India’s Tamil Nadu state government has issued an executive order banning medically unnecessary surgeries on children born with intersex variations.
“Intersex,” sometimes called “differences of sex development” in medical literature, refers to the estimated 1.7 percent of people born with sex characteristics – such as chromosomes, gonads, or genitals – that differ from social expectations of female or male. Except in very rare cases when the child cannot urinate or internal organs are exposed, these variations are medically benign natural variations of human anatomy, and do not require surgery.
But in the 1960s, surgeons in the United States popularized “normalizing” cosmetic operations on intersex children, such as procedures to reduce the size of the clitoris. These types of surgeries have since become common globally. United Nations human rights treaty bodies have condemned the operations 40 times since 2011.
The Tamil Nadu order comes in response to an April court judgment prohibiting “normalizing” surgeries until the patient is old enough to consent.
For decades, intersex advocates around the world have asked governments and the medical community to develop standards to defer surgical procedures until the patient can consent. But medical organizations have largely been unwilling to engage on the issue.
In Tamil Nadu, the Indian Association of Pediatric Surgeons said the government must exclude intersex-related surgeries from the ban – effectively opposing the ban, which the government has so far ignored. While the order is promising, there’s still a long way to go to ensure the rights of intersex people.
The order bans genital surgeries except in “life-threatening situations,” and warns against surgeons deliberately misinterpreting that clause to continue performing medically unnecessary operations. A committee will be created to define this threshold.
Two seats on the committee are reserved for doctors, while one is for a “social worker/psychology worker/intersex activist,” and the other for a government representative. Given the lack of a guarantee that an intersex person will be present, the committee should avoid falling into the trap of ignoring intersex voices in favor of medical authority.
Tamil Nadu has stepped out as a leader in respecting informed consent rights of intersex people. Their next steps should create a policy based on medical evidence and human rights.
The LGBT Pride March in Honduras’s San Pedro Sula, which drew 450 people, was the uplifting culmination of a week of Pride activities that also included more sober reflections, such as a candlelight vigil for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people killed in Honduras.
LGBT activists led the August 24 march with a banner that read, “Honduras inhabitable LGBTI,” meaning “Honduras unlivable [for] LGBTI.” Despite the activists’ courage and pride, which I also observed at Tegucigalpa’s march on the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia in May, violence against LGBT people does make Honduras unlivable for many.
In a country where many cannot safely express their sexual orientation or gender identity publicly, it is hard to measure how much violence LGBT people in Honduras suffer. The Honduran government told Human Rights Watch it has no data on how many victims of violence are LGBT.
Absent official statistics, Lesbian Network Cattrachas maintains an observatory tallying cases of violence against LGBT people based on media monitoring and direct reports. According to Cattrachas, in 2018, 25 LGBT people were killed: 16 gay men, 5 trans people, and 4 lesbian women. And the situation appears to be worsening: the number of killings tallied between January and August of 2019 – 13 gay men, 7 trans people, and 6 lesbian women – already outpaces the entire year of 2018. San Pedro Sula is located in the region where Cattrachas has documented the highest rates of violence against LGBT people.
Hondurans endure extraordinary levels of violence regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Gang violence abounds – in some cases Human Rights Watch investigated, LGBT victims may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But in other instances, violence appears targeted. Shakira, a trans woman also known by her nickname La Loba (the Wolf), was killed on June 9 in Choloma, 10 miles north of San Pedro Sula. A person who saw Shakira’s body told me her face was mutilated with a rock, her penis was cut off, and a note was left by her body that said, “[this] is the first one, two more to go.”
In the face of such violence, a pride march is an act of defiance.
Juan Carlos is a 39-year-old man from the Venezuelan capital of Caracas who has been living with HIV for more than a decade.
Juan Carlos arrived in Colombia in February. Juan Carlos, who asked the Washington Blade not to publish his last name, on Monday said during a telephone interview from Giraldot, a city in Colombia’s Cundinamarca department that is roughly 80 miles southwest of the Colombian capital of Bogotá, there are food shortages in Venezuela and people have died because of a lack of medications.
