Sweden: Government to pay compensation to trans people who were ‘forcibly sterilized’

The Swedish government will shell out compensation to transgender people who were victims of forced sterilization, the country’s public health minister has confirmed.

Until 2013, Swedish law specified that people who wanted to change legal gender had to be “lacking the ability to procreate”. This meant that hundreds of transgender people were forced to undergo surgery to prevent them from ever having children.
More than 160 victims of the policy brought a claim against the government over the practice – and after a long political battle lasting years, the Swedish government confirmed it would settle the case and pay out compensation.

In a statement, Public Health minister Gabriel Wikström confirmed that the government will develop legislation in order to allow compensation to be paid. Read more via PinkNews

Commonwealth: Toolkit for progress toward LGBT rights in 53 countries

The Commonwealth of 53 nations, formerly the British Commonwealth, can play a positive role in improving the lives of LGBT citizens even though dozens of those countries still have anti-LGBT laws inherited from their former colonial overlords.

So say the LGBT rights advocates at London-based Kaleidoscope Trust, which this week published a “toolkit” of recommendations for pushing ahead toward widespread recognition of the human rights of LGBT people, even in largely homophobic societies.

The toolkit, published in cooperation with the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Commonwealth Equality Network, gives examples of recent progress.

 “We have got to move beyond a finger-wagging approach and use the Commonwealth to offer practical support to governments wanting to make positive change to support LGBT citizens,” stated Michael Lake CBE, director of the Royal Commonwealth Society. Read more via 76Crimes

Uganda: Anti-LGBT persecution increased law

A new report from the Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) indicates persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity increased after the country’s president signed an anti-gay law in 2014.

The report documents 264 “verified cases of human rights abuses against LGBTI Ugandans” between May 2014 and Dec. 31, 2015. Forty-eight of the 264 cases of anti-LGBT persecution involved violence, which included “torture by the state.”

President Yoweri Museveni in February 2014 signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act under which those convicted of repeated same-sex sexual acts faced life in prison.

“When the president signed the law the citizens felt they were more empowered and they had a right to actually take action against the LGBTI people,” SMUG Research and Documentation Officer Richard Lusimbo said.   Read more via Washington Blade

US: After North Carolina’s law, trans suicide hotline calls double

Anti-transgender bathroom laws like North Carolina’s HB2 are not just inconvenient for transgender people. They may also be life-threatening.

Greta Gustava Martela, co-founder of Trans Lifeline, a crisis hotline for transgender people, said that their call volume has “nearly doubled” since North Carolina restricted the use of public bathrooms based on birth certificate gender markers.

The spike in calls to the Trans Lifeline is sadly unsurprising. Dr. Seelman cautions that we cannot yet “interpret causality” from the data but believes that it should still act as a warning to lawmakers who seek to restrict bathroom use for transgender people.

“We know that stigma and lifetime discrimination influence suicide rates, whether we’re talking about transgender people or another marginalized group,” she told The Daily Beast. “Policies like HB 2 are not solving a problem—they are actually making things worse.” Read more via The Daily Beast

US: President Obama says anti-LGBT laws ‘Should be overturned’

The laws are "wrong," Obama said

President Obama said laws that have been passed in North Carolina and Mississippi targeting the LGBT community are “wrong and should be overturned” in a Friday joint press conference with the British Prime Minister David Cameron in London.

The president said U.K. travelers would be welcome in both states despite the laws, an assurance that follows a travel advisory from the U.K. Foreign Minister’s office issued in response to the two measures. “You should come and enjoy yourself,” President Obama said. “I think you would be treated with extraordinary hospitality.”

But he added, “I also think that the laws that have been passed there are wrong and should be overturned.” Read more via Time

UK: Government updates USA travel advisory to warn LGBT people

The UK government has updated its travel advice for the United States – to warn people gay people about new anti-LGBT laws. The Foreign Office updated its guidance this week in the wake of laws passed in North Carolina and Mississippi to permit discrimination based on religious belief.

The new travel advice warns: “Laws vary from state to state. When you are physically present in a state, even temporarily, you are subject to that state’s laws.

