27 July 2017 - NPWJ News Digest on LGBTI rights

Articles

Trump to reinstate US military ban on transgender people
By CNN, 27 Jul 2017

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he plans to reinstate a ban on transgender individuals from serving "in any capacity" in the US armed forces.The decision reversed a policy initially approved by the Defense Department under President Barack Obama, which was still under final review, that would allow transgender individuals to openly serve in the military. Defense Secretary James Mattis announced last month that he was delaying enactment of the plan to begin allowing transgender individuals to join the US military.
 

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'Back home we can’t kiss': the gay badminton star forced to flee Uganda
By The Guardian, 27 Jul 2017

A few days after Megan Nankabirwa returned from competing in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, she was dining with the president of Uganda. A week later, she was being chased by a mob through the streets, fleeing for her life.The 30-year-old badminton champion was a star in her own country. Then, when they found out she was gay, she became persona non grata. Her visa for the UK was still valid, so she boarded a flight to Heathrow.“Back home we can’t kiss, we can’t hug, we can’t show love,” says Lydia Nabukenya, 34, Nankabirwa’s partner. “But when I came to Manchester, the gay village, we thought, OK, this is not a crime, no one is attacking them.”The Ugandan pair are by no means unique. There are thought to be several hundred people who claim asylum in Britain on sexuality grounds every year. The charity sector estimates it supports 1,500 LGBT asylum seekers each year – some who are newly arrived, some who have been here for years. 
 

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Priest claims people who use ‘they/them’ pronouns are possessed by demons
By LGBTQ Nation, 26 Jul 2017

Christian minister and failed Republican politician E.W. Jackson made a stunningly stupid claim on his radio show this week, saying those who use the gender nonconforming “they/them” pronouns are doing so because they are possessed by multiple demons.“This whole thing of going to a plural pronoun,” Jackson said, “to me, it is a subconscious spiritual admission of demon possession by multiple demons.”“The only single individual I’m familiar with who spoke from the plural pronoun was Legion,” he added, referencing the Biblical story where Jesus cast demons out of the man.“Think about that: You’re not to be referred to by the single ‘he’ or ‘she’ but the plural pronoun ‘they.’ Who is the ‘they’ in there? We know who the ‘they’ in there is: a bunch of devils,” he concluded.
 

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Trump Just Nominated an Anti-LGBT 'Ambassador for Religious Freedom'
By Advocate 50th, 26 Jul 2017

On the very same day Donald Trump banned transgender people from the military and his Department of Justice argued in court that it’s legal to fire gays and lesbians, the president nominated Gov. Sam Brownback as a global ambassador for religious freedom. Brownback has demonstrated a disturbing interpretation of that buzzword, “religious freedom,” while serving as governor of Kansas — a job he now leaves to become the ambassador at large for International Religious Freedom.In 2016, Brownback legalized discrimination in state universities by signing the Campus Religious Freedom Bill. Previously, student groups were required to follow their schools’ antidiscrimination policies, which often protected LGBT people. Under the new law, Brownback said religious student groups could “establish religious beliefs as qualification for membership.” Activists said that effectively undermined university policies and invited discrimination against LGBT people who Christians call sinful.
 

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The Queer Insurrection': Coalition forces fighting Isis in Syria form first LGBT unit
By The Independent, 25 Jul 2017

A group of LGBT people fighting against Isis in Syria have formed their own military unit as the battle to eradicate the Islamist organisation continues. Isis has brutally persecuted LGBT people for several years and considers being gay to be a crime punishable by death.Now a number of international volunteers fighting alongside Kurdish forces in northern Syria have formed an LGBT military unit and named it “The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army” (TQILA) – pronounced “tequila”.
 

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