“If you don’t have any money … or you don’t support the current government you don’t have anything,” he told the Blade. “It is unfortunately very sad.”
Venezuela’s worsening economic and political crisis has prompted Juan Carlos and more than 4 million other Venezuelans to leave the country in recent years.
The New York-based Aid for AIDS International estimates more than 10,000 Venezuelans with HIV have left the country in recent years. Service providers in Caracas and other Venezuelan cities with whom the Blade has spoken since the beginning of the year say Venezuelans with HIV/AIDS have died because of the lack of available antiretroviral drugs.
Cúcuta in Colombia’s Norte de Santander department is less than 10 miles from the Táchira River that marks the country’s border with Venezuela. AIDS Healthcare Foundation is among the HIV/AIDS service organizations that work in the Colombian border city.
Archila on May 16 told the Blade his organization has provided medication and basic health care to more than 100 Venezuelans with HIV since June 2018. Archila also said UNHCR and Aid for AIDS are among the organizations with which Fundación Censurados works.
Archila told the Blade many of the Venezuelans with HIV with whom he and his colleagues have worked have diabetes and other chronic conditions. Archila also said many Venezuelan migrants in Cúcuta — including men who have sex with men and transgender women — become sex workers in order to support themselves.
“Cúcuta has absolutely borne the brunt of the migration,” said Archila.
‘Things for a good quality of life have simply collapsed’ in Venezuela
Yorjan Rios is from Maracay, the capital of Venezuela’s Aragua state. He left Venezuela more than a year ago and now lives with his partner in Bucaramanga, a city in Colombia’s Santander department that is roughly five hours southwest of Cúcuta.
Rios on May 17 told the Blade at the Victory Institute-sponsored conference it remains “almost impossible” for Venezuelans with HIV to receive antiretroviral drugs in their country.
“All levels of health, food, education … the three main things for a good quality of life have simply collapsed,” he said.
Ronny Curvelo and Carlos Morales Gómez are two LGBTI activists who live in Maicao, a small city on the Guajira Peninsula that is a few miles from the Colombia-Venezuela border. They have worked with Caribe Afirmativo, an advocacy group based in northern Colombia.
Curvelo on May 16 described the influx of Venezuelan migrants into Maicao as a “crisis” when he and Morales spoke with the Blade at the Victory Institute-sponsored conference. Curvelo said rates of HIV in the city, along with violence and the number of people engaged in sex work, has increased since the Blade visited the area in March 2018.
Morales said many Venezuelan migrants with whom he and Curvelo work are hungry and have untreated sexually transmitted diseases when they arrive in Maicao. Morales and Curvelo and other local activists work with UNHCR, but they continue to struggle to provide food and other basic needs to Venezuelan migrants who continue to arrive in the city.
“Their health conditions are totally critical when they come,” said Morales.
One of the main challenges that Colombian service providers told the Blade they face is many Venezuelans with HIV do not know their status when they arrive in Colombia. They also said stigma and discrimination among Colombian health care providers and a lack of resources are additional barriers.
Red Somos, a Bogotá-based HIV/AIDS service organization, provides rapid HIV tests to Venezuelan migrants in the city. Franco Aguilar, a Red Somos staffer who was born in Venezuela, on May 13 told the Blade the organization also provides their Venezuelan clients with psychological care and helps them with their asylum cases.
“This is also more or less replicated by other community-based organizations in Colombia,” he said.
Red Somos Director Miguel Ángel Barriga told the Blade the organization has had “difficulties” obtaining medications for the Venezuelans with HIV with whom he and his colleagues work. Aguilar added many of them cannot afford to see a doctor or travel to Bogotá and other Colombian cities where they can receive better care.
“A doctor’s appointment is very expensive for them,” he said.
Andrés Cardona, a consultant for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malariawho works for the city of Medellín, on Tuesday during a telephone interview noted Venezuelans who are registered in Colombia can access the country’s public health system. Cardona, like many of the Colombian HIV/AIDS service providers with whom the Blade spoke, acknowledged many Venezuelan migrants with HIV do not have access to treatment, in part, because access they don’t know their status.
