Tag Archives: World News

6 Sentenced to Death in Bangladesh for Murder of 2 Gay Rights Activists

6 Sentenced to Death in Bangladesh for Murder of 2 Gay Rights Activists

Featured, Gay News From Around The Globe, , ,

Six members of an Islamist militant group were sentenced to death on Tuesday by a court in Bangladesh for the brutal killing of two gay rights activists five years ago.

Xulhaz Mannan, 35, the editor of Bangladesh’s first magazine for gay people, and actor Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, 25, were hacked to death in Mannan’s apartment in the capital Dhaka in April 2016.

The most serious attack came in July of 2016, when gunmen stormed a cafe in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka and killed 22 people, most of them foreigners.

The brutal murders were part of a series of attack claimed by Ansar Al Islam, the regional arm of al Qaeda.

Of the eight defendants in the case, six were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death,

The Special Anti-Terrorism Tribunal also convicted the six of belonging to a terrorist organization, the al Qaeda-inspired domestic militant organization Ansar Ullah Bangla Team, Khan said, a group that police believe is responsible for the murders of more than a dozen activists and bloggers

EU To Take Action Against POLAND and HUNGARY for "LGBT Free Zones" and Abuse

EU To Take Action Against POLAND and HUNGARY for “LGBT Free Zones” and Abuse

EXCLUSIVE, Gay News From Around The Globe, , , ,

Bloomberg Eqaulity is reporting that the European Union will formally announce legal action, known as an infringement procedure against the countries of Poland and Hungary for its horrific treatment of it’s LGBT citizens and it’s so-called “LGBT Free Zones.

The announcement may be as soon as next month.

Towns and provinces across Poland have declared themselves “free of LGBTQ ideology” to prevent pride parades and other gay-friendly events from going ahead. As of the middle of last year, almost a third of municipalities in the Catholic country of 38 million people had adopted the declaration, often after lobbying from ultra-conservative groups.

Several Polish courts have ruled that the measures are unconstitutional and discriminatory — and while the declarations are legally meaningless, they have fueled fear and discrimination.

ILGA-Europe, a Brussels-based charity, says Poland is the worst place in the EU for LGBTQ people. During last year’s election campaign, President Andrzej Duda referred to homosexuality as a “foreign ideology” that’s “worse than communism.”

In an interview with conservative weekly Sieci published on Monday, Polish Education Minister Przemyslaw Czarnek praised the the draconian anti-LGBT regulations of countries such as Hungary and Russia.

“This law states that school lessons touching on questions of sexuality must not promote gender reassignment or homosexuality,” he was quoted as saying.

“We should copy these regulations on Polish soil in their entirety!”

The European Commission  letter sent to Budapest, Hungry informing the country last week that it was taking legal steps against the bill because it discriminates against people based on their sexual orientation.

NYC: Anti-Vaxxers Battle White Supremacist At Pfizer Office Protest

Montreal’s Gay Village Erases The “Gay”

Featured, Gay News From Around The Globe, , , ,

Montreal’s famous LGBT neighborhood, known around the world as Le Village Gai (The Gay Village), wants to drop “gay” from it’s name.

On Wednesday, the neighborhood business association that represents more than 250 businesses in the neighborhood wrote on it’s Instagram page that from now on, the area wants to be known by a more inclusive — if slightly more generic — name. So from now on, the LGBTQ neighborhood in Canada’s second-largest city, Quebec, will be simply known as “the Village of Montreal, the largest 2SLGBTQ + village in the WORLD!”

By dropping the “gay” from its name, the association wants the area to reflect a more inclusive view of different nuances of sexual orientations and gender identities.

Said longtime gay rights activist Jacob Carter: “Erasing Gay visibility after decades of hard work is one truly fucked up notion of ‘progress.’ We don’t have to go back in the closet.”

Montréal’s Gay Village gets its name from gay businessman Bernard Rousseau, who in 1984 opened the “Cinéma du Village” porn theatre, which today is the Le National concert venue (1220 Sainte-Catherine Street East).

Trump Administration's HHS and Mike Pompeo Launch the Anti-LGBT “Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family.”

Trump Administration’s HHS and Mike Pompeo Launch the Anti-LGBT “Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family.”

Featured, Gay News From Around The Globe, , , , , , , ,

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Health and Human Service Secretary Alex Azar joined representatives from the anti-LGBT countries of Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, and Uganda on Thursday to launch the anti-LGBT/ anti-abortion “Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family.”

