[sex] lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender

South Africa: 500 gay couples married in first country in Southern Hemisphere to legalize same-sex marriage

It was another picture-perfect wedding at the foot of Table Mountain, recalled the Rev. Daniel Brits. Inside the chapel, a female vocalist sang “Wind Beneath My Wings” before he led the nervous couple through their vows surrounded by family and friends a few weeks ago. That the betrothed were two men gave few of the guests pause. For Mr. Brits, it was all in a day’s work. After all, he says, he has married more than 500 gay couples in the four years since South Africa became the first country in the Southern Hemisphere to legalize same-sex marriage, a distinction that ended only this month when Argentina did the same.

Iraq: US and UK failing to take gay pogrom seriously

Last week, 12 Iraqi police officers burst into a house in Karbala, beat up and blindfolded the six occupants and bundled them off in three vans, taking the computers they found with them. The house was then burned down by unknown people. The house was a new "emergency shelter" run by the Iraqi LGBT organisation. Two days later, one of the men turned up in hospital with a throat wound saying he'd been tortured. Iraqi LGBT has ordered those in its other two safe houses to move immediately.

فلسطين/إسرائيل: أصوات – نساء فلسطينيّات مثليّات تصدر وقفة بنات: سرد شخصي

قامت اصوات – نساء فلسطينيّات مثليّات باصدار كتابها الثالث "وقفة بنات: سرد شخصي". اليوم وللمرة الثالثة، تتخذ النساء العربيات قرار عدم التزام الصمت بعد؛ تختار الحديث عن أكثر الأوقات والأمور حميمية وتحديًا لهنّ، يتحدثن عن مسيرات خروجهن إلى العائلة، إلى المجتمع وعلى الأخصّ إلى أنفسهنّ. جائت فكرة كتابة هذه القصص من حاجتنا إلى الكلام والمشاركة وتوثيق تجارب حياتنا كجزء من مسيرة التمكين الذاتي لأنفسنا كأفراد وكمجموعة. قصصنا هذه لا تعرض فقط من منظور ديني، سياسي ، أبوي واجتماعي، بل أيضًا من منظور التجربة الشخصية الداخلية والصراع مع هويّتنا الجندرية وتوجّهنا الجنسي. ليس "وقفة بنات" مجرّد توثيق لنضالنا ولنضال الفئات المهمّشة في المجتمع الأبوي المغاير . بل هو معدّ، أيضًا، لفتح نافذة من الأمل لأولئك الذين يتساءلون حول جنسانيّتهم وميولهم الجنسية وهويّتهم الجندرية. ورسالة لمَن يظنون أنهم وحدهم أو غير طبيعيين في عالم يدين كل ما هو خارج حدود خطّها المجتمع الحديث والديانات التوحيدية الثلاث وتوقّعات الآباء لإتباع المعايير الاجتماعية المقبولة.

Palestine/Israel: Aswat Palestinian Gay Women Publish Coming Out Narratives

Palestinian Gay Woman is pleased to announce the publication of “Waqfet Banat”. Today, for the third time, Arab women make a decision to no longer remain silent; they choose to speak about their most intimate and challenging times, their coming out journeys, not only to family, friends and society, but specifically to themselves. These stories were written as the need to tell and share them, and document our life experiences became a deep part of our self-empowerment process as individuals and as a community. We believe we must tell our stories, not only from a religious, political, parental or societal perspective, but also from the vantage point of our inner personal experience and the struggle with our sexual orientation and gender identity.

Indonesia: Islam Defenders Front radicals remain free after assault on transgender individuals

Three days after the unruly Islam Defenders Front (FPI) stormed a human rights training workshop for transgender individuals in Depok, West Java, police seem reluctant to pursue the case further, with no arrests made to date. Despite massive media reports covering the Friday attack and the presence of several police officers at the crime scene, police investigations have made little progress, despite apparent evidence of the perpetrators. “We were planning to question several witnesses today, but no one showed up,” Depok Police detectives chief Comr. Ade Rahmat Idnal said Monday. The witnesses Ade was referring to were the workshop organizers and members of FPI.

United Kingdom: Iranian lesbian makes her appeal against removal by authorities

I, Kiana Firouz, an Iranian Lesbian, born in 1983 in Tehran/Iran, have sought asylum in the U.K but my application was turned down by the Home Office, despite accepting the fact that I am a lesbian. I accordingly submitted my appeal which was dismissed incredibly by the adjudicator. According to my solicitor’s point of view there is a little chance to grant a permission to appeal against the adjudicator’s decision. It means that I will face with deportation soon.

Uganda: Homophobia, Africa and Evangelical Neocolonialism

In her urgent call to action concerning “the wind of state homophobia [that] has swept over the African continent”—particularly its most “draconian” manifestation in Uganda’s anti-homophobia Bill—Cesnabmihilo Aken’ova remarks, “One cannot but wonder where the new bill is coming from.” In addressing this question, we need to pay attention to external as well as internal forces. Not surprisingly, we find lurking behind homophobic panics and public morality crusades, in Africa as elsewhere, a complicated mix of neocolonial, economic, and domestic policing agendas, writes Rosalind P. Petchesky*

UPDATE: Indonesia: Cancellation of 4th ILGA-Asia Conference

The 4th ILGA ASIA conference was to take place in Surabaya, Indonesia from the 26th to the 28th of March 2010, however, due to unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances, the conference had to be cut short. ILGA is the only worldwide federation campaigning for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) rights and was established in 1978. The aim of ILGA is to work for the equality of LGBTI people and their liberation from all forms of discrimination. It seeks to achieve this aim through the worldwide cooperation and mutual support of its members. Update on: Indonesia: LGBT Activism Under Attack in Surabaya

Indonésie: L’annulation de la 4ème Conférence d’ILGA-Asie régionale

La 4ème Conférence d’ILGA-Asie qui devait se tenir à Surabaya en Indonésie entre le 26 et le 28 mars a malheureusement due être écourtée à la suite de déplorables incidents. ILGA est la seule fédération internationale à faire campagne pour les droits des lesbiennes, gays, bisexuel(le)s, transsexuel(le)s et intersexué(e)s (LGBTI). Créée en 1978, elle œuvre à obtenir l’égalité pour les personnes LGBTI et l’arrêt de toute forme de discriminations. La coopération internationale et le soutien mutuel de tous les membres doivent permettre à ILGA d’atteindre ces objectifs.

Uganda: Tutu: Our gay brothers & sisters across Africa are living in fear

Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity -- or because of their sexual orientation. Nor should anyone be excluded from health care on any of these grounds. In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights. We knew this was wrong. Thankfully, the world supported us in our struggle for freedom and dignity.