Low-cost HIV tests are available in Medellín, but Cardona conceded some Venezuelan migrants cannot afford them. Cardona noted a public hospital in a working-class neighborhood in Medellín offers treatment to Venezuelan migrants with HIV once they know their status.
“The care is very good if they are diagnosed and enter the system,” he said.
Cardona in response to the Blade’s question about whether the Colombian government can do more to help Venezuelans with HIV said the situation is “a bit delicate.” Cardona added the influx of Venezuelan migrants into Colombia “caught us by surprise.”
“We were not prepared,” he said.
Juan Carlos, for his part, said he receives medications in Colombia and has enough food to eat.
“My health is under control,” he told the Blade.
Juan Carlos said his mother and other relatives who remain in Caracas still do not know he is living with HIV. Juan Carlos told the Blade it is not possible for him to return to Venezuela
The president of an LGBTI advocacy group in Iceland has criticized her country’s government’s decision to host Vice President Pence next month.
Þorbjörg Þorvaldsdóttir, president of Samtökin ’78, the National Queer Organization of Iceland, in an op-ed that Vísir, an Icelandic newspaper, published on Aug. 11 wrote Pence is “against our marriages” and is “in favor of us being discriminated against.” Þorvaldsdóttir also noted Pence as governor of Indiana in 2015 signed a controversial religious freedom law that sparked widespread outrage among LGBTI activists and their supporters.
“He feels it is natural for people to deny us service for who we are,” wrote Þorvaldsdóttir.
Þorvaldsdóttir, among other things, notes Pence has “harshly criticized legislation designed to protect us from hate crimes.” Þorvaldsdóttir also highlights the Trump administration’s ban on openly transgender servicemembers in the U.S. military that took effect on April 12.
“Now, the government of Iceland intends to welcome Mike Pence, politely talk to him about business consulations and strengthen relations with the United States,” wrote Þorvaldsdóttir. “All such programs are pure and clever disregard for the community of queer people in Iceland.”
“We will not be silence on the fact that he is welcomed to this country,” added Þorvaldsdóttir. “Not a chance.”
Pence is scheduled to visit Iceland on Sept. 4. A press release from his office says he “will highlight Iceland’s strategic importance in the Arctic, NATO’s efforts to counter Russian aggression in the region and opportunities to expand mutual trade and investment.”
Þorvaldsdóttir on Tuesday reaffirmed criticism of Pence’s visit.
“It is incredibly disrespectful to the LGBTQ+ community in Iceland to invite him here with open arms,” Þorvaldsdóttir told the Blade in an email.
Þorvaldsdóttir said the Trump administration is “highly unpopular in Iceland.” Þorvaldsdóttir nevertheless said many Icelanders “have been very aware of the setbacks in LGBTQ+ rights … under the current U.S. administration or Mike Pence’s problematic history on those matters.”
“I think many more people are aware now,” Þorvaldsdóttir told the Blade.
Þorvaldsdóttir added reaction to the group’s criticism in Iceland “has largely been positive.”
“Obviously, not everyone shares our profound dismay over the fact that our government is receiving Pence in the first place,” said Þorvaldsdóttir. “However, that disagreement doesn’t come from Mike Pence being especially popular. People simply feel that he should be welcomed like any other leader in the name of diplomacy, despite his harmful views and policies.”
“That said, I think most Icelanders share the sentiment that Mike Pence has views that go against our core values here in Iceland,” added Þorvaldsdóttir.
Pence’s scheduled trip to Iceland will take place against the backdrop of continued criticism of the Trump administration’s anti-LGBTI rights record in the U.S. and its overall foreign policy.
