MALTA — Last month, Malta’s parliament voted overwhelmingly to advance a marriage equality bill after the third and final debate on the issue. Malta will become the 23rd country with marriage equality and gay couples can start marrying as of next Friday, when all provisions of the amended Marriage law come into force. The Times…
MUMBAI, India — The recent Supreme Court judgment on right to privacy has brought a ray of hope not only for the LGBTQ community, but also their parents. It has raised their anticipation that this judgment may herald better days for the repeal of Sec 377. Several parents of LGBTQ persons in Mumbai who are…
INDIA — In a historic decision Thursday, India’s Supreme Court declared that an individual’s sexual orientation is protected under the country’s Right to Privacy law. “Sexual orientation is an essential attribute of privacy. Discrimination against an individual on the basis of sexual orientation is deeply offensive to the dignity and self-worth of the individual,” the Supreme…
OTTAWA– Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Ahmed Hussen today announced that the Government of Canada will be working to implement an “X” gender designation in Canadian passports, as well as other documents issued by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to support LGBTQ2 rights and advance the Government’s agenda on gender equality, diversity…
LUSAKA, Zambia — The Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC), Community Initiative for Malaria and Tuberculosis (CITAMplus), Coalition for Zambian Women Living with HIV and AIDS (COZWHA), Network of ARV Users and Zambian Network of Religious Living or Personally Affected by HIV and AIDS (ZANERELA) have commended the Zambian Government on launching HIV Counseling Testing…
KATHMANDU — Hundreds of members of Nepal’s gay community marched through Kathmandu on Tuesday, many wearing vibrant costumes and carrying rainbow flags and balloons, in an annual pride parade. The Hindustan Times reported that around 1,500 people took part in the parade, paying tribute to members of the LGBT community who had died in 2017,…
MANAMA — Kuwait has deported 76 homosexuals and shut down 22 massage parlors this year, the head of a morals committee has said. Gulf News reported that the gay men were apprehended during nationwide campaigns aimed at enforcing the law regulating massage parlors. The committee, made up of representatives from the Ministry of Social Affairs…
MONTREAL – According to the recent Fondation Jasmin Roy survey “LGBT Realities”, 13% of the Canadian population belongs to the LGBT community. Because they fear being rejected, hindered from progressing in their careers or mocked and bullied, 54% of LGBT respondents have not come out to their work colleagues, and 45% have not come out to…
VALENCIA, Calif. — Luxury cruise brand, Cunard, has welcomed its first booking by a same-sex couple following a recent Supreme Court ruling enabling same-sex marriages in Bermuda, where Cunard’s fleet of ships is registered. The ruling means that Cunard, which has offered weddings on its ships for the past five years and has married over 250…
MBABANE/GENEVA, — UNAIDS has congratulated the Kingdom of Swaziland on the findings of the Swaziland HIV Incidence Measurement Survey (SHIMS 2) announced by Prime Minister Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini today in Mbabane, Swaziland that 73% of the adult population aged 15 years and older are virally suppressed—76% of adult women and 68% of adult men. The…
