International

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Four gay men beaten, banished and arrested in Ghana for ‘just trying to live’

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Four men were brutally beaten with sticks and banished for being gay in Tamale, Ghana, capturing the rising tensions – and fears – over an anti-LGBT+ bill. The men, according to graphic video footage seen by activists, were violently battered by a Choggu community leader as a crowd gathered to watch on Tuesday (19 October). According to Pulse, a Ghanian news outlet, a gay couple in the town attacked his ex-partner with a machete. The pair were later interrogated, where the local authorities came to realise the men were gay, the outlet claimed, and named two other gay men involved in the scuffle. They […]

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Democrats press Biden admin to lift embassy ban on discussing gay marriage

More than 60 House Democrats are calling on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to lift the State Department’s blanket ban on U.S. diplomats lobbying for gay marriage in an official capacity. The lawmakers’ request comes after testimony in June from Scott Busby, the acting principal deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau on Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, revealed that the department’s official policy is to not “advocate for or against same-sex marriage overseas.” In a letter addressed to Blinken on Wednesday, the group of lawmakers said the policy was “outdated” and should be “rescinded as a matter of urgency.” “We do not […]

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Gay Afghan burned by Taliban says international LGBT+ community ‘forgot about us’

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A gay man from Afghanistan who was burned by a Taliban member has said he is “shocked” by the lack of support and solidarity shown by the international LGBT+ community. Sohil – whose surname has been withheld to protect his identity – is a young gay Afghan whose life was thrown into disarray when the Taliban seized power in August. Afghanistan was never accepting of homosexuality, but he was in contact with a small network of other gay people. Now, they’re all “living in the shadows” – hiding themselves to evade capture and torture by the extremist group. “Imagine you have all […]

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Botswana attorney general seeks to recriminalize homosexuality

On June 11, 2019, Botswana moved toward being a state that no longer held some of its citizens (and, by extension, visitors) as criminals if they identified within the LGBTQ spectrum. However, the government didn’t take too long before it declared its intention to appeal the High Court judgment that asserted that consensual same-sex sexual activity in private was not to be a criminal act. The appeal hearing took place on Oct. 12. There are some key things to understand about what the High Court did for people in Botswana. The judgment, written and delivered by Justice Leburu, not only put a […]

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Italy blocks hate crime bill after unprecedented opposition from Vatican and far right

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Italy has voted down a bill to tackle hate crimes against women, LGBT+ people and those with disabilities, all in the name of religious freedom. The bill – known as the Zan bill after the Democratic Party lawmaker and LGBT+ rights activist Alessandro Zan, who proposed it – was approved my the Italian parliament’s lower house last year. The Zan bill, which would protect Italians from violence, hate speech and discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and disability, has caused a divide in the country since it was introduced, with critics insisting that it would infringe […]

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Teaching about trans people is a ‘crime against humanity:’ Vladimir Putin

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Russian president Vladimir Putin has attacked gay and trans rights in a fiery speech advocating for “traditional family values”. Speaking at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin said – apparently unironically – that teaching students about the existence of trans people is “on the verge of a crime against humanity”. Stressing that Russia should stick to its own “spiritual values and historical traditions” and stay away from “sociocultural disturbances” in the West, Putin added that Westerners believe in “the aggressive deletion of whole pages of their own history, reverse discrimination against the majority in the interests of minorities”. “It’s […]

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Trans Man Fights Japan’s Sterilization Requirement

A Japanese transgender man, Gen Suzuki, 46, has filed a court request to have his legal gender recognized as male without undergoing sterilization surgery as prescribed by national law. His case highlights the urgent need for Japan to revise its outdated and harmful transgender legislation. In Japan, transgender people who want to legally change their gender must appeal to a family court. Under the “Gender Identity Disorder (GID) Special Cases Act,” applicants must undergo a psychiatric evaluation and be surgically sterilized. They also must be single and without children younger than 20. In 2017, during its Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations […]

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Kuwait: Quash Conviction Against Transgender Woman

A Kuwaiti court has sentenced a transgender woman to prison for “imitating the opposite sex” online, Human Rights Watch said today. Such laws violate the rights to free expression, privacy, and nondiscrimination under Kuwait’s constitution and international law. The authorities should immediately release her and quash the conviction. The court on October 3, 2021, sentenced Maha al-Mutairi, 40, to two years in prison and a fine of 1,000 Kuwaiti dinars (USD 3,315) for “misusing phone communication” by “imitating the opposite sex” online under article 70 of the telecommunication law and article 198 of the penal code. She has been arrested multiple times […]

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Politicians and senior LGBT+ figures stand with Stonewall in wake of BBC attack

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Politicians and senior LGBT+ figures have rushed to defend Stonewall in the wake of a BBC “investigation” into the charity. On Friday (15 October), the BBC published an article headlined Stonewall’s influence on BBC and Ofcom revealed“. Based on a 10-part investigative podcast by the Stephen Nolan programme released on Wednesday (13 October), its purported revelations are that Ofcom continues to submit information to the charity’s Workplace Equality Index program, despite having exited its Diversity Champions Scheme; and that the BBC’s Diversity and Inclusion department has worked closely with Stonewall, Europe’s largest LGBT+ charity. It noted that a “senior figure in […]

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Gay couple’s son finally granted citizenship in landmark Namibian ruling

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The High Court of Namibia has granted citizenship to the son of a gay couple after a long, arduous fight. Namibian Phillip Luhl and his Mexican husband, Guillermo Delgado, fought for years to have their son Yona Luhl-Delgado recognised as a legal Namibian citizen. Yona was born via surrogacy in South Africa in 2019 but Namibian authorities initially refused to accept the birth certificate, insisting on a DNA test to prove a biological link to his father. On Wednesday (13 October) High Court judge Thomas Masuku finally ruled that a paternity test is not needed to prove that Yona is their son, […]

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