Pope Francis has warned Catholic bishops against turning away from people who do not fit their "scheduled faith", a day after a divisive synod on the Church's attitude to sex, love and marriage ended in stalemate. Bishops submitted a report to the Pope that fudges the key issue of whether divorced and remarried believers should be allowed to play a full role in the Church, reflecting a stalemate in the battle between the conservative and liberal wings.
The document includes only one brief article on the Church's approach to gay believers, framing the question in terms of how priests can help support families who have "persons with homosexual tendencies" in their midst. The emphasis contrasted sharply with first drafts last year which spoke of recognising the value of loving same-sex relationships, to the outrage of those opposed to any dilution of Church teaching that homosexuality amounts to a kind of disorder.
Pope Francis is free to ignore or implement the document, which leaves him room for manoeuvre should he wish to defy his conservative opponents and push on with his attempt to make the Church more relevant and more welcoming towards believers who find themselves in breach of its rules.
"We are able to walk with the people of God, but we already have our schedule for the journey, where everything is listed: we know where to go and how long it will take, everyone must respect our rhythm and every problem is a bother," he said. Instead he pointed to the Gospel story of Jesus healing the blind man Bartimaeus as evidence that God "wants to include above all those kept on the fringes who are crying out to him". Read more via Australia Broadcasting Corp
Nepal: Third-Gender Passports May Be the Future of Trans Travel
The arrival of a transgender activist from Nepal in Taiwan for the 2015 International Lesbian and Gay Association’s Asia conference may seem unremarkable. But it was in fact quite special: The activist, Bhumika Shrestha, is the first Nepali citizen to travel abroad carrying a passport marked O for “other” instead of M for “male” or F for “female.”
This is a groundbreaking and long-overdue achievement for global travel because it demonstrates that self-identification can and should be the sole factor in obtaining gendered documents.
Nepal’s legal recognition of a third category began with a 2007 Supreme Court case in which the judge ordered the government to create a legal category for people who identify as neither male nor female. Crucially, the judgment dictated that the ability to get documents bearing a third gender should be based on “self-feeling.” That is to say: no tests, expert opinions, or other potentially humiliating adjudication should play a role in the process.
But that concept had at the time only recently been enshrined in the Yogyakarta Principles, the first international guidelines on sexual orientation, gender identity, and human rights standards. And carrying out the court decision proved knottier than the court’s declaration. Read More via the Advocate
Australia: Trans* military officer Cate McGregor named 2016 Queensland Australian of the year
Members of the LGBTI community must first get their internal selves right to achieve happiness and success according to the 2016 Queensland Australian of the Year.
Group Captain Catherine (Cate) McGregor is the world’s highest-ranked trans* military officer and was named Queenslander of the Year by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at a ceremony in Brisbane on Friday night.
McGregor, 59, won the award for her work as a diversity champion and national leader in trans* issues, which “as a result Australians have gained a greater understanding and acceptance of the transgender community”, according to the National Australia Day Council.
Formerly known as Malcolm, McGregor transitioned in 2012 and has been a public spokesperson for trans* issues ever since. She credits her career success in the Australian Defence Force not with hard work and ambition but as a desperate attempt to fit in “as a man” and would trade in her success to have transitioned at the age of 20.
France: Recognizes first 'gender neutral' person
A court in central France has officially registered a person as being "gender neutral" rather than either male or female. A 64-year-old born in the town of Tours can now claim to be the only person in France who is neither legally male or female.
"During adolescence, I understood that I wasn't a boy," the 64-year-old intersex person told French newspaper. "I never had a beard, my muscles never really developed, but at the same time, it was impossible for me to think I'd ever become a woman."
The magistrate noted that the person's birth certificate, which had the person labelled as male, had been nothing more than a "work of fiction". The magistrate stressed that the ruling didn't mean the court had recognized the existence of "some kind of third gender", but rather "acknowledged the impossibility of linking this person to one particular gender". Read More via the Local
Australia: We welcome the 2013 federal guidelines on sex and gender recognition
In 2003, the first Australian passport with an ‘X’ sex marker was issued to Alex MacFarlane, on the basis that Alex’s birth certificate, issued by the State of Victoria, showed no sex marker. Access was limited to people in the same circumstance, and only Victoria issues such certificates to intersex adults on request.
US: Ousted as gay, aging veterans are battling again for honorable discharges
When the Army discharged Pvt. Donald Hallman in 1955 for being what it called a “Class II homosexual,” the 21-year-old was so scared of being an outcast that he burned all his military records, save for a single dog tag he hid away. Mr. Hallman, a coal miner’s son who sang in a church choir in rural Alabama, says he never mentioned his military service again. He married a woman he had met at work, had children and wore a suit and tie to work each day.
But this summer, Mr. Hallman, now 82, retrieved the dog tag from a keepsake box and began working through an application to the Department of Defense, asking that his decades-old discharge be upgraded from “undesirable” to “honorable.”