Pompeo and Azar have been working for at least a year and a half to mobilize Thursday’s signing of the Geneva Consensus seeking to reverse the Obama administration’s U.S. foreign policy which supported reproductive rights and LGBT equality.

The anti-LGBT agenda of the declaration reaffirms that “the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state.” Hungary’s Minister of State for Family, Youth and International Affairs Katalin Novák denounced international forces that she charged were trying to “weaken the traditional family” through a “culture of indoctrination and preaching”, “gender ideology,” and sex education.

Novák added that the right-wing anti-LGBT governments of Hungary and Poland are playing a leading role in promoting and strengthening the “traditional family.” Uganda’s health minister, Jane Aceng, criticized international pressure to support policies that “may be contrary to our values” and called for “due respect for our values and sovereignty.”

The Geneva Consensus Declaration event was a culmination of the Trump administration’s intensive efforts to build opposition to any international recognition of LGBT rights and a woman’s right to choose an abortion. Pompeo and Azar have been working on developing this new coalition for about a year and a half.

You can read more at Right Wing Watch website.

LGBT Activists Arrested in Warsaw, Poland for Hanging Rainbow Flags Off Statues and "Offending Religious Feelings"

LGBT Activists Arrested in Warsaw, Poland for Hanging Rainbow Flags Off Statues and “Offending Religious Feelings”

Featured, Gay News From Around The Globe, , , ,

Three LGBT activists have been arrested in Warsaw, Poland for hanging rainbow PRIDE flags off statues in Warsaw earlier this week.

The activists who were protesting the anti-LGBT policies of President Andrzej Duda hung the flags off statues of Christ at the Basilica of the Holy Cross , the astronomer Copernicus and the famous Warsaw mermaid statue. Polish police charged them with desecrating monuments and “offending religious feelings”.

Prosecutors must now decide whether to bring the case to court.

During last month’s election campaign, President Duda — an ally of the ruling conservative Law and Justice party — said the promotion of LGBT rights was an ideology more harmful than communism. He was re-elected as Poland’s president for a second five-year term, winning 51% of the vote in a tight battle with Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski a staunch defender of LGBT rights.

During the swearing in of President Andrzej Duda’s swearing-in female Polish MPs wore the rainbow colors of the LGBT PRIDE flag and rainbow face masks in protest.

At his swearing-in, Duda vowed to maintain openness to all groups and political parties, while also stressing the need to protect the family in Polish society.

Left wing parliamentarians dressed in the colours of the rainbow pose in front of the Polish Parliament (Sejm)
BEuropean Union Stops Funding To 6 Polish Towns That Call Themselves ‘LGBT-Free Zones’

European Union Stops Funding To 6 Polish Towns That Call Themselves ‘LGBT-Free Zones’

Featured, Gay News From Around The Globe, , , , ,

On July 28th the European Union announced it’s decision to stop the funding of six Polish towns that boast of being “LGBT-Free Zones”.

According to CNN, the six Polish towns that were denied funds had applied to join the EU’s twinning programme. The programme aims at fostering “peaceful relations” and “mutual understanding” between European citizens. It provides funds of up to €25,000 ($29,000) to the members on the condition that it is made accessible to all without any discrimination.

Since 2019, one-third of Polish towns have declared themselves to be “free from LGBT ideology”.

EU Commission spokesman Adalbert Jahnz has confirmed that the six applications were rejected because those towns could not guarantee they would abide by the objectives. Jahnz said, “Six applications have been rejected because the answer given by the legal representative of the project did not provide the evaluation committee with sufficient assurance that the project would be in line with those objectives and general features.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also supported the cause and wrote: “Our treaties ensure that every person in Europe is free to be who they are, live where they like, love who they want and aim as high as they want.”

NORWAY To Give Persecuted LGBT Asylum Refugees Priority

NORWAY To Give Persecuted LGBT Asylum Refugees Priority

Featured, Gay News From Around The Globe, , , ,

The country of Norway this week confirmed that LGBT+ refugees, both groups and individuals, will be given priority when transferring from one asylum country to another for permanent resettlement.

Under previous guidelines, vulnerable women and children were given priority.

‘We are now changing the guidelines for the work of transfer refugees so that [LGBT] person … should be given priority.’

Still in almost 70 countries across the globe homosexuality is considered a criminal criminal offense where you can be imprisoned, tortured, and killed for who they are and who they love.

Norway was ranked fifth for LGBT human rights by ILGA-Europe say the move is to not only to protect the LGBT community in Norway but also to recognize that refugees may need to flee persecution due to their sexual orientation.


