Bad news in Russia, Afghanistan; good news elsewhere
A mix of good news and bad news from around the world, assembled with help from UNAIDS’s Equal Eyes recap of the world’s LGBTI news.
BAD NEWS
The website of Russia‘s LGBT youth group Deti-404 (Children-404) has been blacklisted by the government’s media oversight group Roskomnadzor. This is not the first time Deti-404 has been found guilty of breaking Russia’s anti-gay propaganda laws. Founded in 2013, online project Deti-404 provided help and support for young people in Russia who were questioning their sexuality. The site also published letters from LGBT teenagers as they documented the struggles and homophobia they faced in their everyday lives.
In Afghanistan, LGBT people spoke to journalists from the BBC about living in hiding, in fear of rejection and violence. The BBC spoke to four Afghans with different sexual orientations. All told stories of a life in hiding, but all were determined to stand by their identity. All names in the article were changed for safety reasons.
GOOD NEWS
Students in Delhi, India, held their first Pride parade in conjunction with the Indian Institute Of Technology Delhi’s annual Rendezvous festival—a four-day event that draws nearly 50,000 attendees from over 350 colleges.
In Kenya, MP Isaac Mwaura urged Parliament to amend legislation to provide legal recognition to intersex citizens.
Representatives from the governments of Australia and the United States held a joint dialogue on human rights of LGBTI people during which they recommitted support to the Global Equity Fund—an initiative of 25 governments and corporations for advancing LGBTI rights—and announced an upcoming initiative to address needs of LGBTI in the Pacific region.
The Inner Circle, an LGBT Muslim organization in South Africa, hosted an international retreat for organizations, academics, and individuals to discuss issues affecting LGBT+ Muslims.
In an interview, Amir Ashour spoke about moving to Sweden and establishing IraQueer, the first organization for LGBT people from Iraq and Kurdish regions.
Intersex people from the UK, US, Uganda, Nepal, and Mexico shared personal commentaries on their experiences navigating stigma and discrimination for Intersex Awareness Day.