“The US is an extremely diverse society and attitudes towards LGBT people differ hugely across the country. LGBT travelers may be affected by legislation passed recently in the states of North Carolina and Mississippi. Before traveling please read our general travel advice for the LGBT community. You can find more detail on LGBT issues in the US on the website of the Human Rights Campaign.”  Read more via Pink News
 

UK: NHS England reconsiders PrEP drugs after legal threats

The NHS will reconsider a decision to abandon the roll-out of HIV-preventing PrEP drugs to gay men in the UK–after a legal threat. The drug has been endorsed by the World Health Organisation and is already routinely available to at-risk men in a number of countries, including the United States, Canada, France and Israel.

In the UK, a recently concluded two-year study found the drug was greatly effective at reducing the risk of HIV transmission – but in a surprise U-turn last month, NHS England kicked the issue into the long grass today by ordering a further two-year study instead of a roll-out.

The decision had infuriated HIV groups, who have warned that it puts people at risk of HIV transmission and puts the UK well behind other countries. However, after the National AIDS Trust launched legal action over the decision, it today received a response from NHS England confirming that “NHS England will carefully consider its position on commissioning PrEP in light of [NAT’s] representations”.  The body will now meet in May to decide whether to put PrEP back into the decision-making process – just months after opting to stop it. Read more via PinkNews

Parliament calls on Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina & Albania to respect LGBTI

In the last of its annual progress reports on accession countries, the European Parliament evaluated the situation in Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania, including the situation of LGBTI people.

In its report on Turkey, parliament highlights its concerns with the backsliding on democratic norms, like the freedom of expression and the media. Furthermore, the Parliament regrets the failure to include protection for LGBT people in the Hate Crimes Bill. Hate Crimes against LGBTI people are a big problem in Turkey, which too often remains unpunished, or sentences are reduced on account of the victim’s alleged ‘unjust provocation’.

In its report on Albania, the European Parliament highlights the successful Tirana Pride, which was held without major incidents in June 2015. It calls the effective legislative and policy measures to reinforce the protection of human rights, minority rights and anti-discrimination policies a key priority.

Regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina, the European Parliament calls for a country-wide anti-discrimination strategy and for the inclusion of a clear definition of gender identity, sexual orientation in the country’s anti-discrimination law. The parliament expresses its concerns over hate violence, hate speech targeting LGBTI persons, and accordingly calls on the government to undertake awareness-raising actions on the rights of LGBTI people among the judiciary, law enforcement agencies and the general public. Read more via Intergroup on LGBTI Rights

Nigeria: Hunting down gays

President Muhammadu Buhari has stood firm in support of anti-gay laws, despite pressure for its repeal, particularly from the United States. Under his administration, gay people will be arrested and prosecuted based on the law.

Incidents like the arrest of Lawal and Tahir and their guests in a supposed marriage ceremony are rare, but not unprecedented, particularly in northern Nigeria. Similar arrests have taken place in Bauchi and Kano, where witnesses say suspects were often tortured in detention and forced to give names of other gay people they know to the police.

In recent times, a number of human-rights activists have accused the police of arresting and detaining perceived homosexuals without cause, except for the purpose of extorting money from detainees to allow them to get out of jail.

Not long after the anti-gay law was passed, the UN agency fighting AIDS and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria expressed “deep concern that access to HIV services for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people will be severely affected” in the country, which has an estimated 3.4 million people living with the HIV virus. About half of that number are women, but unprotected intercourse among men puts them at especially high risk. 

 Read more via Daily Beast
 

US: Economic impact of HB2 mushrooms

The recent passage of anti-LGBT legislation in North Carolina and Mississippi has triggered protests and growing corporate backlash, with some companies refusing to expand in the states and high-profile performers canceling events.

The economic impact of the state’s controversial House Bill 2 continued to mushroom Tuesday, as Deutsche Bank announced it was freezing plans to create 250 jobs in Cary and a top Wake County economic development official said that five companies since early last week have canceled or postponed efforts to bring jobs to the county.  Read more via WRAL

Germany: This politician thinks teaching kids about gay rights will turn the country back to the 1940s and 50s

Katrin Ebner-Steiner, a member of the euro-sceptic right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, AfD) in Bavaria, criticized the decision to make LGBTI issues a compulsory part of sexual education, claiming that including LGBTI issues in state-wide education would create an educational system like in East Germany.

In a video released on the party’s official Youtube Channel, the politician accused the government to introduce ‘ideological indoctrination’ into schools.

‘Our little ones won’t just have to sit through enforced lessons about all variations of sexual life together,’ she said. ‘They will also hear details about homo-, bi- and trans sexuality.’ Read more via Gay Star News