Singapore court deliberating if anti-gay law is unconstitutional

SINGAPORE –– Singapore’s highest court is hearing the case of a gay couple appealing against the dismissal of their challenge that the anti-gay ‘Section 377A’ law is unconstitutional, reports GayAsiaNews.com. A two-day hearing before a three-judge panel began July 14 as lawyers for Kenneth Chee and Gary Lim argued that the ban, first adopted under…

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Putin’s anti-LGBT law turns one

WASHINGTON — In advance of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s notorious anti-LGBT law, today the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation released a new report highlighting deeply disturbing trends of harassment, investigations, arrests, and acts of violence against LGBT Russians that have followed in its wake. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the internationally condemned and draconian anti-LGBT…

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American sanctions hit Uganda’s ‘most vulnerable’ hardest

Uganda warned on Monday that U.S. sanctions slapped on the country over its tough anti-gay laws would harm the “most vulnerable” in the country. Washington last week froze some aid programs, as well as cancelling military air exercises and barring entry to the U.S. for specific Ugandan officials involved in “human rights abuses”, including against the gay…

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Uganda’s homophobic foreign minister Sam Kutesa slated to be next U.N. General Assembly president

In an announcement that has been roundly denounced by the United States, Uganda’s foreign minister Sam Kutesa has been voted in by acclamation to serve as the next United Nations General Assembly president, replacing outgoing – and widely respected – John W. Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said: “It would…

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Maine report suggests NOM violated laws in other states, lied to government authorities

WASHINGTON – A Maine enforcement action made public yesterday indicates that the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) may have intentionally violated a variety of state laws in 2009, including not only Maine but also Iowa and New Hampshire campaign finance laws. The revelation is contained in a scathing investigative report by the Maine Commission on Governmental…

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Ban on marriage equality struck down in Pennsylvania

Today U.S. District Judge John E. Jones, III ruled that Pennsylvania’s law banning marriage equality is unconstitutional.  Pennsylvania becomes the tenth state where a federal judge has struck down a marriage ban since the U.S. Supreme Court issued their two marriage-related rulings last year. Just yesterday a federal judge in Oregon struck down that state’s…

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India’s anti-gay Hindu nationalist party voted to power

New  Delhi — India’s Hindu nationalist party, that has opposed any move to nullify the Supreme Court’s re-criminalizing of consensual same-sex relations has won the general elections dealing a huge setback to efforts to scrap a colonial-era law that made it punishable by up to life imprisonment, reports GayAsiaNews.com. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP, Indian…

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