Tarja Halonen, president of Finland between 2000 and 2012 and previously the chair of Seta, a prominent Finnish LGBT rights organization, sat down with the Harvard Political Review
Jamaica: LGBT advocates interrupt Jamaican prime minister’s speech
Members of Jamaica Anti-Homophobia Stand, a group that advocates for LGBT Jamaicans, interrupted Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller as she spoke in Manhattan. A video of the confrontation that shows Simpson-Miller challenging the protesters then leaving the stage from where she was speaking.
The advocates challenged the prime minister over perceptions of the government’s insufficient response to rampant and headline grabbing anti-LGBT violence, including the a video this month showing a gay teenager being stoned to death in a street. A report from Jamaican LGBT advocacy group J-FLAG notes at least 30 gay Jamaicans have been murdered between '97-'04, including J-FLAG co-founder Brian Williamson who was stabbed to death inside his home in 2004.
Jamaica is among the English-speaking countries in the Caribbean in which consensual same-sex sexual acts remain criminalized. Read More
Malta: We celebrate Maltese protections for intersex people
Canada: Alberta’s new stand on gay-straight alliances makes for ‘historic’ day
Alberta has vaulted to the forefront of Canada’s debates on sexuality and gender expression, Premier Jim Prentice said after MLAs quickly passed legislation that ended a debate on gay support clubs that roiled the province.
When Alberta’s legislature convened for the first time in 2015, Mr. Prentice’s Education Minister announced that the Tory government was reversing its position on gay-straight alliances and would make the clubs mandatory in every school where a student requested one. Parents in Alberta will also no longer be able to remove their children from classes where sexual orientation is being discussed. A separate amendment will add gender expression and identity to the grounds for which Albertans will be protected from discrimination. Read More
US: USAID urged to fund LGBT advocacy efforts in Central America
Six members of Congress urged the U.S. Agency for International Development to fund LGBT advocacy efforts in Central America specifically to support advocacy groups in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. In their request, the congress members list specific examples of violence against LGBT people in the three countries. They make note of both large scale injustices, including the nearly 200 LGBT Hondurans killed between 2009 - 2014, to the individual stories of men and women who have been brutally attacked.
Switzerland: Parliament votes for law to protect LGBTIs from prejudice
In an amendment to a law that protects people of different races or faiths, the Swiss parliament has voted with 103 in favor, 73 against and nine abstentions to ensure nobody is targeted with hate speech and discrimination on the basis of their sexual or gender identity.
'It's nice to live in a country that recognizes diversity & supports the same equal protection for everyone.' Bastian Baumann, Sec-General of Pink Cross.
EU: Parliament human rights report addresses LGBTI criminalisation, trans rights and same-sex unions
The European Parliament has voted its "Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy." The report takes account of the situation of human rights, including of LGBTI people, and makes recommendations accordingly.
The newest report recommends that legislatures throughout Europe "raise the issue of LGBTI [lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, and intersex] rights in political and human rights dialogues with third countries and multilateral forums." The parliament also presses for national governments to "support organisations [sic] defending LGBTI rights by empowering them to challenge homophobic and transphobic laws and discrimination against LGBTI people." Read More
Cameroon: Lawyer urges world to join her in fight against anti-gay legislation
Despite death threats, Alice Nkom is taking on Cameroon’s repressive law in the supreme court and says her campaign is part of a wider struggle for human rights. Alice Nkom knows she might not be alive today were it not for international support for her battle to defend homosexuals in Cameroon. But now she wants the world to do more to breathe life into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and make it tangible for all, including gay people in Africa. Read More
Kenya: Intersex Get Recognition Under Kenyan Law
The Persons Deprived of Liberty Act 2014 is a first in Kenya to define who an intersex person is. Section 2 of the Act defines an intersex as a person certified by a competent medical practitioner to have both male and female reproductive organs. Although this is an extremely shallow definition, we must commend the legislators for this bold step towards embracing this unique member of the family.
In the spirit of equality and non discrimination as guaranteed by Article 27 of the Constitution, the Act makes no distinction between a child, the disabled, young, Muslim and an adult intersex person. They are to be looked at from a human beings perspective. Read More
US: Indiana Passes Religious Freedom Bill
In a landslide 63-31 vote, the Indiana House of Representatives alarmed LGBT advocates Monday by passing a sweeping religious freedom bill that allows private parties — including businesses open to the public — to invoke a religious defense in legal cases.
Gov. Mike Pence resisted calls to veto the bill, issuing a statement that said the measure “is about respecting and reassuring Hoosiers that their religious freedoms are intact. I strongly support the legislation and applaud the members of the General Assembly for their work on this important issue. I look forward to signing the bill when it reaches my desk.”
Critics had ramped up their campaign to defeat the measure in recent weeks, including delivering 10,000 letters of protest to the capitol Monday morning. Freedom Indiana and several national organizations argued the bill would create a loophole in civil rights laws & allow discrimination, particularly against LGBT people. Read More
Peru: Leftist Legislator claims Mein Kampf 'Is Right' about gay people
Leftist legislator Rubén Condori Cusi cited Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as an inspiration for his vote against legalizing same-sex civil unions in the South American nation. Following the vote, Condori Cusi called homosexuality “a misconduct” and added, “Matters regarding cleaning, ironing, cooking, those are gender-exclusive.”
While some leftist leaders in Latin America–including Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, and Rafael Correa of Ecuador–have paid lip service to the LGBT cause, all three have close ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran, a nation that openly executes its own citizens on charges of “sodomy.” Argentina and Venezuela have also been implicated in aiding not just the Iranian government, but the Shiite Islamist terrorists of Hezbollah. Read More
Nigeria: Presidential elections "Vote for me; I too oppose gay marriage"
Anti-gay politics continue in Nigeria, as the presidential campaign of Muhammadu Buhari denied the accusation that Buhari struck a deal with Western nations to repeal Nigeria’s new anti-gay law in exchange for supporting his campaign to unseat President Goodluck Jonathan.
“There is no relationship between General Buhari and any western nation concerning gay marriage and such pervasive orientations that are not in conformity with our cultures and values,” said Olayemi Success, national coordinator of the campaign’s Buhari Volunteer Network.
Buhari will not seek to repeal the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, that provides up to 14 years in prison for anyone who enters into a same-sex marriage and up to a 10-year sentence for anyone who attends a same-sex wedding in Nigeria, makes a “public show of same-sex amorous relationship,” or belongs to a “gay organization.” Read More