Sexual Diversity and Gender Identity / IPS Inter Press Service

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Sunday, November 22, 2009 05:45 GMT

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Q&A: Civil Society to Lose Major Supporter
Christi van der Westhuizen interviews GARA LaMARCHE and GERALD KRAAK of The Atlantic Philanthropies
CAPE TOWN - Human rights and democracy are causes that are never completely won, which is why civil society needs the support of philanthropists.
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UGANDA: Helping Hand For Homophobia From U.S. Christians
By Christi van der Westhuizen
CAPE TOWN - The Anti-Homosexuality Bill under consideration in Uganda was sparked by a conference in Kampala earlier this year at which fundamentalist Christians from the U.S. identified homosexuality as a threat to "family values".
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Q&A: Inclusive Sex Education Needed in African Schools
Suzanne Hoeksema interviews AKINYI M. OCHOLLA, Chair of Minority Women in Action
UNITED NATIONS - With the exception of South Africa, most African countries criminalise same-sex relationships with imprisonment, while incidents of violence against gay women and men are poorly investigated and rarely taken to court.
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RIGHTS-UGANDA: "You Cannot Tell Me You Will Kill Me Because I’m Gay"
By Wambi Michael
KAMPALA - The Ugandan government will put to death gay citizens repeatedly caught having sex and throw into jail those who touch each other in a "gay" way, if a new proposed Bill becomes law.
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VENEZUELA: Homophobia Stalks the Streets - in Uniform
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS - One Friday at around midnight, on Villaflor Street, a favourite spot for gays and lesbians in the Venezuelan capital, Yonatan Matheus and Omar Marques noticed two Caracas police patrol vans carrying about 20 detainees, most of them very young.
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RIGHTS-US: Gay Bar Raids Draw Community Outrage
By Matthew Cardinale
ATLANTA, Georgia - Two recent police raids of gay bars in Atlanta, Georgia and Fort Worth, Texas have sparked mass protests in the two cities and led activists to question whether equality for persons of all sexual orientations in the U.S. has come as far as some would like to believe.
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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Protests Surround New Constitution
By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO - The Dominican Republic passed the 38th version of its constitution Thursday evening, amending more than 40 articles that drew public protests and opposition from civil society groups and many average Dominicans.
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ARGENTINA: New Voice for Sexual Minorities
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES - A monthly magazine published by an Argentine umbrella group of some thirty organisations of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans (LGBTs) seeks to become a major communications channel for the community and an instrument for disseminating the actions that sexual minorities undertake to defend their rights.
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RIGHTS-EL SALVADOR: Anti-Gay Reform Fails in Congress
By Edgardo Ayala
SAN SALVADOR - Constitutional reforms that would ban same-sex couples from marrying and adopting children in El Salvador failed to obtain the required number of votes in Congress.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Law Failing Lesbians on "Corrective Rape"
By Nathalie Rosa Bucher
CAPE TOWN - "Women are getting killed in the Western Cape," says Ndumie Funda, who runs LulekiSizwe in her "cabin" in the township of Gugulethu near Cape Town.
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HEALTH-ARGENTINA: "Buddies" Ease Transgenders' Hospital Visits
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES - Keeping a hospital appointment in the Argentine capital is a far less fearsome ordeal for transgender persons, a sector of the population that according to doctors had "dramatic" statistics of illness, when they are accompanied by trained health promoters who, like them, have chosen a different gender identity.
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MALAWI: High-Risk Sex Among Those Who "Do Not Exist"
By Christi van der Westhuizen
CAPE TOWN - A study on men having sex with men (MSM) in Malawi shows that, as elsewhere in the developing world, this vulnerable group is at greater risk of contracting HIV and AIDS than the general population. Moreover, their risk status is exacerbated as governments fail to target them for health services or information to stem HIV transmission.
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RIGHTS: Outspoken Activists Defend Africa's Sexual Diversity
By Christi van der Westhuizen
COPENHAGEN - The second World Outgames, held in the Danish capital, offered up a veritable smorgasbord of sport, politics and arts while celebrating sexual and gender diversity. But it also reminded participants that bigotry against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, sometimes culminating in violence, remains a scourge across the world.
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Although progress towards respect for sexual diversity has been made in a number of countries and in international law, in many parts of the world, lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people face serious threats to their life and liberty.

Even in countries where legislation recognising the rights of sexual minorities has been passed, discrimination and social stigma are widespread.