Some US conservatives urging right not to serve gays on religious grounds

Conservative lawmakers in states nationwide are pushing to expand the right of individuals and businesses to not provide certain services to same-sex couples on religious grounds. Critics of the bills say they could set far-reaching precedents. For example, they say, a man charged with domestic violence could argue that it is part of his religion to keep his wife in line or a taxpayer-funded homeless shelter could be permitted to turn away a Muslim family.

They argue, however, that gay and transgender people are the primary targets of these bills and that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is particularly vulnerable because many states do not explicitly ban discrimination against them. Read More

Church of England bishop: Church has a legacy of serious institutional homophobia

The Bishop of Buckingham has recorded a Christmas sermon for the LGBT community in which he condemns the Church of England’s treatment of gay people. The full video was recorded by the Bishop of Buckingham, the Rt Rev Dr Alan Wilson.

In it, he congratulates all same-sex couples who have married or converted their civil partnerships to marriage this year, and condemns the Church of England for its treatment of gay people. He says: “Christians believe God is love and those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. But, you may say, churches have a funny way of showing that sometimes. Read More

Swiss film festival dismisses controversial TV reporter Mona Iraqi

The organisers of a Swiss film festival have sacked their Egyptian representative, Mona Iraqi, because of her role in a recent police raid on a Cairo bathhouse which resulted in the arrest of 26 people. Iraqi, the presenter of an investigative current affairs programme, has been strongly criticised by rights activists for informing the police of alleged homosexual activity at a Ramsis bathhouse and precipitating a police raid.

On 7 December police raided the building and arrested 26 men, stripping them naked and rounding them into police vans. Pictures posted by Iraqi on her official Facebook page show her at the scene, filming events with her mobile phone. After the raid, Iraqi wrote on her Facebook page that “our program was able to break up a place for perversion between men and to catch them flagrantly in the act … My God, the result is beautiful.” Read More

Activists condemn Mona Iraqi, Egyptian TV presenter who reported men to the police for "deviance" then filmed them as they were arrested

Egyptian morality police of the Cairo Security Directorate, arrested approximately 26 individuals while at a public bathhouse for men. The men were arrested for the alleged “group practice of deviance” in exchange for money inside the bathhouse.

This incident happened after the bathhouse was reported to police by media presenter Mona Iraqi, who claimed that the men turned the place into a “den of group deviance.” Iraqi did not stop at reporting these men: she accompanied the police while they stormed the place and photographed groups of men while police gathered them naked, denying them the right to put on their clothes. The men desperately tried to conceal their identities, but they were filmed and photographed in clear infringement of their privacy rights and in obvious disregard to the law.

Arrests like these have been accompanied by a still more monstrous media crusade. The media present homosexuals as a group of “sick” individuals and criminals in need of therapy — or paints them as a deviant community that spread after the revolution. Read More

Watch - Living in fear: Egypt's gay community

Two men exchange rings and hug in celebration aboard a Nile boat, as ululations fill the air and a traditional engagement song plays in the background.

But within days, their celebration has turned to shock and sadness: after a video of the "gay wedding" spread across Egyptian social media, the men were arrested and eventually sentenced to three years in prison for distributing pornographic material.

Homosexuality is not mentioned in the Egyptian penal code, and technically it is not illegal, but members of the LGBT community are often arrested and charged with pornography, prostitution or debauchery. Read More

California men shed condoms in favor of Gilead's HIV prevention pill

The good news: A pill from Gilead Sciences Inc. stops HIV infection among people at high risk of contracting the AIDS virus. The bad news: Men taking the drug to prevent HIV appear to be having more sex without a condom, putting them at risk of contracting other sexually transmitted diseases.  Read More

UK: HIV most often passed on by younger gay men who have undiagnosed HIV, are not on treatment, and have an ongoing partnership

A modelling study based on the UK’s HIV epidemic among gay men estimates that two-thirds of infections originate in men with undiagnosed HIV, 85% in men who are not taking treatment and 90% within the context of an ongoing sexual partnership.

Moreover, HIV transmissions most frequently involve men under the age of 35 who report relatively high levels of sexual activity, according to the study published online ahead of print in AIDS. Read More

Website for MSM health launched in East Africa

Men who have sex with men (MSM) living in East Africa, where homophobia is on the rise, now have access to a unique website, Afya4Men.info, which contains comprehensive sexual health information targeted to their specific needs.

“Specific MSM medical competence has already been developed in these countries but due to often hostile environments, in many instances including criminalisation of male-to-male sex, has resulted in a lack of localised relevant information being freely available to MSM themselves,” said Prof James McIntyre, CEO of Anova.  Afya4Men.info is entirely bilingual, offering information in both Swahili and English. Read More 

35 gay activists attacked in Zimbabwe

A dozen unidentified men Friday (19 December) crashed an end-of-year party thrown by the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe at a private venue in the capital Harare.

'The unidentified men entered the venue and started beating people using logs, iron bars, empty beer bottles and clenched fists. The men also demanded cash and gadgets from the members present in the hall whilst attacking them.' Read More

Zimbabwe Government to create HIV programme for gays

The government is going to create a specific HIV /AIDS programme targeting homosexuals and sex workers as a way of controlling the infection rate, a senior government official has revealed. This is the first time the government has publicly acknowledged the existence of this minority population sector and said it would include it in its national programmes.

Homosexuality has been politicized by President Robert Mugabe who is on record denouncing the practice. As a result of Mugabe’s anti-gay stance officials have routinely reserved their comments on gay issues. The Zimbabwean gay community has continued to complain about being left out of government programmes, saying that this fuels the spread of the HIV virus. Read More

At Least 594 LGBT People Were Murdered In The Americas In A 15-Month Period

A report just released identified 594 people believed to be LGBT were murdered between the beginning of 2013 and the end of March, 2014. The victims include four who were decapitated.

The count was compiled by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which is an arm of the Organization of American States. In addition to the 594 killed, an additional 176 people survived “serious attacks.” The IACHR said the real count of LGBT people killed or assaulted during this period is likely higher than these figures suggest, because the majority of countries in the Americas do not track hate crimes targeting LGBTI people. As governments do little documentation of such crimes, this count was largely compiled from media accounts and reports by activist organizations, and many crimes may have gone unreported. Read More

U.S. Kicks African Nation From Trade Agreement Over Anti-LGBT Crackdown

The decision to drop the small West African nation from special trade status under the African Growth and Opportunity Act of 2000 came late Tuesday afternoon, just after media in the Gambia announced that three men would be put on trial for homosexuality. These are the first to face trial since police began arresting people on allegations of homosexuality in November. At least 16 more are known to be in detention, and Gambian human rights activists do not know if they are even still alive.  Read More