Several countries in sub-Saharan Africa have made progress in recognizing the human rights of LGBTI people, but much work remains to be done in the region’s 29 countries that still have laws against same-sex intimacy. LGBTI rights in those African countries are the focus of the following excerpts from the 2015 edition of the U.S. … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe
Homophobic Zimbabwe obstructs anti-Aids workshop
Zimbabwe officials disrupted a workshop for people most at risk of HIV infections over the weekend, seizing documents at the Harare airport and tearing down an exhibition stand displaying materials they found offensive. The seizure is just the latest example of government obstruction of Aids fighters’ attempts to provide health information to sexual minorities, who … Continue reading
Uncategorized
LGBTI news from the UN, UK, Russia, Tunisia, Algeria
News briefs about countries with anti-gay laws, excerpted with slight modifications from UNAIDS’s Equal Eyes recap of the world’s LGBTI-related news and elsewhere: UN agencies seek LGBTI protections Twelve United Nations agencies last month released a historic joint statement urging member nations to end violence and discrimination against all people on the basis of their … Continue reading
LGBTI briefs: Stigma and HIV in Africa, India, Russia
News briefs about LGBTI-related health issues in countries with anti-gay laws, excerpted with slight modifications from UNAIDS’s Equal Eyes recap of the world’s LGBTI news. Involving LGBTI people in the fight against Aids In South Africa, the Global Forum on MSM & HIV brought together health workers, government officials, and advocates to discuss HIV needs … Continue reading
Buoyed by Supreme Court, will U.S. church help LGBT Africans?
On the same day when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all states must recognize same-sex marriages, the progressive U.S.-based Episcopal Church is considering whether to extend its work for justice to LGBT people in Africa. The church’s General Convention, now under way in Salt Lake City, Utah, will decide whether to authorize not only … Continue reading
HIV-positive straight ally in Zimbabwe wins Kato Award
Zimbabwean women’s and LGBTI rights activist Martha Tholanah is the winner of this year’s David Kato Vision & Voice Award, which honors people working for the human rights of sexual minorities worldwide, especially in homophobic societies. Tholanah, a straight, HIV-positive activist “risks her life every day to support [LGBTI] people across the country. Her activism … Continue reading
35 injured in anti-gay attack in Zimbabwe
The New Zimbabwe newspaper reported today: Armed men left 35 people injured after they stormed a gay party and beat up guests in Harare over the weekend, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) organisation has claimed. GALZ said its members were attacked by a dozen of unidentified men who gate crashed the organization’s party which … Continue reading
Zimbabwe: Preacher, don’t spew anti-gay bias
Activists in Zimbabwe are challenging a popular local preacher’s description of homosexuals as mentally ill, including homosexual “politicians, billionaires and big businesspeople whose influence often serves as some smokescreen to cover their mental sickness.” Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa of the United Family International Church stated in an article in the Sunday Mail of Zimbabwe: “What amazes … Continue reading
Zimbabwe police again raid LGBT rights meeting
Police in Zimbabwe today stormed a local hotel where human rights defenders were attending a media training workshop by Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ). They arrested two of those at the meeting and brought the meeting to an end. About 20 participants were in the session, at the Bronte Hotel in Harare, when the … Continue reading
Zimbabwe: Two victories for GALZ
Barely a month after winning a High Court battle with the police, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) scored another court victory this week, winning a case in which the organisation was facing charges of running an unregistered organisation — thereby contravening Section 6 (1) (3) of the Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO) Act Chapter 17:05. … Continue reading
