Brazil: LGBT Community Looks On In Fear At Rise Of Evangelicals

Backed by the country’s rapidly growing evangelical population, a large number of religious conservatives won election in October as part of a broad conservative coalition that now controls Congress. They have taken office bent on reversing recent gains for LGBT rights, including a 2013 decision by a judicial panel that established marriage equality nationwide. 

Jean Wyllys, Brazil’s only out gay member of Congress and best-known progressive standard bearer, wrote that the threat of “religious fundamentalism” has gone ignored as Brazil’s major parties have scrambled for the votes of conservative evangelicals who now make up more than 20% of the population. This “Christian fundamentalism” is every bit as dangerous as “Islamic fundamentalism” in the Middle East, and now threatens “individual liberty, sexual diversity, and secular culture” in Brazil, he said.

“When will we wake up to the true nature of the monster emerging from the lake,” he asked. Read More

Australia: Anglican and Catholic leaders call to scrap gay panic defence

Brisbane’s Anglican archbishop has joined a local Catholic priest in calling for Queensland’s controversial “gay panic” homicide defence to be scrapped.

Speaking after his Easter Sunday mass the archbishop of Brisbane, Dr Phillip Aspinall, said he supported Fr Paul Kelly in his calls for the Homosexual Advance Defence to be removed from Queensland common law. The defence means a murder charge may be reduced to manslaughter if the defendant establishes their victim “came on” to them, and the killing was in self-defence.

“I think Fr Paul Kelly is on the right track, well and truly,” Aspinall said. “I don’t think it’s reasonable to murder someone who approaches you sexually. Violence is never a constructive response.”  Read More

Nigeria: Concerns raised over Nigerian bishop appointed as New Secretary General of global Anglican Communion

The newly-named Secretary General of the Anglican Communion Office is on the spot over his anti-homosexuality remarks at a time when the church is divided sharply over gay clerics.

The Most Reverend Dr Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon was appointed to be the next Secretary General of the Anglican Communion. He currently serves as Bishop of Kaduna in the Church of Nigeria where he has earned a global reputation in the Church for his expertise in Christian-Muslim relations.

However, the Bishop is under fire for his support for the criminalization of homosexuality and support of Nigeria's anti gay law, the Same Sex Prohibition Act signed by the then president, Jonathan Goodluck. In a 2014 interview, Dr Idowu-Fearon said, “The government has criminalised homosexuality which is good, our battle is not against human beings, it is against the devil.”  Read More

US: Black pastors launch African tour to counteract Rick Warren’s anti-gay movement

Spearheaded by The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, Bishop Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder and Bishop-Elect Pastor Joseph Tolton, the organization’s international outreach ministry has launched a month long tour of key African nations where LGBTI communities continue to experience extreme discrimination and persecution. These countries include: Uganda, Rwanda, Cote D'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya. 

Until April 30, 2015, Pastor Tolton will be on the ground working to provide an uplifting alternate Christian narrative. The message advocates for inclusion, economic justice and the reconciliation of all people of African descent globally.

“As black gay Christians who identify with Pentecostal worship and as people of social justice, we are countering the work of conservative, mostly white American evangelicals who are doubling down on their attempt of spiritual colonization of Africa,” said Pastor Joseph Tolton.  Read More

Ireland: Catholic Church ‘will pay price’ for stance on gay marriage

A conference discussing the religious case for marriage equality has heard there will be “a price to be paid” by the Catholic Church for its stance in relation to the upcoming referendum. Marriage Equality: The Religious Case for a Yes Vote was hosted by Faith in Marriage Equality at Trinity College Dublin.

Vice-provost Prof Linda Hogan said: “Theologically speaking, there are no impediments to gay and lesbian people marrying in a civil ceremony. People of faith can exercise their freedom of conscience to vote yes to lesbian and gay people marrying in a civil ceremony. This debate is being framed as religious people being no voters with everyone else voting yes. This couldn’t be further from the truth. People of all faiths support sharing the freedom to marry with gay and lesbian couples."

Church of Ireland bishop Michael Burrows said he was supporting a yes vote in the referendum: "I have come to believe that the rights of gay people have become, very properly, the great justice issue of our time just as the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of women were in the past. I could not vote against this proposal because of my utter abomination of homophobia."  Read More

US: Rabbis of Largest Jewish Movement Pick First Lesbian Leader

Rabbi Denise Eger became the first out lesbian rabbi to serve as president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the rabbinical arm of the Reform movement, the largest Jewish movement in America with 1.5 million adherents. With 2,000 members, CCAR is the largest rabbinic organization in North America. Founded in 1889, it’s also the oldest, and serves most liberal of the mainstream denominations. 

