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1 Sep 2016 - NPWJ News Digest on LGBTI rights
Articles
Indian PM to outlaw ‘unethical’ surrogacy for same-sex couples
by Pink News, 25 Sep 2016
The Indian government is planning to clamp down on surrogacy – restricting it to married heterosexuals.There are currently few restrictions on surrogacy in India, making it a popular destination for Western same-sex couples who are seeking a surrogate to bear their child. However, the country’s government has announced fresh regulations which will effectively end the gay surrogacy business entirely. The legislation will outlaw commercial surrogacy and restrict non-commercial surrogacy to married heterosexual Indian citizens. Gay couples, single parents, and people who do not hold an Indian passport will be banned from using a surrogate in the country. Under the restrictions, the only people who would be able to access surrogacy services will be married straight couples who are infertile – but the surrogate must be a relative.
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Ms. Clinton fights for LGBT rights, and that’s what matters
by Washington Post, 31 Aug 2016
The Aug. 29 front-page article “In fight for gay rights, Clinton held back,” which detailed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s past public support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, missed a larger story: namely, that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, are campaigning against LGBT equality. In this election, Ms. Clinton proudly put forward the most robust agenda for LGBT equality that we have ever seen from a presidential candidate. At the State Department, she made equality a pillar of our foreign policy around the globe, literally saving lives. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence are running a campaign out of the Dark Ages, and they oppose marriage equality and basic protections for LGBT people. Mr. Trump isn’t even doing a good job of pretending he supports LGBT people. In the wake of the tragic shooting in Orlando that killed 49 people — almost all of whom were LGBT people and Latino or Latina — Mr. Trump stoked fears of immigrants and campaigned with anti-LGBT extremists. The sole fact that matters in November is that Ms. Clinton is the only major-party presidential candidate fighting for LGBT equality now and who will do so when elected.
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The shocking murder of trans activist Hande Kader says much about Turkey today
by The Guardian, 23 Aug 2016
This month a mutilated and burned body was found in an upmarket residential area in Istanbul. It was revealed to be Hande Kader, a 23-year-old transgender woman and well-known LGBT activist. She had been repeatedly raped and tortured by a gang. Kader was familiar to millions of Turks due to the fact that last year when the Istanbul Pride parade was suppressed with rubber bullets, water cannons and pepper spray, she was at the forefront of the resistance against police force, making her a figurehead for LGBT rights in Turkey.Like many others in Turkey’s trans community, Kader was a sex worker because she had no other choice. She needed money to pay for gender reassignment surgery; she needed money to live. “They don’t give us any jobs, they don’t even let us rent a house or a flat in a decent neighbourhood. So we have to go and look for places in crime-ridden neighbourhoods,” explains Michelle Demishevich, a trans journalist and activist, over email. “Every day I wonder who among us will die next,” she adds. “I can’t even remember the number of funerals I attended in the last years.”
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Mexican police turn blind eye to murders of transgender women, say activists
Reuters, 22 Aug 2016
MEXICO CITY, August 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Betzy Ballesteros' brush with death came on a windy night in December, when a man in a black Chevy Suburban pulled up to the street corner in the Mexican city of Guadalajara where the sex worker was plying her trade. "He was very polite," Ballesteros told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "So I said 'no problem' and called my friend over." Flower Gonzalez, another transgender sex worker, slid into the vehicle, and the pair drove away.Gonzalez was found dead in an alley three hours later, in the early hours of Christmas Eve. She had been stabbed with an ice pick. Ballesteros keeps a faded photo of her late friend amid the candy and candles in a shrine at her home. Five friends have been killed on the job since she left home in Tlaquepaque, in the western state of Jalisco, after arguing with her mother about her gender identity at the age of 14, she said. To survive, she took to the streets of nearby Zapopan as a sex worker.