Activists in Denmark last August boycotted the U.S. Embassy’s annual Pride month celebration over Trump’s LGBTI rights record. Francisco Rodríguez Cruz, a gay Cuban blogger who writes under the pen name Paquito el de Cuba and works closely with Mariela Castro, the daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro who spearheads LGBTI-specific issues as director of the country’s National Center for Sexual Education, in 2017 refused to attend an event at the U.S. Embassy in Havana after the Trump administration expelled two of his country’s diplomats from the U.S.
Richard Grenell, the openly gay U.S. ambassador to Germany, on July 26 hosted a group of LGBTI activists from around the world as part of a Trump administration initiative that encourages countries to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. The International AIDS Society’s Conference on HIV Science that took place last month in Mexico City showcased numerous LGBTI-specific HIV/AIDS studies from around the world the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the U.S. Agency for International Development supported.
Þorvaldsdóttir told the Blade she would accept an invitation to meet with Pence under the condition “that I be allowed to wear the rainbow and speak freely about LGBTQ+ rights.” Þorvaldsdóttir then proceeded to once again criticize the Trump administration’s LGBTI rights record, specifically noting more than a dozen transgender of color have been reported killed in the U.S. this year and “the administration doesn’t seem to care or acknowledge that there is a problem.”
“Looking at it from the outside and as someone who has a fondness for the U.S. and friends in the States, seeing the consistent attacks on LGBTQ+ rights right now is chilling,” said Þorvaldsdóttir. “And somehow, the administration’s efforts to undermine and roll back progress that has been made in recent years appears to fall under the radar, likely due to the many bizarre things that come out of the White House every day.”
Zuleika, 25, is a transgender woman from El Salvador’s San Vicente department.
She had been living at Casa Respetttrans, a shelter for LGBTI migrants in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, run by Respetttrans Chihuahua, a local trans advocacy group, for more than a month when the Washington Blade spoke with her on July 16. Zuleika said her ultimate goal was to receive asylum in the U.S.
“The U.S. is a free society,” she told the Blade.
Zuleika is among the tens of thousands of migrants who have traveled to Ciudad Juárez in recent months with the hope they will enter the U.S. and receive asylum. El Paso, Texas, which is across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juárez, remains a flashpoint over President Trump’s hardline immigration policy.
Casa Respetttrans opened in its current location in Ciudad Juárez earlier this year. Zuleika was among the 36 migrants — including Leche Merchant, a trans woman from Mexico’s Guerrero state who had been in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, N.M., for two years until July 15 — were living at the shelter when the Blade visited it.
Casa Respetttrans Director Grecia Herrera noted Respetttrans Chihuahua is a group that advocates on behalf of trans women.
Herrera said the group had to “diversify” because Ciudad Juárez did not have any shelters that specifically served LGBTI migrants. Herrera told the Blade that Respetttrans Chihuahua now provides services to Mexicans of indigenous descent who have been displaced from other parts of the country, people who use drugs and other vulnerable groups.
“This space does not only think about the migrant population,” she said.
Programa Compañeros is another organization in Ciudad Juárez that provides assistance to LGBTI migrants.
The group, which formed in the 1980s in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, distributes feminine hygiene products and other items to migrants in the city. Programa Compañeros also works to promote safer sex practices and fights violence against women in Ciudad Juárez.
People who use drugs who participate in twice-weekly meetings at Programa Compañeros’ offices are able to eat a hot meal, take a shower and receive medical care. Some of men in the program have either had sex with other men in order to support their drug habit or have been deported from the U.S.
Programa Compañeros Director María Elena Ramos on July 16 told the Blade that women and girls who hope to enter the U.S. are frequently forced into prostitution. Ramos said they are also vulnerable to human trafficking.
“Their body is their passport to cross all of these invisible borders that exist,” she said. “They are in a very difficult situation and they exchange sex to buy things they need. It is the only option that they have.”
The New York Times on Sunday reported 5,600 asylum seekers in Ciudad Juárez are on waiting lists to enter the U.S. The New York Times also said more than 13,000 migrants have been returned to Ciudad Juárez under the Trump administration’s controversial “remain in Mexico” program that forces them to remain in Mexico as they await the outcome of their asylum cases.
