AMSTERDAM –Russia’s adoption of an “Anti-Gay Propaganda Law” caused enormous outrage in the LGBT-community and the rest of the world. PlanetRomeo, one of the oldest and largest gay dating and social networking platforms in the world, surveyed 1,526 Russian users on how these laws influence them in their daily life, if they face any form of…
BANGALORE, India, — Tuesday, India’s Supreme Court upheld its ruling to criminalize sexual activities “against the order of nature,” including same-sex relationships. The decision occurs concurrently with talks being held by Selisse Berry, founder and CEO of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, in Bangalore to discuss workplace equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The purpose of the cross-organizational meeting…
The Huffington Post reports that the mayor of Sochi is under the impression that there are no gay people in his city. Anatoly Pakhomov spoke with the BBC ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics and discussed how gay people would be treated in the Russian region with the country’s “homosexual propaganda” law in place. Pakhomov said gays…
Novelist, short story writer, author and journalist Binyavanga Wainaina declared his homosexuality this past week in a short story entitled I am A Homosexual, Mum to protest the passage of anti-gay laws in Nigeria. Wainaina, the founder of the Nairobi-based literary network Kwani, writes, “”I, Binyavanga Wainaina, quite honestly swear I have known I am a…
NEW YORK, NY –Global Action for Trans* Equality (GATE) and American Jewish World Service (AJWS) released today the results of the first-ever survey of transgender and intersex groups around the world in a new report, The State of Trans* and Intersex Organizing. The report is being presented on January 28 during the International Human Rights Funders Group’s 2014…
Speaking before the annual Indian Psychiatric Society meeting, prominent psychiatrist and last year’s president Dr. Indira Sharma labeled homosexuality ‘unnatural.’ The comment, which she reiterated on Monday, created a firestorm in a country still under attack from a major High Court decision which reinstated the ban on same-gender sex. According to the Times of India, Sharma unapologetically decried the…
LOS ANGELES, — Dr. Rizi Timane, minister, social worker, and outspoken advocate for the LGBT community, has issued the following statement on Nigeria’s criminalization of gay marriages and civil unions: I grew up in Nigeria. In Lagos, to be exact. And I have known since I was eight years old that I am transgender. I was born as a…
In the latest Multiple Exposure video, LGBTI rights defender Clare Byarugaba explains the context and potential consequences of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda. 20 Dec. 2013, the Ugandan Parliament passed the “Anti-Homosexuality Bill”, which currently awaits the signature of the President to become law. Multiple Exposure is a new monthly video magazine broadcast. Every month, three different 10…
NEW YORK, – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has spoken out about a new anti-homosexuality law in Nigeria, saying he feared it may fuel prejudice and violence, as he voiced the strong hope that the constitutionality of the legislation can be reviewed. The Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, signed into law earlier this month, introduces a wide range…
A thesis being funded by the Academy of Finland and to be argued Jan. 24 at the Department of History of the European University in Florence, Italy suggests that men engaged in same-sex relations far more frequently and with far less reluctance than originally thought. According to a thesis by Sandra Hagman, “Finnish men were…
