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South Africa: Owners of gay 'cure' camp found guilty of killing teen

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In 2013, 15-year-old Raymond Buys died after he was kept chained to his bed, beaten with planks and hoses at a training camp that boasted of "making men" out of its young recruits. In in 2007, 25-year-old Erich Calitz died from severe brain injuries and 19-year-old Nicholas van der Walt died at the same training camp.

Now “death camp” commander Alex de Koker's “pathetic” and “absurd” testimony has seen him branded a murderer. 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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UK: Nigeria lesbian fleeing sharia court death sentence seeks asylum

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A judge has adjourned court following an intense hearing of the highly publicized case of Aderonke Apata, a Nigerian lesbian fighting for asylum in the UK. The 47-year-old gay rights advocate and award-winner came to Britain from Nigeria in 2004 seeking asylum on religious grounds after her brother and 3-year-old son were murdered and she was sentenced to death.

Among their arguments prosecutors have denied her sexual identity, while her defense team has promised that she is ready to "debase herself to provide 'evidence' of a sexual nature." 

Protestors from around the world gathered in London to rally at the hearing. Just one petition calling for Apata's safety has over 230,000 signatures. Read More

UK: LGBT asylum seekers face ‘bullying’ and ‘abuse’ in British detention centres

A cross-party group of MPs and peers has criticised the treatment of LGBT asylum seekers detained in immigration detention centres across the UK. The criticism is included in a joint inquiry into the use of immigration detention by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration.

“We were extremely concerned to hear that LGBTI detainees face bullying, harassment and abuse inside detention centres,” the report states. “This is not acceptable."

The inquiry demands a fundamental change in the way that immigration detention is used in the UK and calls for a 28 day time limit on the length of time anyone can be held in immigration detention. The UK is one of only a few countries in the Council of Europe that has no upper time limit, meaning people can be detained for months or years. Read More

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Arctic Pride - with joy and pride on behalf of equality

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Organized for the third time Arctic Pride parade on Saturday attracted hundreds of participants. The organizers according to preliminary estimates of participants was about five hundred, the police parade, the population was estimated at about half smaller. 

Arctic Pride event is of great importance not only to sexual and gender minorities Lappish, but also the image of a matter of the entire region. Read More

Arctic Pride lights up Lapland

Lapland’s LGBTI community took to the streets over the weekend for the region’s annual Pride celebrations.  Arctic Pride, which takes place in Lapland’s commercial centre, Rovaniemi, was set up to provide a safe place for sexual and gender minorities to meet in one of Europe’s most northern cities, which lies just six miles from the Arctic Circle. 


The weekend offered attendees the chance to get a taste of LGBT theater, music, exhibitions and work shops, as well as the opportunity to take part in a Pride parade through the streets of Rovaniemi.  Read More

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Australia: 15 issues that matter to LGBT Australians beyond marriage equality

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We asked attendees at Sydney’s annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Fair Day what LGBT issues meant the most to them, with one catch: they couldn’t answer marriage equality. These are the topics people wished got more attention. Read More 

Slovenia: 11th EU nation to approve gay marriage

The Slovenian Parliament has adopted by 51 to 28 votes a new law that authorises same-sex weddings. Deputies have also voted in favour of legalising adoption by gay and lesbian couples. There was a small protest outside the parliament as the vote took place, but recent polls showed that 60 per cent of citizens are in favour of gay marriage. Read More

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Navajo Nation: Tlingit and Haida tribal council adopts statute allowing same-sex marriage

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In a unanimous vote Friday, the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s Executive Council adopted a new statute that allows same-sex couples to marry under tribal law.


“We are pleased to expand our Tribal Court to meet the needs of our tribal citizens,” said Tribal Court Chief Justice Debra O’Gara in a prepared statement. ”Our court can now be utilized by tribal citizens for the happy occasion of marriage without discrimination and regardless of gender.” Read More