Up to 28 people could face jail or expulsion from Lebanon after two raids on Turkish baths believed by police to be meeting spaces for gay and bisexual men. This comes after an earlier raid on the Agha Hammam baths where another 27 people were arrested. They have now been charged with homosexuality and could be jailed. Read More
Criminalizing gays by misusing anti-gay sex law not acceptable, says Mumbai chief of ruling party
Ashish Shelar, the Mumbai chief of India’s ruling party says his party is now against the misuse Indian Penal Code to harass gay people. The chief's comments are significant as the party has previously supported the Supreme Court's ruling making gay sex illegal. Read More
Cuban president’s daughter casts first ‘no’ vote since the Revolution over trans and HIV exclusion
Mariela Castro, daughter of President Raúl Castro and niece of Fidel Castro, has given an unprecedented "no" vote in the Cuban parliament to a workers' rights bill she felt didn't go far enough to prevent discrimination against people with HIV or with unconventional gender identities. "This is the first time [there has been a "no" vote], without a doubt," said Carlos Alzugaray, a historian and former Cuban diplomat. Read More
Follow-up: Russian anti-gay extremist sentenced to five years in penal colony
Maxim Sergeyevich Martsinkevich, leader of Russian anti-gay vigilante group “Occupy Pedophilia,” who is alleged to have lured LGBT youth to abusive encounters through fake social media profiles, was sentenced to five years in a Russian penal colony. Read More
Cameroon lesbians freed after 9 months awaiting trial
After nearly a year in jail, 2 Cameroon lesbians have been convicted of same-sex activity. Cameroonian law provides for prison sentences of up to 5 years for same-sex sexual activity. Though it's supposed to apply only when a couple is “caught in the act,” the law is often interpreted as justifying imprisonment for suspected homosexuality.
Liliane and Nicole each received a two-year prison sentence, which was converted into a three-year suspended sentence and were released back to the community. Read More
Hate = Death, A round up of global hate crimes
Hate crimes are a global issue, spreading across cultural and national boundaries. This week's victims included an 18 year old Azerbaijan whose parents doused him with gasoline and threatened to murder him when they found out he is gay. The boy survived his burns. After Alejandro Gala, president of Ola LGBT+ Almeria, was attacked with a Molotov cocktail the Spanish youth leader swore, "it’s my obligation to denounce these homophobic acts, and urge others to do the same to show that there’s still a lot left to fight for and that activism is the solution.’
Meanwhile Brian Higgins, aka Feather Lynn, was taken off life support after a brutal attack left him on life support with a fatal brain aneurysm in San Francisco. In South Africa, Gift Makau, an 18 year old lesbian was the victim of “corrective rape”, before she was strangled to death.
Jamaican LGBT rights start in a storm drain
"Any kind of injustice bothers me--bothers me deeply,” Yvonne McCalla Sobers said. A small woman with light gray hair, she is a dynamic force. As an LGBT activist in Jamaica, a battlefield country with the sixth highest homicide rate in the world, she faces violent intolerance rooted in national homophobia. Watch now
Report finds most young Iranians are sexually active and many are gay
The research department of the Iranian Parliament has found that four out of five young adults in the Islamic republic are sexually active and 17% with people of the same sex despite the country imposing the death penalty for homosexual acts. Read More
Iran’s Judiciary Chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani categorically dismissed the allegations by some western advocates of Human Rights that Iran executes people for being homosexuals. Meanwhile several human rights groups are reporting: Four prisoners were hanged in public this August. According to the official website of the Iranian judiciary two of the men had been accused of sodomy and "illegal sex between people of the same sex practices." Read More (french) Read More (english)
Gay Palestinians In Israel: The 'Invisible Men'
On the run from Palestinian families, living illegally in Israel—treated by both sides as the enemy—gays from Palestinian territories can’t go home again. In January 2010, Rawashda was picked up by the secret police in the middle of the night on suspect of being gay. Next thing he knew, he was in an interrogation room being accused of collaborating with Israel. “I’d never even been to Israel before. But anyone who’s gay is immediately accused of spying for the enemy.” Read More
Op-ed: What Not To Say to a Trans Person on OkCupid
Despite the human hazards, transgender people, like anyone, can still find love (or at least some halfway decent drunk texting) on dating site OkCupid. If you’re not an asshole and you think of yourself as the kind of person who’d be open to meeting a transgender person on OkCupid, here are some things to avoid saying during conversations with your transgender romantic prospect.
Grindr promotes PrEP & new app helps HIV+ connect to clinics
Massively popular dating app Grindr is working with PrEP groups to utilize it's social network to best and most effectively get the word out about HIV prevention. Yet the 'Truvada Whore' Stigma Endures Among Doctors and LGBTs. Working with AIDS.org, US-based app Hornet shows users the 10 closest HIV clinics.
Meanwhile gay UK pop sensation Sam Smith urges gay and straight singles to stop using 'hook-up apps' like Tinder and Grindr: ‘No offence to people who go on Tinder but I just feel like it’s ruining romance, I really do,’ he said. ‘We’re losing the art of conversation and being able to go and speak to people and you’re swiping people.’
'Being LGBTI in Asia'
New report was launched by UNDP and USAID together with grassroots Asian LGBT organizations and community activists to understand the challenges faced by LGBTs in eight Asian countries. It provides a comprehensive overview of the condition of Chinese LGBT people and organizations in terms of laws, policies, cultural and social attitudes, regional variations within China, and government engagement.It also documents the challenges faced by LGBT people in education, employment, health, family affairs, media and technology, and community development. Read More