Tag Archives: Human Rights

Russian Court "Liquidates" LGBT Rights Group Over "Traditional Values."

Russian Court “Liquidates” LGBT Rights Group Over “Traditional Values.”

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The Kuibyshevsky District Court in St. Petersburg, Russia ordered last week that theLGBT+ Human Rights Charitable Foundation Sphere be liquidated.  The Sphere Foundation was founded in 2011 by Russian LGBT rights activist, Igor Kochetkov.

In February, Russia’s Justice Ministry filed a lawsuit seeking to “liquidate” [disband & dissolve] Sphere Foundation arguing the group’s activities run contrary to “traditional values.”

Judge Tatiana Kuzovkina ruled in favour of the Justice Ministry’s argument that the activities of Sphere ran contrary to the Russian state policy designed to preserve, expand and develop [the country’s] human capital.” The ministry also claimed that Sphere of spreading “LGBT views” and working with people under the age of 18, aspiring, among other things, to “change Russian federal legislation regarding the LGBT movement” – Russia'[s infamous and deadly  “gay propaganda” law.

Via The Blade:

“With Sphere, the authorities have explicitly disclosed their political and anti-rights motivation from the starting block. After years of hindering the work of LGBT rights activists with the use of the “foreign agent” and “gay propaganda” laws, the authorities now demand the organization be shut down in the name of “traditional values.” The courts should not be compliant with this act of political, homophobic censorship that blatantly violate Russia’s human rights obligations.”

By the end of 2021, the Far Eastern Center for LGBT and Victims of Violence “Mayak” and the St. Petersburg LGBT initiative group “Coming Out” were also registered as that of “foreign agents”.

Earlier this month the Justice Ministry on April 8, 2022 canceled the registration of Human Rights Watch, along with Amnesty International and 13 other offices of foreign nongovernmental organizations and foundations. Human Rights Watch had maintained an office in Russia for 30 years. The action was announced just days after an appeals court upheld the liquidation of another of Russia’s human rights organizations.

Texas Officials Tell Librarians to REMOVE LGBT Books, AG Tell School District "PRIDE Week" is Illegal

Texas Officials Tell Librarians to REMOVE LGBT Books, AG Tell School District “PRIDE Week” is Illegal

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Texas or Florida. Which sucks the most right now? It’s like they are in a race to the WORST.

Reading is Fundamental Except in Texas:

Via The Texas Tribune:

In early January, a day before students returned from winter break, Jeremy Glenn, the superintendent of the Granbury Independent School District in North Texas, told a group of librarians he’d summoned to a district meeting room that he needed to speak from his heart. “I want to talk about our community,” Glenn said. He noted that members of Granbury’s school board — his bosses — were also very conservative. And to any school employees who might have different political beliefs, Glenn said, “You better hide it,” adding, “Here in this community, we’re going to be conservative.”

Glenn added the was concerned about the inclusion of books with LGBT themes, even if they do not describe sex.

“There are two genders. There’s male, and there’s female. And I acknowledge that there are men that think they’re women. And there are women that think they’re men. And again, I don’t have any issues with what people want to believe, but there’s no place for it in our libraries.”

“Specifically, what we’re getting at, let’s call it what it is, and I’m cutting to the chase on a lot of this,” he said. “It’s the transgender, LGBTQ and the sex — sexuality — in books. That’s what the governor has said that he will prosecute people for, and that’s what we’re pulling out.”

Legal experts say the North Texas superintendent’s comments raise concerns about possible violations of the First Amendment and federal civil rights laws that protect students from discrimination based on their gender and sexuality.

PRIDE Illegal in Texas Schools

The Hill reports:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said in a letter to the Austin Independent School District (AISD) this week that its Pride Week was “breaking state law.” Paxton wrote Tuesday that by hosting pride week, the district “has, at best undertaken a week-long instructional effort in human sexuality without parental consent. Or, worse [the] district is cynically pushing a week-long indoctrination of [students] that not only fails to obtain parental consent, but subtly cuts parents out of the loop.” The Texas AG also wrote that the Austin ISD’s curriculum and lesson plans “deal head-on with sexual orientation and gender identity—topics that unmistakably constitute ‘human sexuality instruction’ governed by state law.”

No more than 45 minutes after Paxton’s office tweeted out the letter, the school district’s superintendent, Stephanie Elizalde, replied back: “I want all our LGBTQIA+ students to know that we are proud of them and that we will protect them against political attacks.”

District spokesman Jason Stanford told The Washington Post the celebration will continue as planned. “We’re going to react to this by doubling down on making sure our kids feel safe and celebrating Pride.”