But Eger’s sexual orientation is only part of the story. In fact, the new CCAR president may bring a new focus on progressive social justice activism to the Reform movement. In a way, she might be the Jewish Lesbian Pope Francis. Read More

Italy: Pope Francis Dines with Gay and Transgender Inmates in Naples Prison

Pope Francis on Saturday met with 10 gay, transgender and HIV-positive prisoners during a daylong visit to the Italian city of Naples. Andrea Miluzzo, director of LGBT News Italia, told the Washington Blade the inmates were among the 90 prisoners with whom the pontiff had lunch during his visit to an overcrowded prison in the city’s Poggioreale neighborhood.

Members of the local affiliate of Arcigay, an Italian LGBT advocacy group, were among those who were allowed to stand along the streets of Scampia, a poor Neapolitan neighborhood overrun with crime, earlier in the day as Francis passed through in his open-air car known as the pope-mobile. Read More

WATCH: Film Makes Case for Full LGBT Acceptance in Catholic Church

Several LGBT Catholics have come together to release a short film called Owning Our Faith, in which they share their stories and call for full acceptance of LGBT people in the church. Executive producer Michael Tomae says he was inspired to make the film by volunteering at a shelter for homeless youth and finding that many of them had been disowned by their Christian families for being LGBT. He then reached out to LGBT Catholics and allies to film their stories.

The makers of the film are also calling on other LGBT Catholics to make videos of their stories and post them to YouTube. They are hoping their message of acceptance will reach the Catholic hierarchy, right to the top — Pope Francis — as the church prepares for a bishops’ meeting on family issues in October.  Read More
 

Ireland: Catholic bishop compares homosexuality to Down's Syndrome

Speaking in the run-up to the spring meeting of Ireland's Catholic bishops, the Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran has compared homosexuality to Down's Syndrome and has also said rape victims should not have abortions as a way of getting back at the rapist.

Bishop Doran implied that being gay was a disability, when asked whether he believed being born gay could be what God intended: "That would be to suggest that if some people are born with Down's syndrome or Spina Bifida, that that was what God intended either," he said.

Currently the same-sex adoption bill is being discussed by the Irish Parliament. The country is holding an equal marriage referendum in May. Read More 

Indonesia: Rights Activists Lash Out at MUI’s Anti-LGBT Fatwa

By inveighing against the LGBT community with its latest fatwa, the council is helping to propagate hatred of an already beleaguered community, says LGBT activist Hartoyo. “Issuing such a fatwa is as same as promoting hatred and motivating people to carry out violence against others,” he said. “If the MUI dislikes homosexuals, it should express its disapproval through other means, in educated and peaceful ways. It shouldn’t shroud its message with hate and violence.”

Haris Azhar, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, or Kontras, calls the MUI’s statement regrettable and says the council has long tried to exceed its actual authority.

“Homosexuality isn’t a crime, nor it is a deviant thing. It is merely one’s preference and it’s private,” he said. “Besides, it isn’t the duty of MUI to determine national law. The MUI is supposed to educate Indonesia’s Muslims. Proposing severe punishment [such as death] shows the MUI’s less-than-mature mind-set.” Read More

Indonesia: Confusion over Highest Islamic clerical body fatwa statements

Indonesia's most prominent  Islamic clerical body has issued a fatwa proposing a host of punishments for "homosexual crimes" - including the death penalty.

While Indonesia does not have a reputation for being particularly welcoming of the LGBT community – and same-sex marriage is not permitted - homosexual relations are not prohibited. Most individuals can go about their lives without prejudice.

But the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) views homosexuality as a sin. It issued the edict at the start of this month, according to The Jakarta Globe.

The fatwa claimed that homosexuality is a disease that needs to be cured and proposed a series of brutal penalties, ranging from caning to death. Read More 

US: Indiana Passes Religious Freedom Bill

In a landslide 63-31 vote, the Indiana House of Representatives alarmed LGBT advocates Monday by passing a sweeping religious freedom bill that allows private parties — including businesses open to the public — to invoke a religious defense in legal cases.

Gov. Mike Pence resisted calls to veto the bill, issuing a statement that said the measure “is about respecting and reassuring Hoosiers that their religious freedoms are intact. I strongly support the legislation and applaud the members of the General Assembly for their work on this important issue. I look forward to signing the bill when it reaches my desk.”

Critics had ramped up their campaign to defeat the measure in recent weeks, including delivering 10,000 letters of protest to the capitol Monday morning. Freedom Indiana and several national organizations argued the bill would create a loophole in civil rights laws & allow discrimination, particularly against LGBT people. Read More