Advocates on both sides of the border with whom the Blade spoke said Ciudad Juárez remains a dangerous city.
A travel advisory the State Department issued on April 9 urges Americans to “reconsider travel” to Mexico’s Chihuahua state in which Ciudad Juárez is located because of crime.
“Violent crime and gang activity are widespread,” reads the advisory. “While most homicides appear to be targeted assassinations carried out by criminal organizations, turf battles between criminal groups have resulted in violent crime in areas frequented by U.S. citizens. Bystanders have been injured or killed in shooting incidents.”
Imelda Maynard, a lawyer for Catholic Charities of Southern New Mexico, on July 15 told the Blade during an interview at a coffee shop in downtown El Paso that many of her clients in Ciudad Juárez “don’t know who to trust over there” because they are afraid of the Mexican police and kidnappers. Maynard also said some of them have to wait until January for their first hearing before an immigration judge.
“There’s no rhyme nor reason to it,” she said.
Johana “Joa” Medina León, a transgender woman from El Salvador, died on June 1 at Del Sol Medical Center in El Paso.
Medina stayed at Casa Respetttrans before she entered the U.S. at the Paso del Norte Port of Entry between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez on April 11. Medina was detained at the privately-run Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, N.M., until ICE released her from its custody on May 28, three days before her death.
Medina’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.
“I really want to know exactly what happened,” Medina’s mother, Patricia Medina de Barrientos, told the Blade on July 22 during an exclusive interview in the Salvadoran capital of San Salvador.
Héctor Ruiz of the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, a New Mexico-based group that advocates on behalf of immigrants, told the Blade at his El Paso office that he did not know about Medina until after she died. Nathan Craig of Advocate Visitors with Immigrants in Detention (AVID) in the Chihuahuan Desert, an organization in Las Cruces, N.M., that visits migrants who are in detention centers, said one of Medina’s podmates with whom he and other AVID volunteers visited had expressed concern about Medina’s “declining health” in the weeks before her death.
“It’s really unfortunate,” Ruiz told the Blade, referring to Medina’s death. “That’s why we’re trying to make more of an effort to have a regular presence in Juárez, or regular contact with folks on the ground in Juárez to ensure there’s a smooth handoff from the groups that are working there.”
Fernández described the circumstances surrounding Medina’s death as “super shady.” Fernández also told the Blade the Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee supports the abolition of ICE, DHS, Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“We don’t want to just better conditions,” said Fernández, referring to the conditions in which migrants are detained. “We don’t want these detention centers to even exist.”
‘Immigration has been a big tinderbox issue for awhile’
A gunman on Aug. 3 killed 22 people and injured more than two dozen others when he opened fire at a Walmart near El Paso’s Cielo Vista Mall, which is less than two miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The gunman, who was from a Dallas suburb, made anti-immigrant and anti-Latino statements before the massacre. The gunman also reportedly praised Trump and his calls for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump in 2015 described Mexicans as “rapists” when he announced he was running for president.
The president in February defended the wall during a rally he held at the El Paso County Coliseum, which is a few blocks from the Bridge of the Americas that connects El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. Trump in the wake of the Walmart massacre condemned white supremacy, but continues to face widespread criticism over his racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Fernández is among those in El Paso who said Trump’s immigration policy is a way for him to appeal to his base ahead of next year’s presidential election.
“Immigration has been a big tinderbox issue for awhile,” said Maynard. “Our system is messed up and it has been for awhile.”
“It didn’t start with the Trump administration,” she added. “But he just found a way to play off of the xenophobia, the otherness of other people and use that and run with it.”
Ramos agreed.
“You have elected a president who has a very aggressive attitude,” she told the Blade. “His campaign slogan … his campaign focus was migrants and at that time the migrants were Mexicans.”
“It’s very bad,” added Ramos. “It is very diabolical.”
Zuleika conceded she was afraid of Trump’s immigration policy, even though she was hopeful the U.S. would grant her asylum. Michelle, a 24-year-old lesbian woman from Soyapango, El Salvador, who was living at Casa Respetttrans with Zuleika, said she hoped to live in California with her partner.
