Ugandan lawmakers debated a bill that LGBT-rights activists contend would further hinder their advocacy efforts in the country, The Washington Blade reported. The Non-Governmental Organizations Bill of 2015 that Parliamentarian Aronda Nyakairima introduced earlier this year would establish what it describes as "an administrative and regulatory framework within which organizations can conduct their affairs." The measure seeks to create a board through which organizations would have to register.
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Edin Carey Avendano-Hernandez, an undocumented trans woman from Mexico, must be granted the right to stay in the United States because she will "more likely than not" be tortured if she is returned to her home country, Advocate.com reported. The ruling is historic because it involved the human rights of an undocumented, trans asylum-seeker with a felony record. Avendano-Hernandez came to the United States as an undocumented worker in 2000, after claiming to have been raped and assaulted by her relatives.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said that parliament will pass a bill legalizing civil unions nationwide by the end of the year, according to Gay Star News. The pledge came after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Italy was discriminating against LGBTI people by not recognizing same-sex relationships—the only major country in Western Europe that does not allow either civil unions or same-sex marriage. Several major Italian cities and regions have already established civil-union registries, but they only have symbolic value and are not legally binding.
Ukrainian neo-Nazis destroyed an LGBTI group's office, nearly killing a man in order to do it, Gay Star News reported. Queer Home Kryvbas, the only LGBTI group that welcomes the community in the western city of Kryvyi Rih, was attacked Aug. 30. Six masked men holding fire sticks and iron poles are believed to have thrown smoke bombs into the community center, trapping seven victims inside. However, witnesses say about 20 men in masks broke in and beat up the people inside.
Ukrainian tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky—the 60th ranked player on the men's pro tennis tour—is again claiming there are no closeted gay players among the top 100 but there are "a lot" of lesbian players, Gay Star News noted. Stakhovsky caused a flap at Wimbledon earlier this year when he told a Ukrainian media outlet that half of the women on the Women's Tennis Association tour are lesbians and, because of this, he would not want his daughter to play pro tennis. He was recently eliminated from the U.S. Open tournament.
A spokesperson from the Malawi government has quashed the notion that it has plans to hold a referendum on the country's law criminalizing homosexuality or legalizing same-sex marriage just days after President Peter Mutharika appeared to indicate that one would be held, Gay Star News reported. A state House spokesperson has clarified the president's comments, telling the state-owned Malawi Broadcasting Corporation that Mutharika had merely been expressing his own opinion on the issue.
Several thousand people are urging Brewdog, a British craft beer company, to remove a fundraising advert many are considering transphobic, according to Gay Star News. The video, called "Don't Make Us Do This," has co-founders James Watt and Martin Dickie doing self-described "humiliating" experiences such as begging for money as a homeless person or becoming a "trans" sex worker.
Two gay policemen have married in Jerez de la Frontera in Spain, in what is believed to be a global first, Gay Star News noted. The couple, referred to in Spanish media as Chema and Jonathan, married in full police uniform, with photos of the couple making it on to social media. Marriage equality has been legal in Spain since 2005.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that "it's okay to be gay," but added that he remains opposed to marriage equality, On Top Magazine noted. Recently, Abbott's decision not to allow a free vote on the issue effectively doomed a proposed marriage-equality bill. Abbott promised to hold a public vote on legalizing such unions if his government is re-elected next year—although such a vote is not binding.
Russia has abruptly canceled the country's only LGBTI film festival, only to replace it with a "positive, youth-oriented" alternative, Gay Star News reported. Organizers of Moscow Premiere received the news days before the 13th edition of the festival was scheduled to kick off Sept. 2. Funding was diverted to the new Youth Festival of Life Affirming Film, which ran Sept. 4-7.
Police officers in the Philippines have been relieved of their duties after they allegedly took part in the extortion of a gay couple they pulled out of a taxi, Gay Star News reported. Manila Police District Chief Superintendent Rolando Nana said that an investigation was underway into allegations against SPO1 Renato Ablaza, PO3 Ruel Aguilar, PO2 Patrick Guevarra and PO2 Ronald Robles. Among other things, the officers allegedly told Michael Hingpit ( who was with his boyfriend ) that he would have to pay them 25,000 Philippines pesos ( around $US 500 ) before they would be released.
A survey has found that more than 40 percent of gay and bisexual male teenagers in Japan have been bullied because of their sexual orientation, Gay Star News noted. Of the 1,096 teen respondents, 44 percent said they had experienced bullying. About 23 percent played truant and 18 percent resorted to self-harm as ways of coping. The survey of 20,000 gay and bisexual men nationwide was conducted online by Takarazuka University's nursing school between August and December 2014.
It's been announced that the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association ( IGLTA ) will hold its 35th Annual Global Convention in 2018 in Toronto at The Westin Harbour Castle hotel, according to Gay Star News. It will be the second time the conference has been held in the Canadian city; the last time was 2009. Next year's IGLTA conference will be held in Cape Town, South Africa.
On the heels of similar surveys in Great Britain and the United States, a new poll of Israelis indicates a full third say their sexual identity is somewhere on the bisexual spectrum, according to a NewNowNext item. The Israeli website Mako and the Pannels Institute asked 600 secular Israeli Jews last month about their orientation: The majority, 67 percent, declared they were "exclusively heterosexual," and only 3 percent said they were "exclusively homosexual." The remaining 30 percent of those surveyed characterized themselves as somewhere between a 1 and 5 on the Kinsey scale. The survey did not include observant Jews, who are a minority in Israel but wield considerable political clout.
In the Maldives, authorities arrested two men, aged 56 and 27, at their home on the island of Dhaandhoo for having same-sex relations, Gay Star News reported. Gay sex is a crime in the Islamic island nation and punishable by death under Sharia law. Other penalties include whippings, house arrest, deportation and up to six years in jail. Vigilante attacks and executions also occur.
Australia's first transgender TV host made his debut on The Project Sept. 7, Gay Star News reported. Andrew Guy, 33, won a nationwide radio competition to be a guest presenter on the Channel Ten panel show, and shared his transition story with the other hosts. Guy was introduced with a clip from a documentary about his life, It's Not About The Sex, which includes photos from his childhood and before his transition five years ago.
Bangladesh's first lesbian comic book has been launched to "address the silence and taboo around gender and sexuality" in the Muslim-majority country, Gay Star News noted. The comic was developed as an advocacy material by the country's largest LGBTI group, Boys of Bangladesh ( BoB ). Gay sex is a crime in the South Asian country and is punishable by up to life imprisonment, although prosecutions are rare.
Pope Francis will give all priests discretion during the Roman Catholic Church's upcoming Holy Year ( Dec. 8-Nov. 26 ) to formally forgive women who have had abortions, in the Argentine pontiff's latest move towards a more open and inclusive church, The Huffington Post reported. In a letter, Francis described the "existential and moral ordeal" faced by women who have terminated pregnancies and said he had "met so many women who bear in their heart the scar of this agonizing and painful decision."
