Japan: Rainbow parade celebrates LGBT equality push

Some 3,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people paraded through Tokyo’s Shibuya district to demonstrate their hope that Japanese society will continue to forge ahead with recent moves to embrace equality and diversity.

This year, LGBT participants and proponents seemed particularly joyous, emboldened by what they see as a blossoming of LGBT-friendly moves by municipalities and companies. “The mood is definitely different this year. All the flyers or other goods we have prepared for visitors are disappearing like mad,” said transgender Fumino Sugiyama, one of the event’s chief organizers. 

Amid the surge in public interest in LGBT issues, organizers decided to extend the festival to two days for the first time, Sugiyama added.  Read More

Peru: Rodrigo González declares his homosexuality with picture

Television star Rodrigo González came out via Facebook with a picture of his boyfriend in support of the LGBTI equality march.

Apologizing for not being able to attend the rally in person, González stated his support for the movement and revealed his sexuality, saying that he hoped his coming out would help the cause. Read More

Peru: LGBT supporters march for civil union debate

An estimated 3,000 Peruvians in support of LGBT rights marched Saturday in the capital city Lima after the country's Commission of Justice repeatedly failed to address a bill that would recognise civil unions for same-sex couples. The bill had its hearing postponed until after the Easter holiday. If passed, the civil union legislation would expand inheritance laws for same-sex couples in Peru. 

The march's main objectives were to encourage citizens to demand equal rights for people LGTBI; support the legal and equal recognition of same-sex couples (gay marriage); and support passing laws that explicitly protect sexual orientation and gender identity with the inclusion of these categories in the criminal offenses against discrimination and hate crimes.  Read More

Asia's LGBT people migrate to escape violence at home

Long before Joe Wong surgically removed his breasts and uterus, he was Joleen, who once used an entire roll of brown duct tape to flatten her chest in an effort to look less feminine at her new secondary school in Singapore. 

To escape the violence and find acceptance, many LGBT people migrate abroad - including Wong, who moved to Bangkok, where he currently works for a LGBT rights group. Read More 

UK: Nigerian Lesbian Loses Asylum Battle, Faces Deportation

Prominent United Kingdom-based Nigerian lesbian and gay rights activist, Aderonke Apata, had her lengthy legal tussle to claim asylum in the country thrown out of the highest court of the land, the Royal Courts of Justice – after a judge ruled that she was pretending to be lesbian.

A Home Office barrister argued last month that Ms Apata cannot be a lesbian as she has children. He claimed that while she “indulged in same-sex activity” she was not “part of the social group known as lesbians”.

Ms Apata, 47, came to Britain in 2004 and has won awards for her gay-rights campaigning. She is engaged to her long-term partner Happiness Agboro, also from Nigeria, who has already been granted asylum based on her sexuality.  Read More

Peru: Outraged by the Civil Union rejection

Peruvians took to the streets shouting that all people should have equal rights after lawmakers killed the Civil Union bill which would supported same-sex unions. Heterosexual friends, gay, bisexual, transgender, lesbian, mothers, fathers, children and families called for equality while marching.

The march was led by congressman Carlos Bruce who introduced the bill and the president of the Harvey Milk Foundation, Stuart Milk, saying: “A mi no me callarán y pueden llamarme maricón porque no me ofenderé” -- They will not silence me and they can call me a queer, it will not offend me. Read More

US: Immigration and LGBTs - Central Americans in Limbo

Last year Obama extended protection from deportation to roughly 3.7 million immigrants. But most of the guarantees were reserved for people whose legally recognized spouses, children, or parents were already American citizens. This was small comfort for LGBT folk whose partners are often not legally recognized, are estranged from family members, and for whom giving birth to a child in the traditional manner is often out of reach. Read More

Europe: Immigration and LGBTs - Denied Safe Haven

Any hope that the same legal protections offered to EU citizens would be extended to LGBT immigrants when they arrive in Europe is often egregiously misplaced. In place of greater freedom, many are greeted with prolonged periods of incarceration. Instead of social acceptance, they are treated with contempt and face discrimination, violence, and sexual abuse in detention centers. Rather than understanding, they’re subjected to drawn-out, sometimes humiliating, decision-making processes designed to establish the “credibility” of their sexual orientation or gender identity.  Read More

Kenya: Ugandan LGBT refugees launch UNHCR protest

There are many problems currently brewing in Kenya for Ugandan refugees who, after fleeing homophobia and persecution in Uganda, have been caught in a quagmire of funding and fraud issues. What follows is a desperate plea written by Ugandan refugees in Kenya, whose plight has been exacerbated by recent ‘people trafficking’ fraudsters who have descended on UNHCR pretending to be LGBTI seeking refuge and resettlement. LGBTI do not qualify for asylum in Kenya as their perceived ‘lifestyle-option’ is in breach of existing Kenyan laws which prohibit ‘unnatural’ sexual acts.  Read More

Turkey: Police beat 2 gay Iranian refugees, deny asylum to Iranian Trans person

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

Syria: Gay Men Driven From Iraq Face Violent Persecution And Death

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.