He is one of a steady march of older veterans who were kicked out of the military decades ago for being gay, and who are now asking that their less-than-honorable discharges be upgraded. By some estimates, as many as 100,000 service members were discharged for being gay between World War II and the 2011 repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Many were given less-than-honorable discharges that became official scarlet letters — barring them from veterans’ benefits, costing them government jobs and other employment, and leaving many grappling with shame for decades. Read More via New York Times
Israel: 11 police disciplined over Jerusalem Pride attack security failures
Israel’s Police Force is taking strong disciplinary action against a group of officers who were tasked with ensuring a safe 2015 Jerusalem Pride march after intelligence failings allowed religious extremist Yishai Schlissel into the parade area despite his only being released for a similar attack a month before.
Schlissel stabbed three marchers in the 2005 Jerusalem Pride march and was released in early July this year. On 30 July, just weeks after being set free, he carried out a stabbing attack on this year’s parade which wounded six and ultimately resulted in the death of 16-year-old victim Shira Banki.
Reacting to the announcement, the Banki family released a public statement earlier today. ‘The report won’t bring Shira back to her family,’ they say. ‘However, the family hopes that to the degree that deficiencies were found, they will be corrected and the conclusions drawn applied in the most thorough possible fashion to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.’ Read More via Gay Star News
If you say being gay is not African, you don’t know your history
During his visit to Africa this summer, the US president, Barack Obama, addressed legal discrimination against LGBT individuals. Meeting the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, Obama said: “When you start treating people differently not because of any harm they are doing to anybody, but because they are different, that’s the path whereby freedoms begin to erode.”
Unfortunately, the response from Kenyatta was that “there are some things that we must admit we don’t share [with the US]. Our culture, our societies don’t accept.”
When I was appointed by Berlin’s Humboldt University this year to teach the course “Pre- and post-colonial sexual orientation and sexual identity in Africa”, I knew I had a huge task before me. I had to teach students about a history that is mostly unwritten. In digging up facts I found that, while many Africans say that homosexuality is un-African, African culture is no stranger to homosexual behaviours and acts.
For example, in my local language (Yoruba), the word for “homosexual” is adofuro, a colloquialism for someone who has anal sex. It might sound insulting and derogatory, however, the point is there is a word for the behaviour. Moreover, this is not a new word; it is as old as the Yoruba culture itself. Read More via the Guardian
Russia: Transgender community struggles for acceptance
There is no Russian equivalent of Caitlyn Jenner, whose transition from former Olympic athlete Bruce has been documented in both the mainstream and tabloid American press all summer. Transgender Russians often keep a low profile, worried how they will be treated by friends, colleagues and family members.
Although the LGBT community in Russia faces significant legal and social challenges, there are laws in place that allow Russians to change their gender on official documents and undergo gender reconstructive surgery. There are no official statistics on the number of transgender people in Russia, but experts put the number at around 15,000 across the country — about 0.1 percent of the population. Read More via Moscow Times
Ireland: Preferred gender now legally recognised
Transgender people are now able to apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate and a new birth certificate, passport and other official documentation showing their preferred gender. They will be able to self-declare and will no longer need a certificate from a medical practitioner.
Ireland is the fourth country in the world to remove medical criteria from legal gender recognition. The Gender Recognition Act was brought about following a successful case taken by Dr Lydia Foy against the State. She argued that, despite undergoing surgery, she was unable to identify herself as a woman in official documentation. Read More via UTV Ireland
Thailand: Sweeping new LGBT protections take effect
The country’s first law specifically protecting LGBT people came into effect this week. Thai parliament passed the 2015 Gender Equality Act in March. The law is is designed to protect members of the LGBT community and aims to punish discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Those found guilty of discrimination may face up to six months in jail and a 20,000 baht fine. The law defines “unfair discrimination among the sexes” as any action that “segregates, obstructs or limits the rights” of a person because they have “a sexual expression different from that person’s original sex.”
Somchai Charoenamnuaysuk – Director-General of the Department of Family Affairs and Family Development – noted that the law bars government agencies, private organisations, or Thai individuals from formulating anti-gay policies, rules, regulations, measures, or operating procedures: “Co-operation from all sectors is key in moving forward with the enforcement of this Act, in order to create an equal and just society.” Read More via Pink News
Africa: Voices from LGBT Catholics in Western Africa
A report commissioned by the European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups showcases the voices of LGBT Christians from Western Africa were not well heard in the on-going discussion about the Family Synod of the Roman Catholic Church. The findings are based on interviews conducted by Davis Mac-Iyalla with Catholic LGBT people in Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.
From the many interviews conducted, it has become clear that LGBT people in West Africa have a hard life. They are openly persecuted both by the state and the church and feel abandoned. It is sad to say that many LGBTs are “marginalized and hated in life and marginalized and hated in death.” The anti-gay laws in these countries prevent constructive dialogue between the state, church and LGBTs. This isolates LGBTs and propagates fear, hatred and even violence against the LGBT community.
Despite all of this, Catholic LGBT’s do not want to walk away from the Catholic Church. They want to be accepted, to be welcomed by the church, to have dialogue, and education. Above all, they want equality both in their personal lives and in their church to live in a nurturing environment not one of condemnation. Read More via Washington Blade