The Commonwealth of Nations, most of them former British colonies, has granted legal recognition to an LGBTI group for the first time. Overall, the group has a poor record on LGBTI rights — of the 52 countries in the Commonwealth, 36 have laws against consensual same-sex intimacy. Continue reading
Dozens of organizations worldwide have formed a coalition seeking to end persecution of LGBT people in Indonesia. In the following statement, the coalition asks for support from allies worldwide: Continue reading
Caleb Orozco, the activist in Belize who successfully challenged and overturned his country’s anti-gay law, has been selected as the 2017 winner of the David Kato Vision and Voice Award. In memory of murdered Ugandan LGBT activist David Kato, the award is presented annually to an exemplary LGBT rights activist. Continue reading
The Commonwealth of 53 nations, formerly the British Commonwealth, can play a positive role in improving the lives of LGBT citizens even though dozens of those countries still have anti-LGBT laws inherited from their former colonial overlords. So say the LGBT rights advocates at London-based Kaleidoscope Trust, which this week published a “toolkit” of recommendations … Continue reading
Commonwealth nations have been unwilling to talk formally about dropping the anti-LGBT laws that remain on the books in 40 of the 53 countries that once were part of the British Empire. That might change in 2018, says the next secretary-general of the Commonwealth, Baroness Patricia Scotland, who is a citizen both in the United … Continue reading
Youthful leaders from Caribbean countries with anti-gay laws met last weekend in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, where they signed a declaration seeking greater social acceptance of LGBT people and the repeal of unfair laws against them. Youthful members of the LGBT communities heard first-hand descriptions of the discrimination that LGBT people face on a daily basis in … Continue reading
Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Russia. Those are some of the countries that might feel the greatest pressure from Google as the Internet search company pursues its new “Legalize Love” campaign. Google has offices in those countries, which are among the 76-plus nations with laws related to homosexual … Continue reading
IF YOUR IDENTITY WERE ILLEGAL Kaleidoscope Trust has released a short video, “Illegal To Be You,” which gives a hint at what LGBT people go through in countries where homosexuality is illegal. To help others understand how that feels, the video imagines harassment and discrimination directed at people who are tall, or bald, or blue-eyed, … Continue reading
