LGBTQ

Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual rights

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Lithuania: anti-LGBT laws blocked

Amidst the admonitions and international condemnation following the recent introduction of draconian anti-gay laws in Nigeria and Uganda, news from Lithuania (13 March), where a bill proposing Russian-style “gay propaganda” laws was blocked by MPs, came as a relief to LGBT rights activists. A majority of members of the Lithuanian Parliament voted to bring the proposal to a vote (39 in favour, 34 opposed, with 20 abstentions). However, the anti-gay legislation was defeated because of parliamentary rules that require a threshold of votes to be reached as well as a majority. Petras Gražulis, the...

International Solidarity for LGBT+ Rights: Workers' Liberty London Forum

Date: 3 April, 2014 - 19:00 - 21:00 Location: University of London Union, Malet Street, WC1E 7HY There is a backlash against LGBT+ rights and a wave of repression against LGBT+ people and activists in many countries around the world - most dramatically in Russia, India and African states including Uganda. How can we build international solidarity to stop this regression and fight for equal rights and LGBT+ liberation everywhere? Organised by Workers' Liberty. All welcome Speakers: Paul Penny , London Transport RMT LGBT Officer, Rainbow International Solidarity Fund and AWL; Edwin Sesange and...

International Solidarity for LGBT+ Rights: Workers' Liberty London Forum

Date: 3 April, 2014 - 19:00 - 21:00 Location: University of London Union, Malet Street, WC1E 7HY There is a backlash against LGBT+ rights and a wave of repression against LGBT+ people and activists in many countries around the world - most dramatically in Russia, India and African states including Uganda. How can we build international solidarity to stop this regression and fight for equal rights and LGBT+ liberation everywhere? Organised by Workers' Liberty. All welcome Speakers: Paul Penny , London Transport RMT LGBT Officer, Rainbow International Solidarity Fund and AWL; Edwin Sesange and...

Sochi games: gay rights protestors arrested

On Friday 7 February, the Russian authorities arrested at least 61 people in the run-up to the Winter Olympics’ opening ceremony in Sochi. The arrests spanned from the Caucuses to the capital St Petersburg. The government is seemingly tolerating no dissent, even far away from the location of the games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. According to the New York Times, 19 were arrested near Red Square in Moscow at gay rights protests, including several foreign activists (pictured above). At least two of the activists report having been beaten and threatened with sexual abuse. In the capital...

Against anti-LGBT repression, equality now!

On 7 February, the Winter Olympics will begin in the Russian city of Sochi. The competition, which will be attended by athletes and sports fans from hundreds of countries across the world, will be overshadowed by the rise of homophobia and the persecution of LGBT people in Russia. This repression has taken both legal forms, proscribing the rights of LGBT people to demonstrate and agitate for their rights, as well as informal, “popular” forms, such as the harassment and assault of individuals by violent gangs. Homophobic laws are not new to Russia. Homosexuality was banned under the Stalinist...

Kenyan writer's stand for freedom

“I have never thrown my heart at you mum. You have never asked me to.” Only my mind says. This. Not my mouth. But surely the jerk of my breath and heart, there next to hers, has been registered? Is she letting me in? Nobody, nobody, ever in my life has heard this. Never, mum. I did not trust you, mum. And. I. Pulled air hard and balled it down into my navel, and let it out slow and firm, clean and without bumps out of my mouth, loud and clear over a shoulder, into her ear. “I am a homosexual, mum.” - Binyavanga Wainaina, “I am a homosexual mum”, January 2014 Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina...

Solidarity with LGBT struggles worldwide!

In many countries across the world, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people are recurrently subjected to targeted killings, violent assaults, torture, and sexual violence.

Shockingly, in 2014, homosexuality is illegal in 76 countries around the world, and in 10 of these punishable by...

Solidarity with LGBT people in Nigeria!

On 7 January 2014, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan signed a law that makes gay marriage in Nigeria punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Already, LGBT rights activists are reporting mass arrests and beatings of gay people, and people perceived to be gay, all over Nigeria. Dorothy Aken’Ova, executive director of Nigeria’s International Centre for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights, gave the BBC a detailed account of how police seized and held four gay men over Christmas and beat them until they named people allegedly belonging to LGBT organisations. Dozens of gay men have already been...

Winter Olympics cast spotlight on bigotry

The staging of the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea city of Sochi has cast a spotlight on anti-gay bigotry in Russia — in its “legal” and “popular” forms. In June 2013, the Russian Duma (Parliament) unanimously voted through an amendment to Article 5 of the Federal Law on the “Defence of Children from Information Causing Harm to Their Health and Development”. The stated purpose of the amendment is to protect children from “information which propagandises a denial of traditional family values and non-traditional sexual relations.” Non-traditional relations are defined as “relations not...

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