Fourteen nations and regions with large Muslim populations have laws providing for the death penalty for same-sex activity or otherwise allow such executions. Many fewer countries actually impose the death sentence — by this blog’s count, probably five of them. Continue reading
Saudi police arrested about 35 Pakistanis, including many trans women, during a raid in Riyadh that disrupted a ceremony in which members of the Pakistani transgender community choose their gurus. Pakistani activists claimed that two of the women were killed by police — a claim denied by Saudi officials. Continue reading
The Erasing 76 Crimes blog has updated its sad tally “100s are in prison for being gay” — one of the blog’s most frequently visited pages. In the past, the blog tried to keep track of individual cases of LGBTI prisoners and defendants, but the number of cases turned out to be too great to continue. … Continue reading
LONDON – A group of up to 17 countries led by Belarus has blocked a plan to include the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender communities in a new urban strategy drawn up by the United Nations, according to sources close to negotiations. Thompson Reuters Foundation published the story Oct. 11-12. The headline was: … Continue reading
Widespread official persecution of LGBTI people continues in Egypt, as described in this excerpt from a Public Radio International article: In much of the Middle East, it’s getting more dangerous to be gay Just after it became known in June that the attacker of Orlando’s Pulse nightclub had pledged allegiance to ISIS, Egypt’s foreign ministry … Continue reading
Many signs of progress, but also many instances of ongoing persecution of LGBTI people, are contained in the following round-up of the world’s recent LGBTI-related news, most of which was excerpted with slight modifications from the UNAIDS publication Equal Eyes: Human rights Activists in Odessa, Ukraine, convinced authorities to reconsider a last-minute ban that would … Continue reading
A group of Independent Arab LGBTQ activists need your support. Located in the United States & Canada, the group of activists are working to mobilize the community in the diaspora to continue the fight against homophobia in the Arab world, and for a safer world for everyone. Leaders from around the Arab World based in … Continue reading
By Colin Stewart Ten nations with large Muslim populations have laws providing for the death penalty for same-sex activity. Only a few actually impose the death sentence. Exactly how many is a difficult question. The 2016 State-Sponsored Homophobia report from ILGA, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, lists 13-14 places that threaten … Continue reading
Public recognition of the human rights of LGBTI people remains rare in the many Middle Eastern and North African countries that still have laws against same-sex intimacy. In most of those countries, even advocacy of those rights is unusual. Such advocacy is mostly underground, online or abroad for Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Morocco, Syria … Continue reading
News items in this recap mostly were excerpted with slight modifications from two published round-ups of the world’s LGBTI-related news– UNAIDS’s Equal Eyes and ILGA’s LGBulleTIn. Trouble ahead: Brunei, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia Human rights activists in Brunei have expressed their concern over reports that the government is committed to implementing the second phase of the … Continue reading
