International

/ /

‘A virtual death sentence’: Gay Afghans brace for uncertain future under Taliban

N, a 20-year-old student living in Afghanistan, is in hiding as she hopes for news that she and her family can leave the country. As a lesbian, she believes she will be targeted by the Taliban government.  “They will kill us without sympathy,” she said, requesting that her full name and exact location not be published to protect her safety.   Faraz, who asked to be identified by only one name, is a 25-year-old gay man who said he fears for himself and his three sons. He fears he and his family will be kidnapped and killed if they remain in […]

/ /

‘We live in fear’: Over 6,000 migrants in Mexico have been violently attacked

,

Yorje Pérez Moreno traveled thousands of miles from Venezuela to reach Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, leaving his family, friends and studies, as he fled the violence of state security forces who allegedly persecuted him for participating in anti-government protests. “My dream was to finish college, but they wouldn’t let me. They beat me, chased me and threatened to imprison me, that’s why I had to leave,” Pérez Moreno, 23, said.  He said that in early August, when he was finally a few miles from the U.S. border, he took a taxi with a friend who accompanied him to request asylum at the […]

/ /

Moscow man abducted to Chechnya and interrogated about LGBT+ activists

,

A Moscow man was abducted and taken to Chechnya where he was interrogated for information on LGBT+ activists, the Russian LGBT Network reports. On Wednesday (25 August), the group said that a Dagestan native named Ibragim Selimkhanov was approached by four Chechen-speaking men near a subway station in the city’s Novogireyevo District on 15 May. The men, who were wearing civilian clothes, forced him into a car and took his passport, phone and apartment keys. He was driven to the airport and ordered onto a plane which took him to the Chechen capital of Grozny. On arrival he was handed […]

/ /

Harris meets with LGBTQ activists in Vietnam

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday met with two LGBTQ rights activists in Vietnam. Harris’ office said Chu Thanh Hà Ngoc, a transgender activist, and Đoàn Thanh Tùng, an LGBTQ advocate, participated in a “roundtable discussion with the vice president and Vietnamese social advocacy organizations” that took place at the U.S. Chief of Mission’s home in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital. “It is critical that if we are to take on the challenges we face that we do it in a way that is collaborative, that we must empower leaders in every sector, including of course government but community leaders, business […]

/ /

Chinese social media app WeChat deletes university LGBTQ accounts

Chinese tech giant Tencent’s WeChat social media platform has deleted dozens of LGBTQ accounts run by university students, saying some had broken rules on information on the internet, sparking fear of a crackdown on gay content online. Members of several LGBTQ groups told Reuters that access to their accounts was blocked late on Tuesday and they later discovered that all of their content had been deleted. “Many of us suffered at the same time,” said the account manager of one group who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue. “They censored us without any warning. All […]

/ /

10 UK laws that changed the course of history for LGBT+ rights

Karen Holden, LGBT+ lawyer and founder of A City Law Firm, writes for PinkNews about the legal leaps and bounds the UK has made in the last three decades. It has been almost 54 years since the decriminalisation of homosexualitystarted, sparking the decades-long fight for LGBT+ equality under British law. t all kicked off on 21 July 1967 with the Sexual Offences Act (the law that started to recognise LGBT+ rights). Since this monumental move, we have made some phenomenal steps forward. In light of this upcoming anniversary, let’s celebrate some of the most game-changing laws that have transformed the lives of the community […]

/ /

Trans woman banned from seeing her kids had her human rights violated, top court rules

,

Russia discriminated against a trans woman and violated her right to family life by denying her any contact with her children, Europe’s leading human rights court has ruled. In a landmark judgement released on Tuesday (6 July), the European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled in favour of a divorced trans woman who was blocked by Russian domestic courts from seeing her two young children back in 2017. It marks the first time the court has found a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights’ prohibition of discrimination (Article 14) on the basis of a person’s gender identity. Russia ratified the convention […]

/ /

Viktor Orbán absurdly claims Hungary’s cruel anti-LGBT+ law ‘is not about homosexuality’

,

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has claimed that his cruel law banning the “promotion” of LGBT+ lives to minors is “not about homosexuality”. In June, Orbán and his ruling party passed legislation restricting the portrayal of LGBT+ people on media, school materials and advertisements aimed at minors. It was quickly compared to Russia’s “gay propaganda bill” and Britain’s Section 28. But faced with backlash from EU leaders, Orbán simply sidestepped their concerns with an astonishing claim at a European Council summit last week. “It’s not about homosexuality,” he said, according to the Independent. “It’s about the kids and the parents. “I am defending the rights […]

/ /

Hatred of LGBT people now a key plank in Hungary’s authoritarian turn

During last month’s European championship soccer match between Germany and Hungary, the rainbow was everywhere on the German side. The German goalie wore a rainbow armband; the team’s fans donned rainbow wigs and waved rainbow flags.  All of this was directed at the opposing side: The Germans were protesting a new Hungarian law banning LGBTQ sex education and media directed at minors — a measure that has sparked outrage in Europe and elsewhere against Hungary.  While this may look like a PR mess for Hungary’s ruling right-wing Fidesz party, it’s in keeping with the right-wing populist playbook that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has turned to […]

/ /

Anti-gay ‘conversion therapy’ at African clinics run by aid-funded groups

Major aid donors have said they will investigate and take action against anti-LGBT ‘conversion therapy’ practices at clinics run by groups they fund, in response to findings from an openDemocracy investigation A new undercover investigation by the global news outlet openDemocracy reveals how health facilities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have provided, or provided referrals for, controversial anti-gay ‘conversion therapy’ to “quit” same-sex attraction  Undercover reporters were told by some staff at these facilities that being gay is “evil”, “for whites”, caused by peer pressure, and a mental health problem, and told to give a gay teenager a sleeping pill […]

«‹ 69 70 71 72›»