12 Jan 2017 - NPWJ News Digest on LGBTI rights

Articles

In a first, LGBT candidate in fray for Jadavpur students' body elections
By The Times of India, 11 Jan 2017

KOLKATA: Gradually, it seems, universities around the country are acknowledging and accepting LGBT people in their student bodies. In Jadavpur University, Kolkata, for example, Ashmita Sarkar has come out as gay and is contesting the assistant general secretary's position at the Arts faculty in the upcoming student elections. She will be representing the leftist All India Students Association. Ashmita will be campaigning on a platform of support for homosexuals. This student from Bardhaman is in fact the first gay candidate to contest student elections in West Bengal. Ashmita is a second year student of sociology. She said she too was once homophobic, but now proudly acknowledges she's lesbian. Her mission is to break down all stereotypes associated with homosexuality. Apart from Arunima, Leftist parties at the university have given tickets to two more students who are fighting for clear causes. Arunima Sarkar is fighting for the rights of students from the north east and Avik Mondal for rights of Dalit students.

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Transgender model to feature in India fashion show for first time
by Reuters, 09 Jan 2017

A transgender model will walk the ramp at one of India's premier fashion events next month for the first time, a sign of greater acceptance of a community that is ostracised despite recent laws ensuring their protection and more opportunities. Anjali Lama, who is from Nepal, first auditioned for the Lakmé Fashion Week last year but was rejected, she said. She will model for several leading designers at the show running from Feb. 1 to Feb. 5 in Mumbai. "It wasn't easy for me in the early days when there was so much rejection and discrimination," Lama, 32, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Now I am getting an overwhelming response from the fashion industry after being selected, and other transgender people tell me they are proud of me." Born Nabin Waiba Tamang, Lama said she took the name Anjali, a common name in India and Nepal, after a transgender friend suggested it. Lama joined a modelling academy in Kathmandu, but did not come out to her family. When someone from her village found out Lama was living as a transgender woman and told her family, they cut ties with her and told her that she had let them down. "My mother, to some extent, was more accepting but there really wasn't much awareness then," Lama said. "There is more awareness and acceptance now in Nepal, and that has helped more people like me to come out," she said. Nepal emerged from a decade of conflict against Maoist rebels in 2006 after which it began to acknowledge the rights of the country's LGBT community. In 2007, the country's Supreme Court ruled that citizens were entitled to select their gender identity.

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Texas unveils 'bathroom bill' that critics say targets LGBT rights
by Reuters, 06 Jan 2017

A Texas Republican state senator introduced legislation on Thursday to limit public restroom access for transgender people, despite warnings from a business group that the measure would hurt the Texas economy because it was discriminatory. The "Texas Privacy Act" has been marked as a top legislative priority for Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, a Republican and conservative Christian who guides the legislative agenda in the Republican-controlled state Senate. He said the measure protected the privacy and safety of Texans. "It is the right thing to do," Patrick told a news conference along with its sponsor, Lois Kolkhorst. The event was punctuated by the howls of protesters nearby in the Capitol building chanting: "Shame, shame, shame." Similar bills have been filed for several other state legislatures this year that socially conservative backers say offer common-sense protections against sexual predators. Critics say the laws are designed to infringe on the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. A major industry group, the Texas Association of Business, said a study it helped conduct showed such legislation in Texas could result in economic losses ranging from $964 million to $8.5 billion for the state. A law enacted by North Carolina in March 2016 to restrict bathroom access for transgender people - the first such state measure - prompted a federal civil rights lawsuit and has been blamed for hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses and the relocation of major sporting events from the state. 

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Cameroon: Gay Rights Groups Brave Abuse, Violence to Fight HIV in Cameroon
By AllAfrica, 27 Dec 2016

Yaounde — HIV and homosexuality are no laughing matter in a country where being gay is illegal and LGBT activists face rising hostility and violence. Cameroon has the second highest HIV prevalence rate in West and Central Africa, after Nigeria, and men who have sex with men are hit the hardest, says the U.N. AIDS programme (UNAIDS). While one in 25 people in Cameroon are living with HIV, almost a quarter of men who have sex with men in Yaounde have the virus which causes AIDS.  The prevalence of HIV among this group in Douala, the economic capital, is even higher with two in five men who have sex with men (MSM) infected, according to the state's national AIDS control committee. The committee says it has developed various strategies in recent years to reduce the number of new infections, such as making antiretroviral treatment free and setting up support programmes for patients. But the fear of discrimination and threat of five years in prison are driving MSM and LGBT people away from hospitals and state programmes, according to civil society groups who say they fill the gap by providing condoms, counselling and healthcare.

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