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04 February 2016 - NPWJ New Digest on LGBTI Rights
Articles
New hope for India's gay-rights movement
by Aljazeera, 03 Feb 2016
A new phase in the long, dramatic, seesaw debate over the decriminalisation of homosexuality in India was inaugurated this week when India's Supreme Court agreed - most unusually - to reconsider its own stance on the matter.Just over two years ago, in December 2013, the Supreme Court had crushed the hopes of India's burgeoning gay-rights movement by striking down a 2009 ruling by the Delhi High Court that judged the current law against homosexuality to be unconstitutional, thereby effectively recriminalising homosexuality and strengthening the hand of religious conservatives in India.But by agreeing this week to refer a "curative petition" contesting the 2013 judgment to a five-man bench of judges, the court has implicitly acknowledged that even the highest judicial institution of the land is open to constructive challenge, and rekindled the hope that India will soon join those liberal countries of the world where it is not a crime to be gay.
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Myanmar's transgender people not just chasing rainbows in fight for equality
by The Guardian , 02 Feb 2016
Nat Nat Nwe was once arrested, stripped, beaten and held in a cell for 14 days just because she tried to walk home alone at night. The quiet 40-year-old is convinced she was targeted because she is transgender. She says police accused her of being a sex worker, despite knowing she wasn’t working in the area. When she refused to pay the obligatory bribe, she was attacked and then arrested for defending herself. “The police see LGBT people, especially transgender people, as people they can abuse whenever they need money,” explained Hla Myat Tun, of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trangender rights organisation Colors Rainbow. “They see them as a walking ATM. If they need to fill their quota, they arrest transgender sex workers, or gay guys. They harass them, they arrest them, even gang-rape them in the police compound. Before Colors Rainbow, nobody even documented this.”
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How the British Empire's gay rights legacy is still killing people to this day
by The Independent , 01 Feb 2016
Homosexuality is illegal in 34 of Africa's 56 states. In Mauritania and parts of Nigeria it’s a crime punishable by death and in states such as Gambia, Sierra Leone and Tanzania it could mean up to life imprisonment. Only a handful of states have in place anti-discrimination laws protecting LGBT people. Same-sex marriage, legal only in South Africa, has been constitutionally banned by eight states. For the most part, the criminalisation of homosexuality in Africa is a direct result of colonialism, with much of the anti-homosexual legislation introduced by European states still in place. But recently, political pandering and religious influence have seen countries such as Gambia and Nigeria introduce laws which further restrict the human rights of their LGBT populations.The situation has garnered the attention of the Western media and, when President Obama made his historic trip to Africa in July last year, he called on the continent’s leaders to offer better protection to their LGBT citizens. Though an admirable interjection, his ability to talk openly about homosexuality in Africa, without fear of repercussion, is something of a privilege. Freedom of expression and freedom of association are integral in the fight for LGBT acceptance, but in many African states (and beyond) these fundamental human rights are heavily restricted.
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Italians protest against civil unions for same-sex couples
By The Guardian, 30 Jan 2016
Tens of thousands of people have gathered in Rome to protest against legislation that would allow civil unions for same-sex couples in Italy. It is the only major western nation yet to grant gay couples the power to make a legal commitment or adopt children. The Italian senate began examining the bill on Thursday. Its supporters argue that it must be voted in following repeated complaints from the European court of human rights about the country’s failure to change the law. However, opponents hope their protest on Saturday, backed by the Catholic church, will prevent that happening. A similar “family day” protest in 2007 forced Romano Prodi’s government to abandon a much less ambitious civil union proposal. The Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) said on Friday it was concerned about the “process under way of putting marriage and civil unions on the same level – with the introduction of an alternative to the family”. Last week, Pope Francis reiterated the Catholic church’s opposition to gay marriage, saying that the traditional family was “the family God wants”. The prime minister, Matteo Renzi, has said he is confident the bill will pass, although his coalition partners oppose the adoption of children by a gay spouse.
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U.S. lawmakers introduce bill to promote LGBT rights worldwide
by Reuters, 29 Jan 2016
U.S. lawmakers in both houses of Congress introduced on Thursday a bill to protect and promote the rights of the international lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The International Human Rights Defense Act, spearheaded by Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Rep. Alan Lowenthal of California, both Democrats, would appoint a special envoy within the U.S. Department of State to coordinate efforts to prevent discrimination and advance the rights of LGBT people worldwide. “When President Obama addressed the nation and committed to defending the human rights of the LGBT community, we made that commitment to the world,” Markey said in a statement, referring to the State of the Union address earlier this month. “With the rights of the LGBT community under attack around the globe, we must stand hand-in-hand with them in the struggle for recognition and equality everywhere," he said.
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