Jamaica: Health Ministry to reach gays, sex workers through church

The Church and other faith-based organisations have been targeted by the Ministry of Health (MoH) as part of a campaign to improve attitudes and behaviours among vulnerable high-risk groups such as homosexuals and prostitutes, and to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Approximately $298 million is to be spent next year on the programme, which is funded by grants from the United States Agency for International Development. At least 4,535 homosexuals are to be targeted for small-group level HIV preventable interventions. Additionally, 6,537 prostitutes will be targeted for similar interventions during the course of the fiscal year. Read More 

Thailand: Junta to pass law banning homosexuals from monkhood

The junta cabinet has approved a bill on religion which can be used to prosecute, with jail terms, people who propagate ‘incorrect’ versions of Buddhist doctrines or cause harm to Buddhism. The bill also posts jail terms specifically for homosexual monks.

For Sulak Sivaraksa, one of the founding members of International Network of Engaged Buddhists and a historian who is renowned for his criticisms of the SSC, the bill clearly shows the SSC’s desire to gain more prominence in Thai society.

“This bill shows blind stupidity and lust for power,” said Sulak. “The Sangha Supreme Council is a very weak council. It doesn’t have its own identity. That’s why it wants to show that it has power, which is regrettable,” he added.  Read More

US: Christian activist files ballot measure to execute all gay people by 'bullets to the head'

A Christian activist would like to see all gay people in California executed by firing squad, just so the rest of the citizenry can avoid having to endure God's "wrath." Matthew McLaughlin last week paid $200 to file a ballot initiative with the Attorney General in Sacramento that proposes his Sodomite Suppression Act, modelled after the Ugandan Anti-Homosexual act, become law. 

While there is no chance that McLaughlin will get the 365,000 California resident signatures needed to move the Sodomite Suppression Act forward, the ballot reflects ongoing hate among conservative pockets even in "liberal" America. Read More

Switzerland: Village backs priest over lesbian couple blessing

A catholic priest in a traditional Swiss village under fire for blessing a lesbian couple has defended his actions and rejected calls from the church hierarchy for his resignation. But the priest has received support from his congregation and residents of the village, who started a petition in his defence.

“We stand behind priest Bucheli,” Peter Vorwerk, vice-president of the parish council is quoted as saying. Christianity is based on charity so it is difficult to understand why the church should deny someone the blessing of God, he said. Read More

US: Archbishop’s 'morality clauses’ chill rights of teachers

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone's new anti-gay "purity test" for Catholic high school teachers will be added to the faculty handbooks, and outlines the church's teaching that using contraception is a sin and that sex outside of marriage, whether it is in the form of adultery, masturbation, pornography or gay sex, is "gravely evil."

Cordileone is insisting that administrators, faculty, and other staff “must refrain from public support of any cause or issue that is explicitly or implicitly contrary to that which the Catholic Church holds to be true, both those truths known from revelation and those from natural law” — not just in the classroom, but in their off-duty hours as well. 

The archdiocese has proposed contract language that describes faculty & staff as “ministers engaged in this religious mission regardless of individual job description or subject matter.” As 'ministers' are exempt from anti-discrimination law, teachers will have no recourse if they're dismissed. Read More

Kenya Catholic bishops issue Lent message attacking homosexuality

The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) have begun their Lenten season with an attack on homosexuality and sex work.

In their annual Lenten Campaign message titled ‘Build our Family and Nation with Dignity’ the bishops take issue with some of the social issues plaguing the family including homosexuality, drug abuse, redundant parents, incest and prostitution. Read More 

What Have the New Catholic Cardinals Said About LGBT People?

With contradictory statements from Pope Francis regarding equality for LGBT Catholics, The Advocate investigated the 20 new cardinals, only 4 of whom have made statements on LGBT issues. While Archbishop John Atcherley Dew of Wellington, New Zealand has voiced support for acceptance, the others paint a less pleasant picture. Read More 

Church of England evangelical activist, comes out as a lesbian

One of the Church of England’s leading evangelical campaigners announced that she is a lesbian and said she decided to be open after trying various ministries to cast out her sexual orientation.

“God is a God of surprises,” said Jayne Ozanne,  as she took up her new job as director of Accepting Evangelicals, a network of Christians who believe the time has come to move toward the acceptance of loving same-sex partnerships and a positive Christian ethic for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual people. Read More 

Buddhist leader Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche speaks on Homosexuality

Speaking to a Bhutanese audience Rinpoche stated: "your sexual orientation has nothing to do with understanding or not understanding the truth. You could be gay, you could be lesbian, you could be straight, we never know which one will get enlightened first."  

He concluded his speech: "Time is changing, and we should be really tolerant, I mean tolerant is even I mean… You should not be tolerating this, actually. You should be respecting it. Tolerance is not a good thing. If you are tolerating this, it means that you think it’s something wrong that you will tolerate. But you have to go beyond that. You have to actually respect this one." Watch his statements here.

US: Texas school claims it had the 'right' to expel student for being gay

The Executive Director of Lutheran High North has responded to a teen who said on YouTube he was forced to move schools for being gay: 'We reserve the right to discontinue enrollment of a current student participating in, promoting, supporting or condoning homosexual activity'

Austin Wallis, a 17-year-old former student at private Christian school posted a video that showed him in tears after he recounted a story of how he was called into his principal's office and told he must delete all social media on which he had revealed his sexuality or leave the school. Read More via Gay Star News

Arkansas Legislature Passes Bill Allowing LGBT Discrimination

The Arkansas legislature gave its final thumbs-up Friday to a bill that will block cities and counties from enacting antidiscrimination laws that protect LGBT people. The Arkansas House of Representatives voted decisively, 57-20, for SB202, with seven members voting present. Having already cleared the state Senate Monday, the bill now heads to the governor’s desk.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson told BuzzFeed News in a statement he will let the bill take effect. By neither vetoing nor signing the legislation, he said, “I am allowing the bill to become law.”
The bill’s sponsor, Republican State Sen. Bart Hester, said this week that he sponsored the measure to create consistent policies across Arkansas that will attract business, and because he was infuriated that cities were attempting to expand civil rights laws for LGBT people. Read More

Inside The Last-Ditch Conservative Campaign To Target LGBT Americans

In this progressive climate, the battle has shifted to the state level, where conservatives are waging a last-ditch campaign to target LGBT Americans. Two months into 2015, the volume of legislation that allows religion to be used for discrimination is already higher than the total for 2014. 

The legislation introduced so far tends to fall into three broad categories: bills that could facilitate discrimination on the basis of religious freedom, bills that specifically target officials who marry same-sex couples and bills that would allow anyone to refuse to recognize a couple's marriage based on religious beliefs.  Read More