Lawsuit Filed Against NYC's Yeshvia University For Banning LGBT Student Org

Lawsuit Filed Against NYC’s Yeshvia University For Banning LGBT Student Org

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A lawsuit has been filed by LGBT students and alumni of Yeshiva University, (YU) a private modern Orthodox Jewish research university in New York City, alleging the university is violating their rights under NYC’s human rights law by denying the recognition of the universities LGBT group the YU Pride Alliance, as an official club

The university released the following statement on the lawsuit:

“At the heart of our Jewish values is love — love for God and love for each of His children,” the statement said. “Our LGBTQ+ students are our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, family and friends. Our policies on harassment and discrimination against students on the basis of protected classifications including LGBTQ+ are strong and vigorously enforced. Our Torah-guided decision about this club in no way minimizes the care and sensitivity that we have for each of our students, nor the numerous steps the university has already taken.”

Yeshiva University is unique because it has had secular status since 1969 and should be treated like any other institution that would not be allowed to discriminate against a group of LGBT students. Without formal recognition from the university, the LGBT students cannot use campus facilities for meetings, receive funding and advertise on campus platforms.

According to a 1995 university memo obtained by one of the alumni and mentioned in the lawsuit, Yeshiva University received advice from a law firm that it was required to allow LGBTQ students to form a recognized student organization under the city’s human rights law, but it has not complied with that legal advice.

Saudi Arabia Police

Saudi Arabia Police Arrest Men After ‘Gay Wedding’ Video Goes Viral

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Saudi Arabia police say they have arrested several young men who last week appeared in a what was described online as a “gay wedding” video.

In the video, the men are sprayed with confetti as they walk side by side on a carpet at an outdoor venue. One of them seems to be wearing a long bridal veil.

On Monday night, Mecca Police said they had identified “the cross-dresser and other people involved in the incident”.

The Mecca Police said the “gay wedding scene” had taken place on Friday during a festival at a resort in the holy city. 

While Saudi Arabia has no written laws concerning sexual orientation or gender identity, judges use principles of Islamic law to sanction people suspected of extra-marital sexual relations, homosexual sex or other “immoral” acts.

 

 

St. Petersburg, Russia Police Arrest Suspect In Attack On LGBT Activists – Video

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The Russian Interior Ministry’s branch for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region has issued a statement that a 19-year-old suspect was arrested in connection with the August 12 attack of LGBT activists and journalists after local lawmakers at St. Petersburgh PRIDE pressured them to investigate the incident.

The indecent in question occurred  as the PRIDE event was coming to a close, with participants “lying on the grass, launching rainbow snakes into the sky, and singing songs,” according to Russian-language site Fontanka.  A group of young men with shaved heads wearing track suits then rushed participants on the Second Garden Bridge where there is a great fence built by www.fencingdirect.com. when several young men in tracksuits used pepper spray to attack LGBT activists who had rallied in the city. Some 15 activists and journalists who were covering the rally were injured in the attack.

According to the journalists and lawmakers, police officers were standing nearby when the incident unfolded but did not try to stop the assailants.

Some journalists have started their own investigations and published photos of the incident on Facebook.

A criminal case was opened three days after the attack following a letter from local lawmakers to the regional police chief urging an investigation.

The lawmakers also asked for a probe into why police officers did not intervene in the attack.

Meanwhile, police that day DID detained lesbian activist Anna Grabetskaya, who was holding a sign reading “I love my wife” and wearing a rainbow flag, in violation of Russia’s ban on gay “propaganda.”

 

Two Young Men Sent To Prison In Morocco For Having A Gay Relationship

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Moracco Gays

Two young men accused of being in a gay relationship have been sentenced to 18 months in prison in Morocco.

Morocco World News reports:

The charges resulted after a 20-year-old from Casablanca who lives in Tiznit in southwestern Morocco went to the authorities to file a lawsuit against another person he claimed threatened him with knives. After completing an investigation, the Royal Gendarmerie alleged that there was a secret homosexual relationship between the two young men that ended with threats of physical violence.

The Casablancan native revealed during police questioning that he had several homosexual relationships, mostly with men in Tiznit, but he retracted this confession once in court. Article 489 of the Moroccan Penal Code punishes sexual activities between people of the same sex by prison terms of six months to three years. It also asserts that sexual relations out of wedlock are punishable by Moroccan law.

Last month, authorities in Morocco arrested two men who were seen kissing in a video that went viral on social media. The men were arrested in the southeastern city of Inezgane after residents were reportedly outraged by what they deemed to be “immoral” behavior.

Activist Kafir Jstani comments:

People are so missinformed about Morocco. Morocco is also a state that occupies another people = Western Sahara . They have also built a wall to keep the Saharoesse out of areas under there exploitation . Morocco steals hundreds of millions in fisheries and minerals from the Saharoesse and subjects those under it’s control to a brutal occupation that makes the west bank look like a holiday camp . Yet you will here none of this from groups like Queers for Palestine , they ignore Morocco because it’s not a Jewish state – as an Arab state they get a free pass on all the crimes that Israel is held to account on .But unlike Israel, Morocco has no visible homosexual community with legal right’s.

