tries to make up for that by supporting other mothers whose children have come out of the closet.
“It’s important for young people to feel they have a mom who understands them when they aren’t supported in their homes,” the 59-year-old woman said.
Groups of LGBTQ parents are “vitally important to show that regressive political projects do not respond to the needs of the region’s diverse communities,” González Cabrera of Human Rights Watch said.
Delfín said that she is one of two mothers in Santa Cruz who are activists fighting for their LGBTQ children. Elena Ramírez, Olmedo’s mom, also says that many trans children who are having trouble at home come to her for refuge.
“I’m a mom to all of them,” Ramírez, 66, said. “I know there are mothers that I will not be able to convince, but there are other children who really are in need.”
Gambetta says that all the mothers in the organization effectively end up training each other in their monthly virtual meetings.
“As mothers we have greater reach, we can raise more awareness,” Gambetta said. “When your family supports you, you’ve already won 99% of the battle.”
A trans royal reportedly fled from Qatar to the UK in 2015, fearing persecution in his home country.
According to leaked documents obtained by The Sunday Times, the unnamed royal is a trans man who escaped from his security during a family trip to London in 2015 and went into hiding with his girlfriend. He was then granted asylum in Britain.
The leaked documents showed that the royal told the Home Office that “growing up in Qatar has been the most difficult thing I have had to do”, because “I never wanted to be put in this body”.
He added: “I am born a female but was male on the inside. Being gay in Qatar is considered punishable by law and death. Qatar is extremely strict in Sharia.”
The leaked asylum application, which was reportedly granted in December 2015, contained an application for a name change, The Sunday Times reported.
Letters included in the Home Office application reportedly claimed the royal had been “depressed ever since I can remember simply because my outside never matched my inside”.
He added that he wanted to start a new life away from Qatar, “where I would have the life that I always wanted, which was to be a boy”.
He claimed that restrictions were placed on his freedom of movement by his family due to his identity.
“I felt as though my life had been thrown in the garbage. I never wanted to marry my male cousins like the rest of my family. I am terrified for what my brothers are about to unleash. I am scared,” the unnamed royal wrote.
LGBTQ+ rights in Qatar
In Qatar homosexuality is illegal, and being found guilty of same-sex relations can result in a lengthy prison sentence, while under Sharia law it is possible for men to face the death penalty if they are found to have engaged in same-sex intimacy.
Former Wales captain Laura McAllister was asked to “take her rainbow hat off” – which was designed by LGBTQ+ football organisation The Rainbow Wall – before entering the World Cup stadium.
“I pointed out that FIFA had made lots of comments about supporting LGBT rights in this tournament, and said to them that coming from a nation where we’re very passionate about equality for all people, I wasn’t going to take my hat off,” McAllister told the outlet.
“They were insistent that unless I took the hat off we weren’t actually allowed to come into the stadium.”
PinkNews contacted the Home Office for confirmation of the royal’s story, which said it would not comment on individual cases.