“[El Salvador] is a very dangerous country,” Michelle told the Blade as she sat on a couch next to Willy, a 24-year-old gay man who fled La Ceiba, Honduras, last fall.
“It is very difficult to be a woman in this place,” added Michelle. “There is a lot of vulnerability.”
Herrera on Monday said Willy, Michelle and Zuleika are now in the U.S. Herrera told the Blade that Merchant still lives at Casa Respetttrans.
Brazil’s special secretary of culture, Henrique Medeiros Pires, has stepped down in protest against president Jair Bolsonaro’s censorship of LGBT+ content on TV.
Pires announced his resignation to minister of citizenship, Osmar Terra, on Tuesday, August 27.
One of the targets was Transversais, a five-part documentary series about the lives of five transgender people in Brazil.
According to Pires, however, the suspended funding was just a “drop of water” in all of the Brazilian government’s efforts to censor culture and artistic freedom.
Artforum reported that Pires said: “Today I had a long talk with minister Osmar Terra and saw that I was out of touch with him and president Bolsonaro.
“I do not agree with this filter, which is actually censorship. Article 220 of the constitution guarantees freedom of expression.”
He reportedly said of Bolsonaro’s comments: “The Federal Supreme Court itself says that homophobia is a crime comparable to racism.”
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro wants to apply “filters” to films funded by the government.
However, Pires told Brazilian publication Folha de S.Paulo: “I am not going against anyone, I am just supporting free speech. Either I speak up and get out, or I’ll be complicit.”
In a statement provided for Folha de S.Paulo by the Ministry of Citizenship, the government claimed that Pires did not resign, but rather was asked to leave because “he was not carrying out the policies proposed by the portfolio”.
In July, Jair Bolsonaro threatened to shut down Agencia Nacional do Cinema (ANCINE), the federal film funding agency, if it refused to apply government-backed “filters” on the movies it invested in.He criticised the agency and said it should support projects that reflect “family values”.
Germany, Italy and Canada have announced they will increase their contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France, announced her country has pledged to increase its contribution to the Global Fund by €1 billion ($1.1 billion) — or 17.5 percent — over the next three years. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also announced his country will increase its contribution by €161 million ($178.9 million) — or 15 percent — during the same period.
Canada on Aug. 22 announced it would increase its contribution to the Global Fund by 15.7 percent. Then-British Prime Minister Theresa May in June announced her country would increase its contribution by £1.4 billion ($1.71 billion) — or 16 percent — over the next three years.
A Global Fund spokesperson on Monday told the Blade the European Union will increase its contribution by 16 percent.
“By pledging €1 billion, Germany is truly demonstrating its commitment to stepping up the fight against HIV, TB and malaria and to accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal of health and well-being for all,” said Global Fund Executive Director Peter Sands in a press release that announced Germany’s additional pledge. “We thank Chancellor Merkel for her steadfast leadership in global health. With such extraordinary support we can save millions of lives, get back on track toward ending the epidemics and help build the resilient and sustainable systems of health essential for the delivery of universal health coverage.”
The spokesperson with whom the Blade spoke noted the U.S. contributes $1.35 billion a year to the Global Fund. The spokesperson said this figure is roughly 33 percent of the Global Fund’s overall funding.
The Global Fund has also set what the spokesperson described as “an ambitious goal of raising at least $14 billion by the time it meets in France in October.
“It’s a very tough international environment for raising money, but we think it’s essential (not to mention a great investment!) to take action to end these epidemics,” said the spokesperson. “We’re energized by this week’s announcements, but we need the U.S. to continue to lead.”
The Cayman Islands legalised same-sex marriage exactly five months ago, but a new government appeal could reverse the ruling.
Chantelle Day and her partner Vickie Bodden Bush applied for the right to be married in the Cayman Islands, a British territory, but had their application rejected because they are a same-sex couple.
The appeal from the government opened on Wednesday, August 28.
