A community guide to the Global Fund’s strategy in relation to sexual orientation and gender identities

This week, we are releasing our third community guide on the Global Fund. The Community Guide to the Global Fund’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identities (SOGI) Strategy has important human rights components that are essential for an effective response to HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, at all levels.

This community guide is a basic overview of the Global Fund’s SOGI Strategy. 
 
In this guide you will find: 1) What is sexual orientation and gender identity? 2) Some fast facts on how HIV/AIDS  disproportionately impacts sexual minorities 3) Four strategic actions that the Global Fund takes to ensure grants meet the needs of SOGI communities Read more via Global Fund

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UNESCO: Report shows homophobic and transphobic violence in education to be a global problem

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In some countries, 85% of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students experience homophobic and transphobic violence in school, 45 % of transgender students drop out. Homophobic violence also targets 33% of students who are wrongly perceived to be LGBT because they do not appear to conform to gender norms.

These are the findings from Out In The Open, a global report on education sector responses to violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. Compiled by UNESCO, the report reveals the nature, scope and impact of the violence, the status of education sector responses and recommendations for the way forward.   Read more via UNESCO 

World Bank: To fight poverty, we need to fight homophobia and transphobia

Due to persistent stigmatization and discrimination, LGBTI people are likely overrepresented among the poor. When people are left behind – including due to sexual orientation or gender identity – everyone misses out on their skills and productivity

As part of its commitment to social inclusion and shared prosperity, the World Bank is scaling up efforts to make sure LGBTI people can be fully integrated into development. Because of its consequences on the lives and poverty levels of an entire group, but also due to its adverse impacts on economies and societies at large, LGBTI exclusion is very much a development issue.

“Eliminating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity requires coordinated action by all segments of society to eradicate the root causes of exclusion. The exclusion that affects indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, LGBTI people, and other marginalized groups,” said Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez, Senior Director for the World Bank’s Social, Urban, Rural, and Resilience Global Practice. “We will not be able to achieve our mission of fighting poverty and boosting shared prosperity unless everyone can participate in the development process and reap the benefits of economic growth.” Read more via World Bank

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"Pathologization – Being lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or trans is not an illness"

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Speaking ahead of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia on 17 May, a group of United Nations and international human rights experts* call for an urgent end to the pathologization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) adults and children.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, a group of UN human rights experts, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’  Rights and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe urge Governments worldwide to reform medical classifications and to adopt measures to prevent all forms of forced treatments and procedures on LGBT persons....

Pathologizing and stigmatizing medical classifications relating to gender identity and expression are used to justify subjecting trans people, even at young ages, to forced or coercive sterilization, hormone therapy, surgeries, and psychiatric evaluations, and in other ways abusively conditioning their human rights. Read more via OHCHR

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UNAIDS Caribbean: All human beings are born free and equal

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Excerpt of statement by Dr. César Núñez, UNAIDS Latin America and Caribbean Regional Support Team Director:
[IDAHOT] comes at a critical time for Latin America and the Caribbean. This year the world started its 15-year journey toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals with their emphasis on dignity, equality and security for all. Yet recent events in the region demonstrate that entire communities remain degraded, discriminated against and excluded.

[...]Here’s an idea of the fallout. According to UNESCO almost half of LGBT students in Latin America do not finish secondary school. Global AIDS Response Progress Report data show that in some countries HIV rates among men who have sex with men and transgender women are as much as twenty times the national average.  Globally, there were more than 1300 reported killings of transgender people between 2008 and 2013. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights notes that four of every five such murders occurred in this region.

Discrimination increases the vulnerability of entire communities by driving them away from life-saving services like health. Our words, actions and attitudes really do hurt. We have learned over the last three decades that HIV is not just about sex. Social exclusion, gender-based violence, poverty, unemployment and unmet health needs are among the contributing factors. Read his full statement via UNAIDS Caribbean

IDAHOT 2016: Media Statement

Once again this year, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia truly deserves its title of a "Global Celebration of Sexual and Gender Identities". Beyond the rather narrow notions of "Homo", "Trans", "Bi"; the day offers a fantastic display of diversity, which mirrors the many facets of human sexualities and gender identities and expressions.

All over the world, advocates and their allies are fighting for what matters most to them: the right to be free from criminalisation, persecution, stigmatisation. Sometimes the right simply to live, as in many countries people have to fear for their lives.

This year specifically, we are seeing the "fault-line" deepening between places where activism is increasing and those where it is repression that is on the rise.  Read about this year's activities via IDAHOT

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Why We Fight

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For International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT), the United Nations asked LGBTI people around the world to film a short clip of why they fight and why they stay strong.

 LGBTI people from 21 countries around the world explain why they fight for equality For International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT), the United Nations asked LGBTI people around the world to film a short clip of why they fight and why they stay strong.  Some, like India and Lebanon, are fighting for decriminalization. But for many more from Japan to Jamaica, the UK to United States, many said they are fighting for love, for acceptance and for people to be themselves.

Some, like India and Lebanon, are fighting for decriminalization. But for many more from Japan to Jamaica, the UK to United States, many said they are fighting for love, for acceptance and for people to be themselves. Read more via Gay Star News 

UN Committee against Torture to reprimand Nepal, UK over IGM Practices

This week it's the turn of the UK to be questioned over Intersex Genital Mutilations at the 72nd Session of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). UN-CRC recognises IGM as a 'harmful practice' (like FGM) and as'violence against children', has recently reprimanded Ireland,France, Chile and Switzerland, and only last week questioned Nepal over IGM practices.


UK government bodies, while admitting to the harm done by IGM practices, are quick to actively shield IGM perpetrators from human rights criticism by simply declaring the ongoing practice in the UK a thing of the past:

“Until recently [intersex people] would usually undergo genital surgery at a young age to given them characteristics which are clearly either male or female. Medical professionals are now more likely to advise waiting until the child is older and able to provide informed consent to surgery, because of the implications surgery can have on future health and function.” - House of Commons, Women and Equalities Committee (2016).

On the other hand, the “Society for Endocrinology UK guidance on the initial evaluation of an infant or an adolescent with a suspected disorder of sex development (Revised 2015)” generally advocates early unnecessary surgeries as legitimate, framing the human rights issues involved as mere “controversies”: Read more via STOP IGM