The Kaleidoscope Trust, launched last year to fight for LGBTI rights in countries where by being who you are could lead to your arrest, life in prison, and even death, has published a first annual report on Global LGBT rights.
According to the report, Africa, as a continent, has drawn the most controversy. The increased pressure of Human Rights groups and Western Governments to improve the legal position of homosexuality in Africa appears to have had a polarising effect. Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai said in October, that their new constitution ‘will come out with freedom of sexual orientation’; the former President of Botswana, Festus Mogae, called for a repeal in the laws that criminalise homosexuality the week before; and with islands around the coast of Africa, such as the Seychelles and Sao Tomé and Principe, agreeing to decriminalise homosexuality. However, Uganda has reintroduced a backbench bill for ‘offences’ of homosexuality, including the death penalty; Cameroon have tightened their laws and convictions for being gay, increasing the maximum prison sentence to fifteen years; Nigeria is awaiting an anti-gay Bill to be signed by the President for it to be made law, making it illegal for two members of the same sex to display affection towards each other; and lesbianism is now a crime in Malawi.
There was good news from the Pacific region as well, as Nauru, a Micronesian island, agreed to decriminalise homosexuality. There were also positive noises from Australia, with LGBT rights high on the political agenda at the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting in Perth, and the Governing Labour Party announcing support for same-sex marriage.
The outlook in Eurasia was not so good: two regions of Russia have passed laws prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality, with proposals to extend it across the country; reports have come in of executions of men convicted of homosexual offences in Iran; a pride march was banned in Serbia; and Turkey has attempted to shut down LGBT groups and websites.
The historic Stonewall Inn, New York (Credit: Skinnylawyer, Flickr)
The report finds the Western World to have had a much better year, in terms of LGBTI Rights, with New York becoming one of the biggest states in the US to legalise gay marriage; Hilary Clinton, the Secretary of State, saying ‘it should never be a crime to be gay’ to the UN; and the final repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ in the US military. The success in North America appears to have spread through the whole western hemisphere, as the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled in favour of same-sex marriage; Cuba signalled moving towards LGBT equality, in terms of legislation; an anti-discrimination law was passed in Columbia; and a comprehensive law on transsexual equality was passed in Argentina.
Before the West rests on it’s laurels, the report does find major problems here too. LGBT asylum seekers escaping homophobia have been threatened with deportation from France, Switzerland, Norway, Austria, Canada and the UK. But Despite this, Anna Grodzka became Poland, and Europe’s, first openly transsexual MP; Tony Briffa became the world’s first openly intersex Mayor in Australia; and the first recipient of the David Kato award for international LGBT rights promotion, was Jamaican activist Maurice Tomlinson.
The Kaleidoscope Trust will continue to monitor LGBTI rights across the world in 2012.
About the Author
Subscribe with iTunes
