Ukraine: The 'new Ukraine' is failing us, LGBT activists say

With the subsequent ousting of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych – who was known to court president Vladimir Putin’s favour by emulating his infamous “anti-gay laws” – the LGBT community was optimistic that attitudes would change.

However, two years on many have since found that persecution and prejudice continues, and that the free­doms called for by the protesters in Kiev’s independence square have been un­evenly ap­plied in post-rev­o­lu­tion Ukraine – particularly when it comes to sexuality.

In the west­ern city of Lviv lo­cal au­thor­i­ties announced earlier this month they could not pro­tect a fes­ti­val or­ga­nised by an LGBT or­gan­i­sa­tion, allowing the ho­tel where the event was about to take place to become sur­rounded by far-right ac­tivists in masks shout­ing “kill, kill, kill”. The or­ga­nis­ers were forced to cancel the event and leave the city over fears for their safety.

“The sit­u­a­tion can lean ei­ther way,” says Kis, explaining that with the Maidan protests now playing a key part in the narrative of the “new Ukraine” the LGBT community – despite being on the frontlines of the unrest – has struggled to find its place.  Read more via the Guardian 

Africa: Four in five Africans don't want gay neighbours

Africans are generally tolerant of people of different ethnic groups and religions - but not of gays and lesbians, according to a new report from Afrobarometer. The continent-wide collaborative group released the report based on more than 50,000 interviews with members of the public in 33 countries across the continent.

"While Africa is often portrayed as a continent of ethnic and religious division and intolerance," the report says, "(our) findings show high degrees of acceptance of people from different ethnic groups, people of different religions, immigrants, and people living with HIV/AIDS...

But the report goes on to add: "A major exception to Africa's high tolerance is its strongly negative attitude toward homosexuals... Only 21 percent of all citizens across the 33 countries say they would like or would not mind having homosexual neighbours."

The lack of tolerance is not universal - the report says most people in Cape Verde, South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique would tolerate gay neighbours. More than four in 10 in Mauritius, São Tomé and Principe and Botswana think likewise. Nevertheless, there is "near unanimity" in rejecting homosexuality in Senegal, Guinea, Uganda, Burkina Faso and Niger. And in Algeria, Egypt and Sudan the issue was not even surveyed because Afrobarometer deemed the question "too sensitive". Read more via All Africa

US: Anti-Gay attacks continue in Dallas

Last week, we told you how LGBT Dallas residents are taking matters into their own hands in the wake of a recent string of violent anti-gay attacks in the city’s Oak Lawn neighborhood.

About 20 new recruits have signed up for the Dallas Police Department’s Volunteers in Patrol program since more than a dozen anti-gay attacks were reported last fall. However, police still haven’t made any arrests in connection with those incidents, and the volunteers’ presence apparently has done little to quell the wave of violence against LGBT people in the city’s gay entertainment district.

John Anderson, the volunteer featured in our report, says there have been at least five additional attacks against LGBT people in the last three weeks in Oak Lawn. But none of the victims have reported the crimes to police.  Read more via Towleroad 

Ukraine: Far-Right homophobic thugs attack LGBT Equality Festival in Lviv

The Equality Festival events planned in Lviv were disrupted and activists effectively – and with violence – driven out of the city.  The police did not detain any of the young far-right thugs in masks who first harassed activists, then surrounded the hotel and attacked a coach with Equality Festival activists.

The LGBT initiative Equality Festival had planned an Equality ‘Quest’ on March 19, as part of various anti-discrimination, pro-tolerance events over the weekend.  The quest was to go around places linked with ideals of equality and freedom within the city. During the early hours of Saturday morning, the Lviv District Administrative Court passed a ruling banning all events in the area where the Equality Festival quest had been planned. Having been forced to give up street events, the organizers hoped to at least hold the exhibition of anti-discrimination posters, film viewings and a literary evening.  