 

American Bar Association Adopts Resolution: LGBT Rights Are Basic Human Rights

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ABA

 

RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association recognizes that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have a human right to be free from discrimination, threats and violence based on their LGBT status and condemns all laws, regulations and rules or practices that discriminate on the basis that an individual is a LGBT person;

FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges the governments of countries where such discriminatory laws, regulations, and practices exist to repeal them with all deliberate speed and ensure the safety and equal protection under the law of all LGBT people;

FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges other bar associations and attorneys in jurisdictions where there are such discriminatory laws or incidents of targeting of LGBT people to work to defend victims of anti-LGBT discrimination or conduct, and to recognize and support their colleagues who take these cases as human rights advocates; and

FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges the United States Government, through bilateral and multilateral channels, to work to end discrimination against LGBT people and to ensure that the rights of LGBT people receive equal protection under the law.

Boy is Matt “I Wanted For A Hate Crime In Canada. Well Actually I’m Not” Barber and his shyster lawyers at the Liberty Counsel going to blow a gasket over this one.

Deeeeeeeeelicious!

You can read the entire resolution in full here

Russian Gay Rights Activists Have Signs Burned and Pelted With Eggs at International Women’s Day Rally

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Russia vilence

Anti-LGBT violence in Russia still continue on a daily basis despite the lack of reporting now that the Olympics are over.

In the latest attacks a group of armed men were arrested in Moscow yesterday after they disrupted a gay rights demonstration for International Women’s Day by throwing eggs at the demonstrators and setting fire to their placards. 12 of whom were arrested after the attacks and are reported to have also been carrying concealed knives, crowbars, and machetes.

LGBT activists Igor Iasine, Nikolay Bayev, Evgeniy Pisemsky, as well as several members of the Moscow Rainbow Association and other participants held rainbow flags and placards against homophobia and sexism yesterday.

According to Grani.ru, Russian police demanded that rainbow flags should be removed from the rally shortly after the demonstration started, but allowed anti-gay protestors to continue.  Violence broke out shortly after, when a group of armed thugs attacked the LGBT campaigners with eggs and attempted to burn down their placards.

Source: PinkNews.co.uk

IOC Defends Arrest of Italian Trans Ex-Parliment Member At Sochi For Breaking Gay Propaganda Law

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Italian MP

The International Olympic Committee has come defending the Russian authorities’ decision to “remove ” Vladimir Luxuria  a transgender Italian ex-Parliament member and LGBT rights activist from the Olympic Village last week and contends she was “peacefully” escorted from the site and not detained, the AP reports.

Luxuria, who is also the first openly transgender member of any European parliament, was strolling through the Olympic village in a rainbow dress, scarf, and headpiece when she was reportedly removed by Russian plainclothes police officers. She says she was taken to a local police station by four men — who did not show her an official badge

“I was kept to take information, for a couple of hours, and then at last, a person talking English came, saying that I shouldn’t show Russian writings about LGBT rights,” Luxuria told Russia’s Kremlin-backed news outlet RuptlyTV.

Russian Police, and now the IOC however, deny the claims.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams told the AP that Luxuria had set out to demonstrate at the stadium and that, “We would ask anyone to make their case somewhere else,” because the games are not the proper venue for demonstrations. Additionally, Adams denies Luxuria was detained, saying, “I know her stated aim to demonstrate in the venue and I believe after a couple of hours when she finally got to the venue I think she was escorted from there peacefully, and not detained.

 

UPDATE: Via John Becker of The Bilerico Project

Vladimir Luxuria — a trans woman and former member of the Italian Parliament who was detained and released yesterday for protesting Russia’s anti-LGBT laws at the Sochi Olympics — was detained again today in Sochi and will be kicked out of the country tomorrow, according to multiple reports.

From the Associated Press:

An Italian activist shouting “It’s OK to be gay” and dressed in a rainbow-colored outfit and large headdress was detained Monday as she entered an arena to watch an Olympic hockey game.

Vladimir Luxuria, a former Communist lawmaker in the Italian parliament who has become a prominent transgender rights crusader and television personality, was stopped by four men and then driven away by police in a car with Olympic markings.
Luxuria later told The Associated Press she was kept in the car for about 10 minutes, then released in the countryside after the men had taken away her Olympic spectator pass. She eventually made it back to her hotel and said she was leaving Russia on Tuesday morning.

“They don’t say anything. They just were people who had to do this and they did it,” Luxuria said.

 

Former Italian Trans Prime Minister Arrested In Sochi For “Gay Is OK” Banner

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Italian MP

Vladimir Luxuria, the former Italian MP and the first transgender person to hold that office, has been arrested in Sochi after displaying a banner reading ‘Gay is OK’, according to Italian media reports.

Luxuria was taken into custody, according to Italian LGBT activist Irma Battaglia of the ‘Gay Project’, and the attitude of the agents has been “brutal and aggressive”.

Luxuria tweeted a photo earlier in the day as she held a rainbow fan. She wrote: “I’m in Sochi! Greetings with the colors of the rainbow, in the face of Putin!

Vladimir Luxuria shows us the bravery and integrity that our athletes and representatives are too cowardly show.

#CheersToVladimirLuxuria