The fight against AIDS in Uganda and Kenya is suffering from U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Global Gag Rule,” which cuts off U.S. aid from any organization that even mentions abortions as an option for unwanted pregnancies, Human Rights Watch says. Organizations serving sex workers — an occupation that some LGBT people adopt after being excluded … Continue reading
As Uganda seeks to reverse rising HIV infection rates, Ugandan LGBTI activists are seeking improved contacts with leaders of anti-AIDS programs and an end to stigma that excludes LGBTI people from HIV services. Continue reading
U.S. foreign aid and loans from the International Monetary Fund are being used as leverage to encourage fair, unbiased treatment of LGBTI people in homophobic countries. But not without pushback. Consider the case of Ghana, which is troubled about a $918-million IMF loan that comes with a requirement of preventing discrimination against LGBT patients and … Continue reading
In Bangladesh, two LGBT rights activists, including the editor of Roopbaan, the country’s first LGBT magazine, were hacked to death this morning in a flat in the country’s capital, Dhaka. The deceased are Roopbaan editor Xulhaz Mannan, 35, and his friend, Tonoy Mojumdar, also an LGBT rights activist. Bangladeshi LGBT rights activists expressed shock and … Continue reading
The United States has replaced the anti-gay Inter-Religious Council of Uganda as a contractor for HIV / AIDS services in Uganda. Effective Aug. 1, the work will be done by the international health, infrastructure and environmental services firm Cardno Emerging Markets, the Ugandan New Vision newspaper reported. Both the United States and Sweden recently announced … Continue reading
The World Bank has an important role to play in ending discrimination against LGBT people worldwide and enabling them to become full participants in the world’s economic life, according to the Rev. Canon Albert Ogle, president of the St. Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation. These are excerpts from remarks he made during a panel discussion … Continue reading
LGBT rights organizations in Cameroon have decided to halt AIDS education programs until their international partners help them to improve security so activists won’t be killed while trying to curb the spread of HIV among LGBT people there. The announcement of that decision came today, a week after the discovery of the murdered body of … Continue reading
It was only a year ago that the vintage convertible carrying Global Grand Marshal Bishop Christopher Senyonjo rolled down Market Street in San Francisco to the cheers of a million well-wishers at San Francisco Pride. Our theme “Global Equality” won the competition to name Pride’s theme last year. At 80, though rejected by his Anglican … Continue reading
While the LGBT community globally struggles to find funds for basic human services and HIV prevention, we are discovering disturbing trends in the allocation of United States funds to Christian fundamentalist organizations that are often in the front lines of encouraging the further criminalization of homosexuality. My recent visit to Uganda uncovered a disturbing trend … Continue reading
In a hard-hitting open letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the Rev. Canon Albert Ogle challenges Kerry to end U.S. support for anti-gay former Anglican Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, whom Ogle describes as one of the most influential instigators of Africa’s ongoing campaign of attacks on LGBT people. “It may be time for … Continue reading
