Two members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot were detained briefly Tuesday in central Sochi, after apparently being considered suspects in a theft at their hotel, and then released, CNN reported. Earlier in the day, band members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were meeting with journalists when police detained them, according to Tolokonnikova’s husband, Petr…
President Obama has condemned the decision by Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni to sign an archaic anti-gay bill into law. The bill, which once even included the death penalty, calls for gay Ugandans or anyone “promoting” homosexuality to be jailed – potentially for life. Museveni made the decision to sign the bill after consulting with a…
BERLIN — The David Kato Vision & Voice Award has announced that the 2014 award will go to Cambodian transgender activist Sou Sotheavy. Now 75 years old, she has spent the last two decades working to establish a national network of organizations to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people across the country. Sou will…
NEW YORK–The American Jewish Committee (AJC) has publicly deplored the treatment of gays in Nigeria. The harassment, imprisonment and torture of gays, sanctioned by a Nigerian law enacted last month, was the focus of a major front-page story in yesterday’s New York Times. “Nigeria’s unforgiving attitude towards gays violates the most basic human rights of individuals,” said Eliseo Neuman,…
NEW DELHI– More than 100 community stakeholders and activists came together today for a national consultation on Section 377 and the launch of Pehchan’s new advocacy campaign, ‘207 against 377’. The ‘207 against 377’ campaign initiated by Pehchan brings together the 207 organizations implementing the Pehchan program on a common platform to undertake advocacy at…
Chris Kluwe, the highly respected former punter for the Minnesota Vikings and outspoken supporter of LGBT rights, has penned a scathing editorial for Britain’s The Guardian. In the widely read piece, Kluwe goes to great lengths to underscore how the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has threatened to dethrone any athlete who speaks out against Russia’s anti-gay…
http://youtu.be/effb2JYiKXM Once you see this, you’ll never look at the luge the same again. Check out The Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion commercial in support of all athletes at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
A harrowing 65-page report made public this week by Human Rights Watch paints a terrifying picture of police corruption aimed squarely at gay men in this small, landlocked Asian nation of 5.5 million people. Entitled They Said We Deserved This: Police Violence Against Gay and Bisexual Men in Kyrgyzstan, the report details a pattern of physical,…
In what the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) are calling ‘a step backward’ for human rights, the Sultan of Brunei has announced that a series of laws that were formulated in 2013 are set to be enacted in April, 2014. The laws, which criminalize everything from adultery to same-sex relations, include punishments ranging from public…
Alexander Suturin, chief editor of Khabarovsk newspaper, Molodoi Dalnevostochnik,was fined yesTerday under the new Russian “Anti-gay Propaganda” laws for for printing an interview with a gay teacher who said ‘being gay is normal’. Molodoi Dalnevostochnik, the oldest publication in the region, came under fire because it bears a label warning people only above the age of 16 to visit its Web site,…
