The EU Fundamental Rights Agency presented the largest comparative study on the experiences of trans people in all 28 EU Member States. The FRA calls the results “alarming”, but highlights that legal frameworks and good policies have a positive impact on trans people’s lives. The FRA study was launched at an event organised by the Intergroup on LGBTI Rights and Transgender Europe. The study takes a closer look at results of the nearly 7000 trans respondents of the EU LGBT Survey. Read More
US: Michigan House Just Passed a Bill with Truly Devastating Results for Gay People
What if you were evicted because you were gay, but there was nothing you could do about it? Denied service at a restaurant because you're a devout Sikh? Refused Plan B at the only drug store in town because the pharmacist on duty is an evangelical Christian?
The state’s House of Representatives passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) this week, and if it passes the Senate it would enable those with “deeply-held religious beliefs” to withhold basic services from LGBTI people, inducing life-saving healthcare and medication. Read more
Report: Anti-LGBT Violence Has Increased In Russia Since “Propaganda” Ban
A new report from Human Rights Watch details rising violence against LGBT people in Russia since the country adopted a ban on “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” among minors in 2013. The research comes on the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments that his country has been unfairly labeled as anti-LGBT.
The Human Rights Watch report, based on dozens of interviews with Russian LGBT individuals and activists conducted in 2013 and 2014, paints a starkly different portrait. Read More
Burundi: Discriminatory Laws Hinder Burundi's Response to HIV
Speaking anonymously to protect against criminal charges and discrimination, Burundi health workers and social support workers spoke out against criminalization of same sex relationships and the detrimental effect laws have on providing healthcare to their communities:
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI), as well as sex workers, are among those most at risk of HIV infection. "Laws that criminalise consensual sexual conduct and real or perceived sexual orientation increase the risk of HIV/AIDS among the sexual minorities in Burundi," said Minani*, a member of Burundian Youth Network of HIV Positive (RNJ+).
"It makes sexual minorities afraid of showing themselves and afraid to visit the health clinics. They don't dare to go into government health agencies to request assistance, treatment or prevention services." Read More
Some US conservatives urging right not to serve gays on religious grounds
Conservative lawmakers in states nationwide are pushing to expand the right of individuals and businesses to not provide certain services to same-sex couples on religious grounds. Critics of the bills say they could set far-reaching precedents. For example, they say, a man charged with domestic violence could argue that it is part of his religion to keep his wife in line or a taxpayer-funded homeless shelter could be permitted to turn away a Muslim family.
They argue, however, that gay and transgender people are the primary targets of these bills and that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is particularly vulnerable because many states do not explicitly ban discrimination against them. Read More
U.S. Kicks African Nation From Trade Agreement Over Anti-LGBT Crackdown
The decision to drop the small West African nation from special trade status under the African Growth and Opportunity Act of 2000 came late Tuesday afternoon, just after media in the Gambia announced that three men would be put on trial for homosexuality. These are the first to face trial since police began arresting people on allegations of homosexuality in November. At least 16 more are known to be in detention, and Gambian human rights activists do not know if they are even still alive. Read More
Middle East funds Gambia as EU cuts aid over human rights concerns
The European Union has withdrawn millions of euros of funding for Gambia due to its poor human rights record, and after Jammeh signed into law an act that would imprison homosexuals for life. The Muslim West African nation will now rely increasingly on donors from the Middle East for development projects. The shift in soft power is of concern to Western governments in a region where Islamist militancy in northern Nigeria and northern Mali is fuelling instability, diplomatic sources said.
"West Africa has a large, impressionable youth population that have no access to jobs. Their loyalty might be bought through aid, sometimes by those sympathetic to the Islamification of the region," said one diplomat. Read More
Kyrgyzstan: UN rights experts urge Parliament to withdraw anti-gay bill
Conservative Paper Attacks Turkish MPs Who Attend LGBTI Conference
Conservative Turkish newspaper Milli Gazete attacked the Turkish MPs who participated in the conference titled “Fundamental Rights, Non-Discrimination and the Protection of Vulnerable Groups, Including LGBTI” organized by the European Parliament. Following reporting on the event, “Parliament gives pass for immorality,” three MPs withdrew their participation. Read More
Latvian Ruling Party Official Laimdota Straujuma Resigns After Praising Nazi Extermination Of Gays
In a Twitter discussion with party colleagues that included former Welfare Minister Ilze Viņķele, the subject wandered onto the possibility of same-sex partnerships being introduced in Latvia. Challenged on the point, Laimdota Straujuma said she approved of homosexuals having to leave the country as a result of opposition to homosexuality in society at large.
"Thank god - at one time, the Germans shot them. It improves fertility," Priede said in a tweet that was subsequently deleted and replaced with a call for "Christian values." Priede was immediately warned by Viņķele and others that her comments were inappropriate and might amount to a incitement to hate crimes. Read More
Buggery Law Affects HIV/AIDS Fight
A concept paper prepared for the Ministry of Health said Jamaica's buggery law "negatively impacts policy implementation" in the fight against HIV/AIDS as it "makes it difficult for reporting and treatment and prevention programmes for the MSM (men who have sex with men) population".
Jamaica's buggery law, which is contained in the Offences Against the Person Act, prohibits anal sex between men, in public or in private. It is punishable by 10 years in prison with hard labour. Read More
Polish Gay Rights Activist Becomes Poland's First Openly Gay Mayor
Robert Biedron already made history once in Poland by becoming the first openly gay lawmaker in parliament in 2011. On Monday, he became the country's first openly gay mayor.
His successes are a marker of how quickly this deeply conservative and Catholic country has changed in the decade since it joined the European Union. Back then, in 2004, gay rights marches were still being banned and homosexuality was treated as a huge taboo. Since then a growing acceptance of gays and lesbians has arrived hand-in-hand with a flourishing economy. Read More