International

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Thousands rally for Warsaw Pride in defiant protest of Poland’s rising tide of homophobia

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Thousands rallied in Warsaw for the largest Pride parade in central Europe, taking a defiant stand against the rising tide of homophobia in Poland. Marchers gathered amid a sea of rainbow flags for the Warsaw equality parade on Saturday (19 June), with the city’s mayor Rafal Trzaskowski marching at the head in a prominent sign of support. Postponed for two years due to COVID, the event marked the 20th anniversary since Warsaw’s first ever Pride – yet the celebrations were tinged with fear for the future in the heavily Catholic, largely conservativenation. “The day of the parade is always a bittersweet […]

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Hungary’s parliament passes anti-LGBTQ law ahead of 2022 election

Hungary’s parliament passed legislation on Tuesday that bans the dissemination of content in schools deemed to promote homosexuality and transgender issues, amid strong criticism from human rights groups and opposition parties. Hardline nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who faces an election next year, has grown increasingly radical on social policy, railing against LGBTQ people and immigrants in his self-styled illiberal regime, which has deeply divided Hungarians. His Fidesz party, which promotes a Christian-conservative agenda, tacked the proposal banning school talks on LGBTQ issues to a separate, widely backed bill that strictly penalizes pedophilia, making it much harder for opponents to […]

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Hungary: Reject Bill Banning Discussion of LGBT Issues

Hungary’s parliament should reject a bill that would prohibit discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation, and violates Hungary’s international legal obligations, Human Rights Watch said today. The law targets content “promoting” or “portraying” sexual and gender diversity and could have sweeping consequences for health providers, educators, and artists, among others. The draft “Laws enabling stricter action against pedophile offenders and the protection of children” bans the “portrayal and the promotion of gender identity different from sex at birth, the change of sex and homosexuality” aimed at people under 18. The bill, sponsored by Fidesz, the ruling party, is due for […]

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Nearly 1 in 5 young adults say they’re not straight, global survey finds

An increasing number of young adults identify as nonheterosexual and noncisgender, according to a new global survey from Ipsos. The results, released Wednesday, are based on internet surveys of more than 19,000 people in 27 countries ages 16 or 18 (depending on the country) to 74. The surveys were conducted in the languages of each country. Respondents in Generation Z, which includes people born after 1997, were nearly four times as likely than those over 40 (4 percent compared to 1 percent) to identify as transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, gender-fluid or “in another way.” They were also the age group most likely […]

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Eager to represent: Gay and trans Mexican candidates running in key vote

Gay, lesbian and transgender candidates are competing for votes in Mexico’s midterm election, aiming to upset politics as usual in the largely Roman Catholic, socially conservative Latin American country. A total of 117 candidates, or nearly 2 percent of more than 6,000 hopefuls running for office on Sunday who responded to a survey by national electoral institute INE, identified as part of the LGBTQ community. About 21,000 local and national races are being contested in the vote, including 15 governorships and all 500 seats in the lower house of Congress, in a pivotal election for the agenda of leftist President […]

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Indian court calls for sweeping reforms to respect LGBTQ rights

A court in India ordered state and federal officials on Monday to draw up plans for sweeping reforms to respect LGBTQ rights, in a ruling that went far beyond the narrow terms of a case brought by a lesbian couple who said they had been harassed by police. Judge Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court ruled in favor of the couple, who had complained that police had subjected them to harassing questioning after their parents filed a missing persons report. But the judge also used the opportunity to issue a broad ruling that called for the elimination of what […]

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Namibia on track to finally decriminalise gay sex

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Namibia is on pace to decriminalise homosexuality by the end of the year as ministers pave a long-sought path to scrapping its decades-old anal sex ban. The government’s Law Reform and Development Commission, a law reform agency, recommended in reports published Monday (17 May) that the country’s sodomy laws be overturned. Justice minister Yvonne Dausa confirmed to the Windhoek Observer, a local newspaper, that she will be submitting draft proposals to the cabinet to do just that in two weeks time – with a potential for the ban to be binned by the end of the year. As the committee reports […]

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LGBT hate crime bill polarizes Italy

 A proposed law that would criminalize violence and hate speech against LGBT people in Italy has thrown together an unlikely alliance of opponents. Some feminists and lesbian associations have joined the Catholic church and the political right in opposing a bill that would add gay, transgender people and the disabled to the categories protected by a law punishing religion and race-based hate crimes. Conflict over the proposed legislation has become an ideological battle at the heart of the culture wars in Italy, pitting freedom of expression against protection of those at risk of discrimination and victimization. Catholic leaders say the […]

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Pressure mounts for Pride organisers to ban police from marching

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Pride organisers in Melbourne, Australia, have been called to ban uniformed police officers from an annual parade because the force “pose a risk” to LGBT+ attendees. Midsumma Pride, run by the decades-old arts and culture organisation Midsumma Festival, is facing fierce calls from two top state and local advocacy groups to ban cops from its annual parade on 23 May. For almost two decades, the authorities have taken part in Midsumma Pride, with a contingent from the Victoria Police and Sheriff’s Office Of Victoria set to march in the emergency services wave this year. But the Victorian Pride Lobby and the Sydney-based […]

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Japan: New Momentum to Reform Transgender Law

Transgender people in Japan face continuing barriers to changing their legally recognized gender, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Japanese government should heed increasing calls from activists and experts to revise its abusive and outdated transgender recognition law. The 43-page report, “‘The Law Undermines Dignity’: Momentum to Revise Japan’s Legal Gender Recognition Process,” documents the persistent barriers transgender people face in Japan under the Gender Identity Disorder (GID) Special Cases Act. The procedure for changing one’s legally recognized gender, which requires sterilization surgery and an outdated psychiatric diagnosis, is anachronistic, harmful, and discriminatory. Many transgender people in Japan […]

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