Fear and Loathing

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Peru: Leftist Legislator claims Mein Kampf 'Is Right' about gay people

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Leftist legislator Rubén Condori Cusi cited Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as an inspiration for his vote against legalizing same-sex civil unions in the South American nation. Following the vote, Condori Cusi called homosexuality “a misconduct” and added, “Matters regarding cleaning, ironing, cooking, those are gender-exclusive.”

While some leftist leaders in Latin America–including Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, and Rafael Correa of Ecuador–have paid lip service to the LGBT cause, all three have close ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran, a nation that openly executes its own citizens on charges of “sodomy.” Argentina and Venezuela have also been implicated in aiding not just the Iranian government, but the Shiite Islamist terrorists of Hezbollah. Read More 

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Dolce & Gabbana comments trigger public outrage--and uncomfortable silence

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In an interview with the Italian magazine Panorama, designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana of Dolce & Gabbana had some contentious things to say about same-sex families and children born of IVF: “You are born to a mother and a father, or at least that’s how it should be,” Mr. Dolce said. “I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalog.” 

Outrage was swift.  Read More

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Turkey: Police beat 2 gay Iranian refugees, deny asylum to Iranian Trans person

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In a country that LGBT Iranian refugees are finding increasingly hostile, two gay Iranian men were severely beaten by a police officer. The case was documented by the LGBT Refugee Outreach Program of the Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO), based out of Toronto, Canada. The organization promotes and protects the rights of Iranian gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals in Iran and abroad.

According to IRQO, some 200 Iranian LGBT individuals residing in Turkey are waiting for refugee determination by the UNHCR and for the resettlement process elsewhere to be completed. Read More

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Syria: Gay Men Driven From Iraq Face Violent Persecution And Death

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Following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and the chaos that engulfed the region in its aftermath, many Iraqi ga men left their country and fled to neighboring countries, including Syria and Turkey. Despite Syrian law that prohibits homosexuality — and before the onset of the Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS — the option to relocate across the border into one of the most secular countries in the Middle East offered asylum from Iraq’s far-right religious militia groups, who to this day target and persecute gays based on either fact or suspicion.   See photojournalist Bradley Secker's report here. 

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Ireland: Warning over homophobic ‘catfish’ attacks

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Members of Cork’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual community have been warned to take safety precautions when meeting online dates after reports of orchestrated attacks by assailants using websites and dating apps to attract their victims.

James Upton, auditor of UCC’s LGBT society, said that he was aware of a rise in physical and verbal homophobic attacks against the group’s members in the past six months. He said he believes it is a backlash against the LGBT community as the upcoming Marriage Equality referendum approaches.

“We can’t tell our members not to go on these sites, but we issue a word of caution about meeting people from them, they could be catfished,” he warned. Read More

Europe: This is what trans people are forced to go through in 34 countries

A video has been released showing some of the hurdles trans people to go through to gain access to legal gender recognition. Transgender Europe released the clip to raise awareness of some of the archaic regulations that govern gender – with some countries still regarding trans people as mentally ill.

For most trans people in Europe, it is either impossible or very difficult and humiliating to get a passport or other identity documents with their correct name and gender. In fact, 34 countries in Europe still do not allow a trans person to change their name and registered gender without invasive and abusive requirements that violate their human rights. Three of the worst requirements are being forced to undergo sterilisation and other medical interventions, being forced to get a divorce (if married), or having to receive a diagnosis of mental illness, despite not being mentally ill, or a ‘psychological opinion’. Watch the two-minute short here 

Russia: Police raid the lesbians who trolled leading anti-gay politician

Being gay is dangerous business in Russia, but it’s especially risky when you troll the country’s leading opponent of gay rights. 

Lesbian club owners were flying to St. Petersburg, when they spotted Vitaly Milonov, a lawmaker famous for initiating Russia’s crackdown on LGBT rights. Not fans of his politics, the girls photographed themselves kissing in front of Milonov, and tweeted the images, creating a viral sensation. Milonov didn’t find the stunt very amusing, however. He called the girls “crazy little morons” and said he was “ashamed for their parents, who raised such idiots.”

Two days later, an anti-gay online community based in Moscow published a call to get Infinity closed down. Community members were encouraged to appeal to Roskomnadzor, Russia’s state-run media watchdog, and federal anti-drug agents, based on claims that Infinity opens its doors to minors and operates as a center for illegal drug use. The anti-gay group makes no secret of why it targeted club Infinity, citing the “kissing selfies” incident with Milonov on the airplane.

Police raided the club this week, citing the owners provocation. Read More

Cameroon: Defenders of the rights of LGBTI persons face homophobia and violence

In a report presented in Douala, The Observatory, Human Rights Defenders Network in Central Africa, Maison des droits de l’Homme au Cameroun, and AMSHeR deplore that threats and physical assaults against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersexual human rights defenders in Cameroon have reached alarming proportions over the last few years.

Testimony and information compiled during a fact-finding mission in 2014 indicate that increasing numbers of extremely serious violations are being committed, in some cases leading to murder, and that nothing is being done to prosecute the perpetrators.  Read More

Middle East: Gay men biggest scapegoats of the Arab Spring

The men arrested last December in a bathhouse raid in Cairo were paraded in front of cameras and dragged naked to waiting police cars. But the real torture did not start then. A judge acquitted the men of “debauchery” but the ruling hardly set them free. Not in that society.

In Syria, accusations of homosexuality have been used as a tactic by the government to tarnish the reputation of popular opposition figures since the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011.

In areas controlled by the terrorist group known as the Islamic State across Syria and Iraq, gay men are thrown off buildings as punishment. The local communities gather to watch the executions. When throwing one man from the seventh floor failed to end his life, his community stoned him to death.

In Egypt, following a year of constant and increasing arrests and entrapment of gay men, the Egyptian government reintroduced the anal test. A torturous and invasive medical practice, it’s supposed to determinate the sexual orientation of a person based on the shape, flexibility and size of his anus. As if. Read More