Social researchers at NORC at the University of Chicago and the LGBT think-tank Williams Institute at UCLA said acceptance has grown by an average of 0.9% annually by nation.
'This study shows a clear trend toward increasing acceptance across the globe,' Andrew Park, director of International Programs at the Williams Institute, said.
Researchers studied hundreds of surveys on attitudes toward gay men and lesbians in up to 52 countries since 1981. Read More
A high school in Japan’s Yamanashi prefecture has come up with a unique way for its students to see their world from a different perspective. Fuji Hokuryo High School this week held what it calls a “Sexchange Day,” in which nearly 300 of its students traded uniforms with the opposite sex and attended classes.
“This is a project for students to observe things differently” without being bound by their gender, Hirofumi Miyashita, the school’s vice principal, told Japan Real Time. Read More
A Thai modeling agency has launched the first transgender model division in the world.
The Bangkok-based Apple Modeling Agency announced the division on Tuesday (11 November) and has 18 transgender girls on its books. Apple is one of the leading and largest modeling agencies in the southeast Asian country. Read More
A lesbian and gay choir staged a mass singalong on Manchester’s tram network after homophobic thugs attacked two young gay men who were singing songs from the musical Wicked on a night out.
The event – entitled Safe to Sing – started with about 80 singers boarding trams in the city centre on Monday evening to belt out tunes including Somewhere, from West Side Story, and Petula Clark’s Downtown – with the main refrain changed to “Canal Street”, the heart of Manchester’s gay village. Read More
At long last the International Olympic Committee will change the wording of the Olympic Charter to include protection from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. This development was part of 40 recommendations published today ahead of next month’s IOC meeting in Monaco, where IOC President Thomas Bach’s “Agenda 2020” process will conclude with significant changes to the bidding process for and organization of the Olympic Games. The change in language is significant. Read More
For Christians, the LGBT debate has always been framed as a question of sexual ethics. Our argument has centered on six or seven biblical passages that appear to mention homosexuality negatively or appear to establish a heterosexual norm. For most of my career, these ideas formed the foundation of my views and teachings as an evangelical minister and professor of Christian ethics. I co-authored a popular textbook that stated this position flatly: “Homosexual conduct is one form of sexual expression that falls outside the will of God.” I wasn’t mean about it. But I said it.
In recent years, my moral position has shifted. It has dawned on me with shocking force that homosexuality is not primarily an issue of Christian sexual ethics. It’s primarily an issue of human suffering. With that realization, I have now made the radical decision to stand in solidarity with the LGBT community. Read More
Some of the thousands of Central American children trying to get to the United States are seeking a love and acceptance they can’t get at home. Advocates say most LGBT migrants don’t petition for asylum in Mexico, largely because it doesn’t promise the same work opportunities as the U.S., and Mexico also has high rates of anti-LGBT violence. Advocates who work with LGBT people seeking asylum in the U.S. say that Mexico is among the most common countries their clients are fleeing. Read More
In 2013, Mexican immigration officials near the Guatemalan border took into custody Ender Manuel Martínez, an LGBT rights advocate from El Salvador, when he tried to apply for asylum because of death threats he said he received in his Central American homeland because of his activism and sexual orientation.
He alleges authorities at the facility housed him with those who were mentally ill, did not allow him to bathe, forced him to sleep on a damp floor and demanded “sexual favors” from him in exchange for better food. Officials transferred Martínez to another detention facility, but he was still subjected to sexual harassment and anti-gay discrimination and was denied emergency healthcare.
Mexican law bans anti-gay discrimination, but the country’s immigration statutes do not include LGBT-specific protections. Read More
The Gaborone High Court delivered judgment in a case concerning the Department of Labour and Home Affairs’ refusal to register the organisation Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO). The case was brought by 20 individuals who argued that the refusal to register their organisation violated their constitutional rights, including their rights to freedom of association, freedom of expression, and equal protection of the law.
“Botswana’s HIV/AIDS National Strategic Framework 2010-2016 seeks to ensure equal access to health and social support services for all people regardless of race, creed, religious or political affiliation, sexual orientation or socio-economic status. LEGABIBO intends to work with government to improve access to health services for LGBT persons, and this judgment enables them to do so,” says Cindy Kelemi from the Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA). Read More
Rights group Human Rights Watch has listed Malaysia as one of the worst countries in which to be a transgender person, due to systematic abuses by religious authorities and police. Activists welcomed Friday’s ruling that gives transgender Muslims the right to cross-dress in a landmark decision overturning an Islamic law ban that could trigger similar challenges.
“Now the transgender community know they have their rights to challenge the law and not just plead guilty to charges,” said Nisha Ayub of Justice for Sisters, an LGBT group. Read More
Lambda, the sole Mozambican association defending the rights of LGBT people, has protested publicly against the illegal refusal by the Justice Ministry to register it as a bona fide association.
On Monday Lambda took out a full page advertisement in the Maputo daily paper “Noticias” protesting at the discrimination it has suffered. Lambda first submitted its application for legal recognition as an association almost seven years ago, in January 2008. Read More
Protected by hundreds of riot police, about 200 gay activists marched peacefully on Sunday in Montenegro, a staunchly conservative Balkan country seeking EU membership.
Carrying banners reading "Let's Love Each Other" or "This is Just Beginning," gay activists gathered in the capital, Podgorica, as police deployed heavily, practically blocking the city center. Read More