Challenge to Ugandan anti-gay law seeks regional impact

Activists in Uganda are continuing their legal battle against the country’s now-defunct Anti-Homosexuality Law, hoping that the Tanzania-based East African Court of Justice will issue a ruling that will make clear such anti-gay laws are unacceptable throughout East Africa.

The challenge is being pursued by the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), which provides legal assistance to LGBTI defendants in Uganda, under the umbrella of the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CSCHRCL),  a coalition of 50 organizations opposed to the Anti-Homosexuality Act. Read More 

Malaysia paper tells Muslims backing opposition is backing gay rights

A right-wing Malaysian newspaper has said supporting opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim means supporting the international LGBTI rights movement ahead of his sodomy trial. Anwar has been prosecuted under the country's colonial anti-gay law four times in what LGBTI groups have called a politically motivated prosecution. He is appealing his March sentence of five years in jail.  Read More

Activists condemn Singapore court gay ruling

Human rights groups have condemned a Singapore court's decision that a law banning gay sex is constitutional. Under Section 377A, men who engage in "gross indecency" privately or publicly can be jailed for up to two years. Singapore, which largely remains conservative, has seen intense debate in recent years over gay rights.

Human Rights Watch called the decision "a major setback for equal rights", adding that it "tramples upon basic rights to privacy, equality and non-discrimination" and "gives carte blanche for discrimination and reinforces prejudice". Read More 

Jamaican Coalition Wants Buggery Punished Severely

The Coalition for a Healthy Society is urging Jamaican courts to increase punishment for the crime of 'Buggery' which has a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Committee member Delroy Chuck quizzed the Coalition on whether it would accede to some flexibility in law in respect to what he described as private morality. "If two males live together, do you believe it is the business of the State to investigate what they are doing within the confines of their bedroom?" Chuck questioned.

Head of the Coalition Dr Wayne West said if he had been asked the question five years ago he would have been inclined to support the position "because I have no intention of peeping into anybody's bedroom". However, West quipped, "when your neighbour's house is on fire you better take note of it". He argued that what is taking place in the bedroom is now being forced on persons in the public square.  Read More

Palau legalizes gay sex: Eight Pacific countries still have anti-gay laws

The Pacific island nation of Palau has decriminalized gay sex in a revision of its penal code. Gay sex used to be punishable by up to ten years in jail but lesbian sex was legal.

Dr Paula Gerber, president of LGBTI rights group Kaleidoscope Australia, said, 'This is wonderful news - giving a much need impetus to the process for reform in the Pacific. It is especially pleasing to see that recommendations made during the UN Universal Periodic Review process appear to have had an impact. Read More

The Obama Brief: How Obama Transformed the Federal Judiciary

To the extent that there is an Obama legal legacy, it centers on gay rights and voting rights, subjects that the President addresses more with caution than with passion.

In July, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a ruling that threatened the future of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. By a vote of two to one, the court held, in Halbig v. Burwell, that the insurance subsidies that allow millions of Americans to buy health insurance were contrary to the text of the law and thus were illegal. If such a decision had been made earlier in Obama’s tenure, lawyers for his Administration would have been left with a single, risky option: an appeal to the politically polarized, and usually conservative, Supreme Court. Read More

25 Senators Urge Obama to Stand Up for LGBT Rights Worldwide

Senators are pressuring President Obama to step up and appoint a special envoy for LGBT rights to the U.S. Department of State to protect LGBT people internationally.

President Obama got a letter Friday from 25 Democratic senators urging him to make a change on his global LGBT policy before the end of the year.

“In nearly eighty nations around the world there exist laws that criminalize homosexuality, prohibit public support for the LGBT community, or promote homophobia,” wrote the senators, asking the president to appoint a special envoy for LGBT human rights in the U.S. Department of State. “In seven countries, homosexuality is punishable by death. Even more troubling, though, is the recent trend of countries passing barbaric laws that deliberately try to persecute the LGBT community.” Read More

Argentina grants first refugee status to Russian gay, victim of President Putin's non tolerance policies

A young 28 year old became the first Russian gay to be given refugee status by Argentina, because of discrimination and violence at his home country. The positive reply to the year-long request was sponsored by Argentina's Federation of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans, FALGBT. Read More

Ebola, HIV, and the Politics of Contagion: Op-Ed

Throughout American history, there are dozen of cases of hysteria surrounding the apparent outbreak of an epidemic, from recent fears over Asian bird flu to fears of cholera outbreaks in the 19th century. But the question of fear needs to be contextualized, not just in terms of alleviating Americans' paranoia, but rather by thinking about how various populations within the nation have consistently lived under a threat of infection.

The fear of Ebola tells us more about one's social status and, dare I say, privilege, rather than about the disease itself. For many gay men, who have lived amid HIV "outbreak" for the last thirty years, the threat of Ebola perhaps has not rattled them as much as their heterosexual counterparts. Read More 

India government asks Supreme Court to clarify pro-trans ruling

The government says transgender rights should not be extended to gay people and asked the Supreme Court to clarify the definition of transgender so that it would not include gay people.

In April the Supreme Court recognized transgender people as a third sex and a socially and educationally backward class, entitled to education and employment quotas as well as the rights to marriage, adoption, divorce, succession and inheritance. The same court recriminalized homosexuality in December last year. Read More