The activists were basically barricaded in the hotel because of the far-right thugs outside.  Then within hours of the Festival beginning, the hotel had to be evacuated due to a bomb alert. Fortunately nobody was hurt, and the activists have now safely left the city. Read more via KHPG

Trinidad and Tobago: Teacher wants a gun

A teacher at the prestigious Naparima College in San Fernando, is under fire, for a rant against homosexuality, going as far as wanting a gun to deal with such persons and other problems in the world. The teacher is said to have made initial comments on the issue during morning assembly at the school on Thursday last and subsequently in a classroom session. According to reports, a student announced to the assembly it was 'ok to be gay' before he was verbally attacked by the teacher.

Referring to the parents of a student who had openly professed to being gay, the teacher reportedly said: “He has two parents, who should not be parents. They are both screw-ups, they are atheists, they do not believe in God.” “You see me,” she is said to have continued, “Give me a gun and I will fix all the problems in the world, both of them (parents) first, then their offspring. Do not tell me there is no God,” she added while noting that persons with such beliefs should keep it to themselves. 

The audio recording of which the teacher’s voice has been identified, as the one addressing a classroom session, has gone viral on social media, generating numerous comments both for her gun talk and jab at homosexuals. A senior official at the school confirmed the incident, saying that a report was being prepared to be passed to the Ministry of Education.  

Read more via Newsdays
 

Scotland is training a small army of LGBT-friendly police officers to stamp out hate crime

Scotland’s police force has ramped up its commitment to tacking anti-LGBT hate crime. LGBTI charity the Equality Network is collaborating with Police Scotland to deliver a training programme for police at locations around the country – aimed at helping police support victims of hate crime, and increasing public confidence in police.

The more than 60 new LGBT Liaison Officers are intended to be the hub of a network across Scotland, that is accessible to the local LGBT and intersex communities. Superintendent Jim Baird of Police Scotland’s Safer Communities Department said: “Tackling hate crime is a priority for Police Scotland. We are delighted to have worked with the Equality Network. 

"Research and studies show hate crime against the LGBTI community is often under reported. We hope that these specially trained officers will encourage more LGBTI people to come forward with the confidence in Police Scotland to help reverse this trend.” Read more via PinkNews

India: Op-ed, They dare to hate this minority

How is it that a religious objection to freeing India’s LGBT community can pass muster in a democracy? There is a self-contradiction involved in religious bodies objecting to the admission of a curative petition against Section 377. Religious organisations function freely because the Constitution protects the citizen’s right to both freedom of expression and free speech.

Among these is the right to not only adopt the faith of one’s choice but also to propagate it. By denying sexual choice to the LGBT community the ACA and MPLB undermine the source of their own freedoms, the Constitution. Of course, it is not for the first time that we have witnessed the expression of intolerance by purohits, mullahs and padres. Usually they suppress women. This time they have united in their fear of sexual freedom and hatred of the other that dares to pursue it. The more important question is, how it is that we have come to tolerate such intolerance?

The origins of this inconsistency lie in the colonialist’s construction of India. 

Read more via The Hindu
 

Alarming: 77 trans people murdered in 70 days

Transgender Europe’s (TGEU) Trans Murder Monitoring project (TMM) reveals 77 reported murders of trans and gender diverse people in 17 countries globally in the first 70 days of 2016. There have been 31 reported murders of trans and gender diverse people in January, 35 in February, and already 11 in the first ten days of March.

Brazil, with a shocking amount of 36 reported murders, spearheads the list: one trans person killed every second day. Brazil is followed by Mexico (10 murders so far), the United States (6), El Salvador (5), Argentina (4), Colombia (3), Venezuela (3), as well as countries with one trans and gender diverse person reported murder: Bangladesh, Costa Rica, France, Georgia, Honduras, India, Nepal, Russia and Turkey. The American continent, therefore, accounts for 90% of the reported homicides of trans and gender diverse persons this year so far. Read more via TvT