International

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Tunisia the first Arab Country to recognise Same-sex marriage – but There’s a Catch

The Republic of Tunisia has become the first Arab state to recognise a same-sex marriage, a Tunisian LGBT+ rights organisation has announced. According to Association Shams, a marriage settlement between a Frenchman, 31, and a Tunisian man, 26, was legally recognised in Tunisia for the first time on Friday. Homosexuality is illegal in the north African country and same-sex marriage is not yet permitted, but the marriage in question was formalised in France. It was officially noted in the birth certificate of the Tunisian registry, allowing the Tunisian man to obtain a visa for family reunification. Both men have remained anonymous for […]

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Six Trans and Non-binary Democrats Say They were Disqualified ‘Because of their Gender’

Six trans candidates said they have been eliminated from the race to represent their communities at county level by the Brooklyn Democratic Party because of their gender. In March, Nandani Bharrat, Casey Bohannon, Michael Donatz, Derek Gaskill, Paige Havener and Angela LaScala-Gruenewald all submitted petitions to run for seats on the governing body of the Brooklyn Democratic Party. They are all trans, non-binary, or gender non-conforming, and had all left the gender field blank when they applied to run in the upcoming June and December elections, because there was only a male or female option. On April 22, the six […]

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Lesbians, Gays Live in Fear of Attacks in Kenyan Refugee Camp

Eva Nabagala hoped she and her young son would be safe from her family when they fled Uganda for a Kenyan refugee camp – but instead, the 28-year-old says she was attacked and raped there as punishment for being a lesbian. “I have been threatened with death, I have been beaten, I have been harassed sexually, and I have been sexually abused, raped,” Nabagala told Reuters by phone. She’s one of a group of around 300 gay, lesbian and transgender refugees in Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya, who say other refugees repeatedly attack them because of their sexual orientation. […]

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Gay Man Commits Suicide after being Outed by Trans Influencer

LGBT+ activists have confirmed that at least one gay man in Morocco has died by suicide after being hunted down and publicly outed by a transgender beauty influencer. Gay men in Morocco have been living in terror for the past fortnight, after beauty influencer Naofal Moussa, also known as Sofia Talouni, instructed her hundreds of thousands of followers to use gay dating apps to identify them. Moussa, whose verified Instagram account had 627,000 followers before it was deleted, used a series of Instagram Live videos to encourage straight women in Morocco to create fake accounts on Grindr and Planet Romeo. She […]

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Meet the UK’s First-ever Openly HIV-positive Mayor

The UK’s first-ever openly HIV positive mayor, Philip Normal, has been elected in Lambeth, South London. He has pledged to support LGBT+ rights and de-stigmatise living with HIV. Philip Normal, 38, is an artist who has a shop in Brixton Village Market and has represented Lambeth’s Oval ward since the May 2018 local government elections. Normal, who lives in Kennington, was elected the Labour mayor at Lambeth’s first-ever virtual annual general meeting on April 22. “I am incredibly honoured to become your mayor today,” he said in his acceptance speech. “I look forward to working with you all, and with the diverse […]

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Lesbian Couple’s Custody Case Takes China into Uncharted Legal Waters

A Chinese lesbian couple’s landmark court battle over the custody of their two children has stirred debate over LGBTQ rights and put a spotlight on a legal vacuum created by the absence of a same-sex marriage law. Shanghai resident Zhang Peiyi split up with her partner last year. The partner has since broken off communication and taken their two toddlers away to an unknown location. So Zhang has turned to the courts, filing a case in the eastern province of Zhejiang this month, to fight for custody of one of the children, the one she gave birth to, and visitation […]

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Award-winning Photographer who Fled Iran to Live as a Gay Man Dies of Coronavirus

Groundbreaking gay photographer Shahin Shahablou, who fled Iran for London in order to be himself, has died from coronavirus. Shahablou left Iran, where homosexuality is illegal, for Britain in 2011. He gained refugee status and went on to become an award-winning photographer. He died last week, on April 15, from coronavirus complications, just months after meeting his partner Kevin Lismore, Buzzfeed News‘ Patrick Strudwick reports. “He really wanted someone that he could share his life with,” Lismore told Buzzfeed. “He said he would never be able to find a partner there in Iran; that it would just be sex. But he wanted a partner […]

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Philippines Uses Humiliation as COVID Curfew Punishment

The spread of COVID-19 has given Philippines law enforcement broad discretion to enforce public health measures. When discrimination is added to the mix, that unfettered power can be particularly demeaning and dehumanizing for vulnerable groups. On April 5, volunteers in the village of Pandacaqui, in Pampanga province stopped and detained three LGBT people outside after curfew, two of whom explained they were running an errand for their grandmother. A village official accused them of looking for illicit sex and, as punishment, publicly humiliated them by ordering them to kiss, dance, and do push-ups on live video broadcast on social media. They were […]

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Uganda LGBT Shelter Residents Arrested on COVID-19 Pretext

Living in a shelter for homeless people shouldn’t be illegal. But according to Ugandan police, 23 people living at a shelter serving lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Kampala are guilty of “a negligent act likely to spread infection of disease,” as well as “disobedience of lawful orders.” Police were presumably enforcing presidential directives to combat the spread of COVID-19, including one prohibiting public gatherings of more than 10 people. The homeless youth were indoors at a shelter in Nsangi, near Kampala, run by the nongovernmental organization Children of the Sun Foundation. No order limits the number of residents in […]

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Gay Man Flees Turkmenistan after Being Horrifically Beaten by Police

A gay man has detailed his horrific experience of being beaten by police in his home country of Turkmenistan for the simple crime of having HIV. The 23-year-old spoke anonymously about his ordeal to RadioFreeEurope. He has successfully claimed asylum in a European country, but he is still haunted by the anti-gay brutality he faced at home. Maksat hid his sexuality when he was growing up in the central Asian country, and he fled to Russia to study business management when he was 18-years-old. In 2019, Maksat was diagnosed with HIV. He was later deported under a Russian law that sends HIV-positive foreign nationals back to […]

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