At the start of the three-day hearing, one of the couple’s lawyers, Jonathan Cooper, told Reuters: “Marriage is a fundamental human right.
“It feels highly inappropriate to force (the couple) through a further appeal process, when the chief justice in the case in the high court was clear that they were entitled to marry.”
Premier of the Cayman Islands called the legalisation of same-sex marriage “bad law”.
Premier of the Cayman Islands, Alden McLaughlin, made a statement about the planned appeal in April in which he said: “I and my entire government have great respect for the chief justice and indeed the independence of the judiciary.
“But even the best judges get it wrong from time to time. Hard cases make bad law. None of us who are human are infallible.”
The Cayman Islands constitution does not explicitly mention same-sex unions, and McLaughlin said that the territory’s bill of rights “deliberately” uses the words “man” and “woman” to define marriage.
He continued: “As premier I will state what I have said many times before – I have no doubt that the feelings of the majority of Caymanians are that marriage should retain its traditional and religious definition and meaning, the union of one man and one woman.”
Police have reportedly arrested two men for having gay sex in Lusaka, Zambia.
According to local media reports, police in the capital raided a property on August 22 after being tipped off by members of the public.
A 52-year-old man was arrested alongside a 21-year-old man after they were caught having sex.
A police spokesperson told Lusaka Times that the 52-year-old man had been charged with ‘having carnal knowledge against the order of nature’.
He said that Zulu is currently in police custody and that the 21-year-old man has been taken away for a medical examination.
One man is taken away for medical examination.
In Zambia, same-sex sexual activity is punishable with up to 14 years in prison under a section of a penal code originally imposed by the British Empire.
It states that “any person who has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature or has carnal knowledge of an animal” is guilty of a felony.
Law enforcers in the country have periodically cracked down on same-sex sexual activity.
Police in Zambia crack down on same-sex sexual activity.
In August last year, two men were convicted for having a consenting same-sex relationship in the country.
Any person who has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature.
And, in February 2018, Zambia police called on the public to help them track down two women who they believed to be in a lesbian relationship.
Officers from the national cybercrime unit started an investigation after seeing photos of the pair on social media which implied they were together, according to Zambian news site Mwebantu.
President Edgar Lungu said in 2013 that “those advocating gay rights should go to hell”, adding that as far as he was concerned, “that issue is foreign to this country”.
Activists and academics who attended a gender and sexuality conference in Lebanon have been banned by the government from re-entering the country.
The NEDWA conference, organised for the fifth year by the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality, aims to allow activists to share knowledge between countries and develop strategies on LGBT+ issues.
On the third day, General Security officers – the intelligence branch of Lebanese security forces – arrived at the hotel where the conference was held to question organisers and take down the details of everyone in attendance.
Now, those details are being used to impose a collective ban on people who were at the conference from re-entering the country, Human Rights Watch said.
Since the conference, six people who took part have tried to return to Lebanon and have been refused entry without being given a reason.
Lama Fakih, acting Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said: “The Lebanese authorities’ actions against the conference is a blatant attempt to restrict the space for free speech and assembly.
“These collective sanctions undermine the rights of advocates who are committed to advancing equality in Lebanon and in the region.”
Lebanon said the ban will prevent “the dismal collapse of society”.
Three of the people denied entry have filed lawsuits to lift the ban, but Lebanon’s General Security has refused, and has confirmed that the ban is because of participation in the NEDWA conference.
The response letter from the director of general security Abbas Ibrahim, provided by Human Rights Watch, states: “The preservation of the security of family and society makes it imperative to take immediate and rapid measures to avoid the dismal collapse of society and prevent and confront any imported vice, and to grant the competent authorities, in particular the General Directorate of General Security represented by its director, the authority to take all required measures to prevent any act that irritates and disrupts the security and stability of society.”
There are no laws in Lebanon to protect LGBT+ people from discrimination. Section 534 of the Lebanese penal code prohibits having sexual relations that “contradict the laws of nature”.Read comments (0)