Anti-Vaxxer Dies In Texas After Family Sued Minnesota Hospital That Wanted To Pull The Plug

New COVID-19 Outbreak in South Korea Linked To Gay Man, Homophobic Hate Rises in Country

Featured, Gay News From Around The Globe, , , ,

A new outbreak of coronavirus in South Korea has been linked to an infected gay man who visited many LGBT night spots and now has led to a rise in reports of homophobia in that country.

Over 100 new coronavirus cases in South Korea have been traced to Seoul nightlife spots, all of which have temporarily closed, with a 29-year-old man identified as an original spreader.

After a story on the man was published in Kookmin Ilbo, a newspaper founded by a church, social media was flooded with homophobic slurs and messages placing blame on the man and homosexual clubbers for reviving coronavirus, according to the Associated Press—and CNN reports that gay South Koreans have received threats on the dating app Grindr.

According to a Seoul gay rights activist outreach to his group have increased 70-fold, with the majority coming from gay men who fear they could lose their jobs if they are tested and need to self-quarantine.

South Korea’s national police agency has deployed some 8,500 officers (link in Korean) nationwide, in a race against time to identify people who visited nightlife venues

Because of the outbreak South Korea has delayed reopening schools another week .

CANADA: Government Survey Finds 91.8% of Canadians Are "Comfortable" With LGBT's

CANADA: Government Survey Finds 91.8% of Canadians Are “Comfortable” With LGBTs

Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, Gay News From Around The Globe, Of Interest, , , , , ,

Last summer Canada’s federal government measured how “comfortable” Canadians felt with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people playing significant roles in their lives to better access and understand the challenges faced by Canada’s LGBT community.

According to the  mid-summer poll commissioned by the Privy Council Office an overwhelming 91.8 per cent of those surveyed said they would be “comfortable” if a next-door neighbor was gay, lesbian or bisexual and that 87.6 per cent said they would be “comfortable” if a neighbour was a transgender person.

The Privy Council Office (PCO) is the federal department that supports the work of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Weekly polls are part and parcel of the PCO, and for the survey on the week of July 26, the body included six questions that gauged Canada’s attitudes towards its LGBT community.

How comfortable would you be in each of the following situations?

  • If you had a next-door neighbour who was gay, lesbian, or bisexual
  • If you had a next-door neighbour who is a transgender person
  • If you had a manager or supervisor who is gay, lesbian, or bisexual
  • If you had a manager or supervisor who was a transgender person
  • If you had a doctor who is gay, lesbian, or bisexual
  • If you had a doctor who was a transgender person.”

The poll found 90.5% of the respondents said they were “very comfortable” or “somewhat comfortable” with a gay, lesbian or bisexual boss and 88.2% were “comfortable” with having an LGB doctor and 79.9% “comfortable” with having a transgender doctor.

“It’s really good to see the attitude of Canadians changing and being more open and inclusive,” said Helen Kennedy, executive director of the LGBT advocacy group Egale Canada. “We obviously have more work to do. But it’s definitely a step in the right direction.”

Malaysia Court Sentences 5 Men to Jail, Fines, and Caning for Gay Sex

Malaysia Court Sentences 5 Men to Jail, Fines, and Caning for Gay Sex

Featured, Gay News From Around The Globe, , , ,

A Malaysian religious court on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur sentenced five men on Thursday to jail, caning and fines for attempting gay sex, media and a rights groups. have reported.

The Selangor Shariah High Court, on the outskirts of the Malaysian capital, sentenced four men to six months’ jail, six strokes of the cane, and a 4,800 ringgit ($1,163) fine for “attempting intercourse against the order of nature.” A fifth man was sentenced to seven months’ jail, six strokes of the cane and a 4,900 ringgit fine for the same offence.

“The facts show that there was an attempt to carry out intercourse outside of the order of nature and that it was not in the early stages of preparation,”  Selangor Shariah High Court judge Mohamad Asri was quoted as saying.

Malaysia  has a dual-track legal system, with Islamic criminal and family laws applicable to Muslims running alongside civil laws. The country is home to 32 million people, where ethnic Malay Muslims make up more than 60 percent of the population.

The case comes amid concerns around growing intolerance toward the LGBT community in Malaysia in recent months.

Malaysia retains its colonial era criminal ban on sodomy (as well as oral sex), with possible punishment including fines, prison sentences of up to twenty years, and even corporal punishment. A subsection of the Criminal Code also provides additional punishment for men convicted of “gross indecency with another male person”.  Vigilante executions are also tolerated and LGBT people also risk deportation.